History of the English People, Volume III

History of the English People,
Volume III (of
by John Richard
Green

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Title: History of the English People, Volume III (of 8) The Parliament,
1399-1461; The Monarchy 1461-1540
Author: John Richard Green

Release Date: March 13, 2007 [eBook #20812]
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HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH PEOPLE, VOLUME III
by
JOHN RICHARD GREEN, M.A. Honorary Fellow of Jesus College,
Oxford
THE PARLIAMENT, 1399-1461 THE MONARCHY, 1461-1540

First Edition, Demy 8vo, November 1877; Reprinted December 1877,
1881, 1885, 1890. Eversley Edition, 1895. London MacMillan and Co.
and New York 1896

CONTENTS
Volume III
Book IV -- The Parliament -- 1399-1461
Chapter V
-- The House of Lancaster -- 1399-1422
Chapter VI

-- The Wars of the Roses -- 1422-1461
Book V -- The Monarchy -- 1461-1540
Authorities for Book V
Chapter I
-- The House of York -- 1461-1485
Chapter II
-- The Revival of Learning -- 1485-1514
Chapter III
-- Wolsey -- 1514-1529
Chapter IV
-- Thomas Cromwell -- 1529-1540
LIST OF MAPS
The Wars of the Roses

In Chapter I. some changes have been made which exactly follow
corrections made by Mr. Green himself in the margin of his volume of
the original edition.
A.S. Green.

VOLUME III
BOOK IV THE PARLIAMENT 1399-1461

CHAPTER V
THE HOUSE OF LANCASTER 1399-1422

[Sidenote: Henry the Fourth]
Once safe in the Tower, it was easy to wrest from Richard a resignation
of his crown; and this resignation was solemnly accepted by the
Parliament which met at the close of September 1399. But the
resignation was confirmed by a solemn Act of Deposition. The
coronation oath was read, and a long impeachment which stated the
breach of the promises made in it was followed by a solemn vote of
both Houses which removed Richard from the state and authority of
king. According to the strict rules of hereditary descent as construed by
the feudal lawyers by an assumed analogy with the rules which
governed descent of ordinary estates the crown would now have passed
to a house which had at an earlier period played a leading part in the
revolutions of the Edwards. The great-grandson of the Mortimer who
brought about the deposition of Edward the Second had married the
daughter and heiress of Lionel of Clarence, the third son of Edward the
Third. The childlessness of Richard and the death of Edward's second
son without issue placed Edmund Mortimer, the son of the Earl who
had fallen in Ireland, first among the claimants of the crown; but he
was now a child of six years old, the strict rule of hereditary descent
had never received any formal recognition in the case of the Crown,
and precedent suggested a right of Parliament to choose in such a case a
successor among any other members of the Royal House. Only one
such successor was in fact possible. Rising from his seat and crossing
himself, Henry of Lancaster solemnly challenged the crown, "as that I
am descended by right line of blood coming from the good lord King
Henry the Third, and through that right that God of his grace hath sent
me with help of my kin and of my friends to recover it: the which realm
was in point to be undone by default of governance and undoing of
good laws." Whatever defects such a claim might present were more
than covered by the solemn recognition of Parliament. The two
Archbishops, taking the new sovereign by the hand, seated him upon

the throne, and Henry in emphatic words ratified the compact between
himself and his people. "Sirs," he said to the prelates, lords, knights,
and burgesses gathered round him, "I thank God and you, spiritual and
temporal, and all estates of the land; and do you to wit it is not my will
that any man think that by way of conquest I would disinherit any of
his heritage, franchises, or other rights that he ought to have, nor put
him out of the good that he has and has had by the good laws and
customs of the realm, except