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Henry sent ambassadors to France, who were instructed, in the first instance, to claim the crown. But it is equally certain that, before the meeting of this parliament, and previously to the preferment of Chicheley to the primacy, Henry had made demands upon France which he could scarcely expect to obtain without a war. He had not, I believe, claimed the crown, but he had insisted upon the renewal of the treaty of Bretigny, made between Edward the Third and the Dauphin Charles, acting for his captive father, King John, after the battle of Poitiers; and upon the restitution of all the possessions in France which had been taken from the kings of England since that time. This demand involved a cession on the part of France of the duchy of Normandy and Touraine, the earldoms of Anjou and Maine, the duchy of Brittany, and other possessions; and Henry, moreover, demanded a portion of no less than two millions of crowns with Catherine, the daughter of France, whom, as a part of the arrangement proposed, he was to have in marriage.

Nor do the ancient historians connect the French war with the spoliation bill, or with the archbishop. The speech in the play, which contains the argument upon the Salic law, is taken almost verbatim from Holinshed but there is no trace of it in Otterbourne,

• Nicolas's Agincourt, p. 2.

Walsingham, Hardyng, or Elmham. The last indeed says that, before the king went to France he satisfied himself, by the advice of accomplished and wise men, that nothing in divine or human law forbade his expedition.* But he had not even mentioned the obnoxious bill, or the clergy. And no one of the other three writers takes any notice even of this consultation, still less of the other topics in question. Hall was, I believe, the first writer who imputed the war to the clergy; and he makes up in severity and ill-nature for the silence of his predecessors. Holinshed, whom Shakspeare copies,† thus tells the story :

"In this parliament many profitable laws were concluded, and many petitions moved were for that time deferred. Amongst which one was, that a bill exhibited in the parliament holden at Westminister in the eleventh year of King Henry the Fourth (which by reason the king was then troubled with civil discord came to none effect) might now with good deliberation be produced and brought to some good conclusion. The effect of which deliberation was that the temporal lands devoutly given,

'Magnanimitas regia, prius tamen virorum perfectorum ac sapientum informata consilio, quod lege divinæ seu humanæ nihil contrarium operatur, si in justa guerrarum excitatur primordia, elatam et indignantem Gallorum rebellionem a mentis excubiis non expellit," &c.—p. 34.

+ Malone shows that Holinshed was always consulted by Shakspeare.-Bosw. 267, 270.

and disordinately spent by religious and other spiritual persons, should be seized into the king's hands, since the same might suffice to maintain, to the honour of the king and defence of the realm, 15 earls, 1500 knights, 6200 esquires, and 100 almshouses for relief only of the poor, impotent, and needy persons, and the king to have clearly to his coffers 20,0007., with many other provisions and values of religious houses which I pass over. This bill was much noted, and was feared among the religious sort, whom surely it touched very near, and therefore, to find remedy against it, they determined to essay all ways to put by and overthrow this bill; wherein they thought best to try if they might move the king's mood with some sharp invention that he should not regard the importunate petitions of the commons."

Then follows Chicheley's speech, which having been paraphrased by Shakspeare, and copied into the "Parliamentary History," passes for genuine, as though it had been reported by Hansard.

The pedigree has puzzled everybody. I find in Betham's genealogical tables (No. 252), that Pepin was descended from Blithild, as stated; but I do not find that Hugh Capet had any ancestress of the name of Lingare, or Charlemain such a daughter. Charles, Duke of Lorraine, had a daughter, Ermengarde, married to the Duke of

* Hol., 65.

Namur. I do not know whether Queen Isabel came from her.*

The quotation from Numbers,† is also from Holinshed, and the speeches of Westmoreland and Exeter, but with some variation. Westmoreland was warden of the Scottish marches, and, according to Holinshed, "moved the king to begin first with Scotland." He quoted the old saw, in favour of that course of policy. Exeter replied to him, reversing the proverb, and urging that it was proper to begin with France; "if the king might once compass the conquest of France, Scotland could not long resist . . . for where should the Scots learn policy and skill to defend themselves, if they had not their bringing up and training in France."+

Shakspeare has, apparently of his own mere motion, put into the mouth of the king a correct historical argument founded upon the invasions of England by the Scots, in the time of Edward III.

There is another passage in which Shakspeare has gone beyond the page before him. In Chicheley's energetic exhortation, he says to Henry :

Go, my dread lord, to your great grandsire's tomb From whom you claim; invoke his warlike spirit, And your great uncle's, Edward the Black Prince;

* See Bosw., 273, 4. † Numb. xxvii. 8. ↑ Hol., 66.

Who on the French ground play'd a tragedy,
Making defeat on the full power of France;
While his most mighty father, on a hill

Stood smiling, to behold the lion's whelp
Forage in blood of French nobility."

It has been observed that this allusion is taken from Holinshed, when speaking of the battle of Crecy.*

The dramatist, however, places his scene at Kenilworth, in which he also copies Holinshed, only throwing together the transactions of that place and Leicester. It is probable that Henry kept his court at Kenilworth during the Leicester parliament, and the older Chronicles, as well as Holinshed, place him there when he received the "merry message" of the Dauphin. Unaccountable as this anecdote is, there is better authority for it, than for the interference of the clergy; for it is mentioned by Otterbourne, Elmham, and others. I know not whether Paris balls (Holinshed's term as well as that of Otterbourne) necessarily imply balls used in tennis, which in fact required great strength and activity; but the context rather points to a sort of ball which is played with by children. Yet some contemporary writers call them

* Hol., 639; Bosw., 272.

+ Misit pilas Parisianas ad ludendum cum pueris ; Otterb., 274; and see Nicolas, p. 9.