D A UC-NRLP B 4 071 ISq iHE CRUSADE OF 1383 GEORGE M. WRONG PROi biSSOR OF HISTORY IN THE I NIVERSTTY 0¥ TORONTO / The accompanying study was written and printed many years ago. It is now distributed as a reminder of a former invasion of Flanders and an earlier assault on Ypres. THE CRUSADE OF 1383. THE CRUSADE OF 1383. THE CRUSADE OF MCCCLXXXIIL, KNOWN AS THAT OF THE BISHOP OF NORWICH, BY GEORGE M. WRONG, B.A., LECTURER IN HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO. 6 SOUTHAMPTON-STREET, STRAND, LONDON; AND 27 BROAD-STREET, OXFORD. 1892. / 't\V PRINTED BY JAMES PARKER AND CO,, CROWN YARD, OXFORD. PREFACE. THE war-cry of the Crusades in their earlier and better days aroused the generous enthusiasm of thousands to rescue the Cross from its Eastern slavery. But the best impulses of mankind have usually been made the instruments of design- ing selfishness. The war-cry became in time a political tool, and lost its moral power. Many at- tempts were made to revive it, and in this little 'volume the story of one of these is told. The scene is not the distant and mysterious East, but common- place Flanders ; and the Cross is not arrayed against the Standard of the Prophet but against the Cross carried by schismatic hands. The material for the story is scattered, and when it is not scanty it is un- trustworthy in its detail. While I have been work- ing upon it a sceptical friend has said to me re- peatedly, *' We know nothing about the past." I am convinced that he is wrong. The scattered records are fragments broken from the great whole. A thick coating of mistake and passion often covers them, and it is difficult to separate the error from the truth ; but sound historical science working from its knowledge of human nature which has remained un- changed, can recall with' accuracy, if not with com- 344378 vi PREFACE. pleteness, the vivid life of a past time if it has even scanty contemporary records. The contents of this book were at first intended to form part of a larger work on the history of England in the latter part of the fourteenth century. Circumstances have made necessary the immediate publication of this portion of it. The notes are inserted as guaranty and proof of statements made. They are intended for the use of special students ; others may safely ignore them. Oxford, September 2, 1892. CONTENTS. I. The Conflict at Rome. page Death of Gregory XI. — Election of Urban VI. — His quarrel with the Cardinals — The Schism — Rejection of Clement VII., the Antipope, by England — Urban VI. proclaims a Crusade against the Schismatics i II. The Bishop of Norwich. His ancestry — His early career — Made Bishop of Norwich — His character — Riot at Lynn — Quarrel with St. Alban's Abbey — Suppresses rebels — Ap- pointed to lead the Crusade . . . .10 III. England and Flanders. The two Crusades — The state of Flanders — The position of Ghent — The capture of Bruges — The Count of Flanders' appeal to France — Van Arte- velde's appeal to England — The discussion in Parliament — The Battle of Roosebeke . .18 IV. The Work in the English Parishes. The Crusade proclaimed in England — The Bishop of Norwich takes the Cross — The offer of Indul- gences — The Church's System of Discipline — The Church's support of the Crusade — The Parish Priest— The Monk— The Friar — The Campaign of the Friars — Wycliffe's opposition — The Friars' success . . . . . .26 Vili CONTENTS. V. The Setting Out. page Affairs in Flanders — The Meeting of Parliament — Opposition of Party of John of Gaunt — The Grant to the Bishop of Norwich— The gathering of the Army — The chief officers — The final arrangements — The Bishop crosses to Calais . 45 VI. The Campaign in Flanders. The delay at Calais — The materials for the history — Attack upon and capture of Gravelines — The defeat of the Bastard of Flanders — The Conquest of West Flanders — The effect of the victories in England — The siege of Ypres — The advance of a French army — Final assault of Ypres — The siege raised — The retreat — Calverley abandons Bergues 55 VII The End of the War. John of Gaunt gathers an army — King Richard's ride — The Royal Council — The siege of Bour- bourg — Distress of the French — A truce — With- drawal from Bourbourg — Gravelines destroyed-— The Bishop returns to England — Accused in Par- liament — His defence and sentence — Truce with France — The effect of the Crusade . . . 8 r Appendix . Index 92 95 I. The Conflict at Rome. VOLTAIRE once said of the Holy Roman Empire that it was nothing that it professed to be. It was neither Holy nor Roman nor an Empire. It would be perhaps too unjust to say that the Crusade of 1383 was based upon an equally barren theory to which it conformed as little, although the war that claimed to be holy did not justify its title. It was modelled upon those greater Crusades, the mention of which calls up a romantic picture of war between the East and the West. These Crusades had, how- ever, been dead for a hundred years, and the one the English made on behalf of Pope Urban VI. in 1383 was only a campaign in Flanders. Pope Gregory XL died at Rome on March 27, 1378. Turbulent Rome was more than usually turbulent at the time of his death. Seventy-three years earlier Pope Clement V. had set what the Romans regarded as the bad fashion of a Pope living away from Rome and from Italy. The devoted adherent of the King of France, he took up his residence at Avignon in Pro- vence, so near the French territory as to be under French control, and did not even visit Rome as Pope. His example proved enduring. For two generations the Romans scarcely saw the Holy Father, whose claim to the reverence of Christen- B 2 • The Crusade of 1383. dom was based upon his succession to the Roman See. Nor was their loss only a spiritual one. The