Percies and the earl of March, gave a decided superiority to the latter. In that singular fight, the men-at-arms, on the side of the Southrons, never charged; it was gained by the archers alone. Ordered by Percy to descend into the low ground between two hills, occupied by the hostile divisions, their discharge was so galling as to provoke Douglas and his chivalry to a forward movement, before which they retired, occasionally facing about, and checking the Scottish horse by a close and destructive stream of arrows.3 Douglas and the bravest of his companions fell in the charge, covered with wounds; and the loss in slain, and in prisoners of rank, was exceedingly heavy. But these were tame and uninteresting occurrences compared with the events which, in 1403, placed Henry in jeopardy of his throne. In the struggle with Richard, the earl of Northumberland and his son, the gallant Hotspur, had given themselves implicitly to the Lancasterian cause, and it is not improbable that their accession may have been decisive of its success. The king had not been ungrateful: he appears to have lavished honours and possessions on the Percies, and to have invariably treated them with an honourable confidence. Their manifesto, or Defiance,' though evidently a laboured document, has less the air of deeply felt grievance, than of previously formed determination to quarrel, and matter of justification subsequently sought. It is not unlikely that the success of Henry had kindled the ambition of these noblemen, and that the brilliant victory of Homildon-hill gave edge and resolution to their malcontency. Be this, however, as it may, their measures were skilfully planned; their strategy was prudent and bold; and their tactics, in the battle which ensued, long held victory in suspense. The earl of Northumberland formed an alliance with the Scots and with the Welsh, who were then, under Owen Glendower, struggling for independence. Joined by Douglas and his retainers, Hotspur, at the head of his border veterans, moved, by rapid marches, upon Wales, and on the road formed a junction with his uncle, the earl of Worcester, who had raised a strong division of archers in Cheshire. The crisis was appalling, but Henry's genius and courage were equal to the emergency. With the prince of Wales he hastened towards the north; but on ascertaining the movements of the insurgents, he changed the direction of his columns, and threw himself athwart Percy's line of march at Shrewsbury, which he entered just in time to prevent the entrance of the enemies' advanced guard. The numbers on either side were nearly equal,-the troops of excellent quality,—the commanders of high reputation,-and the stake at once the greatest and the last. The king offered terms of peace; they were refused, and the battle began. The Northumbrians held a strong position, and at the first assault the royal forces recoiled. Eager to take advantage of this success, Percy and Douglas both charged at the same moment on Henry's personal guard. The immediate effect was terrific. The royal standard-bearer was killed, with several knights around the king, who is said to have been himself unhorsed by Douglas. Bravely, however, did the monarch fight, and bravely was he seconded by his .gallant son; the first slew, as stated in the records of the time, thirtysix men-at-arms with his own hand; and the second was wounded in Otterb. 237.-Ford. xv. 14. Harding apud The Hereditary right of the Crown.' the face. At length Hotspur fell, and his followers gave way. Subsequent insurrections of the same party were easily suppressed, and with the fall of the powerful and ambitious family of Percy, the only formidable opponency to the house of Lancaster disappeared. Henry's principal political annoyances were now the Cambrian war, kept up by the active and intrepid Glendower, and the hostility of France, whose generals made frequent inroads on the continental dependencies of the English crown, and landed with flying corps in various parts of England and Wales. These insults at length roused the anger of the king, and, in 1412, an English army landed in Normandy; but, after some negotiation, retired to Guienne. 5 But there were other sources of deeper vexation than any that could arise from exterior circumstances, which pressed heavily upon Henry's feelings towards the close of his reign. It was not long after his successes against the Northumberland party, that he became afflicted with an eruptive disease, described as a detestable leprosy,' and confining its visitations to the face. In addition to this troublesome, and probably painful affection, he was subject to epileptic attacks; and these manifestations of constitutional disorder gave him, to early as in his fortysixth year, the aspect and infirmities of premature old age. His mind, however, preserved its elasticity, and he retained to the last his firm grasp of the sceptre, although there are appearances of unsettled purpose, and labouring conscience, in the closing scenes of his existence. The final summons found him on his knees before the shrine of St Edward, in Westminster abbey. He was conveyed to the abbot's chamber, and breathed his last, March, 20th, 1413, in the fourteenth year of his reign. The general character of this brave and politic chief may be inferred from the intimations already given; but there is one prominent feature of his administration-the