Part 11
Forasmuch as I, Richard Duke of York, am informed that the King, my sovereign lord, is my heavy lord, greatly displeased with me, and hath in me a distrust by sinister information of mine enemies, adversaries, and evil-willers, where[as] God knoweth, from whom nothing is hid, I am, and have been, and ever will be, his true liegeman, and so have I before this, divers times, as well by mouth as by writing, notified and declared to my said sovereign lord: And for that this notice so comen unto me of the displeasure of my said sovereign lord is to me so grievous, I have prayed the reverend father in God, the Bishop of Hereford,[96-1] and my cousin the Earl of Shrewsbury, to come hither and hear my declaration in this matter; wherein I have said to them that I am true liegeman to the King my sovereign lord, ever have been, and shall be to my dying day. And to the very proof that it is so, I offer myself to swear that on the blessed Sacrament, and receive it, the which I hope shall be my salvation at the day of doom. And so for my special comfort and consolation I have prayed the said lords to report and declare unto the King’s highness my said offer; and to the end and intent that I will be ready to do the same oath in presence of two or three lords, such as shall please the King’s highness to send hither to accept it. In witness whereof I have signed this schedule with my sign manual, and set thereunto my signet of arms. Written in my castle of Ludlow, the 9th of January, the 30th year of the reign of my sovereign lord, King Henry the Sixth.[96-2]
[Footnote 96-1: Reginald Butler or Boulers, whose appointment to the see, dated 23rd December 1450, was no doubt due to the Duke of York’s influence.]
[Footnote 96-2: Stow’s _Chronicle_, p. 393.]
He appears to have waited nearly a month to learn the effect of this remonstrance. Meanwhile reports came that the French were advancing to lay siege to Calais. At such a juncture it was peculiarly intolerable that the administration of affairs should still be intrusted to hands so notoriously incompetent as those of Somerset; and York, as being the only man who could stir in such a matter with effect, now made up his mind to take active steps for Somerset’s removal. Nothing, however, could be done for such an object without a considerable force of armed men to support him. York accordingly issued the following address to the burgesses of Shrewsbury:--
Right worshipful friends, I recommend me unto you; and I suppose it is well known unto you, as well by experience as by common language said and reported throughout all Christendom, what laud, what worship, honour, and manhood, was ascribed of all nations unto the people of this realm whilst the kingdom’s sovereign lord stood possessed of his lordship in the realm of France and duchy of Normandy; and what derogation, loss of merchandize, lesion of honour, and villany, is said and reported generally unto the English nation for loss of the same; namely (_i.e._ especially) unto the Duke of Somerset, when he had the commandance and charge thereof: the which loss hath caused and encouraged the King’s enemies for to conquer and get Gascony and Guienne, and now daily they make their advance for to lay siege unto Calais, and to other places in the marches there, for to apply them to their obeisance, and so for to come into the land with great puissance, to the final destruction thereof, if they might prevail, and to put the land in their subjection, which God defend. And on the other part it is to be supposed it is not unknown to you how that, after my coming out of Ireland I, as the King’s true liegeman and servant (and ever shall be to my life’s end) and for my true acquittal, perceiving the inconvenience before rehearsed, advised his Royal Majesty of certain articles concerning the weal and safeguard, as well of his most royal person, as the tranquillity and conservation of all this his realm: the which advertisements, howbeit that it was thought that they were full necessary, were laid apart, and to be of none effect, through the envy, malice, and untruth of the said Duke of Somerset; which for my truth, faith, and allegiance that I owe unto the King, and the good will and favour that I have to all the realm, laboreth continually about the King’s highness for my undoing, and to corrupt my blood, and to disinherit me and my heirs, and such persons as be about me, without any desert or cause done or attempted, on my part or theirs, I make our Lord Judge. Wherefore, worshipful friends, to the intent that every man shall know my purpose and desire for to declare me such as I am, I signify unto you that, with the help and supportation of Almighty God, and of Our Lady, and of all the Company of Heaven, I, after long sufferance and delays, [though it is] not my will or intent to displease my sovereign lord, seeing that the said Duke ever prevaileth and ruleth about the King’s person, [and] that by this means the land is likely to be destroyed, am fully concluded to proceed in all haste against him with the help of my kinsmen and friends; in such wise that it shall prove to promote ease, peace, tranquillity, and safeguard of all this land: and more, keeping me within the bounds of my liegeance, as it pertaineth to my duty, praying and exhorting you to fortify, enforce, and assist me, and to come to me with all diligence, wheresoever I shall be, or draw, with as many goodly and likely men as ye may, to execute the intent abovesaid. Written under my signet at my castle of Ludlow, the 3rd day of February.