Pope's Court was a centre to which multitudes thronged. Embassies and deputations, pilgrims and travellers came, and the devout brought a more material good than their prayers. Without the Pope Rome was a provincial city torn by faction ; with him in her midst, the factions did not dis- appear, but the city took Imperial rank. To this day, however hostile to the political claims of the Papacy the Roman may be, he is proud that his city is the home of a power so august and universal. But the freer movement of modern life has weakened local sentiment. It was intense at Rome when Gregory XL died. With the Pope dead in their midst the Romans saw that their opportunity had come, and they acted promptly. They stationed guards at the city gates and bridges, that the Cardinals should not hurry away and elect Gregory's successor in some other place. Sixteen of the twenty-three Cardinals who then formed the sacred College were in Rome, and it would be the Romans' fault if every effort was not made to secure a Pope who should remember his duty to Rome and to Italy. The chief officers of the city waited upon the Cardinals to urge that a Roman, or at least an Italian, should be chosen, and for the ten days between the death of Gregory and the election of his successor every resource of public and private influence was used to accomplish the desired end. Eleven of the sixteen Cardinals The Conflict at Rome. 3 were French, four were Italian, one was Spanish, and the Avignon Captivity had established the tradition of subservience to France. On the evening of April 7, 1378, the great square of St. Peter's was thronged with a crowd intensely- interested in the Papal election which should take place on the following morning in the adjoining Vatican Palace. It was with difficulty that the Chamber in which the Cardinals were to pass the night was cleared of the crowd which had thronged in. At last the Cardinals were left alone, but their rest was disturbed. The people in the square kept up a tumult throughout the night. At daybreak the campanile of St. Peter's was broken open, and the clanging bells summoned a greater crowd. The shouts which penetrated even to the ears of the Cardinals inside the Palace were " A Roman, A Roman ! We wish a Roman, or at least an Italian, for Pope ! " When they went to Mass in the morning the shouts were so loud that they could scarcely hear the service. It is difficult to say what effect the tumult of the populace had upon the minds of the Cardinals, Probably it convinced them that delay was impos- sible, and so curtailed the usual intrigues and nego- tiations. The result was that a rapid compromise was effected. A man was chosen who had not been the candidate of any of the rival factions, and his election, after some delay, was announced to the people. Bartolommeo Prignano, Archbishop of Bari, the 4 The Crusade ^/ 1 3 8 3 . new Pope, had been hitherto known as a man of austere life and of considerable executive ability. He was an Italian, but not a Roman, and the announcement of his election excited the fierce wrath of the Roman populace. Concealment alone saved the new Pope's life, but on the following day i the Romans were of a better mind. They forgave ■ the failure to elect a Roman when they remem- bered that they had secured an Italian. The Pope \ was crowned as Urban VI. on Easter Sunday, April 18, 1378, and the Cardinals at Rome wrote on the following day to their brethren at Avignon an- nouncing the election, and declaring that it had been made freely and unanimously. But a new storm was brewing. Urban, on the day after his Coronation, rebuked some of the pre- lates and bishops then in Rome for leaving their Dioceses and neglecting their duties, and the re- bukes were not in mild terms. Fourteen days later he publicly and bitterly reproached the Car- dinals for their immoral lives, and he denounced the simony that they and so many others high in office in the Church practised. The Cardinals were dismayed. They had hoped that a Pope, elevated suddenly from a much lower rank, would respect the dignity and the opinions of men whom he had long regarded as superiors. They found that they had a contemptuous master who exag- gerated his authority. It was ruffling to Cardinal Orsini's dignity to be called, as Urban once called him point blank, a fool, and the other Cardinals did The Conflict at Rome, 5 not escape insult. Urban would interrupt their remarks with such comments as " Rubbish," " Hold your tongue." He had indeed moral zeal, but his manners were intolerable. The two darling wishes of a majority of the Car- dinals were that the Papal Court should return to Avignon and that the Papacy should continue sub- servient to France. The Cardinals were prisoners in whatever place the Pope held his court, and they enjoyed the luxury of Avignon while they dreaded the semi-barbarism of Rome. It was not strange also that a body of men, for the most part French, should favour the policy of the King of France. Urban, however, had no intention of com- plying with either wish. He announced that he should take up his residence in Rome, and hoped to die there, and he soon declared his intention to create new Roman and Italian Cardinals, and thus to destroy the French majority. This announcement brought the disputes between him and his Cardinals to a crisis. Vain efforts to alter the Pope's determination resulted in an open breach. The Cardinals who had meanwhile with- drawn from Urban^s court were at last united at Fundi in the early autumn of 1378. On Sept. 18 Urban, who was at Tivoli, created twenty-eight new Cardinals, and thus placed his enemies in the minority. This made prompt action on their part necessary. They declared that Urban's election was invalid because it had been