The remarkable poem of which the prologue is here given was written probably in 1436. The

writer is unknown. He was plainly well acquainted with commercial affairs of the time, and he seems to have had the favour of Cardinal Beaufort and other great men. As he states in the prologue his purpose was to call attention to the view which he discusses at length, that England's power was on the sea rather than on the

land.

Libel, i.e. little book.

Sigismond of
Germany.

36. The Libel of English Policy

The true intent of English policy

Is to keep our land from all attack at rest,
That of our England no man may deny

That it, in sooth, is not one of the best ;

That he who sails south, north or east or west,
May carry merchandise and keep the admiralty,
And say that we are masters of the narrow sea.

For when the emperor, Sigismond, the great,

(Who reigneth yet) once visited this strand
With Henry fifth, king over all our state,

He thought he found much glory in this land;
A mighty nation which had taken in hand
To war with France, with great mortality,
And ever more to keep their power upon the sea.

And when he saw the towns of Calais and of Dover,
Then unto the king spake he, 'My brother,

'If you're to keep the sea, and soon cross over,

You of your towns must choose one or another,
From which to make attack, your kingdom to recover,
Keep, sire, these two, 'neath your supremacy
As your two eyes to watch the narrow sea.'

If this sea were kept, in days of alarm

Who could pass here without danger and woe,
Who could escape, and who could work us harm?
And what merchandise through the sea could go?
Then we could take a truce from every foe,
Flanders and Spain, and all the rest, pardie,
Or hinder them all within this narrow sea.

Therefore I purpose another word to take
And open and plain my conclusion to show,
For mine own acquittal and for conscience' sake
Before God, and against revilings low,
And cowardice, to confusion of our foe;
These four things our noble shows to us,
King, ship and sword, and the power of the sea.

Where are our ships, and where our swords to-day?
. We are bid by our foes for the ship put a sheep!
Alas! our power fails, it is taken away,

But who dares to say, that a watch we must keep?
Tho' for very shame my heart begins to weep,
Yet I will attempt this work, if we hope to be,
Ever more the masters of the narrow sea.

Shall any prince, of whatsoever name

Who hath nobles very much like ours,

Be lord of the sea, and Flemings, to our shame,

Stop us and take us, and so make fade the flowers
Of English state, and trample on our powers?

Alas! for cowardice that it so should be!

Wherefore I begin to write now of the sea.

Political Poems and Songs (edited by T. Wright, London, 1861),
II, 157-159. Version by M. G. Gordon.

Noble = an English coin first issued by Edward III. It bore on one side the king and a sword, on the other a ship.

I

By JOHN BLAKMAN, a monk of the

Charter

house in London in the reign of Henry VI. From him

self we know

that he assisted the king in his studies and pious works. His account is based, therefore,

on close personal observation. It is plainly influenced,

however, by
the writer's
sympathies.
On the

Wars of the
Roses, see E.
Thompson,

York and Lancaster;

C. W. Oman,

CHAPTER VII—THE WARS OF THE

ROSES

37. King Henry VI

HEN the executors of the right reverend Lord Cardi

WHEN

nal and Bishop of Winchester, his uncle, came to the King with a very great sum, to wit, £2,000, to be given to the King's use, and towards lightening the necessary burthens of the realm, he utterly refused the gift, nor would he in any way have it, saying, "My uncle was very dear to me, and did us much kindness while he lived: the Lord reward him. Do ye with his goods as ye are bounden; we will not take them." The executors, astonished at that royal saying, besought the King's Majesty at least to accept that gift from their hands towards the endowment of his two colleges at Cambridge and Eton, which he might then as it were found anew. This their supplication and donation the King most willingly accepted, enjoining that, for the relief of his uncle's soul, they should confer the gift upon the colleges aforesaid; and they forthwith fulfilled the Royal mandate.

