BOOKS.
ENGLAND AND PRANCE 'UNDER THE HOVER or LANCASTER, Tam author of this work does not differ from his predecessors who have related the same portion of our history, so much as to have rendered the publication of his narrative at all necessary. Nor is the notoriety of his facts relieved by any novelty of inference, any brilliance of description, any peculiar power of portrait-painting,. or any .profound philosophy. Great industry in collation of docu- ments is the characteristic of the book ; and the most proper form to have thrown the results of such industry into, would have been a series of critical essays corrective of minute errors, or clearing up doubtful points in the received histories of England and France. Vaulting ambition? overleaping itself as usual, has changed a critic of apparently Vast resources into an historian who seldom rises above a dead level of commonplace, who has none of that imagination which brings the past before the eye with something like the vi- vidness of the present, or of that faculty of experienced generali- zation which in single facts and traits of character can read the whole life of an epoch or a man, retouching and restoring for us the faded and mutilated inscriptions in which a bygone age always comes down to posterity. Worse than this, because a positive fault is more offensive than the absence of an excellence, the au- thor, in his horror of war, and his detestation of the vices that stained the ambition of the middle ages, is perpetually intruding upon his narrative a moral commentary, which, even if indispu- tably just and tree, is a thoroughly inartistic and therefore inef- fective method of producing the wholesome impression he intends, but which also needs a great deal of 5ualification before it can be allowed to be either just or true. Historians of this sermonizing tendency seem to forget that every age might retort upon the ac- cuser a to quoque, and that, though the forms of action have al- tered, it is very questionable whether modern history exhibits a really higher national morality than either ancient or mediaeval, while it is quite certain that the tendency to throw dirt upon the past is not the way to comprehend it. It may be inferred that we do not consider this work an important contribution to our his- torical literature. It might be this in spite of the absence of those qualities of which we have spoken, if it corrected gross misstatements or successfully cleared up existing doubts. But, with all its array of authorities and parade of learning, we recognize no broad results, with which the writings of Hallam, Palgrave, Lingard, Guizot, Sismondi, Miohelet, and Barante, have not long ago familiarized the student of history. If there has been a new sifting of the old evidence, the harvest is not so pro- ductive as to encourage a student to resort to the original sources, except indeed for the greater liveliness of impression events so studied make upon the mind. Those who have mastered the various acquirements, legal, lingual, financial, and chronological, which are essential to a profitable study of the original authorities on European Middle-Age history, would, we think, be conferring on their contemporaries and on posterity a far more valuable boon by editing those originals with ample notes and illustrations, than by compiling from them narrative after narrative, when they have little or nothing new to tell in the way of either fact or interpre- tation of fact. At present, writers on early history are too much divided into archaeologists who have no philosophy, and phi- losophers whose knowledge of facts is second-hand and inaccurate. The training that fits a man for hunting among dusty worm-eaten rolls and manuscripts often unfits him, or at least does not fit him, for perceiving the true significance of the facts that lie within i those faded parchments. We have long been of opinion that an in- troduction to the study of English history, furnishing a student with the technical knowledge requisite for understanding ancient documents and authorities, and a judicious, well-edited selection from such documents and authorities, forming together a cycle- paidia of our earlier national history, would be one of the most so- eeptable inheritances our age could leave to its successors, and not without political advantage of high importance. To value and to know well its own history, is the best education a people can have for the wise use of those political privileges the progressive at- tainment of which is the central idea of the history. The exe- cution of such a project simply demands an extended application of that principle and practice of cooperation which is already par- tially effective in our various literary and scientific societies, and which has produced and set to work a vast amount of energy that would probably have otherwise run to waste. Why cannot we do for our national history as much proportionately as the Bene- dictines did for the history of their order, their church, and eccle- siastical learning in general P The work which hes suggested these remarks embraces the whole of Henry the .Fifth's and that portion of Henry the Sixth's reign in which the English were in occupation of France. The earlier 114- formation, as it is sometimes called, in which Wyoliff played a leading part, forms the subject of an introduction. Nearly a third of the volume is occupied with notes and illustrations, among which is to be found whatever of value the book has. The narrative touches the constitutional history very slightly, the social not at all, but spreads itself out in details of the English invasion of France ; which could not by any art of the writer be made other than wearisome, as such details always must be except when they form the links of a great military plan, or can be narrated so minutely as to swell into biography or epic. The former is the • History of England and France under the House of Lancaster; with an Intro- ductory View of the Early Reformation. Published by Murray.