forced upon them by the Roman populace, and that the Papal chair 6 The Crusade ^/ 1383. was vacant. On September 20 they proceeded to fill it. Robert of Geneva was chosen, and took the title of Pope Clement VII. Thus arose the great Schism, from which the Crusade of 1383, known in English history as the Bishop of Norwich's Crusade, sprang. Each Pope had a certain show of right on his side. The sup- porters of Urban claimed that the Cardinals had not the right to undo what they had the right to do. Urban had been duly elected, and the authority of the Cardinals ended there. On the other side it was urged that there had been no true election. No one could doubt that the crowd outside the Vatican was a threatening crowd, likely to use violent measures if their wishes were not met. The Cardinals had voted under compulsion, and only a free election was valid. History has pronounced in favor of Urban's claims, but the case was in truth a fine one for the lawyers, some of whose con- temporary opinions may still be read i. Questions, however, which involve large national interests may be influenced but can never be finally determined by legal logic, and it was soon seen * The chief authorities consulted for this sketch are : — Conciliengeschichte von Carl Joseph von Hefele 6"^ Band (1890), pp. 727 — 791. Bishop von Hefele gives at length the statements on either side. Geschichte der Pdpste seit de?}i Aftsgang des Mittelalters, von Ludwig Pastor I' Band (1886), pp. 95—102. " History of the Papacy during the Reformation," by M. Creighton (now Bishop of Peterborough). Vol. I. (1882), pp. 55—66. The Conflict at Rome. 7 that the nations of Europe would attach themselves to the side that their political desires favoured. Clement was the nominee of France. It was, there- fore, quite certain that England, France's foe, would adopt Urban's side. For the Cardinals concerned the question was one that involved something more than spiritual interests. Now-a-days we think of a Dean or Canon of an English Cathedral as an Eng- lish gentleman holding a position of high dignity in his own land. In the days of the Schism, how- ever, many of the dignitaries of the English Church were Italian ecclesiastics who had never seen Eng- land and could not speak a word that should be understood by its people i. For some of the re- bellious Cardinals the problem in regard to England was a serious financial one. If England joined Urban every penny of their English revenues would be handed over to the rival Pope. Envoys from both sides came to England, and at a Parliament held at Gloucester in October, 1378, Clement's representatives made an able argument. In vain. '* By the will of the Lord God who dis- poses all things justly the apostate envoys were repulsed," says a St. Alban's Chronicler 2. The Archbishop of Canterbury preached m public against Clement, or as he was called by Urban's side, ' The frequent Royal Warrants for the transfer of Church revenues to Pope Urban, or in some cases to other foreign nominees, show how- numerous the English benefices thus held were. See Rymer's Fcedera, passiin. "" Chronicon Angliae, Ed. by E. M. Thompson, R. S., p. 212. 8 The Crusade ^1383. Robert, from the suitable text, "There shall be one Shepherd of all" (Ezek. xxxvii. 24 1), and political and ecclesiastical feeling in England led the nation with some enthusiasm to the side of Urban. The Parliament declared forfeit all the revenues of the Cardinals in England, and enacted that persons recognizing anyone but Urban as Pope should be deprived of their goods 2. The Schism was now irrevocable. Each Pope denounced the other as worse than heathen, and called upon Europe to crusade to suppress the usurper. It is unnecessary for us to follow here the dreary conflict in the wider field. We are concerned only with its effect in England in bringing about the Crusade of 1383. The Schism introduced into international conflicts, already sufficiently bitter, the intensity of religious passion. Englishmen who had hitherto fought Frenchmen on national grounds were now to be exhorted in the terms that the Bishop of Norwich and Sir Hugh Calverley used at Gravelines in the opening fight of the Crusade : "You fight in the cause of God and of the whole Church. Those who die in this cause will be martyrs. There is no less merit in killing such dogs as these (the French and Flemings) than in destroying as many Jews or Saracens 3." The Bulls which Pope Urban issued calling the ' Chron. Ang.^ p. 212. =^ 2 Ric. II. Stat. i. c. 7 (" Statutes of the Realm," ii. 11). 3 Historia Anglicana^ by Thomas Walsingham. R. S., ii. 89. The Conflict at Rome, 9 English people to his aid are almost frantic in their passion i. Yet it would be easy to exaggerate the intensity of feeling which his call to arms excited. The theorizing spirit of the Middle Ages was apt to spend itself in language, and Pope Urban used especially strong language. With his mihtary im- potence, language was his only resource, and he must make it go as far as possible. His adherents used similar phrases. Yet we are surprised that it all produced so little effort. The Crusaders were to receive pardon for their sins, and sinners both rich and poor heard the message gladly. The cause called forth its devoted adherents ; yet probably no campaign was undertaken that should not have been undertaken on other grounds. It was not really against Robert of Geneva, who falsely called himself Pope Clement VII., that the English fought. The more ignorant or pious may have thought that the war was a holy war. It was convenient that they should think so. But the politicians and the business men of the time knew better. It was against the enemies of English commerce in Flan- ders and the enemies of English claims in France that the crusading force was arrayed. ^ See the one in Walsingham, ii. 72 — 76. 