Oct. 28. 1445. May 30. Arrest and death of Glocester. Suffolk consented to take the lady without a marriage portion. But it was asked, could the king of England think of marrying the daughter, while he kept the father out of his patrimonial dominions? The earl felt the force of the objection, but foresaw the danger of making the cession. At length he yielded: it was stipulated that Maine and Anjou should be restored: and at his return he prevailed on the majority of the council to approve of his conduct. In a general promotion of the chief nobility he was created marquess of Suffolk, and measuring back his steps, solemnly contracted, as proxy for Henry, with Margaret in the cathedral of Nanci. Justs and tournaments for eight days testified the joy of the court: Charles attended his fair kinswoman some miles from the city, and parted from her in tears. Her father accompanied her to Bar le Duc. She landed at Porchester, was married to Henry at Titchfield, and crowned with the usual ceremony at Westminster. A If Henry had flattered himself that his marriage would be followed by a peace," his expectations must have been grievously disappointed. Charles had determined to exclude, if it were possible, the English from the soil of France and would only consent to short prolongations of the armistice, that he might improve the first opportunity, which should be offered by chance, or by the imprudence of Henry. His hopes were encouraged by the disputes in the council of his adversary, whose ministers were too busily employed in struggles for power at home, to support with vigour the national interests abroad. The queen had already gained the ascendancy over the easy mind of her hus : scene, band and Suffolk, the favourite of them both, gradually supplanted all his colleagues. The cardinal, who had retired to his bishopric soon after the last dispute with his nephew, appeared no more on the unless it were to relieve the urgent wants of the crown by advances of money. Glocester still attended the council occasionally: but, if we may believe the unauthenticated accounts of some writers, was chiefly employed in opposing the plans, and protecting himself against the intrigues of the favourite. We may however question their accuracy. Certain it is that he publicly testified his approbation of the king's marriage; and that, when Suffolk in parliament detailed the particulars of the treaty, and the commons petitioned Henry to approve the conduct of that minister, the duke fell on his knees, and seconded their request '. Of his conduct from that period we are ignorant; and our ignorance prevents us from unravelling the causes of the mysterious transaction which followed. It may be that Glocester, harassed by the accusations of his enemies, had formed a plan to make himself master of the royal person or that Suffolk, to screen himself 2 from the resentment of the duke, infused into the mind of Henry suspicions of the loyalty of his uncle3. 'We are told that he was accused in the council of illegal executions, and of having unjustly enriched himself at the expense of the crown. From a singular instrument in Rymer it appears that he had been compelled to resign some possessions in Guienne, which were immediately given to John de Foix, who had married a niece of Suffolk both circumstances of a nature to irritate a proud and ambitious mind. Rym. xi. 147. 22 Aug. 1446. 3 What evidence the king had we know not but nothing could persuade him that his uncle was innocent. Wethamstede, 367. June 4. 1447. Feb. 10. However it were, Henry summoned a parliament to meet, not as usual at Westminster, but at Bury St. Edmund's. The precautions which were taken, excited surprise, and gave birth to numerous conjectures. The knights of the shire received orders to come in arms: the men of Suffolk were arrayed: numerous guards were placed round the king's residence and patroles during the night watched all the roads leading to the town. The duke of Glocester left his castle of Devizes, and was present at the opening of parliament: the next day he was arrested in his lodgings on a charge of high treason, by the lord Beaumont, constable of Feb. 28. England: and seventeen days later was found dead in his bed, without any exterior marks of violence. Reports were spread that he died of apoplexy, or of a broken heart suspicion whispered that he had been privately murdered '. Several knights and esquires in his service had assembled at Greenwich on the very day of his arrest, and purposed to join him at Bury. Feb. 11. I am inclined to believe that he died a natural death, on the authority of Wethamstede, abbot of St. Alban's. That writer, who had received many benefits from the duke, was much attached to his memory, which he vindicates on all occasions, and