Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 26.djvu/124

Henry Cantuarienses,’ or ‘Letter Books of Christ Church,’ published in 1887 by Dr. Sheppard in the Rolls Series. Some of Reynolds's letters to Eastry are calendared in Hist. MSS. Comm.'s 5th Rep. i. 447. The most important bear on the archbishop's conduct during the last period of the reign of Edward II. Eastry gave him judicious, if vague and worldly advice. Probably Eastry was no very great friend of the king's, for in 1322 he had written to Henry of Lancaster (1281?–1345) [q. v.] urging him to continue the efforts which his brother Earl Thomas had made before his execution to obtain the canonisation of Archbishop Winchelsey (Lit. Cantuar. i. 71). Eastry could sometimes be independent, for in 1325 he strongly urged Reynolds to end the scandal which the unsettled state of Winchelsey's estates twelve years after his death was exciting among the people (ib. i. 135). But in the great question he temporised, and showed a nervous anxiety that his letters should be burnt when read and shown to no one but their recipient. In February 1325 he suggested to Reynolds a plausible excuse for not accompanying the queen on her ill-omened journey to France (ib. i. 137). He would not say whether he thought the king or his son ought to go over to France to do homage (ib. i. 145). He supplied the archbishop with early news of what was going on abroad (ib. i. 181), but his greatest anxiety at the time seems to have been to get rid of the expense of keeping the queen's pack of hounds which she had left at Canterbury, to remove which he humbly besought the favour of the Despensers at the time when he was hinting that the archbishop should break with the queen's party. He shrank on pretext of illness from an interview with Reynolds (ib. i. 190), whom he urged not to fight on Edward's behalf, but rather to mediate, and aim at a compromise. If Edward persisted in fighting he advised Reynolds to take refuge in his cathedral (ib. i. 196). But as soon as the party of the queen got the upper hand he wrote to her wishing her ‘good and long life and grace on earth, and glory in heaven’ (ib. i. 197). He practically commended Reynolds for his speedy desertion to the queen, though excusing himself from personal attendance at the parliament which deposed Edward (ib. i. 203). He, however, suggested to Reynolds the advisability of sending a solemn deputation of the three estates to Kenilworth to induce the imprisoned king to face his parliament (ib. i. 205). This measure was subsequently adopted, doubtless on Reynolds's proposal. Eastry was accused by some of the archbishop's household of betraying his council. Eastry wrote to the next archbishop, Simon Meopham, in a curious tone of querulous patronage. Once he refused to give more advice, as his last confidential letter was picked up in Eastry Church (ib. i. 287). When rebuked by the archbishop he only answered by more good advice (ib. i. 303). In a letter of January 1330 he becomes positively insolent (ib. i. 304–5).

Eastry had long suffered from the infirmities of age. In 1324 he begged Reynolds to allow the sub-prior to act for him (ib. i. 117), though soon after a skilful doctor cured him (ib. i. 120). In 1326 pains in the side prevented him from riding, and in 1329 he obtained from Flanders ‘a little easy-going mule not tall and big’ (ib. i. 190, 297). In 1329 and again in 1331 he requested power to appoint a general attorney (ib. i. 291, 355). He died suddenly on 8 April 1331 while celebrating mass. He was believed to be ninety-two years old. He was certainly nearly eighty.

Eastry's zeal for the interests of his house caused him to procure the examination, endorsement, and arrangement of all the ancient charters and muniments of Christ Church (Hist. MSS. Comm. 5th Rep. i. 427). The earliest existing registers of the convent were also compiled in their present form during Eastry's priorship (ib. 8th Rep. i. 316). It is from his own register that Dr. Sheppard has drawn his rich supply of Eastry's correspondence. There is also preserved in the British Museum a large and handsome manuscript called the ‘Memoriale Henrici Prioris,’ and described in the catalogue as a register of Eastry's; though the register properly so called is of course at Canterbury. It contains a great variety of different matters, including many charters and documents of general or local interest, records of the possessions of Christ Church and of the work of Eastry as prior, and ‘various commonplaces concerning conscience, physiognomy, and many chapters of sacred and philosophical argument’ (Cotton. MS. Galba E. iv.)

 HENRY (1084?–1155), historian, was born between 1080 and 1085, the son of Nicholas, a churchman, whom he styles ‘stella cleri,’ and who may possibly