Insurrection of the lollards.

point their expectations. As soon as his father expired,
he withdrew to his closet, spent the rest of the day in
privacy and
prayer, and in the evening hastened to his
confessor, a recluse in the church of Westminster; by
whom he was confirmed in his resolution to atone for
the scandal of his past, by the propriety of his subse-
quent conduct. The dissolute companions of his plea-
sures were instantly dismissed: men of knowledge and
experience were invited round the throne and those,
who by checking his excesses had earned the enmity of
the prince, found themselves, to their surprise, honour-
ed with the approbation and friendship of the king '. As
an act of justice he set at liberty the earl of March,
who from his childhood had been kept in confinement
by the late monarch, for no other crime than his right
to the throne after some time he restored the son of
Hotspur, an exile in Scotland, to the honours and
hereditary estates of the Percies; and when the remains
of the unfortunate Richard were removed by his orders
from Langley to Westminster abbey, he testified his
respect for that prince by attending as chief mourner
in the funeral procession. '

:

2

Henry had partaken of the general alarm excited among the higher classes by the levelling principles of the lollards: and, when he was only prince of Wales, had joined the lords and commons in presenting a petition to his father for the arrest and punishment of their preachers 3. Now, however, the chiefs of the sect, whether they were urged forward by enthusiasm, or intoxicated with success, instead of labouring to

remove these unfavourable impressions, sought to intimidate their adversaries and during the king's first parliament affixed papers to the doors of the different churches in the metropolis, stating that, if the authority of the crown should be employed in opposition to their doctrine, they were able to assemble one hundred thousand men ready to draw the sword in its defence '. This daring menace provoked an investigation: and it was discovered, that the person, by whose councils the party had been led, and on whom it chiefly relied, was Sir John Oldcastle, called from the inheritance of his wife, the lord of Cobham. His castle of Cowling had long been the head quarters of the teachers of lollardism: thence they issued forth on their missions in the neighbourhood; and, protected by his servants, set at defiance the prohibitions of the bishops, and the citations of the spiritual courts. The convocation, to spare the honour of a man, who had been one of Henry's most intimate companions 3, instead of summoning him before the usual tribunal, denounced him to the king, who, with the zeal of an apostle, undertook the task of working his conversion. But the obstinacy of the disciple speedily exhausted the patience of the master: after a few days the king began to enforce his arguments with threats; and Oldcastle thought it time to withdraw

3

2

Wilkms, Conc. iii. 330. 338. 352, 353.

3 Tit. Liv. p. 6. Elm. p. 31, who add that on account of his opinions he had been dismissed by the king before the coronation. From Fuller (p. 168) we derive the curious information that sir John Oldcastle was, among our more ancient dramatists, the debauched but facetious knight, who now treads the stage under the name of sir John Falstaff.

Aug. 21.

from Windsor to his own residence at Cowling'. His flight was followed by a royal proclamation, ordering the magistrates to arrest not only the itinerant preachers, but their hearers and abettors; and by a mandate to the archbishop of Canterbury, requiring him to proceed against the fugitive according to law 2. The spiritual powers of that prelate were soon exhausted. Oldcastle Oldcastle. disobeyed his summons, and laughed and laughed at his excommunication; but was compelled to surrender to a military force sent by the king, and was conducted a prisoner to

Apprehen

sion of

the tower. On his arraignment before the primate, his Sept. 23. conduct was as arrogant and insulting, as that of his judge was mild and dignified. Not content with signifying his dissent from the established creed, he poured out a torrent of abuse against all those by whom it was upheld. He maintained that the church had ceased to teach the doctrine of the gospel from the moment that it became infected with the poison of worldly riches : that the clergy were the antichrist that the : pope was the head, the bishops and prelates the limbs, and the religious orders the tail of the beast : and that the only true successor of St. Peter was he, who most faithfully practised the virtues of St. Peter. Then turning to the spectators, and extending his arms, he exclaimed : «Beware of the men who sit here as my judges. They a will seduce both you and themselves, and will lead

A book belonging to Oldcastle had been seized in the shop of a limner, with whom it had been left to be illuminated. It was read before the king in the presence of the owner. Henry declared that he had never heard doctrines so pernicious, and asked the knight what he thought of them. Of course he did not dispute the judgment of his sovereign, but alleged in his own excuse that he had never read more than two pages of the work. Conc. iii. 352.

of the in

you to hell. » He was brought to the bar on two different days, and persisting in his opinions, was pronounced an obstinate heretic '. The primate, however, when he delivered him to the civil magistrate, procured from the king a respite of fifty days during which Oldcastle found the means to escape from the Tower, and to assemble the most ardent of his partisans. Emissaries were immediately dispatched into the neighbouring counties: an army was secretly organized: and thousands of fanatics held themselves in readiness to march to the metropolis, though they were kept in ignorance of the real object of their leaders. The first Dispersion plan of the conspirators, to surprise the king at Eltham, surgents. was defeated by his unexpected departure for Westminster : and a second resolution was formed to collect all their adherents in the fields at St. Giles's, on the day after the epiphany. The king, who was perfectly apprized of their intentions, having secured the gates of the city to separate the lollards within the walls from those without, proceeded a little after midnight with a strong body of forces to the place of rendezvous. The roads were covered with insurgents hastening from all quarters towards St. Giles's but the first companies that arrived were surrounded and secured: the fugitives who escaped, spread the alarm, and the parties on their march precipitately dispersed.

2

1414.

Jan. 7.

ber and

The number of the insurgents on this occasion is Their numcalculated at twenty thousand and the object of their designs. leaders was, if we may credit royal proclamations and parliamentary records, of the most dangerous tendency.

The commons in their address state, that the lollards

Henry claims the crown of France.

1413. Apr. 28.

«<

had sought «< to destroy the christian faith, the king, << the spiritual and temporal estates, and all manner of policy and law : » Henry in his proclamation declares that they meant « to destroy him, his brothers, and « several of the spiritual and temporal lords, to confiscate the possessions of the church, to secularize the religious orders, to divide the realm into confederate districts, and to appoint Sir John Oldcastle president « of the commonwealth'. » That leader escaped; and though the king offered the most tempting rewards for his apprehension, eluded for several years the pursuit and search of his enemies. Of his accomplices many were secured, condemned, and executed. The failure of the insurrection had the usual effect of adding to the severity of the penal laws already in existence. It was enacted that all judges and magistrates should be authorized to arrest persons suspected of lollardism : and that the prisoners on their conviction should forfeit their lands, goods, and chattels, as in cases of felony. 2

The restoration of tranquillity allowed the king to direct his attention towards the French throne, which was still occupied by an imbecile monarch, and was daily undermined by the rage of contending factions. Within the course of a few months the reins of government had successively passed from the hands of John the fearless, duke of Burgundy, to the dauphin, a young prince, rash, headstrong, and capricious 3; to

2

' Rot. Parl. iv. 24. 108. Rym. ix. 89. 119. 129. 170. 193.

3

Rot. Parl. iv. 24. In this parliament the king's brothers, John and Humphrey, were made dukes of Bedford and Glocester. Elm. 33.

3 He is said to have sent in derision to Henry a present of tennis