CHAP. Removal Nov. 23. 1396. EDMUND crown itself, although Richard had declared in parliament that, in case of his decease without issue, the house of March, descended from the Duke of Clarence, the second son of Edward III., were his true heirs. Richard for a short time showed some energy in defence of of Arundel, his rights. Arundel, the Chancellor, was removed from his office, and replaced by EDMUND STAFFORD, Bishop of Exeter, who had sided with Gloucester's enemies, and Gloucester himself was arrested and sent over to Calais as a state prisoner. The Dukes of Lancaster and York, the King's other uncles, concurred in these measures, and all who had opposed them were now at the mercy of the ruling faction. STAFFORD, Chancellor. Chancel As usual on such occasions, a parliament was called to register decrees of vengeance, and acted with the expected vigour and unanimity. Some objection might safely be made to a particular measure which did not excite the passions of men as it passed through either House; but a regular parliamentary opposition was unknown, and no division ever took place on a bill of attainder or forfeiture,- for this plain reason, that the names of the minority would have been immediately introduced into the bill, and they would forthwith have found themselves entering through the Traitor's Gate into the Tower, shortly to tread the scaffold on Tower Hill, if not assassinated before the day fixed for their execution. Lord Chancellor Stafford opened the session with a speech lor's speech from the words of Ezekiel, "Rex unus erit omnibus." He on opening parliament. prepared men for a little wholesome severity, by saying, "That laws ought to be executed, appears by the common example of a good father who uses to strike as well as stroke his child; for the better execution of them, the King has appointed new judges and officers through the realm.” * Ex-chancellor Arundel The first step of the Commons was to impeach the Exchancellor Arundel, for treason, in respect of what he had impeached done when bishop of Ely, in procuring the Commission in the tenth year of the King's reign. Knowing that defence was useless, and that being a churchman his life was safe, he confessed the charge. Upon this, the King and the Lords and con victed. 1 Parl. Hist. 221. temporal, and (strange to say) the Prelates, by a lay commoner who held their proxy, "adjudged and declared the said article which the Archbishop had confessed to be treason, and that it touched the King himself; for which they also adjudged and declared him a traitor, and it was awarded that he should be banished out of the kingdom, have his temporalities seized, and forfeit all his lands and goods to the King." However, he had six weeks allowed him to pass by the port of Dover into France.* The Earl of Arundel, his brother, to the same charge pleaded the pardon granted by act of parliament as well as by proclamation; but the plea was overruled, and he was convicted and executed. CHAP. XVII. fords. The new Chancellor, the Bishop of Exeter, who presided Family of over these atrocities, was of illustrious descent, being of the Staf the family of the STAFFORDS, which from the Conquest till the reign of Henry VIII. flourished at the head of the English nobility. He was a younger brother of the present Earl. The men of obscure origin, however great their talents, generally worked their way slowly up to the high ecclesiastical dignities, which were often bestowed on youths of high birth almost before they were of canonical age to take orders. Edmund Stafford was consecrated Bishop of Exeter, possessing little theological learning, and was now made Lord Chancellor without any knowledge of the law. But he was a daring and reckless politician. It is to be hoped that he did not counsel the murder of the Duke of Gloucester at Calais, although Hume rather justifies this coup d'état, on the ground that a person of such influence could not have been safely brought to trial in England †, but the Chancellor openly sanctioned the banishment of Henry of Bolingbroke and the Duke of Norfolk, together with the other hasty and tyrannical measures which were precipitating the fate of the unhappy Richard. On the death of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, the A. D. 1399. King, with the concurrence of the Chancellor, seized all the possessions and jurisdictions of this powerful family as for CHAP. Henry of Bolingbroke claims the crown, JOHN A. D. 1399. feited to the Crown, although the sentence against Henry of Bolingbroke had only been banishment for ten years, and it had been expressly stipulated that he should be entitled by his attorney to enter into possession of any succession that might fall to him in the mean time. This act of injustice made Henry desperate, and led to his invasion of England and his claim of the crown. Edmund Stafford, the Chancellor, did not accompany Richard in his ill-judged expedition to Ireland, and he seems to have remained in possession of the Great Seal in London till after Henry had landed at Ravenspurg,― had been joined by the Duke of York at St. Alban's,-had taken Bristol,had put to death the Earl of Wiltshire and others of the King's ministers whom he found there, had got possession of Richard's person on his return from Ireland, and was de facto the master of the kingdom. As might be expected, the records at the conclusion of this reign are very defective, and historians and antiquaries have