systematic persecution of every religious opinion, that might offer menace to the usurpations of Rome—which has not yet been noticed, but which demands the severest reprobation, as disgraceful to his memory, and requires examination, on account of its marked deviation from the usual liberality of his government. The princes of the house of Lancaster, mainly, it is probable, through consciousness of defect in their title to the crown, affected an unusual regard to popular rights; and instances might be given, of concession, both verbal and practical, very much at issue with the then fashionable notions concerning the origin and extent of kingly power. Yet, in contravention of this sagacious and successful policy, Henry is found eager and sanguinary in the endeavour to suppress sentiments, of which the circulation had been aided, directly by his father's policy, indirectly by his own. The preaching of the fearless and enlightened Wickliffe had not been in vain; it had awakened a spirit of inquiry and a temper of opposition, which halters and faggots may partially restrain, but must fail in the effort to extinguish. It may be admitted that Henry had powerful motives for complaisance toward the hierarchy. A defective title, and an imperfect hold upon the attachment of the nobles, were in themselves enough to stimulate the restless vigilance of an usurper, and to call forth the utmost energies of a determined and • Monstrelet. unscrupulous ruler; nor would it have been less than political insanity, to have neglected any fair means of conciliating the priesthood, whose support to the cause of the malcontents might have turned the scale. But there was a safe and honourable medium: his own convictions were probably in opposition to the new doctrines, and, politically speaking, he could not have been blamed for the fair exercise of his influence, in behalf of the dominant system; beyond this he could not go, without deeply offending those to whom it behoved him to be most cautious of giving offence-the people of England, of whom the larger and better portion were, if not adverse to Romanism, abhorrent of blood. Unmoved, however, by these considerations, and preferring violence to discretion, he enforced extreme measures, and obtained for them the sanction of a parliamentary enactment. The statute de Heretico comburendo was passed early in his reign, and it was not suffered to remain a dead letter. William Sautre, priest of St Osyth's, London, was the first victim to this detestable abuse of legislation. It is somewhat difficult to account for the subserviency of parliament in this matter, since the house of commons at least, appears to have been disposed to treat the sacerdocy with very slight ceremony. The speaker was instructed, in one instance, to make urgent remonstrances against the immunity from regular taxation enjoyed by the hierarchy; but the peers supported the ecclesiastics, and the archbishop of Canterbury assumed a high tone on the occasion. "If I live," said that prelate, addressing the speaker, "thou shalt have hot taking 6 away any thing that I have."8 The primate, Arundel, was proud and pitiless, and it was probably at his instigation, that measures of such outrageous severity were adopted. It may be farther suggested, in extenuation of conduct which does not admit of direct defence, that Henry with all his shrewdness and energy, seems never to have succeeded in establishing a government intrinsically strong. His foreign policy appears to have been feeble and wavering; and there are indications which may justify the suspicion that his civil administration was, from whatever cause, not always equal to the exigences of the time. In his reign, however, the immunities and authority of the commons house of parliament assumed a consistency and independence, which began to give a new character to the government of England. The constitution of the house was essentially improved, by provisions for the freedom of elections, and by an important abridgment of the frequently abused power of the sheriff. An unceasing jealousy was manifested towards all attempts to restrain the liberty of debate, and the then necessarily extensive privilege of security from arrest was firmly maintained. The same determination was exhibited in the dispute concerning the registration of parliamentary proceedings, which had been heretofore effected always negligently, and sometimes abusively. Henry resisted their requisition of a fair and equitable process of verification, but they persisted until the concession was made. They were, moreover, sternly vigilant over the fiscal measures of the court; and their conduct, altogether, illustrates the steady progress that Englishmen were making, in the knowledge and maintenance of their political rights. Rot. Parl. III. 466. ↑ Ib. 8 Hollinshed. Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March. DIED A. d. 1425. THE house of Lancaster, in the person of Henry, had now reached the summit of its ambition; but there existed-as we have already hinted a formidable competitor, whose claims rested on the principle of hereditary succession. Had this principle been allowed to regulate the high transactions of state, on the deposition of Richard, the crown would have devolved on the posterity of Lionel, duke of Clarence, the second son of Edward III. By the decease of that prince without male issue, his rights fell to his daughter, Philippa, who had married Roger Mortimer, earl of March, the male representative of the powerful barón who was attainted and executed for the murder of Edward II. The forfeited earldom had been regained by Roger's son, who, in the 26th of Edward III., obtained a reversal of the judgment against his parent, and thenceforth bore the title of earl of March. His son and successor, Edmund, worthily supported his high rank, by his splendid services in France and Ireland; and, by his marriage with Philippa of Clarence, transmitted the rightful claim to the crown of England to his descendants. Roger Mortimer, the fourth in descent from the regicide, sucteeded his father in the government of Ireland. He was a knight of great personal accomplishments, and celebrated for the magnificence of his household, and the reckless gaiety of his life. In a combat with the sept of O'Brien, his headlong valour distanced his followers, and, fighting in the disguise of an Irish horseman, he was overpowered by numbers, and corn to pieces by his savage enemies, ere his friends could come up to his rescue. The helpless heir, Edmund Mortimer, was at this time only an infant of ten years of age, and was instantly given by Henry of Lancaster in ward to his son, the prince of Wales, who placed him in Windsor castle, where, though strictly guarded, he seems to have been treated in a courteous and indulgent manner. It does not appear that Edmund inherited either the restlessness and ambition which characterized some of his ancestors, or the martial gallantry which blazed forth in others; but his existence was often used as an apology, by more ambitious spirits, for their own factious proceed ings; and might, but for his own want of enterprize, have seriously incommoded the councils of regency, during the minority of Henry VI. His appointment to the command of Ireland, on the accession of the young king, was a piece of dexterous policy. While it gratified that love of show and magnificence which seemed to be his only master passion, it removed him from intercourse with those men and measures which might have roused some latent spark of ambition in the breast of one, the heir of so many dangerous pretensions. His death, which took place in the third year of Henry VI., seemed to secure the permanent establishment of the Lancastrian family upon the throne. Owen Glendower. BORN CIRC, A. D. 1349.—DIED A. D. 1415. OWEN GLENDOWER,' whose noble resistance of the English arms amid the declining fortunes of his native country has obtained for him the appellation of the Wallace of Wales, was born, as is commonly supposed, in the year 1349. Historians have agreed on the minute date of the day of the year-which they all concur in fixing on the 28th of May-but there exists a wide discrepancy amongst them in the more important article of the year itself which ushered this hero into the world: Lewis Owen says 1349, whilst other annalists determine it to have been 1354. Trefgarn, in Pembrokeshire, was the place of his birth. His father was Gryffyd Vyehan; by the mother's side he was lineally descended from Llewellyn, the last prince of Wales. The birth of our hero was not without its portents, to mark him extraordinary.' Holinshed relates that his father's horses were found that night standing in the stables up to their girths in blood, and the traditionary legends of Wales abound in equally marvellous stories concerning so important an event. The young Owen received a liberal education, according to the estimate of the age. He is represented as having started in life in the profession of a pleader in the inns of Court; but afterwards relinquishing his profession, he received the appointment of esquire in the household of Richard II., and adhered to that unfortunate prince till his surrender of the crown had released all his followers from their obligations to his person. During the reign of Richard, Owen had been engaged in a dispute about the boundaries of his lordship of Glendowrdy with Reginald, Lord Grey de Ruthyn, an Anglo-Norman, whose seignories lay immediately adjoining; and had recovered at law a piece of ground which lay betwixt the two properties. But Reginald, upon the accession of Henry IV., again resumed possession of the disputed territory, whilst Owen appealed in vain for redress to the first parliament of the new monarch.3 Disappointed in his suit in this quarter, he resolved to enforce his claims at his own hand. In the summer of 1400, he attacked the castle of his rival, and laid waste his barony. Here the affair might have terminated, had not the king, taking the cause into his own hands, ordered Lords Talbot and Grey to march against him, and surround him in his own house. Upon their approach, Glendower retired into the inaccessible fastnesses of Snowdon, where he successfully maintained a guerilla warfare against the English forces. Stimulated by a sense of national degradation, and the recollection of the haughty Edward's conduct towards their country, and encouraged, perhaps, by the vague prophecies of Merlin and Aquila which wandering minstrels sung throughout the country, thousands of his countrymen flocked to his standard, and, on the 20th of September, Glen In the Collection of the Public Acts,' he is always called Glendourdy. "At my nativity The front of heaven was full of fiery shapes, Of burning cressets," &c. Walsing. p. 364. |