1432

King Henry VI (1422-1461) was the third and last Lancastrian king of England. There is no systematic, chronological analysis of the sources for Henry’s reign. Four of the principal sources, the Proceedings of the Privy Council, the Foedera, the chronicles covering Henry’s reign, and Letters and Papers Illustrative of the Wars of the English in France are brought together here with references to other authorities, primary and secondary. King Henry’s regnal year dates from 1 September to 31 August.

See Introduction.

Money

A pound sterling (£) was worth twenty shillings.  A shilling (s) was worth 12 pence (d). A mark was the most common money of account in England. It was worth 13s 4d or two thirds of a pound sterling. The livre tournois was the most common money of account in France. Nine livres tournois equalled approximately £1.

The Proceedings record only twelve meeting for 1435. Six in February, two in June, two in July, and two in December (when parliament was in session).

Contents

A Blazing Star

A bright star appeared in the south-eastern sky in the middle of the afternoon in May in 1432 or 1433. 

Food Prices

The price of staple foods dropped slightly at the end of 1432.

Pageants for King Henry’s Return to England

King Henry returned to England early February 1432. The pageants to welcome him home.

Henry VI and the Earl of Warwick

The Earl of Warwick as the king’s governor, demanded extended powers to discipline King Henry and dismiss members of his household. The Council concurred. Assessments of Henry VI’s character.

The Duke of Gloucester, the Council, and the Household

The Duke of Gloucester appointed a new Chancellor, Treasurer and Keeper of the Privy Seal and replaced key members of the royal household with men of his own choosing.

Parliament

Parliament convened on 12 May 1432 with King Henry present and was in session until 17 July. Taxation.

Cardinal Beaufort’s Treasure

Cardinal Beaufort returned to England to defend himself in Parliament against charges laid by the Duke of Gloucester. He offered loans to the crown and was exonerated.

Council Proceedings

Royal heralds. John Burgh’s ransom. Henry V’s servants. Sorcery and witchcraft.

The Council and the Church.

Cistercians. Master John Milez. Pilgrimages.

The Magnates 

The Earl of Stafford. The Earl of Warwick. Warwick, Talbot and Xaintrailles. John Cornwall, Lord Fanhope. Ladies of the Garter. Death of the Countess of Huntingdon.

John Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk

The Duke of Norfolk died suddenly on 19 October 1432.

Scottish Hostages

Fifteen hostages held in the Tower of London for King James’s unpaid ransom were exchanged.

Foreign Relations

Aragon

Negotiations with envoys from King Alfonso of Aragon were resumed in Bayonne. Bernard de Planche, Bishop of Dax and Thoams Burton, the mayor of Bayonne represented King Henry. No agreement was reached.

Denmark

King Eric of Denmark complained of violations of the trade treaty between England and Denmark. William Sprever was sent on diplomatic mission to Denmark,

Brittany

Piracy by English and Breton ships was a long-standing grievance. An embassy from the Duke of Britany came to England to address the problem, bringing with them the duke’s young son Giles of Brittany. He remained at court in England for two years.

The Duchy of Gascony

Bertrand de Monferrand. Chateauneuf-sur-Charente and Ratières.

The War in France

Rouen

A French attempt to capture Rouen was repulsed by the Earl of Arundel,

Chartres

A French army under Dunois, Bastard of Orleans, captured Chartres.

Lord Willoughby and Saint Cénéry 

Lord Willoughby laid siege of Saint Cénéry. The arrival of a French army forced him to raise the siege and retreat.

The Siege of Lagny

The Duke of Bedford laid siege to Lagny, but a relieving army under Dunois reached the town. Bedford failed to take the town

Sir Walter Hungerford

A small army departed for France at the end of the summer led by Roger Camoys and Sir Walter Hungerford.

The Duke of Bedford’s Finances

Bedford taxed Normandy heavily to meet the cost of the war and defending the duchy. He received little help from England, the £2,500 assigned to him in March was delayed to August.

The Death of Anne, Duchess of Bedford

Anne, Duchess of Bedford died in Paris on 14 November at the age of twenty-eight.   

The Prospect of Peace

Peace talks were initiated by Cardinal Albergati but ended in failure. The English did not attend.

Peace talks resumed

Cardinal Albergati reconvened the peace talks at Auxerre in November 1432.

The General Council at Basel

The Minority Council agreed to send delegates to the General Council of the Church at Basel.

Bibliography 1432

The Proceedings record 37 meetings in 1432: two in February, two in March when the officers of state and the household personnel were changed. Seven in May, four in June, nine in July, three in August, three in October, five in November and two in December.

A Blazing Star

A bright star appeared in the south-eastern sky in the middle of the afternoon in May 1432 or 1433.  Waltham Annals dates it to Tuesday, 20 May, which was a Tuesday in 1432. Brut K dates it to Wednesday, 20 May; Wednesday was 20 May in 1433. Brief Notes says it was visible for fifteen days and associates it, loosely, with the General Council of the Church at Basel which could be either 1432 or 1433.

The Great Chronicle, Gregory’s Chronicle, and Cleopatra C IV record a ‘stella commata’ as their last entries for Year 1432-33, but place it in the south-west, not the south-east. Cleopatra dates it to October 1432. There may have been two appearances in that year.

“In 1432, in the month of May on a Tuesday, from the hour of twelve (noon) until three in the afternoon a whirling blazing star appeared in the sky towards the east, close to the sun.” English Historical Literature, Waltham Annals, p. 351

“And in þe yer aftyr þat, on þe xx^ti day of Maij, on a Weddenysday, fro þe oure of None to iij. on þe clok at aftyrnoon, ther aperyd a Blasyng sterre in þe firmament, toward þe est, fast be þe Mone.”  Brut Continuation K p. 599

“A general council [met] at Basel, and a star with a bright tail (stella commata) was visible for fifteen days.”   Three Fifteenth Century Chronicles (Brief Notes) p. 149

“And this yere there appeared a sterre in the South west which was bright like Stella commata And therefore it is called the ij^de stelle commata.”  Great Chronicle, p. 171

“Ande that same yere apperyde stella comata, othyr wyse namyde a blasynge starre yn the sowthe weste, etc.”  Gregory’s Chronicle, p. 177

“And the same yere in the month of Ottobre apperid the stella commata in the south west.” Chronicles of London (Cleopatra C IV), p. 136

Food Prices

The price of staple foods dropped slightly at the end of 1432. Wheat cost 13 pence (1s. 1d.) a bushel; a slight drop from 1428-29 when it stood at 1s. 8d. a bushel.  Wine was 4 pence, presumably for a gallon.

“And in his tyme betwene mighelmasse and cristemas whete whas at xiijd a busshell, and wyne i-now for iiijd.”   Chronicles of London, Cleopatra C IV, p. 135

Pageants for King Henry’s Return to England

King Henry and his court embarked from Calais and landed at Dover on 9 February 1432.  He had been in France for nearly two years.

He was welcomed by the barons of the Cinque Ports and he proceeded in a leisurely fashion via Canterbury to Eltham, where he was allowed to rest for some days.

His formal entry into London was carefully timed to take place on 21 February, the day on which his mother, Queen Katherine, entered London in 1421. Henry rode from Eltham to Blackheath for the traditional reception by the mayor, aldermen, city officials, and all the crafts of London in their finest array. John Lydgate’s verses commemorating the event noted that even the weather rejoiced at his homecoming (1).

“the Mayor of London, John Wellesm the Aldermen, with the commonality rode against him on Horsebacke, the Mayor in Crimson veluet, a great veluet hat furred, a girdle of golde aboute his middle, and  Bawricke of gold about his necke trilling down behind him, his three Henxemen, on three great coursers following him, in one sute of red, all spangled in silver, then the Aldermen in Gownes of scarlet, with sanguine hoodes, and all the Commoninalte of the city clothed in white gownes, and scarlet hodds, with diuers cognozances embrodered on their sleeues, &c” (2)

London Bridge

The City staged seven pageants for their ‘triumphant’ king, beginning at London Bridge and ending at St Pauls. At London Bridge the city’s champion, a giant, guarded a shield displaying the arms of England and France. The shield was flanked by two antelopes; the antelope was a badge of the House of Lancaster through the Bohun inheritance of Henry’s grandmother Mary de Bohun (3). The giant declared his readiness to encounter and slay all the king’s enemies. Just so had Henry V been greeted when he returned in triumph after the battle of Agincourt in 1415. The myth was maintained that Henry VI, having ‘led’ two armies into France, had returned victorious.

Three ‘empresses, richly arrayed,’ and attended by fourteen virgins stood in front of a tower at the centre of London Bridge. They bestowed heavenly gifts on the king: ‘Nature’ presented Henry with strength and might; ‘Grace’ with knowledge and understanding; and ‘Fortune’ gave him prosperity and riches. Their gifts recalled the ceremonial of his coronations: a crown of glory, a sceptre of meekness and pity, a sword of might and victory, a mantle of prudence, a shield of faith, a helmet of health and a girdle of love and peace.

Seven of the virgins sang of the City’s welcome to the king. The other seven released white doves, symbolic of the seven pillars of wisdom: intelligence (prudence), knowledge, strength, cunning (understanding) council, pity (wisdom), dread (fear of God) and humility.

Cornhill

Dame Sapience and seven allegorical figures from antiquity presided at a Tabernacle of Wisdom in Cornhill. They represented the seven sciences, the foundation of a classical education:  Grammar, Logic, Rhetoric, Music, Arithmetic, Geometry and Astronomy.

NB; They are not included in the Brut Continuation F’s account. They are mentioned, but not listed, in Gregory’s Chronicle.

Dame Sapience reminded Henry that wisdom in a king who sits in judgement on his people will increase his renown.

At the Tun prison in Cornhill, the highest point in the City, a boy about the king’s age was seated on a high platform dressed in royal robes, echoing the lit de justice tableau at Henry’s coronation in Paris.  He was ‘governed’ by Mercy, Truth, and Clemency, the three attributes of a just king.  Two judges and eight sergeants at law (possibly actual people rather than representative figures) stood as emblems of the king as a dispenser of justice and maintainer of law.

 Great Conduit, Cheapside

At the Great Conduit in Cheapside free wine was on offer from artificial wells as a tribute to the mayor, John Wells, a benefactor of the City. The wine of temperance, good government, and consolation was drawn up in buckets by Mercy, Grace, and Pity. The praise of wine, and its superiority over water (Thetis) occurs only in Lydgate’s verses, as does the elaborate description of fruit trees surrounding the wells bearing exotic (imported) fruits, as well as home-grown varieties. The tableau depicted London as an earthly paradise, a city of abundance and prosperity. Two Old Testament figures Enoch, and Elijah (Elias), promised Henry heavenly protection just as they had been protected by God.

Dual Monarchy

The ancient stone cross in Cheapside was the setting for an important pageant: a display of the dual monarchy in words and pictures, King Henry’s right to the crowns of England and France through his descent from St Edward of England and St Louis of France.

The pictorial chart of this descent, and an accompanying poem, was a well-known piece of political propaganda. It had been commissioned from Louis Calot, a royal secretary. in 1423 by the Regent Bedford and displayed in Notre Dame cathedral. The French verses were translated by John Lydgate for the Earl of Warwick in 1426 (4).

A castle of green jasper, flanked by the Tree of Jesse associated Henry’s descent from St Edward and St Louis with Christ’s descent from King David, but the allegory was unorthodox and therefore risky.  Lydgate felt the need to excuse and justify its presence.

Little Conduit

The Trinity with attendant angels singing heavenly songs stood at the Little Conduit close to St Paul. They pronounced God’s promise to Henry as God’s representative on earth. He will have angels to guard him; he will be blessed with a long life, faithful subjects, heirs of his body, fame throughout the world, and peace in both his realms united under one crown. John Lydgate’s verses end with a paean of praise for the City of London, the ‘newe Troye’ founded in the mists of antiquity by Brutus, the son of Aeneas.

St Pauls

Henry was met at the entrance to St Paul’s by Henry Chichele, Archbishop of Canterbury, John Kemp, Archbishop of York, William Grey, Bishop of Lincoln, John Stafford, Bishop of Bath and Wells, Robert Neville, Bishop of Salisbury,  William Alnwick, Bishop of Norwich,  Philip Morgan, Bishop of Ely, and John Langdon, Bishop of Rochester, Reginald Kentwood, and the canons of the cathedral. He made the traditional offering at the altar, before proceeding, still escorted by the mayor and civic dignitaries, to Westminster Abbey.

Westminster Abbey

As the bells of the abbey rang out, the abbot, Richard Harweden, presented Henry with the sceptre of St Edward. Despite its weight, Henry carried it resting on his shoulder to the high altar where a Te Deum was sung.

He left the abbey for the palace, escorted by his lords, where, after a long and tiring day, he was allowed to rest (5). On the following day the mayor and representatives of the Common Council of London presented him with a hamper containing £1,000 in gold nobles, the same sum they had presented to King Henry V (6).

Londoners witnessing Henry’s procession saw a traditional show, to which they were accustomed: it was exciting, colourful, and triumphant with easily identifiable figures representing simple, well-known concepts: royalty, peace, justice, wisdom, and grace (mercy/forgiveness). The pageants were a civic reception for the king who had been crowned in France, and was blessed by God because he would bring an end to the war and restore peace and prosperity to his realms. After a lengthy stay in ‘foreign’ lands he had returned to his capital, a city renowned throughout the world for its prosperity and riches, justifiably known as the ‘king’s chamber.’

