Gloucester found himself in an awkward position. He had evidently been so elated by his victory over Beaufort that he had been more incautious than usual, and while in no way interfering with the government of his brother, had unwisely asserted his intention to profit by his success. Bedford was too wise not to be alarmed at this avowed policy, not merely because he could not trust the judgment of Gloucester, but also and mainly because he saw that it would raise such opposition, that the dissensions he had just appeased would again recur. It is more than probable that he had instigated the action of the Council, and had taken advantage of Gloucester’s indisposition. His prompt acceptance of the proposals proves that they were not unexpected, and the fact that he had taken an oath to be governed by the Council would make it practically impossible for one who was merely his substitute to refuse his consent. Thus everything was safely arranged and carried out before Gloucester knew anything about it. There was no jealousy of his brother in this action of Bedford’s; he knew the temper of the kingdom and the dangers with which it was threatened, better probably than any man living; he saw that Beaufort and Gloucester with their selfish policies were almost equally dangerous, and while he was moving one from the scene of his activities,[673] he desired to warn the other, who could not be removed, of the folly of his course. Beaufort’s influence, though his reputation in the country at large had doubtless suffered by his defeat at Leicester, was still no negligible quantity, and there is every reason to suppose that he still retained the partial confidence of Bedford. It may be that it was absolutely on his own initiative that Bedford took this action, but it was prompted by the distrust of his brother which Beaufort had instilled into his mind—a distrust, be it owned, which Humphrey had done little or nothing to remove.

Gloucester was compelled to make the best of his diplomatic defeat. His absence from the Council meeting had put all protest out of the question, and he thanked his visitors for having come to ‘advertize hym’ as they had done, and begged them always to treat him so in the future. If in any way he should break the law of the land, he would submit to be ‘corrected and governed by them,... and not by his owne wit ne ymaginacion.’ He even digressed into instances of the advantage of this course, and the disasters which might ensue from a contrary attitude. In conclusion he solemnly promised to be governed by the Council in everything which touched the King, even as Bedford had promised.[674] That this was only a temporary attitude of conciliation was to be proved before very long.

Having done his best to secure the safety of England, Bedford turned his attention to France, where the defection of Brittany had not improved the outlook. On March 19 he set sail, taking with him the Bishop of Winchester, whom he thought it best not to leave in England. As far back as the previous May Beaufort had obtained leave from the Council to go on a pilgrimage,[675] and he now availed himself of this permission, probably at the instance of Bedford, who had prepared a sop for his dignity. On the Feast of the Annunciation (March 25) the Duke and Duchess of Bedford were present in the Church of Our Lady at Calais, when the Bishop of Winchester was created a Cardinal by the authority of a Bull of Martin V., and the Duke with his own hands placed the long-coveted hat on the new Cardinal’s head.[676] This honour had been long desired by Beaufort, and indeed the original Bull of creation dated from the days of the Council of Constance, but Henry V. supported Archbishop Chichele in his objection to the presence of a Cardinal Legate in England.[677] Now at last the necessary permission had been given, and while Bedford applied himself to the French wars, Beaufort went off as Papal Legate to wage war on the revolted Hussites in Bohemia.

1427] RESULT OF BEDFORT’S INTERVENTION

Whether this additional dignity conferred on the Bishop of Winchester was calculated to advance the peace of England may well be doubted. Bedford had worked hard to restore peace between the various parties in England; he had produced a compromise which tended to favour Humphrey; he had as a counter-blast secured a definite acknowledgment by the Protector of the authority of the Council; finally he had greatly strengthened the hands of the Protector’s enemy by giving him the prestige and power which attached to the cardinalate. His action in England had all the vicious characteristics of a compromise. Even as in war a victory won by either side inevitably leads to a third battle, so in politics the successes won alternately by Gloucester and Beaufort must open the way to another conflict. It could not be expected that the new Cardinal would spend the rest of his life out of England, his political proclivities were too strong for this, and on his return he would almost inevitably reopen the old struggle which had nearly resulted in civil war. Bedford accurately diagnosed the disease from which England was suffering, but he failed to prescribe the right remedy. The only hope of peace lay in the crushing of one of the rivals, and though this might have been impossible, it was not even attempted. Each was in turn humbled, but only to such an extent as to make him still more ambitious, and the sole definite bit of policy to be found in Bedford’s action in England was the emphasising of the power of the Council and the developing of those constitutional theories of government, which by reason of their precocity were bound to bring disaster both to the kingdom and the dynasty. Bedford’s interference in English politics had no healing effect; it only postponed the coming struggle by the temporary diversion of Beaufort’s ambitious energies to the Hussite war. On the latter’s return the substitution of the cardinalate for the chancellorship was not calculated to weaken his position, whilst the strengthening of that of the Council would tend to induce Gloucester to use all the means in his power to undermine its authority.

