Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 1.djvu/21

 to him for life, by letters patent to king Henry IV, and continued by Henry VI. In the 2d year of Henry IV, we find him Speaker of the Houſe of Commons, Sheriff of OxfordſHire and Berkſhire, and Conſtable of Wallingford cartle and KnaresbOrough caſtle during life. In the 6th year of the fame prince, he was ſent ambaſſador to France, In the 9th of the ſame reign the Commons preſented him their Speaker; as they did likewiſe in the 11th year. Soon after this Queen Jane, granted to him for his good ſervice, the manor of Woodſtock, Hannerborough and Wotten daring life; and in the 13th year, he was again preſented Speaker as he was in the 2d of Henry V, and much about that time he was ſent by the king, to treat of a marriage with Catherine daughter to the duke of Burgundy; he was ſent again ambaſſador to France, and paſſed thro' a great many pablic ſtations. Mr, Stebbing ſays that he was knighted, but we find no ſuch title given him in any record. He died at Ewelm, the chief place of his reſidence, in the year 1434. By his wife Maud he had one daughter named Alice, who was thrice married, firſt to Sir John Philips, and afterwards to Thomas Montacute earl of Salisbury: her third husband was the famous William de la Pole, duke of Suffolk, who loſt his head by the fury of the Yorkiſts, who dreaded his influence in the oppoſite party, tho' he ſtood proſcribed by the parliament of Henry VI. for miſguiding that eaſy prince. Their ſon John had three ſons, the ſecond of whom, Edmund, forfeited his life to the crown for treaſon againſt Henry VII, by which means the eſtates which Chaucer's family poſſeſſed came to the crown. But to return to our poet: By means of the duke of Lancaſter's marriage with his ſiſter in law, he again grew to a conſiderable ſhare of wealth; but being now about ſeventy years of age, and fatigued with a tedious view of hurried greatneſs, he quitted, the ſtage of grandeur B 6