1413.
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A parlement.The morrow after Candlemas daie began a parlement, which he had called at London, but he departed this life before the same parlement was ended: for now that his prouisions were readie, and that he was furnished with sufficient treasure, soldiers, capteins, vittels, munitions, tall ships, strong gallies, and all things necessarie for such a roiall iournie as he pretended to take into the holie land, he was eftsoons taken The k. sick of an apoplexie.
Hall. with a sore sicknesse, which was not a leprosie, striken by the hand of God (saith maister Hall) as foolish friers imagined; but a verie apoplexie, of the which he languished till his appointed houre, and had none other gréefe nor maladie; so that what man ordeineth, God altereth at his good will and pleasure, not giuing place more to the prince, than to the poorest creature liuing, when he séeth his time to dispose of him this waie or that, as to his omnipotent power and diuine prouidence seemeth Hall. expedient. During this his last sicknesse, he caused his crowne (as some write) to be set on a pillow at his beds head, and suddenlie his pangs so sore troubled him, that he laie as though all his vitall spirits had beene from him departed. Such as were about him, thinking verelie that he had béene departed, couered his face with a linnen cloth.
The prince taketh awaie the crowne before his father was dead. The prince his sonne being hereof aduertised, entered into the chamber, tooke the crowne, and departed. The father being suddenlie reuiued out of that trance, quicklie perceiued the lacke of his crowne; and hauing knowledge that the prince his sonne had taken it awaie, caused him to come before his presence, requiring He is blamed of the king.
His answer.
A guiltie conscience in extremitie of sicknesse pincheth sore. of him what he meant so to misuse himselfe. The prince with a good audacitie answered; “Sir, to mine and all mens iudgements you seemed dead in this world, wherefore I as your next heire apparant tooke that as mine owne, and not as yours.” Well faire sonne (said the king with a great sigh) what right I had to it, God knoweth. Well (said the prince) if you die king, I will haue the garland, and trust to kéepe it with the sword against all mine enimies as you haue doone. Then The death of Henrie the fourth. said the king, “I commit all to God, and remember you to doo well.” With that he turned himselfe in his bed, and shortlie after departed to God in a chamber of the abbats of Westminster called Ierusalem, the twentith daie of March, in the yeare 1413, and in the yeare of his age 46, when he had reigned thirteene yeares, fiue moneths and od daies, in great perplexitie and little pleasure [or fourtéene yeares, as some haue noted, who name not the disease whereof he died, but refer it to sicknesse absolutelie, whereby his time of departure did approach and fetch him out of the world: as Ch. Okl. saith, whose words may serue as a funerall epigramme in memoriall of the said king Henrie:
Ab. Fl. out of Angl. præl. sub. Hen. 4 Henricus quartus his septem rexerat annos Ànglorum gentem summa cum laude & amore, Iàmq; senescenti fatalis terminus æui Ingruerat, morbus fatalem accerserat horam.]
Fabian. We find, that he was taken with his last sickenesse, while he was making his praiers at saint Edwards shrine, there as it were to take his leaue, and so to procéed foorth on his iournie: he was so suddenlie and greeuouslie taken, that such as were about him, feared least he would haue died presentlie, wherfore to reléeue him (if it were possible) they bare him into a chamber that was next at hand, belonging to the abbat of Westminster, where they laid him on a pallet before the fire, and vsed all remedies to reuiue him. At length, he recouered his spéech, and vnderstanding and perceiuing himselfe in a strange place which he knew not, he willed to know if the chamber had anie particular name, wherevnto answer was made, that it was called Ierusalem. Then said the king; “Lauds be giuen to the father of heauen, for now I know that I shall die heere in this chamber, according to the prophesie of me declared, that I should depart this life in Ierusalem.”
Whether this was true that so he spake, as one that gaue too much credit to foolish prophesies & vaine tales, or whether it was fained, as in such cases it commonlie happeneth, we leaue it to the aduised reader to iudge. His bodie with all He is buried at Canturburie. funerall pompe was conueied vnto Canturburie, and there solemnlie buried, leauing behind him by the ladie Marie daughter to the lord Humfrie Bohun earle of Hereford and His issue.Northampton, Henrie prince of Wales, Thomas duke of Clarence, Iohn duke of Bedford, Humfrie duke of Glocester, Blanch duchesse of Bauier, and Philip quéene of Denmarke: by his last wife Iane, he had no children. This king was of a meane His stature. stature, well proportioned, and formallie compact, quicke and liuelie, and of a stout courage. In his latter daies he shewed himselfe so gentle, that he gat more loue amongst the nobles and people of this realme, than he had purchased malice and euill will in the beginning.
But yet to speake a truth, by his proceedings, after he had atteined to the crowne, what with such taxes, tallages, subsidies, and exactions as he was constreined to charge the people with; and what by punishing such as mooued with disdeine to see him vsurpe the crowne (contrarie to the oth taken at his entring into this land, vpon his returne from exile) did at sundrie times rebell against him, he wan himselfe more hatred, than in all his life time (if it had beene longer by manie yeares than it was) had beene possible for him to haue weeded out & remooued. And yet doubtlesse, woorthie were his subiects to tast of that bitter cup, sithens they were so readie to ioine and clappe hands with him, for the deposing of their rightfull and naturall prince king Richard, whose chéefe fault rested onlie in that, that he was too bountifull to his fréends, and too mercifull to his foes; speciallie if he had not béene drawne by others, to séeke reuenge of those that abused his good and courteous nature. ¶ But now to returne to the matter present. The duke of Clarence immediatlie vpon knowlege had of his father king Henrie the fourth his death, returned out of Guien into England, with the earle of Angolesme, and other prisoners.
