ページの画像
PDF
ePub

ing their homage to the English crown as vassals for the fief. Gloucester's party consented to this, since it afforded the opportunity of putting Lancaster at a distance. The latter found, however, on his arrival in Aquitaine, that the inhabitants were ill-disposed to receive him as their governor; and their protests soon became so loud, that both the King and the Duke thought it advisable that Lancaster should return to England, much to the chagrin of Gloucester. This daring prince once more strove to wrest the throne from its feeble occupant; but the King now resisted him with unexpected vigor; York, always vacillating, came over to the support of the Crown; Lancaster remained true to the King; and Gloucester was immured in the dungeon of Calais, where he was probably soon after put to death by violent means.

The Lady Catharine Swinford, whom Lancaster had married for his third wife, had formerly been his mistress, and had been employed in the household of the first Duchess. She had borne him three children before the marriage: one of whom was created Lord Beaufort; another, Thomas, became a priest, and rose in the Church to be Lord Bishop of Lincoln. The affection of the Duke for this, his last spouse, was devoted and sincere; and his children by her rivalled their older brothers and sisters in his love. The latter part of Lancaster's life was employed in affairs of State, in protecting, as far as he could, the integrity of the Crown, in negotiating with the foreign embassies, and in composing the differences of the nobility and princes. He was regarded by all as the most trustworthy of the royal princes, and as having inherited more conspicuously than any of his

family, the moderation and clearness of understanding which had eminently marked the character of his father. In the royal council, as he was the first in rank, so also, by his personal merit, he was the first whose opinion was sought and respected. Whatever ambition the record of his life exhibited him to have possessed, it was observed that in no act had he warranted a suspicion of his fidelity to the occupant of the throne. On the contrary, when the unpopularity of Richard, and the confusion which constantly prevailed in the domestic affairs of the realm, afforded the opportunity for an unscrupulous and courageous man to attain to sovereignty, Lancaster had always appeared as the most powerful and zealous supporter of the reigning monarch. It is a singular instance of a persevering, able, and ambitious prince, in a rude age, who having abundant occasion, and certain of large support, nevertheless turned aside from the great temptation, and made his example conspicuous for the constant loyalty and honor of his life.

We have already spoken of the Wickliffe ref ormation, and of the course the Duke of Lancaster took during that vital crisis in the history of the Church. He not only, therefore, appears as the representative of the age of chivalry, as a statesman without a blemish upon his loyalty, as a prince whose moderation and sense of justice were lent to the preservation of the State; but also in the nobler and more venerable light of a patron of religious reformation, in times when the Papacy possessed a power which demanded and enforced the fealty of the greatest sovereigns, and when to be a reformer was to endanger liberty, life, and reputation. How can we, who live in the pure enlightenment which has grown from that

early struggle for religious liberty, praise too much that high-minded prince, whose strong arm protected those earnest men-whose power and reputation shielded the weaker party in the bitter strugglewhose interposition averted from the truth-seekers of a transition age, the doom which the wrath of a mighty hierarchy sought to cast upon them! This is the light in which we love to regard "time-honored Lancaster; " for here he rises above the ambitions and errors of his age; here he is the knight-errant, whose aspirations may soar to a higher crown than those of earthly principalities; here his name stands with that of Wickliffe, as a pioneer of Christian faith, as a champion of free conscience, as a benefactor to all the future.

John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, lived to witness the important event (which we reserve for another chapter) which led to the establishment of his son and heir upon the throne of England. To the very last the venerable soldier was the guardian of Richard's safety; and, had his patriotic example been followed by his descendants, the most mournful and most absorbing conflict which English history presents -the Wars of the Roses-would have been wanting to the romance of the Middle Ages. We are called upon to narrate, in the pages which succeed, how the descendants of the patriarch forgot, not only the po litical purity, but also the religious championship, which might have been so graceful an inheritance; how ambition led them to put treacherous hands upon the person of royalty, to seize the sovereign power, and to trample upon the rising spirit of resistance to Papal tyranny; how heroically and bril liantly, nevertheless, they maintained themselves,

until a large majority of the kingdom sustained them in usurped power, and united to repel the foreign hosts who sought to replace the legitimate heirs; how, out of their evil lust of glory, proceeded manifold blessings to the realm, and how it hastened, on the whole, the current which had already begun to set toward a broader light and a larger freedom.

CHAPTER II.

"Strives Bolingbroke to be as great as we ?"

THE REBELLION AND USURPATION OF HENRY OF LANCASTER.

THE usurpation of the Red Rose grew out of a conversation which took place, one day, on the road between Brentford and London. A nobleman, riding along toward the metropolis, met another nobleman, and talked treason; thence budded forth insurrection, usurpation, regicide, and two glorious reigns. Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, was a middle-aged man, active, restless, and of great influence, the Earl Marshal of the realm, and honored, despite his implication in divers conspiracies, at the court of King Richard the Second. He was one of those politicians who are never contented; who plot and counterplot incessantly; who are always running their heads, fearlessly to be sure, but indiscreetly, into danger of decapitation. His late transgressions made him fearful lest Richard should visit him with vengeance; and his treason now amounted to a desire to overturn his royal enemy, so that he might no longer be feared. He had a long and garrulous tongue, one which talked him, as we shall see, to destruction. On this road, between Brentford and London, where he was riding,

« 前へ次へ »