equally prejudiced against his enemies, whom he calls, canes, scorpiones, impii susurrones, p. 366. And yet, though he wrote when the royal party was humbled in the dust, and he had of course nothing to fear from their resentment, he repeatedly asserts, that the duke fell ill immediately after his arrest, and died of his illness. Fecit eum arrestari, ponique in tam arcta custodia, quod præ tristitia decideret in lectum ægritudinis, et infra paucos dies posterius secederet in fata, p. 365. Of course he could not be in perfect health on the evening preceding his death, as we are told by some writers. Again Whethamstede says : « This great warrior and second David, præ tristitia modo deposuit arma sua, recessitque ad regionem illam, ubi pax « est et tranquilla requies sine inquietudine ulla, » p. 366. " July 8. They were, however, made prisoners, and five of their number were brought to trial, and convicted, on a charge of having conspired to release dame Eleanor, to come to the parliament in arms, to destroy the king, and to raise Glocester to the throne'. But the humanity of Henry did not permit them to suffer. He had been much affected by a sermon of Dr. Worthington, a celebrated preacher, on the forgiveness of injuries and declared that he could not better prove his gratitude for the protection afforded him by the Almighty, than by pardoning in obedience to the di- July 14. vine command the persons who, so he believed, had plotted his destruction 2. Dame Eleanor, on account of : << her former misgovernment of herself », was rendered, 1 2 Rym. xi. 178. They were, however, tied up, instantly cut down, stripped, and marked for dismemberment by the knife of the executioner. At that moment Suffolk announced to them the king's mercy. Stow. 386. This pardon, however, has been represented, on mere conjecture, as an artifice of Suffolk to lessen the odium, which he had incurred by the murder of Glocester. But it is well known that Henry's humanity abhorred the punishment usually inflicted for treason. One day seeing the quarter of a person, who had been executed, fixed on the tower, he exclaimed: « Take it away. It is « a shame to use any christian so cruelly on my account. » (Blackman, 301.) In the present case the king asserts that the pardon had not been suggested to him by any person, either layman or clergyman but that it originated from religious considerations, principally because God seemed to have taken the cause into his own hands, having during the late year « touched and stricken cer«tain of those who had been disloyal to him : » supremus judex nonnullas personas nobis infideles tetigit et percussit. Rym. xi. 178. Who were the persons whom God had stricken? Of course Glocester was one: and the expression is a proof that he died a natural death; for this religious prince would never have used it, if the duke had been murdered. But who were the others? Death of by act of parliament, incapable of claiming as the duke's widow ', and a great part of his estates was distributed among the marquess of Suffolk, his relatives and adherents 2. But Glocester, though he had no issue, left many friends, who laboured to clear his memory from the stain of treason. In each successive parliament they introduced a bill declaratory of loyalty: but no arguments could subdue the conviction or prejudice of the king the bill was repeatedly thrown out by the influence of the crown: and if the attempt at last succeeded, it was under the protection of the duke of York, who had by force invested himself with the powers of government. 3 Within six weeks the duke was followed to the grave April 11. by his uncle and former competitor, cardinal Beaufort. That prelate, since his retirement from court, had resided in his diocese, and applied himself to the exercise of his functions. That he expired in the agonies of despair, is a fiction, which we owe to the imagination of Shakespeare: from an eye-witness we learn that during a lingering illness, he devoted most of his time to religious exercises 4. According to the provisions 4 Hall tells us that, according to his chaplain, John Baker, he lamented on his death-bed that money could not purchase life : and that death should cut him off when he hoped, now his nephew Glocester was gone, to procure the papal tiara. Hall, p. 152. It is not, however, probable that such an idea could be entertained by a man eighty years of age, and labouring under a mortal disease. Three weeks after the death of the duke, the cardinal ordered himself to be carried into the great hall of his palace of Wolvesey, where the clergy of the city and the monks of the cathedral were assembled. There he sate or lay, while a dirge was sung, the funeral ceremony performed, and his will publicly read. The next morning |