THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF
KING HENRY VI
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HENRY VI
From the portrait in the National Portrait Gallery
THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF
KING HENRY VI
BY
CARDINAL GASQUET
AUTHOR OF "HENRY VIII AND THE ENGLISH MONASTERIES,"
" THE EVE OF THE REFORMATION," ETC.
LONDON
G. BELL AND SONS, LTD.
1923
OCT 3 0 1961
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN.
CHISWICK PRESS : CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND GRIGGS (PRINTERS), LTD.
TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.
FOREWORD
VERY few words are necessary to intro-
duce this small volume upon King
Henry VI. It deals mainly with his religi-
ous life and personal character, and not at
all with the political events of his reign or
with the sanguinary struggles between the
royal Houses of York and Lancaster for the
possession of the throne of England. Re-
garding the stirring episodes of the Civil
War of the Roses, and partly at least in con-
sequence of the total collapse of Henry and
his murder in the Tower of London, our
modern historians in their account of this reign
have occupied themselves, not unnaturally,
but little with the personality of the un-
fortunate monarch. The entire destruction of
his royal authority has been considered as
sufficient to describe him briefly as a weak
and vacillating ruler, about whom little good
can be said: whilst the fact that for a brief
space of time his mental faculties gave way,
vi FOREWORD
during which he was forced to live in se-
clusion, has probably been held to be more
than sufficient to show that he was never, at
any time, a prince worthy to reign over
England.
Few people, who have taken their notions
of this period of time from our modern school
histories, will be disposed to think otherwise
of this unfortunate monarch. There is, how-
ever, another side to this matter : that is, so
far as his personal qualities are concerned, at
one time, and for a long period of time,
Henry VI was recognized and revered gener-
ally as one of the glories of the Kingdom.
He was known in fact as the national saint
of the country.
It was perhaps not unnatural that, after
his death, the party that had dispossessed him
of his throne and done him to death, should
have endeavoured to prevent him from be-
coming a popular hero by lowering his
character in the minds of the people gener-
ally. And so the notion that Henry was a
weak-minded and useless ruler thus set forth
was believed by a few contemporary authors,
and found its way, for example, into the
FOREWORD vii
writings of Pope Pius II. In England, how-
ever, from the first the murdered King was held
in veneration. He was regarded as a just and
upright ruler, and there sprang up all over
the country a popular devotion to him,
which the civil authorities could not suppress.
As it continued to grow, the process of the
canonization was begun in Rome at the in-
stance of King Henry VII. The tomb of the
murdered King at Windsor became a place of
universal pilgrimage renowned for the multi-
tude of the miracles and favours granted by
God at his intercession.
During the religious changes of the six-
teenth century these facts became obscured
and forgotten. It is the object of this book
to bring back to its readers what our ancestors
believed about holy King Henry VI.
August 1923.
CONTENTS
I. His Early Life and Education i
II. King Henry's Religious Life . 19
III. King Henry's Foundations at
Eton and Cambridge . 39
IV. Testimony of Contemporaries
as to Henry's Personality
and Character . . 49
V. King Henry VII petitions for
the Canonization of the
Holy King Henry VI . 75
VI. The Relations of Henry VI
with the Church and Pope 93
VII. The Book of the King's Mir-
acles . . . .103
VIII. Cultus and Popular Devotion
to the Saintly King Henry 119
Index ..... 135
IX
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
TO FACE
PAGE
Henry VI . . Frontispiece
From the portrait in the National Por-
trait Gallery.
Henry VI at the Shrine of St.
Edmund .... .10
From Lydgate's Life of St. Edmund
(MS. Had 2278).
Eton College Chapel, Lupton's
Tower, and School Yard . . 40
From an etching by F. Buckler
(c. I 814).
King's College Chapel, Cambridge . 48
From an engraving by Loggar.
Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, pre-
senting a book to Margaret of
Anjou and Henry VI . . 54
(MS. Roy. 15, E. VI, c. 1445.)
Henry VI I22
From a print after the painting on
glass at King's College, Cambridge.
XI
THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF
KING HENRY VI
I
HIS EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION
KING HENRY VI was born at Windsor
on 6th December 142 1, the only son
of Henry V and his wife, Catherine of France.
He was baptized by Archbishop Chichely of
Canterbury; his godparents being his uncle,
John Duke of Bedford; his great-uncle,
Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester; and
Jacqueline, Countess of Holland.
The premature death of his father, on 31st
August 1422, made the infant King of Eng-
land when only nine months old; Henry V's
last directions in regard to his son were
ignored, and Parliament appointed his eldest
uncle, John Duke of Bedford, Protector of the
little King. The real government of the king-
dom, however, rested with the Council, and all
writs were issued in the King's name. Henry
V had appointed Sir Walter Hungerford to
B
2 HIS EARLY LIFE
attend upon his son, but this disposition was
set aside and the child remained for a time
under his mother's care. As a baby he was
brought from Windsor, and on 18th Novem-
ber 1423 was presented to the Parliament at
Westminster. In the following January, Joan,
the wife of Thomas Astley, was appointed
his nurse by a writ issued in the King's
name, and Dame Alice Butler was selected to
attend his person with due licence " to chas-
tise us reasonably from time to time." In
1425 the Council gave orders that the heirs
of all baronies, etc., in the wardship of the
Crown were to be brought up at the Court
about the King's person, each one being pro-
vided with a master at the charge of the State.
In this way the royal palace became " an
academy for the young nobility."
In 1424 a letter was written in the name of
the little King to Pope Martin V to petition
for the canonization of St. Osmund of Salis-
bury, and this had the support of Archbishop
Chichely of Canterbury.
Before Henry VI was four years old he was
forced to take a personal part in public State
functions. Thus in April 1425 he appeared
at St. Paul's " led upon his feet, between the
AND EDUCATION 3
Lord Protector and the Duke of Exeter, unto
the choir, whence he was borne to the High
Altar." After this ceremony he was " set
upon a fair courser and so conveyed through
Chepe and other streets of the city." * During
the Parliament then in session Henry was
" sundry times conveyed to Westminster, and
within the Parliament Chamber kept his
royal state."
In 1426 the small King opened the " Par-
liament of Bats " at which Bedford sought to
end the dissensions between Gloucester and
Bishop Beaufort. At this time, on Whit
Sunday, the Protector dubbed his nephew a
knight, and afterwards a number of young
nobles received their knighthood from the
" gracious hands " of the child King. The
Christmas and the New Year of 1426 were
kept by the Court at Eltham, and the little
King received among his presents a set of
coral beads which had belonged to King
Edward, and was amused by the games and
interludes of " Jack Travail " and his com-
pany, and by the music of" portable organs. "f
* Fabyan's Concordance of Histories, quoted in the
D.N.B.
t Rymer, Foedera, x, 387.
4 HIS EARLY LIFE
In the year 1428 Richard Beauchamp,
Earl of Warwick, became the King's master.
On 1st June the Earl was ordered " to be
about the King's person " and directed " to
teach him to love, worship, and dread God,
draw him to virtue by ways and means con-
venable, laying before him examples of God's
Grace to virtuous Kings, and the contrary
fortunes of Kings of the contrary disposition,
to teach him nurture, literature, languages and
other manner of cunning, to chastise him when
he doth amiss, and to remove persons not be-
hovefull nor expedient from his presence." *
For his early training in religion and virtue
the boy King had the advantage of the watch-
ful care of Thomas Netter, or Walden, the
learned and pious Carmelite, one of the most
famous theologians of his day. Netter had
been the Confessor of King Henry V, and in
that capacity had accompanied him to France
in 1422. The King was assisted in his last
hours by the saintly Friar, and is said to have
died in his arms. It was Netter who pro-
nounced the funeral discourse over the body
at its burial in Westminster Abbey on
6th November 1422.
* Rymer, Foedera, x, 399.
AND EDUCATION 5
From that time the Carmelite was called
upon to watch over the child King, and as
Henry grew in intelligence he became his
first spiritual guide and instructor and, in time,
his first Confessor and Monitor. Netter went
over to France in 1430 with the little King,
but died at Rouen on 6th November of that
year, being buried at the Carmelite Church in
that city.
On 6th November 1429, when Henry was
not yet nine years old, he was crowned at
Westminster with due solemnity. The Earl
of Warwick led him to the " high scaffold set
up in the Abbey Church," where he sat
11 beholding the people all about sadly and
wisely," and showing " humility and devo-
tion." After this the Council declared the
Protectorate at an end, and ordered that the
young King should now visit his French
dominions. So, after spending the Easter at
Canterbury, conducted by Cardinal Beaufort
he crossed over to Calais. His first act on
landing at ten o'clock in the morning was to
ride on horseback to attend High Mass at
St. Nicholas' Church. On 16th December of
this year, 1430, Henry was crowned King of
France and returned to England in February
6 HIS EARLY LIFE
1 43 1. On 1 2 th May of the following year he
opened Parliament in person, and was present
at the fiery debates regarding the charges
against Henry Beaufort, at the end of which he
declared himself convinced of the loyalty of
his great-uncle.
At this time the Earl of Warwick reported
to the Council that the young King was now
" grown in years, in stature of his person, and
also conceit and knowledge of his royal
Estate, the which cause him to grudge with
chastising," and that " he hath been stirred by
some from his learning, and spoken to of
divers matters not behovefull." On this re-
presentation Warwick obtained fuller powers
for the regulation of the royal household and
the prohibition of all unauthorized persons to
approach him. Henry himself was moreover
admonished to obey the precepts of his
master.
It is not necessary to follow the political
history of this period in any detail. The Wars
of the Roses and the changing fortunes of the
King and his party during the civil disturb-
ances are sufficiently well known from our
ordinary histories. Our interest mainly, if not
wholly, is to understand the religious dis-
AND EDUCATION 7
positions of Henry VI and to see what, if any,
evidence exists of an exceptional piety and
religious sentiment on his part.
In 1433 the King, then a boy of twelve,
went to the Abbey of Bury St. Edmund to pass
the Christmas festivities. The Council, in
fact, proposed to the Abbot that he should
receive their royal master for a long period,
and his visit to the monks lasted till St.
George's Day 1434. The record of this visit
states that to do honour to the guest the Abbot
appointed a hundred officers of all ranks to
attend upon him and his suite. Henry arrived
on the eve of Christmas, and was solemnly
received at the church door by Abbot Curteys
and the community, and was conducted at once
to pay his devotions at the shrine of the Martyr
King behind the High Altar.
The King took part in all the religious
ceremonies of the time, joining in the festivi-
ties and making himself acquainted with every
part of the vast establishment. After the
Epiphany he dispensed with the more cere-
monious observances of the Abbot's palace
and, taking up his abode with the Prior,
enjoyed with his courtiers a mild kind of
hunting. Later he went to the Abbot's house
8 HIS EARLY LIFE
at Elmswell and divided his time between
fishing and hawking until the vigil of the
Purification, when he returned to Bury to be
present at the blessing of the Candles. The
season of Lent was again passed in the Prior's
lodgings, and the youthful King was present
at all the solemn ceremonies of the Holy
Week and Easier.
On the Tuesday after the feast, Henry,
together with the Earl and Countess of War-
wick, was formally received into the frater-
nity of the Convent of Bury. Humphrey,
Duke of Gloucester, who was with the King
and who was already a Confrater of St. Alban's
Monastery, petitioned to become a member of
the family of St. Edmund's also. The young
monarch determined that the reception should
be carried out in the most formal manner
possible, so, having prostrated himself before
the shrine of St. Edmund, followed by the
Duke of Gloucester, the Earl of Warwick, and
the rest of his suite, he proceeded to the
Chapter House where the monks were assem-
bled, and there asked for the privilege of being
joined in brotherhood with the monks. Then
the Duke of Gloucester on his knees begged
the King to thank the Abbot and the brethren
AND EDUCATION 9
of Edmundsbury for all their kindness to him
during his stay; and the King, taking Abbot
Curteys by the hand, " gleefully and gladly
thanked him again and again," and affection-
ately commended himself to God, St. Edmund,
and to the prayers of the Abbot and his
brethren. So intimate did the King become
with the monks on this visit that during the
rest of his life he constantly returned to
Edmundsbury to renew his acquaintance with
the monks and to demand the protection and
assistance of St. Edmund, the Martyr King.
A long account of this visit is printed in Dug-
dale's MonaSlicoti) in which there is a miniature
of the young King praying before the shrine
of St. Edmund. This picture is taken from
the life of the saint written at the time by the
monk-poet Lydgate, and presented to the
monarch at the time of his visit.
In 1442 Henry reached his legal majority,
and three years later married Margaret of
Anjou. In the summer of the following year,
1446, the King and his court made a tour of
the monasteries in England and paid his devo-
tions at the celebrated shrine of Our Lady of
Walsingham. In this same year Pope Eu-
genius IV sent him the " Golden Rose," and
io HIS EARLY LIFE
the Brief, dispatched with it from Rome, de-
scribes the blessing given to this gift on the
previous Laetare Sunday. Both going to and
returning from the church, in which the Pope
celebrated Mass on that day, the Holy
Father carried the golden ornament in his
hand so that it might be seen by all the people
through whose ranks he passed, and in his
letter the Holy Father says that he is sending
the " Rose " to Henry " having regard to his
great faith and devotion to Him and the Holy
Roman Church, which make it not only
proper but rightly due to him " to receive this
present.
In 1459 King Henry came to keep the fea£t
of Easier at St. Albans. Abbot Whetham-
stede in his chronicle, describing the visit,
says: " At the time when Our Lord came to
Jerusalem, sitting on an ass to keep the Pasch
with His disciples, the Lord King came also to
the Monastery with his nobles, barons, knights
and his suite to eat the Paschal Lamb." When
the Easier celebrations were over Henry pro-
posed to return at once to London, but before
setting out, he bade the guardian of the royal
wardrobe give to the Prior his best state robe,
which he had worn only on Easterday, and
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AND EDUCATION n
which he intended to present to St. Alban's
Shrine. His treasurer, however, later prom-
ised to give the monastery fifty marks in place
of this royal robe of £tate, and on the day of the
King's departure the Prior, acting for the
Abbot who was ill, came to thank the King
for all the benefits he had already bestowed
upon the Abbey, and to beg for a continuation
of the royal favour. To this speech the King
replied: " Father Prior, we have so far done
little for you, but if by the grace of God's
mercy we are allowed to live a little longer we
will abundantly increase our benefactions to
you, so that you may have reason and material
cause to pray in a special manner for us." The
King after leaving his apartments went to pray
again at the shrine, and thence passing out of
the great west door of the church, mounted
his horse. Before starting, he turned to the
Prior and reminded him that he was to come
as soon as possible to London to receive the
sum of money promised to the convent in
place of the state robe he had given to St.
Alban's Shrine. This the Prior did forth-
with; and on his arrival at the royal palace
Henry received him at once and directed that
the money should be brought, and he himself
12 HIS EARLY LIFE
counted it out and handed it over to the Prior.
At the same time he bade the keeper of the
royal wardrobe provide a piece of the most
precious cloth of gold " commonly called
crimson tissue," sufficiently large to make a
cope, chasuble, and two tunicles for use at the
High Altar of the great Martyr. At the close
of the interview the King addressed the Prior
thus : " Father Prior, these things are a small,
and indeed very small or rather no return at all
for the spiritual favours, which are worth
greatly more, but as we intend later to bestow
other gifts, we desire your Abbot and Convent
to grant us one favour more : that is, to keep
after our decease the anniversary of our death,
and by a written document to assure us of this
favour."
On his return to St. Albans the Prior
informed the Abbot of this request, and in
Chapter the convent forthwith drew up and
sealed a letter of Fraternity for the King and
promised to observe for ever his annual obit.
It is worthy of remark that throughout his
life Henry was delighted, whenever he could,
to pass some time in the seclusion of some
religious house. John Ross, the Warwick-
shire chronicler, and a contemporary of the
AND EDUCATION 13
saintly monarch, relates that he " well remem-
bered, whilst he was in the schools at Oxford,
that King Henry VI, whenever he was in those
parts was wont to make some stay with the
[Carmelite] Friars there, just as if he was in his
own palace." * Indeed, in the midst of all the
troubles of his reign : in the varying changes
of his fortune: in his successes and defeats
during the Wars of the Roses, Henry sought
for consolation in religion and in the society of
religious men. He spent the Christmas of
1459-60 with the Canons of Leicester, and in
the Lent of 1460 he passed three days in
prayer before the shrine of St. Guthlac at
Crowland. On Palm Sunday, the 29th of
March 1461, Edward IV, then in possession
of the throne, gained a decisive battle at Tow-
ton. Henry was not present in the field since,
as is said, he " preferred to pass so holy a day
in prayer at York." At one time during
Henry's wanderings in the north to escape
from his enemies, he took refuge in a monas-
tery and lived there for a time disguised in the
habit of a monk.
On the 4th of May 147 1 the decisive battle
of Tewkesbury was fought, when Queen
* Chron. J, Rossi, ed. Hearne, p. 192.
H HIS EARLY LIFE
Margaret was defeated and Henry saw his only-
son Edward slain. Once again Henry was
lodged in the Tower of London, having been
long a prisoner in the hands of his enemies.
On the 2 ist of the same month of May the
deposed King was murdered, as all the world
believed, by Richard Duke of Gloucester,
brother of King Edward IV. The most cir-
cumstantial account says that Henry died " on
Tuesday night 21 May, betwixt XI and XII
of the clock, the Duke of Gloucester being
then at the Tower and many others."
Speed, the historian, gives the following
account of the murder and burial of the saintly
King. " The bodey of this murthered King
was upon Ascension-eve laid in an open coffin,
and from the Tower, guarded with many bils
and glaves, was carried through the streetes
unto the Cathedrall Church of Saint Paul,
where it rested uncovered one day, and began
to bleed again afresh, a sorrowful spectacle
to most of the beholders, and thence was it
carryed to the Black Fryers Church, where it
likewise lay barefaced, and bled as before, all
men being amazed at the sorrowfull sighte;
and lastly, it was put into a Boat, without
priest, cloake, torch or taper, singing or
AND EDUCATION 15
saying, and was ferried into the Abbey of
Chertsey in Surrey, and there without pompe
interred." *
Shakespeare represents the universal opin-
ion of the time regarding Henry's murder.
