the pope is said to have pronounced in favour of the first marriage': but the duke of Brabant died soon afterwards, and Jacqueline assumed the title of dutchess of Glocester. The slender aid which she received from England served to defer her submission till 1428, when she was compelled to appoint the duke of Burgundy her heir, to allow him to garrison her fortresses, and to give her word that she would never marry without his consent 2. In the terms of this treaty she virtually acknowledged that she was not the wife of the duke of Glocester: and yet, only a few weeks before it was concluded, her interests had been espoused in England by a party of females against the neglect of her supposed husband. A lady of the name of Stokes, attended by the wives of the principal citizens of London, went to the house of Lords, and presented a petition against the duke, accusing him of having neglected his lawful wife, the dutchess Jacqueline, and of living in open adultery with Eleanor Cobham 3, daughter of Reginald lord Cobham of Sterborough. The beauty of Eleanor was as distinguished as her morals were dissolute. After contributing to the pleasures of different noblemen, she became acquainted with the duke, whose attachment to her was so great, that, even after his union with Jacqueline, he kept her always near his person, and took her with him in his

This is said by different writers. If it were true, I know not how the English government could, consistently with the agreement at Paris, continue to acknowledge her for dutchess of Glocester. Yet she is so called in two different instruments in Rymer, dated in 1427 and 1428. Rym. x. 375. 398, and in the address of the commons of 1427. Rot. Parl. iv. 318.

Monstrel. ii. 37. Meyer, lib. xv. p. 310. 3 Stow, 369.

Oct. 8.

:

expedition to Hainault'. What answer was returned to the petition of these female champions in the cause of conjugal fidelity, is not known but the duke soon afterwards, to the surprise of Europe, publicly acknowledged Cobham for his wife; and Jacqueline, in breach of her promise to her adversary, married a gentleman called Frank of Bursellen. He was immediately seized by the Burgundians, and his wife, to purchase his liberty, ceded the greater part of her dominions, retaining only an annual rent for her own support. She died without issue in 1436. 2

Had it not been for this unfortunate attempt of Glocester to obtain the inheritance of Jacqueline, it was pretended that the party of Charles might have been effectually crushed after the battle of Verneuil. But to defend the duke of Brabant, the duke of Burgundy withdrew his forces from the scene of action, and employed them in Hainault and Holland: and the duke of Bedford, reduced to depend on his own resources, became unable to improve the advantages which he had gained. For three years the war in France was suffered to languish : and the operations on both sides were confined to skirmishes and sieges, unimportant in their consequences to the two parties, but most disastrous to the unfortunate inhabitants. If the regent was inactive through weakness, Charles was equally so through poverty and if the court of the latter became a scene of intrigue, dissension, and bloodshed, the council of the king of England was not less divided by

I

Laquelle le dit duc par avant avoit tenue en sa compagnie certain temps, comme sa dame par amours : et avec ce avoit este diffamee de aucuns autres hommes que de icelui duc. Monstrel. ii. 32.

the jealousy of its members, their quarrels, and their opposite interests. '

in the coun

Among these the minister who bore the chief sway, Opposition both from his situation and relationship to the king, was cil. the duke of Glocester: but he was often, and sometimes successfully, opposed in his politics by Henry Beaufort, the great bishop of Winchester. That prelate was second son to John of Ghent by Catherine Swynford, and was consequently uncle to the regent and his brother, and great uncle to the king. From the bishopric of Lincoln he had been translated to the more valuable see of Winchester; had thrice borne the high office of chancellor; had assisted at the council of Constance ; and had made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. His frugality multiplied his riches: but they were rendered subservient to the interests of his country; and his loans to the late monarch amounted to twenty-eight, to the present king to more than eleven, thousand pounds. He had again accepted the office of chancellor, and in that situation had strenuously opposed Glocester's favourite plan of claiming the inheritance of Jacqueline. During the absence of that prince, the council, under the influence of the prelate, and with a view to repress the mutinous disposition of the populace, had garrisoned

'The pontiff, as if he had foreseen the evils which followed, had on the succession of the young Henry written to the council, recommending to them above all things to live in harmony with each other, as the best means of preserving the dominions of their infant sovereign: Ad regnum hoc in rerum statu salubriter dirigendum nulla res est tantum necessaria, quantum est vestra concordia, qui reipublicæ præsidetis: vobis enim habentibus unam mentem, una voluntate regentibus, nulla accidere calamitas potest. Apud Raynald, vi. 51.

2 Rot. Parl. iv. 111. 132. 275. 277.

1424. July 16.

tween Glo

Beaufort.

1425. Oct. 29.

Oct. 30.

the Tower, and committed it to the care of sir Richard

Wydevile, with orders « to admit no one more powerQuarrel be- «ful than himself ». When Glocester returned, he decester and manded lodgings in that fortress, and attributed the refusal of Wydevile to the secret instructions of his uncle. In his resentment he ordered the mayor to close the gates of the city against the bishop, and to furnish him with five hundred horsemen, that he might visit in safety the young king at Eltham. The next morning the retainers of Beaufort attempted to burst open the gate on the bridge; barricaded the road; placed archers in the houses on each side; and declared that, as their lord was excluded from entering the city, so they would prevent the duke from leaving it '. It cost the archbishop of Canterbury and a Portuguese prince, the duke of Coimbra, eight journeys in the same day from party to party, to prevent the effusion of blood, and to induce them to keep the peace, till the return of the duke of Bedford 2. With reluctance the regent left Paris, Feb. 18. landed in England, called a meeting of peers at St. Alban's, and afterwards summoned a parliament at Leicester 3. As soon as the commons had presented their

Dec. 20.

1426.

'See the charges of Glocester, and the answers of the bishop in Hall, f. 94. 97.

«

* The bishop wrote on the 30th of October to the regent, requesting his immediate return : « for, » he adds, « by my troth, and ye tarry long, we shall put this land in jeopardy with a field, such << a brother ye have here: God make him a good man!» They entered the city of London together. Bedford appears to have favoured his uncle, and to have blamed his brother. When the citizens made him a present of 1000 marks in two basins of silver gilt, he hardly thanked them. Fabian, 414, 415.

3 This parliament was called the parliament of bats. As arms had been forbidden, the servants of the members followed their lords

speaker, they conjured the regent and the lords to reconcile the duke of Glocester with the bishop of Winchester. The former had preferred a bill of impeachment against his uncle, in which to his own grievances he added two charges, which, if we may believe him, he had received from his brother the late king: the first, that the prelate had hired an assassin to take away his life, while he was yet prince of Wales, the second that he had exhorted him to usurp the crown during the life of his father. In his answer, Beaufort endeavoured to shew that the conduct of which Glocester complained, was justified by the behaviour of that prince and to the charges said to have been made by Henry V., he opposed the confidence and employments with which that king had honoured the man who was now accused of having attempted his life. The duke of Bedford and the other lords took an oath to judge with impartiality: but in what manner the trial proceeded, we are not informed. Seventeen days later the duke and bishop consented to March, 7. leave their quarrel to the decision of the primate and reconciled. eight other arbitrators, by whose award the following farce was enacted. Beaufort began by addressing the March 12, king, to whom he protested his innocence of the charges, which respected Henry V.: and the duke of Bedford replied, in the name of the infant sovereign, that he had no doubt of the innocence of his great uncle, but held him to have ever been a true man to the late king both before and after his succession to the throne. Then turning to the duke of Glocester, the bishop expressed his sorrow, that his nephew, should have con

with bats or clubs on their shoulders; when these also were forbidden, they concealed stones, and plummets of lead in their sleeves and bosoms. So suspicious were they of each other. Fab. ibid.

They are