Furthermore I pray you that such strait appointment and ordinance be made that the people which shall come in your fellowship, or be sent unto me by your agreement, be demeaned in such wise by the way, that they do no offence, nor robbery, nor oppression upon the people, in lesion of justice. Written as above, etc.
Your good friend, R. YORK.[98-1]
To my right worshipful friends, the bailiffs, burgesses and commons of the good town of Shrewsbury.
[Footnote 98-1: Ellis’s _Letters_, First Series, i. 11-13.]
[Sidenote: York marches towards London.] Having thus collected a sufficient body of followers, the duke began his march to London. The Earl of Devonshire, Lord Cobham, and other noblemen also collected people and joined him.[98-2] The king and Somerset, however, being informed of his intentions, set out from the capital to meet him, issuing, at the same time, an imperative summons to Lord Cobham, and probably to the duke’s other adherents, to repair immediately to the royal presence.[98-3] But the duke, who had no desire to engage the king’s forces, turned aside and hoped to reach London unmolested. He sent a herald before him to desire liberty for himself and his allies to enter the city; but strict injunctions to the contrary had been left by the king, and his request was refused. Disappointed in this quarter, it was natural that he should look for greater sympathy in Kent, where, doubtless, smouldered still the remains of past disaffection. He accordingly crossed the Thames at Kingston Bridge, and proceeded with his host to Dartford. The king’s army followed and pitched their camp upon Blackheath. And so, on the 1st of March 1452, there lay, within eight miles of each other, two formidable hosts, which any further movement must apparently bring into collision.
[Footnote 98-2: _English Chronicle_ (ed. Davies), 69.]
[Footnote 98-3: Nicolas’s _Privy Council Proceedings_, vi. 116. According to Fabyan, the king and Somerset set out on the 16th of February. The summons to Lord Cobham, though dated Westminster, was issued on the 17th.]
To judge from one contemporary account,[99-1] the duke’s position must have been a strong one. He had a body of ordnance in the field, with no less than 3000 gunners. He himself had 8000 men in the centre of his position; while the Earl of Devonshire lay to the south with another detachment of 6000, and Lord Cobham by the river-side commanded an equal force. Seven ships lay on the water filled with the baggage of the troops. But the strength of the king’s army appears to have largely exceeded these numbers;[99-2] and even if the duke had wished to provoke a conflict, it was evidently more prudent to remain simply on the defensive. He accordingly left the responsibility of further action to those of the king’s party.
[Footnote 99-1: _Cottonian Roll_, ii. 23. _See_ Appendix to this Introduction.]
[Footnote 99-2: _Rolls of Parl._ v. 346. The statement in the Act of Attainder passed against the Duke of York seven years afterwards, that he was ‘of no power to withstand’ the king on this occasion, is liable to suspicion, but it is confirmed by the testimony of Whethamstede, 348.]
In this crisis the lords who were with the king took counsel together, and determined, if possible, to labour for a compromise.[99-3] An embassy was appointed to go to the Duke of York, and hear what he had to say. It consisted of the wise and good prelate Waynflete, Bishop of Winchester, and Bourchier, Bishop of Ely (afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury), the Earls of Salisbury and Warwick, Lord Beauchamp, Lord Sudeley, and some others. The answer made by York was, that no ill was intended against either the king or any of his Council; that the duke and his followers were lovers of the commonweal; but that it was their intention to remove from the king certain evil-disposed persons, through whose means the common people had been grievously oppressed. Of these the Duke of Somerset was declared to be the chief; and, indeed, his unpopularity was such that even those on the king’s side would seem to have seconded the Duke of York’s demand. After a consultation the king consented that Somerset should be committed to custody until he should make answer to such charges as York would bring against him.[100-1]
[Footnote 99-3: ‘The Lords, both spiritual and temporal, took the matter in hand.’ _Three Fifteenth Century Chronicles_ (Camden Soc.), 69. So also _Chronicle of London_, 137.]
[Footnote 100-1: Fabyan.]
Nothing more seemed necessary to avert civil war. On a simple pledge given by the king that Somerset should be placed in confinement, and afterwards put on his trial, the Duke of York at once broke up his camp and ordered his men home. He then repaired himself to the king’s tent to express his loyalty. [Sidenote: York is entrapped,] But no sooner had he arrived there than he found he was deceived. The king, in violation of his promise, kept the Duke of Somerset attending upon him as his chief adviser, and York was virtually a prisoner. He was sent on to London in advance of the king, in a kind of honourable custody, attended by two bishops, who conducted him to his own residence; but what to do with him when he got there was a difficulty. His enemies feared to send him to the Tower. There were 10,000 men yet remaining in the Welsh Marches, who, on such a rumour, would have come up to London; and it was not very long before they were reported to be all under arms, and actually on the march, with the duke’s young son at their head--Edward, Earl of March, boy as he was, not yet quite ten years old.[100-2]
[Footnote 100-2: Fabyan. _Three Fifteenth Century Chronicles_, 69, and the MS. Chronicle, Vitell. A. xvi.]