Gloucester. Clarence, excuse me to the King my
brother
I'll hence to London, on a serious matter
Ere ye come there, be sure to hear some news.
Clarence. What ? What ?
Gloucester. The Tower, the Tower !
then in the prison :
Enter Gloucester.
Gloucester. Good day, my lord ! What at your book so
hard ?
Then when Gloucester had dismissed the
lieutenant King Henry says:
So flies the reckless shepherd from the wolf:
So first the harmless sheep doth yield his fleece,
And next his throat unto the butcher's knife.
What scene of death hath Roscius now to act ?
Then, after some words, Henry asks:
But wherefore dost thou come ? Is 't for my life ?
Gloucester. Think'st thou, I am an executioner ?
* Speed, The Historie of Great Britaine.
1 6 HIS EARLY LIFE
K. Henry. A persecutor, I am sure thou art.
If murdering innocents be executing,
Why, then thou art an executioner.
# # * #
Gloucester. I'll hear no more. Die, prophet, in thy
speech ;
For this, amongst the rest, was I ordained. [Stabs him.
K. Henry. Ay, and for much more slaughter after this.
O God ! forgive my sins and pardon thee.
Then, in the play of King Richard III*
Shakespeare again represents Gloucester as
the murderer of King Henry. Anne, the wife
of the slain Prince Edward, is shown as follow-
ing the bier of the King whilst it is being borne
towards Chertsey, where the corpse was buried
after having been exposed at St. Paul's and
also for a time at Black Friars, where it is said
to have bled, in the sight of the people. The
most reliable account says that it was carried
to Chertsey in a barge on the Thames, but the
poet represents it as being taken by road.
Anne. Set down, set down your honourable load,
If honour be shrouded in a hearse.
Whilst I awhile obsequiously lament
The untimely fall of virtuous Lancaster,
Poor key-cold figure of a holy King !
Pale ashes of the house of Lancaster !
Thou bloodless remnant of that royal blood !
* Act I, scene ii.
AND EDUCATION 17
Then when Gloucester comes on the scene
Anne points to the corpse, exclaiming:
If thou delight to view thy heinous deeds
Behold the pattern of thy butcheries !
O, Gentlemen, see, see ! dead Henry's wounds
Open their congeal'd mouths, and bleed afresh !
Blush, blush, thou lump of foul deformity ;
For 'tis thy presence that exhales this blood
From cold and empty veins, where no blood dwells.
# # # *
Thou was provoked by thy bloody mind,
That never dreamt on aught but butcheries.
Didst thou not kill this King ?
Gloucester. I grant thee.
Anne. Dost grant me, hedgehog ? then God grant
me too
Thou may'st be damned for that wicked deed !
O ! he was gentle, mild and virtuous.
Gloucester. The fitter for the King of heaven, that
hath him.
Anne. He is in heaven, where thou shalt never come.
Gloucester. Let him thank me, that holp to send him
thither,
For he was fitter for that place than earth.
II
KING HENRY'S RELIGIOUS LIFE
IN passing to the consideration of the inner
life of Henry VI, at the outset it may be
useful to state that, in spite of the many politi-
cal enemies of the King, there has never, from
the first, been any breath of scandal or re-
proach against his reputation. That he was a
weak and vacillating ruler is about all that has
ever been said against him. His weakness
he inherited probably from his Lancastrian
ancestors, and his impaired mind, which he
manifested for a brief period at one time of his
reign, came almost certainly from his connec-
tion with the family of Charles VI of France.
Fortunately for our present purpose there has
been preserved an intimate account of the
King's private life, written by his chaplain and
private secretary, one John Blackman, who,
after the death of his royal master, entered the
Carthusian Order. The author solemnly
declares that in this life he has set down only
l9
20 KING HENRY'S
what was within his own personal knowledge,
or what he had learnt from absolutely trust-
worthy sources and unimpeachable witnesses.
There is some reason to believe that the life
was composed in the reign of Henry VII to be
presented to the Pope as part of the evidence
required for the proposed canonization of the
saintly King.
Blackman thus prefaces his interesting
account of the holy King : " Like another Job
he was a man simplex et reclusi fearing the Lord
God in all things and shunning evil. He was
truly a vir simplex without any trace of deceit
or double-dealing, as is admitted by everyone.
He never treated anyone in a double manner,
nor was he false to his people, but ever spoke
with frankness. He was reclus et juslus and
always acted on the principles of justice. He
never did anyone an injustice knowingly, nor
did he ever do an injury to anyone. Most
faithfully he rendered unto God what was His.
He most carefully and amply gave to God and
His Church the tithes and oblations due to
them. In regard to religious worship, even
when wearing his robes of state with the
crown on his head, he was wont to show to
God profound reverence; to make his bows
RELIGIOUS LIFE 21
and inclinations and to say his prayers, as if he
were some young religious."
The Prince manifested a filial fear of God
by numberless acts of devotion. One of the
English bishops of his time used to say that,
having been his Confessor for ten years, he
could declare that during all that time no slain
of grievous sin had ever tarnished his soul.
"Oh! What constant care: oh! what dili-
gent watchfulness to please God was found in
this exalted young person. Attendite reges et
principes universi, juvenes et virgines et populi
quique, et laudate Dominant in Sanclis ejus.
Imitate the virtue of this King, who could
have done evil and did it not, but during his
whole life, he shunned evil as far as he was
able, because of God's displeasure."
King Henry was a constant and true wor-
shipper of God. Indeed, he was more devoted
to God's service and to the practice of devout
prayer than to any worldly business or
mundane matters, or to the playing of games
or suchlike occupations. Mere frivolous
things were abhorrent to him, and he assidu-
ously practised himself in prayer, in the
reading of the Holy Scriptures, or the study of
history. From these he drew many useful
22 KING HENRY'S
lessons for his own spiritual consolation and
for that of others. For this reason he was
constantly consulted by, and gave helpful
advice to, many in every state and condition of
life and of every age; the young he exhorted
to fly from vice and cultivate virtue. Many of
older age than he and, indeed, even priests he
urged to strive to grow in virtue and thus to
make sure of the reward of eternal life. He
was wont to quote to them the words of the
Psalmist : " he de virtu te in virtu tem. Videbitur
enim tunc Deus Deorum in Syon."
King Henry's devout attitude in church
was most noteworthy. He never liked to
make use of a seat, or to move about, as is the
custom of worldly-minded people. His head
was always uncovered during the celebration
of the divine offices : he rarely raised his eyes
but almost always remained on his knees
before a book, following, with his eyes on his
missal and with his hands partly raised, the
epistles and gospels said by the celebrant. To
the wonder of many people he used to send
letters full of holy and salutary advice to
some of his clerics.
Wherever the King might be, he mani-
fested a special devotion to the Holy Cross.
RELIGIOUS LIFE 23
He was ever faithful in his worship, in his
reception of the Sacraments, and in all the
holy practices of the Christian religion.
Whilst at his devotions, he was wont to sit in a
reverent attitude with his head uncovered.
Even on a journey when riding on horseback,
whilst making his wonted reverence to some
wayside cross, he would often have fallen to
the ground but for his attendants. He pre-
ferred to have crosses on his royal crown
rather than leaves and flowers. He was
accustomed to be at the Divine service early,
and always before the beginning; and he
never wearied at the length of the offices,
even when they were protracted after midday.
He would never allow swords to be worn in
church, nor did he permit talking or the dis-
cussion of any business in the sacred places,
but he strictly bade all his nobles and attend-
ants to devote the time of prayer to prayer, in
accordance with the word of our Lord:
Domus mea domus orationis esl. This he did
himself with great and manifest devotion.
From his earliest childhood King Henry
showed himself modest and pure. As a youth
he carefully abstained from any word or act
contrary to the virtue of chastity, and he lived
24 KING HENRY'S
his married life as a chaste, Christian husband.
As an example of the purity of his life it may
be mentioned that he avoided all immodesty of
dress and, having the example of King David
before his mind, he made a covenant with his
eyes never to look at any woman with sinful
pleasure. On one occasion whilst the young
people at the Court were enjoying some
Christmas dances, one of the great lords of
the Court brought into the hall some female
performers who were very scantily dressed
and presented them to the young King. This,
says Blackman, the author of this life, was
" perhaps to test his virtue or to ensnare his
young soul." Henry, however, " not taken
off his habitual guard and recognizing the
snare of the devil, was highly indignant. He
lowered his eyes, and quickly turning his
back, left the apartment saying: ' Fye, fye
for shame, foresooth ye be to blame.' "
At another time, whilst riding through the
city of Bath, where are the hot springs, in
which the people of those parts are accustomed
to bathe, the King, looking into the bath, saw
men with all their clothes off and practically
naked. He at once left the place, regarding
such nudity as a crime, not forgetting the
N
RELIGIOUS LIFE 25
saying of Francesco Petrarch : Nuditas beluina
in hominibus non placet, sed pudore amiclus
honettate consulitur. Moreover, the monarch
took the greatest care not only to safeguard
his own chastity, but carefully watched over
his household in such matters. He was
determined that no loose woman should ever
enter his palace to effect the ruin of any of his
servants, if he could help it. He provided
upright and virtuous priests to watch over his
half-brothers, Jasper and Edmund, to teach
them learning and virtue. Indeed, he always
had the same care for all who were in attend-
ance upon him, constantly warning them to
avoid vicious and dissolute company and to
pursue a life of virtue.
The saintly young King showed himself
always anxious to avoid the pest of avarice,
by which many worldly princes are infected,
and in consequence of which so many fall.
His mind was never captivated by any un-
lawful love for the magnificent presents he
received, nor by the great riches which at one
time he possessed. To the poor he was ever
most: liberal and always ready to help them in
their needs. Indeed, he enriched very many
by his gifts and by the offices he conferred
26 KING HENRY'S
upon them, and in this way raised many from
want to fortune. He certainly never oppressed
his people by any immoderate demands, as
other princes and rulers before him had done.
He lived indeed as a loving father among his
children, relieving his peoples' wants out of
his own revenues, and preferring to live upon
his own resources rather than see his people
oppressed by any hard exactions. He was
ever entirely contented with what he had,
and never coveted what others possessed.
This can be shown by many examples. Once
a great lord gave him a very precious canopy
for his bed. It was covered with golden
embroidery, and the donor, when making the
presentation, said: De talibus sit cura veslra.
But the King, having his mind turned rather
to the things heavenly and spiritual, showed
clearly that he thought little of such gifts.
At another time the executor of the will of
Cardinal Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester and
uncle of His Majesty, came to give him the
great sum of ,£1,000 in gold for his own use
and to lighten the burden of the State. Henry
absolutely refused to touch the money, saying
that he was grateful to his uncle, but added:
" Do what you like with it, we have no desire
RELIGIOUS LIFE 27
to have it." Much astonished at this attitude
of the King, the executors begged him at least
to receive the gift towards the endowment of
the two colleges, which he had lately founded
at Cambridge and Eton. This he consented
to do, ordering them to pass on the gift to
these establishments, for prayers for the soul
of the Cardinal.
Rare piety, loving charity, and an entire
resignation were found united in this saintly
prince. When at length he was despoiled of
his kingdoms of France and England, which
previously he had ruled, and was stripped of
all his goods and possessions, he bore his ill
fortune with a perfectly calm mind, regarding
all temporal goods as nought, so long as he
could possess Christ and the things of eternity.
Though he was open-handed in giving
temporal assistance, Henry was cautious and
prudent in conferring spiritual benefices. He
feared that he might perhaps be giving them
to men who were unworthy, or who had
obtained them in an improper manner, that is
to say, by simony. This care is evidenced by
the upright ecclesiastics he actually advanced
to office, and no suspicion of simony could at
any time be alleged against him. He was
28 KING HENRY'S
ever intent on finding men of virtue and
advancing them. He was truly inflamed with
the fire of God's charity. When he appointed
William Waynfleet to succeed the celebrated
Cardinal Beaufort in the see of Winchester he
said, in appointing him: " Receive your
enthronization to Winchester and be there
what former bishops have been. May you be
long lived in this world, ever walking and
going forward in the paths of virtue." With
like intentions he promoted the Bishops of
Worcester and Chester and others, as is
known to all.
During his reign the King set up and
endowed with ample estates and revenues two
renowned colleges to the honour of God and
to embellish the divine worship. In these
colleges, which were intended for the support
of many poor scholars, the divine offices were
to be celebrated daily in praise of God
Almighty. The students were to be exercised
continuously in scholastic dogmata and other
methods proper to foster the increase of
learning.
In beginning his two colleges, he sought
everywhere to secure the best " living stores " ;
that is, young men well grounded in virtue
RELIGIOUS LIFE 29
and learned priests who were already known as
scholars and teachers. For this reason he
said to the agent he was employing on this
matter: " We would rather tolerate those
who were weak in music than in their know-
ledge of the scripture." In regard to the boys
and youths who were proposed to him as
scholars, the first thing required by the King
was that they should be trained in virtue, as
well as in book learning. And so, from time
to time, when he would meet, at the castle of
Windsor, any of these youths who had come
to see some of the royal household whom they
knew, Henry, on recognizing that they were
his boys, would urge them to follow along the
path of virtue, and, giving them money, would
say: " Be good boys, mild, docile, and ser-
vants of the Lord." If he found any of these
youths visiting servants of his house, he would
punish them and forbid them to do such a
thing again. He feared that his lambs might
learn bad practices and morals from his
servants, or at leasl lose their own good prac-
tices in part or altogether from the contact,
like the lambs and sheep which are pastured
among thorns and briars and which tear their
wool and often leave it entirely torn off.
30 KING HENRY'S
Speaking of King Henry's humility, the
writer Blackman says that it must first be
understood that he was specially devoted to
this virtue. He was never ashamed to act as
the server of any priest celebrating Mass in his
presence, answering: Amen. Sed libera nos a
ma/o, etc. This, says Blackman, he often did
" to me an unworthy priest."
At table, even at a short repast, Henry
always finished " as religious do," by rising
quickly, standing for a moment in silence, and
every time devoutly rendering thanks to God.
Master Doctor Town testifies that the King
ordered his almoner always to place in front of
him on the table at every meal a plaque,
having upon it a representation of the Five
Wounds of Christ as if wet with His blood.
Before any course was served he would
devoutly gaze upon the image, and renew his
devotion to God.
It is related of him that riding one day
along a road, he stopped to rest outside a
cemetery at the east side of the church. At the
time the Blessed Sacrament was not in the pyx
hanging over the altar and, to the astonish-
ment of his suite, Henry did not remove his
hat, as he was always accustomed to do out of
RELIGIOUS LIFE 31
his great devotion and reverence for the
Sacrament. In explaining to his lords why, in
this instance, he had not shown his usual
reverence to the place, he said: " I know that
my Lord Jesus Christ, in whose honour I
would do so much, is not there." It was after-
wards found that this was the case, and that
the Blessed Sacrament was not, at the time,
in the pyx over the altar. It is also said by
those who were in the King's confidence, that
he frequently had a vision of our Lord in
human form in the priest's hands during the
Sacrifice of the Holy Mass. On the eve of
our Lord's resurrection the King was wont
himself to carry the great Paschal candle, out
of reverence, and to manifest his faith in the
resurrection of Chrift from the tomb.
King Henry's humility was made apparent
to all in his clothes and the other coverings of
his body; in his walk, in his speaking, and in
his countenance. From his youth he was
accustomed to make use of rounded shoes and
leggings, such as country folk use. He
generally wore a long cloak with a round hood,
like those of the middle classes, with a tunic
coming down below the knee; his short
leggings and shoes were of dark colour, and
32 KING HENRY'S
he was accustomed to forbid any novel fashion
of dress for himself.
On the chief feasts of the year and in par-
ticular on the annual celebration of his coron-
ation, he always wore a hair-shirt next to
his skin, so that by the sharp pain of the cloth
he might remember to shun all thoughts of
luxury, and that every idea of pride or vain-
glory, which are too prone to arise under such
circumstances, might be instantly repressed.
Many people still living, writes Blackman
in the reign of King Henry VII, can speak of
the way in which the King occupied his time
during life. Sundays and other solemn festi-
vals he always spent in hearing the divine
offices and in devout prayer, both for himself
and his people. Lest his enemies should have
cause to laugh at his Sunday practices, he
earnestly tried to induce others to follow his
example; and for this reason some who at
times attended upon him assert that his great-
est pleasure and delight was in following
exactly and with devotion the services of the
Church. The less solemn days he did not
spend in mere idleness or useless vanities:
" non in commessationibus aut ebrietatibus^ non in
vaniloquiis aut coeteris nocivis diftis aut loquelis"
RELIGIOUS LIFE 33
(which, indeed, during all his life he avoided,
using always few words, except such as were
edifying and useful to others). But on these
days he spent much time in treating of the
necessary business of the country with his
Council, or in reading no less diligently the
Scriptures, or such serious writings like the
Chronicles of various countries. As to this
matter an honourable knight, once his devoted
Chamberlain, named Richard TunStall, has
testified both by word and in writing that " in
lege Domini juit voluntas ejus die ac nofte." In
proof of this he declared that " the Lord King
complained to me once in his room at Eltham,
when I was alone with him and working with
him over his holy books, and hearing his
serious admonitions and his devout ejacula-
tions, one of the most powerful of the English
dukes knocked at the door. The King said:
4 See how they disturb me!' I can hardly find
time in the day or the night to refresh myself
by the reading of sacred teachings because of
these disturbances." The same thing, says
the Chaplain Blackman, happened to me once
at Windsor Castle.
