THE LAST KING OF ENGLAND AND FRANCE.* Tae first volume

of the documents edited by Mr. Stevenson, in illustration of the Anglo-French wars during the reign of our Henry VI., appeared in 1861, and has now been completed by two additional series of letters and papers, examined on both sides of the Channel, to which are annexed the " Annals of William of Worcester," the " Collections " by the same writer "concerning the affairs of France and Normandy," and a useful chronological abstract of all these materials together. Among the subjects on which new and interesting memorials have been found in the French archives and Imperial Library we may note in this volume the first misunderstandings of the English Government with their indispensable ally the Duke of Burgundy, and subsequently to the treaty which gave Henry a wife those difficulties about the surrender of Maine which led to the renewal of the war. The "Annals " which we mentioned are usually referred to in Hearne's edition, from which the present does not materially differ. They osten- sibly extend from 1324 to 1463, but are extremely meagre except in reference to a few transactions in the Civil War which fell under the author's personal observation. They are further em- bellished with two poems in rhymed Latin, namely, an elegy on Edward II. and an epitaph on Catherine of Valois. In some points these jottings tempt us to congratulate William of Wor- . The Last King of England and France. Letters and Papers Illustratire of the Wars of the English in France during the Reign of Henry the Sixth, Bing of England. Edited by the Rev. Joseph Stevenson, M.A., in. Published under the direction of the Master of the Rolls. Vol. IL London: Longman', 1851.

cester on what the French call "a talent for silence," which may have answered his purposes while alive better than it suits ours. Thus he notes in A.D. 1430 that " on the xxiij. day of May a certain woman called Pucelle de Dieu was taken prisoner by the English before the town of Compayne." We get no more from him respecting the Maid of Orleans : whether his views were as enlightened as Michelet's or as dark as Shakespeare's, they have not been abandoned to the criticisms of posterity. We may avenge ourselves by censuring his material statement, for the prisoner was not taken by the English but by the Burgundiaus.

Somewhat more interesting is the same writer's collection of memorials. It has been slightly used by Hearne, but he may not have known the whole of it, for it is now published partly from the same manuscript as the annals (in the Heralds' College) and partly from another in Lambeth Palace. Among a number of financial accounts, lists of officers employed or slain in different places, and of towns taken or surrendered, &c., it contains several very striking outlines of plans for the conduct of the war in France and Normandy at successive periods. These are con- tained in the instructions and suggestions of which the well-known Sir John Fastolf, who tarnished his reputation for courage by a single precipitate retreat from the powers of darkness and the Maid of Orleans, is the attested or the probable author in his character as a member of our military councils. From 1435, the year when the Duke of Burgundy was reconciled to France, these papers indicate a shrewd and resolute policy of a much sterner kind than was adopted until after the death of the Duke of Bedford. Beyond certain territorial limits the occupation of towns was not to be attempted, but replaced, as in Thucydidean campaigns, by a systematic devastation of the land ; or, in Sir John's language,-

" It semythe, nndere the noble correccion aboveaaid, that the King shuld doo ley no sieges, nor make no conquests outs of Normandie; for the sieges hathe gretely hindered his conquests in tyme passed, and distruyed his peple, as welle lords, capetaines, and chioftaines, as his others peple, and wasted and consumed innumerable good of his

finaunces Wherefor, it is thought° rights expedient, for the spade and avauncement of the King's conquest and distruying of his enemies, to ordeyn two notable chieftains, discrete and of one accords, havyng eithere of theme vij. c. 1. [750] spares of welle chosen men, and thei to holde tho felde contynuelly, and oostay to go vj., viij., or a. lekis [leagues] asondre in brede, or more or less afters there discretion; and ice of hem may answers to othere, and joigne togithers in cas of necessite. And that thei begyn to oostay frome the firste days of Jayne contynuelly unto the firste daye of Novembre, landing for the first tymo at Cubes or at Crotay, or the tone at Cabs and the tethers at Crotay, as shal be thonghte expedient ; and so holding fortho their way thoroughe Artois and Picardie, and so thorough° Vormandoys, Lannoys, Champaign° and Bourgoyne, bronnyng and distrnying alle the land as thei pas, bothe hous, corn; veignes, and alle treis that boron frnyte for mannys sustenance, and alle best,aile that may not be dryven to be distroiede."

The rigour of the proposed course is excused on two grounds, 1. Because " traitours and rebellis must nedis have another°

manere of werre, and more sharpe and cruelle werre, than a naturelle and anciene ennemye ; " and 2, on the plea of an alleged fact which ought to be further inquired into, viz. :-- " That the Kinge hathe offered unto his adversaries, as a goode Cristen prince, that alle menne of Holy Church° and also the cotnyns and labourers of the reaume of France, dwelling or being out of forteresse, shuld dwells in seuerte pesible, without werro or prince [prise, capture], but that the werro in eithere partio shuld be and rest alonly betwixt men of werre and men of werre ; the whiche offro the said adversarie have utterly refused, and be [7] concluded to make their werre cruelle and sharpe without sparing of any persona."

