Chapter 7

Original Authorities.—Henry’s laws are printed in W. Stubb’sSelect Charters(Oxford, 1895). The chief chroniclers of his reign are William of Newburgh, Ralph de Diceto, the so-called Benedict of Peterborough, Roger of Hoveden, Robert de Torigni (or de Monte), Jordan Fantosme, Giraldus Cambrensis, Gervase of Canterbury; all printed in the Rolls Series. The biographies and letters contained in the 7 vols. ofMaterials for the History of Thomas Becket(ed. J. C. Robertson, Rolls Series, 1875-1885) are valuable for the early and middle part of the reign. For Irish affairs theSong of Dermot(ed. Orpen, Oxford, 1892), for the rebellions of the princes the metricalHistoire de Guillaume le Maréchal(ed. Paul Meyer, 3 vols., Paris, 1891, &c.) are of importance. Henry’s legal and administrative reforms are illustrated by theTractatus de legibusattributed to Ranulph Glanville, his chief justiciar (ed. G. Phillips, Berlin, 1828); by theDialogus de scaccarioof Richard fitz Nigel (Oxford, 1902); thePipe Rolls, printed by J. Hunter for the Record Commission (1844) and by the Pipe-Roll Society (London, 1884, &c.) supply valuable details. The works of John of Salisbury (ed. Giles, 1848), Peter of Blois (ed. Migne), Walter Map (Camden Society, 1841, 1850) and the letters of Gilbert Foliot (ed. J. A. Giles, Oxford, 1845) are useful for the social and Church history of the reign.Modern Authorities.—R. W. Eyton,Itinerary of Henry II.(London, 1878); W. Stubbs,Constitutional History, vol. i. (Oxford, 1893),Lectures on Medieval and Modern History(Oxford, 1886) andEarly Plantagenets(London, 1876); the same author’s introduction to the Rolls editions of “Benedict,” Gervase, Diceto, Hoveden; Mrs J. R. Green, Henry II. (London, 1888); Miss K. Norgate,England under the Angevin Kings(2 vols., London, 1887); Sir J. H. Ramsay’sThe Angevin Empire(London, 1893); H. W. C. Davis’sEngland under the Normans and Angevins(London, 1905); Sir F. Pollock and F. W. Maitland,History of English Law(2 vols., Cambridge, 1898); and F. Hardegen,Imperialpolitik König Heinrichs II. von England(Heidelberg, 1905).

Modern Authorities.—R. W. Eyton,Itinerary of Henry II.(London, 1878); W. Stubbs,Constitutional History, vol. i. (Oxford, 1893),Lectures on Medieval and Modern History(Oxford, 1886) andEarly Plantagenets(London, 1876); the same author’s introduction to the Rolls editions of “Benedict,” Gervase, Diceto, Hoveden; Mrs J. R. Green, Henry II. (London, 1888); Miss K. Norgate,England under the Angevin Kings(2 vols., London, 1887); Sir J. H. Ramsay’sThe Angevin Empire(London, 1893); H. W. C. Davis’sEngland under the Normans and Angevins(London, 1905); Sir F. Pollock and F. W. Maitland,History of English Law(2 vols., Cambridge, 1898); and F. Hardegen,Imperialpolitik König Heinrichs II. von England(Heidelberg, 1905).

(H. W. C. D.)

1For a supposed visit in 1147, see J. H. Round inEnglish Historical Review, v. 747.

HENRY III.(1207-1272), king of England, was the eldest son of King John by Isabella of Angoulême. Born on the 1st of October 1207, the prince was but nine years old at the time of his father’s death. The greater part of eastern England being in the hands of the French pretender, Prince Louis, afterwards King Louis VIII., and the rebel barons, Henry was crowned by his supporters at Gloucester, the western capital. John had committed his son to the protection of the Holy See; and a share in the government was accordingly allowed to the papal legates, Gualo and Pandulf, both during the civil war and for some time afterwards. But the title of regent was given by the loyal barons to William Marshal, the aged earl of Pembroke; and Peter des Roches, the Poitevin bishop of Winchester, received the charge of the king’s person. The cause of the young Henry was fully vindicated by the close of the year 1217. Defeated both by land and sea, the French prince renounced his pretensions and evacuated England, leaving the regency to deal with the more difficult questions raised by the lawless insolence of the royal partisans. Henry remained a passive spectator of the measures by which William Marshal (d. 1219), and his successor, the justiciar Hubert de Burgh, asserted the royal prerogative against native barons and foreign mercenaries. In 1223 Honorius III. declared the king of age, but this was a mere formality, intended to justify the resumption of the royal castles and demesnes which had passed into private hands during the commotions of the civil war.