In proof of King Henry's devotion to God,
Blackman declares that there are many still
D
34 KING HENRY'S
alive who were on terms of intimacy with him,
who assert that he was wont continually to
raise his eyes to heaven like one in a heavenly
ecstasy, and that at times he seemed quite
unconscious of himself or of those round
about him. He was as a man out of himself,
as one, whilst still on earth, having his con-
versation in heaven, according to the words of
the Apostle: " Conversatio nostra in coelis eSl"
Henry was never known to make use of any
oath in order to enforce his orders. His only
expression was the expression " Forsoothe and
forsoothe." Indeed, he broke many of the
lords and others of the habit of swearing, by
his mild advice and even by harsh correction.
Anyone swearing was regarded most unfavour-
ably by him. On one occasion, hearing one of
the great lords, who was his Chamberlain,
suddenly utter an oath, he gave him a severe
admonition, saying: " Alas ! You the Lord of
a great family and household, when you swear
in this manner against the commandment of
God, set a bad example to your servants and
those subject to you. You provoke them,
indeed, to do the same."
There are many examples of the patience
and loving kindness which this King exercised
RELIGIOUS LIFE 3s
throughout his life. To give one instance
only: Once on a time, when coming from his
villa at St. Albans and passing through
Cripplegate into London, he saw over the
gateway the quarters of a traitor, who had
been proved to have been false to His
Majesty. Henry at once said: " Remove
this, I do not wish that any Christian should
be treated so cruelly for my sake." One who
was present has given testimony of this fact.
Again, when four noble gentlemen were
convicted of high treason and sentenced by
the judges to a felon's death, the King
remitted the penalty, sending at once to the
place of execution their pardon and an order
for their release. Three other great barons of
the realm conspired against the King and
gathered together a great number of armed
men to further the ambition of one of them
who, as after events showed, aspired to the
throne. Henry showed them great mercy and
pardoned them all — the leaders as well as their
followers, on condition that they submitted to
him.
There are many other instances of King
Henry's merciful disposition. In one case,
two men having conspired to kill him, one
36 KING HENRY'S
actually inflicted a serious wound on his neck
in an attempt to cut off his head. The King
took this most patiently, only saying: " For-
soothe and forsoothe, ye do most foully to
smyte a King anointed so." Indeed, Henry
bore with absolute patience all the ill-treat-
ment, the malignity, and the blasphemies of
his enemies, after he was made a prisoner in
the Tower.
" I do not think it right to pass over in
silence," writes Blackman, " the heavenly
favours bestowed upon this King." At the
Easter time when he was a prisoner in the
Tower of London, one of his chaplains
expressed to him astonishment at the way he
could possess his soul in peace at that holy
time in spite of all his troubles. The King
replied by saying: " I do so by recalling the
heavenly kingdom to which I have looked
forward from my infancy, and I do not care
much for this transitory and earthly kingdom.
I only want one thing, and that is that I may
receive the Sacrament of this Paschal time
with other Christians, on the die Coenae
(Maunday Thursday) as is our custom." He
often was granted, as has been said, a vision of
our Lord in the hands of the priest celebrating
RELIGIOUS LIFE 37
Mass in his presence. One of his secretaries
living at Waltham testifies to revelations made
to the King for three years in succession on
St. Edward's Day. Also that on the Epiphany
the Glory of the Lord was manifested to him
in bodily form, crowned; and that on the
Assumption the body and soul of the Blessed
Virgin was shown to him being transported
into heaven.
He is said, too, to have multiplied bread to
feed his soldiers when they were in need, and
many other favours granted by God in
answer to his prayers are recorded by Black-
man in his life of the saintly King. When a
fugitive from his enemies it was revealed to
him that he would be betrayed and taken
prisoner to London. These revelations were
made to him by our Blessed Lady, Saint John
the Baptist, St. Dunstan, and St. Anselm, and
they consoled him and helped him to bear his
sufferings with an exemplary patience and
fortitude. The saintly King's love for holy
Scripture is attested by his possession of a
magnificent copy of the Bible in English,
which he presented to the monks of the
London Charter House.
Ill
KING HENRY'S FOUNDATIONS AT
ETON AND CAMBRIDGE
SOMETHING has already been said
about the two colleges the King founded
at Eton and Cambridge. It will perhaps be
interesting to add some more details about
these foundations, especially as the fact of the
King having thus worked for sound Christian
education was one of the matters urged upon
the Popes in the petitions of King Henry VII
to secure his canonization. These colleges
still remain, lasting monuments of the love of
their pious founder for learning and religion.
Besides these two great establishments the
pious King had already taken a personal
interest in the University of Caen, established
in his name when he was a child by the Duke
of Bedford. He had, moreover, encouraged
others by every means in his power to assist
learning and piety by making other similar
foundations. The college at Eton was pro-
39
4o FOUNDATIONS AT
fessedly an imitation of that of Winchester,
and whole passages of its original statute were
taken from those drawn up by the great
Bishop William of Wykeham for his college.
Each of these two schools were intended to be
connected with a college at one or other of the
Universities. Winchester was the natural
approach to New College at Oxford, estab-
lished by Bishop William of Wykeham, and
Eton was designed in the same way to feed
King's College, Cambridge, also founded by
King Henry.
The intention of the royal founder was not
merely to have a school for secular learning.
He had the further design to make Eton a
nursery of piety and sound religion. He first
converted the parish church of the place into
a collegiate establishment and richly endowed
it. In this College of priests he ordained that
there should be celebrated the perpetual
worship of Almighty God in the Divine
offices, and directed that daily intercession be
made for his soul, as its founder. Joined to
this collegiate body he placed a school, in
which seventy scholars were to be taught for
the priesthood, free of all cost. He hoped
that this school would attract also many of the
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ETON AND CAMBRIDGE 41
sons of the great English families and of the
lesser gentry of the country to share in the
Christian education provided for his scholars.
It is easy to understand the King's inten-
tion from the document still preserved, known
from its opening words as " the Kynge's own
devyse." This is a statement of his original
intentions for his colleges of Eton and
Cambridge. At the former the church was
planned on the most magnificent scale and
was to be ornamented in the most lavish
manner. Besides the High Altar there were
to be at least four others. There were also
to be images of the Holy Trinity, of St. Anne,
St. Andrew, St. Clement, etc., and a large
representation of the Assumption of Our Bles-
sed Lady known as " Our Lady of Eton ";
and this became in time the object of great
popular veneration.
There can be no sort of doubt that the
primary object of the pious founder was to
secure the service of God in the church. For
the maintenance of this with fitting decorum
he founded his college of priests, consisting of
a Provost, ten Fellows, and ten Chaplains.
Besides these he instituted ten clerks skilled
in Church music and sixteen choristers under
42 FOUNDATIONS AT
twelve years of age to sing and serve in the
daily services.
From the first there were seven masses
celebrated daily with due solemnity. The
first was the Mass of Our Lady, to be offered
to God for the soul of the founder and for the
needs of the Church ; the second was said for
all benefactors, and the third was the High
Mass of the day. The other masses were
said for varying intentions at some of the side
altars.
Great Indulgences were obtained by the
pious King for his royal foundation from Pope
Eugenius IV, and special privileges were
granted on the occasion of a great pilgrimage
to take place annually on the feast of Our
Lady's Assumption. It was proposed in the
first instance that the Indulgences to be gained
by the faithful should be the same as those
that could be obtained by visiting the Church
of S. Pietro ad Vincula in Rome ; but within a
year this was changed by the Pope into a
Plenary Indulgence to be gained by all on the
usual conditions. We find it recorded, that in
this way a great number of pilgrims were
attracted year by year to the shrine of Our
Lady of Eton on the feast of the Assumption,
ETON AND CAMBRIDGE 43
15th August, and that the confessions of the
people who desired to obtain the Indulgences
were so numerous at times that the resident
clergy, being unable to deal with the con-
course, additional clerical assistance had to be
secured. At one time, in 1444-5, tne account
roll shows that a sum of money was paid for
the hire of thirty beds for these extra con-
fessors and their servants.
It has already been pointed out that to this
great collegiate establishment King Henry
added a school to provide education for
seventy poor scholars, who were to receive
their teaching and maintenance free of all cost.
It was also the royal intention that other boys
should be admitted who might be attracted
thither in order to share in the excellent edu-
cational advantages at Eton and who would
pay for themselves. These latter " commen-
sales," as they were called, were to live in the
town with persons licensed to receive them.
The life of the boys at school was severe.
Early rising was enforced. On Sundays and
Holy days, for instance, they rose at four
o'clock. On such days no study work was
done; but they had to attend all the divine
offices and High Mass. On other days, as
44 FOUNDATIONS AT
they had not to be present at Mattins, they
rose an hour later and recited amongst them-
selves the Office of Our Lady. At six o'clock
they had their morning prayers and the study
work of the day began. There was an inter-
ruption between nine and ten to allow the
boys to go across to the church and be present
at the Elevation of the High Mass. They
knelt down at the entrance, adored the Blessed
Sacrament, and having said the verse Ador-
emus Te ChriJle, went back to their studies.
During the dinner one of the scholars read
aloud the Holy Scripture, the lives of the
saints, or passages chosen from some doctor of
the Church.
Speaking of the two colleges of Eton and
Cambridge, the historian Stowe writes: "This
year [1443] King Henry being of himself
alwaies naturally inclined to do good, and
fearing least he might seem unthankful to
Almighty God for the great benefits bestowed
upon him since the time he first took upon him
the regiment of his realme, determined for his
primer notable worke, to erect and found two
famous colleges in honour and worship of His
holy name, and for the increase of virtue, the
dilation of cunning and establishment of
ETON AND CAMBRIDGE 45
Christian Faith; whereof the one at Cam-
bridge to be called his college Royall of Our
Ladye and St. Nicholas; and the other at
Eton, beside Windsore, to be called his
college of our Blessed Ladie."
The official correspondence of Thomas
Beckynton, secretary of King Henry VI, and
subsequently Bishop of Bath and Wells,*
proves the anxiety of the King to make his
foundation at Eton permanent. This Bishop
Beckynton was consecrated to the see of Bath
and Wells on 13th October 1443 m tne °^
collegiate church at Eton. He sang his first
Mass in Pontificalibus in the new church, not
yet half finished, under a tent erected over the
place where the founder had laid the first stone.
The approval of the Pope for the establish-
ment of the college was quickly obtained, but
Henry desired that the Indulgences granted
should be in a more permanent form than that
in which they were first granted. These
privileges, however ample, were limited to
the lifetime of the founder. Writing to
Vincent Clement, the King's agent on this
matter, Beckynton says: " I would have you
* Rolls Series [Beckynton Correspondence), ed. by George
Williams, B.D.
46 FOUNDATIONS AT
believe, that it will be far more acceptable to
the King to obtain one moderate perpetual
indulgence than a great and ample temporary
one." There were great delays in obtaining
what the King had set his heart upon, and he
was very anxious for news. " His daily
inquiry is this: " writes the secretary,
" When shall we have news of Master Vin-
cent ? When will letters reach us concerning
his doings ? " * At length, however, the
King's urgent request was satisfied and a Bull,
dated nth May 1444, confirmed the indul-
gences and privileges previously granted,
with the desired clause: "These presents
shall continue in force to all future time."
The editor of these letters of Henry VI
writes as follows on this matter: " Thus as
far as appears from these volumes, the travail
pangs of the pious founder in the birth of his
college were brought to a happy termination,
as regards its spiritual immunities and pre-
rogatives; all destined to be swept ruthlessly
away within a century, while the foundation
itself, consolidated on a more substantial
basis, having survived the storm that wrecked
* Rolls Series (Beckynton Correspondence), Introduction,
pp. lxxxvi-lxxxvii.
ETON AND CAMBRIDGE 47
so many other collegiate institutions, abides
to this day with a prestige of four centuries of
eminent educational success, a worthy monu-
ment of the munificent industry of one who,
though commonly regarded as the weakest of
kings, destitute of all royal and noble qualities,
had prescience enough to see that the best
remedy for the evils of his age (chiefly created
for him by his ambitious uncles and turbulent
nobles during his long minority) was to be
found in the improved education of all orders
of his people; and who, by carrying into
effect one grand design, has exercised a more
powerful and a more permanent influence over
subsequent ages than many princes, whose
exploits are the theme of the world's
applause "*
The negotiations with Rome regarding
Eton were not completed when the same
process was repeated on behalf of the King
for his foundation of King's College, Cam-
bridge. No fewer than nine of the Bulls
obtained for King's College bear dates from
1445 to 1448. "They are interesting," writes
Mr. Williams, "as exhibiting the earnest
* Rolls Series (Beckynton Correspondence), Introduction,
p. lxxxviii.
48 ETON AND CAMBRIDGE
zeal with which the King prosecuted his
great educational designs, and it is abundantly
clear that the merit both of the conception and
of the execution of those designs belongs in
great measure to the youthful sovereign
himself."
KING'S COLLEGE CHAPEL, CAMBRIDGE
From an engraving by Loggar
IV
TESTIMONY OF CONTEMPORARIES
AS TO HENRY'S PERSONALITY AND
CHARACTER
IT is important to understand how those
who were the contemporaries of King
Henry VI, or who come immediately after-
wards, regarded his personality. John Ross,
the Warwickshire antiquary, who was a con-
temporary of King Henry and remembered
him, as has been already pointed out, when a
student at Oxford, thus writes about him:*
11 King Henry VI as he grew in age increased
also in virtue. He was most; devout to God
and the Blessed Virgin Mary from his earliest
years ; but he was little given to the world and
the things of the world; leaving those things
always to the Council. He founded the new
college of Cambridge and that of Eton near
Windsor. Moreover, he increased the pos-
* Joannis Rossi, Hist. Regum Angliae, ed. Hearne,
p. 210.
E
So PERSONALITY AND
sessions of New College and of the Royal
College of Oriel at Oxford. He was twice
crowned, as King of England at Westminster,
and then as King of France at Paris. He was
buried twice, and it is believed by many that
he will be buried yet a third time.* This
mos"l holy man was wickedly driven from his
kingdom after the shedding of much blood
in the armed conflicts. He was captured and
put into prison, where he suffered most
patiently for years. A second time regaining
his royal throne, he did not long retain it, but
was again thrust into prison and at last
crowned by martyrdom he was taken into the
everlasting company of God's elect, in a won-
derful manner being made known by miracles.
He conquered by his patience, and by this
patience he gave a lesson to all."
Capgrave, also a contemporary of the pious
King Henry, writes of him whilst he was still
alive: " My Lord the King can confidently
expect that He, who has begun a good work,
will perfect it. He willingly attends to the
business of the Kingdom and administers
justice rightly. As in the case of St. Louis it
* This refers to the proposed translation of the body
to Westminster.
CHARACTER 51
may be said of him: ' It is holy and pious and
proper to his royal Majesty, to order nothing
that is not honest: he judges only according
to justice: he orders nothing that is not right:
and he first does himself, what he proposes to
order others to do.'
" Would that his subjects might only follow
the example of our King! With what
reverence does he not sign himself with the
sign of the cross, when he meets his priests !
I know many men in the vigour of life, who
never held the cross in much veneration, who
by the King's example were brought to a
greater fervour and to a more faithful practice
of making use of the glorious sign of the cross
of Christ. One instance of this may perhaps
be not unpleasing to our Lord King as show-
ing how his subjects are being reformed by
his example. It is said of him — and this is
proved by long experience — that he never
allowed the Church or ecclesiastics to be
molested. Following the example of the great
Constantine, he took special delight in pious
talks with ecclesiastics. This most devout
King Henry, in the nineteenth year of his
reign, founded two colleges, and on these
works he expended great sums of money and
52 PERSONALITY AND
exercised constant personal care over them.
He crowned his work by himself laying the
first stone, and as I myself [i.e. Capgrave]
witnessed, he offered this his foundation to
God Almighty with the deepest devotion." *
Bernard Andre, who wrote in the reign of
Henry VII, tells how the pious King Henry
VI had foretold the accession of the then king
to the English throne; and speaking of the
imprisonment of the former, says: " I cannot
here keep back my tears, when thinking of the
savage, fierce and cruel way in which this
holy man was treated." Then after a lamen-
tation upon the excesses of the Wars of the
Roses, he says: "This King [Henry VI]
always obeyed thy commandments O God!
he was always just, pious and innocent. And
so at last in regard to this holy King it is made
known that he, who was wrongly deposed
from his royal throne, is crowned with a
celestial diadem, together with the kings in
heaven." t
The same contemporary authority, Bernard
Andre, also speaks of the heroic patience of
the King in bearing his sufferings in prison.
* De illiutribus Henricis (Rolls Series), pp. 130-3.
t Hhtoria Reg. H. VII (Rolls Series), pp. 14-20.
CHARACTER $3
He gives what he calls a prayer of the saintly
monarch whilst in the Tower: " I should be
wholly without gratitude, O sweetest Jesus,
were I not to give thanks to Thee for my many
misfortunes as well as for the good things I
have received. Thou knowest what good
fortune and what ill fortune Thou hast given
me in the course of my life. I have accepted
both the good and the bad most willingly from
Thy hands, who causest the sun to shine on
the good and the wicked and sendest the rain
upon the just and unjust. The prosperity
Thou hast given me I proclaim not by way of
boasting, but in thanksgiving. Thou hast
given me royal parents, of a noble and ancient
race. This occasion might require me to
name the numberless great deeds of my Father
in France, but my prayer leads me to other
thoughts and this only I say about myself to
give the glory to God.
" I was crowned in the prosperous city of
Paris, and I later married the chaste daughter
of the King of Sicily, a most wise woman, and
from her I had a son, Prince Edward. For
many years the kingdom was governed in
peace. For these things it is better to be
grateful than to mourn. And now, though I
54 PERSONALITY AND
am overwhelmed by ills of every kind, if I but
bear them in patience they will add to my
merit. Wherefore whatever by God's will I
have to suffer, I will bear. Patience is not too
long for those who have sinned. There is no
evil in death, except what follows death.
Death itself is not to be accounted an evil
when it follows on a good life." These and
such like thoughts, says Andre, the King
constantly preached to his gaolers.*
Shortly after the accession of King Henry
VII the historian, Polydore Vergil, came to
England and began to collect materials for his
history of England. This work he undertook
at the instance of the King himself. He was
certainly most, diligent in collecting his infor-
mation about recent events, and consequently
what he has to say about the saintly King
Henry VI may be taken as almost contem-
porary evidence. Of the death of the King
he writes: " Henry VI, the most innocent of
men, having shortly before been despoiled of
his Kingdom, was put to death in the Tower.
