In the time of Richard II, as well as during his grandfather’s reign, there lived some very important historical figures, who influenced the social and cultural development of England. John Wycliffe (1328-1384), Oxford University professor, spoke with great indignation of the immoral practices of friars dealing in “indulgencies”, papers proclaiming the Pope’s pardon of all sins committed by the buyer in the past, present or future: he spoke of the luxury and worldliness of monks and the inordinate wealth of the church. John Wycliffe was in fact initiator of the movement that was to assume a mighty swing in a couple of centuries, the Reformation. Wycliffe was also an early advocate for translation of the Bible into the common language. He completed his translation directly from the Vulgate into vernacular English in the year 1382, now known as Wycliffe's Bible.
John Wycliffe’s followers, the Lollards, interpreted him much more radically proceeding from all this amiable theory to practice. The Lollards were participators of the anti-catholic plebeian peasant movement. Their first appearance in England is traced back to the thirteen sixties but they achieved official recognition in 1387. Their activization was determined by the growth of social contradictions in the latter half of the 14th c. They were poor wandering priests who preached to the people in the streets of villages and town squares. They condemned the privileges of the catholic church imparting a social tinge to their sermons. They criticized injustice, demanding abolition of villeins’ labour on their lords’ fields, the tithes and taxes. They demanded social equality. The “Lollard heresy” expressed decline in the influence of the church.
One of the greatest English poets, Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?-1400), whose most famous book was "The Canterbury Tales", is often called the father of English poetry. His books were, of course, only manuscripts, as there was no book-printing in England till the end of the next century, when his main books were printed. Due to Chaucer we can gain a most interesting sight of these times. His English is difficult to read, because the language has changed much since those centuries, but his books still live. Most amusing and delightful pictures of the people of his time does Chaucer draw, and we learn much about the customs from them. You can see Chaucer's tomb in Poet's Corner at Westminster Abbey.
Comprehension questions
1.What was the Poll Tax, introduced by Richard II?
2.Describe Watt Tyler’s revolt.
3.John Wycliffe and the Lollards.
4.Geoffrey Chaucer.
35. HENRY THE FOURTH, CALLED BOLINGBROKE
So Henry IV (1367-1413) had no real right to the crown. Edward Mortimer, the young Earl of March, who was only eight or nine years old, and who was descended from the elder brother of Henry's father, was, by succession, the real heir to the throne. However, Henry IV declared his son Prince of Wales; and he kept the young Earl of March and his little brother in confinement in Windsor Castle. He then required the Parliament to decide what was to be done with the deposed King. The Parliament replied that they would recommend to keep Richard in some secret place, where his friends could not be admitted to visit him.
It was a noisy Parliament, and the Lords quarrelled so violently among themselves, that forty gauntlets are said to have been thrown upon the floor at one time as challenges to as many battles — they had been at one time with the old king, and at the other with the new one, and seldom true to anyone. A conspiracy was formed to invite the King to the tournament at Oxford, and then to take him by surprise and kill him. This enterprise was betrayed by one of the conspirators. The King, instead of going to the tournament or staying at Windsor,
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retired to London, proclaimed them all traitors, and advanced upon them with a great force. They retired into the West of England, proclaimed Richard King, but the people rose against them, and they were all killed. This only hastened Richard's death. Whether he was killed by hired men or whether he was starved to death is very doubtful.
From the very first Henry was careful to have the Church on his side. The alliance between the Church and the Crown was important for both sides.
As the idea of conquering Scotland was still popular, Henry marched to the river Tyne and demanded homage of the King of that country. As it was refused, he advanced to Edinburgh, but he was obliged to retire as his army was in want of provisions.
A war between the border people of England and Scotland went on for a year. In 1400 a quarrel broke out between Owen Glendower, the Welsh chieftain, and Lord Grey of Ruthven, and it led first to a national Welsh revolt, and then to a confederacy against Henry's power in England. Some nobles rose against Henry. In 1403 the Battle of Shrewsbury took place: Henry's army met his enemies — and had a victory. Owen Glendower declared himself the Prince of Wales, and even in 1409, when Glendower was defeated, he still held out in the Welsh hills and retained a sort of independence. Except that, a story was spread among the ignorant people, that King Richard was still alive. Then the young Earl of March and his brother were stolen out of Windsor Castle.