The personal rule of Henry III. began in 1227, when he was again proclaimed of age. Even then he remained for some time under the influence of Hubert de Burgh, whose chief rival, Peter des Roches, found it expedient to quit the kingdom for four years. But Henry was ambitions to recover the continentalpossessions which his father had lost. Against the wishes of the justiciar he planned and carried out an expedition to the west of France (1230); when it failed he laid the blame upon his minister. Other differences arose soon afterwards. Hubert was accused, with some reason, of enriching himself at the expense of the crown, and of encouraging popular riots against the alien clerks for whom the papacy was providing at the expense of the English Church. He was disgraced in 1232; and power passed for a time into the hands of Peter des Roches, who filled the administration with Poitevins. So began the period of misrule by which Henry III. is chiefly remembered in history. The Poitevins fell in 1234; they were removed at the demand of the barons and the primate Edmund Rich, who held them responsible for the tragic fate of the rebellious Richard Marshal. But the king replaced them with a new clique of servile and rapacious favourites. Disregarding the wishes of the Great Council, and excluding all the more important of the barons and bishops from office, he acted as his own chief minister and never condescended to justify his policy except when he stood in need of subsidies. When these were refused, he extorted aids from the towns, the Jews or the clergy, the three most defenceless interests in the kingdom. Always in pecuniary straits through his extravagance, he pursued a foreign policy which would have been expensive under the most careful management. He hoped not only to regain the French possessions but to establish members of his own family as sovereigns in Italy and the Empire. These plans were artfully fostered by the Savoyard kinsmen of Eleanor, daughter of Raymond Berenger, count of Provence, whom he married at Canterbury in January 1236, and by his half-brothers, the sons of Queen Isabella and Hugo, count of la Marche. These favourites, not content with pushing their fortunes in the English court, encouraged the king in the wildest designs. In 1242 he led an expedition to Gascony which terminated disastrously with the defeat of Taillebourg; and hostilities with France were intermittently continued for seventeen years. The Savoyards encouraged his natural tendency to support the Papacy against the Empire; at an early date in the period of misrule he entered into a close alliance with Rome, which resulted in heavy taxation of the clergy and gave great umbrage to the barons. A cardinal-legate was sent to England at Henry’s request, and during four years (1237-1241) administered the English Church in a manner equally profitable to the king and to the pope. After the recall of the legate Otho the alliance was less open and less cordial. Still the pope continued to share the spoils of the English clergy with the king, and the king to enforce the demands of Roman tax-collectors.

Circumstances favoured Henry’s schemes. Archbishop Edmund Rich was timid and inexperienced; his successor, Boniface of Savoy, was a kinsman of the queen; Grosseteste, the most eminent of the bishops, died in 1253, when he was on the point of becoming a popular hero. Among the lay barons, the first place naturally belonged to Richard of Cornwall who, as the king’s brother, was unwilling to take any steps which might impair the royal prerogative; while Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester, the ablest man of his order, was regarded with suspicion as a foreigner, and linked to Henry’s cause by his marriage with the princess Eleanor. Although the Great Council repeatedly protested against the king’s misrule and extravagance, their remonstrances came to nothing for want of leaders and a clear-cut policy. But between 1248 and 1252 Henry alienated Montfort from his cause by taking the side of the Gascons, whom the earl had provoked to rebellion through his rigorous administration of their duchy. A little later, when Montfort was committed to opposition, Henry foolishly accepted from Innocent IV. the crown of Sicily for his second son Edmund Crouchback (1255). Sicily was to be conquered from the Hohenstaufen at the expense of England; and Henry pledged his credit to the papacy for enormous subsidies, although years of comparative inactivity had already overwhelmed him with debts. On the publication of the ill-considered bargain the baronage at length took vigorous action. They forced upon the king the Provisions of Oxford (1258), which placed the government in the hands of a feudal oligarchy; they reduced expenditure, expelled the alien favourites from the kingdom, and insisted upon a final renunciation of the French claims. The king submitted for the moment, but at the first opportunity endeavoured to cancel his concessions. He obtained a papal absolution from his promises; and he tricked the opposition into accepting the arbitration of the French king, Louis IX., whose verdict was a foregone conclusion. But Henry was incapable of protecting with the strong hand the rights which he had recovered by his double-dealing. Ignominiously defeated by Montfort at Lewes (1264) he fell into the position of a cipher, equally despised by his opponents and supporters. He acquiesced in the earl’s dictatorship; left to his eldest son, Edward, the difficult task of reorganizing the royal party; marched with the Montfortians to Evesham; and narrowly escaped sharing the fate of his gaoler. After Evesham he is hardly mentioned by the chroniclers. The compromise with the surviving rebels was arranged by his son in concert with Richard of Cornwall and the legate Ottobuono; the statute of Marlborough (1267), which purchased a lasting peace by judicious concessions, was similarly arranged between Edward and the earl of Gloucester. Edward was king in all but name for some years before the death of his father, by whom he was alternately suspected and adored.

Henry had in him some of the elements of a fine character. His mind was cultivated; he was a discriminating patron of literature, and Westminster Abbey is an abiding memorial of his artistic taste. His personal morality was irreproachable, except that he inherited the Plantagenet taste for crooked courses and dissimulation in political affairs; even in this respect the king’s reputation has suffered unduly at the hands of Matthew Paris, whose literary skill is only equalled by his malice. The ambitions which Henry cherished, if extravagant, were never sordid; his patriotism, though seldom attested by practical measures, was thoroughly sincere. Some of his worst actions as a politician were due to a sincere, though exaggerated, gratitude for the support which the Papacy had given him during his minority. But he had neither the training nor the temper of a statesman. His dreams of autocracy at home and far-reaching dominion abroad were anachronisms in a century of constitutional ideas and national differentiation. Above all he earned the contempt of Englishmen and foreigners alike by the instability of his purpose. Matthew Paris said that he had a heart of wax; Dante relegated him to the limbo of ineffectual souls; and later generations have endorsed these scathing judgments.