The persistent report is that Richard, Duke of
Gloucester, killed him with a sword, so as to
free his brother Edward then king from all
* Historia Reg. H. VII (Rolls Series), p. 22.
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CHARACTER $$
fears of opposition. But, whoever may have
been the actual author of the death of this
holy man, it appears certain enough that the
brothers Edward, Gloucester and the Duke of
Clarence gave orders for it. The dead body
of Henry was taken from the Tower, without
any marks of honour, to St. Paul's Church and
was exposed there all day. The next day it
was transported to the Monastery of St.
Benedict at Chertsey, fifteen miles from
London, and there buried. Immediately the
tomb began to be celebrated for numerous
miracles. Not long after the body was carried
away to Windsor Castle and placed in the
Church of St. George, where it now [i.e.
circa 1510] rests and is greatly honoured for
many miracles." *
" This King Henry reigned thirty-eight
years, and after recovering his kingdom, again,
for another six months more. He lived to the
age of fifty-two. He was tall of stature: his
body was slender and his members in every
way corresponded; his face was comely, and
it ever reflected the bountiful goodness of the
disposition with which he was abundantly
endowed. By natural disposition he was
* MS. Fat. Urb. Lat., 198(1), fol. 205 seqq.
$6 PERSONALITY AND
opposed to every vice both of body and soul,
from which, even from his tender youth, he
kept himself free. He was pure and clean of
mind; partook of no evil; ready to embrace
all that was good. He had a contempt of all
those things which commonly corrupt the
minds of men. So patient also was he in suffer-
ing injuries and insults received from his
enemies, that he never sought to revenge them,
but for the very same gave God Almighty his
most humble thanks, because by them he
trussed that his sins might be washed away.
Indeed — this good, gracious, holy, sober and
wise man would declare that all these miseries
had happened to him on account of his own
and of his ancestors manifold offences. Where-
fore he did not think of any dignity or honour,
or State or of the son or friends he had lost,
or make ' much dole ' for them. But if
in anything he had offended God, this he
thought of, for this he mourned, for this he
was sorry.
" These and such like acts and practices of
perfect holiness caused God for his sake to
manifest many miracles in his lifetime. Even
to-day many are still living, who have wit-
nessed these miracles and testified to their
CHARACTER 57
existence, and they are everywhere known! *
For this reason King Henry VII, not without
cause, began a few years ago to try and pro-
cure his canonization as a saint from the
Supreme Pontiff, Pope Julius II. But he was
prevented by death from prosecuting that
honourable cause,f and left it to his son,
Henry VIII, to accomplish.
" Moreover Henry [VI] had a most liberal
mind. He held good learning in great
reverence and loved those who were endued
with it. For this reason he helped his own
people to obtain proper teaching. He founded
a sumptuous school at Eton, a town adjoining
Windsor. In this, he established a college of
priests and a great number of children to be
educated there and taught their grammar free
and without cost. In the same way he was the
founder of King's College at Cambridge,
which at this day [c. 15 10] so flourishes and
with such ornaments of learning that it may
well be called the Prince of all Colleges.":}:
* MS. Vat. Urb. Lot., 198(1), fol. 206. This last
clause, taken from the original draft of the history, is
left out in the printed edition.
t This last part " and left," etc., is also left out in
the printed edition.
X MS. Fat. Urb. Lat., 198(1), fol. 206.
58 PERSONALITY AND
John Stow, the chronicler, can vouch for
the ordinary opinion of England regarding
King Henry VI in the latter half of the six-
teenth century. In his Annals (ed. 1592) he
thus writes : " The one and twentieth of May,
King Edward came to London with 30,000
men, and the same night King Henry was
murdered in the Tower of London. On the
morrow he was brought to St. Paules Church
in London, in an open coffin barefaced, where
he bled: thence he was carried to the Black
Friars and he bled: and thence to Chertsey
Abbey in a boat, where he was buried, but
since removed to Windsor where he was
buried without the chancel at the south door
of the choir of Windsor Chapel. Here he
was worshipped by the name of holy King
Henry: whose red hat of velvet was thought
to heal the headache of such as should put it
on their heads. There he rested for a time,
but now his tomb being taken thence it is not
(commonly) known what is become of his
body."
" Thus ended the King's transitory life:
having enjoyed as great prosperity as favour-
able fortune could afford, and as great troubles
on the other side, as she frowning could pour
CHARACTER 59
out. Yet in both states he was patient and
virtuous, that he may be considered a pattern
of most perfect virtue, as he was a worthy
exemplar of fortune's inconsistency.* He
was plain, upright, fair from fraud, wholly
given to prayer, reading of [the] Scriptures
and Almsdeeds; of such integrity of life that
the Bishop, who had been his confessor for ten
years, avouched that he had not all that time
committed any mortal crime. So continent,
as suspicion of such in life never touched
him. . . . He was so religiously affected (as
the time was then) that on principal holy days
he would wear sackcloth next his skin. . . .
He was of seemly stature, of body slender, his
face beautiful, of his own natural inclination,
he abhorred all the vices as well of the body
as of the soul."
An old historical " chart of English His-
tory," now in the English College, Rome,
written in the reign of King Henry VIII,
whom it describes as the present King
(modernus rex), says of Henry VI : " This King
was most holy during the whole of his life,
* Much of the account given by Stow is obviously
taken from Blackmail's life, although it is not named as
his authority.
60 PERSONALITY AND
and after death was renowned for some
miracles. For this reason Henry VII took
care to refer to the Roman Pontiff that he
might be added to the number of the Saints."
There can be little doubt as to the reputa-
tion for sanctity which the murdered King
possessed in the popular mind from the first.
It will be necessary to speak more at length of
the cultus and devotion generally accorded to
him. Here it will be useful to take only one
or two examples: At York Minster, as early
as 1473, there already had been placed a
statue of the King on the choir screen; and
this was still there in 1 5 1 6, in spite of the pro-
hibition of the King and the Archbishop. The
editor of the Fabric Rolls of York Minster,*
in recording this fact, says: " Though not
canonized he [King Henry VI] was certainly
regarded as a saint by many of his adherents.
His many virtues, his gentleness of character,
and his many misfortunes endeared him to a
great portion of his subjects. Dean Alexander,
who erected the statue, knew him well, having
been his private secretary."
It is of course obvious that such a mani-
festation of popular devotion must have been
* Surtees Soc, vol. xxxv, p. 79.
CHARACTER 6 1
eminently di£ta£teful to the two kings,
Edward IV and Richard III — the one who
had supplanted him and the one who, as all
the people believed, had been his murderer.
It was probably through the royal influence
that in 1479 Archbishop Bothe of York
issued his monition against the reverence
shown to the saintly King in the Minster, on
the ground that such honour was unlawful
until the approbation of the Sovereign Pontiff
had been obtained. This, however, did not
put an end to the very general devotion to the
King, and as the same editor writes: " There
were few towns of any consequence in Eng-
land in which an image of the King was not
erected in the principal church. There was
one at Ripon and another at Durham, to take
only a couple of instances in the north, whilst
in the ea£t of England (an image) was, and
indeed is still, to be seen in many altar
screens."
The testimony of Nicholas Harpesfield
is of great importance as to the popular
devotion to Henry VI. Harpesfield wrote his
work, Hifloria EcclesiaSlica Anglkana* when
in prison for his religion in the reign of
* Published 162 1.
62 PERSONALITY AND
Elizabeth. He had been Archdeacon of
Canterbury, and this position, till deprived of
his office for his religious beliefs, enabled him
to obtain first-hand information on the matters
of which he treats. And the authorities he cites
in the course of his narrative prove that he
could deal as an historian with evidence in a
masterly way. Moreover, he had access,
when gathering his material, to such import-
ant documents as the Episcopal Registers of
Canterbury and elsewhere.
In his general History * Harpesfield writes
about the life and character of the saintly
King Henry as follows: " He was a man of
modest, straightforward, and mild disposition.
He detested war, and his true desire was to
devote himself in quiet and peace to divine
meditation and study. He was ever watchful
and careful. He did not oppress his people
by excessive taxation or by exacting tributes.
His patience under overwhelming troubles
was evident. He never desired to take
reprisals, nor did he seek vengeance, but he
accepted everything from God's hands, taking
these misfortunes as sent him to punish his
own sins and those of his ancestors. His life
* Hist. Anglic ana, p. 593.
CHARACTER 63
was ever most innocent: and this was allowed
even by his enemies and is attested by miracles.
" Henry in the course of his life passed many
laws in favour of religion. Amongst others he
decreed that no markets or fairs were to be
held on Sundays, or on the great feasts of our
Lord and the Saints, or on Good Friday.
On such days he ordered his people to abstain
from all work and especially to guard against
perpetrating frauds, committing perjury, or
uttering falsehoods, etc."
In a later section of his HiSloria Harpesfield
speaks at length as to the well-known miracles
which attested the sanctity of this holy King.
He heads this chapter with the words:
" Regarding the Miracles of King Henry VI
after his death ; of their frequent occurrence
and of their no less certainty and truth."* He
begins by referring again to the King's life,
which was full of troubles and difficulties ; but
which he bore so patiently to the great increase
of his eternal glory. That Henry was placed
in a high place in heaven is, in the author's
opinion, proved by the miracles, which were
worked by him and through his intercession
after his death. " Apart from the document-
* Hist. Anglican a, p. 595,
64 PERSONALITY AND
ary proofs," he says, " I would easily believe
them, because of the exceptional virtues he
displayed in his life. His father, Henry V,
was indeed honoured by all posterity by
reason of his great deeds, but much greater
and much more celebrated was his son [Henry
VI], if only by reason of the wonders worked
by his intercession after his death. After his
abominable murder, he was buried in the
Benedictine monastery of Chertsey, and there,
after a few years, he became renowned through-
out England for the great miracles wrought at
his tomb. So, whether for this reason, or
through the guilty conscience of him by
whose advice and even by whose hand he was
murdered, or, as I readily believe, by divine
inspiration Richard [III] caused the body of
the blessed King to be transferred to Windsor.
And, although he was known already for
many and great miracles, after his body had
been transferred to the place of his birth, his
fame for these wonders increased in such a
marvellous way, that hardly a day passed
without someone coming to render thanks to
him for some cure, which had been considered
to be beyond human help, from which he had
suffered or been burdened, and from which he
CHARACTER 65
had been freed at that place. Sometimes on
the same day many people arrived together for
this purpose at Windsor. And these miracles
were indeed so clear and so well known, that
Henry VII petitioned Pope Julius II to add
the name of the holy King to the catalogue of
the Saints. It is believed that these demands
would have been successful, had not the King's
death intervened. Indeed, this was not the
only time Henry VII had urged his petition,
as it appears he had already done so in the
time of Alexander VI." " I know not why
the matter was delayed in this manner . . . but
whatever the reason the miracles of Henry
were so absolutely credited and their certainty
was so clear that I would readily believe that
had Henry VII not died prematurely, or had
others afterwards taken any pains in the
matter, the decree of the Church would have
been granted.
" These miracles were set down in writing
with every detail set forth with great accuracy,
and committed to writing in English, by the
care and diligence of John Morgan, Dean of
the college of Windsor, who afterwards
became Bishop of Menaevia, and by Oliver
King, a Canon of the Church of Windsor,
66 PERSONALITY AND
afterwards designated Bishop of Exeter; and
other Canons of the Church helped them.
Later the greater part of the relation was
translated into Latin by a pious and learned
monk at the Dean's request. The monk's
name is not known to me [Harpesfleld] with
certainty. But I came upon this translation,
after having myself made a long enquiry into
these miracles. This monk collected and
described not indeed all the miracles, but
some two hundred more or less. The collec-
tion forms a goodly volume, and it would seem
as if the translation was made so as to be sent
to the Supreme Pontiff and the Cardinals, in
order that they might have solid and mature
grounds for enrolling King Henry among the
Saints. Whether it was ever sent to Rome I
cannot yet say for certain; but anyone who
reads the volume can have no hesitation in
believing in the truth of these miracles. The
author [of the above-named] has done his
work so wonderfully well that he has not left
out the name of any person whom the holy
King's intercession has delivered from some
ill or misfortune, nor the place where he lived,
nor the time, nor indeed any other circum-
stances connected with the matter."
CHARACTER 67
Harpesfield then says that in the church at
Windsor there were shown great numbers of
votive offerings, testifying to the graces there
received through the intercession of the saintly
King. These included sticks and crutches of
all kinds, used by people who had been cured
there, and who, returning without them, left
them as a testimony of their gratitude to God.
There were also innumerable waxen images of
various members of the human body — eyes,
hands, feet, etc., models of the afflicted parts
— which had been cured by the intercession of
King Henry. " I note in this volume," con-
tinues the author, " that there were many of
these people who, after having been cured,
made an exact relation concerning it, also that
those who had derived any benefit furnished
the sworn testimony of those that were
present when the miracle took place. In
regard to many cases no enquiry could be
carried out either because the subject had
since died or could not be traced."
" There was no diocese, no province, no
city nor town ; no village or even country side
in England in which there was not reported
fresh instances of cures and favours and other
benefits, obtained by the intercession of
68 PERSONALITY AND
Henry. From the far western parts of Eng-
land and from the extreme north of the
country, not to speak of places which are
near at hand, there came bands of pilgrims
proclaiming aloud the help which they had
obtained from this holy King."
The author then goes on to picture the
number of the pilgrims who flocked to the
shrine at Windsor. He speaks at length of
cures of all sorts worked by Henry's inter-
cession, of the freedom obtained from all
manner of troubles, and of relief from mis-
fortune of every kind obtained at his tomb.
It is quite impossible, he declares, to set down
all the numberless, and marvellous cures
effected in a few years by this wonder worker.
They are so many and so various that a mere
li£t would be lengthy and difficult to compile,
if not beyond human power and industry.
The blind, the lame, the dumb, the deaf,
lunatics, and those possessed by evil spirits
obtained relief. People injured by the unex-
pected falling of earth upon them, etc.
Others suffering from wounds beyond the
cure of doctors and surgeons ; others suffocat-
ing by bones, etc., which had lodged in their
throats and which no human skill had been
CHARACTER 69
able to extract; others in peril of shipwreck
or of drowning in mill dams or in the sea;
others afflicted by the plague, by virulent
ulcers, by toothache or headache, colic and,
in a word, by all manner of diseases only a few
of which could be recorded, and whose lot was
deplored by their friends and their doctors;
others who had fallen from tree tops and the
roofs of houses and had thus been almost
broken to pieces; those struck by lightning;
those burning with St. Anthony's fire, etc.
These and numberless other cases of illness
and disease received relief through the inter-
cession of the holy King from the hand of God.
But more than this: not only ills of this
kind were cured, but in several cases where
life itself was extinct, it was restored through
the King's intercession before the throne of
God. This is attested in the Book of the
Saint's miracles in several cases. Amongst
others there is cited the case of two innocent
men who were hanged at Salisbury and at
Cambridge, the truth of which cases is
attested by the Bishops of Salisbury, Ely, and
Chichester; also there is given the case of a
priest whose sight and speech were restored to
him. " When," says Harpesfield, " I think of
70 PERSONALITY AND
these wonders, I seem to see him [King Henry
VI] again on his royal throne, no less powerful
than of old or less desirous of administering
justice than when he was vested with his royal
power." To take one or two other instances :
a girl named Agnes Freeman in Kent was
seriously attacked by the King's evil, which
was considered to be incurable. Her friends
urged that she should be taken to King
Richard, who then occupied the throne; but
her parents, following better advice, implored
the assistance of King Henry, vowing to make
a pilgrimage to his tomb. Directly the vow
was made a change for the better took place,
and in three or four days she was perfectly
cured.
In another part of his History Harpesfield
records how, at the execution of an innocent
man, the blessed King Henry appeared and
prevented the rope, by which he was being
hanged, from strangling him; and this man
lived to thank God for the grace given him
through the saintly King. The author also
notes that after death, Henry often appeared to
suppliants in corporal form, vested in his royal
robes. In one case a certain Richard Boys, of
West Harptree, five miles or so from Bath,
CHARACTER 71
was condemned to death for a crime of which
he was innocent. He appealed to the protec-
tion of our Lady and the blessed King, and
was saved from execution at the last moment.
He made a pilgrimage to the shrine at Wind-
sor and left there the rope, with which he was
to have been hanged, as a testimony of his
indebtedness to the intercession of the holy
King. This man was accompanied to Wind-
sor on this visit of thanksgiving by forty of his
fellow townsmen, and they went also after-
wards to Walsingham to return thanks to our
Blessed Lady.
Finally, to give another instance of the
wonders worked by the King shortly after his
death, a man named Fuller, of Hammersmith,
was condemned to death for having been
accidentally in the company of a band of
criminals when they were captured. As the
King during his life had always been known
for his justice, this poor man craved his inter-
cession, and he was ultimately set free. Fuller
made a pilgrimage to the tomb of the King
when his body was still at Chertsey, and he
paid his devotion there on the very day before
the body was carried away to Windsor.
Subsequently he went to Windsor to thank
72 PERSONALITY AND
the holy King again for his intercession before
the throne of God. A passing reference to the
pilgrimages and the devotion to the saintly
King which continued long after the forcible
destruction of his shrine at Windsor is to be
found in pages of Foxe the " MartyrologisT:."
In 1543 this writer gives an account of the
" Trouble and Persecution of Four Wyndsor-
men," one Robert Textwood, we are told " as
he beheld the pilgrims of Devonshire and
Cornwall, how they came in by plums, with
candles and images of wax in their hands, to
offer to good King Henry of Wyndsor, as they
called him, could not refrain to see such great
idolatrie committed, and how vainly the
people had spent their goods in coming so far
to kiss a spur and have an old hat set upon
their heads." *
Like other sixteenth-century historians,
Speed borrows much of his account of the
reign of Henry VI from the narrative of
Blackman. After giving a relation of the
King's death and burial, Speed adds an appre-
ciation of the character of the monarch. He
writes: " Thus lived and thus died this
* Foxe, Book of Martyrs (1846), v, 467, quoted by-
Mr. Leonard Smith {Dublin Review, 192 1).