For the beginning and foundation of these two colleges, The Wars of he diligently sought out everywhere the best "living stones," -youths well found in virtue and knowledge, and priests Warwick, the who should be set as doctors and tutors over the others. King-maker. With respect to obtaining these priests, the King had said to him whom he employed about the business, "We had rather put up with their falling short in musical matters than in knowledge of the Scriptures." And with respect to the 1 Peter II. 5. boys or youths, brought to him to be made scholars of, the King wished them altogether to be educated and nurtured

Cardinal Beaufort, son of John of

Gaunt, died

in 1447.

as much in virtue as in knowledge. So when now and then
he met some of them in Windsor Castle, where they some-
times went to visit acquaintances in the King's service,
he admonished them to follow the path of virtue, giving
them along with his words also money to attract them, and
saying, "Be good boys, gentle and teachable, and servants
of the Lord." And if he found any of them visiting his
court, he sometimes stopped them by chiding them, that
they should not do that again; lest his lambkins should
become acquainted with the profligate ways and doings of
his courtiers, or should in part or wholly lose their own good
morals, like lambs or sheep, which, grazing among bram-
bles or thorns, tear to pieces their fleeces, and often wholly
lose them.

in the Pater
Noster-
"But deliver
us [from
evil]."

This most pious King was not ashamed to serve as a diligent assistant to the priest celebrating before him, answering to the mass, Amen. Sed libera nos, and the like. So The response indeed he commonly did even to me, unworthy priest. Concerning his humility in his walk [and] in his clothes, from his youth up he had been accustomed to wear broadtoed shoes and boots like a countryman. Also he had usually a long gown with a rounded hood after the manner of a burgess, and a tunic falling below the knees, shoes, boots, hose, everything of a dark for he would have nothing fanciful.

colour grey

Moreover, on the principal feasts of the year, but chiefly when by custom he should wear his crown, he would put on next his skin a rough hair-shirt, . . . in order to keep down all arrogance or vain-glory, to which such occasions are likely to give rise.

Concerning the occupation of the King, . . . it is known to very many now living that he was wont to dedicate holy days and Sundays wholly to hearing the divine offices, and to devout prayers on his part for himself and his people, "lest the adversaries should mock at his Sab

In opposition

to the absurdly long and pointed

toes in fash

ion during the later part of his reign.

This must

refer to his everyday

dress, as on occasion he

wore a blue velvet gown.

Lamentations I. 7.

Tunstall fol

lowed Henry in his wan

derings after Towton, and fought bravely to save him

from capture.

After this he held out in Harlech Castle till 1468.

Swearing
with a fan-
tastic ingenu-
ity of irrever-

ence was one
of the vices

of the age.

baths." And he also diligently endeavoured to induce others
to do the like. But the other less holy days . . . he
spent, not less diligently, either in treating of the affairs of
the realm with his Council, according as the necessity of
the case demanded, or in readings of the Scriptures, or in
perusing writings and chronicles. Concerning which, a
certain worthy knight, once a right faithful chamberlain of
his, Sir Richard Tunstall, bore verbal and written testimony,
saying, “In the law of the Lord was his delight day and
night."
Evidence to the same effect is afforded by the
bitter complaint which the Lord King himself made to me
in his chamber at Eltham, when I was there alone with him
working with him in his holy books, intent upon wholesome
admonitions and devout aspirations : a certain most pow-
erful Duke of the realm having just then knocked at the
royal door, the King said, "So do they disturb me, that
scarce am I able by snatches, day or night, to refresh my-
self with the reading of the sacred dogmata, without some-
body making a noise."

It was his wont to use no oaths to confirm the truth of his sayings, except by uttering these words, "Forsooth, and forsooth," that he might make those to whom he spoke certain of what he said. Wherefore, sometimes by gently advising, sometimes by severely chiding, he restrained very many, magnates as well as commons, from great oaths; since every one who swore was abominable to him. For the King, hearing a certain great lord, his chamberlain, thoughtlessly break out swearing, seriously reproved him, saying, "Alas! while you, the master of a household, thus, contrary to God's command, rap out oaths, you set the worst example to your servants and subjects, for you incite them to do the like."

John Blakman, De Virtutibus et Miraculis Henrici VI (Hearne, Oxford, 1732), 294-302. Translation and notes by E. Thompson, The Wars of York and Lancaster (London, 1892), 11-15.