Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester: A Biography

by Kenneth Hotham Vickers

CHAPTER III
THE EVOLUTION OF GLOUCESTER’S POLICY

After landing in England Gloucester had not long to wait before he took up his new duties. On December 30, 1419, his commission to be ‘guardian and lieutenant of England’ in the place of Bedford, who was about to go to France, was sealed at Westminster, and his powers in this office were defined. He was to preside at the meetings of Parliament and Council, and to summon the lords and the commonalty of the kingdom for consultation. The executive power was put into his hands, and he was empowered to do all things necessary for the welfare of the country, with the assent of Parliament and the Council; whilst he was also to exercise the royal prerogative in ecclesiastical matters, giving licences to elect to vacancies, and his assent or veto to these elections when made. The commission concluded with emphatic instructions that the Regent ‘shall carry out all matters of governance with the assent of and after deliberation by the Council, and not otherwise.’[334] Meanwhile, Bedford was in England, and he did not leave for France until the spring,[335] but the control of affairs was in the hands of his brother. This was the first time that Gloucester had been brought into official contact with English politics, though he had been a member of the Council and of Parliament since his elevation to the peerage in 1414. The country was in that state of peace which so often precedes a violent storm. Of internal strife there had been none since Sir John Oldcastle had been captured and executed in December 1417,[336] and the threatening of revolution which had preceded Henry’s first expedition to France had passed away. On the other hand, the war was beginning to outlive its popularity. The steady successes of Henry had none of the glamour of such a victory as Agincourt, which alone could kindle the enthusiasm of the people at home. There were signs that the soldiers themselves were tiring of the successive sieges,[337] while in England men did not grasp with what determination the military genius and the patient diplomacy of Henry were working up to the approaching culmination of the Treaty of Troyes. Moreover, the French prisoners in England, for whom Gloucester now became responsible, had been showing signs of restlessness, and Orleans for one had been discovered in intrigue with the Scotch.[338]

1419] RISE OF MIDDLE CLASSES IN ENGLAND

The most notable aspect of England, however, when Gloucester took up the reins of government in 1419, was the development of the power of the great middle class. The dangers which Henry IV. had had to meet amongst the rebellious nobility had driven him to rely on the class which would give him the support he needed, and this increased the importance of the trader and the townsman, whose influence was still further expanded by the absence of almost the whole nobility and a large proportion of the ecclesiastical hierarchy in France. The constitutional aspect of Parliament was becoming more than a name in the days of Gloucester’s first regency, and public opinion was beginning to mirror the interests of the money-making portion of the community. Ever since the days of the Black Death this change had been slowly moving to its completion, and the success of the archers in the French wars announced the fact that the old fixed state of society had come to an end. Now for the first time appeared the ambition of men of one class to raise themselves to the level of the next; now for the first time poverty and incompetence became a disgrace. These all were the outward signs of a great industrial revolution. Till the middle of the fourteenth century England had been a mere producer of raw material; now she was on the high-road to take a definite place as the manufacturer of finished goods in all the chief markets of Europe. A striking instance of this change is to be found in the way the export of wool dropped, whilst its production increased, for the manufacture of broadcloth was no longer confined to the foreign buyers of English wool. This increased production entailed a corresponding increase in the number of traders and carriers of English produce, and it is at this time that such companies as the Merchant Adventurers rose to great power. This change from the production of raw material to the manufacture of the finished article not only gave a new power to the middle classes, but it had its influence also in bringing the English town into greater prominence. ‘Mediæval economy, with its constant regard to the relations of persons, was giving place to the modern economy, which treats the exchange of things as fundamental,’ and this resulted in increased power to those corporate bodies which were favoured by this change. New and substantial town-halls were being built in all parts of England, and the towns themselves were becoming an important factor in English life. The days when a group of nobles enjoyed the whole political influence of the community were at an end, and a foreign observer could declare that the nation ‘consists of churchmen, nobles, and craftsmen, as well as common people.’[339] Moreover, it now came first to be realised that England could have a commercial interest in foreign politics, as well as a purely dynastic one.[340] English merchants now began to have a direct influence on the policy of the crown, and they could make it felt through the immense sums which the Government was compelled to borrow from them.[341]