Gordon Kipling’s tortuously detailed interpretation of the pageantry seriously distorts their religious symbolism. Henry might be portrayed as coming like the Messiah, a Christ-like king, ushering in a new age, but not as the Messiah, which would have been blasphemy. The themes of Advent and Epiphany are not much in evidence. There are almost as many classical allusions in Lydgate’s verses as there are biblical: Thetis, Bacchus, Phoebus, Brutus, Julius Caesar, Scipio, and the figures of the seven sciences (7).

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(1) Great Chronicle, pp. 156-170 (Lydgate’s verses).

(2)  Stow, Survey of London II, ed. Kingsford, p 193

(3)  Planche, ‘Badges of the House of Lancaster’, pp. 385-86.

(4) Rowe, ‘King Henry’s claim’ pp. 77-88 (dual monarchy).

(5) Wolffe, Henry VI, pp. 52-53 and 63-64. (pageants).

(6) Sharpe, Letter Book K, p. 138 (pageants).

(7) Kipling, Enter the King, pp. 143-47 and 152. (interpretation).

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“And when the Kyng had riden thurgh Suthwerk, and come to the stulpes without London Brigge þere stode a gyaunt in toure, with his swerd drawe in his hande, shewed with countenaunce doth manace all foreyn enemys to the death without mercy þat seith or doth ayenst the Kynges right. “And y, the Kynges Champyon, in full myght and power.”                            

And then the Kyng come to London Brigge; and there was made a roiall hevenly toure; and therin was shewed iij ladyes as Emperice, worthely apparaylled in theire aray which were called by name Nature, Grace and Fortune.  And theire girdelles were blewe, shynyng like to sapheres, which shewed to the Kyng in his comyng all goodnesse and gladness in vertuous lyvng; and with oþer vij virgyne celestial in tresses of gold and with coronalles on theire hedes all clothed in white as virgines with sonnys of gold on theire garmentes shewyng as hevenly creatures mekely salewyng the Kyng and gaf him vij giftes, þat were toknes of oure Lord God of heven, þat were white dowves betokening the giftes of the Holy Gost, a spirite of intelligence, a spirite of sapience, and a spirite of strenght and of conning and of consayle, pite, drede and lowlynesse. And on the lifte side of these iij Emperesses were vij oþer virgyns, clothed all in white with sterres of gold on theire garmentes, with coronalles on theire hedes, which presented the Kyng with royall giftes: first, they endewed the Kyng with the crowne of glorye, and with the septre of mekenesse and of pite; a swerd of myght and victorie, a mantell of prudence, a shelde of feith, a helme of helth, a girdell of love and of parfite peas.  And all these ladyes and virgines welcomed the Kyng with all honoure and reuerence.

And then the Kyng procedyng forth to the Condyte in Cornhill; and þere was made in serkelwyse a Trone; and in the myddes sittyng a yonge child as a kyng, whom to gouerne were iij ladyes Mercy, Trouthe and the Lady Clennesse; and ij Iuges of lawe and viij sergeauntes, to shewe the kyngdom law and right.

And then the Kyng rode forth, and entred into Chepe and come to the grete Conduit, þat ranne plente of good wyne, bothe white and rede, to all peple þat wold drynk. And aboue  ouer the Condite, was a royall toure likned to Paradyse, with many dyuers trees beryng eueryche dyuers frutes.  And in this same gardeyn was dyuers welles of dyuers wynes, with bokettes; and iij glorious virgins wounde vp the wyne proferyng the Kyng there full habundaunce, fulsomnesse, and high plente.  And the names of the virgins been Mercy, Grace and Pite. And in the ende of this garden þere appered to the Kyng ij olde men, þat oon Enok; and þat oþer Ely, þat shewed the Kynge chere and grete preysing ministryng his gouernance.

And the Kyng passed forth and come to the Crosse in Chepe. And there was made a castell roiall; and on the Est syde stode ij grene tree[s] which bare the armes of England and of Fraunce, the libardes and the flouredelice, which been the Kinges right and trewe armes be lyne.  And vpon this castell toward Seint Paules, there was the tree of Iesse with all the braunches shewyng the kynrede of oure Lorde Ihesu and our Lady Seint Marye, to the comfort of the Kyng and for the grete solempnite of þe worthy cite of London.

And then they passed forth from þe Castell and come toward Seint Paules at the Litell Conduit; and þere was made an heven indivisible of the trinite; and a trone compassed his roiall See with a grete multitude of angellys hym aboute, with dyuers melodyes and songe, to hertly ioye and comfortyng of the Kyng and all his peple. 

And whan he was come to Seint Paules there he alight doun of his hors; and þere come þe Archebisshop of Canterbury and the Archebisshop of York and þe Bisshop of Lincoln and the Bisshop[es] of Bathe, Salesbury, Norwich, Ely and Rochestre, and the Dene of Paules with his couent, in procession, in their best araye of holy Chirche, and met with hym and did hym obseruance as bylongeth to hym, and censed hym at his comyng in; and so brought the kyng to the high autere with roiall songe.  And there the kyng offred; and then he come oute ageyn, and toke his hors, and come to Westminster; and thider brought hym the Maire, Aldermen and all the communialte of the Cite of London.

And when the kyng was come to Westminster with all his peple, the Abbot and all the Couent come oute, coped royally in procession with high solempnite and gladnesse. And the Abbot brought the King to Seint Edwardes septre; and so he come into the Abbay with all solempnite, ioye and songe, and offred to Seint Edward; and then come oute ageyne and went to his palace. And then the Maire and Aldermen with all the communialte of London toke theire leve of the Kyng and of the lordes and thanked God highly of his welfare and comyng.                                                  

And on the Seturday next suyng, the Maire and þe Aldermen come ageyn to Westminster to the palays with a riche hanaper of gold, and presented it to the Kyng and a M¹ li of gold therin, his bien venewe and welcom hoom; and prayed hym of his high myghty grace, lordship and love to his Chambre.”  Brut Continuation F, pp. 462-465

Chronicles:  Brut Continuation F and Gregory’s Chronicle (pp. 173-175) derive from the same source and are almost identical. The other chronicles record the event but with few details:

Benet’s Chronicle p. 183; Great Chronicle, p. 156; Three Fifteenth Century Chronicles (Short English Chronicle) p.  61; A Chronicle of London (Harley 565), p. 119; Chronicles of London (Cleopatra C IV) p.134); Annales (pseudo-Worcester) 760; Brut Continuation G p. 502, and Brut Continuation H, p. 569.

The Proceedings record 37 meetings in 1432: two in February, two in March when the officers of state and the household personnel were changed. Seven in May, four in June, nine in July, three in August, three in October, five in November and two in December.

King Henry and the Earl of Warwick

King Henry would celebrate his eleventh birthday on 6 December 1432. Not surprisingly after the panoply and pageantry he had been subjected to, he had grown ‘in conceyte and knoweleche of his hiegh and royale auctoritee and estate,’ and he was beginning to resent being reproved or criticised.

Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick had been Henry’s governor for four years and he was finding the job onerous.

See Year 1428: The Earl of Warwick: King Henry’s governor.

On 29 November 1432 Warwick submitted a nine-point repetitive memorandum to the Council itemising his concern for his future as governor of the young king and the royal household (1).

Warwick was worried; Henry was being influenced by members of his household, as well as outsiders, and he was being told of things that it would be better for him not to know: “he hath be sturred by some frome his lerynng and spoken to of divers matiers not behovefull.” He wanted to restrict access to Henry, and he requested that in future he and at least one knight of the body or other responsible person should be present at all interviews with the king, apart from the royal uncles, the steward and the chamberlain of the household, who could not be denied access. One wonders what, or whom, Warwick was afraid of.

Warwick expressed his reluctance to continue his charge unless he could be sure of the full backing of the Council in everything he did for Henry’s education and well-being. He had heard rumours that ‘malicious and untrewe men’ were reporting untruths to the Council about him and he demanded to be informed of them and allowed to defend his good name. He even inserted an insurance clause: if he fell ill, or for any other serious reason, he was to be permitted to tender his resignation and be absolved of any blame or wrongdoing whatsoever.

Warwick was not alone in his determination to retain control over King Henry. The Duke of Gloucester and the Council agreed that Henry should be told only what was considered suitable; he was not to be allowed to do anything, or talk with anyone, of whom Warwick disapproved.

Warwick claimed the right to dismiss any member of the household he considered unsuitable, but the Council insisted that Henry’s four knights of the body and his esquires could not be dismissed without their permission, and Warwick could not appoint any additional knights or esquires without consultation. But the Council confirmed Warwick’s right to move and relocate the royal household at any time and to any place he thought fit.

Warwick’s principal concern was that when Henry grew up and assumed his personal rule Henry might hold a grudge for the way Warwick had treated him. Warwick insisted that his position and authority should be clearly explained to Henry by the Duke of Gloucester, the Chancellor and the Treasurer (to make an impression on the young king?). In other words, although Henry had been old enough to be crowned King of England and King of France, he was to submit to Warwick’s censure, but he must not blame Warwick. The Council undertook to inform Henry of what was required of him the next time he was in London.

It is not surprising that Henry VI grew up to rely on the opinions of others with little will of his own. His attempt to stand up for himself at the age eleven was to be firmly suppressed, in effect he was to do as he was told. For the most part Henry was biddable and willing to take advice, but throughout life he resented and resisted any attempt to coerce him.

Unless the reports of the foreign diplomats whom Henry received in person in 1432 and 1433 are deliberately mendacious, King Henry knew how to behave. Cardinal Landriani was  “charmed by the bearing and elegance of manner of the ten year old king” (2) and the experienced Burgundian Hugh de Lannoy reported to Duke Philip that Henry “asked very graciously and in the French language how you were  . . . . and after some gracious conversation which we had with him he caused us to retire” (3).

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(1) PPC IV, pp. 133-137 (Warwick’s authority over King Henry).

(2) Schofield, ‘First English Delegation,’ p. 171 (Landriani on Henry VI).

(3) L&P II, pp. 225 (Lannoy on Henry VI).

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The Duke of Gloucester, the Council, and the Household

The Council

The Duke of Gloucester had ‘ruled’ in England as custos from April 1430 until 1432 while King Henry and members of the council, including Cardinal Beaufort, were in France. As soon as the pageants to welcome Henry were over, Gloucester made a bid to retain his hold on power and pre-eminence. He needed King Henry’s presence to validate changes in council and the royal household. Only the king could require the resignation of the Chancellor of England.

In the Council Chamber at Westminster on 25 February, John Kemp, Archbishop of York, the Duke of Bedford’s choice as Chancellor, resigned his office. King Henry accepted the Great Seals of gold and silver in their white leather bags and handed them to Gloucester, undoubtedly as Gloucester had instructed him.

Two days later in a chamber in the king’s private apartments in Westminster Palace in the presence of the Council, King Henry delivered the seals to the new chancellor, John Stafford, Bishop of Bath and Welles and former Treasurer of England (1, 2). Writs to summon Parliament to meet in May were issued on the same day.

Kemp as Chancellor had demonstrated his distrust of Gloucester in so far as he could. He anticipated that Gloucester would assert his authority over the young king, and he preferred to stand down rather than take part in any future proceedings against Cardinal Beaufort orchestrated by Gloucester.

See Year 1431: The Duke of Gloucester and Cardinal Beaufort

Gloucester also replaced the two other officers of state: Lord Scrope replaced Lord Hungerford as Treasurer of England and William Lyndwood replaced William Alnwick as Keeper of the Privy Seal (3). In June the three newly appointed officers were given the same powers as their predecessors to grant letters of safe conducts to servants visiting foreign prisoners being held in England (4).

In November the Exchequer was ordered to allow £26 5s 4d to John Stopingdon, Keeper of the Hanaper, because of an increase in the price of cloth and fur for the robes given to the ex-chancellor and the new chancellor at Christmas and Pentecost (5).

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(1) PPC VI, p. 349 (surrender of the Great Seals).

(2) Foedera X, pp 500-501 (resignation and replacement of the Chancellor).

(3) Handbook of British Chronology p. 102 (Treasurer, misnamed Henry Scrope) and p. 92 (Privy Seal).

(4) PPC IV, pp. 117-118 (powers to grant safe conducts to prisoners’ servants).

(5) Foedera X, p. 523 (chancellors’ robes).

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The Duchy of Lancaster

The Council ordered that a book containing Duchy of Lancaster records held in the Treasury should be turned over to the Duke of Gloucester (1). This may be the same ‘great book containing the records of the Duchy of Lancaster’ that John Stafford the outgoing Treasurer had handed to the incoming Treasurer, Lord Hungerford in 1427.

See Year 1427: Duchy of Lancaster.

Income from Duchy of Lancaster lands enfeoffed under King Henry V’s will went to his feoffees, not into the king’s treasury, and ‘the feoffees were sensitive [to any] implied suggestion that they had misappropriated the revenues of the Duchy’ (2). Cardinal Beaufort was the principal feoffee and Gloucester was amassing all the evidence he could find against Beaufort. An accusation of mishandling Henry V’s legacy might prove useful.

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(1)  PPC IV, p. 110 (Duchy of Lancaster records).

(2) Somerville, Duchy of Lancaster, p. 205 (Duchy feoffees).

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The Royal Household

Sweeping changes to the royal household followed the replacement of the officers of state. Gloucester tried to put the clock back by reinstating Henry V’s officers to important positions. Letters of privy seal were to be sent to those discharged to inform them of the new appointments (1, 2, 3, 4).

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(1)  PPC IV, p. 110 (changes in household personnel).

(2) Foedera X, p. 502 (household officers replaced).

(3) Griffiths, Henry VI, pp. 58-59 (changes in household personnel).

(4) Wolffe, Henry VI, pp. 66-67 (changes in household personnel).

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Officers

Sir William Phelip had been treasurer of Henry V’s household. He replaced Lord Cromwell as chamberlain (1). Phelip became a member of the Council with wages of £100 a year (2).