source of interest in Napier'e History of the Peninsular War; the latter is at any rate the principal charm of Froissart and his brother chroniclers, for the sake of reading whom Claverhouse proposed to give Colonel Morton six months' imprisonment. The author of the present work was prevented from availing himself of the former source of interest by the nature of the case, of the latter by his assigned limits. The siege of Rouen, admitting, as most sieges do, of being summed up into two or three general descrip- tions, is more satisfactorily handled than any other military tableau that can be extracted.
" The place was strong, both by its position on the Seine and by its works; the garrison was numerous, amounting to four thousand well-disciplined troops, under experienced officers ; the inhabitants had besides armed four times as many of their own body to defend the town. An obstinate resist- ance might therefore be expected; and, accordingly, a haughty answer was given to Henry's summons, whic he had accompanied with a threat of all extremities should they hold out. It was not,' the commanders said, 'the King of England who had committed the place to their care ; nor should he obtain any part of it but what he won by his arms.'
"As the blockade continued, the sufferings of the wretched inhabitants became truly deplorable. Their numbers are probably exaggerated by contain-
writers but they must have greatly exceeded a hundred thousand ; rifardside the 'townspeople, many had taken refuge within the walls when driven from other places, and bringing their property with them for protec- tion against the depredations of the English troops. The siege, too, began just before the harvest ; so that there was less than the ordinary supply of provisions. One of the first precautions taken by the commandant, Guy le Bouteillior, was to send twenty thousand destitute persons out of the town many women and children were thus thrown upon the enemy's hands ; but directed his troops to send among them a shower of arrows, the bows slightlyy drawn, in order rather to frighten them back into the town than to hurt them. The miserable creatures, as might easily have been foreseen, were unable to regain the place, and took shelter in the ditches ; where they remained for dayi in the utmost distress, many of the women being actually taken in labour while thus exposed. It is said that the groans of this wretched multitude at length moved both the assailants and the garrison, so as to ob- tain from the former a supply of food, and from the latter leave to return. The sufferings of the people in the town were truly dreadfuL Every animal, how disgusting soever, that could be eaten, was devoured; not horses alone, and asses, but dogs, cats, rats, mice. But of these the supply was neces- sarily limited, and all kinds of skins and leather were greedily seized on in the vain hope that nourishment might be extracted from them. Thus the pangs of hunger were soon exchanged for those of sickness, the constant fol- lower in the train of famine i• and contemporary historians paint in the moat dismal colours the wretchedness which now prevailed; the air filled with howling and groans, the houses and streets with the dead and the dying ; ro- bust men prostrate, as if paralyzed; women frantic from the unhappy fate of their offspring; infants clinging to the breasts of mothers, already dead ; Maidens prostituting themselves for a morsel of bread ; and other scenes not to be commemorated lest disgust should be mingled with pity. Nor was it the least of the evils which fell upon this unhappy city, that the law lost all its force, and whether maddened with hunger or with passions of a more guilty origin, the common people regarded no rights of person or of property as sacred. For five long months did this misery endure, and above thirty thousand were cut off beside those who perished by the sword. "The courage of the besieged was of the very highest order and of every kind. No opportunity was left unimproved of engaging the enemy when it was possible to sally forth and combat. But the more rare and more difficult virtue of fortitude also shone conspicuous. When Henry, reckoning upon the effects of their unparalleled Sufferings, intimated that he would grant no terms, and required them to surrender at discretion, they with one voice re- fused, and desired that their agonies might continue, preferring to sink under hunger and pestilence rather than trust to the mercy of one quite capable of delivering them over to the executioner. To one of their deputations he gave for answer, that they deserved their fats, because by their resistance they flew in the face of Heaven, which had plainly decided in his favour by the vic- tories he had been allowed to gain. To another, he complained bitterly of a prelate rho had preached against him, and on whom he vowed he should be revenged : nor was his vow broken. 