صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

H.

CHAP. their estates, to his bounty. York himself, on succeeding to the inheritance of the earl of March from whom he claimed, had sworn fealty and done homage to Henry: when he accepted the government of Normandy, when he was appointed lieutenant in Ireland, when he was raised to the protectorate during the king's incapacity, he had, under his own seal and on the rolls of parliament, acknowledged him for his sovereign; and of late he had repeatedly sworn, on the sacrament, that he would be faithful to him, would maintain him on the throne, and would even augment, if it were possible, his royal dignity. On these accounts many of his adherents would never be persuaded that he intended to dethrone Henry and when he made the attempt, he found his hopes unexpectedly checked by their apathy, and the murmurs of the people.199

It is On the ninth day of the session the duke of brought forward by York by his counsel delivered to the bishop of Exeter, the new chancellor, a statement of his Oct. 16. claim to the crown, and requested that he might

his coun

sel.

have a speedy answer.

The lords resolved that

since every man who sued in that court, whether he were high or low, had a right to be heard, the duke's petition should be read, but that no answer should be returned without the previous com

199 Et illo die pauci dominorum sibi favebant, sed solummodo absentabant. Wyrcest. 484. Cœpit protinus status omnis et gradus, ætas et sexus, ordo et conditio contra eum murmuranter agere. Whetham. 485,

II.

mand of the king. In this writing, having first CHAP. derived his descent from Henry III., by Lionel third son to Edward III., he observed, that on the resignation of Richard II., Henry earl of Derby, the son of John of Ghent, the younger brother of the said Lionel, against all manner of right entered on the crowns of England and France and the lordship of Ireland, which by law belonged to Roger Mortimer earl of March, great grandson to the said sir Lionel; whence he concluded that of right, law, and custom, the said crown and lordship now belonged to himself, as the lineal representative of Roger Mortimer, in preference to any one who could claim only as the descendant of Henry earl of Derby. 20

200

The next day Richard demanded an immediate answer, and the lords resolved to wait on the king, and receive his commands. Henry, when the subject was first opened to him, replied: "My father was king: his father was also Oct. 17. "king: I have worn the crown forty years from

[ocr errors]

"my
cradle : you have all sworn fealty to me as
"your sovereign, and your fathers have done
"the like to my fathers. How then can my right
"be disputed ?201 In conclusion he recom-
mended his interests to their loyalty, and com-
manded them to "to search for to find, in as
"much as in them was, all such things as might
"be objected and laid against the claim and

[blocks in formation]

CHAP.
II.

"title of the said duke." The lords the next day sent for the judges, and ordered them to Oct. 18. defend to the best of their power the king's claims. They, however, demanded to be excused. By their office they were not to be of counsel between party and party, but to judge according to law of such matters as came before them but the present question was above the law it appertained not to them: it could be decided only by the lords of the king's blood, and the high court of parliament. An order was then made for the attendance of the king's serjeants and attornies: they also presented their excuses, which, however, were not admitted, because by their office they were bound to give advice to the crown.

Oct. 22.

Objections to the duke's

title.

After several debates, in which each lord gave his opinion with apparent freedom, the following objections were sent to the duke: 1°. That both he and the lords had sworn fealty to Henry, and of course he by his oath was prevented from urging, they by theirs from admitting, his claim: 2o. That many acts, passed in divers parlia-ments of the king's progenitors, might be opposed to the pretensions of the house of Clarence, which acts been of authority to defeat any "manner of title:" 3°. That several entails had been made of the crown to the heirs male, whereas he claimed by descent from females: 4o. That he did not bear the arms of Lionel the third,but of Edmund the fifth son of Edward III.

II.

and, 5o. That Henry IV. had declared that he CHAP. entered on the throne as the true heir ofHenry III. To the three first objections the duke's counsel replied that as priority of descent was evidently in his favour, it followed that the right to the crown was his which right could not be defeated by oaths or acts of parliament, or entails. Indeed the only entail made to the exclusion of females was that of the seventh year of Henry IV. and would never have been thought of, had that prince claimed under the customary law of descents that the reason why he had not hitherto taken the arms of Lionel was the same as had prevented him from claiming the crown, the danger to which such a proceeding would have exposed him and lastly, that if Henry IV. pronounced himself the rightful heir of Henry III., he asserted what he knew to be untrue. As, however, the principal reliance of his adversaries was on the oaths which he had taken, and which it was contended were to be considered as a surrender of his right by his own act, he contended that no oath contrary to truth and justice is binding that the virtue of an oath is to confirm truth and not to impugn it: and that as the obligation of oaths is a subject for the determination of the spiritual tribunals, he was willing to answer in any such court all manner of men, who had any thing to propose against him.

:

mise.

At length the lords resolved that the title of A comprothe duke of York could not be defeated: yet Oct. 24

II.

CHAP. they refused to proceed to the next step of dethroning the king. To "save their oaths "and clear their consciences," they proposed a compromise that Henry should

Battle of
Wakefield.

possess the crown for the term of his natural life, and that the duke and his heirs should succeed to it

after Henry's death. To this both parties agreed. The duke and his two sons the earls of March and Rutland, swore not to molest the king, but to maintain him on the throne; and Henry gave the royal assent to the bill declaring the duke heir apparent, allotting certain estates to him and his sons on that account, and pronouncing any attempt against his person a crime of high treason. On the conclusion of this important affair the king with the crown on his head, and attended by the duke as heir apparent, rode in state to make his thanksgiving at St. Paul's.202

But though the unfortunate monarch had consented to surrender the interests of his son, they were still upheld by the queen, and the

202 Rot. Parl. 375-383. From the history, of this controversy, as it is entered on the rolls, it is plain that both the feelings and the opinions of the lords were in favour of Henry. The original defect in his descent had been supplied by the consent of the nation, the undisturbed possession of the crown by his family during sixty years, and the numerous oaths of fealty taken by all men, even his very competitor. No considerations could induce them to dethrone him. all that could be extorted from them by the victorious party was a compromise, which secured the crown to him during his life: and then took it from his son, to whom they had never sworn fealty, and gave it to another branch of the royal family.

« السابقةمتابعة »