1420] GLOUCESTER REGENT IN ENGLAND

This then was the state of society which Gloucester found when the government was committed to his care, and he was not slow to realise this change. Some years later a Carthusian monk, when consulted by the Duke of Buckingham on the probability of his succession, declared that his only hope of aggrandisement was ‘to obtain the love of the community of England’;[342] and this was a truth understood earlier by the Duke of Gloucester. We do not know by what means it was done, but Humphrey soon became the darling of the middle classes, and by the time that Henry V. died he had won the enthusiastic support of the London citizens. It will be seen, therefore, that it was to the growing powers in England that he appealed for sympathy and encouragement, to those who were gradually working out the progress of England towards freedom from aristocratic control, to those who were content to ignore the quarrel of prince with prince and noble with noble, whilst they quietly based the future strength of the kingdom on a wealth born of trade and private exertions. It was in the towns that Humphrey found his friends; in the towns where the middle classes were gaining the predominance, and not in the country where the nobility still reigned supreme, and where the science and prosperity of agriculture remained stationary throughout the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The citizen class never failed him. They did not look to the upstart house which had forgotten its origin in the new title of Duke of Suffolk, but throughout his life they supported their ‘Good Duke,’ and genuinely mourned his death. What is called statesmanship in others is dismissed as ‘pandering to the populace’ in Humphrey by those who cannot allow any good to reside in an unsuccessful politician, but it seems a more just estimate of this side of Gloucester’s policy to acknowledge the foresight and wisdom of one who abandoned the effete nobles, and looked for support to those who were soon to prove themselves a power that must be taken into consideration. This citizen support cannot have been welcome to the other members of the governing class, and it is probably due to it that so much opposition was shown to Gloucester in the early days of the reign of Henry VI. In the outward events of the regency there are few signs of the policy which Humphrey pursued, but we shall see its fruits as the story of his life proceeds. It must have been at this time, however, that his line of action was initiated.

The days of Gloucester’s first regency were even more peaceful and uneventful than those of Bedford’s, and he found that his duties did not exceed the ordinary official business of the kingdom, and the representation of the King at ceremonial functions. Thus by right of his position of Regent we find him presiding at a Chapter of the Order of the Garter which was very sparsely attended owing to the large number of knights who were serving abroad. Even Bedford, who had not yet left England, was absent, being fully occupied with his preparations for departure.[343]

During his regency Humphrey was brought into contact with the young King of Scotland, then a prisoner in England. According to a French chronicler it was during the year 1420 that James, the son of David of Scotland, who during his father’s lifetime had been given a safe-conduct by Henry V. to go to Jerusalem, came to England, and was there most graciously received by Gloucester. In the meantime his father died, and the Regent took immediate steps to acquaint his royal brother with the fact of James’s presence in England. Henry promptly ordered him to be detained and sent under escort to the English army before Melun.[344] In the whole story there is only one grain of truth. James had been a captive in England ever since 1406, and his father, Robert (not David), had died on hearing the news of his detention. However, it is true that the unfortunate Scotch king was sent to the siege of Melun, leaving England in July, and for this doubtless Gloucester made the arrangements.[345] All that the story can tell us is that it points to a probable friendship between James and Humphrey who had been boys together at the court of Henry IV.[346]

Meanwhile English history was being made in France. The balance of parties had been changed. Before Gloucester had crossed the Channel the whole world had been shocked by the cold-blooded and treacherous murder of the Duke of Burgundy at the bridge of Montereau.[347] Nothing could have been more impolitic from the Armagnac point of view, for revenge was far sweeter than patriotism to the Frenchmen of the fifteenth century, and the King and Queen of France with that most marketable commodity, their daughter Catherine, were under the influence of Philip, the new Duke of Burgundy. What was more natural than that the negotiations of Meulan should be resumed and brought to a successful issue? Neither the Queen nor St. Pol, the governor of Paris, even waited for the prompting of Philip, but sent envoys to Henry without delay, and by December 25 a treaty was made between the Kings of England and of France.[348] This treaty formed the basis of the more famous one signed on May 21 by both contracting parties at Troyes. Henry was to marry Catherine and to succeed to the French throne, meanwhile acting as regent for the demented Charles VI. Each country was to preserve its own laws and customs, and Henry, Charles, and Burgundy all promised not to undertake any independent negotiations with the Dauphin.[349] The English chroniclers, oblivious of the fact that Gloucester was Regent of England, state that he was present at these negotiations,[350] but this is entirely disproved by a letter written to him by Henry on the day after the treaty was signed. Gloucester and the Council were herein informed of the culmination of Henry’s ambitions, and commanded to proclaim the peace and the King’s betrothal in England. He further instructed them to destroy his seals, and to strike new ones bearing the inscription ‘Henry by the grace of God Kyng of England, Heire and Regent of the Rowne of France, and Lord of Ireland.’[351] On June 14 Gloucester signed the warrant for the proclamation of the good news, and the same day a solemn procession was made in honour of the marriage of the King, during which the proclamation was read at St. Paul’s Cross.[352]