at Wliitefriars in furtherance of the design ; lie had made great
preparations, hoarding perhaps for the purpose even when money
was most scarce. If his illness were to result in death, it would
be a sign that his great atonement was not accepted. It was
said that he professed that he would have resigned the crown
to the right heirs but for fear of his sons, who would not part
with their inheritance¹ : anyhow he must have shuddered when
he thought of the bloodshed with which his throne had been
secured. After a very dangerous attack, however, at Christmas,
1412, he rallied, and even called his parliament to meet on the
3rd of February². The parliament met on that day, but it is
not certain that it was formally opened; no record of its action
is preserved; and on the 20th of March the king died. He
was buried in the cathedral church of Canterbury, the great
sanctuary of the English nation, near his uncle the Black
Prince.

This summary survey of the reign opens some important
questions for which it furnishes no adequate answer. There
are two hostile and most dangerous influences at work during
■the first half of it ; the extraordinary poverty of the country,
and, partly resulting from it, the singular amount of treason
and insubordination which reached its highest point in the re-
bellion of the Percies. Of the first of these it is now impossible
to say how far it was real or how far fictitious : it is possible
that the country was now beginning to realise fully the result
of the long-continued drain caused by the wars of Edward III
and the extravagance of Richard II : it is possible that the

ɪ Jolin Tille the king’s confessor moved him to do penance for the
murder of Richard, the death of Scrope, and the pretended title to the
crown ; he replied that on the first two points he had satisfied the pope
and been absolved; ‘as for the third point it is hard to set remedy, for
my children will not suffer that the regalie go out of our lineage;’ Capgr.
Chr. p. 303. Tiie author, however, в ho tells this story to Edward IV, in
an earlier work puts in the dying king’s mouth some very pious advice
to his son, and says nothing about penance; Capgr. Ill. Henr. p. in,
Hardyng (p. 369) gives a dying speech, but says that the king said
nothing about either repentance or restitution. Stow, p. 340, on the other
hand, has a speech full of penitence, especially warning Henry against the
ambition of Clarence.

² Loi ds’ Report, iv. 813.

_xviii.]           Summary of the Reign.               7$

public feeling of insecurity had led men to hoard their silver
and gold, instead of contributing to the support of a govern-
ment which they did not believe to be stable. "Whichever be Povertyof

1        ,    .     _{1    1} .    ,                     _{1 1}        ,. _π. the country,

the true hypothesis, the king s poverty and the national distress
served to augment disaffection : the hostile action of the Percies
was unquestionably caused by financial as well as political dis-
putes. The second evil influence was in great measure the
result of Henry’s ill-luck, his inability to close the Welsh war,
and the tardiness of his preparations against France and Scot-
land. The moment his personal popularity waned, the popular Disaffection
hatred of Richard began to diminish also ; the mystery of his
death gave opening for a semi-legendary belief that he was still
alive ; and that faith, whether false or genuine, became a
rallying-point for the disaffected,'the last cry of desperate men
like Northumberland and Bardolf. Welcome as Henry’s coming
had been, violence had been done to the conscience of the nation,
and it needed only misfortune to stimulate it into remorse for
the past and misgi∖ ing for the future. And there were physical
evils to boot, famines and plague. There was the religious
division to complicate matters still more ; for Richard’s court
had been inclined to Lollardy, while Henry, under whatever
temporary influence he acted, was hostile to the heretics. Yet Work of
on the whole Henry left behind him a strongly founded throne,
and a national power vastly greater than that which he had
received at his coronation. And some portion of the credit is
due to him personally : he was not fortunate in war ; he out-
lived his early popularity ; he was for years a miserable
invalid ; yet he reigned as a constitutional king ; he governed
by the help of his parliament, with the executive aid of a
council over which parliament both claimed and exercised
control. Never before and never again for more than two strength of
hundred years were the commons so strong as they were under moɪɪs.
Henry IV ; and, in spite of the dynastic question, the nation
itself was strong in the determined action of the parliament.
The reign, with all its mishaps, exhibits to us a new dynasty
Making good its position, although based on a title in the
validity of which few believed and which still fewer under-

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