The name is absent

88                Constitutional History.            [chap.

a design of carrying off the earl of March to Wales as soon as
Henry sailed, and there proclaiming him heir of Richard II.
Henry, it was said on the information of the young earl him-
self¹, was made acquainted with the plot; the traitors were
arrested, a commission of special justices was appointed to try
them, and the verdict of a local jury presented against them.
Cambridge and Grey confessed themselves guilty. Grey suf-
fered on the 2nd of August. Scrope denied his guilt and
demanded trial by his peers. A court was formed under
Clarence, which passed sentence of death on Scrope and Cam-
bridge ; they were executed on the 5th of August². This
was the only blood shed by Henry V to save the rights of
the line of Lancaster ; and for the time his prompt and stern
action had its effect. His anger went no further ; March was
not disgraced, the duke of York retained his confidence, the
heir of the unhappy Cambridge was brought up in his house-
hold. But the evil tradition of bloodshed was continued, and
the heir of Cambridge and Mortimer was nourished for the
time of vengeance which forty years later was to destroy the
dynasty.

320. The wars of Henry V do not enter much into our
general view of the internal history of England, except as a
cause for results which are scarcely to be traced during his
life. The expedition sailed on the nth of August: Harfleur
was taken on the 22nd of September; the battle of Agincourt
was won on the 25th of October ; on the 23rd of November
the king entered London in triumph. The parliament, which
met on the 4tl1 of November³ under Bedford, signalised its
gratitude by granting the custom on wool, tunnage and
poundage for life, by anticipating the payment of the money

ɪ Wavrin, p. 178. The earl received a general pardon Aug. 7 ; Bymer,
ix. 303.

² Wals. ii. 305, 306 ; Gesta Henrici, p. ɪɪ ; Rot. Parl. iv. 64 sq.; Rymer,
ix. 300. The confession of the earl of Cambridge exonerates Scrope but
implicates the earl of March, or rather his confessors who had refused to
absolve him unless he claimed his right, and proves the guilt of Grey.
Rymer, iɪ. 301 ; Nicolas, Battle of Agincourt, App. pp. 19, 20 ; Ellis,
Original Letters, 2nd Series, i. 45 ; Dep. Keeper’s Report, xliii. pp. 5 79-594.

³ Rot. Parl. iv. 62.

_xviii.]          The Conquest of France.                89

grant of 1414, and by a gift of another tenth and fifteenth’.
The proceedings against Cambridge, Scrope and Grey were
recorded, confirmed, and completed by a decree of forfeiture².

327. From Nov. 17, 1415, to July 23, 1417, Henry devoted Henry’s stay
himself to the task of preparing the means of continuing the
war. He remained, except for a few days, in England, building
ships, training men, reconciling enmities at home, and strengthen-
ing alliances abroad. The victory at Agincourt had made him,
as it were in an instant, the arbiter of European politics. Sigis- vɪsɪtof
mund of Luxemburg, king of the Bomans, a man whose better
qualities placed him in general sympathy with Henry³, arrived
at Dover in April 1416, purposing to close the schism iu the
church and to make peace between England and France ; on
the 15th of August he departed, after a vain attempt to pro-
cure a truce for three years, having concluded an offensive and
defensive alliance with Henry against France. In October the Leaguewith
. .      ,             ,       . . ʌ, _ ,          _      ₁            «il continental

king, during a short visit to valais⁴, made a league with the powers,
duke of Burgundy, whom he had convinced of his right to the ^I4I&
crown of France. With the minor powers of the continent,
the Hanse towns, Cologne, Holland, and Bavaria, with the
northern courts and Spain, negotiations for alliance were set on
foot with general success. The relations with France were of
course hostile in fact, although truces and armistices were con-
cluded so as to make any general attack or defence unnecessary,
whilst both powers were preparing for a decisive struggle. At Peace at
home the reconciliation of Percy was accomplished ; the earl
of March was attached still more closely to the king ; the heir
of the Hollands was restored to his father’s earldom ; envoys
were accredited for negotiating the release of James of Scotland,

¹ Rot. Part. iv. 63, 71 ! Dep. Keeper’s Rep. ii. App. ii. p. 186. The clergy
of Canterbury granted two tenths in a convocation held Nov. ιS-Γ)ec. 3 ;
ib. ; Wake, p. 352.

² Nov. 4-12 ; Rot. Parl. iv. 64 sq.

² Wals. ii. 316; Gesta Henrici, pp. 76 sq. ; Ordinances, ii. 193. The
history of the transactions between Sigismund and Henry, with their
various results, is worked out by Dr. Max Lenz, in his ‘ Konig Sigismund
und Heinrich V ’ (Berlin 1874).

⁴ He went to Calais Sept. 4, 1416, completed his negotiations with
Burgundy Oct. 8, and returned Oct. l6. See Rymer, ix. 385 ; Gesta Henr.
pp. 94, 95, 100-104 ; Lenz, Konig Sigismund, &c., pp. 123 sq.

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