las at liberty, and made an alliance with that martial chief. tain. But when war was ready to break out, the earl of Northumberland was unfortunately seized with a sudden illness at Berwick; and young Percy, taking the command of the troops, marched towards Shrewsbury, in order to join his forces with those of Glendour.

A.D.1403.

The king had happily a small army on foot, with which he intended to act against the Scots; and knowing the importance of celerity in all civil wars, he instantly hurried down, in order to give battle to the rebels. He approached Percy near Shrewsbury, before that nobleman was joined by Glendour; and the policy of one leader, and impatience of the other, made them hasten to a general engagement. The armies were nearly equal in number, consisting of about twelve thousand men each; and we scarcely find any battle in those ages, where the shock was more terrible or more constant. Henry exposed his person in the thickest of the fight; and the prince of Wales, his gallant son, whose military achievements became afterwards so famous, and who here performed his noviciate in arms, signalised himself in a remarkable manner. Percy supported that renown which he had acquired in many a bloody combat; and Douglas, his ancient enemy, and now his friend, still appeared his rival amid the horror and confusion of the fight. This nobleman performed feats of valour which are almost incredible. He seemed determined the king of England should fall that day by his arm. He sought him all over the field; and as Henry had accoutred several captains in the royal garb, in order to encourage his troops, the sword of Douglas rendered that honour fatal to many. But while the armies were contending in this furious manner, the death of Hotspur, accomplished by an unknown hand, decided the victory; the royalists prevailed. There are said to have fallen on both sides near two thousand three hundred gentlemen.

The

The earl of Northumberland having recovered from his sickness, had levied a fresh army, and was on his march to join his son: but being opposed by the earl of Westmoreland, and hearing of the defeat at Shrewsbury, he dismissed his forces, and came with a small retinue to the king at Yorks He pretended that his sole intention in arming was to mediate between the parties. Henry thought proper to admit the apology, and even granted him a pardon for his offence. All the other rebels were treated with equal lenity: and, except the earl of Worcester and Sir Richard Vernon, who were regarded as the chief authors of the insurrection, no person engaged in that dangerous conspiracy seems to have perished by the hands of the executioner1o,

This rebellion was no sooner quelled than another was ready to break out, supported by the earl of Nottingham and the archbishop of York. But it was discovered

A. D. 1405. before it was ripe for execution, and the earl and the archbishop were both beheaded. Northumberland also was concerned in this second rebellion, but made his escape into Scotland; whence returning to commit new A. D. 1408. disorders, he was slain at Branham, along with lord Bardolf". The defeat of Glendour, and the submission of the Welsh, which happened soon after, freed Henry from all his domestic enemies; and a for- A. D. 1409.

tunate event which had thrown the heir to the crown of Scotland into his hands, made him also secure on that quarter.

Robert III. king of Scotland, though a prince of slender capacity, was extremely innocent and inoffensive in his conduct. But Scotland, at that time, was still less fitted than England for cherishing a sovereign of such a character. The duke of Albany, Robert's brother, a prince of a boisterous and violent disposition, had assumed the government of the state; and not satisfied with present authority, he entertained the criminal purpose of extirpating his bro

10. Ibid. Rymer, vol. viii.

11. T. Walsingham.

ther's

ther's children, and of acquiring the crown to his own family. He threw into prison David, his eldest nephew, who there perished by hunger; so that James, the younger brother of David, alone stood between the tyrant and the throne. Robert, therefore, sensible of his son's danger, embarked him on board a ship, with a view of sending him into France, and of trusting him to the protection of that friendly power. Unfortunately, however, the vessel was taken by the English; and although there subsisted at that time a truce between the two kingdoms, Henry refused to restore the young prince to his liberty. But he made ample amends for this want of generosity, by bestowing on James an excellent education, which afterwards qualified him, when he mounted the throne, to reform, in some measure, the rude and barbarous.manners of his native country.