Sir Robert Babthorp had been Henry V’s comptroller. He replaced Lord Tiptoft as steward of the household. Babthorp was instructed to take over as steward immediately and present himself to Gloucester without delay (3). He was to inform Lord Cromwell of his dismissal.

William Hayton had been appointed as the king’s secretary and keeper of the king’s signet when Henry crossed to France in 1430 (4). He was discharged. Gloucester sealed the king’s signet into a purse and turned it over to the Treasury for safe keeping. He was taking no chance of anyone persuading Henry to show initiative and issue counter measures under the royal signet.

Robert Rolleston, Keeper of the Great Wardrobe, was commanded to deliver furred vestments for summer and winter to Master John Somerset, Henry’s physician, the same livery as John Middleton had under King Richard II (5).

Master John Somerset was assiduous in claiming clothing allowances throughout his long career. One wonders if in this instance he based his claim on Richard II’s physician because that king had been more generous in the matter of clothing than either Henry IV or Henry V?

John Merston, keeper of the king’s jewels, was instructed to redeem jewels held in pledge by the Abbot of Westminster as security for a loan. He was to give the abbot a gold crown in exchange. The crown was probably of lesser value than the jewels; the Exchequer habitually recovered pledged crown jewels at a discount whenever possible; they were needed as security to raise new loans. Merston was also to recover an alms dish of gold called ‘the Tiger’ (6).

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(1) PPC IV, p. 110 (Cromwell and Phelip).

(2) PPC IV, p. 113 (Phelip’s salary).

(3) Foedera X, p. 503 (Babthorp to report to Gloucester).

(4) Otway-Ruthven, The King’s Secretary and the Signet Office, p. 154 (William Hayton).

(5) PPC IV, p. 131 (a physician’s livery).

(6) PPC IV, p. 115 (crown jewels).

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Clerics

Richard Praty had accompanied Henry to France. He was appointed Dean of the Royal Chapel in place of Robert Gilbert (1).

Robert Felton replaced John de la Bere as the king’s almoner. In May royal officers were ordered to assist Felton to resume levying deodands (2).

John Lowe, an Augustinian friar, became the king’s confessor (3).

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(1) Griffiths, Henry VI, p. 346 (Praty).

(2) Foedera X, p. 508. (Deodands.  English law. Personal chattel which, having been the immediate occasion of the death of a person, was forfeited to the crown to be applied to pious uses.  A sum taken in lieu of the deodand.  OED)

(3) CPR 1429-1436, p 196 (John Lowe).

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Wages

The wages of the household were, as usual, in arrears. Honouring or reforming payment of wages may have been Gloucester’s initiative to get the royal household in his side.

In July John Hotoft, former treasurer of the household, and Sir John Tyrell, the present treasurer, were instructed to compile lists of household servants, knights, esquires, valets, officers and other servants to be delivered to the Treasurer of England for the payment of ‘wages of war and accustomed rewards’ (1).

In October the Council agreed that King Henry’s knights of the body (the king’s carvers), Robert Roos, Edmund Hungerford, William Beauchamp, and John Beauchamp, ‘who had long been in the king’s service without fee or reward’ should be paid £40 annually.  They had to wait for their money until the following year: in May 1433 they were each paid £20 for a half years’ service from 20 October 1432 (2, 3).

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(1) PPC IV, pp. 121-122 (royal household wages).

(2) PPC IV, p. 128 (£40 awarded to kings’ carvers).

(3) Issues of the Exchequer, p. 421 (£20 paid to kings’ carvers May 1433).

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Parliament

Parliament convened on 12 May 1432 and was in session until 17 July.

“And þen anon after Ester next folowyng, the Kyng held his parlement at Westminster and it lasted till seint Jametyde þe Appostell.”  Brut Continuation F, p. 465

“Ande the xij day of May beganne the Parlement at Westemyster, and that duryd unto the xvj day of Juylle nexte followynge.”  Gregory’s Chronicle p. 174

If Gloucester was to consolidate his grip on power, he needed the support of the Commons. He cast himself as the maintainer of law and order.  Five days before Parliament met, writs signed by Gloucester, the Archbishop of Canterbury and two other bishops had been issued to seven magnates the Duke of Norfolk, the Earls of Suffolk, Huntingdon, Stafford, Northumberland and Salisbury, and Lord Cromwell, commanding them to come to Westminster accompanied by no more than the customary number of  retainers (1). The writs can only have been issued on Gloucester’s orders to reassure the Commons that he would not tolerate any disorder in the capital.

Gloucester informed the Commons that he and the Lords, spiritual and temporal, were in complete accord, and that as the king’s chief councillor he would not act without the assent of the Council ‘or at least the majority of them.’ He invited Parliament to give him full co-operation in governing England (2). For the moment Gloucester was confident that he had secured his position and his hold on power.

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(1) PPC IV, pp. 112-113 (instructions to the magnates attending Parliament).

(2) PROME XI, p. 10 (Gloucester’s speech on the second day of Parliament).

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Taxation

Benet’s Chronicle records the tax grant of 1432; it was for a half tenth and fifteenth with no relief (1).

 “And in 1432 the king held a parliament at London in which the king was granted a fifteenth.  And in this parliament, about the feast of St Thomas the Martyr, the king remitted to the laity £6,000 (sic) of the fifteenth throughout England.”  Benet’s Chronicle, p. 183

The chronicler confused this parliament with that of 1433, which met on 8 July (St Thomas’s Day is 7 July) when a tax of a fifteenth and tenth was granted with a relief of £4,000 for ‘poor cities, towns and boroughs which are desolate’ (2).

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(1) PROME XI, p. 11 (half tenth and fifteenth 1432).

(2) PROME XI, p. 88 (tax and relief, 1433).

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Cardinal Beaufort’s Treasure

Cardinal Beaufort did not return to England with King Henry. He had requested and received royal licence to travel to Rome for consultations with Pope Eugenius IV. The writs of praemunire facias to strip him of his bishopric that the Duke of Gloucester had forced through the Council at the end of 1431 were hanging over his head, but they would only be issued if he returned to England.

See Year 1431: The Duke of Gloucester and Cardinal Beaufort.

Beaufort was in Flanders as a guest of the Duke of Burgundy. He requested Chancellor Kemp  to appoint attorneys to prepare a defence against the charges and Kemp appointed Nicholas Radford and William Tresham. (1). Beaufort instructed his agents in England to ship some of his enormous collection of plate, jewels and coin to him at Calais: “four coffers, or standards, besides quantities of plate, twenty ewers of gold, ninety-nine cups of gold, divers gold chalices, candlesticks, salvers, cruets . . . . and a great coffer full of small parcels of gold; it must have included in coin at least £20,000”.

This was neither as sinister nor as suspicious as the Duke of Gloucester subsequently made it sound. The Cardinal of England could not go empty handed to Rome, possibly the most expensive and venal city in all of Europe. An opulent display of conspicuous wealth would be expected of him if he was to have any influence at the Roman Curia.

The Duke of Gloucester was at Dover, waiting to welcome King Henry, when he learned that a ship berthed at Sandwich was to be loaded with Cardinal Beaufort’s treasure on the night of 6 February (2). Gloucester knew that the Council had not issued an export licence.  Beaufort assumed that his special status and the king’s permission to travel to Rome covered him, but legally it did not. Gloucester wasted no time in sending royal officers to impound the cargo and deliver it to the Exchequer for safekeeping.

In his excitement at the prospect of ruining the Cardinal, Gloucester did not stop to consider the consequences of his action. The seizure of Beaufort’s treasure disrupted Beaufort’s plans to travel to Rome and ensured his return to England. Without money he would be almost invisible in Rome, merely one cardinal among many.

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(1) Foedera X, p. 500 (Beaufort’s attorneys appointed).

(2) Harriss, Beaufort, pp. 215-216 (Cardinal Beaufort’s treasure).

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Beaufort in Parliament

Beaufort wrote to the Mayor and Common Council of London in April to announce that he would return to England to attend Parliament (1). Exactly when Beaufort arrived in England is not known, probably in July.

“And at the begynnyng of the parlement, the Cardynall, the Bisshop of Wynchestre, come ouer the see into England, and so to London to þe Kyng to excuse hym of the offence[s] and blames þat were put vpon hym for thinges doon in Fraunce, by the compleynt of certeyn lordes; wherof he hath worthely excused hym to the Kyng and to his consayle; and so he was fully excused and the parties at oon.” Brut Continuation F, p. 465

The business of parliament was almost complete when Beaufort rose in his seat in the Lords on 17 July to throw his bombshell. He made no reference to the writs of praemunire facias. Instead, he announced that he had forgone his visit to Rome, despite urgent invitations from the Pope, because he had been informed that certain persons in England had accused him of treason. In the presence of King Henry, the Duke of Gloucester, and the assembled Lords he demanded that his accusers name themselves and produce their accusations and evidence. He was ready to defend himself against anyone, even the highest in the land (2).

Had an accusation of treason been made, or did Beaufort invent it? There is no evidence other than Beaufort’s dramatic statement. The Statutes of Provisors and Praemunire carried heavy penalties but flouting them was not treason. It was illegal to ship gold or jewels out of the country without a royal licence, but it was not treason.

The Lords were not prepared to censure Beaufort and risk him refusing future loans. In fact on 1 March 1432, the same day as Gloucester’s changes to the Council and household took effect, the Council had authorised repayment of Beaufort’s most recent loans, amounting to £1,083 6s 8d and £140, and a smaller one  for £593, 6s 8d that he made to Sir John Tyrell, treasurer of the household, for the king’s household expenses in France, against a pledge of the ‘King of Spain’s’ sword and other jewels (3, 4).

King Henry commanded the Lords, with Gloucester’s concurrence, to answer that no one had, or would, accuse Beaufort of treason. Beaufort’s past services and loyalty to the crown were beyond question. Beaufort magnanimously accepted their exoneration but demanded that it be entered on the parliament rolls (5).

He then played the injured innocent: he claimed not to understand why his jewels and money had been impounded, but said he understood that the country needed relief from the heavy burden of taxation and it behoved loyal citizens to make what contribution they could (which incidentally the Duke of Gloucester never did). To this end he had negotiated with Gloucester and the Council for the suit against him in chancery to be dropped. In exchange he promised to make a conditional gift of £6,000 to the crown (6).

When King Henry came of age it would be up to the king to decide if the £6,000 should be repaid. It appears from the wording on the parliamentary rolls that Gloucester made some sort of claim on a percentage of this sum.

Beaufort offered to make a further loan of £6,000 and to defer payment of it, and of the 13,000 marks which he was still owed, until receipts from future taxes granted by Parliament should be available, provided his jewels, plate, and money were returned to him  The grateful Commons petitioned that all charges or impending charges against the cardinal be dropped and declared null and void (7).

Cardinal Beaufort had bought his way out of trouble: £12,000 was a small price to pay to recover his fortune and ensure his safety.  He had spiked Gloucester’s guns; to bring an action of any kind against Beaufort after Parliament had exonerated him could only have ended in humiliation for the duke. Beaufort had outsmarted his rival.

As insurance against future embarrassment, a relieved Council decreed that the Duke of Bedford was entitled to take as much bullion, plate and as many jewels as he wished out of England for as long as he remained the king’s regent in France (8).

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(1) Sharpe, London III, pp. 374-75 (Beaufort’s letter to London).

(2) PROME XI, pp. 13-14. (Beaufort in Parliament).

(3) PPC IV, pp. 109-110 (repayment of Beaufort’s loans).

(4) Foedera X, p. 502 (repayment of Beaufort’s loans).

(5) Foedera X, pp. 516-519 (full exoneration of Beaufort at the Commons request).

(6) PROME XI p. 15 (Beaufort’s offer of loans).

(7) PROME XI, pp. 16-17 (Commons petition in Beaufort’s favour).

(8) PPC IV, pp. 118-119 (Bedford licenced to export valuables).

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Council Proceedings

Sorcery and Witchcraft

Two cases of sorcery and witchcraft were brought before the Council in May 1432:

John Colepeper and Robert Passemer, sergeant at arms, were ordered to arrest Thomas Northfelde a Dominican Friar suspected of unorthodox preaching in Worcester. They were to “search and seize all his books treating of sorcery or wickedness and bring him and them before the Council (1, 2).

Margery Jourdemayne, called ‘the Witch of Eye next Westminster,’ and a friar, John Ashwell, had been arrested in November 1430 and imprisoned in Windsor Castle on suspicion of practicing the black arts (3). Lord Hungerford, the Constable of Windsor, brought them and a clerk, John Virley, before the Council.

Margery had come to the attention of the Duke of Gloucester through his wife Duchess Eleanor, who availed herself of Margery’s services over several years. Among other dubious talents, Margery was believed to be able to forecast the future; she is described in the Chronicon Angliae as an ancient pythoness (4). Nine years later, in 1441, Margery Jourdemayne would feature in a major witchcraft trial and give damming evidence against the Duchess of Gloucester.

See Year 1441: Eleanor Cobham, Duchess of Gloucester

Virley and Ashwell were set free after giving surety for their future good behaviour while Margaery was released into her husband’s keeping on his security (5, 6). The fate of Thomas Northfelde is not recorded.

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(1) Foedera X, pp. 504-505 (Thomas Northfelde).

(2) CPR 1429-1436 p. 220 (Thomas Northfelde).

(3 J. Freeman, ‘Sorcery at Court and Manor: Margery Jourdemayne the Witch of Eye next Westminster,’ Journal of Medieval History 30 (4), (2004), pp. 343-357.

(4) Chronicon Angliae IV, p. 31 (antiqua Pythonissa).

