Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 2.djvu/76

62 in this century, and by the "Cruel Uncle" meaning Richard III. Most of these nameless ballads were probably the productions of that class of professed minstrels who attended the courts and houses of the great, who had bands of them regularly retained, or who wandered from town to town and sang to amuse the people. They were at the same time musicians on various musical instruments.



Music made considerable progress in this age. Henry V. was an ardent admirer of it, and not only played well himself on the harp, but had a regular military band attending him in France, consisting of ten clarions and other instruments, which played an hour every morning and evening at his head-quarters. Church music was carefully taught at the universities. It was one of the four sciences of the quadrium, and was a means of promotion in the church and colleges. Thomas Saintwix, doctor of music, was made the provost of King's College, Cambridge, by its founder Henry VI. Counterpoint, an English discovery, was now added to the melody or plain chant of the early Church; and the example of Henry V. of England, and of the first and third James of Scotland, promoted the study of the art amongst the laity. James I. is said to have been as exquisite a musician as he was a poet, and to have introduced a plaintive but touching style of modulation, which was imitated by Carlo Gesnaldo, Prince of Venosa, who diffused it amongst his countryman. Perhaps the plaintive character of Scottish ballad music may be partly derived from James.



The deadly arts of destruction were more practised during this century than all others. First the English turned their arms against the French, and then against each other, and though many of their armies were hastily raised, and therefore ill-disciplined, they not only showed their accustomed bravery, but many advances were made in the manner of raising, forming, paying, and disciplining troops, as well as in the modes of attacking fortifications and towns. Henry V. was a consummate master in this, his favourite art, and was, perhaps, the first of our kings who introduced a scheme of superior discipline, teaching his troops to march in straight lines at proper distances, with a steady, measured pace; to advance, attack, halt, or fall back without breaking, or getting into confusion. This, combined with his mode of employing his archers, which we have described in the account of his battles, gave him an invincible superiority over his enemies.



As the feudal system decayed, the kings of England no longer depended on their barons appearing in the field with their vassals, but they bargained with different leaders to furnish men at stated prices, which, as we have shown, were high. It was only in cases of rebellion and intestine struggle that they summoned all their military tenants to raise the people in mass, and the same summonses were issued to the archbishops, bishops, and all the principal clergy, to arm all their followers, lay and clerical, and march to the royal standard. We have shown that they were the archers, however, who were the masters of the field, and who won all the great battles. At Homildon they alone fought, and at Beaujé the English were utterly routed, through leaving them behind. This notorious fact induced James I. of Scotland to introduce and cultivate archery in his army, but he was cut off too soon to give it permanent effect.

The pictures of battles and sieges at this period give us an odd medley of bows and arrows, crossbows, spears, cannon, and hand-guns. The old weapons were not left off because the new ones were too imperfect, and too difficult of locomotion to supersede them. The cannons, though often of immense bore and weight, throwing balls of from one to five hundred weight, were, for the most part, without carriages, and therefore difficult and tardy in their operations. The Scotch were the first to anticipate the modern gun-carriage, by what they called their "carts of war," which carried two guns each, while many of the guns of the English required fifty horses to drag them. They had, however, smaller guns; as culverines, serpentines, basilisks, fowlers, scorpions, &c. The culverines were a species of hand-gun in general, fired from a rest, or from the shoulder. The Swiss had 10,000 culverines at the famous battle of Morat. These