parliament, and lord Furnival and Sir John Pelham were
appointed treasurers of the war instead of the persons then,
nominated ¹. The bold proposition that the land of the clergy
should for one year be taken into the king’s hands for the pur-
pose of the war² was brought forward by certain of the knights
of the shires³ ; but the archbishop in a spirited speech turned
the tables on the knights, and pointed out that they had by
obtaining grants of the alien priories robbed the king of any
increased revenue to be obtained from that source. The bishop
of Rochester declared that the proposition subjected its up-
holders, ipso facto, to excommunication as transgressors of the
great charter, and the knights succumbed at once. A formal
proposal that the king should be enabled to live of his own by
the resumption of all grants and annuities given since 1367
was accepted by Henry But referred to a commission of lords to
ascertain how it could be executed⁴. The session passed off
quietly ; the clergy supplemented the parliamentary grants as
good subjects⁵, and the archbishop, feeling himself perhaps all
the stronger for his victory, urged the king to more vigorous

¹ The grant was made Nov. 12 ; Dep. Keeper’s Rep. ii. App. ii. p. 182;
Rot. Part. iii. 546 ; Eulog. iii. 402. The grant of the land-tax is made by
the lords temporal ⁱ pur eux et les dames temporelx, et toutz autres per-
sones temporelx/ a departure from the now established form ; it was 2θ8.
on every ⅛20 of land over 500 marks per annum.

² Ann. Henr. pp. 393, 394 ; cf. Wals. ii. 265.

³ Walsingham makes Sir John Cheyne speaker of this parliament; but
he was not present as a knight of the shire in it. Sir William Esturmy,
member for Devon, was speaker. Capgrave translates AValsingham,
Chr. p. 287. See also Stow, Chr. p. 330. Only five towns are known to
have been represented in this parliament; Return of Members (1879),
pp. 266_f 26γ.

⁴ Rot. Parl. iii. 547-549.

⁵ The convocation of Canterbury granted a tenth and a half on the 25th
of November; the York clergy granted a tenth, Oct. 5; Wilkins, Cone,
iii. 280; Ann. Henr. p. 394; but the king was not satisfied, and asked
for a grant from the stipendiary clergy. Archbishop Arundel wrote to
tell him that the proctors of the clergy had refused this ; that convocation
had no such power, and that there was no machinery for obtaining a
representative body of chaplains. He advised that the bishops should be
asked to press it on the stipendiaries by opportune ways and means ;
Royal Letters, i. 413; Wilkins, Cone. i:i. 280. The matter was referred
to the Chancellor, Treasurer, and Privy Seal, who were ordered to issue
letters under Privy Seal to the bishops; they replied that the letters had
better be sealed with the King’s own signet; Ordinances, ii. 100, ɪoɪ.

χvι∏∙]

₁₁ιeasures against the Lollards^,. The death of William of Hemy

,     ∙.ι              r.                                     ʌ Beaufort

5Vjκeham in the autumn ot 1404 enabled the king to transfer made bishop
hɪs brother Henry Beaufort from Lincoln to Winchester, a pro- ter.
jjiotion which probably caused him to resign the great seal for
_a time. He was succeeded on the 28th of February, 1405, Longiey
Py Thomas Longley, who a year afterwards was made bishop of ^05.^cenυr
Purham.

312. The following year, 1405, was perhaps the critical year Critical year
of Henry’s fortunes, and the turning-point of his life. Although ¹⁴°⁵'
in it were accumulated all the sources of distress and disaffec-
tion, it seemed as if they were now brought to a head, to be finally
overcome. They were overcome, and yet out of his victory
Henry emerged a broken-down unhappy man ; losing strength
mentally and physically, and unable to contend with the new
difficulties, more wearisome though less laborious, that arose
before him. Henceforth he sat more safely on his throne ; his
enemies in arms were less dangerous ; but his parliament be-
came more aggressive ; his council less manageable ; his friends
and even his children divided into factions which might well
alarm him for the future of his house.

The difficulties of the year began with an attempt made in Attempt to
February to carry off the two young Mortimers from Windsor². Mortimer».
The boys were speedily retaken, but it was a matter of no
small consequence to discover who had planned the enterprise.

On the 17 th the lady le Despenser, daughter of Edmund of Accusation
Laugley and widow of the degraded earl of Gloucester, a iiuke of
vicious woman who was living in pretended wedlock with the
earl of Kent, informed the king’s council that her brother, the
duke of York, was the guilty person, and that he had planned
the murder of the king. Her squire, William Maidstone,
undertook to prove her accusation in a duel, and the duke ac-
cepted the challenge. He was however arrested on the 6th of
March, and kept in prison for several weeks ³. As usual, the

¹ Ann. Henr. p. 396.                              ² lb. pp. 398, 399.

^s Rymer, viii. 386 ; he was imprisoned at Tevensey ; Eulog. iii. 402 ;
Wal_s. ii. 274; Otterbourne, p. 260. After seventeen weeks he begged to
be released ; Iiymer, viii. 387 : he was in full employment again in June ;
Ordinances, i. 270.

VOT. III.                        E

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