Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 17.djvu/74

 proceeding (ib. ii. 310;, Middle Ages, iii. 47; , Const. Hist. ii. 424).

In February 1373 a fleet was fitted out, partly composed of Genoese galleys (Fœdera, iii. 965, 970), and sent with a force under Salisbury to Brittany, where Du Guesclin was carrying all before him. Some Spanish ships were burnt at St. Malo, the country was ravaged, and Du Guesclin, who would not be tempted to give battle, raised the siege of Brest. On 12 June the king appointed Lancaster, who was then in full power, his captain-general in France (ib. p. 982), and sent him with a large army to Calais. He rode through the land without meeting any resistance and wasting the country terribly. When he reached Bordeaux his army was thinned by hunger and disease, and nearly all his horses had perished on the march, so that the splendid force with which he left Calais was utterly ruined though it had fought no battle (for details see ;, i. 315). More money was needed, and was demanded of the parliament on 21 Nov. For the first time at the request of the commons certain lords held a conference with them; the grant was not made until after five days' debate, and then it was joined with a request that it should be spent only on the war (Const. Hist. ii. 426). A petition was also presented that the king would find a remedy for papal provisions, by which the pope obtained the first-fruits of ecclesiastical dignities and money was drawn away from the realm. To this it was answered that he had already sent ambassadors to the Roman court. On 8 Aug. of this year Edward gave all the jewels and other goods of his late queen to Alice Perrers (Fœdera, iii. 989). Lancaster returned to England in April 1374, and Aquitaine, with the exception of Bordeaux and Bayonne, turned to the French king (Cont., p. 215). Acting on the petition of the parliament of the last year, Edward on 16 April sent a writ to each of the bishops commanding them to inform him what dignities and benefices within their respective dioceses were held by foreigners. And he further sent ambassadors, one of whom was Dr. John Wycliffe (Fœdera, iii. 1071), to a conference Gregory had called to meet at Bruges. At this conference the pope acted as a peacemaker, and on 27 June 1375 Lancaster obtained a year's truce with France and Castile, which was afterwards prolonged and virtually lasted during the rest of the reign. Another result of the conference was an agreement between the king and the pope, dated 1 Sept., by which, though some temporary concessions were made by the pope, matters were left much as they were before (ib, p. 1037). The national discontent found expression in 1376. Edward was completely governed by his mistress and neglected the affairs of the kingdom, while she used her power scandalously; she interfered in lawsuits, and even sat by the judges on the bench and with the doctors in the ecclesiastical courts (Chron. Anglicæ, p. 96). She was upheld by Lancaster, who thus secured his position as the virtual head of the government. He was selfish, ambitious, and unpopular, and was allied with a clique of courtiers who plundered the king and the nation unscrupulously. The failure of the war had been brought about by the incapacity and neglect of the government, the heavy taxes under which the country suffered were paid in vain and the administration was thoroughly corrupt. No parliament had been summoned since November 1373. On 28 April a parliament met which received the title of the 'Good parliament' (, i. 324). Again the commons requested that certain of the magnates would confer with them. An attack, in which they were upheld by the Prince of Wales and the Bishop of Winchester, was made by the mouth of the speaker Peter de la Mare, on the evils of the administration and especially on the abuses of the staple, the loans raised by the king, and the traffic that the court party carried on in them. The speaker impeached Lord Latimer, the king's chamberlain, and Lyons, his financial agent, of fraud and other misdemeanors; on one occasion they had raised twenty thousand marks from the merchants for the king's use and had embezzled the money. Lyons offered the king a bribe, which he received gladly observing, 'He owes us this and much more, so he only offers us our own' (ib. p. 80). Edward, however, was not able and probably did not attempt to do anything either for him or Latimer, and they were condemned to imprisonment and the one to total, the other to partial, forfeiture. Sir Richard Stury was also banished from the court for making mischief between the king and the commons. When Edward found that the commons were about to proceed against his mistress, he sent a message to them begging them to deal gently with her for the sake of his love and his honour (ib, p. 97). She was banished from court. The death of the Prince of Wales on 8 June, though a sore blow to the commons, seems to have made them more determined; they requested that they might see his son Richard, which was meant as a check to Lancaster's ambition [see under ], and before granting supply demanded that the king should accept an elected council of lords, a condition to which he gave his assent at