CHARACTER 73
innocent and ju£t King, who had been pro-
claimed in his cradle, crowned in his infancy,
and again, at more age had had the Imperial
Diadem of France set on his head, living
uprightly, loving his subjects, and reigning
thirtie eight yeeres, was in that time tossed
with variable successe: for twice he was
imprisoned and deprived of his Crowne,
betrayed, smitten and wounded, and in all
things became a worthy example of fortune's
inconstancy. He was of Stature very seemely,
of body slender, of face beautifull, and by a
natural inclination abhorred all vice, farre
from pride, given to prayer, well-read in the
Scriptures, using works of Charitie, and so
chaSte, as no suspition of incontinency could
be conceived in him : nay, so farre the contrary,
that when certain Ladies presented themselves
before him in a Maske, with their Haire loose,
and their BreSts uncovered (hee then a Bache-
lour and able of marriage) he immediately rose
up and departed the Presence, saying: ' Fie,
fie, forsooth ye are to blame.' Oath he used
none, but in weighty matters, his affirmation
was forsooth, and forsooth ; very mercyfull to
the poor, and so pitifull to malefactors, as he
commanded the quarters of traitors to be
74 PERSONALITY
taken down from the Gates, and buried, and so
farre from revenge that he willingly pardoned
the greatest offences against him; for a
Ruffian intending hk death, wounded him in
the side with his Sword, what time he lay a
prisoner in the Tower, and being restored to
his kingly estate, he freely forgave the fact;
and another like Ruffian striking him on the
face, he punished with this only reprehension:
' Forsooth you are to blame to strike me, your
anointed King': for these and his other
patient vertues, King Henry the Seventh
assayed to have him canonized a Saint, but
Pope Julius the Second demanding too great a
summe, the King went no further in the suite:
notwithstanding in the repute of the vulgar he
was taken for no less, so as his red Hat which
he had worne, healed the headache when it
was put on, as the simple beleeved."
V
KING HENRY VII PETITIONS FOR
THE CANONIZATION OF THE HOLY
KING HENRY VI
IN view of the general opinion in England
as to the sanctity of the pious King Henry,
and of the miracles so constantly worked at his
tomb by his intercession, it is not surprising
that before the close of the fifteenth century
steps were taken to petition for his solemn
canonization by the Holy See. From the
document about to be quoted it appears that in
the Pontificate of Pope Innocent VIII, prob-
ably about the year 1490, King Henry VII
made his first petition for the canonization.
Probably the death of Innocent VIII rendered
necessary a second petition, and so in October
1494 Pope Alexander VI issued two Apostolic
Letters at the request of King Henry VII,
addressed to the Archbishop of Canterbury,
Cardinal Morton, and to the Bishop of Dur-
ham. The first was to commission these
75
76 THE CANONIZATION OF
prelates to enquire into matters connected
with the canonization of St. Anselm,* and the
second, of the same date, to hold a full enquiry
into the asserted sanctity and miracles of
Henry VI. From this second letter it appears
that the King had sent a formal petition for
the appointment of a commission to take
evidence, in view of the popularly desired
canonization. " From the letters of our
beloved son in Christ, Henry VII, the
illustrious King of England," the Pope writes,
" and also from common report, we under-
stand that Henry VI, King of England, of
illustrious memory, when he lived on this
earth, was well known for the sanctity of his
life, for his eminent moral qualities, for his
fervent charity to his neighbours, and for
every virtue and for all holiness. Moreover,
he assiduously practised fasting and contin-
ency and was given to prayer and to works of
mercy. Also he built, founded, and endowed
two great and well-known colleges in England
for the education and support of poor scholars,
dedicated to the honour of God Almighty and
of his glorious Mother. Further, whilst in
this life and also after his death the Lord,
* Wilkins, Concilia, iii, 641.
HOLY KING HENRY VI 77
through his merits and by his intercession,
wrought many and obvious miracles, which
continue to this day [1494]. For which
people flock with great devotion to his tomb,
where the blind are made to see, the deaf to
hear, the lame to walk, and those suffering
from every kind of infirmity are said to receive
relief and health through the power of God,
at the intercession of the late King. The
fame of all this is widely spread, not only
throughout the whole of the said Kingdom,
but also in neighbouring lands. Furthermore,
a large number of people from other countries
are having recourse to him, extraordinary
devotion is manifested, and by God's will is
ever increasing, so that the absolute belief of
the people of these parts is that the name of
the said Henry deserved to be inscribed in the
catalogue of the Saints.
" For this reason the present King Henry
has humbly petitioned Us that some of the
prelates of those parts should be commissioned
diligently and prudently to enquire into his
life, merits, miracles and other of the aforesaid
matters and make a faithful report in writing
of what they find, so that in Our apostolic
benignity We may be pleased to provide what
78 THE CANONIZATION OF
is needful for the canonization of the said late
King. Therefore wishing to do what the
present King asks, and relying upon the divine
judgment rather than upon Our human
reason, and likewise desiring to act in a matter
of such importance and gravity, We, inclining
to the prayer of King Henry and following in
the footsteps of Pope Innocent VIII of happy
memory, who issued a similar commission,
We by these apostolic letters commit to you
[the abovenamed prelates] the duty of going
personally to Windsor, where the body of the
said Henry rests, and of enquiring into his
life, merits, sanctity, charity, devotion to God,
and his good works, etc. Also to examine into
the miracles he wrought during life and after
death, etc., calling witnesses to give evidence
under oath, as to the ground of their know-
ledge regarding these things. You are then
to report to Us under your hands and seals."*
In the same year, 1494, there is entered in
the Episcopal Register of Cardinal Morton of
Canterbury a long document setting forth
what is necessary to be done in every process
of canonization. This almost certainly would
appear to have reference to the process to be
* Wilkins, Concilia, iii, 640.
HOLY KING HENRY VI 79
instituted in England for the proposed canoni-
zation of Henry VI, and for this reason is of
interest and importance. The document in
question sets forth at great length the various
steps which have to be taken and the enquiries
which have to be made into the life and virtues
of the person proposed for canonization, and
then into the miracles which are said to have
been worked, and for which evident proof has
to be forthcoming. Then follows in the
document an account of the ceremonies in
Rome, together with the fees and costs of a
public canonization.*
This official paper partly helps us to under-
stand the delay which took place in the pro-
cess of the canonization of King Henry, for
it says that when some person of authority
approaches the Roman Pontiff in such a
matter, not once but many times inHantes
inflancius, the Pope does not act at once, but
waits till the reputation of sanctity grows and
miracles are claimed as having happened and
have been proved by tested evidence. All
this is the work of the preliminary enquiries
made in the country and place where the
proposed saint lived. If the demand for the
* Wilkins, Concilia, iii, 636-9.
80 THE CANONIZATION OF
canonization continues to be urged, and if the
fame of sanctity and the miracles still persist,
then the Roman Pontiff issues a commission
to certain bishops or other responsible people
in the country to hold a full enquiry into the
reputed sanctity and the devotion of the
people, and into the miracles, etc. The pre-
lates so commissioned have to report as to the
general evidence, and not as to specific cases,
as to the general and common reputation, and
not as to the truth or ground of the belief.
The particulars were to be left for another
enquiry into the truth of the alleged facts.
After the report of the first commission had
been made to Rome, the Pontiff would
determine by the advice of his officials
whether the second enquiry was to be ordered
or not. If it was ordered to be undertaken,
the same bishops or others were to be directed
to take evidence in regard to the truth of the
reputation of the sanctity of life of the servant
of God, and as to the evidence for the miracles
alleged to have been worked. When this
had been done the commissioners were to
send to the Pope the result of their enquiry,
with all the evidence collected.
In the same year (1494) that Pope Alex-
HOLY KING HENRY VI 81
ander VI issued his commission of enquiry
" into the truth of the facts " of the sanctity
of Henry VI and of miracles attributed to his
intercession, King Henry VII made petition
to the Pope to be allowed to transfer the body
of the saintly monarch from Windsor to
Westminster Abbey. This the Pope allowed,
and in his Bull granting the permission he
recites the grounds upon which the royal
petition was based. Henry VII had assured
him, he says, that the holy King, his uncle,
after having been deprived of his kingdom,
had been buried away in a remote place like
Chertsey and placed in a tomb unworthy of
such a monarch. When, " in course of time
it pleased Almighty God to manifest the
holiness of this King by miracles, and people
began to come to his tomb with their offerings,
Richard III, who then occupied the throne,
and who had pursued the holy man with his
hatred whilst alive, and whose brutal nature
and malignity had eradicated all feelings of
affection and humanity, envying the public
veneration of Henry and the concourse of
people to his tomb, in order to put a stop to
this manifestation of devotion, caused his
holy body to be dug up and buried in the
G
82 THE CANONIZATION OF
Collegiate Church of Windsor Castle, where
at present his body, bones, and relics rest."
Now, however, the Abbot and Convent of
Westminster claim that the Abbey Church is
the only fitting place for his tomb. It is the
place where the Kings of England are crowned
and in which many of them lie buried. It is
also the place where the chief nobles of the
kingdom meet, which is most frequently
visited by Englishmen, and which is best
known by other nations. Henry VII, there-
fore, prays the Pope " to permit the translation
of his relics to this monastery of West-
minster, where they may rest near to the
tomb of his parents at a spot to which the
ever-increasing crowds of pilgrims may con-
veniently come, and thus help the religious
sentiments of the country and render more
famous the merits of this holy man."*
Meanwhile, however, it would appear that
Henry VII had not fully made up his mind
about the translation of the relics from Wind-
sor. In the same year, 1494, he had applied
to the Popef for leave to suppress the two
religious houses of Mottisfont in Hampshire
* Wilkins, Concilia, iii, 635.
t Rymer, Foedera, vii, 563.
HOLY KING HENRY VI 83
and Suffield in Buckinghamshire, and to apply
their endowments to the building of a new
chantry and hospital at Windsor in which he
himself proposed to be buried, and where he
intended to erect a shrine over the relics of
Henry VI. Even in view of the future trans-
lation to Westminster it seems evident that
there was no intention of abandoning the idea
of the chantry, etc., at Windsor, for in 1494
and the following years various Papal Bulls
granted the indulgences of the Scala Santta to
the proposed building.
There were, moreover, difficulties in the
way of the proposed translation to West-
minster, and Mr. Leonard Smith, in an inter-
esting article on the Canonization oj Henry VI
in the Dublin Review * states these as follows.
"In 1498 a controversy arose before the Privy
Council, between the Abbot of Chertsey, the
Dean of Windsor, and the Abbot of West-
minster as to who was entitled to the posses-
sion of the relics which it was now proposed to
exhume a second time. Each of the rival
claimants appeared in person, with documents
and witnesses to make good his claim. The
Abbot of Chertsey for his part affirmed that he
* January 192 I.
84 THE CANONIZATION OF
had never consented to the removal of the
body to Windsor in 1484, and that, therefore,
since it had been taken from his keeping un-
lawfully, he was now entitled to its recovery.
The Dean of Windsor and his supporters
argued that so far from having objected to the
exhumation, the Abbot of Chertsey with his
own hands had assisted thereat, and that inas-
much as the dead King had declared his wish
to be interred at Windsor, and was in fact now
buried there, the body should remain where it
was. The Abbot of Westminster, however,
put forward the most convincing arguments.
Four volumes of evidence were presented in
his behalf, and numerous witnesses — vergers,
servants, and workmen of the Abbey —
deposed to the frequent visits paid by Henry
VI to the Abbey at all hours of the day and
night during the fateful years of 1458-146 1,
and described how he had chosen a burial-
place for himself there, near to the tomb of his
father, King Henry V,and of Queen Catherine
his mother. The Abbot further urged the
close connection that had always existed
between the Abbey and the Royal Palace of
Westminster, and laid stress upon the fact
that during his lifetime the dead King had
HOLY KING HENRY VI 85
been the Abbey's parishioner. On 5th March
1498 judgement was accordingly given by
the Privy Council in favour of the Abbot of
Westminster m the presence of the King, and
in July following, an Indenture was drawn up
between the King and George Fawcett,
Abbot of Westminster, whereby the Abbot,
the Prior, and the Convent bound themselves
to pay the sum of five hundred pounds, by
three yearly instalments, towards the expenses
of the translation of the body from Windsor
to Westminster. This sum was in fact paid,
as the accounts of John Islip, Sacrist of West-
minster, for 1 50 1 prove." Meanwhile steps
had been taken to supply the Commission
charged by Alexander VI with the examina-
tion of the cause, with a body of evidence
relating to the miracles alleged to have been
worked at Henry's intercession. At a date
not much later than the close of the year 1 500,
a manuscript translation into Latin* of two
books of miracles of King Henry VI already
existing in English was made by an unknown
writer at the request of Dean Morgan of
Windsor. The writer implies that this com-
pilation of four separate collections of miracles,
* B.M. Royal MS. 13, c. viii.
86 THE CANONIZATION OF
in many cases with minute details of persons,
circumstances, and times, had been under-
taken in order that it might be submitted to
the judgement of ecclesiastical authority; and
from the marginal annotations in another con-
temporary hand — " probatum," " nullius
effectus," " non reperitur," " non probatum,"
— it is clear that an attempt to weigh the
evidence was in fact made. The earliest
miracle recorded is assigned to 148 1 ; the last
is dated July 1 500.
The permission granted by Pope Alexander
VI for the translation of the body of Henry VI
to Westminster was not acted upon at the
time, and in 1502 King Henry VII began to
prepare for the building of the celebrated
chapel at Westminster which goes by his
name. The foundation stone was laid " at a
quarter of an houre afore three of the clock,
at afternoon " on 24th January 1503. He
intended that it should contain the body of his
saintly predecessor, and in fact the shrine that
he prepared for the relics remains to attest his
veneration and his firm expectation that his
petition for Henry's canonization would most
certainly be ultimately granted.
Time went on, and for one reason or another
HOLY KING HENRY VI 87
the work of the Commission to enquire into
the sanctity of the holy King Henry VI was
delayed. Cardinal Morton died in 1 500, and
his fellow Commissioner, the Bishop of
Durham, followed him to the grave in 1501.
The Cardinal had arrived at a great age, and
during many years was mostly so occupied in
the affairs of State that he could have found
little time to attend to the business of the
Papal Commission. In Rome Pope Alex-
ander VI died in 1503, and after the brief
reign of Pius III, he was succeeded by Pope
Julius II. It was consequently necessary to
have recourse once more to Rome, and so, the
year after Pope Julius's succession, Henry VII
once again sent another petition for the canon-
ization of his saintly predecessor, which was
couched in almost identical terms as those of
the former demand of 1494. This new peti-
tion was forthwith granted by Pope Julius II,
and the then Archbishop of Canterbury,
Archbishop Warham, was associated with
the Bishops of Winchester, Durham, and
London in the Commission of enquiry
appointed in 1504.*
At the same time Henry VII again applied
* Arch. Vat. Reg. Lai., 984, fol. 49.
88 THE CANONIZATION OF
to the new Pope for permission to translate the
body of the saintly Henry VI to Westminster.
This was again granted in 1504,* by which
time the Chapel intended to receive the relics
was already making progress. Three years
later, in 1507, Archbishop Warham and the
three Bishops of Winchester, Durham, and
London, who had been appointed to make the
enquiry into the life and miracles of Henry VI,
petitioned Pope Julius II to be allowed to
appoint delegates to take the necessary
evidence at Windsor and elsewhere. They
pleaded that some of the witnesses to be
examined in England and in other lands, by
reason of their old age and infirmities, were
unable to present themselves to give their
testimony, and that it was consequently
necessary to make provision for their examina-
tion. The King of England, Henry VII, also
urged this necessity. Wherefore, writes the
Pope, in his reply, " We, thinking that it is
not right to leave without the due veneration
of men, one whom the Almighty has raised
to Heaven," grant the faculty asked for, and
allow you to appoint worthy prelates to go to
* Arch. Vat. Reg. Lat., 984, fol. 53.
HOLY KING HENRY VI 89
the places where such witnesses are to be
found and there take the evidence. " They
are to examine these witnesses and to transmit
to Us their findings and the whole processes
testified by their private seals." *
It would appear that this examination was
still in progress when King Henry VII died in
1 509. There is no evidence to show that the
necessary documents were ever sent to Rome
subsequently, although, according to the testi-
mony of Polydore Vergil, King Henry VII
left it as a charge to his son, Henry VIII, to
carry out the canonization, which he had not
succeeded in obtaining during his life. As
far as can be ascertained this charge was
neglected, and early in the reign of the eighth
Henry it became evident that he was not likely
to respect these wishes of his father, and later,
of course, the sequence of events in the
quarrel with the Holy See, and the various
attacks of the Reformation principles on the
cultus of the Saints put an end to the case
altogether. At first, however, Henry VIII
appears to have intended to carry out the
wishes of his father, at least in regard to the
* Arch. Vat. Reg. Lat., 1204, fol. 228.
90 THE CANONIZATION OF
translation of the relics of the holy King to
Westminster. According to the will of
Henry VII, made in the last year of his life,
his successor was urged " to translate right
shortly " to Westminster " the body and
relics of our Uncle of blessed memory, King
Henry the Vlth." Almost twenty years after
the death of Henry VII, namely in 1528
— the year before the fall of Wolsey — the
idea of securing the canonization does not
appear to have been entirely given up. The
King's Ambassadors to the Holy See, D.
