Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 34.djvu/313

 But Lydgate quickly obtained more exalted patronage. He seems to have secured an introduction to Henry IV's court, and at the request of the Prince of Wales in 1412 he began his ‘Troy Book’ or ‘Destruction of Troy’ [No. 2 below]. When it was completed in 1420, Lydgate presented it to the prince, then Henry V, who showed his appreciation of his efforts by inviting him to undertake a ‘Life of our Lady.’ He celebrated in verse Henry V's return to London after Agincourt, 23 Nov. 1415 (Harl. MS. 565, printed in Chron. of London, pp. 216 sq.) In 1417 he lamented in a poem the departure of his friend Thomas Chaucer for France on diplomatic business (Ashmol. MS. 59, No. 21; Harl. MS. 1704), and for Queen Catharine he wrote a ‘balade’ (Addit. MS. 29729, f. 127 b; cf. Harl. MS. 2251, No. 125). At the request of the French king Charles—apparently Charles VI, Queen Catharine's father—he is said to have translated into English the French invocation to St. Denis (Ashmol. MS. 59, No. 33).

From the date of Henry VI's accession Lydgate regularly acted as a court poet, and in the king's uncle, Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, he found a generous patron. At Humphrey's recommendation he undertook his largest literary undertaking, the ‘Falls of Princes.’ An application made by him to the duke for money while the work was in progress is extant (Harl. MS. 2251. f. 6;, p. 49), and he wrote verses on the duke's marriage in 1422 with Jacqueline (ib. 131, f. 579 b; Addit. MS. 29729, f. 157 b), and in all probability an elegy on the duke's death in 1447 (Ashmol. MS. 59; Stowe's list in Chaucer, 1598, f. 394). ‘A pytous Complaynte of a Chapellayne of my Lordes of Gloucester’ is also entitled ‘Complainte made by Lidgate of my Ladye of Gloucester and Holland’ (Ashmol. MS. 59, No. 27). The ladies of the court generally seem to have encouraged his poetic enterprises. For Anne, countess of Stafford, he wrote ‘An Invocation to St. Anne’ (ib. No. 20). For that lady's sister-in-law, Anne, widow of Edmund Mortimer, earl of March (d. 1424), and wife of John Holland, second earl of Huntingdon (afterwards duke of Exeter), he wrote his ‘Life of St. Margaret,’ and he subsequently produced an ‘Interpretatio missæ in lingua materna’ for the Countess of Suffolk, apparently Alice, daughter of Thomas Chaucer, and granddaughter of the poet (MS. St. John's Coll. Oxf. lvi. 76). Stowe assigns to Lydgate ‘The fyfftene Joyes of oure Lady cleped the xv Odes, translated out of French at th' instance of the worshipfull Pryncesse Isabelle, Countesse of Warwyke, lady Despenser,’ i.e. the second wife of Lydgate's patron Richard de Beauchamp (Harl. MS. 2255; Cotton MS. Titus A. xxv.; cf. Addit. MS. 29729), but Lydgate's responsibility is here disputed.

In 1426 Lydgate was in Paris in attendance on other noble patrons. For Thomas de Montacute, earl of Salisbury, he translated in that year Deguilleville's ‘Pilgrimage of Man.’ On 28 July following he translated, at the request of Richard de Beauchamp, earl of Warwick (then regent of France in the absence of the Duke of Bedford), a poetical ‘Remembraunce of a Pedigree,’ by Laurence Callot, showing Henry VI's claim to the throne of France (Harl. MS. 7333, f. 31, printed in, Political Poems, ii. 131 sq.) At the end is a ‘roundelle’ in anticipation of the king's coronation. For the little king at holiday seasons Lydgate devised numerous ‘mummings,’ one of which was performed at Windsor, probably in 1424, and another at Eltham, probably at New Year, 1427–8. ‘A New Year's Ballade,’ addressed to the king and his mother ‘at Hertford,’ perhaps celebrated the opening of 1429. Henry's coronation at Westminster, 6 Nov. 1429, called forth both a ballad and a prayer; the former was presented on the day of the ceremony. When the king entered London in February 1431 on his return from France, Lydgate prepared an elaborate set of verses [No. 30 below], and he doubtless helped to welcome Henry when the king visited the monastery of Bury at Christmas 1433. About that date he presented to Henry his ‘Life of St. Edmund,’ written at the request of the abbot, William Curteis. It concludes with a ‘balade royal of Invocation’ prepared at the king's ‘instance.’

Despite his repeated complaints of poverty, his poetic services did not go unrewarded. On 21 Feb. 1423 the privy council decreed that the lands belonging to the alien priory of Longville Gifford or Newenton Longville, with the pension of Spalding, of the value of 40l., appertaining to the Abbey of Angers, were to be leased to four persons nominated by Sir Ralph Rocheford. John Lydgate, a monk, figures on the list of names (Proceedings of the Privy Council, ed. Nicolas, iii. 43). In June of the same year Lydgate was elected prior of Hatfield Broadoak or Hatfield Regis, Essex, but he does not seem to have performed many of the duties of his office. He was seldom resident at Hatfield, and probably soon resigned. According to Dugdale, whose list of the priors is defective, one John Durham held the office in 1430. On 8 April 1434 Lydgate was formally relieved of all relations with the priory of Hatfield, so as to enable him to return to Bury (cf. Hist. MSS. Comm. 12th Rep. pt. ix. p. 139).