(5) PPC IV, p. 114 (Jourdemayne, Virley and Ashwell).

(6) Foedera X, p. 505 (Jourdemayne, Virley and Ashwell).

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Royal Heralds

The Council employed pairs of heralds and pursuivants to maintain regular communication with the Duke of Bedford and the Grand Conseil in Paris as well as with the Council in Rouen. They crossed the channel carrying news, letters, and messages from England to France and France to England.  One would remain in France while the other returned to England and vice versa (1, 2).

The Council set the wages for three royal heralds: Lancaster King at Arms at 20 marks a year, Windsor Herald £10, and Leopard Herald 2d a day (3, 4).  All three had served under Henry IV and Henry V.

Beville Chivachier was paid £2 in July for bringing letters to the Council from France, possibly from the parlement of Paris or the Grand Conseil (5). Master William Erard and Imbert des Champs coming from Paris were to be paid 40 marks, and the Duke of Bedford’s envoys, Master William Duc and John Milet were also to receive 40 marks (6).

Heralds are associated with battles, it was their job to count the dead and wounded, but they had many other functions. They served as messengers and diplomats often carrying secret letters and verbal communications, to European courts; heralds were respected and protected by their calling, they did not need safe conducts to travel, although this was not always respected in time of war.

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(1) PPC IV, p. 114 (heralds and pursuivants as messengers).

(2) Foedera X. p. 505 (heralds and pursuivants as messengers).

(3) PPC IV, p. 115 (wages of three royal heralds).

(4) Foedera X, p. 505 (wages of three royal heralds).

(5) PPC IV p. 121 (envoys from France).

(6) PPC IV, p. 122 (envoys from Bedford).

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Henry V’s Legacy

The Council was still dealing with King Henry V’s will.

Henry V had bequeathed £4,000 from enfeoffed Duchy of Lancaster estates to be distributed among the servants of his household.  A petition to Parliament in 1432 requested that this debt should be honoured (1).

In October Lord Hungerford, Sir William Porter, Sir Robert Babthorp, and John Leventhorpe, steward, chamberlain, and treasurer of Henry V’s household and executors of his will, were instructed to provide a list of the names of Henry V’s esquires, clerks, valets, grooms, and pages to apportion the £4,000 so that each could receive what was due to him (2, 3, 4).

They were also authorised to receive from the Archbishop of Canterbury as a feoffee of Henry V £200 in gold to be paid to the clerks of the royal chapel (5, 6).

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(1) PROME XI, p. 32-34 (blanket authorization for distribution of £4,000).

(2) PPC IV, p. 128 (executors to provide lists of Henry V’s household).

(3) Foedera X, p. 523 (order to distribute £4,000).

(4) CPR 1429-1436, p. 254 (order to distribute £4,000).

(5) Foedera X, p. 506 (Hungerford and other executors to pay £200 to clerks).

(6) CPR 1429-1436, p. 205 (£200 to pay clerks).

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John Burgh

In June the Council honoured John Burgh’s claim for 100 marks, a legacy from a servant of Henry V, and they advanced him another 300 marks as a loan to help him pay his ransom, otherwise he would have had to surrender himself by the end of the month (1).

John Burgh is a common name, but this John was a soldier in Normandy who fought at the Battle of Verneuil in 1424. Where and when he was captured is not stated, but as was customary, he had been set free on parole to return to England to raise his ransom. He is listed as captain of Regnéville by March 1433 with three men-at-arms and nine archers (2).

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(1) PPC IV, p. 117 (grant to Burgh).

(2) Marshal, ‘English War Captains,’ p. 268 (Régneville).

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The Council and the Church

Two Council appointments in 1432 relating to ecclesiastical matters are obscure:

Cistercians

On 28 February the Council permitted the Cistercian  Abbot Guillaume d’Autun and John of Clairvaux to order a visitation and inspection to reform all the Cistercian monasteries in England, Wales, and Ireland (1).  It would have been a major undertaking. Only the Benedictines maintained more abbeys than the Cistercians, the White Monks. I have found no other reference to this visitation in the printed sources.

Master John Milez

On 26 March the Council appointed Master John Milez (Miles?) as the king’s advocate at the curia in Rome.  He was to receive 50 marks a year (2).  Who was he?  He does not rate at mentioned in England, Rome and the Papacy, Margaret Harvey’s detailed account of England’s relationship with the papal court during Henry VI’s reign.

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(1) Foedera X, pp. 501 (Cistercians).

(2) PPC IV, p. 111 (Milez to go to Rome).

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 Pilgrimages

At the beginning of May the Council issued a licence to Peter July and Henry Tremayne to convey twenty-four pilgrims aboard the Trinity of Falmouth on the annual pilgrimage to St James of Compostela in Galicia (1).

See Year 1428  Pilgrimages.

(1) Foedera X, p. 504 (pilgrimage).

The Magnates

Humphrey, Earl of Stafford

The Earl of Stafford had accompanied King Henry’s coronation expedition to France in 1430. In October 1432 the Council agreed that he should receive the same wage for serving on the Council in Rouen as he would have received had he attended the Council in England (1).

(1) PPC IV, p. 129 (Stafford).

Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick

The Earl of Warwick played a major and costly part in King Henry’s coronation expedition, entertaining visiting dignitaries and members of Henry’s entourage in Rouen as well as conducting a military campaign.

In July 1432 Warwick requested a licence to send £350 to Calais to repay the merchants of the Staple who had loaned him the money while Henry was in Calais (1). In November the Council authorised payment to him of £1,580 13s 4d pus 16s 8d livres tournois for the 100 men-at-arms and 300 archers he had maintained from 1 November 1430 to 15 July 1431 to defend the town and marches of Meaux. He was also to receive his share of war profits (unspecified, and if any) (2).

Lord Talbot and Poton de Xaintrailles

During his campaign in August 1431 Warwick captured the French war captain Poton de Xaintrailles in an ambush near Beauvais.

See Year 1431: The Earl of Warwick.

John, Lord Talbot was Warwick’s son in law. He had been captured by Xaintrailles at the Battle of Patay in 1429. King Charles VII purchased Talbot from Xaintrailles in March 1431 for £2,100.

It is perhaps not coincidental that while envoys from the Duke of Brittany were in England in 1432, the duke offered a gift of salt to help pay Lord Talbot’s ransom. It might win the future good will of the Council, the Earl of Warwick, and of Talbot.

See Brittany below.

The Council licenced Talbot to import the 2,000 mewes of salt contributed by the Duke of Brittany free of customs duties (3).  ‘Licence for John, Lord Talbot to export whither he will free from custom, the salt which John, Duke of Brittany, the king’s uncle, has given to relieve him from the unbearable charges of his ransom’ (4).

At the end of May 1432, safe conducts were issued, probably at Warwick’s request, for three of Xaintrailles’s retainers, Bernon de Genestelle, John de Bouzy and Reginald du Conay, to visit Xaintrailles in the fortress of Chateau Thierry on the Marne (5). The visit may have related to the negotiations for Talbot’s release.

The importance of Xaintrailles to the French war effort is reflected in King Charles’s willingness to release Talbot, equally valuable to the English war effort, in exchange for Xaintrailles. Terms for an exchange of prisoners were discussed, but the details are unknown, and nothing came of them until 1433 (6).

See Year 1433: Lord Talbot and Poton de Xaintrailles.

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(1) PPC IV, p. 120 (Warwick’s repayment of a loan).

(2) PPC IV, p. 132 (Warwick paid for defending Meaux).

(3) Foedera X, pp. 514-515 (licence to sell salt).

(4) CPR 1429-1436, p. 211 (licence to sell salt).

(5) Foedera X, p. 507 (Xaintrailles’s retainers).

(6) Pollard, Talbot, pp. 17-18 (negotiations for an exchange).

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Sir John Cornwall, Lord Fanhope

Sir John Cornwall was a successful war captain, he fought at Agincourt where he captured the Count of Vendôme; he was at the siege of Rouen in 1419, but returned to England after he was wounded, and his only son was killed, at the siege of Meaux in 1420 (1).

Cornwall had the good fortune to marry Elizabeth of Lancaster, Henry V’s aunt.  ‘The noble deeds which he had performed and which he now performs with great distinction,’ and his marriage were noted in the parliamentary rolls. Cornwall was elevated to the peerage by the Lords in Parliament, and on 17 July 1432 and he became Baron Fanhope, although the exemplification of his barony was not enrolled until November (2, 3).

Cornwall relinquished  had custody of the Duke of Orleans to the Earl of Suffolk (4). Nearly a year later in March 1433, the Council ordered that the £40 still due to him for keeping Orleans should be paid (5).

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(1) Sumption, Cursed kings p. 747 (death of Cornwall’s son).

(2) PROME XI, p. 35 (Cornwall created Lord Fanhope).

(3) Foedera X, p. 524 (12 November for exemplification of Fanhope).

(4) PPC IV, p. 124 (Orleans transferred to Suffolk).

(5) PPC IV, p. 156 (Orleans’s keep).

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Noble Ladies and the Garter

Only the queens of England and a few noble ladies were awarded robes of the Order of the Garter (1).  In May 1432 Robert Rolleston, Keeper of the Great Wardrobe was instructed to deliver garter robes to Eleanor, Duchess of Gloucester, Isabelle, Countess of Warwick, and Alice, Countess of Suffolk ‘for the Feast of St George last past’ (2).

Eleanor Cobham, Duchess of Gloucester was publicly acknowledged for the first time as Gloucester’s wife in March 1432 when she received garter robes, undoubtedly at Gloucester’s instigation (3).

The Council granted a licence to the duke and duchess of Gloucester in December 1432 to impark 200 acres of land adjacent to Gloucester’s house at Greenwich, including seventeen acres which King Henry V had granted to his foundation of the convent at Sheen. (4).

Isabelle Despenser was the second wife of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, King Henry’s governor. She had been with her husband in Rouen when the earl organised (and paid for) feasts and entertainments for the court and visiting dignitaries while King Henry was in residence.

Alice Chaucer the widow of Thomas Montagu, Earl of Salisbury married William de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk in 1431. It is tempting to see Alice’s admission to the Order as an early indication that Suffolk’s star was on the rise and that he had caught King Henry’s attention as early as 1432. Or it may be that Alice was being recognised as the widow of the great Earl of Salisbury.

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(1) J.L. Gillespie, ‘Ladies of the Fraternity of Saint George and the Society of the Garter’ Albion, vol. 17 (1985) p. 271.

(2) PPC IV, p. 116 (Order of the Garter robes).

(3) Gillespie notes that Vickers, in his biography of Gloucester (p. 249) misread an early account and dated Eleanor’s admission to the Order to 1436.

(4) PPC IV, p. 138 (Greenwich).

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Anne Stafford, Countess of Huntingdon  died in September 1432.

“And about the Feast of St Michael the Countess of Huntingdon, sister (sic) of the Countess of Stafford and formerly Countess of March, died.” Benet’s Chronicle, p. 183

Anne was the widow of Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March, and wife of John Holand, Earl of Huntingdon. She was the daughter, not the sister of Anne of Woodstock, the dowager Countess of Stafford. She was buried in the church of St Katherine beside the Tower of London; Huntingdon was Constable of the Tower. Her dower lands reverted to the Duke of York, heir to the Mortimer estates, on payment of 1,000 marks to the crown (1).

(1) PPC IV, pp. 130-131 (Mortimer lands reverted to the Duke of York).

Death of John Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk

The Duke of Norfolk died suddenly at Epworth on 19 October 1432 (his will is dated that day and is incomplete). He was buried in Axholme Priory in Lincolnshire.

“And about the feast of All Saints the duke of Norfolk died.”  Benet ‘s Chronicle, p.183

The Duke of Gloucester was granted custody of the Mowbray lands during the minority of Norfolk’s son with returns to the king to be negotiated between Gloucester and Lord Scrope, whom Gloucester had appointed Treasurer of England (1).

(1) PPC IV, p. 132.

John Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk

John Mowbray, Earl of Norfolk and Earl Marshal of England was thirty when Henry V died in 1422. He became a member of the Minority Council but did not attend council meetings regularly.

Norfolk was younger son. His elder brother Thomas was executed for treason under Henry IV, but not attainted, so John  inheritrd the title and estates.

John married Katherine Neville, daughter of the Earl of Westmorland by his second wife, Joan Beaufort.  He redeemed his family’s good name through loyal service to Henry V in Henry’s wars in France, becoming a Knight of the Garter in 1421.

He continued to serve in France after Henry V’s death.  He and Lord Willoughby led an army into France in 1423. Norfolk probably took part in the siege of Le Crotoy, as his destination on mustering is given as Picardy.

See Year 1423: The Earl of Norfolk / The siege of Le Crotoy.

Norfolk joined the Duke of Gloucester’s expedition to Hainault in 1424 to recover the patrimony of Gloucester’s wife, Jacqueline, Countess of Hainault, but Gloucester failed to control Norfolk’s appetite for pillage. Norfolk led his men across the border into neighbouring Brabant and ravaged the countryside there. The Duchy of Brabant was not part of Jacqueline’s heritage. The Duke of Burgundy was Brabant’s overlord, and Norfolk’s action gave him an excuse to declare war on Gloucester.

See Year 1424: The Duke of Gloucester and Hainault.

The Parliament of 1425 adjudicated on the long-drawn-out dispute over precedence between Norfolk and Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, dating back the King Henry IV’s reign. The Earls of Warwick were the premier earls in England, but Norfolk claimed precedence by right of descent from a half-brother of King Edward II.

