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Prince Henry of Monmouth—His Letters and Despatches During the War in Wales. 1402–1405
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 February 2009
Extract
‘The Story of Prince Henry of Monmouth and Chief Justice Gascoign,’ read at a meeting of the Royal Historical Society in November 1885, contained a brief, but only a brief sketch of the military career of that illustrious prince during the war in Wales. But though for the purpose which the writer had in view it was necessary to trace the prince's movements and his actions as described in contemporaneous official documents, want of space precluded the possibility of a transcript of any part of the correspondence, memoranda, or records therein referred to. It is proposed now to partially supply that omission by means of a translation of all the few letters and despatches of the prince himself during the war which are extant. They are all in the French language. It may be reasonably expected that the letters and despatches of anyone giving an account of great deeds in which he himself was a partaker would be found full of deep interest, and a sense of disappointment cannot fail to be felt on learning that those of Henry of Monmouth, Prince of Wales, are only six in number. It is only to the marvellous industry and research of Sir Robert Cotton, two hundred years after they were written, that we owe the discovery and preservation of any of them, and to the labours of the Record Commission perfected by Sir Harris Nicolas that we owe a print of these, and a vast number of other most valuable documents during the period commencing 10 Richard II., A.D. 1386, and ending with few exceptions 38 Henry VI., A.D. 14.61, published in 1834, and which will be quoted for the sake of brevity by the title of ‘Acts of Council.’
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- Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1889
References
page 125 note 1 Reprinted and published, Longman, Green, and Co., 8vo., 1886.
page 126 note 1 Acts of Council, i. preface, viii.
page 126 note 2 Rot. Viag., 1 Hen. IV., m. I. 8 Rym. Fœd. 159.
page 126 note 3 Rot. Pta., 2 Hen. IV., p. I, m. 14. 8 Rym. Fœd. 167.
page 127 note 1 Acts of Council, i. 148.
page 127 note 2 Acts of Council, i. 150.
page 127 note 3 Acts of Council, i. 145.
page 127 note 4 Acts of Council, i. 148, April 10, 1401; Acts of Council, i. 150, May 4, 1401; Acts of Council, i. 151, May 17, 1401; Acts of Counil, i. 152, June 4, 1401.
page 127 note 5 Acts of Council, ii. 57.
page 128 note 1 Acts of Council, ii. 61.
page 128 note 2 Acts of Council, i. 173.
page 28 note 3 Ex autogr. 8 Rymer, 193.
page 128 note 4 Acts of Council, i. 175.
page 128 note 5 Acts of Council, i. 174.
page 128 note 6 Acts of Council, ii. 61.
page 129 note 1 Acts of Council, ii. 62.
page 130 note 1 Now called Harlech.
page 130 note 2 Meaning the castle of Aberystwith, in the parish of Lampadern.
page 130 note 3 Acts of Council, i. 219.
page 130 note 4 Acts of Council, i. 221.
PAGE 130 note 5 Rot. Viag., 6 Hen. IV., m. 10; 8 Rym. Fœd. 419, and MSS. St. Albani, Hen. IV., miscopied as 8 Hen. IV. in 8 Rym. Fœd. 497.
page 130 note 6 Rot. Cl., 3 Hen. IV., p. 2, m. 6d.; 8 Rym. Fœd. 272.
page 131 note 1 Rot. Pat., 4 Hen. IV., p. 2, m. 32.8 Rym. Fœd. 291.
page 131 note 2 Acts of Council, i. 106.
page 132 note 1 ‘The account of this battle in Owen and Blakeway's History of Shrewsbury (vol. i., pp. 185–195) is remarkable for ability and research’— SirNicolas's, Harris Preface to Acts of Council, i. liiiGoogle Scholar.
page 132 note 2 Acts of Council, i. 229.
page 133 note 1 Afterwards Earl of Cambridge.
page 133 note 2 Acts of Council, i. 231.
page 135 note 1 Acts of Council, i. 233.
page 135 note 2 Minutes of a council held August 29, 1404 (Acts of Council, i. 235), and minutes of another council apparently held on the following day (Acts of Council, i. 236).
page 136 note 1 Acts of Council, i. 248.
page 136 note 2 Son miracle in original.
page 137 note 1 Acts of Council, i. 248.
page 137 note 2 La jeurnée, literally the day's work.