1427] SUPPRESSION OF LAWLESSNESS

Meanwhile in England Gloucester had been seriously ill, and it was not till April that he was sufficiently recovered to journey to St. Albans; there on St. Mark’s Day, escorted by the usual procession headed by the Abbot, he gave thanks for his recovery, and presented his gift of gratitude on the High Altar.[678] Having visited the cell of Sopwell, he returned to Langley.[679] Here he busied himself in the affairs of the kingdom, being made Justiciar of Chester and of North Wales on May 10, an office which he was allowed to delegate to a substitute for whose actions as well as his own he must answer to the King.[680] Indeed, Gloucester seems to have been very energetic in executing his duties as Protector, and to have turned to the administration of the government that restless energy, which circumstances and his own ambitious nature had drawn lately to less worthy occupations. In June we find him at Norwich to strengthen by his presence the hands of the justices who had to try a case of lawlessness which had gone unpunished during the disturbed state of affairs in official circles. On the last night of 1423 certain felons to the number of eighty or more had attacked the house of John Grys of Wighton in the county of Norfolk, and he being ‘somewhat heated with wassail,’ had been dragged out to a gallows a mile away, where with his son Gregory and a servant he had been butchered for lack of a rope to hang them. It would seem that the two principals in this outrage had been Walter Aslak and Richard Kyllynworth, who tried after this to establish a reign of terror in Norfolk, and so threatened William Paston by manifestoes openly posted in public places, that ‘the seyd William, hese clerkes and servauntz by longe time after were in gret and intollerable drede and fere.’ Paston had indicted these men before Gloucester as Protector, and on April 5, 1425, the matter had been referred to arbitration. The award of the arbitrators had been ignored by Aslak, and under the protection of Sir Thomas Erpingham he had further annoyed Paston at the Parliament of Leicester. Gloucester now presided in person at the trial of the offenders, and six men were condemned for this outrage and put to death.[681]

Before the end of the month the Protector was back in London, holding a council, at which matters of some moment were up for discussion. The truce with Scotland for which Gloucester was one of the guarantors had not been very well observed, and the question of heresy had also come to the fore.[682] Shortly before Gloucester’s visit to St. Albans a certain William Wawe—latro mirabilis the chronicler quaintly calls him—had attacked the neighbouring nunnery of Sopwell and plundered its contents. Rightly or wrongly this was considered to be part of a Lollard scheme of opposition to the Church, and it was as a heretic as well as a ‘wonderful robber’ that Wawe, after a period of confinement at St. Albans, was arraigned before Gloucester in London. We cannot in any way judge of the rights of the case, as we have only a very one-sided account of the event, but it is quite possible that it was more the heated imaginations of the ecclesiastics, who had not forgotten the incidents connected with Oldcastle, than any real heretical inclinations on the part of the prisoner, which produced the charge. Wawe was condemned and hanged.[683]

In these two cases of summary judgment we find displayed a side of the Protector’s character which has been given but scant justice by historians. Though crafty and self-seeking, Gloucester was in no sense turbulent. His justice thus meted out cannot be dismissed as a standard of ethics to which he himself did not conform. We have no instance in which he appealed to brute force except when he was compelled to do so, for in the case of the quarrel with Beaufort he was not the aggressor, nor can we believe the stories of armed conspiracy which surround his mysterious death. His energy was devoted at this time at least towards keeping the peace. We have seen his recent journeys into the country districts to settle matters which might cause disturbance, and in September he was at Chester,[684] whither he had probably gone in his capacity as Justiciar of that district, not being content to leave his duties there to a delegated representative, as the terms of his appointment had allowed. As Protector he meted out justice impartially, and though he may have helped to shatter the foreign policy of his country, his home government shows a strange contrast to the other more prominent but by no means more essential incidents of his life. It is, however, by the terms of his Hainault policy that he has been judged, a policy which, with all its far-reaching consequences, occupied but a small part of his life, and to the last stages of which we must now refer.