Gloucester, who made themselves liable if the King should die; but this was quite insufficient for the present exigency, and there was no hope except in the Lord Chancellor. He had amassed immense riches from the profits of his see and of his office; but he refused to make any gift, and even to lend on the security with which others had been satisfied. At last the King offered to pawn to him the Crown itself. Thereupon, taking the pledge into his custody, the Chancellor advanced a very large loan, and the war was vigorously prosecuted. At the last parliament over which Cardinal Beaufort presided during the present reign, an act was passed with his concurrence, and probably with the great applause of the English nation,-who for many centuries hated, and despised, and oppressed their Irish fellow subjects,"That none of the Irish nation should be elected an Archbishop, Bishop, Abbot, or Prior; and that whoever promoted such to those ecclesiastical preferments, or brought any such Irish rebels to parliaments, councils, or other assemblies among the English, should have all their temporal estates seized into the King's hands till they had paid the fines due for such offences." On the last day of the session, the King, sitting on his throne in full parliament, created Thomas Beaufort, who was Earl of Dorset and Exchancellor, Duke of Exeter, with a pension of 1000l. a year. The Lords, with a proper respect for Ex-chancellors, so much approved of the King's liberality, that they said no objection could be made, but only that it was too little, and not proportionable to the merits and services of that noble person.* * Cardinal Beaufort, in this Chancellorship, never parted with the custody of the Great Seal, except from the 5th of September to the 12th of October, 1416, during which time he was absent with the King in France, and the Great Seal was intrusted by him to the keeping of Simon Gaunstede, Master of the Rolls, to be re-delivered to him on his return. We have slender means of knowing how he performed his judicial duties; but we may, from his general disposition, not uncharitably believe that he was assiduous in business, and encouraged suitors that he might multiply fees. He resembled the fallen angel, whose "looks and thoughts Were always downward bent, admiring more His avarice, however, was now to receive a heavy and unexpected blow. From the hard bargain he made when he advanced money for the public service, or his importunity to be repaid, he disgusted the King. The Close Roll, 5 Hen. V., records, that, "On the 23d of July, 1417, Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester, delivered up the Great Seal of gold to the King, on which day it was given to Thomas Long * Parl. Rol. 4 & 5 Hen. 5. 1 Parl. Hist. 335. + Rot. Cl. 4 Hen. 5, m. 13. * but ley, Bishop of Durham, who became Chancellor the second time," no writer gives us the particulars of the intrigue which brought about this change. The Ex-chancellor now visited the council of Basil, and contrived to get himself named by Pope Martin V. Cardinal and Apostolic Legate in England and Ireland; but, upon the remonstrance of Archbishop Chicheley, the King forbade him to accept these dignities, and he was not gratified with wearing the red hat till after he had finally resigned the Great Seal in the succeeding reign. A parliament was soon after called, which was opened by the new Chancellor with a speech from the text, Comfortamini et viriliter agite et gloriosi eritis.† The most remarkable transaction during this parliament, throwing particular discredit on the Chancellor,-was the order by the Lords that Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham, should be burnt under the sentence passed against him as a heretic. He was the first English peer who ever suffered death for religion.‡ About the same time the Ex-chancellor Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester, managed to get a private bill of his smuggled through both Houses, that a security given to him for a loan on the customs of Southampton, should be confirmed by parliament.§ Nothing memorable connected with the office of Chancellor occurred till 1421, when Henry's victories having led to the treaty [A. D. 1421.] of Troyes, by which he was to marry the Princess Catherine, and was declared regent of France and heir to that kingdom, he called a parliament to ratify the treaty. This parliament was opened by a speech from the King's own mouth, the first instance I have found of the Sovereign himself declaring the causes of summoning his great council. Henry represented to them the state of affairs," what conquests he had made in France, and what supplies were necessary to continue the war;-assuring them that the Dauphin and his party, who maintained some cities and provinces, being subdued, that kingdom might be entirely united to the English crown." The Lord Chancellor, by order of the King, read the articles of the treaty of Troyes, which had been sworn to by the two Kings of England and France, and ratified also by the three estates of France; whereupon both Houses of Parliament avowed that they approved and accepted it as most conducive to the good of both nations, and of all Christendom; and every one promised for himself, his heirs, and successors, that they would inviolably observe it. It is marvellous that such men as Longley and the spiritual Peers, whose blood was not heated by being personally engaged in the conflict, should have sanctioned a treaty which nothing but the power of the sword could carry into execution, and which, if it had taken effect, must have proved equally pernicious to England and to France. At this parliament the Commons made another unsuccessful attempt to put an entire stop to the writ of subpoena in Chancery, as well as to Rot. Cl. 5 Hen. 5, m. 15. § Ibid. t1 Parl. Hist. 335. 1 Parl. Hist. 337. ¶ 1 Parl. Hist. 339. Privy Seals bringing matters of private right before the Council; but they had a limited and temporary triumph by carrying an act to endure until the next parliament, "that the exception how that the partie hath sufficient remedy at the common law, shall discharge any matter in Chancery.' The act was never renewed, so that the concurrent jurisdiction of the courts of equity and courts of common law in partition, dower, account, and many such matters, has continued. Henry, leaving the government in the hands of his brother, the Duke of Bedford, and of the Chancellor, returned to France, [AUG. 31, 1422.] espoused Catherine,-got possession of Paris,-had his infant son proclaimed heir of both kingdoms, and died at Vincennes in the thirty-fourth year of his age. His last parliament had been held in his absence, the Chancellor opening the session with a formal speech. After voting a supply, the chief business was regulating the coinage, which had fallen into great disorder from the short-sighted fraud of adulteration, first begun in the reign of Edward III.; and it was enacted "that the Chancellor of England should deliver to those who would have them [DEC. 1, 1421.] good and just weights of the noble, half noble, and farthing of gold, to prevent the people being abused by such as were counterfeit."