of the dutchy: not a battle was fought to expel the invaders: not a governor defended his charge against the enemy. Uniformly each fortress, as soon as a respectable force made its appearance, was surrendered. Before Christmas all the territory on the banks of the Dordogne had fallen into the possession of Charles: by the following August the French banner waved in triumph, from the mouth of the Garonne to the very borders of Spain. When nothing but Calais remained to England, Charles offered to treat of peace. The proposal was rejected with an idle threat, that Henry would never sheath his sword, till he should have reconquered all that had been lost.12

The public mind had been sufficiently exasperated by the cession of Maine and Anjou but when that cession was followed by the invasion of Normandy; when each messenger brought fresh accounts of the rapid progress of the enemy; every tongue was employed in bewailing the fallen glory of England, and every place resounded with cries of vengeance on the head of the minister. He was described as the queen's minion, who, to please a foreign mistress, did not hesitate to betray his sovereign, and to sacrifice the inheritance of the To him were attributed the release of the duke of Orleans, the death of the duke of

crown.

122 Monstrel. iii, 32-38. Hall, 161, 162.

CHAP.

II.

1451.

The pub

lic discon

tent.

II.

Nov. 6.

CHAP. Glocester, the poverty of the treasury, and all the calamities that had befallen the English arms on the continent. In this state of public opinion a parliament was called to provide for the defence of Normandy: but it had hardly assembled when the news of the loss of Rouen arrived to inflame the discontents of the people, and to multiply the embarrassments of the government. Six weeks were spent in violent but useless altercation: and nothing more was concluded before the holidays than to send sir Thomas Kyriel with a small force to the aid of the duke of Somerset. But during the recess two events occurred which foreboded the ruin Dec. 24. of Suffolk. One evening William Tailbois was discovered lurking with several armed men near the door of the council chamber. It was in vain that the favourite took him under his protection. He was committed to the Tower at the requisition of the lord Cromwell, the most active among the enemies of the minister; was tried on a charge of plotting the death of that nobleman, and condemned to pay him damages to the amount of three thousand pounds.123 Soon afterwards the bishop of Chichester, keeper of the privy seal, proceeded to Portsmouth to pay the soldiers and sailors engaged for the expedition but it was no sooner known that he was the man, who had delivered Maine to the

1450.

Jan. 9.

423 Will. Wyrcest. 466, 467.

II.

against

French king, than the populace rose, and the CHAP. prelate lost his life in the tumult.124 Whether it was that he sought to divert their indignation from himself, or that the story was invented by the opponents of Suffolk, he is said to have de- Charges clared before his death, that the favourite was Suffolk. a traitor, who had sold Maine to the enemy, and had boasted of having as much influence in the French as in the English council. It was thought necessary that the duke (he had lately been raised to that dignity) should notice this report: and, as soon as the parliament assembled after the recess, rising in his place, he Jan. 22. besought the king to recollect that his father had died in the service of his country at Harfleur, his elder brother had fallen in the battle of Azincourt, his second and third brothers had perished at Jargeau, and his youngest brother had expired a hostage in France: that he himself had been a knight of the garter thirty years, had spent thirty-four years in arms, and during half of that time had never visited his native country that he had been fifteen years sworn of the king's council: that he was born in England that his inheritance, and the inheritance of his children and posterity lay in this country. Was it then possible, he asked, that for any promises of an enemy he could become a traitor? Whereupon," he added, "I be

66

124 Will. Wyrcest. 467.

CHAP.

II.

He is sent

to the Tower.

66

"seech your highness in the most humble wise "I can bethink, that if any man will charge me "with the report aforesaid, or any other thing against your royal person and land, he may come forth, and say to me in these matters. "what he wills; and that in your presence, my "sovereign lord, I may be heard in my excusa"tions and defences reasonable, the which I "trust shall be so open and so plain, that your highness and your land shall be content of me: for God knoweth I am, and shall be, and "never was other but true to you, sovereign lord, and to your land." At his request the speech was entered on the rolls.125

66

66

But by this time his enemies in the lower house had formed themselves into a powerful party, which was entirely, though secretly, guided by the councils of the lord Cromwell.126 Jan. 26. Four days after the duke had so solemnly declared his innocence, a deputation from the commons requested, that since, according to his own confession, he lay under the suspicion of treason, he might be immediately committed to the Tower. But the lords, having consulted the judges, replied that they had no power to order any peer into confinement, unless some specific charge were brought against him. Two days Jan. 28. later the speaker returned, and accused him of

125 Rot. Parl. v. 176.

126 Domino Cromwell secrete laborante. Will. Wyrcest. 467.

having furnished the castle of Wallingford with stores and provisions for the purpose of aiding the king of France, who, he pretended, was then making preparations to invade the country. On this incredible and ridiculous charge he was arrested, and confined in the Tower. The archbishop of Canterbury immediately resigned the office of chancellor, which was given to the cardinal archbishop of York.127

CHAP.

II.

Ten days were employed in framing the bill Is imof impeachment, which, when it was finished, peached left the delinquency of the prisoner more pro- king. blematical than before. Most, indeed, of our ancient writers, borne along by the torrent of popular prejudice, have pronounced him guilty: but the improbability or insufficiency of the eight articles of treason alleged against him, will establish his innocence in the mind of the impartial reader. The first, and therefore we may Feb. 7. suppose the most important charge, was, that he had plotted to dethrone the king, and place the crown on the head of his son, whom for that purpose he intended to marry to the only daughter of the late duke of Somerset, that he might be allied to the royal family; and that for this purpose he had solicited the aid of the French king. Next followed the usual charges of his having liberated the duke of Orleans against the opinion of the council: and surrendered Maine

127 Rot. Parl. v. 172. 176, 177.