The remaining part of the reign of Henry IV. was chiefly spent in regulating the affairs of his kingdom; which he at length brought into much order, by his valour, prudence, and address. In his latter years, however, he began to turn his eyes towards those bright projects, which his more fortunate son conducted so successfully against the French monarchy; but his declining health prevented him from attempting to put any of them in execution. Afflicted for some years with violent fits, which frequently deprived him of all sensation, and threatened his existence, he was carried off by one of them at Westminster in the A. D. 1413. forty-sixth year of his age, and the thirteenth of his reign13. He left behind him the reputation of a wise prince, a prudent king, but a bad man; and yet, if we consider the circumstances in which he was involved, we can hardly conceive any person to carry his ambition to the same height, and transmit a throne to his posterity, with less violence to humanity.

12. Buchanan, lib. 10. Scotichronicon, lib. xv.

13. Walsingham. Otterbourne.

We

We should now examine the affairs of France under Charles VI. as an introduction to the reign of Henry V. of England, who became sovereign of both kingdoms; but we must first carry forward the history of the empire and

the church.

LETTER XLIII.

THE GERMAN EMPIRE AND ITS DEPENDENCIES, ROME AND THE ITALIAN STATES, FROM THE ACCESSION OF WINCESLAUS TO THE DEATH OF SIGISMUND.

THE history of the German empire, my dear Phi

lip, becomes always more important to us, in proportion as we advance in the narration, though the empire itself grew daily less consequential. We now approach two principal events in the history of the church: the Great Schism in the west, and the Council of Constance.

Winceslaus, at the age of seventeen, succeeded his father, Charles IV. in the government of the emA. D. 1378. pire, and on the throne of Bohemia, when the church was divided by one of those violent contests, so disgraceful to Christianity. The Italians had raised to the pontificate, Urban VI. who confirmed the election of the new emperor, and the French had chosen Clement VII. During these troubles Winceslaus appointed Jadoc, marquis of Moravia, his vicar-general in Italy; laid injunctions on him to inquire which of the two persons chosen, was the true pope; to acknowledge and protect him whom he should find to be canonically elected, and to expel by force the other, who had intruded himself into the chair. He A. D. 1379. likewise held a diet at Nuremburg, and afterward one at Frankfort, where the affair of the popes being examined, Urban VI. was acknowledged by the German bishops

and

and archbishops, and Winceslaus and the princes of the empire engaged to protect him in the papacy'.

After the diet of Frankfort, the emperor repaired to Aixla-Chapelle, where he resided some time, because the plague raged in Bohemia; and here he gave himself up to all manner of debauchery, neglecting the affairs of the empire to such a degree, that the princes and towns of Germany were obliged to enter into associations for their mutual defence. At the same time Italy was torn in pieces by the schism in the church. Clement, who had taken Rome from his rival, was expelled in his turn by the citizens, and afterwards settled at Avignon, the former residence of the French pontiffs. Urban used his victory like a tyrant. But all priests in power, it has been said, are tyrants. The famous Joan, queen of Naples, of whom I have already had occasion to speak, first experiencd the effects of Urban's vengeance.

This princess, who had imprudently espoused the cause of Clement, had been several times married, but had no children by any of her husbands; she therefore adopted Charles de Durazzo, the natural heir to her kingdom, and the only remaining descendant of the house of Anjou in Naples. But Durazzo, unwilling to wait for the crown till the natural death of his adoptive mother, associated himself with pope Urban, who crowned him king of Naples at Rome, on condition that he should bestow the principality of Capua on Francis Prignano, nephew to his holiness. Urban also deposed queen Joan, and declared her guilty of heresy and high-treason.

A. D. 1380.

These steps being taken, the pope and Durazzo marched towards Naples. The church plate and church lands were sold, in order to facilitate the conquests. Joan meanwhile, was destitute of both money and troops. In this extremity, she invited to her assistance

A.D. 1382.

1. Du Puy, Hist. Gen. du Schisme, &c. Maimbourg, Hist. du Grand Schisme d'Occident.