been much puzzled respecting the manner in which the office of Chancellor was then disposed of. There is no entry to be found of any transfer of the Great Seal under Richard from the time when Stafford, Bishop of Exeter, was first sworn in; but from Privy Seal bills still extant, it is certain that before Richard's formal deposition, and the elevation of Henry to the throne, Thomas de Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury, and JOHN SEARLE, who had been made Master of the Rolls in 1394, were successively invested with the office of Chancellor. The transfer of the Seal to Arundel must have been between the 15th of July and the 23d of August, the former being the last date of the Privy Seal bills addressed to the Bishop of Exeter, and the other the earliest date of those addressed to the Archbishop of Canterbury; and on the like evidence Searle's appointment must have been between the 3d and 5th of September. The learned and acute Mr. Duffus Hardy conjectures that Richard had recalled the Archbishop from banishment, and again made him Chancellor*; but, with the greatest respect Hardy's Chancellors, 46. XVII. for this high authority, I think it certain that the change was CHAP. made, though in Richard's name, yet without his privity, and by those who were about to dethrone him. cellor When Bolingbroke and the Duke of Norfolk were banished, Ex-chanit was prescribed that they should have no intercourse with Arundel Archbishop Arundel, then in exile, and considered a very accompanies Henry. dangerous man; but as soon as Bolingbroke had renounced all thoughts of reconciliation with Richard, he entered into a close alliance with the Archbishop, and they jointly planned the invasion of England during Richard's absence in Ireland. The Archbishop, with his nephew the young Earl of Arundel, embarked with Henry at Nantes, landed with him in Yorkshire, advised and supported him in all his proceedings, and actually placed the crown upon his head. From the time when Richard surrendered himself to the Earl of Northumberland at Conway, which was on the 18th of August, he A. D. 1399. was a prisoner, and having been forced to issue writs for the calling of a parliament to depose him, he was carried to London, and kept in close custody in the Tower. We may conjecture that an order was extorted at the same time for delivering the seal to the Archbishop, and that by him the writs were sealed. It seems at first sight more difficult to account for Arundel's parting with the office so suddenly; for Searle was certainly Chancellor by the 5th of September, and Richard's reign nominally continued till the 30th of the same month, when parliament met, and his deposition was pronounced. Searle was in the interest of Henry, and was continued by him in office. The probability is, that the Archbishop, who cast all the parts in the drama of the revolution, intending that he himself, as Metropolitan and first in precedence in the realm, should lead Henry to the vacant throne in Westminster Hall, and crown him in Westminster Abbey, conceived that it would have a better effect if he should appear only in his sacred character, and the civil office of Chancellor should for the time be filled by another. He therefore, may have handed it over to Searle, his creature, in the belief that he should be able to resume it at pleasure. CHAP. Deposition II. I do not find Searle's name mentioned as taking any active part in the parliamentary proceedings on this change of dynasty, and he was probably only permitted to sit on the woolsack in the House of Lords, and to put the question as Speaker. On Michaelmas-day, the Archbishop accompanied Henry of Richard to the Tower, Richard, while a prisoner there, having said that "he was willing to resign as he had promised, but that he desired to have some discourse with his cousin the Duke of Lancaster and the Archbishop of Canterbury before he fulfilled such his promise." The record of the deposition on the Parliament Roll relates that "the King, having had discourse with the said Duke and Archbishop, exhibiting a merry countenance as appeared to those that stood round about, holding the schedule of renunciation in his hand, very willingly read the same and subscribed it, and absolved all his subjects from their allegiance to him." When this instrument, supposed to have been so freely and cheerfully executed, was read in parliament next day, "it was demanded by the Chancellor of the estates and people then present,-to wit, first, the Archbishop of Canterbury, to whom, by reason of the dignity and prerogative of his metropolitan church it belongs in this behalf to have the first voice amongst the rest of the prelates and nobles, of the realm, whether for their interest, and the utility of the kingdom, they would be willing to admit such renunciation and cession ?" This being carried with great applause, the Archbishop thought it would be well to have another string to his bow, lest hereafter the free agency of the act of resignation should be doubted by some suspicious persons, and he caused articles to be exhibited against Richard for misgovernment, and a solemn sentence of deposition to be pronounced against him.* The throne thus being declared vacant, Henry of Bolingbroke, who had taken his seat at the head of the temporal lords, rose and made his memorable claim, "in the name of Fader, Son, and Holy Ghost," having humbly fortified him 1 St. Tr. 135. 1 Parl. Hist. 242. |