Henry died at Westminster on the 16th of November 1272; his widow, Eleanor, took the veil in 1276 and died at Amesbury on the 25th of June 1291. Their children were: the future king Edward I.; Edmund, earl of Lancaster; Margaret (1240-1275), the wife of Alexander III., king of Scotland; Beatrice; and Katherine.

Original Authorities.—Roger of Wendover,Flores historiarum(ed. H. O. Coxe, 4 vols., 1841-1844); and Matthew of Paris,Chronica majora(ed. H. R. Luard, Rolls Series, 7 vols., 1872-1883) are the chief narrative sources. See also theAnnales monastici(ed. H. R. Luard, Rolls Series, 5 vols., 1864-1869); the collection ofRoyal and other Historical Lettersedited by W. Shirley (Rolls Series, 2 vols., 1862-1866); the Close and Patent Rolls edited for the Record Commission and the Master of the Rolls; theEpistolae Roberti Grosseteste(ed. H. R. Luard, Rolls Series, 1861); theMonumenta Franciscana, vol. i. (ed. J. S. Brewer, Rolls Series, 1858); the documents in the newFoedera, vol. i. (Record Commission, 1816).Modern Works.—G. J. Turner’s article on the king’s minority inTransactions of the Royal Historical Society, New Series, vol. xviii.; Dom Gasquet’sHenry III. and the Church(1905); the lives of Simon de Montfort by G. W. Prothero (1871), R. Pauli (Eng. ed., 1876) and C. Bémont (Paris, 1884); W. Stubbs’sConstitutional History of England, vol. ii. (1887); R. Pauli’sGeschichte von England, vol. iii. (Hamburg, 1853); T. F. Tout in thePolitical History of England, vol. iii. (1905), and H. W. C. Davis inEngland under the Normans and Angevins(1905).

Modern Works.—G. J. Turner’s article on the king’s minority inTransactions of the Royal Historical Society, New Series, vol. xviii.; Dom Gasquet’sHenry III. and the Church(1905); the lives of Simon de Montfort by G. W. Prothero (1871), R. Pauli (Eng. ed., 1876) and C. Bémont (Paris, 1884); W. Stubbs’sConstitutional History of England, vol. ii. (1887); R. Pauli’sGeschichte von England, vol. iii. (Hamburg, 1853); T. F. Tout in thePolitical History of England, vol. iii. (1905), and H. W. C. Davis inEngland under the Normans and Angevins(1905).

(H. W. C. D.)

HENRY IV.(1367-1413), king of England, son of John of Gaunt, by Blanche, daughter of Henry, duke of Lancaster, was born on the 3rd of April 1367, at Bolingbroke in Lincolnshire. As early as 1377 he is styled earl of Derby, and in 1380 he marriedMary de Bohun (d. 1394) one of the co-heiresses of the last earl of Hereford. In 1387 he supported his uncle Thomas, duke of Gloucester, in his armed opposition to Richard II. and his favourites. Afterwards, probably through his father’s influence, he changed sides. He was already distinguished for his knightly prowess, and for some years devoted himself to adventure. He thought of going on the crusade to Barbary; but instead, in July 1390, went to serve with the Teutonic knights in Lithuania. He came home in the following spring, but next year went again to Prussia, whence he journeyed by way of Venice to Cyprus and Jerusalem. After his return to England he sided with his father and the king against Gloucester, and in 1397 was made duke of Hereford. In January 1398 he quarrelled with the duke of Norfolk, who charged him with treason. The dispute was to have been decided in the lists at Coventry in September; but at the last moment Richard intervened and banished them both.

When John of Gaunt died in February 1399 Richard, contrary to his promise, confiscated the estates of Lancaster. Henry then felt himself free, and made friends with the exiled Arundels. Early in July, whilst Richard was absent in Ireland, he landed at Ravenspur in Yorkshire. He was at once joined by the Percies; and Richard, abandoned by his friends, surrendered at Flint on the 19th of August. In the parliament, which assembled on the 30th of September, Richard was forced to abdicate. Henry then made his claim as coming by right line of blood from King Henry III., and through his right to recover the realm which was in point to be undone for default of governance and good law. Parliament formally accepted him, and thus Henry became king, “not so much by title of blood as by popular election” (Capgrave). The new dynasty had consequently a constitutional basis. With this Henry’s own political sympathies well accorded. But though the revolution of 1399 was popular in form, its success was due to an oligarchical faction. From the start Henry was embarrassed by the power and pretensions of the Percies. Nor was his hereditary title so good as that of the Mortimers. To domestic troubles was added the complication of disputes with Scotland and France. The first danger came from the friends of Richard, who plotted prematurely, and were crushed in January 1400. During the summer of 1400 Henry made a not over-successful expedition to Scotland. The French court would not accept his overtures, and it was only in the summer of 1401 that a truce was patched up by the restoration of Richard’s child-queen, Isabella of Valois. Meantime a more serious trouble had arisen through the outbreak of the Welsh revolt under Owen Glendower (q.v.). In 1400 and again in each of the two following autumns Henry invaded Wales in vain. The success of the Percies over the Scots at Homildon Hill (Sept. 1402) was no advantage. Henry Percy (Hotspur) and his father, the earl of Northumberland, thought their services ill-requited, and finally made common cause with the partisans of Mortimer and the Welsh. The plot was frustrated by Hotspur’s defeat at Shrewsbury (21st of July 1403); and Northumberland for the time submitted. Henry had, however, no one on whom he could rely outside his own family, except Archbishop Arundel. The Welsh were unsubdued; the French were plundering the southern coast; Northumberland was fomenting trouble in the north. The crisis came in 1405. A plot to carry off the young Mortimers was defeated; but Mowbray, the earl marshal, who had been privy to it, raised a rebellion in the north supported by Archbishop Scrope of York. Mowbray and Scrope were taken and beheaded; Northumberland escaped into Scotland. For the execution of the archbishop Henry was personally responsible, and he could never free himself from its odium. Popular belief regarded his subsequent illness as a judgment for his impiety. Apart from ill-health and unpopularity Henry had succeeded—relations with Scotland were secured by the capture of James, the heir to the crown; Northumberland was at last crushed at Bramham Moor (Feb. 1408); and a little later the Welsh revolt was mastered.