'The garrison, thus treated and thus threatened, resolved to make one great and last efort, as every application at Paris for help was met with the statement that the civil war required all the troops which could keep the field. They determined to undermine the wall for many yards, and to prop it with timber, which being set on fire, and bringing down the stones, would leave a large gap, by which their whole armed force might rush, and in a compact body cut its way through the be- sieging army,. trusting to chance for the saving of their wretched lives. The rumour of this desperate but formidable design reached Henry, and he allowed them to capitulate, though upon terms very different from those which their gallant defence deserved. All property was to be safe, provided the owner swore allegiance to England. The persons and possessions of those who refused were to be at the King's mercy. A sum of nearly half a mil- lion was to be paid,- one moiety within ten days, the remainder in five weeks. The whole personal property, to the very ornaments of their uniforms, was to be taken from the brave garrison ; and this cruel and insulting stipula- tion was so rigorously enforced, that the officers were stripped as they marched out; and hence those who came behind and witnessed this outrage cast into the river such things as they could not conceal about their persons. Finally, seven individuals were exempted from the amnesty granted. One of them, the leader of the Commons, Allan Blanche, Henry caused to be beheaded immediately after the surrender; • another, the prelate, of whom mention has been made, ended his days in a dark and loathsome dungeon. The payment of ransom enabled the rest to escape with their lives. " When Henry entered the town, with a splendour and a pomp which formed a mighty contrast to the condition of his miserable conquest, he first of all proceeded to the cathedral, and, kneeling at the great altar, com- manded the priests to sing a Te Deum for his success. It is unnecessary to inquire what must have been the effect of this pious scene upon the unhappy people, the victims of his sordid and bloodthirsty ambition, when now they beheld him profaning their church and insulting its pastors by his orders to thank Heaven for the unexampled sufferings he had been permitted to in- flict upon themselves and their native land."
The reader will perceive the vigour and ease of style that denote a powerful mind and a practised hand. It is the same through- out, especially in those parts of the narrative which are not en-
cumbered with uninteresting military details. The story of Lord Cobham—Sir John Oldeastle--is told in the earlier pages with ani- mated sympathy ; thotig], to our thinking, from an altogether nineteenth-century point of view, and consequently without its proper time-colouring. A learned note on Sir John Oldeastle's dis- puted barony gives occasion to a severe and vehement censure of
Makspere and the English people, grounded on-a presumed inten-
tion of ridiculing the said Sir John under the character of Fal.. staff. A more absurd charge, founded on a more exaggerated sen- timent, never was advanced. Those who wish to see this contro- versy handled with spirit and good sense as well as learning may refer to Charles Knight's introduction to the old play entitled Str John Oldcastle and ascribed to Shakspere. In fact, the charge is thoroughly exploded, and ought never to have been revived. We notice, too, that the author has adopted without comment the fa- vourable version of the story of Henry the Fifth and Chief Justice Gascoigne. The absence of comment shows that be is not aware of the overwhelming evidence to the contrary version which Mr. Foss has recently brought forward. Nor is the assertion that " Salk land" "is no description of France, but of a Germanic territory,"— (p. 91,)—supported though it be by a foot-note referring to Brough. am's Political Philosophy, sufficient to counterbalance the accumu- lated proofs that " Sdie land" is land held by the original Salim; Franks and their descendants on a kind of military tenure, imply. ing personal service, and therefore reasonably not inheritable by women. Agnes Sorel, who used to figure in this period of history, has been eliminated by a ruthless accuracy of dates, and our pre- sent author does not condescend to bestow a passing word upon the French Nell Gwynne. En revanche, historical research has only added reality and distinctness to her who id the most veritable romance in ancient or modern history, Jeanne d'Are, or Dare if Michelet is right. Here is a good summary of the evidence for and against the theory that she survived many years her supposed exe- cution at Rouen.
