82 (JunistltiitioiMl History. [chap.
Alarm of
a Lollard
ɪifeɪng,
1414.
Henry pre-
vents it.
Later his-
tory of Old-
castle.
were prepared to lise, was thrown into a panic. The sentence
of excommunication and. tlɪe rewards offered for his capture
were alike ineffectual, and it was found that at Christmas an
attempt was to be made to seize the king at Eltham. Henry-
defeated this by coming up to London, but the conspirators
were not discouraged, and a very large concourse was called
to meet in St. Giles’s fields on the 12th of January, 1414.
Henry, by closing the gates of London, prevented the dis-
affected citizens from joining in the proceedings, and with a
strong force took up his position on the ground. Some unfor-
tunate people were arrested and punished as heretics, but
Oldcastle himself escaped for the time. He was then sum-
moned before the justices and declared an outlaw. His later
history may be briefly told. As an excommunicated man and
an outlaw he was credited, rightly or wrongly, with parti-
cipation in all the religious and political intrigues of the time.
He failed in an attempt to excite a rebellion in 141 g in con-
nexion, it was said, with the Southampton plot. His proceed-
ings, overt and secret, added to Henry’s difficulties in the
opening of the second French campaign. When Thomas Payn,
Oldcastle’s secretary, was captured, Henry V declared that the
taking pleased him more t than I had geten or given him
L10,000, for the great inconveniences that were like to fall
in his long absence out of his realm1.’ The writings of the
Lollards were spread by Oldcastle’s contrivance through the
country; Oldcastlc either was, or was said to be, in league
with the Scots and with the Mortimer party of Wales, and to
have relations with the pseudo-Richard even at the last2. It
is said that he ventured to propose to the king a bill for con-
fiscating the temporalities of the church, which was presented
by Henry Greyndore3, a member of a family closely connected
with the Mortimers. In the year 1417, when Henry was in
1 Ordinances, v. 105 ; Exc. Hist. p. 146.
a Elmham (ed. Cole∖ p. ɪʒɪ ; Wals. ii. 307.
3 Capgrave, 111. Henr. p. 121 ; Ellis, Orig. Letters, 2nd Series, i. 26. See
also Elmham, p. 148. John Greyndore, who represented Herefordshire in
the parliaments of 1401 and 1404, was a tenant of the Mortimers. Robert
Greyndorewas member for Gloucestershire in 1417.
XVIII.]
Parliament of Leicester.
France, he was captured on the Welsh marches, brought up to
London, and cruelly put to death1.
With this abortive attempt the politico-religious schemes of
the Lollards disappear for many years, although the effects of
+he alarm were very considerable. Archbishop Arundel died Deathof
, , . , j ArundeL
ɪn February, 1414, and. his successors were more moderate,
and more politic in the ways they took to repress the evil,
ɪt may be questioned whether the movement which is thus
connected-with the name of Oldcastle has any very definite
analogy with the popular commotions of 1381 and 1450: but strong
it is obvious that, if the prompt and resolute policy adopted by Henry v.
Henry V had been employed in those years, the tumults then
raised might have been effectually prevented; if Richard II
or Henry VI had had to deal with Oldcastle, the meeting at
St. Giles’s fields might have assumed the dimensions of a revo-
lution. The character of Oldcastle as a traitor or a martyr
has long been a disputed question between different schools;
perhaps we shall most safely conclude from the tenour of
history that his doctrinal creed was far sounder than the prin-
ciples which guided either his moral or his political conduct.
325. The alarm had scarcely subsided when the parliament Parliament
met, April 30, at Leicester2 ; and the chancellor in his opening in цц.
speech declared that one of the causes of the summons was to
provide for the defence of the nation against the Lollards ; the
king did not ask for tenths or fifteenths, but for advice and aid
in good governance. A new statute was accordingly passed Ne» law
• i∙ii 1 ∙t against
against the heretics, in which the secular power, no longer Loiiardj.
content to aid in the execution of the ecclesiastical sentences,
undertook, where it was needed, the initiative against the
Lollards3. Judged by the extant records the session was a
1 Oldcastle was captured towards the end of 1417 ; brought to London
on a warrant of the council dated Dec. ɪ ; and taken before the parliament
as an outlaw for treason and as excommunicated for heresy. On the 14th
the commons petitioned for his execution ; the sentences of the justices
and of the archbishop were read the same day ; the lords, with the consent
of the duke of Bedford the guardian of the kingdom, sentenced him to
OXecution ; and he was drawn, hanged and burned, Dec. ɪ 4 ; Hot. Parl.
W. 107-110 ; see below, p. 52. 2 Rot. Parl. iv. 15-33.
3 lb. iv. 24 ; Statutes, ii. 181 ; Wilkins, Cone. iii. 358 ; see below, § 404.
G 2