Henry, stricken with sore disease, was unable to reap the advantage. His necessities had all along enabled the Commons to extort concessions in parliament, until in 1406 he was forced to nominate a council and govern by its advice. However, with Archbishop Arundel as his chancellor, Henry still controlled the government. But in January 1410 Arundel had to give way to the king’s half-brother, Thomas Beaufort. Beaufort and his brother Henry, bishop of Winchester, were opposed to Arundel and supported by the prince of Wales. For two years the real government rested with the prince and the council. Under the prince’s influence the English intervened in France in 1411 on the side of Burgundy. In this, and in some matters of home politics, the king disagreed with his ministers. There is good reason to suppose that the Beauforts had gone so far as to contemplate a forced abdication on the score of the king’s ill-health. However, in November 1411 Henry showed that he was still capable of vigorous action by discharging the prince and his supporters. Arundel again became chancellor, and the king’s second son, Thomas, took his brother’s place. The change was further marked by the sending of an expedition to France in support of Orleans. But Henry’s health was failing steadily. On the 20th of March 1413, whilst praying in Westminster Abbey he was seized with a fainting fit, and died that same evening in the Jerusalem Chamber. At the time he was believed to have been a leper, but as it would appear without sufficient reason.

As a young man Henry had been chivalrous and adventurous, and in politics anxious for good government and justice. As king the loss and failure of friends made him cautious, suspicious and cruel. The persecution of the Lollards, which began with the burning statute of 1401, may be accounted for by Henry’s own orthodoxy, or by the influence of Archbishop Arundel, his one faithful friend. But that political Lollardry was strong is shown by the proposal in the parliament of 1410 for a wholesale confiscation of ecclesiastical property. Henry’s faults may be excused by his difficulties. Throughout he was practical and steadfast, and he deserved credit for maintaining his principles as a constitutional ruler. So after all his troubles he founded his dynasty firmly, and passed on the crown to his son with a better title. He is buried under a fine tomb at Canterbury.

By Mary Bohun Henry had four sons: his successor Henry V., Thomas, duke of Clarence, John, duke of Bedford, and Humphrey, duke of Gloucester; and two daughters, Blanche, who married Louis III., elector palatine of the Rhine, and Philippa, who married Eric XIII., king of Sweden. Henry’s second wife was Joan, or Joanna, (c.1370-1437), daughter of Charles the Bad, king of Navarre, and widow of John IV. or V., duke of Brittany, who survived until July 1437. By her he had no children.

The chief contemporary authorities are theAnnales Henrici Quartiand T. Walsingham’sHistoria Anglicana(Rolls Series), Adam of Usk’sChronicleand the variousChronicles of London. The life by John Capgrave (De illustribus Henricis) is of little value. Some personal matter is contained inWardrobe Accounts of Henry, Earl of Derby(Camden Soc.). For documents consult T. Rymer’sFoedera; Sir N. H. Nicolas,Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy Council; Sir H. Ellis,Original Letters illustrative of English History(London, 1825-1846);Rolls of Parliament;Royal and Historical Letters, Henry IV.(Rolls Series) and theCalendars of Patent Rolls. Of modern authorities the foremost is J. H. Wylie’s minute and learnedHist. of England under Henry IV.(4 vols., London, 1884-1898). See also W. Stubbs,Constitutional History; Sir J. Ramsay,Lancaster and York(2 vols., Oxford, 1892), and C. W. C. Oman,The Political History of England, vol. iv.

(C. L. K.)