11. The Bishop of Norwich. AMONG the youngest and most active of the English Bishops at this time was Henry De- spenser, Bishop of Norwich. He was now about forty years of age, and in 1382, when the movement for the crusade began, had been Bishop of Norwich for twelve years. The ancestry of Despenser was such as to make his military tastes and even his imperious temper quite natural. The first pro- minent member of the family was Hugh Despenser, Justiciar of England, who, siding with his fellow Barons in the Barons' war, was killed with Simon de Montfort at the Battle of Evesham in 1265^. From him to the Bishop of Norwich the family is remark- able for the stormy careers of its chief members. In the direct line during this period every one met with a violent death. The son and grandson of the Jus- ticiar were Hugh Despenser the Elder and Hugh Despenser the Younger, who became the chief ad- visers of Edward H., and were known by the con- temptuous name of ^ favorites.' Days of misfortune came for them and for King Edward. The Queen Isabella and Roger Mortimer, Earl of March, drove ^ " Chronicles Edward I. and Edward II." Edited by W. Stubbs. Rolls Series, i. 69. The Bishop of Norwich, II them into the West and the elder Despenser at last surrendered to the Queen at Bristol, on October 26, 1326. The mob clamoured for his execution, and it took place on the next day. He died the terrible death of a traitor. His bowels were torn out and burned before his eyes ; he was then hanged, be- headed, and quartered. Within less than a month his son met with a similar fate at Hereford, and the estates and titles of father and son were declared forfeit ^. The younger Despenser, who had married Eleanor, sister and co-heiress of Gilbert, Earl of Gloucester, and niece of Edward IL, was the Bishop of Norwich's grandfather, so that the Bishop was not remotely connected with the Royal family 2. The widowed lady appeared before Queen Isabella and her young son Edward HI., and pleaded that the property which she had possessed in her own right might be rescued from her husband's forfeited estates. The just claim was granted. Edward HI. at a later period exercised a recognized feudal right and married her son Edward to a daughter of Sir Ralph Ferrars, one of his knights, and this Edward De- spenser, father of the Bishop of Norwich, also died a violent death. He was killed at the siege of Vannes in 1342, five years after his marriage, when Henry Despenser, the future Bishop, was a mere I << " Chronicles Edward I. and Edward II." Edited by W. Stubbs. Rolls Series, i. 322 ; ii. 87 — 89 ; 289. Knighton, 2544 and 2547-49 ; Walsingham, i. 183-5 J Froissart, ii. 78 — 80. ^ ** Chronicles Edward I. and Edward II," i. 292. 1 2 The Crusade ^y 1 3 8 3 . infant I. We know nothing of the Bishop's youth. His three brothers were all soldiers, but he became at an early age an ecclesiastic and a Canon of Salisbury 2. His brother Edward was in Froissart's admiring eyes the beau-ideal of a chivalrous Knights, and the Canon of Salisbury, although an ecclesiastic, joined him in a campaign in Italy on behalf of Pope Urban V. 4 The elder brother may have performed some distinguished service which claimed the Pope's gratitude, or persistent solicitation on the spot may have proved efficacious. At any rate the valuable appointment to the See of Norwich, then one of the chief cities in England, was given to Henry Despenser before he was thirty years of age 5. He was conse- crated, at Rome it is alleged, on April 20, 1370^, and returned to England soon after 7, not to forget his camp life but to take meanwhile a prominent part in the work of the Bishops in Parliament ^. On the Bishop's tomb in Norwich Cathedral were ^ He was the youngest of four children, and his father had been married five years. Froissart, ii. io6. ^ Rymer's Fcedera^ Record Ed., iii. pt. ii. p. 900. 3 Froissart, ii. 106. 4 Froissart, vii. 251 ; x. 210. Capgrave, " Chronicles of England," Rolls Series, 226. s Capgrave, De lllustribus Henricis, p. 1 70. ^ Le Neve's Fasti, ed. by Hardy, ii. 465. Wharton, Anglia Sacra, i. 4i5n. 7 He received the spiritualities of his See from the Archbishop of Canterbury, July 12, 1370 (Wharton, as above), and the temporalities from the King, August 14. (Rymer, iii. pt. ii. 900.) ^ His name occurs frequently on Committees of Parliament. RoiuL Pari, passim. The Bishop of Norwich. 13 described various traits of his character, and among them it was told that his morning meditation as his thoughts arose heavenward was, ^ The Earth is the Lord's 'I. This thought interpreted in the spirit of one who was both a mediaeval churchman and by his connections a great noble, gives us the key to his character. There is nothing to show that he was lacking in spiritual sincerity, but he mixed his pastoral functions strangely with conflicts about worldly trifles. The Earth was the Lord's, and he was the Lord's agent in the part of the heritage committed to him. Those who tampered with his rights were trifling with what the Lord had esta- blished. The defect of the principle was that it encouraged arrogance in the Lord's representative. A few incidents well illustrate his character. Lynn, an important town in his Diocese, was known later as Lynn Regis or King's Lynn, but it was at the time of which we speak, Lynn Episcopi or Bishop's Lynn. The Bishops of Norwich were over -lords of the town. The practise at Lynn was that when the Mayor went through the streets in procession he was preceded by a mace-bearer with the civic staff, but custom had not granted this honor to the Bishops of Norwich. In 1377 Despenser visited Lynn as Bishop, and when the procession was being formed in his honor, demanded to have the civic staff borne before him. He was lord of the town, and of higher rank than the ^ Spirat ad astra boni Pastoris mens matutinis dicendo ** Domini est terra." Capgrave, De Ilhistribus Henricis, Rolls Series, 174. 