The next remarkable event of the time was the seizure by Henry of the heir to the Scottish throne — James, a boy of nine years old. His father, the Scottish King Robert, wanted to save him from the designs of his uncle, when, on his way to France, he was suddenly taken by some English cruisers. James remained a prisoner in England for nineteen years, and became in his prison a student and a famous poet.
To distract attention from the rather unsatisfactory state of affairs in England, Henry IV decided in 1411 to invade France. That country was being torn by civil war; the King Charles VI was mad, and the Dukes of Orleans and Burgundy were fighting for the chief power. Orleans had been murdered by his opponents, and his followers, the Armagnacs, were thirsting for revenge. Burgundy invited Henry's help, and with it defeated Armagnacs.
King Henry IV died on the 20-th of March, 1413, in the forty-seventh year of his age, and the fourteenth of his reign. His son, also Henry, succeeded him.
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Comprehension questions
1.Henry Bollingbroke’s war in Scotland.
36.HENRY V
When Henry V (1387-1422) was the Prince of Wales, he was said to be brave and generous, but also wild and dissipated. There is a story (of which Shakespeare has made beautiful use), that the Prince once took the crown out of his father's chamber, as Henry IV was sleeping, and tried it on his own head.
However, Henry V began his reign like a generous and honest man. He set the young Earl of March free; he ordered the unfortunate Richard to be buried among the Kings of England; he dismissed all his wild companions.
Once on the throne, Henry V formulated a policy of his own with energy and sound judgement. Holding to the alliance with the Church, already entered by his father, he put down heresy with a firm hand, and many of the heretics were burnt. Once loyally supported by the Church and the nobles, he might hope to gain the mastery over Parliament.
It was with these ideas in his mind that Henry laid claim to the throne of France, on the same grounds as had been put forward by Edward III. It really did not matter to him that claim, as advanced by him, was infinitely more absurd than as it had been advanced by his great-grandfather, or that, if that claim existed, it had passed not to him, but to the Earl of March. He knew that France was divided by civil war; and that therefore he had all the chances in his favour. France knew this, too.
Just as he was embarking for France, Henry discovered a plot for placing the young Earl of March on the throne; the Earl of Cambridge, son of Edmund Duke of York, was executed, along with some other conspirators.
After that Henry embarked for France.
Henry's immediate object was to reduce Normandy, and for this purpose he laid siege to Harfleur, both by sea and by land, for five weeks, at the end of which time the town surrendered, and the inhabitants were allowed to depart with only fivepence each, and a part of their clothes. All the rest of their possessions were divided among the English army. But their army suffered so much, in spite of their successes, from disease and privation that it was reduced already by one half. Still, the King was determined not to retire until he had struck a great blow. And he moved on with his little force towards Calais. When he came up to the river Somme, the English moved up the left bank of the river, looking for a crossing, and the
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French, who had broken all the bridges, moved up the right bank, watching the enemy and waiting to attack the English when they should try to pass it. At last, the English found a crossing and got safely over.
The battle of Agincourt was fought on October, 25, 1415, on a narrow front, flanked by woods. The French had no room to fight, and their heavy infantry were impeded by the sodden ground. The English archers poured in volley after volley from under cover, and, when they had utterly demoralised the exposed enemy, a general charge drove the defeat home.
Henry made little use of his victory; indeed, his army was so reduced, that he was glad to enter Calais and sail home almost immediately. But the effect in England was as he expected; success had aroused national enthusiasm, and all classes were eager to continue the war.
Now, here are Charles Dickens's words about this event.
"War is a dreadful thing; and it is appalling to know that the English were obliged, next morning, to kill those prisoners mortally wounded, who yet writhed in agony upon the ground; how the dead upon the French side were stripped by their own countrymen, and afterwards buried in great pits; how the dead upon the English side were piled up in a great barn, and how their bodies in the barn were all burned together. Nothing can make war otherwise than horrible. But the dark side of it was little thought of and soon forgotten; and it cast no shade of trouble on the English people, except on those who had lost friends or relations in the fight. They welcomed their King home with shouts of rejoicing, and plunged into the water to bear him ashore on their shoulders, and flocked out in crowds to welcome him in every town, through which he passed, and hung rich carpets and tapestries out of the windows, and strewed the streets with flowers, and made the fountains run with wine, as the great field of Agincourt had run with blood".
In 1417 Henry again invaded France, and set about the thorough conquest of Normandy; by 1419 he possessed Rouen. The quarrels between the rival French factions played into his hands, especially, when the Duke of Burgundy was murdered by the Dauphin and the
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