HENRY V.(1387-1422), king of England, son of Henry IV. by Mary de Bohun, was born at Monmouth, in August 1387. On his father’s exile in 1398 Richard II. took the boy into his own charge, and treated him kindly. Next year the Lancastrian revolution forced Henry into precocious prominence as heir to the throne. From October 1400 the administration of Wales was conducted in his name; less than three years later he was in actual command of the English forces and fought against the Percies at Shrewsbury. The Welsh revolt absorbed his energies till 1408. Then through the king’s ill-health he began to take a wider share in politics. From January 1410, helped by his uncles Henry and Thomas Beaufort, he had practical control of the government. Both in foreign and domestic policy hediffered from the king, who in November 1411 discharged the prince from the council. The quarrel of father and son was political only, though it is probable that the Beauforts had discussed the abdication of Henry IV., and their opponents certainly endeavoured to defame the prince. It may be that to political enmity the tradition of Henry’s riotous youth, immortalized by Shakespeare, is partly due. To that tradition Henry’s strenuous life in war and politics is a sufficient general contradiction. The most famous incident, his quarrel with the chief-justice, has no contemporary authority and was first related by Sir Thomas Elyot in 1531. The story of Falstaff originated partly in Henry’s early friendship for Oldcastle (q.v.). That friendship, and the prince’s political opposition to Archbishop Arundel, perhaps encouraged Lollard hopes. If so, their disappointment may account for the statements of ecclesiastical writers, like Walsingham, that Henry on becoming king was changed suddenly into a new man.

Henry succeeded his father on the 20th of March 1413. With no past to embarrass him, and with no dangerous rivals, his practical experience had full scope. He had to deal with three main problems—the restoration of domestic peace, the healing of schism in the Church and the recovery of English prestige in Europe. Henry grasped them all together, and gradually built upon them a yet wider policy. From the first he made it clear that he would rule England as the head of a united nation, and that past differences were to be forgotten. Richard II. was honourably reinterred; the young Mortimer was taken into favour; the heirs of those who had suffered in the last reign were restored gradually to their titles and estates. With Oldcastle Henry used his personal influence in vain, and the gravest domestic danger was Lollard discontent. But the king’s firmness nipped the movement in the bud (Jan. 1414), and made his own position as ruler secure. Save for the abortive Scrope and Cambridge plot in favour of Mortimer in July 1415, the rest of his reign was free from serious trouble at home. Henry could now turn his attention to foreign affairs. A writer of the next generation was the first to allege that Henry was encouraged by ecclesiastical statesmen to enter on the French war as a means of diverting attention from home troubles. For this story there is no foundation. The restoration of domestic peace was the king’s first care, and until it was assured he could not embark on any wider enterprise abroad. Nor was that enterprise one of idle conquest. Old commercial disputes and the support which the French had lent to Glendower gave a sufficient excuse for war, whilst the disordered state of France afforded no security for peace. Henry may have regarded the assertion of his own claims as part of his kingly duty, but in any case a permanent settlement of the national quarrel was essential to the success of his world policy. The campaign of 1415, with its brilliant conclusion at Agincourt (October 25), was only the first step. Two years of patient preparation followed. The command of the sea was secured by driving the Genoese allies of the French out of the Channel. A successful diplomacy detached the emperor Sigismund from France, and by the Treaty of Canterbury paved the way to end the schism in the Church. So in 1417 the war was renewed on a larger scale. Lower Normandy was quickly conquered, Rouen cut off from Paris and besieged. The French were paralysed by the disputes of Burgundians and Armagnacs. Henry skilfully played them off one against the other, without relaxing his warlike energy. In January 1419 Rouen fell. By August the English were outside the walls of Paris. The intrigues of the French parties culminated in the assassination of John of Burgundy by the dauphin’s partisans at Montereau (September 10, 1419). Philip, the new duke, and the French court threw themselves into Henry’s arms. After six months’ negotiation Henry was by the Treaty of Troyes recognized as heir and regent of France, and on the 2nd of June 1420 married Catherine, the king’s daughter. He was now at the height of his power. His eventual success in France seemed certain. He shared with Sigismund the credit of having ended the Great Schism by obtaining the election of Pope Martin V. All the states of western Europe were being brought within the web of his diplomacy. The headship of Christendom was in his grasp, and schemes for a new crusade began to take shape. He actually sent an envoy to collect information in the East; but his plans were cut short by death. A visit to England in 1421 was interrupted by the defeat of Clarence at Baugé. The hardships of the longer winter siege of Meaux broke down his health, and he died at Bois de Vincennes on the 31st of August 1422.

Henry’s last words were a wish that he might live to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. They are significant. His ideal was founded consciously on the models of Arthur and Godfrey as national king and leader of Christendom. So he is the typical medieval hero. For that very reason his schemes were doomed to end in disaster, since the time was come for a new departure. Yet he was not reactionary. His policy was constructive: a firm central government supported by parliament; church reform on conservative lines; commercial development; and the maintenance of national prestige. His aims in some respects anticipated those of his Tudor successors, but he would have accomplished them on medieval lines as a constitutional ruler. His success was due to the power of his personality. He could train able lieutenants, but at his death there was no one who could take his place as leader. War, diplomacy and civil administration were all dependent on his guidance. His dazzling achievements as a general have obscured his more sober qualities as a ruler, and even the sound strategy, with which he aimed to be master of the narrow seas. If he was not the founder of the English navy he was one of the first to realize its true importance. Henry had so high a sense of his own rights that he was merciless to disloyalty. But he was scrupulous of the rights of others, and it was his eager desire to further the cause of justice that impressed his French contemporaries. He has been charged with cruelty as a religious persecutor; but in fact he had as prince opposed the harsh policy of Archbishop Arundel, and as king sanctioned a more moderate course. Lollard executions during his reign had more often a political than a religious reason. To be just with sternness was in his eyes a duty. So in his warfare, though he kept strict discipline and allowed no wanton violence, he treated severely all who had in his opinion transgressed. In his personal conduct he was chaste, temperate and sincerely pious. He delighted in sport and all manly exercises. At the same time he was cultured, with a taste for literature, art and music. Henry lies buried in Westminster Abbey. His tomb was stripped of its splendid adornment during the Reformation. The shield, helmet and saddle, which formed part of the original funeral equipment, still hang above it.

