44 Constitutional History. [chap.
admitted to pardon and took the oath of fealty. The struggle
in the north was, it seemed, to he regarded as a case of private
war rather than of rebellion. The earls of Westmoreland and
Northumberland were prayed to keep the peace ; the commons
returned thanks to the king for Northumberland’s pardon, and
showed the extent of the public suspicions by a petition that
the archbishop of Canterbury and the duke of York might be
AHack on declared guiltless of any complicity in Hotspur’s rising1. But
household, the most significant work of the session was the attack on the
household. On a petition of the commons four persons were
removed from attendance on the king, his confessor, the abbot
of Dore, and two gentlemen of the chamber ; the king excused
his servants but complied with the request, and undertook to
remove any one else whom the people hated2. The same day,
February 8, it was determined that an ordinance should be
framed for the household, and the king was asked to appoint
his servants in parliament, and those only who were honest,
Outcry virtuous, and well renowned. Nor did the attack stop here :
aliens. the old cry against aliens was after so many years revived ; the
king’s second marriage might, like the second marriage of
Richard, be a prelude to constitutional change. The commons
demanded the removal of all aliens from attendance on either
king or queen ; a committee of the lords was appointed to draw
up the needful articles, and they reported three propositions :
all adherents of the antipope were to be at once expelled from
the land ; all Germans and orthodox foreigners were to be
employed in garrisons and not made chargeable to the house-
hold ; all French, Bretons. Navarrese, Lombards and Italians
were to be removed from court, exception being made in favour
of the two daughters of the queen, with one woman and two
men servants3. Henry yielded so graciously that the commons
relaxed their rigour and allowed the queen to retain ten other
Paymentto friends and servants. On the ɪst of March a fundamental
the charge
of the копье- change was introduced into the administration of the house-
hold.
hold, and a sum of £12,100 arising from various specified
1 Kot. Part. Hi. 524-526. 2 lb. ɪiɪ. 525.
3 Ann. Henr. p. 379; Kot. Parl. ɪiɪ. 527 ; Eulog. ɪɪi. 400.
XVIΠ∙]
Parliament of 1404.
45
sources was set apart from the general revenue of the crown to
be devoted to this purpose1. The archbishop of Canterbury
declared the king’s consent to this, and made in his name a
repeated declaration of his purpose to govern justly and to
maintain the law. A further condescension to public feeling Declaration
•was made by the publication of the names of the persons whom Ofthenames
the king had appointed to act as his great and continual
council. The list contains the names of six bishops, Edward of
Rutland, who had now succeeded his father as duke of York,
the eaɪls of Somerset and Westmoreland, six lords, including
the treasurer and privy seal, four knights, and three others 2.
Sir John Cheyne and Sir Arnold Savage are among the knights,
and their presence shows that neither the WycIiffite propensions
of the one nor the aggressive policy of the other was regarded
as a disqualification for the office of councillor. A petition and Petitions of
enactment on the abuse of commissions of array show that the 4°4'
king’s poverty was leading to the usual oppressive measures for
maintaining the defence of the country3, and the number of
private petitions for payment of annuities proves that the plea
of poverty was by no means exaggerated. Yet the commons
refused to believe that it was true. If we may trust the Personal
historians, the argument on the subject led to personal alterca- between the
tions between the king and the commons. It was not the commons.*'16
expenses of defence, they told him, that troubled England ; if
it were so, the king had still all the revenues of the crown and
of the duchy of Lancaster, besides the customs, which under king
Richard had so largely increased as far to exceed the ordinary
revenues 4. He had too the wardships of the nobles ; and all
these had been granted that the realm might not be harassed
with direct taxation. Henry replied that the inheritance
1 Rot. Parl. iii. 528. Of this sum £2000 arose from ferma, £1300 from
the small custom, £2000 from the hanaper, £500from escheats, £2000 from
alien priories, £300 from the subsidy on wool, and £4000 from the ancient
custom. See Chr. Henr. ed. Giles, pp. 36, 37; Ann. Henr. p. 380.
2 Rot. Parl. iii. 530.
4 lb∙ 52δ∙
‘ Isti non inquietant Angliam ɪnulttɪm ; ’ Eulog. iii. 299. Neitherthe
discussion nor the grant of the tax are noticed in the Rolls of the Parlia-
ment.