York had distinctly accused the Duke of Somerset as a traitor. He was now in Somerset’s power, but the latter did not dare to retort the charge upon him. Yet if Somerset was not a traitor, the course pursued by York was utterly indefensible. He had actually taken up arms against the Crown, to remove by force the minister in whom the king had placed his confidence. But unfortunately Somerset knew too well that if he made this a ground of accusation against his rival, recrimination would be sure to follow, and he himself would incur a weight of public odium which might possibly lead to the same result as in the case of Suffolk. The wisest and most politic course for himself was not to impeach the Duke of York, but, if possible, to shut his mouth and let him go free. No accusation, therefore, was drawn up. [Sidenote: and compelled to swear allegiance.] An oath of allegiance, binding him over to keep the peace in time coming, was all that was required. It was on the 1st of March that York had repaired to the king’s tent and found himself in his rival’s power. On the 10th he was brought to St. Paul’s, and there publicly made oath as follows:--
I, Richard, Duke of York, confess and beknow that I am and ought to be humble subject and liegeman to you, my sovereign Lord, King Henry the Sixth, and owe therefore to bear you faith and truth as to my sovereign lord, and shall do all the days unto my life’s end; and shall not at any time will or assent, that anything be attempted or done against your noble person, but wheresoever I shall have knowledge of any such thing imagined or purposed I shall, with all the speed and diligence possible to me, make that your Highness shall have knowledge thereof, and even do all that shall be possible to me to the withstanding thereof, to the utterest of my life. I shall not in no wise any thing take upon me against your royal estate or the obeisance that is due thereto, nor suffer any other man to do, as far forth as it shall lie in my power to let it; and also I shall come at your commandment, whensoever I shall be called by the same, in humble and obeisant wise, but if [_i.e._ unless] I be letted by any sickness or impotency of my person or by such other causes as shall be thought reasonable to you, my sovereign lord. I shall never hereafter take upon me to gather any routs, or make any assembly of your people, without your commandment or licence, or in my lawful defence. In the interpretation of which my lawful defence, and declaration thereof, I shall report me at all times to your Highness, and, if the case require, unto my peers: nor anything attempt by way of faite against any of your subjects, of what estate, degree, or condition that they be. But whensoever I find myself wronged or aggrieved, I shall sue humbly for remedy to your Highness, and proceed after the course of your laws, and in none other wise, saving in mine own lawful defence in manner above said; and shall in all things abovesaid and other have me unto your Highness as an humble and true subject ought to have him to his Sovereign Lord.
All these things above said I promise truly to observe and keep, by the Holy Evangelists contained in this book that I lay my hand upon, and by the Holy Cross that I here touch, and by the blessed Sacrament of our Lord’s body that I shall now with His mercy receive. And over this I agree me and will that if I any time hereafter, as with the grace of our Lord I never shall, anything attempt by way of fear or otherwise against your royal majesty and obeisance that I owe thereto, or anything I take upon me otherwise than is above expressed, I from that time forth be unabled, [held and taken as an untrue and openly forsworn man, and unable][102-1] to all manner of worship, estate, and degree, be it such as I now occupy, or any other that might grow unto me in any wise.
And this I here have promised and sworn proceedeth of mine own desire and free voluntee and by no constraining or coercion. In witness of all the which things above written I, Richard, Duke of York above named, subscribe me with mine own hand and seal, with this mine own seal, &c.[102-2]
[Footnote 102-1: These words are not in the copy in the _Rolls of Parliament_, but they occur in that given in Holinshed’s _Chronicle_.]
[Footnote 102-2: _Rolls of Parl._ v. 346.]
With this guarantee for his future loyalty, the duke was permitted to return into his own country.
