And of
Guienne.

1451.

The public discontent.

Charles, however, was not satisfied with the conquest of Normandy the moment Cherburgh surrendered, his army began its march towards Guienne. The inhabitants were by principle attached to the descendant of their ancient dukes: but the absence of succour, and the pressure of immediate danger, induced the most opulent to submit, as the only means of preserving their honours and property. Not a man was sent from England for the protection 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. '

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

:

crown. To him were attributed the release of the duke of Orleans, the death of the duke of 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 Nov. 6. 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 of Suffolk. One evening William Tailbois was discovered lurking Dec. 24. 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 '. 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 French king, than the populace rose, and the prelate lost his life in the tumult 2. 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 declared before his death, that the favourite was

I

Will. Wyrcest. 466, 467. — 2 Will. Wyrcest. 467.

1450. Jau. 9.

Charges

against Suffolk.

Jan. 22.

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 as-
sembled after the recess, rising in his place, he be-
sought 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 young-
est 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 beseech 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 excusations and defences
<< reasonable, the which I trust shall be so open and so
« plain, that your highness and your land shall be con-
<< tent 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.

Rot. Parl. v. 176.

the Tower.

Jan. 26.

But by this time his enemies in the lower house had He is sent to formed themselves into a powerful party, which was entirely, though secretly, guided by the councils of the lord Cromwell '. 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 later the speaker returned, and accused him Jan. 28. of 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. 2

ed by the

king.

Ten days were employed in framing the bill of im- Is impeachpeachment, which, when it was finished, left the delinquency of the prisoner more problematical 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 suppose the most important charge, was, that he had plotted to dethrone the king, and place the crown on the head of his son, ⚫ Domino Cromwell secrete laborante. Will. Wyrcest. 467. Rot. Parl. v. 172. 176, 177.

Feb. 7.

Mar. 7.

His defence.

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 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 inabi-
lity to prove these eight articles, 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 pub-
lic 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. '

On the day appointed for his answer, he was introduced into the house of lords, and falling on his knees March 13. before the king, solemnly declared his innocence. To the first article he replied that it was ridiculous and impossible; and appealed to several of the peers present,

' 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.