Of original authorities the best on the English side is theGesta Henrici Quinti(down to 1416), printed anonymously for the English Historical Society, but probably written by Thomas Elmham, one of Henry’s chaplains. Two lives edited by Thomas Hearne under the names of Elmham and Titus Livius Forojuliensis come from a common source; the longer, which Hearne ascribed incorrectly to Elmham, is perhaps the original work of Livius, who was an Italian in the service of Humphrey of Gloucester, and wrote about 1440. Other authorities are the Chronicles of Walsingham and Otterbourne, theEnglish ChronicleorBrut, and the variousLondon Chronicles. On the French side the most valuable are Chronicles of Monstrelet and St Rémy (both Burgundian) and theChronique du religieux de S. Denys(the official view of the French court). For documents and modern authorities see underHenry IV.See also Sir N. H. Nicolas,Hist. of the Battle of Agincourt and the Expedition of 1415(London, 1833); C. L. Kingsford,Henry V., the Typical Medieval Hero(New York, 1901), where a fuller bibliography will be found.

(C. L. K.)

HENRY VI.(1421-1471), king of England, son of Henry V. and Catherine of Valois, was born at Windsor on the 6th of December 1421. He became king of England on the 1st of September 1422, and a few weeks later, on the death of his grandfather Charles VI., was proclaimed king of France also. Henry V. had directed that Richard Beauchamp, earl of Warwick (q.v.), should be his son’s preceptor; Warwick took up his charge in 1428; he trained his pupil to be a good man and refined gentleman, but he could not teach him kingship. As early as 1423 the baby king was made to appear at public functions and take his place in parliament. He was knighted by his uncle Bedford at Leicester in May 1426, and on the 6th of November 1429 was crowned at Westminster.Early in the next year he was taken over to France, and after long delay crowned in Paris on the 16th of December 1431. His return to London on the 14th of February 1432 was celebrated with a great pageant devised by Lydgate.

During these early years Bedford ruled France wisely and at first with success, but he could not prevent the mischief which Humphrey of Gloucester (q.v.) caused both at home and abroad. Even in France the English lost ground steadily after the victory of Joan of Arc before Orleans in 1429. The climax came with the death of Bedford, and defection of Philip of Burgundy in 1435. This closed the first phase of Henry’s reign. There followed fifteen years of vain struggle in France, and growing disorder at home. The determining factor in politics was the conduct of the war. Cardinal Beaufort, and after him Suffolk, sought by working for peace to secure at least Guienne and Normandy. Gloucester courted popularity by opposing them throughout; with him was Richard of York, who stood next in succession to the crown. Beaufort controlled the council, and it was under his guidance that the king began to take part in the government. Thus it was natural that as Henry grew to manhood he seconded heartily the peace policy. That policy was wise, but national pride made it unpopular and difficult. Henry himself had not the strength or knowledge to direct it, and was unfortunate in his advisers. The cardinal was old, his nephews John and Edmund Beaufort were incompetent, Suffolk, though a man of noble character, was tactless. Suffolk, however, achieved a great success by negotiating the marriage of Henry to Margaret of Anjou (q.v.) in 1445. Humphrey of Gloucester and Cardinal Beaufort both died early in 1447. Suffolk was now all-powerful in the favour of the king and queen. But his home administration was unpopular, whilst the incapacity of Edmund Beaufort ended in the loss of all Normandy and Guienne. Suffolk’s fall in 1450 left Richard of York the foremost man in England. Henry’s reign then entered on its last phase of dynastic struggle. Cade’s rebellion suggested first that popular discontent might result in a change of rulers. But York, as heir to the throne, could abide his time. The situation was altered by the mental derangement of the king, and the birth of his son in 1453. York after a struggle secured the protectorship, and for the next year ruled England. Then Henry was restored to sanity, and the queen and Edmund Beaufort, now Duke of Somerset, to power. Open war followed, with the defeat and death of Somerset at St Albans on the 22nd of May 1455. Nevertheless a hollow peace was patched up, which continued during four years with lack of all governance. In 1459 war broke out again. On the 10th of July 1460 Henry was taken prisoner at Northampton, and forced to acknowledge York as heir, to the exclusion of his own son. Richard of York’s death at Wakefield (Dec. 29, 1460), and the queen’s victory at St Albans (Feb. 17, 1461), brought Henry his freedom and no more. Edward of York had himself proclaimed king, and by his decisive victory at Towton on the 29th of March, put an end to Henry’s reign. For over three years Henry was a fugitive in Scotland. He returned to take part in an abortive rising in 1464. A year later he was captured in the north, and brought a prisoner to the Tower. For six months in 1470-1471 he emerged to hold a shadowy kingship as Warwick’s puppet. Edward’s final victory at Tewkesbury was followed by Henry’s death on the 21st of May 1471, certainly by violence, perhaps at the hands of Richard of Gloucester.

