Henry of Monmouth, Volume 1 | Page 6

-- Wonderful Activity and Resolution of the King.
-- Deplorable state of the Revenue. -- Testimony borne by Parliament
to the Prince's Character. -- The Prince present at the Council-board. --
He is only occasionally in Wales, and remains for the most part in
London. Page 207
CHAPTER XI.
1407-1409.
Prince Henry's Expedition to Scotland, and Success. -- Thanks
presented to him by Parliament. -- His generous Testimony to the Duke
of York. -- Is first named as President of the Council. -- Returns to
Wales. -- Is appointed Warden 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