Gardiner Fox, the royal almoner, and Sir
Gregory de Cassalis, then engaged in the
matter of the King's divorce, wrote to Cardinal
Wolsey from Orvieto, in regard to the pro-
posed canonization as follows: " We have
moved the Pope's holiness as towching the
Canonization of K. Henry VI, who answerith
that he is very well content to make schort
process therein; but the matiers musT; be
examyned here, requiring a number of
Cardinals therat, with other ceremonies,
which cannot be done there. Wherefore yf
my Lord of Canterbury and my Lord of Win-
chester, who have examyned the matier in
partibus do send the process hither as their
HOLY KING HENRY VI 91
commission requyred, the sentence of canoni-
zation shal schortly pass here." *
It is of interest to note that at the end of
his reign King Henry VIII slill had a
religious devotion to the saintly King Henry
VI. In his will he directs " that at our
expense the tomb and altar of King Henry
VI be made more magnificent in the place
where it is at present."
* Brewer, Letters, etc., of King Henry VI II, iv, no.
4167.
VI
THE RELATIONS OF HENRY VI
WITH THE CHURCH AND POPE
IT is useful to understand the attitude of the
saintly King Henry towards the Church
and its supreme head, the Pope. His letters,
as they appear in the Beckynton correspond-
ence, manifest an extraordinary and constant
desire to serve the best interests of the Church
of Christ, and a devotion and filial reverence
for the Supreme Pontiff. It has already been
pointed out how eager he was to obtain Pope
Eugenius' approval for his two colleges of
Eton and Cambridge, and how he pressed him
to give them perpetuity by extending the
original Indulgences beyond the term of his
own life as founder, to which the privileges
had been limited at first. This attitude
manifests the King's belief in the Catholic
doctrine of indulgences, and his understand-
ing that the papal approval was necessary to
secure the purpose he had in view in founding
93
94 RELATIONS OF HENRY VI
these two great English educational establish-
ments.
In connection with these two colleges there
is a clause in the instructions he gave to his
envoys sent to the Council of Basle, which is
of importance. It deals with a question which
the King thought might be raised at that
assembly in regard to the alienation of certain
estates in England formerly belonging to the
alien priories. In this document the seizure
of this alien property is justified, writes the
editor of this correspondence, " on the ground
of public policy and by the consideration of
the abuse of the revenues to anti-national
purposes, during the wars with France." *
It is, moreover, asserted that his father, King
Henry V, instead of appropriating these
revenues to his own private uses, as he might
lawfully have done, had applied for and pro-
cured permission from Pope Martin V to
convert them to the endowment of monasteries
and churches and other pious purposes, as,
in fact, he had done. At the same time he
made liberal compensation to the churches
and monasteries in France and the Duchy of
Normandy for any losses they may have
* Beckynton Correspondence, Introd., p. lxxxix.
WITH CHURCH AND POPE 95
sustained by the diversion of the revenues
derivable from their possessions in England.
It was consequently in prosecution of his
father's design, and with due papal licence,
that Henry VI assigned the revenues of some
of the suppressed alien houses to the endow-
ment of his new colleges. The preservation
of the religious character of these revenues
was secured by grafting the educational estab-
lishments on to collegiate churches of secular
priests, which mixed character Eton still
retains.*
In 1433 Henry condemns the independent
attitude of the Council of Basle in strong
terms. He protests against the language of
the assembly regarding the Pope, which has
shocked the minds of the faithful. " In the
sacred Synod," he says, " some people lacking
in all modesty had given free rein to their
ungoverned tongues, and have uttered un-
worthy, indecent, and injurious words against
Our Holy Father the Lord Eugenius, the
supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church.
They, the sheep, have irreverently attacked
the Shepherd; being sons, they have raised
their heads against their father; being sub-
* Beckynton Correspondence, Introd., p. lxxxix.
96 RELATIONS OF HENRY VI
jects they have despised and rebelled against
their head. And what we marvel at more is
that they have set aside the present hope for
peace and concord between the Lord Euge-
nius and themselves, for which the Roman
Emperor and other lovers of peace will not
cease to work, and which, as far as possible,
We are determined to labour for in conjunc-
tion with other princes and ecclesiastics who
desire it." *
In a letter which King Henry wrote at this
time to Theodore, Archbishop of Cologne,
he tells him that he is devoting himself heart
and soul to the work of securing peace and
union, which is so necessary for the Church
and for the whole world, and he gladly includes
in this the peace between England and France.
He has long and earnestly laboured, he says,
for the peace of the Church, and there is
nothing he more desires.
He addressed the Emperor Sigismund in
the same sense, imploring him to prevent the
schism threatened at Basle. He laments the
evil treatment of the Pope by those who, in
spite of the closure of the Council and the
protests of the Cardinals present, had deter-
* Beckynton Correspondence, p. 65.
WITH CHURCH AND POPE 97
mined to continue their meetings. It is,
he says, the plain duty of Christian princes to
prevent this evil, and he trusts the Emperor
to act, and he himself desires to co-operate to
stop this schismatical action.*
In his zeal for the Catholic faith King
Henry took much to heart this disobedient
attitude of the Council of Basle towards Pope
Eugenius IV. By his Bull Doftoris gentium in
September 1537, the Supreme Pontiff declared
the Council ended, and later transferred it to
Ferrara. The Fathers at Basle, or, rather,
some of them, refused to recognize the right
of the Pope to do this, and they desired to
continue their discussions in spite of him. On
reports of this action reaching the King, he
addressed a strong letter of expostulation to
the recalcitrant Fathers. He deplored their
attitude, which must bring grief and dismay
to all faithful sons of the Church. He begs
them to pause and consider what they are
doing in actually citing " the most Holy father
and lord Eugenius, a man who from his
youth onward has ever enjoyed the reputation
of holiness and modesty, and who possesses
every moral quality to make him the pious
* Becky tit on Correspondence, p. 84.
H
98 RELATIONS OF HENRY VI
upright pastor of the Church, which he cer-
tainly is. The attitude of the Council towards
the Pope," he says, " is a direct perversion of
the order established by Christ. ' What the
Vicar of Christ binds, you endeavour to loose,
what he looses you desire to bind; what he
thinks well to open you endeavour to shut up,
etc.' By the waves of this discord you cause
the bark of Peter to be tossed about hither and
thither." *
He writes also to the Pope in the same strain
of grave anxiety, begging him by every means
to put an end at once to the dissensions, which
will lead to a schism.f It endangers the
possible union of the Greeks with the West,
which he ardently desires. He himself has
spared no pains in this matter and has written
to the Emperor and the Imperial electors to
beg them to extend their authority and, if
necessary, their arms to avert this schism4
Henry's appeals to the obstinate contingent
at Basle had no effect: they were indeed
treated with arrogant protests and disdain.
On hearing this, he wrote again in May 1438,
saying that this treatment in no wise has
* Beckytiton Correspondence, ii, 37-45.
t Ibid., p. 46. \ Ibid,
WITH CHURCH AND POPE 99
turned his mind or his will from the " zeal of
filial devotion, reverence and affection, with
which, following in the footsteps of my pre-
decessors, as a devoted son of the Church, I
intend to uphold all who labour for Holy
Mother Church and its prosperity and peace."
He desires nothing more on earth than peace,
and he prays that the grace of the Holy Spirit
may inspire and enlighten the minds and
hearts of the Fathers at Basle to help to calm
the dangerous storm and to assist in bringing
the bark of Peter into a port of safety.*
In 1438 the Pope convoked the Council of
Florence, and the following year the English
King expressed himself delighted to hear that
the union of the Greeks had been effected on
the 5th July. The opposition of the disloyal
party at Basle, however, still continued, and
Henry wrote again to Pope Eugenius. " If
this continues," he says, " Christian princes
should come together and with their united
forces rally to the support of your Holiness
and the Chair of Peter; leaving no means
untried to secure pacific unity. Lest there
should be any doubt whatever of the filial
sincerity of our adherence to and our venera-
* Beckynton Correspondence, pp. 37, 53.
ioo RELATIONS OF HENRY VI
tion for Your Holiness and the Holy Roman
Church, over which you so worthily preside,
we think well to make known to Your Holiness
that with all our vassals and subjects we will
come to your assistance, and serve you, as
hitherto we have always shown to Your
Holiness and the Roman Church untainted
and sincere obedience, reverence, and filial
devotion." He adds that he will take every
means to get other princes to do the same,
and " secure obedience and unity with the
Roman Church under Your Blessedness and
Your Successors." *
The pious King Henry likewise wrote
several letters at this time to the Emperor
Frederick urging him again to strong action,
and he sent the Bishop of Rochester and
another prelate to emphasize the need of
united action if the bark of Peter is to be
brought safely out of the raging seas to a safe
port.f
In 1439, on hearing that the Greeks were
once more united with the Western Church,
Henry wrote to Pope Eugenius IV expressing
his fervent gratitude to God for this good
* Beckynton\Correspondence, pp. 94-8.
t Ibid., p. 93.
WITH CHURCH AND POPE 101
result. He attributes the restoration of the
unity of the Church to the paternal patience,
vigilance, and care of the Holy Father. " We
confess," he says, " that directly we had seen
Your letter announcing these good tidings,
we were filled with joy. Oh! the wonderful
goodness of God ! Oh ! His wondrous loving-
kindness! which has allowed us in our days
to witness the healing of the divisions of our
Mother Church His Spouse, caused so many
ages back by the sins of men, and which
during many generations seemed beyond all
remedy. Oh ! how many kings and princes
have desired to see what we now behold! "
Henry adds that he looks upon this as an
earnesl of future blessings, and that he has
already given orders for public prayers and
processions in thanksgiving to God.* When
a short time after this the news came that the
Armenians had also been reconciled to the
One Church, the King again wrote to the
Pope expressing his joy. " The submission of
the Greeks," he says, "was indeed a blessed
work, and this bringing back of other sheep,
long wandering outside of the Church's fold,
crowns the work. By the labour of your
* Beckynto?i Correspondence, p. 50.
102 RELATIONS WITH POPE
Blessedness in this Holy Synod of Florence,
the Easterns have been called to the Unity,
Obedience, and Faith of the Roman Church."
This event has also been celebrated by public
prayers and processions of heartfelt thanks to
God.*
* Beckynton Correspondence, p. 52.
VII
THE BOOK OF THE KING'S
MIRACLES
IT has already been pointed out that a con-
temporary register of the miracles attri-
buted to King Henry VI was kept at Windsor.
These records were written in English, and
Harpesfield, although he had not seen the
original volumes, speaks of having examined a
Latin translation made, as he supposed, in
view of the process of canonization of the
saintly King, which had been commenced by
the Roman authorities. It is fairly certain
that the Latin translation spoken of by Harpes-
field is that which is now among the Royal
MSS. in the British Museum. As this
volume had belonged to Archbishop Cranmer,
many of whose books had formerly been in the
Canterbury archives, Harpesfield as Arch-
deacon of Canterbury, who had access to
other records of the See, would no doubt have
examined it there.
103
io4 THE BOOK OF
The translator, who desired to remain
unknown, and whose name, even in his day,
Harpesfield could not discover, as he tells us,
was a monk. He calls himself " John," and
it has been suggested with some probability
that he was the John Blackman, originally
secretary of the saintly Henry VI, the author
of the intimate life already described, who
subsequently became a monk in the Charter
House at London. The volume, at present
among the Royal MSS., is really the first draft,
much corrected, of the proposed translation.
These corrections, mainly of style, are numer-
ous throughout the volume; and the 135
miracles therein recorded are selections from
some 300 which, as the translator tells us, were
to be found entered in the English volumes or
registers kept at the tomb of the saintly King
at Windsor. The monk " John " states that
he had received the English records from
John Morgan, the Dean of Windsor, who,
with other Canons of the Collegiate Church,
such as Oliver King, subsequently Bishop of
Bath and Wells, kept a faithful record of the
graces and blessings received at the tomb at
Windsor. Dean Morgan's name appears
many times in the records of these miracles
THE KING'S MIRACLES 105
as having welcomed the pilgrims to Windsor,
when they came to return thanks for graces
obtained by their recourse to the King's inter-
cession. He took from them their testimony
as to facts and dates and more than once
himself joined in their thanksgivings in the
Church. The Latin translator tells us that
the Windsor book of the miracles was sent to
him by the hands of a friend of Dean Morgan,
and the date of beginning the work of turning
the English into Latin and making the selec-
tion would have been some time before 1496,
when John Morgan was made Bishop of St.
David's. In the course of translating, the
monk records the change by speaking of
Morgan as formerly Dean, now Bishop, of
St. David's. It is useful here to note that
besides the testimony of these miracles actually
set down in this book, there is clear evidence
in these records of the devotion to the saintly
King which existed in all parts of England.
These wonders are worked in all parts of the
land. In Northumberland and Durham, in
Sussex and Wales, etc., they are certified as
having taken place at various times. It is
apparent, and there is no room for doubting,
that the English people very generally
106 THE BOOK OF
spontaneously turned to the holy King Henry
for help before the throne of God, in all
manner of circumstances and difficulties and
dangers. They evidently did this quite
naturally, as if, indeed, there was a practically
common belief in the efficacy of his interces-
sion in heaven. The translator in his intro-
duction likens the great extension of this
popular devotion to the King, to a vine which
sends its suckers out to take widespread roots ;
or to a palm tree planted by the running
waters, which spreads its branches abroad on
every side. "We have," he writes, "to
admire rather than to explain this gracious
goodness of God; the excellence of His
power is proved more by His works than
taught by any sermons." Now at Windsor
everyone can see for himself the extraordinary
reputation for sanctity and the wonderful
power exercised by the holy man, Henry, late
King of England. His life in this world
was remarkable for humility, piety, patience,
etc., and indeed for the exercise of all
the virtues. His death also was precious in
God's sight, as is shown by numberless great
miracles. . . . Who does not recognize this in
every part of England, and even in foreign
THE KING'S MIRACLES 107
lands ? What church is there that does not
admire and rejoice in proclaiming his great-
ness ? or what has not experienced the effect
of one or other of these miracles ? I am sure
that this country will rejoice that such an
abundance of supernatural grace has been
showered upon us. For indeed, if any reader
will examine this record with care he will find
evidence of really great miracles wrought by
the Almighty God, the Worker of all miracles ;
not only for the renown of the great King,
but for the glory of the whole Church.
These miracles were inscribed in the
book which, as is asserted, was begun to be
kept at Windsor within two years after the
precious body was buried there. The various
accounts were written in English with the
attestations to their truth, by the actors and
their witnesses. " They are here [i.e. in the
translation] given: not indeed all the series,
but such examples as I [the translator]
believe to be most useful to the reader.
I consider that all the cases here set forth are
useful and afford clear evidence of the virtue
of the saintly man; but they are not all of
equal weight and importance. For this
reason," he continues, "after consultation it
108 THE BOOK OF
seemed besl: to me to take only those which
manifest clearly the King's renown. The reft
I do not intend to put altogether aside or
rejed, but to leave them for some other
time."
The writer then turns for help in his work
" to the sweet Father and Soldier of Chrisl,
the mosl; noble King Henry, the hope of so
many and the consoler of those in trouble.
Intercede to supply my deficiency with those
authorities of the great Mother Church that
they may recognize the common opinion of
thy San&ity. This belief is not founded on
any silly popular superstition, but is proved by
God's mercy and proclaimed publicly by the
frequency of the miracles." The writer's
hope and belief was, without prejudice to the
ecclesiastical judgement, that the san&ity of
the holy King would be recognized. In his
prologue to the miracles the author again ex-
presses his wish to carry out the task the Dean
of Windsor had asked him to undertake. One
reason for this desire is that he " may give
pleasure to the great and indeed the enormous
number of pilgrims to Windsor, who crowd
along the public roads and lanes in the belief
that they will receive more abundant grace
THE KING'S MIRACLES 109
from God, the more these works of charity by
the holy King are known." *
The Book 0} the Kings Miracles is composed,
besides prologues, etc., of four different collec-
tions of miracles; each preceded by an index
or table of contents. The first set of these
miracles contain twenty-eight, with a full and
minute description of what had happened and
how, together with the dates upon which the
events took place in the years 1481-1490^
The second set gives particulars of sixty-seven
miracles, preceded also by an index. It is
slated in the prologue to this section, to which
reference has already been made, that they
are merely a selection from the 300 cases
registered in an English book left at Windsor,
to which a special number is affixed in each
case4 The third collection of these wonder-
ful events includes twenty-four of these
miracles, and they belong to the period of the
first seven years of King Henry VII, that is
from 1485 to 1492.$ Finally, a fourth
set gives the particulars, circumstances, and
dates of sixteen miracles. An important
* B.M. Royal MS. 13, c. viii, fol. 33.
t Ibid., fol. 6 seqq.
\ Ibid., fol. 33 seqq. § Ibid., fol. 86 seqq.
no THE BOOK OF
matter to note is the fact that the manuscript
clearly shows that it has been used to sift the
evidence given to prove the miracle. There
has evidently been a serious attempt to exam-
ine into the truth of the assertions made.
Thus, against some in a hand different from
that of the translator are to be found such ex-
pressions as probatum (proven), non-probatum
(not proven), non rejeritur (the witnesses or
parties not being forthcoming), etc. In one
or two cases we find a note to the effect " let
N. or M. be examined." Thus in the case of
a miracle said to have been wrought in
Sussex on 30th September 1495, *n favour of
a priest named John Reynald, there is written
" let John Reynald, and John Key and John
Stranger be examined." Finally, there is
entered in the margin the note probatum
(proven).