Henry was the most hapless of monarchs. He was so honest and well-meaning that he might have made a good ruler in quiet times. But he was crushed by the burden of his inheritance. He had not the genius to find a way out of the French entanglement or the skill to steer a constitutional monarchy between rival factions. So the system and policy which were the creations of Henry IV. and Henry V. led under Henry VI. to the ruin of their dynasty. Henry’s very virtues added to his difficulties. He was so trusting that any one could influence him, so faithful that he would not give up a minister who had become impossible. Thus even in the middle period he had no real control of the government. In his latter years he was mentally too weak for independent action. At his best he was a “good and gentle creature,” but too kindly and generous to rule others. Religious observances and study were his chief occupations. His piety was genuine; simple and pure, he was shocked at any suggestion of impropriety, but his rebuke was only “Fie, for shame! forsooth ye are to blame.” For education he was really zealous. Even as a boy he was concerned for the upbringing of his half-brothers, his mother’s children by Owen Tudor. Later, the planning of his great foundations at Eton and King’s College, Cambridge, was the one thing which absorbed his interest. To both he was more than a royal founder, and the credit of the whole scheme belongs to him. The charter for Eton was granted on the 11th of October 1440, and that for King’s College in the following February. Henry himself laid the foundation-stones of both buildings. He frequently visited Cambridge to superintend the progress of the work. When at Windsor he loved to send for the boys from his school and give them good advice.

Henry’s only son was Edward, prince of Wales (1453-1471), who, having shared the many journeys and varying fortunes of his mother, Margaret, was killed after the battle of Tewkesbury (May 4, 1471) by some noblemen in attendance on Edward IV.

There is a life of Henry by his chaplain John Blakman (printed at the end of Hearne’s edition of Otterbourne); but it is concerned only with his piety and patience in adversity. English chronicles for the reign are scanty; the best are theChronicles of London(ed. C. L. Kingsford), with the analogousGregory’s Chronicle(ed. J. Gairdner for Camden Soc.) andChronicle of London(ed. Sir H. N. Nicolas).The Paston Letters, with James Gairdner’s valuable Introductions, are indispensable. Other useful authorities are Joseph Stevenson’sLetters and Papers illustrative of the Wars of the English in France during the Reign of Henry VI.; andCorrespondence of T. Bekynton(both in “Rolls” series). For the French war the chief sources are theChroniclesof Monstrelet, D’Escouchy and T. Basin. For other documents and modern authorities see underHenry IV.For Henry’s foundations see Sir H. C. Maxwell-Lyte,History of Eton College(London, 1899), and J. B. Mullinger,History of the University of Cambridge(London, 1888).

(C. L. K.)

HENRY VII.(1457-1509), king of England, was the first of the Tudor dynasty. His claim to the throne was through his mother from John of Gaunt and Catherine Swynford, whose issue born before their marriage had been legitimated by parliament. This, of course, was only a Lancastrian claim, never valid, even as such, till the direct male line of John of Gaunt had become extinct. By his father the genealogists traced his pedigree to Cadwallader, but this only endeared him to the Welsh when he had actually become king. His grandfather, Owen Tudor, however, had married Catherine, the widow of Henry V. and daughter to Charles VI. of France. Their son Edmund, being half brother of Henry VI., was created by that king earl of Richmond, and having married Margaret Beaufort, only daughter of John, duke of Somerset, died more than two months before their only child, Henry, was born in Pembroke Castle in January 1457. The fatherless child had sore trials. Edward IV. won the crown when he was four years old, and while Wales partly held out against the conqueror, he was carried for safety from one castle to another. Then for a time he was made a prisoner; but ultimately he was taken abroad by his uncle Jasper, who found refuge in Brittany. At one time the duke of Brittany was nearly induced to surrender him to Edward IV.; but he remained safe in the duchy till the cruelties of Richard III. drove more and more Englishmen abroad to join him. An invasion of England was planned in 1483 in concert with the duke of Buckingham’s rising; but stormy weather at sea and an inundation in the Severn defeated the two movements. A second expedition, two years later, aided this time by France, was more successful. Henry landed at Milford Haven among his Welsh allies and defeated Richard at the battle of Bosworth (August 22, 1485). He was crowned at Westminster on the 30th of October following. Then, in fulfilment of pledges by which he had procured the adhesion of many Yorkist supporters, he was married at Westminster to Elizabeth (1465-1503), eldest daughter and heiress of Edward IV. (Jan. 18, 1486), whose two brothers had both been murdered by Richard III. Thus the Red and White Roses were united and the pretexts for civil war done away with.

Nevertheless, Henry’s reign was much disturbed by a successionof Yorkist conspiracies and pretenders. Of the two most notable impostors, the first, Lambert Simnel, personated the earl of Warwick, son of the duke of Clarence, a youth of seventeen whom Henry had at his accession taken care to imprison in the Tower. Simnel, who was but a boy, was taken over to Ireland to perform his part, and the farce was wonderfully successful. He was crowned as Edward VI. in Christchurch Cathedral, Dublin, and received the allegiance of every one—bishops, nobles and judges, alike with others. From Ireland, accompanied by some bands of German mercenaries procured for him in the Low Countries, he invaded England; but the rising was put down at Stoke near Newark in Nottinghamshire, and, Simnel being captured, the king made him a menial of his kitchen.

