Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 26.djvu/47

Henry IV allegiance to the new pope. In all this he acted in conjunction with France, with whom in 1408 he had concluded a three years' truce (, p. 115).

Early in 1410 Sir Thomas Beaufort became chancellor in succession to Archbishop Arundel. In January of that year a new parliament assembled, which ventured to suggest the complete confiscation of the temporalities of the church (, ii. 282); but the king and the prince combined with the church party in strenuous opposition to so revolutionary a scheme, which failed so completely that it has left no record in the rolls of parliament. Henry sought to obtain from this parliament a revenue for life, but his proposal was not entertained (ib. ii. 283). At the end of the session his councillors were, as was now usual, nominated in parliament (Rot. Parl. iii. 641).

In 1411 Burgundy appealed to Henry for help against the Armagnacs. The king's reluctance was overpowered by the prince's eagerness (, Chron. p. 106). Negotiations were begun for the latter's marriage with a daughter of Burgundy (Ord. P. C. ii. 19–24), and the Earl of Arundel [see ] was sent with a large force to France. But the tension between the Beauforts and Archbishop Arundel had now become very great, and Henry, not unnaturally jealous of his son, and still clinging to power, despite his failing health, made a vigorous attempt to shake off the Beauforts in the parliament which met on 3 Nov. at Westminster. The Beauforts retorted by a plot to force him to resign the crown, or at least to give up the regency, to the Prince of Wales. It is not easy to reconcile formal documents (e.g. Rolls of Parliament, iv. 298 b) with the more outspoken evidence of the chroniclers. But it seems clear that Henry indignantly declined to give up power, that after some sort of demonstration of the number of his partisans the prince shrank from an open conflict with his father, and retired for a time from public life (, p. 271; Chron. Giles, p. 63; Chron. London, p. 94; Cont. Eul. Hist. iii. 421;, Const. Hist. iii. 69 n.). Thomas Beaufort was now replaced by Arundel as chancellor (5 Jan.). Henry paid his son his arrears of salary as a councillor (18 Feb.), and discharged him from further attendance. Thomas, the king's second son, who had adhered to his father's side, was made Duke of Clarence. The king broke off from the alliance with Burgundy, and on 18 May concluded one with the Armagnacs, his old foes, who promised him all Aquitaine (Fœdera, viii. 738–42). Anxious to show that he was still fit to be king, Henry undertook a progress (Cont. Eul. Hist. iii. 421), and even proposed to command the troops, now summoned to sail to Aquitaine (Ord. P. C. ii. 29; Otterbourne, p. 270). But he was by this time unable to walk, and could hardly even ride, and his council persuaded him to send Clarence instead. The Prince of Wales was now accused of embezzling sums intended for the Calais garrison. He sought out his father, and some sort of reconciliation was apparently effected. The charges were disproved (Ord. P. C. ii. 34–5).

The king's exertions in the summer brought about a fresh relapse. He was able to transact business so late as 21 Oct. (ib. ii. 37–40), and in November was feebly contemplating a crusade. But soon afterwards he had a severe attack, and sometimes seemed actually dead. He was able to celebrate Christmas at his favourite palace at Eltham (, p. 272). He summoned a parliament to meet on 3 Feb., but was then unable to transact business. While praying before St. Edward's shrine in Westminster Abbey (, p. 576), he had a fit, was removed in great agony to the abbot's house, rallied for a short time, but could never be moved, and died in the Jerusalem Chamber on 20 March 1413 (‘Bethlehem Chamber,’ in Polit. Songs, ii. 122). A dying speech to his son is reported, full of wise and pious counsel. The story of the Prince of Wales taking the crown when he was lying in one of his deathlike trances is first found in Monstrelet (Chroniques, ii. 338–9, ed. Douët-d'Arcq). His body was conveyed by water to Gravesend, and thence to Canterbury, where it was buried on Trinity Sunday in the extreme east of the cathedral, to the north of the shrine of St. Thomas, and over against the tomb of the Black Prince. Queen Joan, who died in 1437, was ultimately buried by his side. In 1832 his tomb was opened, and the condition of the face refuted the exaggerated stories of the chroniclers as to the ravages which leprosy had made in him (Archæologia, xxvi. 440–445). The exact nature of his diseases has been much discussed. The chroniclers speak of leprosy, and he had fits which were plainly not of an epileptic nature, as some say. It is thought by Dr. Norman Moore (who has kindly supplied the writer with full notes on this subject) that he suffered from valvular disease of the heart, accompanied by syncope, and that his ‘leprosy’ was ‘herpes labialis,’ with perhaps other aggravations.

By his first wife, Mary Bohun, Henry had four sons and two daughters: first, Henry, prince of Wales, who became Henry V; secondly, Thomas, duke of Clarence [see ]; thirdly, John, made in 1414 Duke of