14 The Crusade of 1 2,^1. Mayor. The aldermen said it would be dangerous to do it. The people were evilly disposed already, and would resent the innovation, and might kill those granting it. The Bishop, however, insisted. He would do what he wished even if the ribald mob did not like it. He was surprised at the cowardice of the aldermen, and their fear of the common people, who were, he said, of no account ^. The aldermen begged that they at any rate might be excused from the procession, and the Bishop started, one of his own company bearing the staff. It was now growing dark. The alarm spread among the people. They closed the town gates and attacked the Bishop. He and his horse and some of his company were wounded, and there was a very lively disturbance which re- quired royal intervention before it was finally settled 2 In another case the Bishop asserted his rights against privileged ecclesiastics. Three years after the fight at Lynn he had a dispute with the power- ful Abbey of St. Alban's. A recent Convocation had granted to the King a tax of one-tenth on the clergy. The Bishop of Norwich ordered the Prior of Wymundham, a Priory in his Diocese belonging to the Abbey of St. Alban's, to do the distasteful work of ^ His tone was that of the dominant class of the time towards the common people. "Faceret quae proposuerat, invitis commiinibus, quos ribaldos vocabat. Objurgavit etiam majores cives villae de pusillanimitate sua, eo quod dixerant se timere vulgus villae, quos pro nihilo ipse ducebat." Ckron. Ang., 140. ^ Rymer, vii. 157. The story is told in Chron. Ang.^ 139, 140. The Bishop of Norwich, 15 collecting the tax. The Prior pleaded that he was exempt from such a duty, and that only his superior, the Abbot of St. Alban's or the Pope, could require it of him. But the Bishop insisted upon his demand, and thus brought on another conflict about his rights. This time the weapons were those of the law, and the Bishop lost his case, much to the joy of the St. Albans' monk who tells the story i. His martial spirit was his most distinguishing trait. When the Peasants' Revolt reached Norfolk in 138 1, John the Lyster, or Dyer, put himself at the head of the movement, and with their singular fascination for the name of King the peasants greeted him as "King of the Common People" (Rex Commu- nium). For a short time the Dyer ruled with the arrogance if not with the dignity of a king. He forced the knights whom he had seized to serve him on bended knee at table. But his glory was short- lived. The rebels soon saw that pardon must be procured, and in order to command attention to their claims they sent two of the captured knights. Sir William de Morley and Sir John Brewes, to the King, accompanied by three of the leaders in the revolt, Sceth, Trunch, and Cubith 2. The company started on their journey. Mean- time the Bishop of Norwich, while staying at his manor of Burleigh, near Stamford, had heard of the revolt. He had taken the road at once, arrayed in complete armour and with a small band of eight ' Chronic on Angliae, 258 — 261. ^ Capgrave gives their names. De Illusirihus Henrids, p. 171. 1 6 The Crusade ^y 1 3 8 3 . lances and a few archers, and soon fell in with the little company of delegates at Icklingham, not far from Newmarket. The rebels were at once seized. Despenser said that he as Bishop had the right to punish members of his flock who had forfeited the protection of the King, and con- demned them to death. This was bad law, for a well known principle of Ecclesiastical law forbids clerics to inflict the death penalty. But the three men were promptly beheaded i, and their heads were sent to be exposed at Newmarket. The Bishop hurried on to North Walsham, where the rebel force was entrenched. His decision dispelled the panic of the loyal portion of the populace, and he attacked the rebel camp with a large force. In the hand-to- hand fight w^hich followed the Bishop was every- where " like a wild boar gnashing with his teeth, sparing neither himself nor his enemies." The rebels were routed, and John the Lyster was taken. The Bishop, continuing to act upon the legal principles he had already laid down, condemned him to be hanged, drawn, and quartered. But the chief pastor did not forget his spiritual functions. The condemned man's judge murmured spiritual consolations to him, and confessed and absolved him. When John was being dragged to the scaflbld in the cruel fashion of the times, the Bishop supported his head lest it should strike the ground, "discharging in this,^' says ^ The third had gone off to buy food, but according to Capgrave was also executed by the Bishop. De Illustribus Henricis^ 171. The Bishop of Norwich. 17 an admiring monk, " a work of clemency and piety ^." We are almost justified m saying that the Bishop was maddened by the taste of blood. He marched from Norfolk into Cambridge and Huntingdonshires to crush the risings there. The terrified rebels fled to the Churches for sanctuary. But the Church could not protect them against the Church's avenger. They were struck down with swords and spears at the altar itself. The Bishop spared none. Our in- formant, a monk of Leicester, rejoices that his hand was stretched out wide in vengeance, and that the rebels received only the absolution of the sword 2. Shortly after this the Bishop was appointed by Pope Urban VI. to a work that should carry him farther afield. The news of his late military exploits had perhaps reached Rome, or possibly the Bishop saw and sought an opportunity for distinguishing himself. In any case he seemed admirably fitted by temper and reputation for the work of the Crusade to which he was now summoned. ^ The whole story is in Chronicon Angliae, 304-8. The rebels quite understood that it was the Bishop who had crushed them, and in the next year made a plot to murder him and others. (Ibid., 354.) 