dred and twelve, the eighth day of May; firstly, it A.D. 1412. was agreed by the above-named lords, or their attorneys, that henceforward they will expose their persons and all their power to serve the King of England, his children and successors, [and] heirs, always and whenever they shall be required in his just quarrels, recognising that the quarrel which the said King of England maintains in the duchy of Guienne is good and just, and that the said duchy belongs to him of right, inheritance, and natural succession, and they declared that they hurt not their loyalty in assisting the said king in this.

Item. The said lords and their attorneys offered their sons, daughters, and nephews, relations and kinsmen, and all their subjects, to contract marriages according to the discretion of the said King of England.

Item. They offered towns, castles, and all their goods in aid of the king and his heirs, to defend his rights and quarrels, saving their loyalty, which they declare elsewhere in another decree whereof letters were made and passed.

Item. These lords offered to the said king generally all their friends and allies and well-wishers to serve him in his quarrels [and in the restitution of the Duchy of Guienne.]1

Item.-Discontinuing all fraudulent things they are ready to acknowledge to the said King Henry that the said duchy of Guienne is his in such and like franchise as any of his predecessors held and possessed it.

Item. These said lords again acknowledged that all the towns, castles, and fortresses which they have in the said duchy, they hold, and desire to hold, of the said King Henry as of their true Duke of Guienne, promising all due services for homage in the best way that it can be rendered.

1 The text in A is confused.

A.D. 1412.

Item. They promised to deliver to the King of England, so far as lies in them, all the towns and castles said to belong to the royalty of England, which are in number twenty declared in the letters made thereon; and in regard to the other towns and fortresses which are not in their power, they would aid the king or his deputies to conquer them at their own charges.

Also hereafter is contained and declared the tenor of the sealed letters which were made, that is to say, it pleases the King of England that the Duke of Berri, his loyal uncle, subject, and vassal, and likewise the Count of Armagnac, hold of him in fealty and homage the lands and seignories which follow. The Duke of Berri shall hold the country of Poitou during his life [the Duke of Orleans shall hold the country of Angoulême during his life], and the country of Periquel for ever. The Count of Armagnac shall hold four castellanies declared in the said letters, in homage, subject to certain securities and conditions declared in the said letters.

And furthermore, among the above-mentioned promises the King of England and Duke of Guienne was to defend the above-named lords against all manner of persons, and to aid them and give them succour as their true lord, and also will bring about for them, and aid them to bring about, the accomplishment of justice on Duke John of Burgundy. Moreover, the said king will make no treaties or alliances or agreement with the said Duke of Burgundy, or his children, brothers, cousins, and allies without the consent of the said lords.

And it was agreed that the King of England should aid the said lords as his true vassals in all their just quarrels, and in obtaining recompence for the injuries and trespasses unjustly committed against them by Duke John of Burgundy and his allies.

1 The words in brackets are omitted in A.

And also the said king would presently send them A.D. 1412. eight thousand fighting men to give aid to them against the said Duke of Burgundy, who was endeavouring to bring the King of France against them. Which letters of confederation and alliance between the said parties were sealed with the seals of the two parties the eighth day of May one thousand four hundred and twelve.

The above-named lords promised however to pay the men-at-arms which the King of England was to furnish, for which they bound themselves sufficiently.

This promise the King of England did not fail to keep, for at the time when the King of England was in this intention the King of France was laying siege to Bourges, at which time there came the said English, under the leadership of Sir Thomas Duke of Clarence, second son of King Henry, as is declared above.

In this year happened great tribulations throughout the world.

Here it makes mention of the death of this King Henry of Englund, fourth of that name. CHAPTER XXXI.

ABOUT the end of the year one thousand four hundred A.D. 1413. and twelve, the sixteenth day of March, [died] Henry of Lancaster, King of England, fourth of that name, who in his time had been a very valiant knight and governed the kingdom very vigorously for the space of thirteen years, during which term of thirteen years he had been much feared and dreaded by his enemies; very wise and crafty was he in the business of war, and in everything in which he chose to concern himself maintained his realm in peace and justice, as hereafter in the fifth volume is plainly declared; who, as is said above, in order to attain to the honour and possession

A.D. 1413. of the kingdom, caused King Richard, his cousingerman, to be piteously murdered. But the said King Henry, as soon as he had usurped the crown, fell ill of the malady of leprosy, by which he was so afflicted that at last he lay on his death-bed, and he sank so suddenly that the guards who were round him hardly perceived it until he was so far gone that he had neither warmth nor breath, therefore they covered his face, as is the custom of the country. Within his chamber upon a couch on a cushion of cloth of gold, and close to him was his royal crown, which after his death belonged, according to the rule of succession, to Henry his eldest son, Prince of Wales, who, informed by the guards that his father was dead as they thought, came into the chamber to seize the crown as heir and carried it off on the hint of the said guards. But it happened that very soon after the king being in this state uttered a sigh, whereby the guards discovered that he was alive, and he returned to consciousness and cast his glance on the place where his crown had been before, and when he saw it not asked where it was, and they said to him: "Sire, my lord the prince your son has "carried it away." Then he sent for his son to come to him, who came, and the king asked him why he had carried away his crown, to which the prince answered and said: "My lord, they had assured me "that you had given up the ghost, and inasmuch as "I am your eldest son and to me and to none other will your realm belong if I survive you, I took it." When the king had thought a little he said: “ And "how, fair son, have you a right to it, for I never had any, that you know well;" and the prince replied

My lord, as you have held and guarded it with the "sword, so is it my intention to hold, guard, and defend it all my life." And then said the king to him: "Fair son, do now with it as shall seem good to you. "I leave the rest to God and to you, to whom I pray

Then A.D. 1413.

that he will have pity and mercy on my soul." very soon after without speaking any more King Henry ended his life. And he was interred well and honourably, and afterwards was taken on a boat on the river Thames to Gravesend, and thence borne on a litter to Canterbury, where he was placed in a very rich sepulchre of brass near the shrine of Saint Thomas. And on the other side lies the noble Prince of Wales, his uncle, who was father to King Richard, whose kingdom he had usurped, as has been narrated above.

And so ends the fourth volume of these chronicles of England, and we will begin the fifth at the coronation of King Henry his son, fifth of that name, pursuing it to the year seventy-two, when the gracious Edward reigns triumphantly.