There was obviously, as already stated,
great care taken at Windsor in taking the
original depositions of the miracles. In one
case, for example, a miracle supposed to have
been wrought at Sheppey in Kent on " the
tuesday after the Feast of Corpus Christi, was
sworn to by the witnesses on the tomb of the
holy King at Windsor." And, on the same
THE KING'S MIRACLES in
day, another from a village in Northampton-
shire was testified to by a great number of the
villagers " who had themselves seen the
wonder " and had vowed to return thanks to
God at the tomb at Windsor. On the rumour
that these two big pilgrimages had come, it is
said that " all who heard about them ran to
the church, where the masler of the clerks
began to sing the praises of God, Who deigned
to give such power and honour to his valiant
soldier, King Henry, the Dean of Windsor
himself intoning the Te Deum /audamus, which
was sung by the great concourse of people."*
In the case of the firsT: of these two miracles,
which had taken place at Sheppey, a large
number of the neighbours of the parents,
whose child had been run over by a waggon
and was thought to have been killed, came with
the mother to return thanks. She and they
had walked all the way to Windsor: she had
come barefooted. There, as the account says,
" before the Reverend Dean, John Morgan
(who now, when the Latin translation of the
narrative was made, rules the church of
Menevia as its PaSlor Venerabilis) and his
canons and clerks all gathered together capitu-
* B.M. Royal MS. 13, c. viii, fol. 77.
ii2 THE BOOK OF
lariter. The mother truthfully related the
matter as it happened, and confirmed on oath
the facts she related as to the miracle, which
added to the glory of the illustrious King
Henry. Those also who came with her con-
firmed her statement on oath: namely, John
Besy with his wife Alice, the woman Agnes
Andrew, who had vowed on the previous day
to give as a thanksgiving offering, a sum of
money, and very many others."
At another pilgrimage to Windsor it is
stated that forty men accompanied a woman
whose child was also said to owe its life to the
intercession of the King; this miracle had
taken place at Rye, in Sussex. " Forty men
all worthy of credit," says the account,
" testified on oath to the truth of the narrative,
coming to the King's tomb in a body during
the holy days of Pentecost." It will perhaps
be of interest to relate the circumstances of this
miracle: " It happened in the aforesaid place
of Rye, that a child of hardly seven years,
named Margaret, daughter of one John
Dyonyse, met with a serious accident. It came
about in this wise. On the first day of the
Rogations, when the parents were in the Pro-
cession, the child was left alone in the house,
THE KING'S MIRACLES 113
and according to the custom of children, she
took leave to go out from her father's house,
and so doing, wandered into a neighbouring
garden. In this garden there was a fish
pond, and somehow or other, she fell into the
pond and was entirely submerged, with no
one to help her. An hour later her parents
returned, and not finding the child, enquired
for her from their friends and neighbours.
Not finding any trace of her, they were in great
distress. Later the owner of the garden came
by chance into it, and saw the body of the
child entirely under the water and motionless
in the middle of the pond. At his call a great
number of people came running to assist him
to bring the body out of the water to the bank.
The child was apparently dead, and the
parents and neighbours in their distress had
recourse to prayer. All fell on their knees to
the ground and raised their voices to heaven,
begging the help of the Blessed Mother of
God and of His most holy soldier King Henry,
by whose prayers they hoped to have at least
the grace of consolation. Then suddenly,
before the eyes of all, the child began to come
to herself and to move. After a short time,
and after a great quantity of water had come
1
ii4 THE BOOK OF
out of the child's mouth, she suddenly ex-
claimed: ' O my God! and thou the most
blessed King Henry, help me.' These exact
circumstances were deposed to on oath by the
forty witnesses on the King's tomb at
Windsor." *
In one part of this volume the author speaks
of the immense number of spiritual graces
which were obtained by the intercession of the
saintly King. Very generally the people
turned to him in their difficulties and needs,
but such things, says the author, by their very
nature and frequency could not be registered.
In another part of the book it is stated as a
fact that the reputation for sanctity was daily
increasing by reason of the many miracles and
graces obtained by having recourse to the
saintly King's protection. There were some
people, of course, who questioned the truth of
these wonders, and who even scoffed at them.
One instance is recorded in these pages of a
man who derided them, and declared his dis-
belief of all miracles in general. He was,
however, converted to the truth by being
himself cured of a painful disease through the
intercession of the holy King. Half in
* B.M. Royal MS. 13, c. viii, fol. 68.
THE KING'S MIRACLES 115
mockery he had said that he would himself
vow to go on pilgrimage to the King's tomb
if he were freed from his sufferings. God
showed him this mercy through the inter-
cession of King Henry, and he went as he had
promised to Windsor to return thanks for his
own cure and there made a declaration on oath
of the circumstances, before M. H. Seymour,
one of the canons of the royal collegiate
establishment.
There are many very astonishing cures
given in the volume; here it must suffice to
give some few notes, taken almost at haphaz-
ard, from its pages. At a place called Reyton,
in Rutlandshire, a small child, the son of a
man named John Hargrave, about fifteen
months old, fell into the fire. It happened that
on the feast of St. Hugh both parents went to
attend the vespers of the day in the parish
church, leaving the infant alone in the house,
not taking care to set a guard round the
fire which was burning on the hearth. When
alone, by some means the child fell backwards
with his head in the burning embers. Unable
to help himself the little John had all his hair
and the skin of his head burned off; and when
his parents returned the whole house was
n6 THE BOOK OF
filled with the smell of the burning, which
even attracted to the place a number of the
neighbours. They went in search of the
mother and she hastened back in company of
one named John Sherman. The infant was
apparently dead, or on the point of death when
they took it from the fire. The whole of its
scalp was burnt off, a great blister covered its
face, and there were other terrible injuries
besides. John Hargrave, the father, the god-
parents of the child, who had come to the
house, and all the crowd of neighbours at once
fell on their knees to pray Almighty God to
save the life of the child, invoking also the
intercession of the holy King Henry before
the throne of God, and vowing to go to his
tomb in thanksgiving if their prayers were
heard. In less than an hour's time the child
began to show signs of life, and in a brief
time, " about the feast of St. Gregory the
Pope," a new scalp was formed and it had
entirely recovered. The parents and friends
thereupon, on 6th May, came to Windsor to
fulfil their vow to the saint. They first had a
Mass of thanksgiving said in the chapel, and
then displayed to all the head of the infant
THE KING'S MIRACLES 117
to show how it had entirely recovered. There
were present at the time a goodly number of
people, and amongst them some of the canons
and masters of the college and one bishop.
Before these their testimony was given under
oath; and they hung up near to the tomb a
votive offering in wax representing thecranium
of the child. " This," adds the writer, " can
be seen there to this day."
In 1485 a woman who had been blind for
five years was cured at the King's tomb. Her
name was Joan Sawyer, or Walsh, and she
came from Buckingham, and the reputation of
the miracle was spread far and wide: another
case of a cure effected at Windsor was that of a
man from Northamptonshire. For two years
he had lost the use of his limbs. He had been
brought to the shrine on horseback, but had
to be helped into the church by two strong
men, not being able to stand on his legs.
He remained before the tomb, bowed in
prayer, for two days, most earnestly asking the
saintly King's help. He manifested great
confidence in the prayers of the saint, and he
obtained what he desired, for " on Monday
after the feast of St. Michael, suddenly his
n8 THE KING'S MIRACLES
pains disappeared, strength returned to his
legs, and he was able to leave the church
without aid." *
* B.M. Royal MS. 13, c. viii, fol. 57.
PORTRAIT FROM EYE CHURCH
VIII
CULTUS AND POPULAR DEVOTION
TO THE SAINTLY KING HENRY
ALMOST immediately after the death of
King Henry there was manifested a
popular belief in his sanctity and in the many
miracles wrought at his tomb. It has already
been pointed out that images of the King were
set up in cathedrals like York and Ripon and
in numerous parish churches throughout
England. In his interesting article in the
Dublin Review (January 1921) Mr. Leonard
Smith has collected many instances of this
form of public veneration. At Algood, in
Lincolnshire, he writes, there was a bequest to
King Henry's Light which, presumably,
burned before an image of the King; at
Gately and at Barton Turf, in Norfolk, this
image stood upon the rood screen. Eye
Church, in Suffolk, possessed a painted
portrait of the King in a royal mantle, with a
large sceptre in his right hand, his head
119
120 POPULAR DEVOTION
nimbed, and a curved band behind the
shoulders bearing the inscription : Hen. Rex.*
A pair of beads of dogeon (boxwood) and an
image of King Henry formed the bequest
of Sir Robert Aubery, priest of a chantry in
Lincoln Cathedral, to one Master Thorp in
1535; and at Windsor, where the hat and
spurs of the King were venerated as most
efficacious relics, little signs or tokens were
made to be carried home by pilgrims.f The
dagger that killed Henry VI " schethe and
all " was kept until the Reformation by the
Augustinians at Caversham among other
relics and offerings, such as " schroudes,
candels, images of wax, crowches and
brochys."^: In the churchwardens' accounts
of Pilton, Somerset, for 15 Hen. VII the
valuables belonging to the church include
* See the Journal of the British Archaeological Associa-
tion (Dec. 1880) for an account of this portrait, with
a reproduction. Similar fifteenth-century paintings have
been discovered in Warfield Church, Berkshire, and
on the west wall of the nave of Wilton Church, Nor-
folk.
t See Journal of the Brit. Arch. Assoc. (Oft. 1845
and Sept. 1868) for some account of these, with plates.
\ Wright, Letters relating to the Suppression of the
Monasteries (Camden Soc), p. 224.
TO SAINTLY KING HENRY 121
" brochys of King Henry and one lytyle
broche," badges or tokens most probably
brought by pilgrims from Windsor; and in the
clerestory of Fairford Church, in Gloucester-
shire, his image was sculptured with those of
Henry VII and of the Emperor-Saint, Henry
of Germany.
To the above instances of images and paint-
ings of Henry VI for devotional use in
churches may be added: a sixteenth-century
painting on glass in a window of Provost
Hacombleyn's chantry in King's College,
Cambridge; a wall painting, temp. Henry
VII, in Alton Church, Hampshire. This last
is nimbed, wears a red robe and ermine mantle
and holds a sceptre.* Ancient representations
of the King are also to be seen in the ante-
chapel of All Souls College, Oxford; in St.
Mary's Hall, Coventry, and in the church of
Ashton-under-Lyne.f Lastly, on the screen at
Ludham, in Norfolk, there is a painting of
Henry VI, together with King Edmund the
Martyr and Edward the Confessor.:}: Nor
must there be forgotten the image on Prince
* Vide Times (21 December 192 1 ).
t Ibid. (9 December 1921).
X Ibid. (3 December 1921).
122 POPULAR DEVOTION
Arthur's chantry in Worcester Cathedral and
those on the lectern at King's College, Cam-
bridge, and at Eton. A copy of the last-
named in gold was the present made by the
students at Eton to the Princess Mary on her
marriage.
As an evidence of popular cultus of King
Henry, even more striking than these images
and paintings set up in the English churches,
are the hymns, prayers, and short offices of
the saintly King, which were evidently very
numerous and many of which are still pre-
served. Some instances may here be given,
without any attempt to arrange them in order
of date or importance. An ancient " Bede
roll " is preserved among the Trevelyan
family papers, which contain several prayers
and hymns to the saintly monarch. This part
is headed: " Here ys a devoute prayer of
Kyng Harre."* The first hymn begins :
Gaude princeps populorum
Dux et decus Britanorum
Rex Henricus nomine.
and has some twelve verses recording the
numerous virtues of the holy man. This is
followed by the versicle: "Pray for us,
* Trevelyan Papers (Camden Soc), i, 53.
HENRY VI
From a print after the painting on glass at King's College,
Cambridge
TO SAINTLY KING HENRY 123
blessed Henry," etc., and the prayer in Latin :
" O Omnipotent and merciful God, who hast
in numerous ways rendered the blessed Henry
King and Martyr illustrious by Thy glorious
miracles, and hast mercifully at his saving
petition given health to the sick. Grant, we
beseech Thee, that when we honour him by
our prayers we may be assisted by his help in
every temptation, difficulty, and adversity,
and progress by the example of his life. Per
Deum, etc." This is followed on the same
Roll by another hymn under the title " another
prayer of Kynge Harre." The saintly servant
of God is invoked as " Christi servus et
amicus, clarens jam miraculis "; as " Vir
magnae sanctitatis ; vivit regno daritatis in
coelorum patria," and his many miracles are
extolled: "Visum reddet excaecatis, claudis
gressum et curvatis; lasis fert auxilium;
aegros sancit et languores ; febres fugat gravi-
ores; procul in exilium." Then the hymn
continues in praise of his virtuous life:
Hie in vita multa passus,
Caritate nunquam lassus
Inimicos diligit.
Ejus pictas et benigna
Mira mundo dedit signa
Quod sic pati voluit.
i24 POPULAR DEVOTION
Miles Dei virtuosus
Cunftis fuit graciosus
Malis bonum reddidit.
Gaudet nunc gens Anglicorum
De patrono quod eorum
Deus Sanftus reddidit
O Rex (sancle) Anglicorum
Gubernatorque Francorum
Te mox invocantibus
Esto tutum adjuvamen
Et fer semper relevamen
Nobis deprecantibus.
% . Ora pro nobis beate serve Dei Henrice.
#. Ut digni, etc.
O ratio.
O God, the crown of Kings and Glory of Saints,
Grant that we may obtain, through the patronage of Thy
blessed servant Henry, that by Thy Grace rejoicing in
his memory, we may partake of the glory and crown of
life promised to those who love Thee, through Christ
our Lord. {Translation.)
From a fifteenth century MS. belonging
to the Pudsey family and preserved in the
Trevelyan papers,* there has come down to us
another salutation and prayer to King Henry:
Oratio beate Henrici Sexti Regis Angliae et Franciae.
Hie vir dispiciens mundum, et terrena triumphans
divitias coelo condidit corde ore et manu
Ora pro nobis beate Henrice
Ut digni, etc.
* Ut sup. (Camden Soc), i, 57, 58.
TO SAINTLY KING HENRY 125
Deus qui unigenitum filium tuum, Dominum nostrum
Jesum Christum, famulo tuo Regi nostro Henrico
corpore et anima glorificatum demonstrare voluisti,
praesta quaesimus, ut eius meritis et precibus ad
aeternam fidem Domini nostri Jesu Christi et
visionem pertingcre mereamur
Per Dominum nostrum, etc.
In the same collection of papers * there is the
following English prayer to the saintly King
written, as it would seem, for a pilgrimage to
the tomb at Windsor:
As far as hope will yn length
On the Kyng Henry I fix my mynde
That by thy prayers I may have strenkith
In vertuous lyfe my works to bynde
Though I to thee have been unkynde
Of wilfulness long tyme and space
Of forgevness I aske the grace
Hope hathe me movyde to seke this place
In trust of socor by thyn old properte
Was never man came beforne thi face
Rebellion or oder yn adverite
Oft' thyn compassion comaunded then go free
Now for thi pety to hym that all shall deme
Pray for me thy servant and pilgreme.
At the beginning of the Book of the Miracles
* Ut sup. (Camden Soc), i, 59.
126 POPULAR DEVOTION
there is to be found * a hymn and prayer
entitled:
Salutatio gloriosi Milit'u Xpi. Henrici Regis Angliae Sexti
cum oracuncula eidem.
The hymn begins:
Salve miles preciose, Rex Henrice generose palma vitis
celice
In radice caritatis. Vernans flores santtitatis viteque
Angelice.
And the last of the five verses is:
Salve quern rex seculorum, choris pingens Angelorum
Civem fecit patria fruentis
Te laudare cupientes. Tecum vita gloria
Amen.
V. Veniant ad te qui detrahebant tibi
Et adorant vestigia pedum tuorum.
Prayer.
O loving Lord Jesus Christ, Salvation and Saviour of
all who believe in Thee, Who willed that Thy beloved
servant King Henry should be afflidled by the weight
of many tribulations, in order that by the merits of
his patience and most innocent life, by which Thy
copious love may be displayed to the people by the glory
of miracles, Grant we beseech Thee, that all, who rejoice
in his glory and for Thee, or rather glorifying him in
Thee, may praise his merits and be found worthy of
share in the company of his beatitude and both here
and in the future obtain this by his merits. {Translation.)
B.M. Royal MS. 13, c. vii, fol. iv.
TO SAINTLY KING HENRY 127
Again, on the fly-leaf of an early primer
preserved at Ushaw College, Durham, is
written :
O blyssed King so full of vertue
The flowr of all Knighthood that never was syled
Thou pray for us to Christe Jhesu
And to hys mother Mary myld
In all thy workys thou was never wyld
But full of grace and charitie
Mercifull ever to man and chylde
Now sweyt Kynge Harre, pray for me.
Among the Harleian MSS. in the British
Museum (MS. 2887) is the following:
Oratio Beati Henrici Rex [sic] Anglie.
Domine Ihu Xpe qui me creasti, redemisti et pre-
destinasti ad hoc quod sum, Tu scis quid de me facere
vis, fac de me secundum voluntatem tuam cum miseri-
cordia.
This prayer is printed in the Horae of 15 10
(Wynkyn de Worde) and the date is supposed
to be 1504.* In the same MS. are these
other prayers:
Alia Oro.
Dne Ihu Xpe qui solus habes sapientiam, Tu scis que
mihi peccatori expediunt prout Tibi placet et sicut in
oculis majestatis tue videtur de me peccatore ita fiat cum
misericordia ; Qui cum, etc. Amen.
Pater Nr. Ave Maria.
De Beato Henrico
* Vide Hearne, Otterbourne, i, Pref, p. liv.
128 POPULAR DEVOTION
Oratio.
Rex Henricus pauperum et ecclcsiae defensor, ad
misericordiam pronus, in caritate fervidus, clerum deco-
ravit quern Deus sic beatificavit.
V. Ora pro nobis devote Rex Henrice.
J%. Ut digni efficiamur promissionibus Xpi.
Oretnui.
Deus sub cujus ineftabili providencia universi Reges
regnant et imperant qui devotissimum Henricum An-
glorum Regem caritate fervidum miseris et affliclis
semper compassum omni bonitate clemenciaq: con-
spicuum ut pie creditur inter angelos conumerare dig-
natus es : concede propitius ut eo cum omnibus Sanctis
intervenientibus hostium nostrorum superbia conteratur
moribus et quod malum est procul pellatur palma done-
tur et gratia Sanfti Spiritus nobis misericordiam poscen-
tibus ubiq: adesse dignetur. Qui vivis in gloria regnas
cum potencia moderans saecula cunfta. Amen.
Mr. H. H. E. Crawler, sub-librarian of the
Bodleian, Oxford, has kindly sent me the
following devotional prayers from a MS. of
Sarum Hours in University College, Oxford
(MS. 8, fol. 87).
