FOOTNOTES:
[97] In the account of Queen Elizabeth’s coronation is mentioned “Mrs. Snow, five yards scarlet,” among the “Extraordinary women of the Privy Chamber when the Queen pleaseth to call for them.”
[98] Mr. J. F. in the “Athenæum,” 30th August 1913, reminds me it is in “Love’s Labour’s Lost,” iv, 1, l. 103: “A phantasime, a Monarcho, and one that makes sport to the Prince,” and Mr. Littledale refers me to Scot’s “Discouerie of Witchcraft,” 1584, “The Italian whom he called The Monarch,” p. 42.
XXVIII
THE ROLL OF COVENTRY
THE ARREST OF PRINCE HENRY
There is a delightful roll in Birmingham Public Library, not like those massive lesson-books called in the Record Office, “Recusant Rolls,” “Coram Rege Rolls,” etc., but a little roll, not six inches in breadth, and not very long, though it records notes on the history of Coventry during three hundred years.
It is entered in the Catalogue of Warwickshire MSS. as “No. 115,915. Citizens of Coventry with right to wear swords, 1352-1650.” Though this can hardly be called incorrect, it is, as a title, certainly incomplete and misleading; for the little roll is a list of the Bailiffs or Mayors of Coventry during that period. Very often it is only a bare list, and as none of the names of the office-holders are very striking, I did not transcribe them altogether, finding a lack of consecutive interest in a string of mere names.
But against some of these names are remarks, records of the most notable events of the year of each man’s mayoralty, or what the writer took to be such. I am not about to discuss the position or office of the writer, or even to attempt to fix the exact date at which the roll was written, if it did not grow through the ages. It is at least old. But the writer seems to have been a selector and a copyist, because he is not certain in the reckoning of the regnal years, and generally renders them as a year too late. I give here the double date of the years of a mayoralty. I am only about to record those remarks which can, in general, be understood in the light of contemporary history, and occasionally reflect some light upon its pages.
The Roll begins with a bare list of names from 1352. The first which is annotated is:
1403-4, John Smither. In this year a Parliament was held at Coventry....[99]
1405-6, William Attleborrowe. In his year the Commons of Coventry rose....
1406-7, John Boutener. Ther was the pauement made in the city....
1412-3, John Horneby. Hee arrested the Prince in the city of Coventry....[100]
1423-4, Henry Peytoe. The Crosse was beegunn in the Cross Cheaping his yeare.
1424-5, Thomas Walgraue. This yeare the hermite preached in the King’s parke, where was a greate audience.
1425-6, John Braytoft. Hee arested the Earle of Warwick and brought him to the gaole in Coventry....
1433-4, Richard Sharpe. In this yeare began the new workes in St. Michell Church from the Battlement to the top.
1434-5, John Michell. In his yeare came the small strikes....
1444-5, 1445-6, Richard Braytoft. Maior two years, and St. Mary Hall was robed.
1451-2, Richard Boyes. In his yeare the King maid this a county.
1452-3, John Willgraue and Reignold his brother were the first Sheriffs here, also heard masse at St. Michael’s Church....
1457-8, Richard Braytoft. In his year the King and Queen came to Coventry....
1460-1, William Kempe. The King, Queen, and Prince came to Coventry, and held the Parliament there....
1467-8, John Garner. In his yeare the King Edward keep his Christmas heere....
1469-70, William Dawes. King Edward held his Councell in Coventry....
1471-2, William Stafford. Now was one Clapham beheaded, and his head was sett on Bablake Gate.
1472-3, John Bett. The sword taken from the Maior and the yerdes from the Sheriffes; the city was faine to give 500 marks to redeeme the Franchises.
1473-4, John Thornton. In this yeare Kent rose, sett fire on London Bridge; the King took the Captaines and beheaded them in Coventry....
1476-7, Robert Onley. Prince Edward came to Coventry, which gave 100l. and a cup; at Easter came there and kept St. George’s Feast, and afterwards his Christmas here at Chellesmore House....
1479-80, Robert Bornell. The king keep his Christmas at Chellesmore House.
1480-1, William Marshall. In this yeare died in thie city and the Liberties thereof 3400 people....
