... By force of which statutes elections of knights to come to Parliament sometimes have been duly made and lawfully returned until now of late that divers sheriffs, for their singular avail and lucre, have not made due elections of knights, nor in convenient time, nor good men and true returned, and sometime no return of the knights, citizens and burgesses lawfully chosen to come to the Parliaments; but such knights, citizens, and burgesses have been returned which were never duly chosen, and other citizens and burgesses than those which by the mayors and bailiffs were to the said sheriffs returned; and sometimes the sheriffs have not returned the writs which they had to make elections of knights to come to the Parliaments, but the said writs have imbesiled, and moreover made no precept to the mayor and bailiffs, or to the bailiffs or bailiff, where no mayor is, of cities and boroughs, for the elections of citizens and burgesses to come to the Parliaments, by colour of these words contained in the same writs—"Quod in pleno comitatu tuo eligi facias pro comitatu tuo duos milites, et pro qualibet civitate in comitatu tuo duos cives et pro quolibet burgo in comitatu tuo duos burgenses;" and also because sufficient penalty and convenient remedy for the party in such case grieved is not ordained in the said statutes against the sheriffs, mayors, and bailiffs, which do contrary to the form of the said statutes: The King considering the premises hath ordained by Authority aforesaid, that the said statutes shall be duly kept in all points: and moreover that every sheriff, after the delivery of any such writs to him made, shall make and deliver without fraud a sufficient Precept under his seal to every mayor and bailiff, or to bailiffs or bailiff where no mayor is, of the cities and boroughs within his county, reciting the said writ, commanding them by the same precept, if it be a city, to choose by citizens of the same city, citizens; and in the same manner and form, if it be a borough, by burgesses of the same to come to the Parliament. And that the same mayor and bailiffs, or bailiffs or bailiff where no mayor is, shall return lawfully the precept to the same sheriffs by indenture betwixt the same sheriffs, and them to be made of the said elections, and of the names of the said citizens and burgesses by them so chosen; and thereupon every sheriff shall make a good and rightful return of every such writ, and of every return by the mayors and bailiffs, or bailiffs or bailiff where no mayor is, to him made.
HENRY VI. REFORMS THE GRAMMAR SCHOOLS OF LONDON (1446).
Source.—Excerpta Historica, p. 5. (London: 1833.)
Henry by the grace of God King of England and of France and Lord of Ireland: To our Chancellor of England greeting. Forasmuch as the right reverend father in God the Archbishop of Canterbury and the reverend father in God the bishop of London, considering the great abuses that have been of long time within our city of London that many and divers persons, not sufficiently instructed in grammar, presuming to hold common grammar schools in great deceit as well unto their scholars as unto the friends that find them to school, have of their great wisdom set and ordained five schools of grammar, and no more, within our said city. One within the churchyard of St. Paul's, another within the collegiate church of St. Martin, the third in Bow church, the fourth in the church of St. Dunstan in the East, the fifth in our hospital of St. Anthony within our said city; the which they have openly declared sufficient, as by their letters patent thereupon made it appeareth more at large. We, in consideration of the premises, have thereunto granted our royal will and assent. Wherefore we will and charge you that hereupon ye do make our letters patent under our great seal in due form, declaring in the same our said will and assent, giving furthermore in commandment by the same our letters unto all our subjects of our said city that they nor none of them trouble nor hinder the masters of the said schools in any wise, but rather help and assist them inasmuch as in them is. Given under our privy seal at Guildford the 3rd day of May, the year of our reign xxiiij.
THE FRENCH RECOVER FOUGÈRES (1449).
Source.—"Le recouvrement de Normendie," par Berry, Herault du Roy, printed in Reductio Normannie, pp. 245 et seq. (Rolls Series, 1863.)
[Note.—The author of this and other extracts relating to the loss of Normandy was Jacques le Bouvier, surnamed Berry, the first King-of-Arms of Charles VII. of France.]
The duke of Bretagne everywhere sent to all his subjects, well-wishers, friends and allies, asking them to be so good as to help him to avenge himself upon the English, and to help him to recover his town of Fougères. And on this occasion to please the said duke of Bretagne, M. Jehan de Bressay, knight, a native of the country of Anjou, Robert de Flocques, esquire of the country of Normandy, bailly of Evreux, Jacques de Clermont, esquire of the country of Dauphiné and lord of Mannay, and Guillaume le Vigars, esquire, made the attempt to take the town and castle of Pont de l'Arche, on the river Seine, by means of a merchant of Louviers who often took a cart by the said Pont de l'Arche to go to Rouen, which is about four short leagues above it.... And the said merchant, with two others, upon a day in the month of May, being the Thursday before the Ascension of our Lord, set out from Louviers and went to take his cart, as he had often done, through the town of Pont de l'Arche, pretending that he was taking merchandize to Rouen; and in passing he asked the porter of the castle to be so good as to open the gate of the castle for him very early next morning, and he would give him a good gratuity, for he made him believe that he wished to return speedily to Louviers for some merchandize. And so the merchant passed through the town; and he returned about the hour of midnight, accompanied by many of the said ambuscade on foot; and they lodged at an inn in the country, adjoining the castle. They entered into the said inn secretly, where they found the wife in bed alone, (who was exceedingly terrified), for her husband was absent on his business. And when it drew near daybreak, the said merchant went all alone to call the said porter, who came to open the gate of the castle and the bulwark for him, as he had promised the day before; and immediately two persons came out of the inn to come to the bulwark along with the merchant, of whom the said porter was apprehensive when he saw them approach. But the said merchant told him that they were people of Louviers, and then he was satisfied. Then the merchant entered with all his wares, leaving the cart upon the bridge until such time as he had thrown upon the ground for his (the porter's) reward, two bretons and a placque; and as he was stooping to gather them, the merchant killed him with a dagger.... The men of the castle heard the noise, and an Englishman came down in his night-shirt, (a handsome fellow, young and brave), who attempted to raise the bridge of the said castle, because he saw that the said bulwark was already lost; but the said merchant hastened to go to him, and killed him before he could raise the bridge, which was a pity, for he was one of the bravest and most active young men of his party. And thus the castle was won.
And then all the foot-soldiers went along the bridge making great shouts, to enter the town which they took; for the greater part of the inhabitants were still in their beds, excepting one Englishman, who valiantly and for a long time defended the gate of the bridge, to hinder them from entering; but in the end he was killed and the town taken.