Henry of Monmouth, Volume 2 | Page 3

Page 376
CHAPTER XXXII.
The Case of John Clayton, Richard Gurmyn, and William Taylor, burnt
for Heresy, examined. -- Result of the Investigation. -- Henry not a
Persecutor. -- Reflections. Page 393
APPENDIX.
No. I. Ballad of Agincourt. 417 No. II. Siege of Rouen. 422 No. III.
Authenticity of the Manuscripts--Sloane 1776, and Reg. 13, c. 1. 425

MEMOIRS OF HENRY OF MONMOUTH (p. 001)
CHAPTER XVII.

HENRY OF MONMOUTH'S ACCESSION. -- NATIONAL
REJOICINGS. -- HIS PROFOUND SENSE OF THE AWFULNESS
OF THE CHARGE DEVOLVED UPON HIM. -- CORONATION. --
FIRST PARLIAMENT. -- HABITS OF BUSINESS. -- HE REMOVES
THE REMAINS OF RICHARD TO WESTMINSTER. -- REDEEMS
THE SON OF HOTSPUR, AND RESTORES HIM TO HIS
FORFEITED HONOURS AND ESTATES. -- GENEROUS
CONDUCT TOWARDS THE EARL OF MARCH. -- PARLIAMENT
AT LEICESTER. -- ENACTMENTS AGAINST LOLLARDS. --
HENRY'S FOUNDATIONS AT SHENE AND SION.
1413-1414.
HENRY, KING.
Henry IV. died at Westminster on Monday, March 20, 1413, and Henry
of Monmouth's proclamation bears date on the morrow, March 21.[1]
Never perhaps was the accession of any prince to the throne of a
kingdom hailed with a more general or enthusiastic welcome. If serious
minds had entertained forebodings of evil from his reign, (as we (p. 002)
believe they had not,) all feelings seem to have been absorbed in one
burst of gladness. Both houses of parliament offered to swear
allegiance to him before he was crowned: a testimony of confidence
and affection never (it is said) before tendered to any English
monarch.[2] This prevalence of joyous anticipations from the accession
of their young King could not have sprung from any change of conduct
or of principle then first made known. Those who charge Henry most
unsparingly represent his conversion as having begun only at his
father's hour of dissolution. But, before that father breathed his last, the
people of England were ready to welcome most heartily his son, such
as he was then, without, as it should seem, either (p. 003) hearing of, or
wishing for, any change. His principles and his conduct as a ruler had
been put to the test during the time he had presided at the council-board;
and the people only desired in their new King a continuance of the
same wisdom, valour, justice, integrity, and kind-heartedness, which
had so much endeared him to the nation as their Prince. In his subjects
there appears to have been room for nothing but exultation; in the new

King himself widely different feelings prevailed. Ever, as it should
seem, under an awful practical sense, as well of the Almighty's
presence and providence and majesty, as of his own responsibility and
unworthiness, Henry seems to have been suddenly oppressed by the
increased solemnity and weight of the new duties which he found
himself now called upon to discharge. The scene of his father's
death-bed, (carried off, as that monarch was, in the very meridian of
life, by a lingering loathsome disease,) and the dying injunctions of that
father, may doubtless have added much to the acuteness and the depth
of his feelings at that time. And whether he be deemed to have been the
licentious, reckless rioter which some writers have been anxious to
describe, or whether we regard him as a sincere believer, comparing his
past life (though neither licentious nor reckless) with the perfectness of
the divine law, the retrospect might well depress him with a
consciousness of his own unworthiness, and of his total inability to
perform the work which he saw (p. 004) before him, without the
strength and guidance of divine grace. For that strength and that
guidance, we are assured, he prayed, and laboured, and watched with
all the intenseness and perseverance of an humble faithful Christian.
Those who are familiar with the expressions of a contrite soul, will
fully understand the sentiments recorded of Henry of Monmouth at this
season of his self-humiliation, and the dedication of himself to God,
and may yet be far from discovering in them conclusive arguments in
proof of his having passed his youth in habits of gross violation of
religious and moral principle. We have already quoted the assertions of
his biographer, that day and night he sought pardon for the past, and
grace for the future, to enable him to bend his heart in faith and
obedience to the Sovereign of all. And even during the splendour and
rejoicings of his coronation he appeared to withdraw his mind entirely
from the greatness of his worldly state, thus forced upon him, and to fix
his thoughts on the King of kings.[3]
[Footnote 1: Close Roll.]
[Footnote 2: "The high esteem which the nation had of Henry's person
produced such an entire confidence in him, that both houses of
parliament in an address offered to swear allegiance to him before