86
Constitutional History.
[chap.
of war once broached, the bishops promoted it and promised
their assistance : nor does it follow that in so doing they, any
more than the king or the barons, should be deemed guilty of
all the misery that ensued. It is possible too that the resump-
tion of the alien priories may have been the result of some
larger proposition of confiscation. However broached, the
design was not immediately prosecuted. The king asked and
received sound advice from his council : the lords know well
that the king will attempt nothing that is not to the glory
of God, and will eschew the shedding of Christian blood; if
he goes to war the cause will be the refusal of his rights, not
his own wilfulness. They recommend him to send ambassadors
first ; if that is done, and the peace of the realm provided for,
Delay of they are ready to serve him to the utmost of their power ɪ. In
pursuance of this advice negotiations for peace with France
continued. In the meanwhile the council of Constance occu-
pied the minds of men a good deal, and the king employed
himself chiefly in the foundation of his new monasteries of
Secondpar- Sheen and Sion. But in November, when, on the failure of
Iiament of
i4∑4∙ the negotiations, the parliament was called together2, bishop
Beaufort opened the session with a sermon on the text ‘ Strive
for the truth unto the death,’ supplementing the exhortation
with the suggestion ‘ while we have time let us do good unto
all men.’ It was clearly the king’s duty to strive for the
truth ; and now the time was come. The estates saw the
matter with the king’s eyes, and, having recommended him to
exhaust the power of negotiation first, granted two tenths and
fifteenths for the defence of the realm3 : the clergy had already
speeches abundantly supply the refutation of the story in this form;
the earl of Westmoreland quotes John Major the Scottish historian who
was born in I469. Whether Hall or some contemporary writer com-
posed them, we cannot decide; there is an outline or abridgment of
them in Redmayne’s Life of Henry V, composed about 1540. Hall died
in 1547..
ɪ Ordinances, ii. 140. The council in which this was done is not dated.
Cf. Tyler, Henry of Monmouth, iɪ. 72.
2 Nov. 19; Rot. Parl. iv. 34. A great council was held Sept. 22 ; in
which probably the advice to go to war was given ; Chron. Lond. p. 98.
3 Ordinances, ii. 150 ; Dep. Keeper’s Rep. ii. App. ii. p. 185 ; Rot. Park
ɪv. 35∙
χvι∏∙]
Conspiracy of Cambridge.
«7
πτanted their two tenths1. Henry saw that the initiation of Measures oi
τ, <rreat national effort should be marked by a great act of at home,
reconciliation. Measures were taken for the restoration of the
heir of Hotspur, now a prisoner in (Scotland, to the earldom
of Northumberland 2 ; the young earl of March was received
into the king’s closest confidence ; the heir of the house of
Holland was encouraged to hope for restoration to the family
honours 3. Military preparations and diplomatic negotiations
were pressed on all sides. A great national council determined War re-
tirât war should begin. In April 1415 Henry laid formal
claim to the crown of France4; on the 16th the chancellor
announced to the council his resolve to proclaim war5 ; the
duke of Bedford was to act as lieutenant of the kingdom in
his absence ; in June he went down to the coast to watch the Henτy⅛
equipment of the fleet; on the 24th of July he made his will; tions, 1415.
on the ιoth of August he embarked 6. But before this he had
to deal with a signal, short, but most dangerous and ominous
crisis. The young earl of March, the legitimate heir of
Edward III, had, by his reception into the king’s good graces,
become again a public man. The earl of Cambridge, a weak The South-
and ungrateful man, was the godson of Richard II and brotb.er- ampton plot
in-law of the earl of March : he, together with Henry lord Ie
(Scrope of Masham and (Sir Thomas Grey of Heton 7, concocted
ɪ The convocation of Canterbury was opened Oct. ɪ ; Wilkins Cone. iii.
358 : it broke up Oct. 20, after granting two tenths ; Wake, p. 351.
2 Wals. ii. 300 ; Harclyng, pp. 372, 373. Henry Percy was restored to
the earldom Nov. ɪɪ, 1414. See Hot. Parl. iv. 35 ; Rymer, ix. 242, 244,
324; Ordinances, ii. 160 sq., l88. He was exchanged and liberated early
ɪn 1416.
3 John Holland was restored to the lands of the earldom of Huntingdon
ɪn 1416 ; Rot. Parl. iv. 100. He came of age March 29, 1417, or would
have been restored earlier. He is called earl of Huntingdon in April 1415 ;
Rymer, ix. 223 ; and was made admiral of England in 1416; Ordinances,
ii∙ Ifo, 198, 199 ; Rymer, ix. 344.
4 Rymer, ix. 222. s ɪb. ; Ordinances, ii. 155.
° On all the details of the expedition see Sir Harris Nicolas’s History of
the Battle of Agincourt and the notes to Mr. Williams’s edition of the
ɑesta Henrici V. There is a statement of the revenue, June 24, 1415—
June 24, 1416, in the Ordinances, ii. 172. It amounts, exclusive of the
tenths and fifteenths, io £56,966 13-v. 4d.
’ 'Erancorum munere corrupti ; ’ Otterb. p. 276 ; cf. Wals. ii. 305, 306.
‘ Prece conducti Gallorum ;’ Capgr. Ill. Henr. p. 114; Elmham (ed. Cole),
P∙ ιo5.