+ During this reign the equity jurisdiction of the Chancellor was so actively enforced, that some have ascribed its origin to the chancellorship of Cardinal Beaufort. He first exercised a control over the marriage of infants, and along with uses and trusts he took cognizance of many miscellaneous matters, which would now be referred to courts of common law, either civil or criminal.‡ It may be remarked, that at this period of our history there was an unusual ferment in men's minds, and the Commons showed a strong spirit of innovation, both in church and state, so that there seemed a great probability that important changes would be introduced with respect to the maintenance of the clergy, and the administration of justice; but the absorbing foreign war in which the country was engaged preserved all our institutions untouched by legislation during the whole reign of Henry V. Rol. Parl. 9 Hen. 5. See 2 Cooper on Records, 361. +1 Parl. Hist. 340. CHAPTER XX. CHANCELLORS FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE REIGN OF HENRY VI. TILL THE DEATH OF CARDINAL BEAUFORT. [SEPT. 1, 1422.] HENRY VI. was, at his father's death, an infant of nine months old. The Duke of Gloucester, his uncle, having been named Regent of England by the late King, was at first allowed to assume the government under that title. At the end of a month a council was held at Windsor, at which the baby monarch, in his nurse's arms, was present, and was supposed to preside. Longley, Lord Chancellor to the late King, put the Great Seal into the royal lap, and placed upon it the hands of the child, who was too young even to be amused with it as a toy. The Regent then, in the King's name, delivered it to Simon Gaunstede, the Master of the Rolls, for the despatch of necessary business.* But the Regent soon found that he could not exercise his authority without the sanction of the legislature, and a commission passed the Great Seal for a new parliament to be held before him. The session was opened, by his command, with a speech from Chicheley, Archbishop of Canterbury. Business being be gun, it is stated in the Parliamentary History, that the [Nov. 1422.] two Bishops of Durham and London, the former having been Chancellor of England in the late reign, and the other Chancellor of the Duchy of Normandy, who had both delivered up the several seals of their offices, prayed to be discharged by act of parliament, and that the same might be enrolled,-which was granted. It was then also enacted, that the King's style and titles should be changed, and that upon all his seals should be engraven, "Henricus Rex Franciæ et Angliæ, et Dominus Hiberniæ." At the request of the Commons, the Duke of Gloucester declared that the King had appointed the Bishop of Durham to be his Chancellor, which appointment was confirmed by parliament.† In reality, the whole administration was arranged by the Lords and Commons, who had been gradually extending their influence during the reigns of the Lancasterian Princes. Disregarding the will of the late King, they declined altogether the name of "Regent" for England. They appointed the Duke of Bedford "Protector" of that kingdom, a title which they thought implied less authority; they invested the Duke of Gloucester with the same dignity during the absence of his elder "Præfatus Dominus Rex nunc sigillum illud per manus præfati Ducis prædicto Simoni liberavit custodiendum," &c. Rot. Cl. 1 Hen. 6, m. 15. † 1 Parl. Hist. 345. Rol. Parl. Hen. 6, vol. xv. 170. brother-with a council of nine, by whose advice he must act; and the guardianship of the person of the infant King was given to the two Ex-chancellors, the Bishop of Winchester and the Duke of Exeter, with whom it was thought he must be safe, as, from the stain on their birth, they themselves could never aspire to the crown.* In this parliament a vigorous effort was made to limit the jurisdiction of the Court of Chancery. The Commons presented a petition to the King, which, if agreed to, would very effectually have preserved the supremacy of the common law, but would have deprived the country of many benefits derived from equitable interference. They proposed, that to prevent persons being called upon to answer in Chancery for any matter for which there is remedy provided by the common law, no one should be allowed to sue any process before the Chancellor till the complainant had sent a bill, containing all the matter of his plaint or grievance, to be approved of by two judges of the King's Bench, or Common Pleas, and they should have certified that for such matter he could not have any action or remedy by the common law. But the answer returned in the King's name, by the advice of the council of regency, was, "Let the statute on this subject, made in the 17th year of the reign of King Richard II., be observed and put in due execution," which was, in fact, a veto, and left the Chancellor without control to determine the limits of his own jurisdiction. Lord Chancellor Longley opened another parliament in October, 1423, with a speech from the text, "Deum timete, Regem honorificate," showing that peculiar honour ought to be rendered to the present King, notwithstanding his tender years, since now this realm had attained their wish, which was that the King of England might also be King of France, and that the love due to the father was due to the son, for omnis qui diligit eum qui genuit diligit eum qui genitus est.‡ The petition or bill against the Court of Chancery, which had for some time been nearly annual, was now dropped; and nothing more memorable was transacted at this parliament than passing an act, "to secure those persons who had only the late King's jewels in pawn, and that the Bishop of Winchester, who had lent the King 20,000 marks on the crown, should have letters patent to receive the said sum out of the customs."§ The great struggle for power between Humphry, Duke [A. D. 1424.] of Gloucester, the Protector, and the Bishop of Winchester, his uncle, which produced such calamities, and which ended so fatally to both, was now begun, and the Bishop, from his superior shrewdness and vigour, was gaining the ascendant, although his rival, as Protector, claimed to exercise all the prerogatives of the crown. In Nov. 1422, a new Great Seal was made, because the King's style in the inscription on the former seals was not suited to the reigning monarch. The order in council recited, that "great peril might ensue to the King if the said seals were not immediately altered," and required the keepers of all the King's seals to cause them to be altered forthwith.-Rot. Parl. 1 Hen. 6. + Rol. Par. 1 Hen. 6. 1 Parl. Hist. 347. § Ibid. 348. |