page 137 note 3 8 Rym. Fœd. 497. The date of this indenture, as printed in Rymer's Fœdera, from a copy of Walsingham's not now extant, is September 12, 8 Hen. IV. The date of the king's proclamation of the same events, as printed in Rymer's, Fœdera, 419Google Scholar, from the Rot. Viag., is September 22, 6 Hen. IV. It is obvious that one or other of these year-dates is erroneous. In every other respect the facts stated in the indenture and the proclamation, namely, that the submission took place at Aberystwith on September 10 in the presence of Richard Courtenay, Chancellor of the University of Oxford, that it was proclaimed by the king on the 22nd of the same month, together with his intention to be at Evesham for the purpose of taking command of his troops on October 10 on his march to Aberystwith, and that he was then at Cawode, near York, will be found to provide means for obtaining an infallible test which of the two year-dates is correct and which is erroneous. With that view the Reverend T. Vere Bayne, keeper of the archives of the University, courteously offered to submit to the writer of this paper the archives for examination, and he has most kindly searched them himself and favoured the writer with extracts, but they leave the history of the tenure of the office of Chancellor during the whole period between the death of Richard Scrope, Archbishop of York, June 8, 1405, 6 Hen. IV. and the end of the regnal year 8 Hen. IV., September 29, 1407, in great uncertainty. Fortunately, however, the official rolls now stored in the Public Record Office contain abundant materials for solving the question, which practically depends upon the evidence which they supply of the king's presence in or absence during the month of September during the years 1405, 1406, and 1407 from the neighbourhood of York, where it is certain that he was when he issued the proclamation. Numerous entries on the Rot. Viag., which has been carefully examined, show that the king spent a considerable period immediately preceding the day on which he issued his proclamation in Yorkshire, and that on the very day before he issued it he was at Bishopsthorpe, within a few miles of Cawode. Now nothing whatever is easier than to learn from other official rolls, the year-date of which is indisputably correct, and on which the King's Acts and the place where transacted are recorded ‘Teste me ipso,’ whether the submission of the Welsh rebels and the King's proclamation thereof and his long presence in Yorkshire, as described in the Rot. Viag., could possibly have occurred in the later year attributed to that submission, 8 Hen. IV. 1407, or the intermediate year, 7 Hen. IV., 1406. In the first place two separate and independent official rolls, namely, the Close Roll, commencing on September 30, 1405, 7 Hen. IV. m. 17, and the Rotulus Scotiæ, on which are recorded the King's Acts, relating to Scotland, commencing on the same day, 7 Hen. IV. m. 3, both record the King's presence, on October 6, 1405, at Worcester, within a few miles of Evesham, where he had proclaimed his intention to be on the 10th. Then as to the following years we find from the Patent Roll, 7 Hen. IV. p. 2, that the king, instead of being in Yorkshire in September 1406, spent the whole of that month, and several next succeeding months, at Westminster. During the early part of October in that year he was engaged in negotiations for the prince's marriage and peace with France, and on the 21st of that month proclaimed his intention immediately to invade France in person. (Rot. Cl. 8 Hen. IV. m. 35 d.) In the following year also the king never spent a single day either in August or September in Yorkshire (Rot. Cl. 8 Hen. IV. mm 5–3); and on the 27th of the latter month, instead of being engaged in Welsh affairs and meditating a march at the head of his troops from Evesham to Aberystwith, he was occupied with renewed negotiations for peace with France to the expected ambassadors, from which kingdom he was granted safe conduct on that day (Rot. Fr. 8 Hen. IV. m. 4). It seems to be, therefore, absolutely impossible that the year 1407, in the month of September of which the king was so occupied at Westminster, was the year in the month of September of which the submission of the Welsh rebels took place and was proclaimed by the king at Cawode, near York, and to be perfectly certain that the year-date of that event was no other than the 6 Hen. IV. 1405.
page 139 note 1 Rot. Viag., 6 Hen. IV., m. 10; Rym. Fœd. viii. 419.
page 139 note 2 Rot. Cl., 7 Hen. IV., m. 17; 8 Rym. Fœd. 420. Rot. Scot., 7 Hen. IV., m. 3; 8 Rym. Fœd. 420.
page 140 note 1 Rot. Pat., 7 Hen. IV., p. I, m. 29; 8 Rym. Fœd. 421.
page 140 note 2 See the Story of Prince Henry of Monmouth and Chief justice Gascoign, pp. 90 and following pages, as reprinted.