Oratio bona ad beatum Henricum regem.
O bone rex regum Nos protege ab hoste maligno
Henrici meritis Vitam sine fine vivendo
Cum rectis animis Letemur in ethere summo
Et terre fundator Hominum deus atque redemptor
TO SAINTLY KING HENRY 129
Suscipe pro merito Henrici martiris almi
Qui pro salute Gens anglica munera laudis.
Versiculus. Alme Dei martir Henrice, tu memoriam
agentibus auxiliare.
O ratio.
Oremus. Deus cuius posse maximum, scire verissimum,
et peroptimum velle in splendoribus sanctorum relucet ;
presta quesumus,ut qui nostrorum acluum leuitate grauiter
premimur, tui vigoris brachiu, splendoris radio, amoris
pondere, subleuemur.
The exigence of a commemoration of the
saintly King in so many manuscripts and
printed Horae is a proof of the widespread
devotion of the English people to him. His
name, it is true, is not found entered in the
Calendars of Saints, nor in the Missals of the
period. This is what would be expected, since
his canonization had not been decreed by the
Church, and in no wise militates against the
popular cultus of the servant of God.
William Maskell, in his Monumenta Litu-
alia* prints an officium " de beato rege
Henrico."
Ant. Rex Henricus sis amicus, etc.
V. Ora pro nobis devote rex Henricus.
$. Ut per te, etc.
O ratio.
Praesta quaesimus Omnipotens et Misericors dominus
ut qui devotissimi Regis Henrici, etc.
* Ed. 1882, iii, 369.
K
130 POPULAR DEVOTION
He then prints:
Hanc orationem summus Pontifex Sixtus Romae
quartus composuit ad laudem et honorem gloriosissimi
regis Henrici regis Angliae post conquest sexti.
Beatus rex Henricus pauperum, etc.
Jr. Ora pro nobis beate Henrice pauperum et eccle-
siae, etc.
Or emus.
Deus qui beatum regem Henricum tuum sanftum
militem, etc.
This is printed from a MS.* in the British
Museum.
This Sixtine devotion does not appear in
any Sarum Horae, but in substance it is found
in the York Horae printed by Nic. le Roux at
Rouen, 1536. Here it runs:
COMMEMORATIO DE SaNCTO HeNRICO.
Rex Henricus pauperum et ecclesiae defensor, ad
misericordiam semper pronus, in Charitate fervidus, pie-
tate deditus clerum decoravit, quem Deus magnis virtuti-
bus et miraculis mirabiliter in populo suo Anglorum
beatificavit.
Jr. Ora pro nobis princeps Henrice.
#. Ut digni efficiamur promissionibus Christi.
Oratio.
Deus sub cujus ineffabile providentia universi reges
regnant et inperant, qui devotissimum regem Henricum
* Harl. MS. 5793.
TO SAINTLY KING HENRY 131
Anglorum regem, in charitate fervidum, miscris
afflidtis et male habentibus semper compassum, omni
bonitate innocentiaque conspicuum ut pie creditur inter
Angelos collocare dignatus es, concede propicius, ut
ipso cum omnibus santtis intervenientibus hostium nos-
trorum tollatur superbia, morbus et omne quod malum
est a nobis procul pellatur, palma donetur et gratia
Sanfti Spiritus nobis misericordiam tuam poscentibus
semper adesse dignetur.
Oui vivis, etc.
These and similar devotions and prayers
to King Henry are found very generally. For
example, in the larger and fuller 4to Horae
of Wynkyn de Worde, 1502 and 1523;
Bryckman, 1 5 1 6 ; Ruremund, 1520 and
1 531; Pynson, 1522. It is said also that
these prayers were printed in various editions
of Regnault, the most prolific printer of
Sarum books.
An Oratio de Beato Rege Henrico also appears
in Caxton's XV Oes in 149 1 ; and in Wynkyn
de Worde's Horae, or XV Oes, of 149 1
(printed at the commaundement of Elisa-
beth and pryncesse Margarite) on vellum.
Here it is entitled " Oratio de Beato Rege
Henrico, a prayer to holy King Henry."
Canon Hoskins, in his Catalogue of Primers
and Books of Hours, notes copies of this as
132 POPULAR DEVOTION
existing at Lambeth, Bodley, and two copies
in the Cambridge University Library.*
The above noted instances of the devotions,
prayers, hymns, and commemorations in
honour of the saintly King Henry will be
more than sufficient to show that his cultus
was widely spread throughout England up to
the very eve of the Reformation.
The Ada Sanftorum^ says that the obitus
of King Henry was entered in red letters in
the Calendar of a Sarum Breviary printed in
1557. The old English Martyrology of Wilson,
in great use by the Catholics in the days of
persecution, has his name entered sub Nomine
Sanfti Regis Henrici. The constant tradition
of Catholics in regard to the sanctity of this
holy English King may besl: be summed up
in the words of the authoritative Menology
published by the authority of the English
hierarchy in 1887:
Henry VI King a.d. 147 i
" The calamities of a long reign on earth
were the means by which God was pleased to
prepare this saintly Prince for the inheritance
* Most of this information I owe to the kind interest
of my friend, Mr. Falkner.
t Maii v, p. 127.
TO SAINTLY KING HENRY 133
of a Kingdom of endless bliss in the future
world. The life of Henry was blameless
from the first dawn of reason to its close. His
enemies v/ere many but none of them could
deny his purity, his devotion, his patience
under trials, or his placable disposition. He
did what his unhappy circumstances allowed
for the benefit of his people; he oppressed
them with no burdensome taxes or extra-
ordinary imposts, but wished all to live in
peace and contentment, as well the meanest
of his subjects as the great nobles. He had
always the interests of religion most at heart,
and founded the Colleges of Eton and King's
at Cambridge.
" After his cruel murder, the good King
was buried at Chertsey Abbey, and it was not
long before miracles began to attest his
sanctity. These, in the course of time, became
so numerous that Richard III was induced to
translate his remains to St. George's Chapel
at Windsor; perhaps as an act of reparation
for his share in the great crime. From that
time the sick and afflicted from all parts of
the country had recourse to the intercession of
Henry, and long lists of well-authenticated
graces were drawn up. Henry VII made
134 POPULAR DEVOTION
great efforts to obtain his canonization, and it
appears that Pope Julius II was prepared to
grant the petition, when the death of the King
postponed the proceedings, which were never
resumed. The sentiment of the nation,
however, has ever regarded King Henry VI
of Windsor as a saint, and compilers of our
more recent martyrologies have given him a
place among the eminent servants of God."
INDEX
ABa Sanftorutn, referred to,
132.
Alexander VI, Pope, 65, 75,
85.
Alexander, Dean, 60.
Algood, Lincolnshire, 119.
All Souls College, repre-
sentations at, 121.
Alton Church, painting at,
121.
Andre, Bernard, quotation
from, 52.
Andrew, Agnes, 112,
Anselm, St., 76.
Armenians, reconciliation to
the Church, 101.
Arthur, Prince, image in
chantry of, 121.
Ashton-under-Lyne, 121.
Astley, Joan, 2.
Aubery, Sir Robert, bequest
of, 120.
Augustinians, custodians of
royal relics, 120.
Barton Turf, Norfolk, 119.
Basle, Council of, attitude
of, 94-99.
Bath, 24, 70.
Bath and Wells, Bishop of.
See Beckynton, Thomas.
Beauchamp, Richard, Earl
of Warwick, 4.
Beaufort, Henry, Bishop of
Winchester, 1, 3, 5, 26.
Beckynton, Thomas, quota-
tions from, 45, 94.
"Bede roll," extraft from,
122.
Bedford, Duke of, establishes
a University, 39.
Besy, Alice, 112.
Besy, John, 1 12.
Black Friars, 14, 16, 58.
Blackman, John, life of
Henry VI by, 19-37, 72,
104.
Bodley, 132.
Bothe, Archbishop, 61.
'35
136
INDEX
Boys, Richard, story of, 70.
Bryckman, 131.
Buckingham, miracles at,
117.
Bury, Convent of, 8.
Bury St. Edmund, visit of
Henry VI to, 7.
Butler, Dame Alice, 2.
Caen, University of, Henry
VI's interest in, 39.
Calais, Henry VI crowned
at, 5.
Cambridge, miracle at, 69 ;
image at, 122.
Cambridge College, found-
ing of, 27, 28, 39-48, 57,
93> 133-
Canterbury, 5, 62.
Canterbury, Archbishop of,
, 75'
Canterbury, Archdeacon of,
62.
Capgrave, quotation from,
, 50-52-
Carthusian Order, 19.
Cassalis, Sir Gregory de, 90.
Catherine, Queen, 84.
Caversham, royal relics at,
120.
Caxton, 131.
Charles VI of France, 19.
Charter House, Bible pre-
sented to, 37.
Chepe, Henry VI's appear-
ance at, 3.
Chertsey, burial-place of
Henry VI, 15, 16, 55,
58, 64, 71, 81, 84, 133.
Chertsey, Abbot of, claims
made by, 83.
Chester, Bishop of, care in
appointing, 28.
Chichely, Archbishop, I.
Chichester, Bishop of, 69.
Church, unity sought for
the, 96-102.
Clarence, Duke of, 55..
Colleges, founded or helped
by Henry VI, 27, 39-50,
57? 76> x33; Indulgences
sought in founding, 93.
Constantine, pious example
of, 51.
Coventry, representations at,
121.
Craster, H. H. E., prayers
copied by, 128.
Cripplegate, 35.
Curteys, Abbot, 9.
Dublin Reviezv quoted, 119.
Dugdale's Monas tic on re-
ferred to, 9.
INDEX
*37
Durham, 61, 105, 127.
Durham, Bishop of, 75, 87.
Dyonyse, John, 112.
Dyonyse, Margaret, miracu-
lous restoration of, 112.
Edmund, half-brother to
Henry VI, 25.
Edmund, King, the Martyr,
painting of, 121.
Edmundsbury. See Bury St.
Edmund.
Edward IV, 13, 14, 54, 58.
Edward, Prince, son of
Henry VI, 14, 53.
Edward the Confessor, paint-
ing of, 121.
Elisabeth, 131.
Elmswell, 8.
Eltham, 3, 33.
Ely, Bishop of, 69.
England, 27; images set up
in, 119.
Eton, copy for present from,
122.
Eton College, the founding
of, 27, 28, 39-48, 57, 76,
93, 133; life at, 43.
Eugenius IV, Pope, 93, 95,
100 ; sends a "Golden
Rose," 9 ; Indulgences
from, 42.
Exeter, Bishop of, 66.
Eye Church, Suffolk, painted
portrait at, 1 19.
Fairford Church, sculpture
at, 121.
Fawcett, George, Abbot of
Westminster, claims made
by, 83.
Ferrara, Council held at,
97-
Florence, Synod of, 102.
Fox, D. Gardiner, 90.
Foxe, quotation from, 72.
France, 27, 94.
Frederick, Emperor, 100.
Freeman, Agnes, story of her
cure, 70.
Fuller, pilgrimage of, 71.
Gately, Norfolk, 119.
Gloucester, Humphrey,
Duke of, 8.
Gloucester, Richard, Duke
of, Henry VI's murderer,
14-17, 54, 61.
Gloucestershire, sculptures
in, 121.
" Golden Rose," the Pope's
gift of, 9.
i38
INDEX
Greeks attitude to the
Church, 98, 101.
Hacombleyn, Provost, paint-
ing at chantry of, 121.
Hampshire, painting at, 121.
Hargrave, John, miracle to
the son of, 115.
Harpesfield, Nicholas, quo-
tations from, 61, 103.
Henry V, 1, 4, 84; hon-
oured for great deeds, 64.
Henry VI, birth and parent-
age, I ; religious influence,
4, 7, 1°, J3> 27-31, 58,
62 ; coronations, 5, 50,
53, 73; marriage, 9, 53;
imprisonments and death,
14-17, 36, 50, 55,58,73,
133; character described,
1 9-3 7» 49-74, 133 5 founds
Eton and Cambridge Col-
leges, 27, 39-48, 133;
prayers of, 55, 123; de-
votion to him as a Saint,
60, 119-134; miracles at-
tributed to, 63, 103-118;
his relations with the
Church, 93-102.
Henry VII seeks canoniza-
tion for Henry VI, 54,
74-91 ; builds West-
minster, 86, 88 ; sculpture
of, 121.
Henry VIII, duties left to,
57; direction in his will,
91.
Henryof Germany, Emperor
Saint, 121.
Holy Trinity, 41.
Hoskins, Canon, 131.
Hungerford, Sir Walter, I.
Indulgences, conditions of,
42 ; belief in, 93.
Innocent VIII, Pope, 75, 78,
Islip, John, Sacrist of West-
minster, 85.
Jacqueline, Countess of Hol-
land, 1.
Jasper, half-brother to Henry
VI, 25.
John, Duke of Bedford, ap-
pointed Protector, 1, 3.
" John," Monk, identity of,
104.
Julius II, Pope, 57, 65, 74,
87, x34-
Kent, 1 10.
Key, John, no.
King, Oliver, Bishop of Bath
and Wells, 65, 104.
INDEX
139
King's College, Cambridge,
the founding of, 40, 57,
76, 133; painting at, 1 2 1 ;
lectern at, 122.
Lambeth, 132.
Leicester, Canons of, 13.
Lincoln Cathedral, 120.
Ludham, painting on screen
at, 121.
Lydgatc, 9.
Margaret of Anjou, marriage
of, 9, 14, 53-
Margarite, Princess, 131.
Martin V, Pope, 2, 94.
Mary, the Blessed Virgin,
revelations by, 37.
Mary, Princess, marriage
present to, 122.
Maskell, William, extraft
from, 129.
Mass, Henry VI as a server,
30 ; daily celebrations of,
42.
Menaevia, Bishop of, 65,
in.
Miracles, attributed to
Henry VI, 68-72, 74,
103-118.
Morgan, John, Dean of
Windsor, Bishop of St.
David's, 65, 85, 104, III.
Morton, Cardinal, 75, 78,
87.
Mottisfont, Hampshire, rea-
son for suppressing, 82.
Netter, Thomas, as Con-
fessor to Kings, 4.
New College, Oxford, 40,
50.
Norfolk, painting in, 121.
Normandy, Duchy of, 94.
Northamptonshire, cure for
man from, 1 17.
Northumberland, 105.
Oriel College, 50.
"Our Lady of Eton," 41,42.
Oxford, 50, 121.
" Parliament of Bats," 3.
Petrarch, Francesco, quota-
tion from, 25.
Pilton, relics at, 120.
Pius III, 87.
Pope, relations of Henry VI
with the, 93-102.
Pudsey Family, MS. from,
124.
140
INDEX
Regnault, 131.
Reynald, John, I 10.
Reyton, miracle at, 115.
Ripon Cathedral, images set
up in, 61, 119.
Rochester, Bishop of, 100.
Rome, 10, 42, 59.
Ross, John, quotation from,
12, 49.
Ruremund, 131.
Rye, miracle at, 1 12.
St. Albans, 8, 10, 35.
St. Andrew, 41.
St. Anne, 41.
St. Anselm, revelations made
by, 37-
St. Clement, 41.
St. Dunstan, revelations
made by, 37.
St. Edmund, 8.
St. George, Church of, 55.
St. Guthlac at Crowland, 1 3.
St. John the Baptist, revela-
tions made by, 37.
St. Louis, example of, 50.
St. Mary's Hall, representa-
tions at, 121.
St. Osmund, of Salisbury, 2.
St. Paul's Cathedral, Henry
VI's first appearance at, 2;
Henry VI's body at, 14,
16, 55, 58.
S. Pietro ad Vincula, 42.
Salisbury, miracle at, 69.
Salisbury, Bishop of, 69.
Sawyer, Joan, miraculous
cure of, 117.
Scholars, provision and main-
tenance of poor, 43.
Seymour, M. H., 1 15.
Shakespeare, on the death of
Henry VI, 15.
Sheppey, 1 10.
Sherman, John, 116.
Sigismund, Emperor, appeal
to, 96.
Smith, Mr. Leonard, quoted,
83, 119.
Speed, quotations from, 14,
72.
Stow, John, extracl from, 44,
58.
Stranger, John, 1 10.
Suffield, reason for suppress-
ing, 83.
Sussex, 105, 1 10.
Tewkesbury, 13.
Textwood, Robert, 72.
Thames, 16.
Theodore, Archbishop of
Cologne, message to, 96.
INDEX
141
Thorp, Master, 120.
Tower, imprisonment and
death of Henry VI, 14,
16, 36, 53, 58.
Town, Master Doftor, 30.
Towton, 1 3.
Trevelyan Papers, quotations
from, 122-125.
Tunstall, Richard, 33.
Ushaw College, extracl: from
primer at, 127.
Vergil, Polydore, quoted,
5+> 89.
Walden. See Netter,Thomas.
Wales, 105.
Walsh, Joan, miraculous cure
of, 117.
Walsingham, Our Lady of,
shrine visited, 9, 71.
Waltham, 37.
Warham, Archbishop of
Canterbury, 87.
Warwick, Earl of, 4.
Waynfleet, William, Bishop
of Winchester, 28.
West Harptree, 70.
Westminster Abbey, 3, 5, 81,
90.
Whethamstede, Abbot,
quoted, 10.
William, Bishop of Wyke-
ham, 40.
Wilson, referred to, 132.
Winchester, Bishop of, use
of a gift from, 26 ; care in
appointing, 28.
Winchester College, 40.
Windsor, 1, 29, 57 ; Henry
VI's burial at, 5 5, 58, 64,
71, 81, 82, 84, 133;
miracles at, 67, 71, 103,
106.
Windsor, Dean of, claims
made by, 83.
Wolsey, Cardinal, 90.
Worcester, Bishop of, care
in appointing, 28.
Worcester Cathedral, image
in chantry at, I 22.
Wynkyn de Worde, 127,
131-
York Cathedral, images set
up in, 1 19.
York Minster, Fabric rolls
quoted, 60.
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CHISWICK PRESS, TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE.
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