Now will we rehearse what writers of our English nation liued in the daies of this king. That renowmed poet Geffrie Chaucer is woorthilie named as principall, a man so exquisitlie learned in all sciences, that his match was not lightlie found any where in those daies; and for reducing our English toong to a perfect conformitie, he hath excelled therein all other; he departed this life about the Iohn Stow. yeare of our Lord 1402, as Bale gathereth: but by other it appeareth, that he deceassed the fiue and twentith of October in the yeare 1400, and lieth buried at Westminster, in the south part of the great church there, as by a monument erected by Nicholas Brigham it doth appeare. Iohn Gower descended of that worthie familie of the Gowers of Stitenham in Yorkeshire (as Leland noteth) studied not onelie the common lawes of this realme, but also other kinds of literature, and great knowledge in the same, namelie in poeticall inuentions, applieng his indeuor with Chaucer, to garnish the English toong, in bringing it from a rude vnperfectnesse, vnto a more apt elegancie: for whereas before those daies, the learned vsed to write onelie in Latine or French, and not in English, our toong remained verie barren, rude, and vnperfect; but now by the diligent industrie of Chaucer and Gower, it was within a while greatlie amended, so as it grew not onelie verie rich and plentifull in words, but also so proper and apt to expresse that which the mind conceiued, as anie other vsuall language. Gower departed this life shortlie after the deceasse of his déere and louing freend Chaucer; to wit, in the yeare 1402, being then come to great age, and blind for a certeine time before his death. He was buried in the church of saint Marie Oueries in Southwarke.
Moreouer, Hugh Legat borne in Hertfordshire, and a monke of saint Albons, wrote scholies vpon Architrenius of Iohn Hanuill, and also vpon Boetius De consolatione; Roger Alington, chancellor of the vniuersitie of Oxford, a great sophister, & an enimie to the doctrine of Wickliffe; Iohn Botrell, a logician; Nicholas Gorham, borne in a village of the same name in Hertfordshire, a Dominike frier, first proceeded master of art in Oxenford, and after going to Paris, became the French kings confessor, and therefore hath béene of some taken to be a Frenchman; Iohn Lilleshull, so called of a monasterie in the west parties of this realme whereof he was gouernour; Walter Disse, so called of a towne in Norfolke where he was borne, first a Carmelite frier professed in Norwich, and after going to Cambridge, he there procéeded doctor, he was also confessor to the duke of Lancaster, and to his wife the duchesse Constance, & a great setter foorth of pope Urbans cause against the other popes that were by him and those of his faction named the antipapes; Thomas Maldon, so called of the towne of that name in Essex where he was borne: Iohn Edo, descended out of Wales by linage, and borne in Herefordshire, a Franciscane frier.
Adde to the forenamed, Nicholas Fakingham, borne in Norfolke, a greie frier, procéeded doctor in Oxenford, a great diuine, and an excellent philosopher, prouinciall of his order here in England; Laurence Holbecke, a monke of Ramsie, well séene in the Hebrue toong, and wrote thereof a dictionarie; Iohn Colton, archbishop of Ardmach; Iohn Marrie, so called of a village in Yorkeshire where he was borne, a Carmelite of Doncaster; Richard Chefer borne in Norfolke, a diuine, and an Augustine frier in Norwich; Iohn Lathburie, a Franciscane frier of Reading; Nicholas Poutz; Richard Scroope brother to William Scroope, lord treasurer of England, studied in Cambridge, and proceeded there doctor of both the lawes, became an aduocat in the court of Rome, and afterwards was aduanced to the gouernement of the see of Couentrie and Lichfield, and at length was remooued from thence, and made archbishop of Yorke, he wrote an inuectiue against king Henrie, and at length lost his head, as before ye haue heard; Iohn Wrotham, a Carmelite frier of London, and after made warden of an house of his order in Calis.
Furthermore, Iohn Colbie, a Carmelite frier of Norwich; William Thorpe a northerne man borne, and student in Oxenford, an excellent diuine, and an earnest Acts and moments of Iohn Fox. follower of that famous clearke Iohn Wickliffe, a notable preacher of the word, expressing his doctrine no lesse in trade of life, than in speech, he was at length apprehended by commandement of the archbishop of Canturburie Thomas Arundell, and committed to prison in Saltwood castell, where at length he died; Stephen Patrington, borne in Yorkeshire, a frier Carmelite, prouinciall of his order through England, of which brood there were at that season 1500 within this land, he was bishop of saint Dauids, and confessor to king Henrie the fift, about the fift yeare of whose reigne he deceassed; Robert Mascall, a Carmelite frier of Ludlow, confessor also to the said K. who made him bishop of Hereford; Reginald Langham, a frier minor of Norwich: Actonus Dommicanus; Thomas Palmer, warden of the Blacke friers within the citie of London; Boston of Burie, a monke of the abbeie of Burie in Suffolke, wrote a catalog of all the writers of the church, and other treatises.