Constitutional History.
98
[chap.
his competitors for power invested him with some popularity
whilst he lived, and won for him the posthumous reputation
of being the pillar of the state and the friend of the commons ɪ.
Clever, popular, amiable, and cultivated2, he was without
strong principle, and, what was more fatal than the want of
principle, was devoid of that insight into the real position of
his house and nation which Henry IV, Henry V, and Bedford
undoubtedly had; he would not or could not see that the house
of Lancaster was on its trial, and that England had risked her
all on that issue.
Question
about the
late king’s
intentions.
Mutual
jealousies.
The uncertainty that still rests on the exact form in which
Henry’s last wishes were expressed compels us to content
ourselves with supposing that they were duly carried into
execution, and that he intended Bedford to govern Erance,
Gloucester to act as his vicegerent in England. But the
arrangement was not adopted at home without misgivings.
The lords, the council, the parliament, all had something to
say before the final adjustment was made, and Gloucester him-
self was never satisfied with the position allotted him. The
lords were jealous of their own rights ; the influence of Bedford
and the Beauforts, and the constitutional power already wielded
by the council, were sufficient to limit the power of the Pro-
tector in that body ; and the parliament contained men who
were watchful of any attempt to diminish the liberties or
1 According to Hall he had abroad the reputation of being ‘ the very
father of his country and the shield and defence of the poor commonalty ; ’
Chron. p. 212. Hall however knew better.
2 Capgrave (Ill. Henr. p. 109) calls him ‘ inter oɪnnes ɪnundi proceres
Iitteratissimus.' He took special pains to stand well with learned men,
whereby his reputation has no doubt largely benefited. Duke Humfrey’s
benefactions to the Oxford Library are detailed in Munimenta Academica,
i. 326; ii. 758-772. See also Macray, Annals of the Bodleian, pp. 6-12.
Among the scholars promoted by him the best known are bishops Beck-
ington and Pecock, and Titus Livius Eorojuliensis. Peter de Monte
dedicated to him a work 1De Virtutibus et Vitiis;' Beckington, ɪ. 34.
Aeneas Sylvius (p. 64) speaks of him as ‘ clarissimo et doctissimo, qui . .
poetas miτifice colit et oratores magnopere Veneratur.' ‘Iste dux Hum-
Iredns inter omnes mundi principes excellebat in Scientia et Speciositatis
ас forɪnae decentia; taɪnen vecors cordis et effaeɪninatus vir ас Voluptati
deditus;’ Chr. Giles, p. 7; cf. Tit. Liv. For. p. 2. His constitution was
weakened by his excesses as early as 1424. See the advice of his physician
Gilbert Kymer in Heaine, Lib. Nig. Scaccarii, vol. ii. pp. 552 sq.
XViTi.] Attitude of Duke Humfrey. 99
control the powers to which the last two kings had allowed
free exercise.
330. Gloucester, who was in England at the time of Henry’s The council
death, at once took the place which belonged to him, and on the work of
the 28th of September in the name of his nephew received the ≡0'ernment∙
great seal from Bishop Longley1. But the council acted as
administrators of the executive power, and with this he did not
venture to interfere. It was by the advice of the council that
he was on the 6th of November appointed to open the ensuing
parliament2. The words of the commission were sufficient to
tell him that he would have no unrestricted power ; he was
authorised to begin, carry on, and dissolve the parliament, by
the assent of the council. Gloucester objected to the last Attitude
clause3; and the lords replied that, considering the tender Humfrey,
age of the king, they neither could, ought, nor would consent
to the omission of the words, which were as necessary for the
security of the duke as they were for that of the council. Thus Parliament
pressed he gave a reluctant consent, and on the 9tl1 of November 4
opened the parliament simply as the king’s uncle acting by
virtue of that commission4. Archbishop Chichele announced
the causes of summons,—the good governance of the king’s
person, the maintenance of peace and law, and the defence of
the realm ; for all which purposes it was necessary to have
provision of honourable and discreet personages of each estate
of the realm. Before determining the form of regency, the Questionof
. . * , . _ regency con-
parliament examined the list of the ministers ; the commons sɪdered in
_ /-τιjι . parliament,
asked to know their names, and on the ɪoth letters patent χ0v. 1422.
were produced in which the king by advice of his council in
1 Rymer, x. 253 ; Rot. Parl. iv. 170.
a Ordinances, iii. 6, 7 ; Rot. Parl. iv. 169.
3 i Ad parliamentum illud finiendum et dissolvendum de assensu consilii
nostri plenam Commisimus potestatem ;, Ord. iii. 7. It certainly seems
probable that t de assensu consilii nostri ’ should be read with the words
that follow rather than with the preceding words, that Gloucester mis-
construed the sentence, and that the council took advantage of his
misconstruction to force that interpretation upon him. The words do
ɪɪot occur in the commission given by Edward III to Lionel in 1351 ;
Rot. Parl. ii. 2 25 ; nor in that to Richard in 1377 ; ib. p. 360.
4 Rot. Park iv. 169 ; Rymer, x. 257 ; Wals. ii. 345. Roger Flower was
speaker. The session closed Dec. ι8.