This movement had been greatly assisted by Margaret, duchess dowager of Burgundy, sister of Edward IV., who could not endure to see the House of York supplanted by that of Tudor. The second pretender, Perkin Warbeck, was also much indebted to her support; but he seems to have entered on his career at first without it. And his story, which was more prolonged, had to do with the attitude of many countries towards England. Anxious as Henry was to avoid being involved in foreign wars, it was not many years before he was committed to a war with France, partly by his desire of an alliance with Spain, and partly by the indignation of his own subjects at the way in which the French were undermining the independence of Brittany. Henry gave Brittany defensive aid; but after the duchess Anne had married Charles VIII. of France, he felt bound to fulfil his obligations to Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, and also to the German king Maximilian, by an invasion of France in 1492. His allies, however, were not equally scrupulous or equally able to fulfil their obligations to him; and after besieging Boulogne for some little time, he received very advantageous offers from the French king and made peace with him.

Now Perkin Warbeck had first appeared in Ireland in 1491, and had somehow been persuaded there to personate Richard, duke of York, the younger of the two princes murdered in the Tower, pretending that he had escaped, though his brother had been killed. Charles VIII., then expecting war with England, called him to France, recognized his pretensions and gave him a retinue; but after the peace he dismissed him. Then Margaret of Burgundy received him as her nephew, and Maximilian, now estranged from Henry, recognized him as king of England. With a fleet given him by Maximilian he attempted to land at Deal, but sailed away to Ireland and, not succeeding very well there either, sailed farther to Scotland, where James IV. received him with open arms, married him to an earl’s daughter and made a brief and futile invasion of England along with him. But in 1497 he thought best to dismiss him, and Perkin, after attempting something again in Ireland, landed in Cornwall with a small body of men.

Already Cornwall had risen in insurrection that year, not liking the taxation imposed for the purpose of repelling the Scotch invasion. A host of the country people, led first by a blacksmith, but afterwards by a nobleman, marched up towards London and were only defeated at Blackheath. But the Cornishmen were quite ready for another revolt, and indeed had invited Perkin to their shores. He had little fight in him, however, and after a futile siege of Exeter and an advance to Taunton he stole away and took sanctuary at Beaulieu in Hampshire. But, being assured of his life, he surrendered, was brought to London, and was only executed two years later, when, being imprisoned near the earl of Warwick in the Tower, he inveigled that simple-minded youth into a project of escape. For this Warwick, too, was tried, condemned and executed—no doubt to deliver Henry from repeated conspiracies in his favour.

Henry had by this time several children, of whom the eldest, Arthur, had been proposed in infancy for a bridegroom to Catherine, daughter of Ferdinand of Aragon. The match had always been kept in view, but its completion depended greatly on the assurance Ferdinand and Isabella could feel of Henry’s secure position upon the throne. At last Catherine was brought to England and was married to Prince Arthur at St Paul’s on the 14th of November 1501. The lad was just over fifteen and the co-habitation of the couple was wisely delayed; but he died on the 2nd of April following. Another match was presently proposed for Catherine with the king’s second son, Henry, which only took effect when the latter had become king himself. Meanwhile Henry’s eldest daughter Margaret was married to James IV. of Scotland—a match distinctly intended to promote international peace, and make possible that ultimate union which actually resulted from it. The espousals had taken place at Richmond in 1502, and the marriage was celebrated in Scotland the year after. In the interval between these two events Henry lost his queen, who died on the 11th of February 1503, and during the remainder of his reign he made proposals in various quarters for a second marriage—proposals in which political objects were always the chief consideration; but none of them led to any result. In his latter years he became unpopular from the extortions practised by his two instruments, Empson and Dudley, under the authority of antiquated statutes. From the beginning of his reign he had been accumulating money, mainly for his own security against intrigues and conspiracies, and avarice had grown upon him with success. He died in April 1509, undoubtedly the richest prince in Christendom. He was not a niggard, however, in his expenditure. Before his death he had finished the hospital of the Savoy and made provision for the magnificent chapel at Westminster which bears his name. His money-getting was but part of his statesmanship, and for his statesmanship his country owes him not a little gratitude. He not only terminated a disastrous civil war and brought under control the spirit of ancient feudalism, but with a clear survey of the conditions of foreign powers he secured England in almost uninterrupted peace while he developed her commerce, strengthened her slender navy and built, apparently for the first time, a naval dock at Portsmouth.

In addition to his sons Arthur and Henry, Henry VII. had several daughters, one of whom, Margaret, married James IV., king of Scotland, and another, Mary, became the wife of Louis XII. of France, and afterwards of Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk.

The popular view of Henry VII.’s reign has always been derived from Bacon’sHistoryof that king. This has been edited by J. R. Lumby (Cambridge, 1881). But during the last half century large accessions to our knowledge have been made from foreign and domestic archives, and the sources of Bacon’s work have been more critically examined. For a complete account of those sources the reader may be referred to W. Busch’sEngland under the Tudors, published in German in 1892 and in an English translation in 1895. Some further information of a special kind will be found in M. Oppenheim’sNaval Accounts and Inventories, published by the Navy Records Society in 1896. See also J. Gairdner’sHenry VII.(1889).

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