This looks as if the leaders of both nations had begun to think that the only boundary between them could be a desert so long as the English remained on the Continent. Further on the writer recommends that all treason should be punished rigor- ously, and that there should be no lax extensions of the privileges of clergy. Of the above-mentioned paper there is a copy in the Museum in the hand of Edward VI.

We are prompted to admire the high spirit and constancy of the veteran's suggestions for the defence of Normandy and Guienne in 1440, when Maine and Anjou were already lost to us. He proposes a levy of 40,000 soldiers, to be employed in five bodies in guarding Normandy and assailing several hostile provinces, and he observes (this time in well-spelled Latin) that according to common report there has been no instance in which 7,000 English soldiers, agreeing among themselves, have been overcome outside the kingdom. He has high notions of the income-taxes that might have been borne by the King's wealthier subjects to maintain these obsti- nate hostilities. He owns, however, that a party among his countrymen were indifferent to the preservation of their Con- tinental territory, and only wanted England to be left them, and to have peace with it. These he abuses as lukewarm, avaricious, and unpatriotic (tepidi et avari, facia regis et regni permit con- siderantes), but ho deems it necessary to allege several reasons for not trusting their policy as a safe one. It is fair to mention all his arguments on this point, but the shrewdest of them is involved in his prediction that the cessation of the war will be followed by civil dissensions. He alleges that if Guienne and Normandy were lost, the French and our other numerous adver- saries would obtain the command of the sea, and that the re- mainder of the English realm would have no security against their invasions. This apprehension might perhaps have been realized if the French Kings had been more intent on foreign conquest, and had not been sufficiently occupied in curbing the power of their own great vassals. He warns the English that their riches and a peace obtained by their concessions would be a burtheu and a misery to them, and that they had better hazard the expenses of a war abroad than tempt an invader by their wealth and ignominious sloth. He bids them dread the loss of Calais (taking for granted that it would be a very bitter one to their feelings), and urges the inhumanity and uncharitableness of abandoning many loyal nobles, speakers of English and speakers of French alike, and even commoners who for thirty- two years had sustained grievous burthens for the sake of the (Lancastrian) King, and on whom exorbitant ransoms might be im- posed if they fell into the hands of the adversary. Lastly, lie alleges the danger that many Englishmen, noble and otherwise, who during the war in France had been accustomed to live sumptu- ously, and would no longer be able to do so in England, might be drawn into attempts to overthrow the Government, against which also many disguised enemies, foreign and domestic, including the Welsh, Scotch, &c., would then rise in arms. It is a pity that Fas- tolf himself should afterwards have contributed to this very result by his alacrity in joining the York faction. But we may agree with him that the termination even of such a ruinous war involved a great immediate danger to the State. This danger seemed likely to be increased rather than lessened in proportion as it was deferred, but perhaps a better occasion might have been offered for confronting it if York, Warwick, and others had been kept fighting in France till they could have found an honourable grave there. The name of Fastolf frequently recurs in the "Annals and Collections of William of Worcester," who was his attached follower, and has recorded several particulars of his history.

One of the documents in this series, to which Mr. Stevenson invites special attention, is an inventory of the military stores found in the castle of Rouen upon the death of the Duke of Bedford. These include some pieces of considerable size, carry-

ing balls of six inches' diameter and upwards.

" None of them appear to have boon loaded at the muzzle,—the charge, having been placed in a moveable chamber, was inserted in the brooch. Each cannon was provided with several of these chambers in order to facilitate rapidity of firing. Hand-guns, probably wall- pieces, were also in store in the same place ; they were of brass, and were mounted, some upon stands on four feet, some upon frames called wooden horses [equi neinerei7] which ran upon wheels."

The account illustrates the rapid progress of artillery in this period, which so fur outstripped, according to Hume, all con- temporary progress in the arts of defence as to render sieges comparatively easy. A large portion of William of Worcester's documents relates to finance, and would require careful collations

and calculations to make it interesting and to remove some ap- parent inconsistencies. The prologue of the work (apparently by the author's son) includes a curious compliment to King Edward IV., as a representative of the four cardinal virtues, which are singularly enough enumerated as ''Justice, Prudence,

Force, and Temperance." Such a version of the list might not be unpleasing to the biographer of the Frederics of Prussia. It is further observed that the first letters of Edward's name are written over an erasure, so that the dedication may have been originally meant for his father, Richard Duke of York, who might certainly have been praised for temperance with more propriety than his son could.

The preface to these volumes is rather a general historical sketch of the French war than a treatise devoted to the utilization of the newly collected documents generally. The work is properly indexed, and the old French letters are translated, though not the Latin ; to these last a limited glossary might have been a useful appendage.