"M. Turpin (Sup. de l'Enoyclop. i. 531) states the grounds upon which many contended that the woman was not an impostor who appeared the year after Bedford's death and declared she was Joan. First, seven weeks were suffered by the Bishop of Beauvais to elapse between the last sentence and the execution ; which it is suggested one so anxious for her death never would have done, except that there was delay in finding the capital convict to be substituted for her. But no delay whatever took place; and even if there had, it was easily explained by the efforts made to obtain a second con- fession from her. Secondly, Charles making no effort in her behalf is urged. But plainly no reliance is to be placed on this argument. Thirdly, a grant is produced from the Due d'Orleans in 1443 to Pierre, brother of the Maid, proceeding upon his petition, (supplication,) in which he represents his loyalty, and especially his services to the Crown in accompanying his sister when she left her country, and he adds that he had constantly been with her ever since. Fourthly, the woman married in 1436 the Sieur des Ar- moises, (some accounts have it Hermoises,) a gentleman of good property. The contract of marriage between Jeanne du Lis (the name her family had been allowed by Charles to take) and Robert des Armoises is stated by P. Tiguier, Dean of St. Thiebalt of Metz, to have been seen by him. The MS. of the Dean is cited by Dom Calmet, as is the contract ; and it must be ob- served that Metz was the place where she said she had resided after her es- cape and before she returned to her home. M. Turpin naturally remarks upon the impossibility of believing that an impostor could have deceived the Maid's own brothers, Peter and John. He does not show that John was de- ceived, but the MS. mentions John's belief as well as Peter's. It is to be observed that theimpostor was perfectly successful, not only in persuading the Chev. des Armaises, but many others, including the Dean himself. She resided some time at Metz with her husband, and she had also so far de- ceived the Comte de Vunembourg that he had armour made which he pre- sented her with. The marriage was at Brion: ' Li (says the Metz MS.) fit fait le manage de M. des Hermoises, chevalier, et de Gehanne is Pucelle, et puis apras a'en vint le dit Sieur avec sa femme is Pucelle demeurer a Metz,
et se tint lit jusqu'i tent leur plaisit eller.'
" M. Turpin observes, that it would be better at once to deny the whole story, in than to suppose, as some have done, that she persuaded the brothers. i But it is possible that they may have been n league with her to deceive M. Armoises and the Due d'Orleans. Lord Mahon, however, adds (from Petitot) a very important fact, which cannot be got rid of by any such hypothesis. The Receiver-General's accounts at Orleans contain, it seems, three entries for money paid in 1436 to entertain the Maid and her brothers; in 1439, to entertain In dame Jehanne des Armoises ; and in August 1439, for a gift to the same lady on account of her great services at the siege. This appears in Petitot's Coll. de Mem. tome viii. 311. His Lordship justly remarks on the difficulty of supposing 'that the people of Orleans could have been deceived respecting her person (Hist. Ess. pt. i. 54) ; and it must be recollected that the first of these entries relates to a-period when there must have been many still living who well remembered the siege only seven years before. M. Petitot escapes from the difficulty, and does not meet it. " There seems but one means of escaping from the conclusion to which these circumstances lead. It is not easily to be supposed that the fact of her having escaped from her enemies should have been concealed both by Charles and his partisans, and by the friends of Bedford ; and in the proceeding, in 1456, for her vindication at the instance of her brothers, it seems incredible that the fact of her having survived should not have been brought forward, had not the imposture at that time been thoroughly exposed and forgotten."
Our criticism has been upon this book considered as a narrative of events. As such we cannot consider that it performs the promise which the appearance of a new history elaborately furnish- ed. with appeals to authority seems to make. On the other hand, there are many discussions of particular points in the notes carried on with admirable learning, and with a perpetual reference to books and documents, which enables the reader, if he pleases, to ex- tend the discussion for himself. Finally, the book is handsome and altogether well got up.
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