2 Higden, 2638-9. III. England and Flanders. IN 1382, probably in the summer, Pope Urban's Bull reached England i, appointing the Bishop of Norwich to lead a crusade against the Schismatics. The Antipope and his adherents, wherever found, constituted the generous range of adversaries whom he might attack. The Pope's intention, however, was that there should be more than one crusade. The reigning King of Castile was an adherent of the Antipope. John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, King Richard's uncle, claimed the throne of Castile on behalf of his wife Constance, daughter of Pedro the Cruel, King of Castile ; and John of Gaunt held to Pope Urban. So now the Pope gave him his bles- sing, and called upon him to crusade for his crown 2, The Bishop's crusade was the more flexible, and could be adapted to the most pressing want of the time. John of Gaunt's was for a special and indeed a personal and selfish end, and the English people did not so love John of Gaunt that they were ready * The contents of the Bull were well known in England by the autumn. See Rot, ParL^ iii. 134, 140. * Rot. Parl,^ iii. 133, 134. Historia Vitae et Reg7ii Ricardi II. t by a Monk of Evesham, Ed. by Hearne, p. 41. England and Flanders, 19 to ntiike any sacrifices on his account. It followed that in the autumn of 1382, when the proposed crusades were being discussed, a strong public opinion was forming in favor of the Bishop of Norwich as against John of Gaunt. The King had not yet formally approved either crusade, and until he did so the active work could not begin. Meanwhile the relations of England to France and Flanders became such that the mind of the nation turned to the crusade of the Bishop of Norwich as the best means of helping England in a time of great difficulty. Froissart, himself a native of Valenciennes, laments the ceaseless troubles of Flanders at this time. The country was the market-place of Europe, and the state in which the rich people of the towns lived was surprising in its magnificence. But there was envy and strife, and Ghent fought Bruges, and Bruges fought Ghent, and the other towns followed their bad example. The great conflict, however, was between the lord of the country, the Count of Flanders, and the towns whose liberties he attempted to restrict. When Froissart sought a reason for the bloodshed and ruin in a land that might have en- joyed peace and riches, he could only come to the probably just conclusion that the Devil was the cause of all the discord ^, Of the towns of Flanders, Ghent was the largest, * Chroniques de Froissart^ ix. 158, 159: Ce fu oevre de diable ; car vous saves ou vous aves oy dire les sages que li diables soutille et atisse nuit et jour a bouter guerre et hainne la oil il voit pais. 20 The Crusade ^y" 1383. the most powerful, and the most turbulent. It was the chief seat of the woollen manufacture, and had close commercial ties with England, the great wool- producing country. The large artizan and com- mercial population was animated by a fierce love of liberty, and in the long conflicts with Louis de Male, Count of Flanders, who ruled from 1346 to 1384, Ghent was always the city that held out longest, and to the last she remained unconquered by him, though losing her liberties soon after his death. The fortunes of war had in the spring of 1382 brought Ghent very low. She alone still held out against the Count of Flanders. The city was not actually besieged, but the source of supplies was cut off. No provisions could reach Ghent and famine followed i, and this at last forced the men of Ghent to send their chief-captain, Philip van Artevelde, son of the more famous patriot James van Artevelde, to try to make terms with the repre- sentatives of the Count of Flanders at Tournay. The only terms the Count would consent to were hard enough. All the male inhabitants of the town between the ages of fifteen and sixty must come out to him on the road to Bruges, bare-headed, wearing only their shirts, and with ropes around their necks, that he might hang or spare whom he would 2. Philip van Artevelde returned to Ghent, summoned a meeting of the citizens, and announced the Count's ' Froissart, ix. 438— 440. » Ibid. x. 12. England and Flanders. 21 terrible terms ^. An impulse of despair seized the people. They would make a last fight for life and liberty. A band of ^wq thousand men was organized and set out for Bruges, where the Count of Flanders lay, in the hope of taking it by a sudden attack. The effort was entirely successful ; Bruges fell into their hands, and the Count of Flanders had diffi- culty in escaping with his life 2. It was now early in May, 1382. Bruges, after some sacrifices to the vengeance of the men of Ghent, joined the popular cause. Ypres and the other chief towns followed, and soon the situation was reversed. Ghent and her allies held, under Philip van Artevelde, nearly the whole country, and the Count of Flanders was obliged to seek in France the outside support that was necessary if he would regain his powers. It was furnished abundantly. Charles VI., the young King of France, a child with a mind pre- maturely enfeebled, dreamed only of imitating the chivalrous deeds of the tales that he had read ; and it suited the policy of his uncles just then to attempt to subdue the democracy of Flanders. The democracy of Paris would receive a useful warning so 4. In the autumn of 1382 a French army was gathering at Arras to support the Count of Flanders and to crush Philip van Artevelde 5. ^ Froissart gives a dramatic picture of the meeting, colored no doubt to the reader's taste, x. 15 — 22. =^ Ibid. 22—50. 