Somerset might well be pleased that the matter should be settled thus; for if the charges York brought, or at least was prepared to have brought, against him were only one-half true (and some of them certainly were true altogether), his administration of the Duchy of Normandy was a mixture of indiscretion and dishonesty at which the nation had good right to be indignant. We have already seen how in concert with the Duke of Suffolk he had authorised a perfidious breach of the truce with France in the capture of Fougères. We have also seen how ill prepared he was for the consequences; how he discovered too late the weakness of all the garrisons; how the French king recovered town after town, and the English were finally expelled from Normandy in less than a year and a half after the unjustifiable outrage. [Sidenote: York’s charges against Somerset.] But if any credit may be given to the further charges brought against him by the Duke of York,--charges which agree only too well with the character attributed to him by the most impartial authorities[102-3]--Somerset had himself to blame in great measure for the defenceless condition of the country committed to his protection. On his first going into Normandy he had jobbed the offices under his control. For the sake of private emolument he had removed a number of trusty and experienced captains, filling their places with creatures of his own, or men who had paid _douceurs_ for their posts; and only on receipt of still greater bribes would he consent to restore any of those that had been put out. He had, however, actually reduced many garrisons, while he had taxed the inhabitants of the Duchy beyond all reason for the means of defence. His administration of justice, too, had been such as to excite the most vehement dissatisfaction, and had made the whole native population impatient of English government. He had, moreover, pocketed the compensation given by France to the dispossessed Englishmen of Anjou and Maine. Worse still, after all his maladministration and ill success, he had prevailed on the king to make him captain of Calais, which it seemed as if he was on the point of losing also in as careless and culpable a manner as he had already lost Normandy.
[Footnote 102-3: The character given of the Duke of Somerset by the contemporary historian Basin is on the whole favourable, and may be supposed to be impartial. He describes him as handsome in person, gentle and urbane in manner, and well inclined towards justice; but all these graces were marred by an insatiable avarice which would not let him rest content with the immense wealth he had inherited from Cardinal Beaufort; and by continually coveting the riches of others he brought ruin on himself. Basin, i. 193.]
Here, however, is the full text of the accusation,[103-1] as prepared by York himself:--
Thies articles and pointes folowyng yeve, shewe and ministre I, Richard Duc of York, youre true liegman and servaunt unto youre highnesse, summarily purposyng and declaryng thaym ayeinst Edmond Duc of Somerset for the grete welfare and the comen availle and interesse of youre mageste Roiall and of this youre noble roialme, aswell to bryng to knawlege and understondyng the meanes and causes of the grete myscheves and inconvenientz which late befe[l] unto this youre said noble roiame, as in losse of youre lyvelode by yonde thee see and otherwyse in ponisshment of deservitours and excuse of innocencie, and also in puttyng aside and eschuyng of the grete and importable hurte and prejudice which ben like, withouten that purviaunce be had of remedie, to succede in shorte tyme. To the which articles and every of theym I, the seid Duc of York, desire of youre egall and indifferent rightwesnesse that the seid Edmond answere by his feith and trouth, the sacrement of his othe thereuppon made, duly and truly as lawe and conscience requireth; I also desiryng, for the veraly examinacion and knowlech of trouth theruppon to be had, and for the grete and singuler weel of this youre said Roiame, to be admytted to the prefe, and to yeve evidence in the said articles that folowyn in such as he woll denye, after the equite and consideracion of lawe in such case, and processe had, and also of good feith and conscience justice thereafter to be don and executid.
First, I article and declare that the seid Edmond Duc of Somersett hath be meane, consenter, occasioner, cause and mediatour, both by his inwarde knowlege and expresse consent, by counseill, and worchyng thurghe diverse subtyle weyes and meanes, as by violent presumpcion and otherwyse is knowen and understonde, and furthermore also by his inordinate negligence, lacchesse and wilfull rechelessnes and insaciate covetyse, of the losse and amission of youre Duchie of Normandie, rejoissed and possessed at this tyme, for the defence of his negligent kepyng and otherwyse before reherced, by youre enemyes. Which may clerly by (_sic_) understonde by the meanes and causes that folowen; of the which and for such one he is openly called, reputed and had by the comen fame and voice. Of the which oon cause is that the seid Duc of Somersett, at his first comyng into Normandie, chaunged and putt out of theire occupacion and youre service, withoute skyll, cause or reason, all the true and feithfull officers, for the most partie, of all Normandie, and put in such as hym liked for his owne singuler availe and covetyse, as it apperith well, inasmoch as ther coude noon of theym that were so put out be restored agayn withoute grete giftes and rewardes, which was full unfittyng. And furthermore did put in prison many diverse and notable persones of youre seid Duchie, withoute cause, justice or any ordinarie processe made agayn theym or due examinacion, and by that meane did grete extorcions and rered unlawfully grete sommes undre colour of amendes and composicions, wherby the cuntre for such wrong and faute of justice grucched sore agayn hym and his governaunce and caused the people to arise in theire conseytes and to take grete displeasir; and that was a grete occasion and cause of the losse of youre said Duchie of Normandie.