A History of England, Period I. Mediæval Monarchy

by J. Franck Bright

Absolute ministry of Suffolk.

His unpopularity.

After Gloucester’s death Suffolk had become unquestioned chief Minister, for Cardinal Beaufort had not long survived his nephew. He took upon himself all the unpopularity which the Lancastrian dynasty had latterly earned. It is plain that among the people there was deep-seated discontent. The persecution of the Lollards had never relented. Frequent executions are recorded for heresy. The support the Lancastrians had constantly given to the Church had even produced several outbreaks. In 1438, and again in 1443, there had been uproars in several parts of England, directed against the Catholic ecclesiastical foundations. Nor was this unnatural. Amidst the misery and desolation caused by repeated plagues and famines, and the expenditure both of men and money incident upon a foreign war, the Church alone, represented by the wealthy Cardinal Beaufort, had retained its prosperity; while, to crown all, national honour had been deeply wounded by want of success in France. To this inherited unpopularity, Suffolk added that which arose from the late dishonourable marriage treaty with France. Instead of attempting to lessen the feeling against him, he followed the common course of upstart ministers. The Princes and great nobles found themselves excluded from the Council. His ministers were chiefly bishops, especially Ascough, Bishop of Salisbury, and De Moleyns, Bishop of Chichester, and men of little eminence, as Lord Say. His government in fact resembled that of Bernard of Armagnac in France, and took that particularly objectionable form, the superiority of the lesser nobles.

Renewal of the war.

His foreign policy, too, was eminently unsuccessful. At the close of the truce, in 1446, he had not secured any permanent peace; and early in 1448, an ill-judged outbreak of some English auxiliaries, who captured the town of Fougères, again plunged England into war. John, Duke of Somerset, perhaps in despair at his ill success, had killed himself. His brother Edmund succeeded to his title and position in France. His opposition to the French, who attacked him in great force, was entirely unavailing, and before the year was over Rouen and a large part of Normandy had been regained by the French. In May an armament under Sir Thomas Kyriel had been defeated near Formigny; in July Caen surrendered; and in August the last remnants of the English army returned to England from Cherbourg. In the following year a last effort was made to retain some position in Guienne with equally bad success.

Fall of Rouen. 1449.

Popular outbreak against Suffolk.

Murder of Suffolk.

The loss of Rouen, in 1449, brought the anger of the people to its highest point. In an uproar they put to death De Moleyns, Bishop of Chichester, at Portsmouth; and at length the House of Commons, led by Tresham their speaker, insisted upon the apprehension of Suffolk, who had now become a Duke, upon a charge of treason. On the 7th of February eight charges were brought against him of a somewhat indefinite character, especially charging him with a wish to marry his son John to Margaret Beaufort, thus aiming at the kingdom, and with gross mismanagement and treachery in France. These were followed by sixteen more specific charges, in which it was asserted that he had appropriated and misused the royal revenues, interfered with the course of justice, and treated treacherously with the French. On the 13th he appeared before the King in the House of Peers. He denied most of the charges, and excused himself on others on the ground that he had acted with the approbation of the Privy Council. He however, declining the privilege of his peerage and trial by the House of Lords, threw himself entirely upon the King’s mercy; and Henry, hoping to get over the difficulty without giving up his friend, without a trial banished him for five years. This was a manifest breach of the Constitution, and served only to increase the general discontent. The Duke escaped privately to his own estates, and took sea at Ipswich, but was met by an English squadron, taken on board the largest ship, the “Nicholas of the Tower,” and after a sham trial by the seamen, obliged to enter a little boat. He was there beheaded, with a sort of parody of the usual forms of execution. It is pretty evident that behind the popular anger there was the influence of the Duke of York and other noblemen at work.

Jack Cade.