3 Ibid. 62—68. 4 Kervyn de Lettenhove, Histoire de Flandre^ iii. 496 ; Froissart, X. 68—71. 5 Religieux de St. Denis. Ed. by L. Bellaguet, p. 174. 22 The Crusade ^/ 1383. Van Artevelde turned to England. The danger of Flanders was real, and the triumph of England's enemy there meant danger to England. Every motive of self-interest called the English nation to the rescue. The people saw this, and the Flemish envoys were everywhere received cordially by them^. Parliament assembled early in October, about the time of the arrival of the envoys 2, and the matter of aid to Flanders was a part of its most important business 3. Since the Peasants' revolt John of Gaunt was a changed man. The universal detestation in which he was then seen to be held had apparently con- vinced him that any intrigues of his to gain the Crown would be vain. Henceforth we find him the friend and adviser of Richard 1 1 4. The reaction against the peasantry had brought favor to their enemy, and John of Gaunt's influence was predo- minant in the Parliament of October, 13825. Not the young King but John of Gaunt, with the Earls of Buckingham, Salisbury, and other members of the Royal Council, received the Flemish envoys when they presented themselves at the Palace of West- minster^. The envoys were unwise enough to couple their appeal for help with a demand for payment of ^ Froissart, x. 76, 77. ^ Rymer's Fxdera, Original Edition, vii. 367. 3 Rot. Pari., iii. 132, 133. 4 Stubbs' *' Const. Hist, of Eng.," ii. 485, 6. 5 This is evident from the whole tone of the proceedings. Rot, Pari., iii. 132—143. ^ Froissart, x. 79. England and Flanders, 2 3 Dt of 200,000 crowns^ which Edward III. had incurred to them forty years before. John of Gaunt and his fellow-councillors looked at each other and smiled when this demand was made, and after the envoys had retired, broke out in adverse criticism of their appeal. " They ask help and demand money too. It is not reasonable that we should both pay and help them 2." Excuses were made to delay the envoys, and meanwhile there were many altercations in Parliament in regard to the situations. Outside the Parliament many were eager to attack France and support the Flemish towns. The Bishop of Norwich, ready to crusade against the French as adherents of the Antipope, stood as the champion of the national cause. The mercantile interests were on his side, and the Commons petitioned Parliament in his favor. His expedition, they said, should set out first, that of John of Gaunt might come later 4. Every one agreed that Flanders must be helped, but John of Gaunt pressed his expedition as equally important, and the lay branches of the Parliament who represented the dominant classes rather than the people, favored him. In any event the King must have money. The laity made a grant of a tax of one-fifteenth upon themselves ; but the clergy refused to grant the tenth demanded from them. They were dissatisfied with the half-hearted action of the Crown in suppressing the heresy of Wycliffe ^ 200,000 vies escus. Ibid. 80. ^ Ibid. 81. 3 Malverne's Continuation of Higden's Poly-Chronicon^ ix. 14. ^ Rot, ParLy iii. 140. 24 The Crusade of 1383, and his followers, which was rampant, and they were hostile to the Spanish expedition. The feeling of their order too was for the cause of their own mem- ber, the Bishop of Norwich. The Parliament separ- ated without any grant from them, but at Oxford, a month later, they consented to a grant of one tenth on condition that the King should support the Church in the suppression of the Wycliffe heresy ^. The King now had money, but his Council was in no hurry to come to the help of Flanders. The envoys were sent back to procure fuller powers on the plea that their present ones were inadequate, and so the negotiation ended for the time 2. But pro- mises of some kind had been given to them, and Philip van Artevelde announced publicly at Ypres that he was expecting a strong English reinforcement immediately 3. Meanwhile the French who had gathered at Arras advanced on Flanders, and soon carried all before them. Ypres opened its gates 4. They sacked Poper- inghe, and fearing a like fate, Cassel, Bergues, Bour- bourg, and other towns in the south of Flanders surrendered, and basely gave up for execution the captains who had led the resistance to the Count of Flanders S. Philip van Artevelde, too confident of his strength, determined to stake all on one battle. He * Malverne, Continuation of Higden, ix. 14. Chronicon Angliae^ 355. ^ Walsingham, ii. 71. 3 Froissart, x. 111-12. * Froissart, x. 142 — 146 ; Religieux de St. Denis^ 200-2. 5 Froissart, x. 147, 148. Kervyn de Lettenhove, //i'j/ ^' 30 The Crusade ^/ 1383. be let off. It was not strange that those whose sins, if confessed or discovered, involved heavy penance were sometimes glad to get the offered Indulgence. Froissart's sagacious remark is, however, true, that men do not take much account of pardons until face to face with death i. The ills we have we can mea- sure and learn to bear, but an uneasy conscience is haunted by fears of what cannot be defined. The Church did not make light of the suffering that sin involves hereafter. She taught that few died so pure but some chastening torments in purgatory were re- quired, and the Indulgence that took this shadow from the spirit of one on the edge of the grave, or relieved those already departed, was a boon to both the living and the dead. The sorrowing mother might find comfort in releasing her dead child, the lover in freeing his dead love. A system deal- ing with such