Bishop of for the falling monarch, that of the Bishop of Carlisle protesting against Richard's deposition Carlisle's protest. Richard II., 1. Richard re character as "What subject can give sentence on his king? And who sits here that is not Richard's subject? * * * And shall the figure of God's majesty Be judged by subject and inferior breath?" * He is stated also to have foreshadowed the Wars of the Roses, in the prediction that the accession of Henry to the throne would entail destruction and misery on the nation to remote posterity "And if you crown him, let me prophesy The blood of English shall manure the ground, Shall kin with kin, and kind with kind confound. A singular point in Richard's renunciation of serves his the throne, is probably alluded to in the pathetic an anointed language, so dear to the adherents to hereditary king. right, which Shakespeare has put into the mouth of Richard himself: Richard II., Act iii. Sc. 2. "Not all the water in the rough rude sea Can wash the balm from an anointed king." It was counted one of the glories of English monarchs, that they were anointed kings, and Richard, when in the Tower he resigned his crown, his title, and his subjects' allegiance, refused, and indeed declared himself unable, to renounce the unction and spiritual character which he had received at his coronation. Doubtless the unhappy · prince hoped that the sacred character thus impressed upon him, might save his life. His hope was vain. A few months after his deposition, he Richard died in confinement at Pomfret Castle. The A.D. 1400, manner of his end is doubtful, but there can be February. little doubt but what it was violent. It is less certain whether Henry IV. ordered or connived at Richard's death. However it came about, it relieved Henry from his most formidable rival, and Edmund Mortimer, the lineal heir, was still a boy of tender years. II.'s death, But Henry's reign, so violently begun, could Troubles of not but be troublous, and accordingly throughout Henry IV.'s it plots against his life and revolts against his rule were rife. reign. 1403. The most formidable rebellion occurred in 1403. Hotspur's It was headed by the Percies, whose heir the revolt, A.D. gallant Harry Hotspur had married Elizabeth Mortimer, sister of Edmund. Combined with the Welshman, Owen Glendower, and espousing, at first secretly and afterwards openly, the cause of the Mortimer family, Battle of Shrewsbury, A.D. 1403, July 21. they revolted, and gave the king battle at Shrewsbury. There Harry Hotspur encountered his madcap namesake, Harry, Prince of Wales, a worthier antagonist than Hotspur deemed, and after a bloody battle in which the heir of the Percies fell, victory rested with the king. Had it favoured the side of the rebels, England would probably have been divided into three petty states, ruled by Mortimer, Northumberland and Glendower. This is the point in the struggle on which the genius of Shakespeare, always intent on the glory of the English crown and nation, "one and indivisible," has characteristically fastened. The Final ex- still glowing embers of the revolt were partially the revolt, extinguished in 1405, by the treacherous policy A.D. 1405, of the Earl of Westmoreland, and finally in 1408 by the death of the old Earl of Northumberland. in battle on Bramham Moor. tinction of and 1408. Entails of Recogni Thenceforth the government of Henry was unthe Crown. disturbed by open rebellion. It is now necessary to advert to the various entails of the crown which during this reign were effected by authority tions of the of Parliament. On the 30th of September, 1399, titles of the Henry IV. became king. On the 13th of October, king, of Prince he was solemnly crowned. On the 15th his Henry, and eldest son Henry, afterwards Henry V., was declared Prince of Wales, and heir apparent to the throne. On the 23rd it was agreed in of his brothers. First in 1399. 1403. Parliament, that Prince Henry should bear the title of Duke of Aquitaine. This was significant of the nation's determination not to relinquish the French possessions of the Kings of England. Though Aquitaine had come to the Plantagenets through a female, Eleanor, wife of Henry II., it was now treated as a dependency of the English crown. Otherwise the right of the Earl of March to it would have been indisputable. At a council held at Worcester, and again at a great council held at Westminster before Christmas 1403, the Again in lords and other lieges of the king took solemn oaths of allegiance to Henry IV. It is significantly added that this second recognition of the king's title took place in the presence of the heralds of France. In February 1404, in the of the titles fifth year of Henry's reign, the lords spiritual and of the temporal recognised the king as their sovereign sons and of lord, and Prince Henry as his heir apparent, and scendants, the further right of succession as resting with A.D. 1404, the heirs of Prince Henry's body, and for default 5 Henry IV. of such issue, with the prince's brothers, and their issue successively according to the laws of England. This settlement, it will be observed, did not include the king's two daughters, or any children he might have thereafter or their descendants. Nor did it in other respects satisfy Last recogthe king, who was bent on establishing a salic nition unsatisfactory law of succession in England. His father, John to the king. D king's four their de February. of Gaunt, had, after the Black Prince's death, suggested to certain knights of shires the introduction into parliament of such a measure, which would have placed John next in succession to his nephew Richard. It seems, however, to have been thought that such proximity might be dangerous to the boy's life, and John of Gaunt's overtures met with a signal rebuff. Now that Henry IV. was in possession of the throne, whilst Edmund, Earl of March, the heir of Lionel's daughter, was lineal heir of Edward III., he became anxious to establish a law of succession, which would logically exclude Lionel's descendants, and vest the crown in himself and his descendants in the unbroken male line. The revolt of the Percies in the name of the Earl of March, and the partially successful attempt in 1405 to carry off the young earl and his brother from Windsor, had shown that serious danger was to be apprehended from that quarter. Accordingly lishing salic Henry, in June 1406, procured the passing of an succession, Act by which the crown of England, France, and the king's other dominions beyond the sea, was limited in the first place to Henry and the heirs male of his body. Act estab A.D. 1406, Henry IV. Thomas, John and Then his four sons, Henry, Humphrey, and their male issue, are specially mentioned as successive heirs. Act pleas- This entail fulfilled Henry's wish of placing his ing to the title upon a logical basis of hereditary succession, king. |