1482-3, Richard Collenes. In this yeare the Commons of Coventry rose....
1485-6, Henry Keball. Hee maide the Bakers fly to Bagginton Castle....
1497-8, John Dove, who died in his mairalty.
1498-9, William Ford. In his yeare was much rising in Coventry and Daventrye.
1499-1500, Thomas Bond. Prince Arthur came to Coventry, and had a hundred pounds and a cup given to him....
1512-3, John Strong. In his yeare King Henry the 8 and Queen Katherine cam to Coventry, wheare they were receved with 2 paggenes and a Stage Play, and logged at the Priory.
1513-4, Richard Horsall. In this yeare one [should be “seven”] was burned in Littell Parke. There was given to the Marquise one hundred men with horse by the citty. The ould Crosse in the Crosse Cheaping pulled down and new built....
1524-5, Julimus Nethermill. This yeare Pratt and Sloth were araigned of treason, and theire heads and quarters sett upon the gates of Coventry....
1526-7, Nicholas Haines. An evell Lammas Day.[101]
1527-8, Henry Wall. The Lady Mary came to Coventry, was royally receved at the Priory, staid two dayes, at whose departure the city gave her 100 marks and a kerchiefe....
1536-7, Robert Keruin. The Dukes of Norfolke and Richmond came to Coventry, were receved by the Crafts in Liveries and a Banquett on horseback....
1552-3, Richard Hunt. In this year the Magistrates of Coventry made a great seale of wood in the Park, and made it a pasture....
1563-4, Thomas Ryley. In this yeare was a great plague in Coventry....
1565-6, Edward Brownell. In this yeare Queen Elizabeth came to Coventry and lay there three nights, and had given to her a purse and a hundred pounds in itt....
1568-9, John Harford. This Harford in a quarrel betwixt one Heyle and him about there two dogges stroke the said Heyle soe that he died within one fortnight, for which fact he was put out of his mairalty and Mr. John Sanders served out the rest of his time....
1577-8, Robert Letherborough.... [His daughter married Thomas Shakespeare.]
1596-7, John Whitehed, who died in his Mairalty, and one Breers searued out his yeare.
1597-8, John Rogerson. A good man....
1601-2, Richard Butler. In this yeare the Library at Coventry was begun to be builded....
1604-5, William Wheate. In this year was a great plague in Coventry.
1605-6. Mathew Collines.[102]...
1616-7, Samuell Myles. In this year came King James with a greate traine to this citty and laye heere one night, and had a cup of gould given him of the value of one hundred and sixty pounds....
1622-3, Thomas Potter. Hee caussed the tops of St. Michael’s Steeple and Trinity to bee new sett up and painted.
1623-4, John Thomas. A Dutchman....
1625-6. William Burbage....
1649-50. Samuel Snell.
The Roll ends without any concluding remark. Now the Leet-Book of Coventry has been edited (or at least full selections from it from 1384 to 1590) by Miss Dormer Harris, and though it gives very much fuller information concerning the history of Coventry, some items occur in this Roll which do not occur in the Leet-Book. “Life in an Old English Town: a History of Coventry,” also by Miss Dormer Harris, gives very many more details, but misses some of these.
There remains a special charm in this little roll compared to the comparatively commonplace quartos which give even fuller information. A copyist, about the end of the seventeenth century, compiled a sort of history of the Mayors of Coventry (Harleian MS. 6388, f. 15).
While many of these short notes have a special value of their own, we may be allowed to express a particular interest in the record of John Hornby, here given as 1412-13.
Many able articles have been written, and speeches made, about the possibility or impossibility of a Lord Chief Justice committing a prince to prison. Many researches have been undertaken, in the Record Office and elsewhere, to try to discover any historical basis for the story regarding Prince Hal and the Lord Chief Justice Gascoigne, which so delighted Shakespeare that he added to it. But all researches have been in vain. No fact that in any way supports the tradition has been preserved. The story itself has been traced no further back than to Sir Thomas Elyot, who refers to it without giving the name of the Justice. Here, in this little Coventry Roll, it is recorded, as the event of John Hornby’s year, that “he arrested the Prince in the city of Coventry.” We should like to have been told more, and to have heard the cause and consequence of the arrest.
