XXl THE MASTER OF GAME

ordinary traitors in the fifteenth century. But for this circumstance the results would assured]
have been far severer for both the conspirators, ¥

Pevensey Castle must have been a very desolate spot ; part of the donjon of the castle was in
ruins, the haven was choked with mud and sand “‘ by the stroke of the sea,” and the whole of the

flats as far as Beachy Head or Beachiff, as it was then called, were constantly under water, His
warder, one Thomas Pleistede, to whom in his will he left £20 ‘“‘en memoire pour la naturesse quill
me monstra quant je foy a Pevensay en garde,” must have treated him with kindness, and no doubt
tried to soften the rigours of the prison. After seventeen weeks spent there he petitioned to be
released on account of his “disease and heaviness,” but it did not lead to any immediate result for
it was only on October 7 that the King sent an order to bring the Duke from Pevensey cone
royal presence, probably at Kenilworth, where Lady le Despenser was still detained. Soon
afterwards he seems to have regained not only his liberty, but also was reinstated in royal favour
and his sequestered estates re-granted to him. On December 22, 1405, we find him again at is
place as Privy Councillor, with a salary of £200 per annum, and on the death of Sir Th
Rempston he became for the third time Constable of the Tower. (Rym. viii. 457, Do i.
lil. 744.) oe

It is quite possible, nay probable, as already pointed out, that the Duke of York used his leisure
at Pevensey Castle to translate “Gaston Phoebus” and to write the original chapters of the “ Master of
Game,” for from what we know of his career before and after his stay at Pevensey, it would appear
to have been a singularly varied and busy one, entailing much travelling by sea and land, during
which he would have found it difficult to engage in literary labours. Though nee and
probably to a considerable extent completed, during his imprisonment, the work was not eee
to the Prince of Wales for some months, for it was in 1406 that he was made the King’s Master of
Game, to which title he particularly lays claim, as we already know, in his Breleeces Up to his
complicity in Lady le Despenser’s plot he drew the salary of “ Master of our pene dogs called
hert houndes,” which post, though he was much abroad, he had held in 1398 under renee u. and
from 1400-1405, at a salary of 12 pence per day. But, as a consequence of his treason, he was on
March 11, 1405, deprived of this post, and the same was given on March 12 to Sir Robert
Waterton (Pat. 6 Henry tv. 1), a knight greatly trusted by Henry 1v., and of whom also
Shakespeare speaks. He was reinstated in 1406, the same year in which he was made Master
of Game, which evidently was a superior post. (See Appendix: Hunt Officials.)

Not long afterwards he received orders to retire to his estates in the Welsh Marches and
repress the rebels. Of his doings during the next three years we know little, and if he did not
complete his literary labours during his imprisonment in 1405, it does not seem improbable that he
wrote his ‘‘ Master of Game” during his exile in the Welsh Marches. For had not Prince Hal
earnestly vindicated his loyalty in Parliament and thereby, we can well conceive, gained his
gratitude? To this feeling he probably tried to give expression by dedicating his ‘‘ Master of
Game” to him, submitting it to his correction, a form of flattery which, as it was voiced by an
experienced sportsman, must have pleased the youthful nephew and helped to mollify the latter's
perhaps suspicious father. In the beginning of 1409 the Duke of York was back in London,
for on January 21 of that year we find him at Greenwich Manor House as one of the witnesses
to King Henry's will. In the latter the King declares himself “a synnefull deedly wretche,”
asserting that he had misspent his life. His malady, which had often threatened a sudden
end, must have, however, moderated soon afterwards, for a Privy Seal entry shows that from
May 1 to May 8, 1409, the King was at Sutton, near Chiswick, on his way to Windsor to hunt
with the hart hounds, hayters and otter hounds, one William Melbourne being “ valet of our otter
hounds,” the name of the “ yeman tenterer de Buckhoundis ” being Gnfonunerely not mentioned.”

* Sir Robert Waterton had been Henry tv.’s “‘ Master of the Horse”? when he was still Earl of Derby, and as such
undertook his two expeditions to Prussia and to the Holy Land (1390-91, 1392-93). He also was the pare guardian
of Richard 11.’s person when after his dethronement he was sent to Pontefract Castle.