Richard II had created John’s father Thomas Mowbray Duke of Norfolk but subsequently stripped him of his title. Nevertheless, the Commons in Parliament in 1425 decreed that since John, as Earl Marshal of England, was commonly recognised as ‘born to the style’ he was rightfully Duke of Norfolk.

See Year 1425: Parliament.

In 1428 Norfolk sided with the rest of the Minority Council to thwart the Duke of Gloucester’s bid to increase his status and authority as Protector of England.

The Council decreed that magnates named to commissions of the peace should not sit on routine local court proceedings in counties where they held estates, only on serious cases requiring oyer and terminer commissions. Norfolk protested. He preferred to have his name removed from the commissions of the peace rather than surrender his right to conduct local justice as he saw fit.

At the end of the year Norfolk had a narrow escape from drowning when his barge capsized while attempting to shoot the raids under London bridge.

See Year 1428: Royal Justice. Parliament and the Duke of Gloucester. London Bridge.

Norfolk officiated as Earl Marshal at King Henry’s London coronation in November 1429, and he went to France with Henry in 1430. He campaigned in the Isle de France and recovered a number of towns, including Dammartin, Gournay, and Mongay.

See Year 1430: The Campaigns of 1430.

Norfolk was back in England in time to attend the Council meeting in 1431, He joined the majority on the Council in reminding Cardinal Beaufort that under English law he should not be both a cardinal and Bishop of Winchester. Norfolk’s salary for attending council meetings was increased to 300 marks, back dated to 1425 when he became a duke.

See Year 1431: The Duke of Gloucester and Cardinal Beaufort.

Norfolk was not a partisan of the Duke of Gloucester. He remained neutral and voted with the Council when its members curbed Gloucester’s ambitious claims as Protector and when Gloucester sought to strip the Cardinal of his wealth. He was one of the magnates warned by Gloucester not to come to Parliament in May 1432 with a large escort.

See Year 1432: Parliament.

The Parliament of 1432 was the last Norfolk attended. He died unexpectedly in the following October at the early age of forty. His son, another John, was still a minor.

Scottish Hostages

An exchange of fifteen hostages, still languishing in the Tower of London and elsewhere for King James’s unpaid ransom, took place in June 1432.

See Years 1424, 1425, 1426, 1427, and 1431, Scottish hostages.

Letters of safe conduct were issued for Duncan of Athol Lord of Rannoch, but no exchange for him is listed. Safe conducts to come to England were issued to his servants in September 1432 (1).

The Earl of Huntingdon as Constable of the Tower was ordered to release the hostages into the care of Thomas College, a sergeant at arms, who would escort them north to the Earl of Northumberland at Seamer, and to the Earl of Salisbury at Pontefract (2):

William Meldrom was released, but he is not named in the previous lists of hostages.

Andrew Keith of Inverrurie was exchanged for William Sterling, Lord of Cadder. He died before June 1434. His servants received safe conducts in July, presumably to take his body home.

Thomas Hay of Yester was exchanged for William Jardine of Applegarth. He died in the Tower in 1435.

Robert Stewart of Lorne was exchanged for Robert Colville of Oxenham. He was released before 1441.

Alexander Ogilvy, son of the sheriff of Angus, was exchanged for Duncan Wemyss of Reras, and for John of Fenton. Duncan Wemyss’s servants received a safe conduct to come to England in September 1432. Wemyss was still in the Tower in 1438.

David, Lord of Lassell was exchanged for William Baillie of Hoprig. He was released between 1444 and 1451.

Henry Douglas of Lochleven was exchanged for Alexander Stratton of Lauriston. He was held at Pontefract until 1444.

John Kennedy of Blathan was exchanged for Henry Kinloch. He died before May 1434.

Malcolm Fleming, heir of Cumbernauld and Alan of Cathcart, were exchanged for Fleming’s son in 1446.

Patrick, Lord of Graham was exchanged for Malcolm, the heir of Colquhoun who may have died in England before 1439, and for William Crawford of Hayning who died before May 1444.

Robert Logan of Restalrig was exchanged for Michael Scott of Balwearie. He was held at Pontefract until 1444.

Walter, Lord of Fenton was exchanged for Laurence Ramsay of Clatto and John Towres of Inverleith who was released before April 1439.

William Douglas of Drumlanrig was exchanged for Adam Conyngham of Caprington.

William Dishington was exchanged for Alan of Kenard. He may have been dead by 1437.

William/John Wallace was exchanged for Alexander Erskine of Dun, He was released between 1444 and 1451 (3, 4).

The 1432 exchange was the last before King James’s death in 1437. The hostages remaining in custody were kept as bargaining chips for future negotiations with the Scottish Counsel ruling in the name of the boy king James II.

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(1) Foedera X, p. 537 (safe conducts for servants of hostages).

(2) PPC IV, p 122. (College was paid £5 for escorting the hostages).

(3) Foedera X pp. 509-514 (details of exchange).

(4) Balfour-Melville, James I, pp. 201-202 and pp. 294-295 (lists of prisoners).

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Foreign Relations

Brut Continuation F records visits by ambassadors from France, Spain and ‘other lands’ in the summer of 1432 while Parliament was in session. The other lands included the General Council of the Church at Basel, the Papacy, the Kingdom of Denmark, and the Duchy of Brittany.

“And also to this parlement come Frenssh lordes, bothe spirituall and temporall and ambassadtours of Spayne and oþer diuers lordes of dyuers landes to trete for peas and other certyn maters.”  Brut Continuation F, p. 465

Aragon

There is no record of envoys from Spain coming to England in 1432.  Diplomatic discussions between English representatives and envoys from Aragon and Navarre met in Bayonne in 1430 and 1431, broken off at the end of 1430 and resumed in 1431, continued in 1432.

See Year 1430: Foreign Relations, Aragon and Navarre.       

Bernard de Planche, Bishop of Dax, Thomas Burton, the mayor of Bayonne, one of the negotiators in 1430, and Pierre Arnaudeu Vescomatu, Dean of Saint Seurin, were commissioned in February 1432 to continue negotiating (1, 2).

The possibility of an Anglo-Aragonese treaty for mutual military assistance and a marriage for King Henry with a princess of Navarre had been discussed, but English and Aragonese interests were incompatible. The Aragonese even wondered if it was legal for proctors of an underage king to negotiate an international treaty!

Mutual assistance was flatly rejected by both sides. King Alfonso wanted an ally against Castile, but not to be drawn into a war with King Charles VII. The overstretched English war effort meant that the Minority Council could not afford to commit even a limited number of men to fight for Aragon against Castile (with whom they had a truce). No marriage for King Henry could be arranged until he came of age. There was no real hope of the talks reaching a satisfactory conclusion: as Ferguson put it “both countries wanted something for nothing” (3).

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(1) Foedera X, pp. 499-500 (Aragonese in Bayonne).

(2) gasconrolls.org.  C61/124, # 99

(3) Ferguson, Diplomacy, pp. 50-53 and pp. 248-250 Appendix (King Alfonso’s instructions).

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Denmark

King Eric of Denmark complained in 1432, as he had in 1429, that English merchants were flouting the trade regulations requiring them to trade only through his staple at Bergen.

See Year 1429:  Denmark

The Council re-issued the proclamation and prohibition of 1429 (1), but English merchants submitted a counter petition to Parliament in 1432 requesting that letters of Privy Seal be sent to King Eric demanding reparation for their losses.

The Commons complained of Danish piracy and the lack of a means of restitution. King Eric had ignored their claims for compensation, and they had no means of recovery on the somewhat dubious grounds that his subjects had no comparable goods that they could seize. They claimed that merchants from York and Hull had lost goods worth £5,000 in one year  alone, and that other merchants’ losses amounted to £20,000 (2, 3).

Allowing for pardonable exaggeration, English merchants had obviously been trading through ports other than Bergen and were indignant that they had been unable to make good their losses in the time-honoured way, by raids and piracy.

The Council decided to send another embassy to Denmark (4). They commissioned Dr William Sprever who had only returned from his mission to Denmark at the end of 1431, and Sir Robert Shottesbrook to set out in September 1432 with powers to treat for a settlement (5). They met with the Bishop of Roskilde, the Bishop of Bergen, and other Danish commissioners.

The Danes complaints of English depredations were numerous, and presumably at least partially verified. Sprever signed an agreement on Christmas Eve: the English promised “to pay for the damages they had caused in Norwegian territory, to return the people they had abducted, and to forbid all trade with Iceland except through the Bergen staple.” (6). Had English merchants been indulging in raiding, kidnapping, and the slave trade?

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(1) Foedera X, p. 503 (reissue of proclamation).

(2) PROME X, p. 39 (petition for redress).

(3) Power and Postan, English Trade, pp. 166-167.

(4) PPC IV p. 124 (agreement to send envoys).

(5) Foedera X, pp 520-521 (power to treat).

(6) Ferguson, Diplomacy, pp. 92-93 (terms of agreement).

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Brittany

Piracy by English and Breton ships was a long-standing grievance.

See Year 1433: The Duke of Brittany. Piracy

An embassy from John, Duke of Brittany, led by John de Malestroit Bishop of Nantes, who had been Chancellor of Brittany for twenty-four years, came to England in the summer of 1432 bringing Giles, the Duke of Brittany’s younger son with them.

“And the xxvj day of Juyn come the Dukes son of Bretayn ouer the see into England, and so to London to the Kyng; and with hym come a Bishop of that lande, and certeyn knyghtes and Squyers and theire meny.”           Brut Continuation F. p. 465

Malestroit promised that Brittany would send commissioners to the city of Exeter to treat with their English counterparts for the redress of mutual grievances.

Malestroit was given a gold cup worth 50 marks and the three other Breton representatives received 40 marks (1). The gift of a palfrey was probably intended for Giles (2). Malestroit and Bretons apparently went on a shopping spree: they were licenced to leave England in mid-July and to export “serges, beds, chamber furniture, robes, tin vessels, certain pieces of woollen cloth, ewers, and other household utensils, together with 100 bows and 100 sheaves of arrows’ (3, 4).

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(1) PPC IV, pp. 120 and 122 (gifts to ambassadors).

(2) Foedera X, p. 515 (gifts to ambassadors).

(3) PPC IV, pp. 122-23 (licence to leave England).

(4) Foedera X, p.  516 (licence to leave England).

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Giles of Brittany

Giles remained in England. The suggestion to introduce him into the English court probably originated with his astute mother. Jeanne, Duchess of Brittany, was a more forceful character than her husband. Giles was almost the same age as Henry and a friendship between them could benefit Brittany in the future. Giles and King Henry were first cousins, Jeanne was Queen Katherine’s sister. Giles was also the grandson of the dowager Queen Joan, widow of King Henry IV.

Giles was ‘invited’ to join the royal household, and in August 1432 he was granted £20 for his private expenses (1, 2), but he was also a hostage for his father’s continuing alliance with England. Duke John was prone to changing sides. He had the dubious distinction of not being trusted by the English or the French, Giles spent two years in England, before returning to Brittany at his father’s request in 1434 (3).

See Year 1434: The Duke of Brittany.

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(1) PPC IV, p. 128 (Giles granted £20).

(2) Foedera X, p. 522 (Giles granted £20).

(3) PPC IV, p. 278 (Brittany’s request for Giles’s return).

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The Duchy of Gascony

Bertrand de Montferrand

Bertrand, Lord of Montferrand was a Gascon nobleman. He was rewarded in 1432 for services to Henry IV, Henry V and Henry VI. He was granted ‘all the houses, rents &c. in Gascony’ of Amaniu Béguey, to the value of £40, with any surplus to be returned to the king, ‘provided they have not been granted to anyone else’ (1, 2).

The Béguey estates had in fact been granted to Sir John Radcliffe ‘during pleasure’ in 1428. Officials in Gascony opposed the grant to Montferrand and he did not gain possession of the Béguey estates until 1437.

See Years 1428 and 1431: The Duchy of Gascony, Sir John Radcliffe.

See Year 1437: The Duchy of Gascony, Bertrand de Montferrand.

Bertrand’s name appears in a 1435-1436 list as ‘fourth chamberlain to the Regent and captain of Charmesville’ [Charlesmesnil]; as having served the Regent Bedford in the French wars; and in a list of those serving in the Duchy of Gascony. He may have campaigned with Sir John Radcliffe to recover towns in Gascony. He was paid 300 livres tournois in another undated list, possibly 1436 (3).

Montferrand was of sufficient status for the Duke of Bedford to marry his natural daughter Mary, to Bertrand’s son Pierre.

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(1) PPC IV, p. 116 (grant to Montferrand).

(2) gasconrolls.org.  C 61/124, # 33, # 82, # 120 (grant to Montferrand).

(3) L&P II, ii, pp. 434, 437, 557 (Montferrand’s services).

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Chateauneuf-sur-Charente and Ratières

An obscure account of an attack on Chateauneuf sur Charente and Ratières two towns in Languedoc held by the English is recorded in Stevenson’s Letters and Papers.

The Three Estates of Languedoc met at Beziers in July 1432 and voted a tax of a tenth. William de Champeaux, Bishop of Laon, president of the chamber of accounts in Languedoc, authorised his receiver general, Guillaume Favert, to pay Jehan Brunet twenty five moutons d’or out of the clerical grant (1). The mouton d’or was a gold coin, so called because it depicted the Lamb of God.

Jean, Count of Foix, King Charles VII’s lieutenant in Languedoc ordered Jehan Brunet to assemble the local lords and prepare to march against Chateauneuf-sur-Charente and Ratières.

See Year 1423: Jean de Grailly, Count of Foix

Brunet was paid in November 1432 so the attack, if it took place, could have been at any time in the first six months of 1432 or, given the lapse of time customary between service and payment, it may have been even earlier. I have found no other reference to it.

(1) L&P II, pp. 214-218 (attack on two English held towns).

