Henry of Monmouth, Volume 1 | Page 6

of the Cinque Ports and Constable of Dover. -- Welsh Rebellion dwindles and dies. -- Owyn Glyndowr's Character and Circumstances; his Reverses and Trials. -- His Bright Points undervalued. -- The unfavourable side of his Conduct unjustly darkened by Historians. -- Reflections on his Last Days. -- Fac-simile of his Seals as Prince of Wales. Page 232
CHAPTER XII.
(p. xxiii)
1409-1412.
Reputed Differences between Henry and his Father examined. -- He is made Captain of Calais. -- His Residence at Coldharbour. -- Presides at the Council-board. -- Cordiality still visible between him and his Father. -- Affray in East-Cheap. -- No mention of Henry's presence. --Projected Marriage between Henry and a Daughter of Burgundy. -- Charge against Henry for acting in opposition to his Father in the Quarrel of the Dukes of Burgundy and Orleans unfounded. Page 252
CHAPTER XIII.
1412-1413.
Unfounded Charge against Henry of Peculation. -- Still more serious Accusation of a cruel attempt to dethrone his diseased Father. -- The Question fully examined. -- Probably a serious though temporary Misunderstanding at this time between the King and his Son. -- Henry's Conduct filial, open, and merciful. -- The "Chamber" or the "Crown Scene." -- Death of Henry the Fourth. Page 278
CHAPTER XIV.
Henry of Monmouth's Character. -- Unfairness of Modern Writers. -- Walsingham examined. -- Testimony of his Father, -- of Hotspur, -- of the Parliament, -- of the English and Welsh Counties, -- of Contemporary Chroniclers. -- No one single act of Immorality alleged against him. -- No intimation of his Extravagance, or Injustice, or Riot, or Licentiousness, in Wales, London, or Calais. -- Direct Testimony to the opposite Virtues. -- Lydgate. -- Occleve. Page 313
CHAPTER XV.
(p. xxiv)
Shakspeare. -- The Author's reluctance to test the Scenes of the Poet's Dramas by Matters of Fact. -- Necessity of so doing. -- Hotspur in Shakspeare the first to bear evidence to Henry's reckless Profligacy; -- The Hotspur of History the first who testifies to his Character for Valour, and Mercy, and Faithfulness in his Duties. -- Anachronisms of Shakspeare. -- Hotspur's Age. -- The Capture of Mortimer. -- Battle of Homildon. -- Field of Shrewsbury. -- Archbishop Scrope's Death. Page 337
CHAPTER XVI.
Story of Prince Henry and the Chief Justice, first found in the Work of Sir Thomas Elyot, published nearly a century and a half subsequently to the supposed transaction. -- Sir John Hawkins -- Hall -- Hume. -- No allusion to the circumstance in the Early Chroniclers. -- Dispute as to the Judge. -- Various Claimants of the distinction. -- Gascoyne -- Hankford -- Hody -- Markham. -- Some interesting particulars with regard to Gascoyne, lately discovered and verified. -- Improbability of the entire Story. Page 358
APPENDIX.
No. 1. Owyn Glyndowr 385 2. Lydgate 394 3. Occleve 401

MEMOIRS OF HENRY OF MONMOUTH. (p. 001)
CHAPTER I.
HENRY OF MONMOUTH'S PARENTS. -- TIME AND PLACE OF HIS BIRTH. -- JOHN OF GAUNT AND BLANCHE OF LANCASTER. -- HENRY BOLINBROKE. -- MONMOUTH CASTLE. -- HENRY'S INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD. -- HIS EDUCATION. -- RESIDENCE IN OXFORD. -- BOLINBROKE'S BANISHMENT.
1387-1398.
Henry the Fifth was the son of Henry of Bolinbroke and Mary daughter of Humfrey Bohun, Earl of Hereford. No direct and positive evidence has yet been discovered to fix with unerring accuracy the day or the place of his birth. If however we assume the statement of the chroniclers[2] to be true, that he was born at Monmouth on the ninth day of August in the year 1387,[3] history supplies many ascertained facts not only consistent with that hypothesis, but in (p. 002) confirmation of it; whilst none are found to throw upon it the faintest shade of improbability. At first sight it might perhaps appear strange that the exact time of the birth as well of Henry of Monmouth, as of his father, two successive kings of England, should even yet remain the subject of conjecture, tradition, and inference; whilst the day and place of the birth of Henry VI. is matter of historical record. A single reflection, however, on the circumstances of their respective births, renders the absence of all precise testimony in the one case natural; whilst it would have been altogether unintelligible in the other. When Henry of Bolinbroke and Henry of Monmouth were born, their fathers were subjects, and nothing of national interest was at the time associated with their appearance in the world; at Henry of Windsor's birth he was the acknowledged heir to the throne both of England and of France.
[Footnote 2: Monomothi in Wallia natus v. Id. Aug.--Pauli Jov. Ang. Reg. Chron.; William of Worcester, &c.]
[Footnote 3: At the foot of the Wardrobe Account of Henry Earl of Derby from 30th September 1387 to 30th September 1388, (and unfortunately no account of the Duke of Lancaster's expenses is as yet found extant before that very year,) an item occurs of 341l. 12s. 5d.,