Thorpe
speaker.
Grants of
money and
men.
Second
session.
Prorogation
to Beading.
Shrewsbury
killed.
Illness of
the king ;
168 Constitutional History. [chap.
the duke was not likely to have his own way in the assembly.
The choice fell on Thomas Thorpe, a knight of the shire for
Essex, and a baron of the Exchequer, who was strongly op-
posed to him 1. The session was short ; little was done beyond
granting supplies, the liberality of which seems to show that
the pacification was regarded as satisfactory. A grant of a
tenth and fifteenth was voted ; the other taxes, tonnage and
poundage, the subsidy on wool and the alien tax, were con-
tinued for the king’s life. A force of twenty thousand archers
was moreover granted, to be maintained by the counties,
cities and towns according to their substance. These grants
were made on the 28th of March2, and the parliament was
then prorogued to April 25, when it was to meet at West-
minster. The second session was occupied with financial
business, and closed on the 2nd of July after an additional
half-tenth and fifteenth had been granted, and the number
of archers reduced to thirteen thousand. On the 22nd of June
Sir William Oldhall, the speaker of the last parliament, was
attainted for his conduct at Dartford in 1452 and-for his
alleged complicity with Cade 3. The parliament was not yet
dissolved, but ordered to meet again at Reading on the 12 th
of November4
349. In the interval the storms gathered more heavily and
more fatally than ever. On the 23rd of July the earl of
Shrewsbury was killed at Castillon5 and the whole of the
recent conquests were shortly recovered by the French. During
the autumn6 the king was attacked by illness, which very
1 Rot. Part. v. 228. Thorpe was a faithful Lancastrian, who had been
Remembrancer of the Exchequer and was removed from office by Tiptoft,
when he became treasurer in 1452. He was made a baron of the exchequer
in 1453 ; was at the battle of S. Alban’s in 1455, and was saved from con-
demnation in parliament that year by the king refusing the petition
against lɪiɪn. He was taken prisoner at the battle of Northampton in
14460, andtbelιeaded by the Yorkists in 1461. Foss, Biog. Jurid. p. 658.
2 Rot. Parl. v. 228-232. The convocation of Canterbury granted two
tenths in Feb. 1453, Wilk. Cone. iii. 562 ; about the same time the York
clergy granted half a tenth, ib. p. 563 ; and a whole tenth at Michaelmas,
P∙ 564∙
3 Rot. Parl. v. 265, 266. 1 lb. v. 236.
Du Clercq, iii. c. 2 (Buchυ11, xxxviii∙ 130).
c July 6, at Clarendon; Chr. Giles, p. 44 ; W. Wore. p. 7,1. ,So great
XVIii.'] Schemes of J)ιdke Hichard. 169
soon produced a total derangement of his mental powers and
made him for the time an idiot. On the 13th of October and birth
queen Margaret bore her unfortunate son Edward. The co-
incidence of the three events was strangely important. The
final loss of Guienne destroyed all the hold which the govern-
ment still had on the respect of the country ; the king’s illness
placed the queen and the duke of York in direct rivalry for
the regency ; the birth of the heir of Lancaster cut off the last
hope which the duke had of a peaceful succession to the crown
on Henry’s death.
The duke was not idle during the vacation ; he procured The speaker
the arrest and imprisonment of Thorpe the speaker on an
action of trespass, and in contempt of the privilege of par-
liament1; a quarrel between the Percies and the Nevilles2
caused the latter to draw closer to their kinsman, and he Schemes
secured the assistance of the duke of Norfolk for a renewed Richard,
attack on Somerset. The parliament met at Reading in No-
vember, only to be prorogued to the following February3.
The king’s illness increased, and it was the urgent business
of the council to provide for the interrupted action of the
executive. On the 2ist of November a great council was held ConncUin
e November
for the purpose of securing peace in the land, and to this the 1453-
duke of York, who seems at first not to have been properly
summoned, was called up by special letters 4. In this invita-
tion Somerset did not join, and the invitation itself probably
implies that the council was now inclined to accept the services
of his rival. The duke attended and made a formal protest Complaints
. ,. _ . . . . of the duke
against the proceedings of the government ш depriving IiimofYoik.
was Somerset’s unpopularity that lie was regarded as accountable for
Henry’s sickness, for having taken him to Clarendon ; Gregory, p. 198.
1 The duke of York had collected certain harness and other habiliments
of war in the bishop of Durham’s house in London. These Thorpe bad
seized and carried off, possibly under the orders of the court. At the
beginning of Michaelmas term the duke brought an action against him in
the court of exchequer, and got damages to the amount of £1000, and
costs £10; for the non-payment of which he was thrown into the Fleet
prison; Rot. Parl. v. 239.
2 See above, p. 150, note ɪ, and p. 174∙
3 Rot. Parl, v. 238.
4 Ordinances, vi. 163, 164.