* The Exchequer Accounts, Pipe Rolls, and other public documents of the period, contain but few references to the
Duke of York’s connection with venery or to other officers in King Henry’s hunting establishment. Personal search in

 

 

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THE AUTHORSHIP xxii

ngs during the following three years. In 1412 he

Duke of Clarence, on his expedition to France, for
red, it is generally supposed, from

We know little of the Duke of York’s doi
accompanied his nephew, Thomas of Lancaster,

ing” i i d—he suffe
ount of the King’s quickly approaching end—t
eae next heir to the throne could not absent himself. The Duke of York brought 260 men

Constant warring had raised the price of men, the pay the men ae
like 50 per cent. in eight years.! Later on in the year, peace Was at last
of which a great part was paid in jewels and in choice gold
The Duke of York shared in the loot. His claim for
ved only 5430 crowns in ready money,

For the remainder he took in pledge a
ose

at-arms into the field.
having gone up something
made, France paying 150,000 crowns,
and silver plate, as ready cash was scarce. ;
his men’s pay amounted to 36,170 crowns, of which he rece
for it was no less scarce in England than it was in France. i
famous gold cross of Damascus workmanship, worth 40,000 crowns—an immense sum - _
It was one of the Duke de Berry’s marvellous art treasures which he had presented to the
The latter, in consequence of the huge war indemnity payable to
plate, the like of which, it is said, had never

days.
family chapel at Bourges.
England, became stripped of its unique gems and

been seen. i
The Duke of York did not return with the troops to England, but remained in Aquitaine to

push his claims to the throne of Arragon as the son of Isabelle of Castile. On his return :
England in 1414, the new King, Henry v., appointed him Justice of South Wales and Warden oO
the East Marches, districts he knew well from his former campaigns against the rebellious Welsh.
The King also caused the Parliamentary declaration of 1401 in Edward's favour to be renewed,
though the Rutland estates remained lost to him, his right to them having lapsed at his father's
death.

In 1415 another conspiracy came to a head, and among those connected with it was Edward's
only brother, Richard. And as Henry v. was a less forgiving ruler than his father had been, it
ended in Richard’s execution some months later on the eve of the King’s departure with his army
for France in the summer of 1415.

This year witnessed one of, if not the most extraordinary victory ever vouchsafed to English
arms; for at Agincourt the English forces, after as daring a raid into the heart of the enemy’s
country as military history knows, coped against odds computed by various historians to have been
from three to ten times as great. Again did the arch-plotter and arch-fighter, Edward Duke of
York, come to the fore, but this time his actions evinced extreme loyalty to his King and country,
for when money ran short he followed his King’s example and pawned his plate and jewels for the
pay of his troops.? His indenture, dated April 29, 1415, shows that his force consisted of one
banneret, four knights, ninety-four squires, and three hundred archers. It is very ancient history
that the battle was principally won by the English bowmen, but it is less well-known that an
invention of the Duke of York’s had much to do in gaining this world-famous victory. This was
the cavalry-resisting stake. Each archer was provided with one of these six-foot beams of wood,
pointed at both ends, which he planted into the ground slanting towards the enemy, and
thus they were able to resist the onrush of the heavily armoured French knights. According
to the Gesta Flenrict Quintz, it was the Duke of York who first advised the use of these
stakes.

Of the many dramatic incidents that occurred on that memorable St. Crispin’s day, we can
refer here only to those connected with Edward of York’s death. Though to follow the events of
a medieval battle from contemporary accounts is usually a difficult, if not impossible, task, both
French and English accounts agree in certain details. The main body of the English army,

the Record Office, and that of other more competent searchers, brought to light but two new documents giving details
connected with venery other than those already known. They will be found in the Appendix under “ Hunt Officials.”
* Squires were receiving 1s. 6d. and archers od. per day in 1412.
oe : : _
King Henry gave one of his crowns in pawn to Edward, while the latter pledged his personal jewels and church
plate to London moneylenders. Amongst these treasures was an “ almes dish called the Tygre made in the fashion of a

ship standing on a bear garnished with diamonds and pearls and weighing 22 lbs. 14 ounz.” This tre

i as
only in 9 Henry vi. asure was redeemed

    
    
    
 
   
   
  
   
 
 
   
   
 
 
 
  
  
   
  
 
   
  
 
  
  
 
 
  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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