Humphrey Duke of Gloucester Part 32

[913] This doc.u.ment is printed by Stevenson, and is called 'A protest against the enlargement of Orleans'; Stevenson, _Letters and Papers_, ii. 440. He copies the t.i.tle and doc.u.ment from Ashmole MS., 856, ff. 392-405, but the t.i.tle is a mistake. This is an indictment of Beaufort and the Archbishop of York, his ally, and the reasons against the release of Orleans are to be found on ff. 405-412 of the same MS. In Arnold's _Chron._, pp. 279-286, where this same doc.u.ment is printed, the t.i.tle runs more correctly 'A complaynte made to Kynge Henry VI. by the Duke of Gloster upon the Cardinal of Winchester.'

[914] Ashmole MS., 856, ff. 392-405, printed in Stevenson, _Letters and Papers_, ii. 440-451; Arnold's _Chron._, 279-286. The indictment must have been written in January or February 1440, as the month of March is referred to in the future.

[915] Plummer's _Fortescue_, p. 134.

[916] Plummer's _Fortescue_, notes, p. 318.

[917] Cotton MS., Vitellius, A. xvi. f. 102, says that these articles were laid to the charge of Beaufort in the Parliament which met on January 14, 1440.

[918] Ashmole MS., 856, ff. 405-412: Speed, 660, printed from a copy in the chronicler's possession; Rymer, V. i. 76, 77. Cf.

_Hist. MSS. Commission_, App. to Report iii., 279.

[919] Stubbs, iii. 126, and Ramsay, ii. 25, both regard the first manifes...o...b.. Gloucester as the one that influenced public opinion, but the opening words of the King's reply to his uncle confute this theory. These two historians also fail to distinguish clearly between Gloucester's two manifestoes, and imply that the second followed on the King's indication of his policy.

[920] Ashmole MS., 856 ff. 417-423; Stevenson, _Letters and Papers_, ii. 451-460.

[921] _Paston Letters_, i. 40.

[922] Rymer, V. i. 97.

[923] _Rot. Parl._, v. 311.

[924] February 19, 1440; _Rot. Pat._, 18 _Henry VI._, Part ii. m. 25.

[925] _Ordinances_, v. 138, 139.

[926] Amundesham, _Annales_, ii. App. D. 295.

[927] Stevenson, _Letters and Papers_, ii. 604. Cf. de Beaucourt, iii. 179, 180. When the Duke of York was appointed Captain-General in France in 1440, he was given the same powers as the Duke of Bedford used to have 'or as my Lord of Gloucester, or shulde have had now late.' So it seems that the plan of commissioning Gloucester to undertake the French war had gone some way.--Stevenson, _Letters and Papers_ (William of Worcester collections), ii. [586].

[928] _Cal. of French Rolls_, Rep. 48, App. 347. This appointment was not finally confirmed until August 28, 1442. Thomas Kyrel acted as Lieutenant of Calais in the interval, _Ordinances_, v. 205.

[929] Stevenson, _Letters and Papers_, ii. [586].

[930] _Eng. Chron._, 56.

[931] Walsingham, _Hist. Angl._, ii. 249, 250.

[932] _St. Albans Chron._, i. 50.

[933] _Eng. Chron._, 57, gives Sunday July 25, but in 1441 Sundays fell on July 16 and 23, and the former seems the more likely day in view of subsequent dates. Moreover, the same chronicler gives July 22 as the date of Eleanor's subsequent summons before the ecclesiastical commissioners.

[934] The Eve of St. Margaret, July 19; William of Worcester, 460.

_Eng. Chron._, 58, gives July 25.

[935] _Eng. Chron._, 58; _Chron. Henry VI._, 30; Rymer, V. i. 110; Gregory 183, 184; William of Worcester, 468; Cotton MS., Cleopatra, C. iv. f. 58vo, _Political Songs_, ii. 207; Stow, 381. There is considerable doubt as to who Stanley was. In the various chronicles and official doc.u.ments there is mention of a Sir Thomas Stanley, a Sir John Stanley, and a John Stanley, Esquire. Probably these were two men bearing the same surname, and were both concerned in the matter.

[936] _Eng. Chron._, 58, 59; Cotton MS., Cleopatra, C. iv. f. 59; _Lond. Chron._, 129; Stow, 381.

[937] _Lond. Chron._, 129; Cotton MS., Cleopatra, C. iv. f. 59, 59vo; Gregory, 184; William of Worcester, 460, 461; Stow, 182.

[938] _Lond. Chron._, 129; _Eng. Chron._, 59, 60; William of Worcester, 461; Gregory, 184; Fabyan, 614; Stow, 581.

[939] Sir Thomas Stanley was an officer of the King's household and King of the Isle of Man (Cotton MS., Vitellius, A. xvi. f.

102vo). Later he played a subordinate part in the arrest of Gloucester at Bury.

[940] William of Worcester, 461; _Eng. Chron._, 60.

[941] Ellis, _Letters_, 2nd Series, i. 107; _Lond. Chron._, 130; Devon, _Issue Roll_, 441.

[942] Rymer, V. i. 127; Devon, _Issue Roll_, 448.

[943] _Ordinances_, vi. 51; Fabyan, 614; Holkham MS., p. 10.

[944] _Brief Notes_, 154.

[945] _Chron. Henry VI._, 31.

[946] Devon, _Issue Roll_, 448.

[947] _Excerpta Historica_, 278, Will of Sir John Steward. This, however, does not prove that Eleanor was confined at Calais, as the editor of this will thinks, for Steward or Stiward was one of the two gentlemen appointed to take care of her at Leeds Castle, and in her later confinement.

[948] See Ellis, _Letters_, 2nd Series, i. 107; Devon, _Issue Roll_, 441.

[949] Hall, 202. See also 'Lament of the d.u.c.h.ess of Gloucester,' a contemporary ballad, 'A word for me durst no man say,'

_Political Songs_, ii. 206.

[950] Rymer, V. i. 110.

[951] Lansdowne MS., i. f. 79.

[952] Sloane MS., 248. See App. A.

[953] William of Worcester, 461.

[954] Fabyan, 614.

[955] Cotton MS., Julius, B. ii. ff. 68vo, 75. Randolph seems to have had considerable connection with Gloucester, and to have been one of his literary followers. There still exists amongst a collection of astrological tables certain 'Canones pro tabulis ejus (_i.e._ Humphrey) astronomicis secundum Fratrem Randolfe'; Sloane MS., 407, ff. 224-227.

[956] _Eng. Chron._, 60.

[957] _Political Songs_, ii. 205.

[958] Rawlinson MS., Cla.s.sis, C. 813, ff. llvo, 12, a sixteenth-century collection of songs, but this one by internal evidence was evidently written by a contemporary.

[959] _Chron. Henry VI._, 30.

[960] See _Political Songs_, ii. 207.