 

The War in France

The Year 1432 was one of disappointment and disillusion for the Duke of Bedford. He was once again Regent and Governor of France, but the Duke of Burgundy had withdrawn from active participation in the war, and the burden of the success or failure of English arms fell on Bedford’s shoulders. The near loss of Rouen was followed by defeats in the field.

Rouen

Bedford was in Paris in February 1432 re-establishing control over the administration of Lancastrian France after King Henry returned to England when he received appalling news. Jean de Brosse, Marshal Boussac, and three Armagnac captains commanding 600 men had marched from Beauvais to launch a surprise attack on Rouen.

On the night of 13 February, 120 men led by Guillaume de Ricarville gained entry to the castle. Pierre Audebeuf, a Swiss member of the garrison, had turned traitor and opened a gate (that he threw scaling ladders over the walls, as in one version, seems unlikely).

John, Earl of Arundel was asleep with the rest of the garrison in the castle, and they were taken completely by surprise. Some of his men were killed but Arundel and the others escaped by descending on ropes down the castle’s walls. There is a probably apocryphal story, not confirmed by the chronicler Monstrelet, that Arundel was let down in a basket. He and members of the garrison took refuge in the town and by daybreak he had rallied his men; he prepared to recapture the castle with the help of the citizens in Rouen.

Ricarville had no hope of holding the castle without re-enforcements; he returned to the wood outside Rouen where the rest of the raiders lay hidden to urge Boussac to come to his aid. Boussac hesitated. According to Monstrelet the French captains had fallen out among themselves over the distribution of the booty they expected to win, but this is a standard charge often levelled against the Armagnacs.

It is more probable that Boussac expected Ricarville to bring news that the citizens of Rouen had risen against the English and that the town was in French hands, but either through fear of reprisals from the French for accepting English rule, or from fear of reprisals by the English for aiding the French, the citizens remained loyal. Boussac abandoned Ricarville’s small force and fled back to Beauvais. Ricarville and his men withdrew into the great tower of the castle which was well stocked with supplies. Arundel’s artillery pounded the tower’s walls for twelve days before the embattled French were forced to surrender (1, 2).

The Duke of Bedford was so alarmed by the near loss of the capital of Normandy that he abandoned his usual policy of reconciliation. He angrily gave orders for the surviving Armagnacs to the executed (3). Ricarville apparently escaped the fate of his men, he is recorded as being in the French ranks at the siege of Dieppe in 1443 (4). Pierre Audebeuf was beheaded and quartered, with his head set on the gates of Rouen.

Bedford rewarded the twenty-four-year-old Arundel for defending Rouen by making him captain of Rouen; and he became a Knight of the Garter in April 1432 probably on Bedford’s recommendation (5, 6).

The attack on to Rouen is not, of course, recorded in the English chronicles, although there is an oblique and inaccurate reference to it in a marginal note in The Great Chronicle (p. 156):  “this yere the Frenche men toke by stelth y^e towne off montarges & y^e castell off Rouen butt thenglishemen shortly recoveryd them.”

To strengthen Rouen’s defences Bedford ordered the governor of Vernon to ship in 100 cannon balls of a specific size to fit Rouen’s cannon, left over from the siege of Louviers. If they were not part of the royal artillery the governor of Vernon was to purchase them; Bedford gave his word that the price would be repaid (7).

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(1) Monstrelet I, pp. 599-600 (Rouen).

(2) Wavrin IV, pp. 12-17 (Rouen).

(3) Williams, Bedford, pp. 211-212 (Rouen).

(4) Chartier, Chronique II, p. 38 (Ricardville at Dieppe).

(5) Marshal, ‘English War Captains,’ p. 279 (Arundel made captain).

(6) Collins, Garter, p 294.

(7) L&P II, pp. 202-203 (cannon balls).

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 Chartres

The next shock was the city of Chartres on the Loire, fifty miles south-west of Paris and a major source of the food supply for the capital.  Chartres had been in English hands since 1417 and the Earl of Salisbury had boasted in 1428 that he had captured all the towns and villages around Chartres.

In April 1432 Chartres was betrayed by a trick, a mini-Trojan horse. Carts containing foodstuffs but concealing well-armed men appeared before the gates early in the day. The porters, who knew the carts’ drivers, opened the gate and once the carts were inside an army, led by Dunois, Raoul de Gaucourt, and La Hire, estimated by Monstrelet to be 4,000 strong, stormed and took the city (1, 2).

The citizens of Chartres attempted to defend their city and drive the French force out, but it was too late. William de Villeneuve, the captain of the garrison fled, taking most of the garrison with him. Giles de Aubespine, governor of the city for the English was captured, and Jean de Festigny, the Burgundian bishop of Chartres, was killed. Some prominent citizens were put to death, and Dunois became captain of Chartres. He made it his base for continuing the war (3)

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(1) Chartier I, pp. 141-143 (Chartres).

(2) Monstrelet I, pp. 602-603 (Chartres).

(3) Sumption, Triumph and Illusion, pp. 400-401

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 Lord Willoughby and Saint Cénéry

Then it was Lord Willoughby’s turn to suffer a reverse. In May Lord Willoughby, John, Bastard of Montagu, and the veteran captain Matthew Gough, with between 800 and 1,000 men laid siege to the town of Saint Cénéry on the River Sarthe eight miles from Alençon.

Bedford had requested of 20,000 livres tournois from the Estates meeting in Rouen in October 1431 to pay Lord Willoughby’s 300 men-at-arms and 900 archers who had been kept under arms at the request of the Estates. They had been in the field for five months and could no longer be maintained unless they were paid (1).

Ambroise de Loré, the Duke of Alençon’s marshal, soon learned of Willoughby’s presence and he appealed for help to Jean de Bueil, Admiral of France, and other French captains in the vicinity. It took them about six weeks to assemble a force of 1,400 men; they bivouacked between two villages, Beaumont-sur-Vicomte and Vivoin on opposite sides of the river about fifteen miles from Saint Cénéry.

Matthew Gough led a detachment under cover of darkness to launch an attack at daybreak on Vivoin, the smaller of the two French encampments. Surprise gave Gough the victory and he overwhelmed Vivion, but his success was temporary (2).

The noise of the encounter alerted the larger army at Beaumont-sur-Vicomte. Loré led a small force of a few hundred men to engage the English giving the main body of the army time to cross the only bridge.  After several hours of fighting the superior numbers from Beaumont won the day; Matthew Gough was captured, but so was Ambroise de Loré, who had been wounded.

His men, believing Loré had been killed, slaughtered their English prisoners in revenge, against the laws of war.  Lord Willoughby, who had not taken part in the fighting, was so dismayed by the losses in the English ranks that he hastily raised the siege and retreated to Alençon, leaving his artillery behind (3, 4, 5).

This encounter appears only as a marginal note in The Great Chronicle which does not, of course, record the English defeat:

“thys yere the lord wylloghby & other layd sege to a towne callyd sent sceleryn yn Anjou & after dyvers assautes & many scrmyschys made upon them by y^er  ennymes for lacke of artilerie & Vitayle they departyd to Alanson w^towt domage.”  Great Chronicle, p. 156

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(1) Beaurepaire, États de Normandie, p. 43 (payment for Willoughby’s troops).

(2) Sumption, Triumph ad Illusion, pp. 399-400 (Sumption claims the raid was led by the Bastard of Montagu and that he subsequently fled the field).

(3)  Chartier I, pp. 134-141 (Saint St Célerin in Chartier).

(4) Monstrelet I, pp 630-631 (Saint Cénéry. English translation St Severin, misdated to 1434).

(5) Barker, Conquest, pp. 184-185 (Saint Cénéry).

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The Siege of Lagny

John Stanlowe, treasurer of finance, and Pierre Surreau, receiver general of Normandy, were ordered by Bedford and the Grand Conseil to initiate the immediate collection of the third instalment of the tax of 200,000 voted by the Estates of Normandy in October 1431 for the express purpose of defending the inhabitants of the duchy and the recovery of towns along Normandy’s border with Maine (1, 2).

Bedford had failed to take the town and fortress of Lagny in March 1431 and he planned to resume the offensive in May 1432. Situated on the river Marne a mere sixteen miles east of Paris, Lagny blocked the route from Rouen and posed a constant threat to the capital. Its French garrison harassed shipping and interrupted the flow of food and other vital supplies. They raided the countryside up the gates of Paris making it dangerous for Parisians to venture outside the walls, even to bring in the harvest.

Bedford gathered an army and marched on Lagny. He was joined by Lord Willoughby and the Burgundian Jean de Villiers, L’Isle Adam. Monstrelet and Wavrin put Bedford’s numbers at about 6,000, but 3,000 is more likely. Willoughby is said to have lost 400 of his 1200 men at Saint Cénéry and Bedford probably had between one and two thousand, with him, he would not have taken 6,000 men to a siege.

Bedford camped to the east of Lagny a short distance upriver from the town and maintained the siege throughout the summer of 1432.  But the Regent was weary, he was forty-three years old, and he was not the fighting force he had once been.

In July he sent for two of his most trusted councillors, Robert Jolivet, and Raoul Le Sage, to join him, urging them to be with him by the end of the month without fail. They could commandeer an armed escort, for which he would pay, if they feared to make the short journey unescorted. Bedford wished to discuss ‘certain great matters touching the good of the realm’ (3).  He may have intended to instruct them on administrative matters while he was away from Paris, but it is more likely that he intended to send them on diplomatic missions to raise money from local taxes or additional loans.

By the beginning of August, the French garrison holding out in Lagny, estimated to be between 800 and 1,000 strong, was running dangerously short of food. Bedford intended to starve them into submission. A relieving army under Dunois, Raoul de Gaucourt, and the Castilian mercenary captain Roderigo de Villandrando marched on Lagny from the southwest. Bedford had expected any relieving force to come from the east.

Monstrelet and Wavrin, but not Chartier, record that when Dunois and the French army appeared before Lagny Bedford offered them a set piece battle, a journée, to decide possession of the town (4, 5, 6). Dunois declined: he had not come to engage Bedford in battle, but to bring relief supplies to Lagny. King Charles would not thank him if the French army suffered defeat in a pitched battle with the formidable Duke of Bedford.

Dunois divided his forces into three divisions. Two, under his command, engaged the English fighting under Bedford and L’Isle Adam. Raoul de Gaucourt and the third division fought their way towards the protective bulwark occupied by the English opposite the Porte Vacheresse, the western gate into the town. The men of the garrison, elated that help had reached them in time, opened the gate and entered the fray. A herd of cattle, carts of grain, and other food stuffs made its way slowly over the drawbridge and through the open gate. Lagny had been relieved, but the siege had not been raised.

In a fierce encounter on 10 August, a day of intense heat, on a narrow strip of land outside the town at least 300 of Bedford’s men lost their lives. By the late afternoon both sides were exhausted, and Bedford ordered a retreat. He regrouped and again offered battle, but Dunois was a master tactician, and he had a better idea for raising the siege. He withdrew his troops and crossed the Marne, giving Bedford the impression that he was planning to march on Paris (7, 8, 9).

Bedford fell into the trap. He gathered his army and abandoned Lagny in a headlong dash to put himself between Dunois and the capital. But the French were not heading for Paris, they had done what they set out to do. The time for the King of France to recover his capital was not yet, but it was coming closer.

The failure of the English at Lagny seriously undermined Bedford’s prestige. The French garrison, as well as brigands in the countryside, continued their depredations, depriving Paris of food, firewood, and other essentials. The Parisians blamed the English for the money they had contributed to the siege being wasted.

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(1) Beaurepaire, États de Normandie, p. 43 (tax grant).

(2) L&P II, pp. 205-213 (Mandate to collect tax).

(3) L&P II, pp. 148-149 (Bedford’s summons to his councillors is misdated to July 1430 by Stevenson. Bedford was not at Lagny in 1430 and in his summons he used the title ‘gouvernant et regent de France’ which he only resumed after King Henry left France in 1432).

(4) Monstrelet I, pp. 605-606.

(5) Wavrin IV, P 26-30

(6) Chartier I, pp.143-147

(7) Williams, Bedford, pp. 214-217

(8) Barker, Conquest, pp. 185-186

(9) Sumption, Triumph and Illusion, pp. 401-404 (a differing version of Lagny).

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Sir Walter Hungerford

An expeditionary force of about 1500 men commanded by Roger Camoys and Walter Hungerford, financed from the loans offered by Cardinal Beaufort, assembled in July 1432 but it did not sail until August. By then it was too late to reinforce Bedford at Lagny (1).

‘Walter Hungerford, knight’ contributed ‘50 men-at-arms in armour and 250 archers’ but was this Walter, Lord Hungerford, or his son, Sir Walter? (2).

Brut Continuation F records that it was Lord Hungerford’s son, Sir Walter, who accompanied Camoys.

“And this same yere, the Lord Camoys, Sir Waltere Hungerford son, went ouer the see into Normandy with knyghtes, squyers, men of arme[s] and archers, to the Nombre of xv^c peple and mo, by ordynaunce of the kyng and his Consayle of the Reame, in strengthing and helpyng of the Duke of Bedford Regent in tho partie[s] and of all the Kynges liege peple and for the keping of the Kynges title and right.      Brut Continuation F, p. 465

Lord Hungerford was fifty-five and had been Treasurer of England until he was dismissed from his post by the Duke of Gloucester in February 1432. The army sailed in August; Lord Hungerford was in England in October 1423 (3).

Sir Walter had been captured at the battle of Patay in 1429 by a Breton knight, Lord Beaumanoir. His ransom was set at 12,000 crowns (£3,000). Lord Hungerford was unable to raise the full amount, he contributed 3,000 crowns. His credit as Treasurer of England was good and he borrowed the balance of 9,000 crowns from Lords Scales, Cromwell and Tiptoft. Lord Hungerford did not know that his son had promised his captor a further 6,000 crowns (to obtain an early release?).

Hungerford borrowed 4,000 crowns from (London?) merchants. The Duke of Brittany, possibly embarrassed that one of his subjects had fought for the French against his English ally, contributed 1,000 crowns. This left 1,000 crowns which the duke’s mother, Joan of Brittany, the Dowager Queen of England, promised to pay out of her Breton estates (4).

It was customary to free prisoners of war on promise of payment, and Sir Walter was probably free by 1432 at the latest. He may well have joined the expedition to France in August 1432 hoping to repair the family fortunes either with booty or ransom from a successful campaign. He was dead by February 1433, but where he died is not known.

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(1) Harriss, Beaufort, p. 221 (Beaufort’s loans).

(2) CPR 1429-1436, p. 218 (Hungerford’s retinue).

(3) PPC IV, p. 128 (Lord Hungerford in England in October).

(4) PPC IV, pp. 149-150 (terms for Walter Hungerford’s ransom).

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The Duke of Bedford’s Finances

The Duke of Bedford had requested 200,000 livres tournois from the Estates of Normandy meeting in Rouen in October 1431. John Stanlowe, treasurer of finance, and Pierre Surreau, receiver general of Normandy, were ordered by Bedford and the Grand Conseil to initiate the immediate collection of the third instalment of the tax, voted for the express purpose of defending the inhabitants of the duchy and the recovery of towns along Normandy’s border with Maine (1, 2).

Bedford received little help from England. Payments ordered by the Council were delayed from March to May and then to July and August 1432, and possibly longer.

On 1 March the Council had ordered that £2,500 should be sent to him ‘at the king’s risk’ to pay the army for May and June 1432 (3).  In May they instructed Robert Whitgreve and William Leventhorp, who would receive £100 (more or less) for their expenses, to convey the £2,500 to Dieppe.

On 21 July the Council ordered that the money should entrusted to Walter Hungerford, who was about to lead an army into France, to William Baron, and Roger Winter, and that letters should be sent to Bedford instructing him to collect the money at Dieppe.

Winter, a clerk of the Exchequer, was belatedly paid £85 19s in 1433 for his costs and expenses in a round trip of six weeks, from London to Winchelsea to Dieppe and Rouen and back to London, conveying £2,500 to the Duke of Bedford (4).

On 7 August the Exchequer was ordered ‘in all haste’ to purchase 1,000 bows, 2,000 sheaves of arrows and three score gross of bowstrings for the defence of the realm of France, to be conveyed to Bedford by Stephen Flaxmere (5).

Bedford’s imposition of taxation was harsh. Caen and the Cotentin had been assessed at 3,000 livres tournois. In July Pierre Cauchon, Bishop of Beauvais, a member of the Grand Conseil was permitted to reduce the levy on the Convent of the Holy Trinity in Caen, Normandy’s second largest and wealthiest city, by one half because the convent was seriously impoverished (6).

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(1) Beaurepaire, États de Normandie, p. 43 (tax grant).

(2) L&P II, pp. 205-213 (Mandate to collect tax).

(3) PPC IV, pp. 109, 112, 125, 126 (£2,500 for the Duke of Bedford).

(4) PPC IV, p. 165-166 (a recapitulation in 1433 of Winter’s journey in 1432).

(5) PPC IV, p. 126 (bows and arrows for Bedford).

(6) L&P II, pp. 115-116 (reduction of levy in Caen).

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Anne, Duchess of Bedford died

The Year 1432 was one of disappointment and disillusion for the Duke of Bedford. He was once again Regent and Governor of France, but the Duke of Burgundy had withdrawn from active participation in the war, and the burden of the success or failure of English arms fell on Bedford’s shoulders. The near loss of Rouen followed by the loss of Chartres, and his failure to tale Lagny depressed Bedford, but the final blow came at the end of 1432.

He and his wife the Duchess Anne, were in Paris. The capital was not a healthy place to be. Food was scarce and there was widespread pestilence. Anne contracted a fever and died on 14 November when she was only twenty-eight. She was the best loved sister of Duke Philip of Burgundy and she had kept the peace between her husband and her brother, two naturally autocratic men, for nearly ten years.

The Bourgeois of Paris described her as “the most delightful of all the great ladies then in France for she was good and beautiful . . . the Parisians loved her” (1).  Anne was buried in the Church of the Celestine Monastery in Paris and a full funeral service, complete with coffin and hearse, was held for her at St Paul’s in London in 1433 (2).

“And that same yere beforne the fest of all halowen died the Duches of Bedford at paris; sche is buryed in the Clestins at paris.”  Chronicles of London, Cleopatra C IV, p. 135

Brut Continuation H laments her death as the cause of Burgundy’s eventual defection from the Anglo-Burgundian alliance.  A later insertion in the Great Chronicle repeated this.

“And in the xj yere of his regne, the Duches of Bedford þat was that tyme clepit Madame Regent, and suster to the Duyk of Burgoyn dyet att Roan whos deth turnett Englissh men aftirward to much trouble; for al þe whiles þat she was on lyue hir brothir, Duyk of Burgoyn, was euer holdyng vppon the Englisshe party; but sone after þat she was ded his hert was cast clene away from Englisshe men and turnet to þe Frensshe party, and become enmy to Engelond as ye shall here aftirward.”   Brut Continuation H, pp. 569–570

“And this yere the Duchesses of Bedford ^[sister to philipp duke off Burgoyne^] passed to god Whoos tereament was solempnely holde at powles in london ^[which was a grett lose off alliance^]” Great Chronicle, p. 170             

“And in þis same yere the Kyng let intere the Duchesse of Bedford, which deyed in Fraunce, at Seint Paules in London, with moche royalte and solemnpnite as myght be doon in holy Chirche.” Brut Continuation F, p.  465

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(1) Bourgeois, p. 282 (description of Anne of Bedford).

(2) Issues of the Exchequer, pp. 419–420 (funeral expenses in England).

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A Prospect of Peace

King Henry V had prohibited any peace settlement with France without Parliamentary authority, but the Parliament of 1431 had urged that this ukase should be relaxed and ‘the king’s uncles,’ Bedford and Gloucester, should consider exploratory peace talks with ‘the Dauphin.’

See Year 1431: Parliament.

Nicolo Albergati

Pope Eugenius had confirmed Pope Martin’s nominee, Nicolo Albergati, Cardinal of Saint Croix, as papal legate and peacemaker and Albergati had visited the Duke of Burgundy, King Charles VII, and King Henry in Rouen in 1431 (1, 2). Cardinal Beaufort had assured Albergati that Henry was willing to consider ‘all good, amiable, and reasonable means’ that might lead to peace or a truce (3). At the end of 1431 the Council in England, probably at Cardinal Beaufort’s urging, sent a letter in King Henry’s name to Albergati confirming that an English delegation would attend a peace conference to be held on 1 March 1432 at Cambrai, provided the Duke of Burgundy agreed (4, 5).

On 22 February 1432, John Langdon, Bishop of Rochester, Sir Henry Brounflete and Master Thomas Beckington, Doctor of Laws were appointed to proceed to France (6, 7).

The prospect of peace encouraged the Council to investigate precedents. Thomas Langley, Bishop of Durham, had retained copies of the record of earlier peace negotiations from his time as Chancellor. In July Langley was instructed to entrust these documents to the safe keeping of the Earl of Warwick who would bring them to London and turn them over to the Treasurer, Lord Scrope. They were examined by the Council in August.

The most pertinent was between King Charles VI and King Henry V, but earlier agreements between England and Scotland were more numerous: King Richard II’s restitution of Berwick and Roxburgh to King William of Scotland and the freedom King William had enjoyed in coming to the English court under King Edward III. Even earlier, a letter from King Edward I to the Abbey of St Mary at York, and the ‘articles presented by the King of Scotland to the King of England with the answers thereto’ after King Edward I asserted his right to rule Scotland (8). How useful these agreements, made under completely different circumstances, would be to the situation in 1432 is not explored in the Proceedings.

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(1) Harvey, England and Papacy, pp. 150-151 (peace conference).

(2) Dickinson, Congress of Arras, pp. 82-83 (Albergati).

(3) L&P II, p. 251 (Council in Rouen agreed to peace talks).

(4) Beaucourt, Charles VII vol. II, p. 441 (English delegates to be sent to peace talks).

(5) Harriss, Beaufort, p. 211 (Henry VI’s letter, December 1431).

(6) PPC IV, p. 109 (5 marks [66s 8d] to Langdon; 40 shillings to Brounflete; 20 shillings to Beckington, per diem).

(7) Foedera X, p. 500 (English delates to peace talks named, February).

(8) PPC IV, pp. 127-128 (records of earlier negotiations for peace as precedents).

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The Duke of Orleans

The Duke of Orleans was transferred into the custody of William de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk in July (3, 4), Suffolk may have requested it in anticipation of the peace negotiations. Dunois, Bastard of Orleans, the duke’s half-brother, had captured Suffolk at the Battle of Patay in 1429, and Dunois had released Suffolk in 1430 before his ransom was fully paid, probably in exchange for a promise that Suffolk would do all he could to ease the conditions of the Duke of Orleans’s captivity and facilitate his release (1, 2).

Safe conducts for Dunois’s servants, for the Duke of Orleans’s retainers, and for those of the Duke of Bourbon to come to England were issued in June and July (3). Safe conducts were issued again in September for Dunois’s retainers (although the number, eighty, seems excessive unless Dunois intended to come to Auxerre himself.

The Duke of Orleans’s treasurer, secretary, and servants, and a councillor of the Duke of Bourbon received safe conducts in December for (4).

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(1) PPC IV, p. 124 (transfer of Orleans custody). Suffolk was to ‘treat with the Treasurer’ for the cost of maintaining the duke.

(2) Foedera X, p. 520 (transfer of Orleans custody).

(3) Foedera X p. 522 (safe conducts for French retainers).

(4) Foedera X, p. 537 (safe conducts for 1432-1433).

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First Meeting

Cardinal Albergati met the Duke of Bedford at Corbeil early in 1432, but the projected conference in March was postponed when Albergati fell ill. It was rescheduled for July at Auxerre in Burgundian territory. Langdon, Brounflete and Beckington were commissioned again at the end of June, but they did not leave England (1, 2).

The reason is by no means clear. Beaucourt suggests that the safe conducts which should have been issued by the Duke of Burgundy arrived too late (3).  Harriss and Williams (Bedford’s biographer) suggest that Charles VII insisted on Nevers or Auxerre as the only acceptable meeting place, but that the Duke of Bedford strongly opposed Auxerre (4, 5).

This is based on a passage in a letter from Henry VI to the Duke of Burgundy in 1433 which refers to the roads to Auxerre as being difficult and dangerous for the English. The reference is to the meeting attended by the English in November 1432 despite the roads being dangerous (6). The more probable explanation is the confusion in Council as to who was to treat with ‘the Dauphin’ and who was to be sent to the General Council of the Church at Basel.

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(1) PPC IV, p. 119 (delegates named again, June).

(2) Foedera X, p. 514 (delegates named again, June).

(3) Beaucourt, Charles VII, vol II, p. 447 (English fail to arrive).

(4) Harriss, Beaufort, p. 225 (Bedford’s opposition to Auxerre).

(5) Williams, Bedford, p. 225 (Bedford’s opposition; pages numbers are coincidental).

(6) L&P II, p. 252 (reasons for objecting to Auxerre).

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Peace Talks Resumed

The Duke of Burgundy actively promoted a resumption of the peace talks. Peace between France and England would benefit him enormously: he would not be obliged to break his oath to his English allies or his truce with the King of France. Both sides would owe him a debt of gratitude if a settlement could be reached, and he looked to be suitably rewarded. He had his eye on the county of Champagne.

Cardinal Albergati had tried to persuade the French and Burgundians to negotiate a unilateral peace since the English had chosen not to come to the first meeting in Auxerre. Charles VII hoped that a deadlock in tripartite talks would encourage the Duke of Burgundy to renounce his English alliance, but Burgundy had sworn an oath never to forgive Charles for the murder of his father, John the Fearless, in 1419.  Burgundy was signatory to the Truce of Troyes recognising Henry V and his heirs as the rightful kings of France. He had signed a treaty of friendship with Bedford at Amiens in 1423. Until he or his advisors could find an honourable excuse to break these agreements Burgundy would negotiate truces with King Charles, but he would not make peace without English concurrence.

Auxerre

Cardinal Albergati reconvened the peace talks at Auxerre in November 1432. Gilles de Clamecy, Prévôt of Paris, a member of Bedford’s Grand Conseil, Jean du Chastellier Archbishop of Paris, Gilles de Durmont, Abbot of Fécamp, and members of the University of Paris represented Lancastrian France.

King Charles’s representatives, headed by Regnault de Chartres, Chancellor of France, arrived at the end of November. The large Burgundian contingent was led by the Chancellor, Nicholas Rolin. Four Breton envoys also attended (1).

The English delegation arrived late. John Langdon, Bishop of Rochester was awarded 200 marks on 12 November ‘as about to go to France on embassy to the Dauphin’ but he was still in England on 29 November when he attended a council meeting (2, 3). A protection letter for Sir John Fastolf ‘in the retinue of the Duke of Bedford’ was issued on 20 November (4).  Fastolf was Bedford’s master of the household, and already in France. On 1 December Langdon, Fastolf, and Thomas Beckington were given powers to treat for peace with ‘Charles of Valois’ 5, 6). Thomas Beckington claimed expenses in February 1433 for his attendance at Auxerre (7).

The meeting was a charade. The French envoys stated bluntly that they would not begin to negotiate for peace until King Henry  surrendered his claim to the French throne, and they would not negotiate a truce unless the French prisoners of war, the Duke of Orleans, the Duke of Bourbon, and the Count of Eu were brought over from England to attend the conference (8).

We do not know how far the English delegation’s ‘power to treat’ went, or what their instructions were, but they obviously could not discuss, let alone accept, King Charles’s terms. They might agree to involve the Duke of Orleans and the other French prisoners, but King Henry’s right and title as King of France was non-negotiable until Henry came of age.

It is difficult to be sure what the English hoped gain at Auxerre. The Council may have feared that without English representatives present Cardinal Albergati would broker a peace between France and Burgundy, leaving England to continue the war without her principal ally. The Regent Bedford may have wanted a truce of at least a year to give him a breathing space to build up his military resources and repair the losses of 1432. It is doubtful that the Duke of Gloucester wanted even that.

Wearily and angrily Cardinal Albergati postponed the conference yet again to meet in March 1433. The people of Paris were bitterly disappointed; they had pinned their hopes on, at the very least, a truce to spare their city further suffering. The Bourgeois of Paris records that when it became known that nothing had been settled, several of the returning delegates had to be imprisoned for their own protection (9).

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(1) (Beaucourt II, p. 451 n. 3 (names of Parisian, Burgundian, and Breton delegates)

(2) PPC IV, p. 130 and Foedera X, p. 524-525  (Langdon to receive 200 marks going to the Dauphin 12 November).

(3) PPC IV, p. 137 (Langdon is one of five bishops listed as present on 29 November).

(4) Foedera X, p. 525 (Fastolf protection letter 20 November).

(5) Foedera X, pp. 527-528 (protection going overseas, Langdon, Fastolf and Beckington, presumably to France 1 December).

(6) Foedera X, pp. 530-531 (English delegates powers to treat dated 1 December).

(7) PPC IV, pp. 140-141 (Beckington claimed expenses in 1433).

(8) L&P II, pp. 252-253 (French refuse to treat).

(9) Bourgeois, pp. 282-283 (Parisians disgusted).

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The General Council of the Church at Basel     

The General Council of the Church meeting in Constance in 1417 had passed the decree of ‘Frequens,’: a Council of the Church must meet at regular intervals, ‘frequently,’ for the well-being of Holy Church. Its aim was to curb papal independence and establish a General Council’s superiority over the authority of a pope. The struggle for supremacy between popes and councils was not new, but it had never been resolved.

One of Pope Martin’s last acts before he died in February 1431 had been to summon a General Council to meet at Basel.  The resultant clash between the Council and Martin’s successor, Pope Eugenius IV, form the backdrop to the Council at Basel.

See Year 1431: Pope Eugenius IV.

Initial attendance at Basel was low, and Pope Eugenius had attempted to dissolve it, but the Council under the presidency of Cardinal Cessarini, rejected his right to do so. The Church Fathers summoned Eugenius to come to Basel, and threatened to depose him if he failed to conform to its edicts. Eugenius refused to recognise the council’s authority.

Hussites

One of the reasons for summoning a Council to Basel was the threat to church unity posed by the heretical sect of the Hussites in Bohemia, followers of the martyred John Hus. They had repudiated the authority of the papacy, broken away from their adherence to the Emperor Sigismund, and set up an independent Bohemia.

“And in this same yere, anon after Cristmasse, the grete conuocacion and consayle of all the landes in Cristendom and also of all oþer seculer lordes and Clerkes þat is to say Bisshopes and other consayle began in the Cite of Basyle in Duchelande, for to make vnite and peas emong all Cristen peple and for to destroye heretikes and erresye þat then reigned emong the peple.”   Brut Continuation F, p. 466

Hussite forces had inflicted crushing and humiliating defeats on the armies of the German princes, including in 1427 when Cardinal Beaufort was in Bohemia as papal legate for Pope Martin.

See Year 1427: Cardinal Beaufort and Bohemia.

Cardinal Cesarini was not alone in his opinion that as the Hussites could not be exterminated or ignored, negotiating with their leaders was the only way to end the schism and the war.

In October 1431, the General Council formally invited Hussite leaders to come to Basel under safe conduct and strict conditions for their safety. This infuriated Pope Eugenius who refused to negotiate with heretics (1, 2).

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(1) The New Cambridge Medieval History, VII,  C. Allmand (1998), pp. 69-71 (Basel).

(2) The Cambridge Medieval History, VIII, ed. C.W, Previté-Orton (1936) pp. 24-25. (Basel. The interests, and therefore the emphasis, of the two volumes is quite different).

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English attention throughout 1431 had focused on efforts to crown Henry as king of France and there had been little interest in Basel, but in 1432 the English Council agreed to receive a delegation from the Church Fathers, although they had no idea who would come: ‘£40 should be paid to a bishop, 40 marks to a knight, and £20 to a doctor of theology who had come on an embassy from the General Council at Basel’ (1).

Gerardo Landriani

Geraldo Landriani, Bishop of Lodi and other envoys came to England in the summer of 1432 to persuade the English Council to send delegates to support the Council at Basel in its battle with Pope Eugenius (2). Landriani was granted an audience with King Henry, Cardinal Beaufort and the Duke of Gloucester. He gave an assurance that the Council at Basel would take the necessary steps to suppress the Hussite heretics of Bohemia (3).

This appealed to both Beaufort and Gloucester, the former because he had score to settle with them, the latter because he was opposed to heresy in any form.

See Year 1431: Jack Sharp’s Rising.

Landriani also hinted that conciliar authority might add weight to the peace negotiations between England and France.

In response to Landriani’s persuasions, the Council agreed to send a delegation. This resulted in considerable confusion in Council as to whether John Langdon, Bishop of Rochester, would represent English interests in the peace talks with France or attend the General Council in Basel.

On 19 July John Holand, Earl of Huntingdon, John Langdon, Bishop of Rochester, and Doctor Thomas Brouns, Dean of Salisbury were commissioned to go to Basel (4). The standard protections for going abroad on the king’s business were issued to them on the following day. They were to be paid for six months, Huntingdon at 5 marks a day (£3 6s 8d) plus £200 from the Exchequer; Langdon was to receive £100 over and above a sum granted to him by Convocation; an unnamed baron (probably Brounflete) was to receive £2 a day, and Doctor Thomas Brouns was to receive a £1 a day (5). They did not leave England.

John Langton, Bishop of Rochester had been commissioned to represent England at Cardinal Albergeti’s peace talks, due to resume in November at Auxerre.

See Peace Talks Resumed above.

But protection letters were issued on 28 November for Langdon to go to Basel, and on 1 December, the same day as he was given powers to treat with the French,  he was licenced to take £1,000 with him to Basel (6).

On 9 December protection letters were issued to Thomas Haltoft (Hotoft?), Robert Burton, John Beaumaris, and Thomas Selater, going to Basel in the retinue of John Langdon, Bishop of Rochester (7).

Why John Langdon? He was a member of the Council and as Bishop of Rochester was known for his opposition to the teaching of the Lollard John Wycliffe. The stated aim of sending an English delegation to Basel was to combat the influence of the heretic Hussites.  He had met Landriani in London. He may have requested to go. He was appointed initially as a representative of the crown and of Convocation. But why Langdon was switched from Basel, which was more suited to his talents, to Cardinal Albergati’s peace talks is unclear unless it was thought that a bishop leading the English delegation would be more acceptable to Albergati than a magnate. Perhaps the Council intended Langdon to meet French representatives at Auxerre and then go on to Basel.

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(1) PPC IV, p. 121 (payment to unknown envoys coming from Basel).

(2) PPC IV, p. 125 (payment of £86 3s 4d to envoys from Basel).

(3) A.N.E.D. Schofield, ‘First English Delegation to the Council of Basel,’ Journal of Ecclesiastical History, vol 12 (1961).

(4) Foedera X, p. 519-520 (Huntingdon, Langdon and Brouns named in July to go to Basel).

(5) PPC IV, pp. 123-124 (payment to them).

(6) Foedera X, p. 529 (Langdon protection to Basel, 28 November and licence to take £1,000 to Basel 1 December).

(7) Foedera X, p. 531 (Langdon’s retinue to Basel. 9 December).

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English Delegates

Eventually, also in November 1432, the Council nominated a far more prestigious embassy to go to Basel:

Cardinal Beaufort, John Kemp, Archbishop of York, Thomas Polton Bishop of Worcester, and Sir John Colville, were issued licences to go to Basel (1).  Beaufort was to take the enormous sum of £10,000 in coin, and jewels worth 5,000 marks. Kemp was to receive 1,000 marks a year while he was there and the customary wages of an archbishop going on embassy for the king. They did not go to Basel.

Thomas Polton, Bishop of Worcester had been a royal proctor at the Roman curia until 1425. He was licenced to take £1,000 and to receive 500 marks a year for his maintenance; he could leave the council if this was not paid, and after its dissolution he could, if he wished, visit the ‘home of the apostles’ (Jerusalem?) (2).

Robert Fitzhugh, a royal proctor in Rome, was summoned to return to England and prepare to attend the Council at Basel.

Sir John Colville, the only layman named, was fluent in Italian. He was licensed to take £500 in money, plate, and jewels to go to Basel as an ambassador (3).

Polton, Fitzhugh and Colville arrived in Basel early in 1433.

See Year 1433: The General Council of the Church at Basel.

Safe conducts were issued for a Scottish embassy to Basel to travel through England: John Fogo, Abbot of Melrose, Sir Walter Ogilvy, and Alexander Lauder, with a retinue of thirty people. Andrew Meldrum with six attendants, and John Cameron, Bishop of Glasgow who was on his way to Rome (4).

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(1) Foedera X, pp. 525-526 (Beaufort, Kemp, Colville)

(2) Foedera X, pp. 527-528 (Polton).

(3) Foedera X, p. 526 (Colville).

(4) Foedera X, p. 537 (Scottish envoys).

NB: Foedera X, p. 525. A letter of protection for John Beaufort, Earl of Somerset ‘in France’ is dated 20 October but with no year. Beaufort was a prisoner in 1432, it may belong in 1438 during negotiations for his release.

NB: Foedera X, p. 529: The protection for John Ansty ‘in the retinue of the Duke of Gloucester’ dated 13 February is misdated; it belongs in 1433 with grants to Gloucester.

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Peter de Mera, Pope Eugenius’s representative in England lobbied for the English to boycott Basel as Eugenius wished. The Minority Council turned a deaf ear to his expostulations, but they awarded him 50 marks and a licence to leave England with his property, £1,000 in gold coins and jewels, his personal baggage, horses and harness for himself and his servants (1, 2).

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(1) Harvey, England and Papacy, pp. (Peter de Mera).

(2) PPC IV, p. 120 and Foedera X, pp. 514-515 (permission for Mera to leave England).

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Bibliography 1432

Primary Sources

Annales (pseudo-Worcester) in Letters and Papers Illustrative of the Wars of the English in France during the reign of Henry VI, ed. J. Stevenson, Rolls Series, 2 vols in 3 (1861-1864)

Benet’s Chronicle. John Benet’s Chronicle for the years 1400-1460, ed. G.L.& M.A. Harriss, Camden Miscellany XXIV, (Camden Soc., 4th ser. IX, 1972)

Bourgeois of Paris, A Parisian Journal, trans. J. Shirley (1968)

The Brut, or the Chronicles of England II, ed. F.W.D. Brie,  (Early English Text Society, 1908)

CPR. Calendar of the Patent Rolls 1422-1429, 1429-1436

Chartier, J., Chronique de Charles VII, roi de France, 3 vols, ed. A. Vallet de Viriville, (Paris, 1858)

A Chronicle of London, ed. N.H. Nicolas & E. Tyrell (1827)

Chronicles of London, ed. C. L. Kingsford (1905)

Chronicon Angliae, ed. J.A. Giles (1848)

Foedera, conventiones, literae……  20 vols., ed. T. Rymer, (1704-35)

Handbook of British Chronology, ed. F. M. Powicke and E.B. Fryde (1961)

The Great Chronicle of London, ed. A.H. Thomas & I.D. Thornley, (1938)

Gregory’s Chronicle in The Historical Collections of a Citizen of London in the Fifteenth  Century, ed. J. Gairdner, (Camden Society XVII, 1876)

Issues of the Exchequer, ed. F. Devon (1837)

L&P: Letters and Papers Illustrative of the Wars of the English in France during the reign of Henry VI, ed. J. Stevenson, Rolls Series, 2 vols in 3 (1861-1864)

Monstrelet. The Chronicles of Enguerrand de Monstrelet trans. T. Johnes, 2 vols., (1877)

PROME. The Parliament Rolls of Medieval England, vol. X, ed. A. Curry (2005)

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Sharpe, R, R., ed., Calendar of Letter Books, preserved among the archives of the Corporation of the City of London at the Guildhall: Letter Book K (1911)

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Wavrin, J de, Recueil des croniques et anchiennes istories de la Grant Bretaigne, a present nomme Engleterre, eds., W. & E.L.C.P. Hardy, 5 vols., (1864-91).

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Freeman, J., ‘Sorcery at Court and Manor: Margery Jourdemayne the Witch of Eye next Westminster,’ Journal of Medieval History 30 (4), (2004),

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Harriss, G.L., Cardinal Beaufort, (1988)

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Pollard, A.J., John Talbot and the War in France 1427-1453 (2005)

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 Thesis

Marshall, A., ‘The Role of English War Captains in England and Normandy, 1436-1461, M.A. dissertation, University College, Swansea, (1974)