The name is absent

68                 Constitutional History.            [chap.

or to have lent any aid to the ministers in their attempts to
the'royÎF^{in rais6 mone}y ’’У lθaɪɪ. Lθng afterwards, in the reign of Henry VI,
family. it was remembered how there had been a great quarrel between
the prince and the primate, and how the etiquette observed in
consequence constituted a precedent for time to eoɪneɪ. A new
cause of offence appears in the conduct of the king’s second son.
John Beaufort, the quondam marquess of Dorset, died in April
14ɪo, and, notwithstanding their relationship, Thomas of Lan-
caster obtained a dispensation for a marriage with his uncle’s
widow. The bishop of Winchester refused to divide with him a
sum of 30,000 marks which he had received as his brother’s
executor, and a quarrel ensued between Thomas and the Beau-
forts, in which the prince of ΛVales took the side of his uncle².
Theexpedi- It was at this iuncture that the duke of Burgundv, finding
to France, himself hard pressed by the Orleanists, requested the aid of
England. The prince of Wales³ supported his application; a
matrimonial alliance between him and the duke’s daughter was
set on foot; and the king furnished the duke with a consider-
able force, which, under the command of the earl of Arundel,
Sir John Oldcastle, and Gilbert Umfraville, called the earl of
Kyme⁴, defeated the Orleanists at S. Cloud in November 1411,
and having received their pay returned home. On the 3rd of
November the parliament met again⁵.

Parliament 319. This assembly no doubt witnessed scenes which it was
not thought prudent to record; but on the evidence of the
extant rolls it is clear that it was not a pleasant session ; and
it is probable that the king, under the influence of Arundel or
of his second son, made a vigorous effort to shake off the
Beauforts. On the third day of the parliament, when Thomas
Chaucer, the speaker, made the usual protestation and claimed

1 Ordinances, iii. ι86.

² Chron. Henr. ed. Giles, p. 62 ; Hot. Pat. Cal. p. 259.

³ Hardyng, p. 367 ; Eymer, viii. 698 sq.; Ordinances, ii. 19 sq.

⁴ Wals. ii. 286 ; Chron. Henr. ed. Giles, p. 61.

⁵ Rot. Part. iii. 647. The council had been busy with the estimates as
early as April; there was a deficit of £3,924 6s. 5rf. The household
expenses are £16,000 ; Ordinances, ii. II, 12, 14. On the whole financial
history of the reign, see Sir J. H. Ramsay’s article in the Antiquary, vɪ.
ιoo-ιo6.

XVIIi.]            Parliament of 1411.                 69

the usual tolerance accorded to open speaking, the king
bluntly told him that he might speak as other speakers had
spoken, but that he would have no novelties in this parliament¹.

Chaucer asked a day’s respite, and made a very humble apology. The speaker
The estates showed themselves liberal, granting the subsidy on ⅛*° ^ap°¹°'
wool, tunnage and poundage, and a new impost of six and
eightpence on every twenty pounds’ worth of income from land².

Yet, notwithstanding their complaisance, they were obliged to
petition the king for a declaration that he esteemed them loyal :
so great was the murmuring among the people that he had
grounds of enmity against certain members of this and the last
parliament. Henry declared the estates to be loyal^s: but, in The estates,
reference apparently to some restrictive measure adopted in the loyal,
last parliament, he announced that he intended to maintain all
the privileges and prerogatives of his predecessors. The parlia- At the end
ment broke up on the 19th of December ; on the 22nd a general the ministry

τ            ∙ Ti        1        1       _{1 p} -r                                -   . is changed ;

pardon was issued ; and on the 5tl1 01 January, 1412₅ Beaufort January
resigned the seals⁵. The annalists of the period supply an ɪ^412,
imperfect clue to guide us through these obscurities. Wc are
told that the Beauforts had advised the prince to obtain his
father’s cousent to resign the crown, and to allow him to be

¹ Rot. Parl. iii. 648.

² Dep. K. Rep. ii. App. ii. p. 184 ; Rot. Part iii. 648, 671 ; Eulog. iii.
419. On the 20th of November, 14Ю, the king ordered all persons holding
forty Iibrates of land to receive knighthood before Feb. 2 ; Rymer, viii.
656. The order to collect the fines thus accruing was issued May 20,
I411 ; ib.p.685. The Canterbury clergy on the 21st of December granted
a half-tenth; Wilk. iii. 337. The York convocation followed, Ap. 29,
1412; ib. p. 338.

³ Rot. Parl. iii. 658. The language of the roll is mysterious. The king
sent the chancellor to show the commons an article passed in the last
parliament. The speaker asked the king to say what he wanted to do
with it. Henry replied that he wished to enjoy the liberties and prero-
gatives of his predecessors. The commons agreed and the king cancelled
the article. The same day he declared the estates loyal. The article was
possibly one of the two (Rot. Parl. iii. 624, 625) which compelled the
king to devote all his windfalls to the payment of his debts, and forbade
gifts. A letter of the earl of Arundel to the archbishop, complaining of
having been misrepresented, probably belongs to the same business ; Ord.
ii. 117.

¹ Rymer, viii. 711. Owen Glendower, and Thomas Ward of Trump-
iιigton, who personated Richard II, were excepted.

⁵ Rot. Parl. iii. 658.

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