II. CHAP. and Anjou without consulting his colleagues: and the weakness of these accusations was bolstered up with vague assertions, that he had betrayed the king's secrets, and conveyed intelligence to the king's enemies. Sensible, however, of their inability to prove these eight articles, March 7. the commons a month afterwards sent to the lords a new impeachment, in which the duke was charged with misprision of treason under sixteen heads, by improvident waste of the public money; by diverting the supplies from the purposes for which they had been originally voted; by advising the king to impoverish himself by unnecessary grants; by bestowing offices under the crown on suspicious or disloyal persons; and by screening from the pursuit of justice a notorious outlaw, named William Tailbois. The duke was now removed from his prison to a tower in the garden of the palace, that he might be nearer the parliament.198 His defence. On the day appointed for his answer, he was introduced into the house of lords, and falling on his knees before the king, solemnly declared his March 13. innocence. To the first article he replied that it was ridiculous and impossible; and appealed to several of the peers present, who knew that he had intended to marry his son to a daughter 128 Rot. Parl. v. 174-182. Will. Wyrcest. 468. In neither of these impeachments is there any allusion to the death of the duke of Glocester, a pretty plain proof that there was no evidence of his having been murdered. HENRY VI. Il. of the earl of Warwick. For the cession of CHAP. Anjou and Maine, if it were a crime, he was not more responsible than the other lords of the council, or the other peers of the parliament: since the first had authorized, the second had approved the measure. The remaining charges, he contended, were frivolous and vexatious, resting on no other proof than the reports raised by his enemies, or on acts of the council, emanating from many of his judges equally with himself. The second impeachment he did not notice.129 nished. But whatever might be the guilt or innocence He is baof Suffolk, it was evident that his enemies thirsted for his blood: nor would the commons grant any supply till their cry for vengeance had been appeased. It became therefore the policy of the court to devise the means of satisfying them without endangering his life.. He was again March 17. called before the king and lords; and the chancellor, observing that he had not claimed the privilege of the peerage, asked if he had any thing more to say in his defence. It was his hope, he replied, that he had sufficiently established his innocence: he had shewn that the charges against him were false, and some of them impossible: he had denied the facts, the times, the places, and the conversations : he repeated that he was as ignorant of them as "the CHAP. II. Leaves the kingdom. 66 "child still in the mother's womb ;" and therefore threw himself without reserve on the will of his sovereign. The chancellor immediately resumed: "Sir, since you do not put yourself "on your peerage for trial, the king will not hold you either guilty or innocent of the treasons, "with which you have been charged: but with "respect to the second impeachment, not as a "judge advised by the lords, but as one to "whose controul you have voluntarily sub"mitted, he commands you to quit this land "before the first of May, and forbids you ever "to set your foot during the five next years on "his dominions either in this kingdom or be 66 yond the sea." The lords immediately protested by the mouth of the constable, the viscount Beaumont, that this was the act of the king alone, and should form no precedent to bar them or their heirs of the privilege of the peerage. The parliament was soon after prorogued, to meet again in a month's time in the city of Leicester. 130 During these proceedings the public mind had been kept in a continual ferment: and, as soon as the king's decision was published, the most 130 Ibid. 182, 183. If the king ordered this judgment to be pronounced of his own authority, it was certainly illegal: but it appears to have been in consequence of a compromise between the two parties. Wrycester says it was with the consent of parliament (p. 468) and the continuator of the history of Croyland hints, that Suffolk's enemies intended to make away with him before he could leave the realm. Insidias ei ponentes ad tempus, p. 525. 11. incredible reports were circulated, inflammatory CHAP. libels were affixed to the doors of the churches, and the life of the duke was openly threatened.131 To intercept him on his discharge from confine- March 18. ment two thousand persons assembled in St. Giles's but though they surprised his servants, the object of their hatred fortunately escaped, and proceeded to his estates in the county of Suffolk. 132 On the day fixed for his departure, April 30. he assembled the knights and esquires of the neighbourhood, and in their presence swore on the sacrament that he was innocent of the crimes with which he had been charged by his enemies.133 At the same time he wrote to his son a most eloquent and affectionate letter, laying down rules for his conduct, and inculcating in the most forcible terms the duty of piety towards God, loyalty to the king, and obedience to his mother. Whoever has read this affecting composition, will find it difficult to persuade himself that the writer could have been either a false subject or a bad man. 1 He sailed from Ipswich with two small vessels; and sent a pinnace before him to inquire, whether he might be permitted to land in the harbour of Calais. But the pinnace was captured by a squadron of men April. 30. of war and immediately the Nicholas of the Tower, one of the largest ships in the navy, bore 131 Rym. xi. 268. 133 Will. Wyrcest. 469. 132 Will. Wyrcest. 468. 13 It is published among Fenn's original Letters, i. 33. CHAP. II. And is murdered at sea. May 2. HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 66 Welcome, down on the duke's vessels. He was ordered From the preceding narrative it is evident that there existed a party, which had sworn the destruction of this unfortunate nobleman. Not deterred by the failure of the prosecution in parliament, nor by the escape of their victim from St. Giles's, they even dispatched an armed force to assassinate him at sea. But of the leaders of 135 Will. Wyrcest. 469. 477. Croyl. cont. 525. Two letters, apud Fenn, i. 38-45. It may be observed that there are many mistakes in the remarks of the editor on these letters. |