This is the only trustworthy story of any arrest of Prince Henry, and it is possible that the action of Mayor John Hornby, as Justice of the Peace in right of his office, became the foundation for the legend concerning the anonymous Lord Chief Justice. We know from other sources that Prince Henry was a good deal in Coventry when acquiring military experience in the Welsh wars, that he lay at Cheylesmore House in the immediate vicinity, and he probably took his amusements in Coventry. It may only be Shakespeare’s imagination which fixed the scene of his convivial gatherings with Falstaff and his train at the Boar’s Head Tavern in East Cheap. It is possible—indeed, more than likely—that these were carried on at Coventry, and that some breach of the peace there forced the courageous Mayor to do justice even against his popular prince.
We know that Shakespeare, to glorify Henry V, makes him retain the Lord Chief Justice Gascoigne in office on his accession, as a proof of his recognition of courage and directness in the administration of justice. This, as Dr. Blake Odgers pointed out, in an address to the Shakespeare League, was proof positive that Bacon did not write the play of “Henry IV, Part II,” at least. He knew better. For Gascoigne had been a Gray’s Inn man, and so was Bacon, and the latter knew that the young king Henry V did not appoint Gascoigne to be his Lord Chief Justice. The records of Gray’s Inn prove that, and also the epitaph on Gascoigne’s tombstone, where it was clearly stated that he “had been Lord Chief Justice to King Henry the IV.” That epitaph would not have been silent about King Henry V if he had reappointed his father’s choice in the office of Lord Chief Justice.
It seems ungracious to dispute the credit of Shakespeare as an historian; but truth is better than fiction. The testimony that Prince Hal was arrested at Coventry may stimulate our imaginations anew, and lead us to further research in fresh directions.
One other point may be noted. It is generally supposed that the local records say nothing about the intended duel between Bolingbroke and Mowbray. But this authority gives the suggestive idea that the combatants were received by the crafts in liveries, and had a banquet “on horseback”! King Richard II himself is not referred to.
Each of the short notes might be dwelt on and expanded indefinitely. As they stand, they only show us what struck the scribe as the note of the year.
“Athenæum,” 8th October 1910.
PS. A captious correspondent writing the following week was very scornful about my calling this a “delightful little roll” when there were other manuscripts, (which I had mentioned), about my publishing extracts from it, indeed, as it had already been printed. Some form of it had appeared in Dr. Thomas’s edition of Dugdale, p. 147. But the printing referred to had been sandwiched irrelevantly into an appendix to a little-known book, “Fordun’s Scotochronicon,” by Hearne, and he certainly had not taken this little roll as his copy. His recension is indeed different in some details from Harl. MS. 6388, and also from Add. MS. 11364. Neither of these seem to have been known to my critic, who thought he made a point, that a third MS., called the City Annals, containing similar entries, is to be found among the muniments of Coventry from 1350 to 1566, the continuation from that year having been torn away and replaced in a later hand. This, however, Miss Dormer Harris had mentioned in a note in her “Life in an Old English Town.” But the objections were made only to lead up to the discussion of the arrest of the prince. He did not consider the story at Coventry trustworthy, and blamed me for suggesting even that it might have given the idea to Shakespeare. He considered Shakespeare’s story incorrect, and only invented by Sir Thomas Elyot. Such a fact must have attracted attention, and must have been mentioned in some of the records of the time. But a most exhaustive search had been made, without avail, therefore it must be supposed to have been taken from the story of Edward II, who when a prince was expelled from Court for half a year for insulting one of his father’s ministers, though he was not imprisoned for the offence, as the Rev. A. J. Church noted in his “Henry V.”
The critic was desirous of supporting the character of Prince Hal, and added that the day after he succeeded his father he caused to be summoned to his first Parliament “Sir William Gascoigne Knight, Chief Justice of our Lord the King, assigned to hold pleas before our Lord the King, before the King himself.” He had also a grant of four bucks and does annually for life, which shows that the King did reappoint him, and his intention was to keep him in office. It must have been, therefore, at his own request that his patent was not renewed. To this I replied, pointing out that Henry V summoned his first Parliament on 23rd March, and appointed a new Lord Chief Justice on the 29th, the only one of the Judges replaced.