mysteries did not escape the abuse to which it was peculiarly open. Pardoners with their red-sealed papers " from Rome all hot " had become pommon 2. These men often claimed for their wares sudden and miraculous powers to snatch souls from torment, and their extravagance had brought the system into some disrepute. The tenacity of English faith in it was even then re- ^ II n'eu font trop grant compte fors au destroit de la mort, Chroniques, x. 206. ^ See the Pardoner in Chaucer's Prologue. A picture striking for its similarity is given in the Vision of Piers Plowman. William Langland's ** Piers the Plowman." Edited by W. W. Skeat, i. 6—9. w. The Work in the English Parishes, 31 marked i, and it still possessed sufficient vitality to be the Bishop of Norwich's chief means of arousing zeal for the Crusade. The whole machinery of the Church was at his dis- posal. He himself was special Legate of the Pope, and as such was superior even to the Archbishops of Canterbury and York in matters pertaining to the Crusade 2. He could rebuke their clergy and exhort their people without their consent. He did in fact issue a mandate to the clergy of the diocese of York, full of reproaches, commands, and threats 3, but the Archbishop apparently showed no resentment at the intrusion. The monks of St. Alban's had reasons for coldness, when they remembered their own dispute with him 4, but they had only benedictions for the Crusades. An anonymous writer, who was appar- ently a monk of Canterbury, does indeed grumble, and shows that at any rate some of the orthodox did not approve of this method of propagating the Gospel ^. The heretics under Wycliffe of course opposed it 7, but ' **li peuples d'Engleterre qui creoient asser legierement y eurent trop de foy et ne quidoit nuls." Froissart, x. 207. ^ He was Nunchis (Walsingham, ii. 78), while the Archbishop of Canterbury was Legattts (Wilkins' Co7icilia^ iii. 176). Both Arch- bishops were at this period ex officio Legates (Stubbs' ** Const. Hist, of England," iii. 300, 302), but a special Legate's powers superseded theirs in the matter concerning which he was appointed (Hallam's "Mid. Ages," i vol. ed. p. 445). 3 Wals., ii. 78, 79. 4 See pages 14, 15. 5 This is seen in the whole tone of the Chron. Angliae^ and Walsing- ham's History, both by St. Alban's monks. ^ Eidogium Historiarum (continuation), iii. 357. 7 See references, p. 42. 32 The Crusade of 11?, i^ ecclesiastical and national opinion generally was with the Bishop ^ and the services of the Clergy were his. The term Clergy is almost exhausted in modern England by the parochial clergy, who are the vast ma- jority. Five hundred years ago the monks and the friars rivalled them in numbers 2. We can readily picture the Parish Priest, for though changed he still survives, and his main duties are the same. It was easy for him with his few domestic ties to turn his back upon his parish and go whither his fancy or his interest led 3. He is happier now in possessing a home cheered usually by the gentler graces of the wife and the mother, and his social rank is higher. Chaucer's ideal Parish Priest was the brother of the Plowman, and three hundred years later the village clergyman still ranked with upper servants 4. But the Monk and the Friar have passed away from the religious system of England, and their names have now the poetic charm of something that is gone for ever. The statement is not too sweeping that ^ Wycliffe laments this in his tract De Cruciata. Polemical Works, vol. ii. p. 605-6. 2 There were between 8,oco and 9,000 parishes (Stubbs' "Const. Hist, of Eng." ii. 442-3), and probably not less than 1,000 houses of monks and friars, of which about one-fifth were friaries (See Dixon's " Hist, of the Church of England," i. 319, 20). Some parishes were served by monks or friars. 3 After the Great Pestilence his people were often very poor, and he sometimes had licence to live in London ** and sing there for simony," for ** silver is sweet." Wm. Langland's "Piers the Plowman," i. 8—9. ^ See Macaulay's famous description of the state of England in 1685. The Work in the English Parishes. 33 no order of men have remained permanently true to a high ideal, no matter what their first zeal. The Monk and the Friar made lofty professions, but their average was that of sorely-tempted mankind. Some were vicious, nearly all were worldly, and a few were doing their best to live holy lives. The parochial clergyman had fewer temptations. He was not op^ pressed by such heavy vows ; his life was more commonplace, and it was also probably more vir- tuous. In the famous phrase of Bernard of Clairvaux, the monks were to regard cities as prisons and solitude as their paradise. With the desire for seclusion from the world the Monastery was to be as self-contained as possible. It was built in the country, and though it often became the centre about which a town or city gathered i, there were few monasteries that did not possess a wide domain, with room both for the labors and the pleasures of rural life. The monk soon wearied of the manual labor that his rule re- quired, and it is Wycliffe's repeated charge against him that he would not work. The other resource of country life pleased him more, and he became famous for his zeal and skill in field sports. The good Abbot of Leicester died in 1377. A father to the poor, the honored friend of the powerful, he served his order well, and died in the odor of sanc- tity. One of his good works was to procure a Royal licence to open establishments for breeding grey- ^ Probably few appreciate the extent to which this was true. See Les Moines d^ Occident par le Comte de Montalembert, I. Ixx. — Ixxii. D 34 The Crusade 2l-50» U.C. BERKELEY LIBRARIES ■lllllllllllllllllllllllll CDD33m=a7S i5\\.*S..f,: