writs from issuing, and, under pretence of the plague, contrived to have the opening of the session several times adjourned. At length both Houses met in the beginning of the year 1450. Lord Chancellor Stafford, who had been lately made [ A. D. 1450.] Archbishop of Canterbury, appeared on the woolsack, and tried to brave the storm, but soon found himself obliged to yield to it. Although he was the organ of announcing several prorogations, he was not permitted to deliver the usual address explaining the reasons for summoning parliament; and the two Houses seem to have insisted, before beginning any business, that he should be dismissed from his office.

I con

On the 31st of January, 1450, the day that parliament met pursuant to the last adjournment, "the Archbishop of Canterbury was discharged from the office of Chancellor, and John Kempe, Cardinal and Archbishop of York, was put in his place.”* jecture that, to appease the two Houses, this transfer actually took place in their presence. From the entry in the close Roll, it appears that there were three seals delivered to the new Chancellor, all which, it is said, he took with him to his country house at Charing Cross.t

Ex-chancellor Stafford was not further molested. He retired from politics, and died at Maidstone, in Kent, on the 6th of July, 1452. He was par negotiis neque supra, one of those sensible, moderate, plodding, safe men, who are often much relished by the leaders of political parties, as they can fill an office not discreditably, without any danger of gaining too much éclat, and with a certainty of continued subserviency.

Cardinal Kempe succeeded him likewise as Archbishop of Canterbury, and continued Chancellor till he died in the office on the 2d of March, 1454. Any knowledge of the law he had acquired when he before held the Great Seal had utterly evaporated during his eighteen years' retirement from the office, and he must no doubt have now been very unfit for its judicial duties; but civil war was at hand, and the interests of justice were little regarded in the struggles of the different factions who were preparing for hostilities.

He had first to preside on the impeachment of the Duke of Suffolk, who, declaring "that he was as innocent as the child still in the mother's womb," instead of claiming to be tried by his peers threw himself without reserve on the will of his sovereign. Chancellor." Sir, since you do not put yourself on your peerage for trial, the King will not hold you either guilty or innocent of the treasons with which you have been charged, but as one to whose control you have voluntarily submitted (not as a Judge advised by the Lords) -he commands you to quit this land before the 1st of May, and forbids you ever to set your foot during the five next years on his dominions either in this kingdom or beyond the sea."‡ Rot. Par. vol. v. 182.

* 1 Parl. Hist. 386. † Rot. Cl. 28 Hen. 6. m. 7.

It is well known how the unfortunate Suffolk, who the cunning man in calculating his nativity had prophesied was to die by water," had his head struck off by "Walter" Whitmore, as he was crossing the sea under this illegal sentence.*

Then broke out Jack Cade's rebellion, which was specially aimed against the Chancellor and all concerned with the profession of the law. The measures at first taken to suppress it were most inefficient, and the King and his court were obliged to seek protection in Kenilworth Castle, London opening its gates to the insurgents. The Chancellor took the chief management of affairs, and the rebels having received a repulse, he succeeded in dispersing them by offering a general pardon and setting a price on Cade's head, which was earned by Iden of Kent.†

Many supposed that Cade had been set on to try the disposition of the people towards the right heir to the crown. He pretended to be a son of Mortimer, who had married the daughter of the Duke of Clarence, elder brother of John of Gaunt; and in this belief thousands flocked to his standard. The Duke of York, the real heir through a daughter of Mortimer, at last openly set up his claim for which there was now a very favourable opportunity from the intellectual weakness of the King; - from the extreme unpopularity of the Queen, whose private character was open to great suspicion, and who was considered a devoted partisan of France;· from the loss of the foreign possessions which had so much flattered the pride of the English nation; from the death and discomfiture of the ablest supporters of the reigning dynasty; - from the energy and popularity of the pretender himself; and from the courage, the talents, and the resources of his numerous adherents.

The claims of the rival houses being debated in the Temple Gardens, the red and the white roses there plucked became the opposing emblems,‡ and men took different sides according to their judgment, their prejudice, or their interest.

When the next parliament met at Reading in the spring of 1353, was found that the Duke of York had a powerful party in both Houses, although many who preferred his title were very reluctant to take active measures to support it, on account of the mild virtues of the reigning Sovereign. The Chancellor, being unable to attend, the session was opened by a speech from the Bishop of Lincoln, who contented himself with declaring "the cause of summoning the parliament to be chiefly for the good government

* Shaks. Part. II. Hen. VI. act. iv. sc 1.

Shaks. Part. II. Hen. VI.

Plantagenet. Let him that is a true born gentleman

And stands upon the honour of his birth,

If he suppose that I have pleaded truth,

From off this brier pluck a white rose with me.

"Somerset. Let nim that is no coward nor no flatterer,

But dare maintain the party of the truth,

Pluck a red rose from off this thorn with me."

of the realm and safe defence of the same; to which end he bid the Commons choose their Speaker and present him at the bar.”* The Speaker chosen was Thomas Thorpe, Chief Baron of the Exchequer, whose imprisonment gave rise to the [A. D. 1453.] famous case of parliamentary privilege, in which the judges declared that such questions did not belong to them to consider. On the 22d of July the Chancellor prorogued the parliament to the 7th of November, to meet at Reading, and it was farther prorogued to the 11th of February following, to meet at Westminster.

Before this day arrived, public affairs had fallen into a state of the greatest confusion. The King had been attacked by an illness which affected his mind and made him unfit for business, and his ministers seem to have been wholly at a loss what course they should adopt. The Duke of York did not yet venture formally to claim the crown; but he contrived to get almost all the power A commission of the executive government into his own hands. under the Great Seal was produced, appointing him to hold the parliament in the King's absence. Thorpe the Speaker being of the opposite party, and being imprisoned for damages recovered against him by the Duke of York, the Commons were prevailed upon to choose another Speaker, and the Chancellor announced to them the royal approbation of the choice.

This was the last act of Lord Chancellor Kempe; while still in possession of his office he suddenly sickened, and died on the 22d of March, 1454. He had showed himself always ready to go with the ruling power, and recently, even to join the Yorkists if necessary, a disposition which may account for the continued stream of promotion which flowed upon him through life. Besides being twice Lord Chancellor, he had held three bishoprics and two archbishoprics. He was first created cardinal by the title of St. Albinus, which afterwards, when he came to be Archbishop of Canterbury, he changed by the authority of the Pope for that of St. Rufinus. A barbarous line has been handed down to us describing his ecclesiastical preferments

"Bis primas, ter præses, et bis cardinale functus."

Amidst the difficulties which arose in carrying on the government on the Chancellor's death, a committee of the [A. D. 1451.] Lords was appointed to go to the King lying sick at Windsor, to learn his pleasure touching two articles; the first, to know who should be Archbishop of Canterbury, and who Chancellor of England in the place of John Kempe, by whose death they lay in the King's disposalf; the second, to know whether

* 1 Parl. Hist. 391.

†The entry in the Parliament Roll affords a curious specimen of the English language in the middle of the fifteenth century.

"Memorand' that on the xxiii day of Marche, forasmuche as God hath called to his mercy and shewed his will upon Maister John Kempe, late Cardinall Archebishop of Caunterbury, and Chaunceler of Englond, whoos soule God assoile, and by whose

certain Lords there named to be of the Privy Council were agreeable to him or not. On the 25th of March, the said committee reported to the whole House that they had been to wait upon the King at Windsor, and after three several repairs thither, and earnest solicitations to speak with the King, they could by no means have answer, or token of answer, being only told the King was sick." Two days afterwards the Lords appointed the Duke of York Protector of the realm, so long as the same shall please the King. The Duke, still hesitating about the assertion of his own right, with a view to the pains of treason to which he might afterwards be subjected, obtained a declaration of the House, "that he took upon him the said office by the particular appointment of the Lords, and not of his own seeking or desire.' Letters patent, to which the Duke must himself have affixed the Great Seal, were read in the House, appointing him Protector during the King's pleasure, or until such time as Edward the Prince, then an infant a few months old, should come to the age of discretion. The Duke, in full parliament, then swore faithfully to perform the duties of his high office.*

His first judicial appointment must have caused considerable astonishment in Westminster Hall. The Close Roll of this year informs us, that "on the 2d of April the King's three Great Seals, one of gold and two of silver, were brought into parliament; and the Duke of York, Lieutenant of the kingdom, delivered them to RICHARD NEVILLE, Earl of Salisbury, as Chancellor."+

He was the most powerful Peer who has ever been Chancellor of England; and if military prowess were the great requisite for the office, none could be better qualified to fill it. He was one of the chiefs of the family of Neville, "which," says Hume, was perhaps at this time the most potent, both from their opulent

deth th' office of Chaunceler of Englond stondeth now voide, the which office, of force and necessite for the case of the people and processe of the lawe, must be occupied, it was advised, ordeigned, assented, and thurroughly agreed by the Duke of York, the Kinges lieutenaunt in this present parlement, and all the Lords Spiritualx and temporalx assembled in the parlement chamber at Westr., that certain Lordes, that is to seie, &c., shoulde ride to Wyndesore to the Kynges high presence, to shewe and declare to his Highnesse the seid materes," &c. The instructions are then set out, and there is a long account of the whole transaction - v. 244.

* 1 Parl. Hist. 393. Historians have been much at a loss to account for Richard's reluctance to throw off his allegiance, even when his party had all the power of the state in their hands. The reason may be, that while the King was childless he would not run the risk of civil war, as he hoped that his family would succeed to the throne without any dispute, on failure of the line of Henry IV. The war of the Roses may perhaps be ascribed to the birth of the Prince of Wales, which was considered so auspicious. There can be no doubt that had it not been for the birth of another Prince of Wales, the son of James II, William and Mary would have waited to claim the crown by right of blood.

† Another account states, that on the second of April the coffer containing the Seals was brought into the parliament chamber, placed on the bench where the Duke of York sat as Lieutenant, and after an interval opened by the Earl of Salisbury himself, who took possession of them, and assumed the office of Chancel lor. Rymer, t. ii. 344.

VOL. I.

26

possessions, and from the characters of the men, that has appeared in England." This Earl of Salisbury was the son of the Earl of Westmoreland, and inherited by his wife, daughter and heir of Montacute Earl of Salisbury, killed before Orleans, the estates and title of that great house. In the 11th of Hen. VI. he was made warden both of the east and west marches, and gained great distinction in repressing incursions of the Scotch. He then served with gallantry in France, having under his own pennant 7 knights, 49 men at arms, and 1046 archers. He early espoused the interest of Richard Duke of York. Having contributed his assistance to make him Protector, he was now rewarded with the office of Lord Chancellor, and seemed in the possession of per[Feb. 2, 1461.] ed to finish his career by the hands of the commanent power and felicity, though actually destinmon executioner, his head being stuck upon a pole erected over one of the gates of the city of York.

He retained the office exactly one year. During this time the King so far recovered from his distemper as to be [A. D. 1455.] able to carry the appearance of exercising the royal prerogative; and the Duke of York, not having boldly seized the Crown as his right, Margaret, in her husband's name, resumed the royal authority, annulled the protectorship, released the Duke of Somerset, the principal leader of the Lancastrians, from the Tower, and committed the administration into the hands of that nobleman. The Duke of York, and his Chancellor, saw that if they submitted to this revolution, they would soon be brought to trial for treason. They flew to arms, and employed themselves in levying forces in the counties where they were most potent, On the 7th of March, 1455, THOMAS BOURCHIER, Archbishop of Canterbury, was made Lord Chancellor by the Queen's new gov[MARCH 7, 1455.] the surrender of the Seals*; but, in reality, the There is an entry in the Close Roll of same seals were not used by the different Chancellors of the opposing parties, and it was objected to the Earl of Salisbury that the true Great Seal had never been in his custody.

ernment.

The new Chancellor holds a distinguished place in English history, having been Archbishop of Canterbury under five successive reigns, and having exercised a considerable influence upon the events of his time. He was of high lineage, being a descendant of Lord Chancellor Bourchier, and son of William Bourchier, Count of Eu in Normandy, by Anne, daughter of Thomas of Woodstock, sixth son of Edward III., and relict of Edmund Earl of Stafford. He early discovered that love of letters for which he was noted through life, and which induced him to take an active part in introducing the art of printing into England. In 1434, while he was still a young man, he was elected Chancellor of the University of Oxford, where he had been educated. He

*Rot. Cl. 33 Hen. 6. m. 9.