Miss Dormer Harris joined in the discussion as to the truth of the record, and added that there were two Ardens, John and Geoffrey, mentioned in the Leet Book in 1461; that it noted in 1545 “Shakespere’s house in the new rent vacant the yeir 2/6” that a “Richard Shackspeare of Hinkly and Jane Erdsone of the cittie of Coventry widow were marryed before Mr. Matthew Smith Justis of peace the 20th of August 1656” (Holy Trinity Register).
Lastly, the citizens in Hornby’s year, Candlemas 1412 to Candlemas 1413, lent £100 to the Prince (Leet Book 61).
Sir James H. Ramsay wrote to say historical students were much indebted to me for having published the extracts, especially the one about the Prince, which shows that a Prince could be arrested. The original disputant wrote again against my “little roll,” as compared to the “other rolls” (which are paper quartos), and then turned his attention to demolishing Sir James Ramsay’s remarks,
The small quarto, Harl. 6388, was bought in 1690 by Mr. Humfrey Wanley, with accounts of Coventry and its Mayors from 1348 till the Revolution. The Collector’s name seems to have been Miles Flint, who gives the following account of his authorities: “This book was taken out of Manuscripts. The one written by Mr. Christopher Owen Mayor of this Citty, which contains the charter of Walter de Coventre, concerning ye Comons &c. to Godfrey Leg, Mayor 1637. The other beginning at the 36 Mayor of this citty and continued by several hands, and lately by Edmund Palmer, late of this Citty Counsellor, till Mr. Yardly late Mayor 1689 1690; and another written by Mr. Bedford, and collected out of divers others and continued to Mr. Septimus Bott: and two others collected by Tho. Potter, and continued to Mr. Robert Beake, and another written by Mr. Francis Basnett, to the first year of Mr. Jelliff’s mayoralty and another written by Mr. Abraham Ashley and continued to Mr. Sep’ Bott; and another written by Mr. Abraham Boune and Humphrey Wightwick, 1607.” On the title-page is recorded:
“Humphrey Wanley (that is Oneley) bought this of Mr. Tipper, December 17th 1690, price 6d.” The book notes that—
“Richard Stoke 1356, brought in the good strikes.” John Smith is called “Smither,” and the Parliament is called a “layman’s parliament.” When it reaches the special date, it reads, “William Hornebye 1411-12. He arrested the Prince in the Priory of Coventry. A quarter of wheat sold for twenty shillings,”
“William Dilcocke, 1412-13. In his year died King Henry.”
The later entries are not dated, and John Yardeley was the last mayor mentioned.
Add. MS. 11364, “presented by Mr. Joseph Gibbs,” contains:
“A brief History of Ye city of Coventry from Ye most early accounts of it,” which tells about Leofric and Godiva.[103]
It begins in 1348 the story of the mayors with John War. It gives:
1412. John Horneby. He arrested ye Prince in ye Priory of Coventry.
1512. Richard Horsfell Draper seven burned in little parke and one did penance for heresy, viz. for hearing ye Lords prayre &c. in English.
1597. John Whitehead and John Breers. (Here is much writing of scarcity and its causes—great differences from roll.)
1703. Jonah Crynds (the last mayor mentioned).
Miss Dormer Harris, in the year after my paper, brought out her “Story of Coventry and the Kingdom,” in which she discusses the arrest, from the point of view of the fact that the later recorded arrest of the Earl of Warwick can be proved to be an error, and an explicable one.
Mr. Fowler gave me an interesting note which may come in here, as it may have some bearing on the reality of Shakespeare’s Boar’s Head Inn. It is from Chancery Inquisitions, Post Mort., Vol. 151, No. 72. London, 1568-9.
Robert Harding held land in the city, including: “... one messuage, tenement, or tavern, called ‘Le Boares Heade,’ situated and lying in Eastcheap in the parish of St. Michael in Crooked Lane ... formerly in the tenure and occupation of John Broke and now of Edward Beltam. He it was held it of the Lady the Queen ‘in libero Burgagio ciuitatis London ... et valet per annum ... decem Libri.’”