Duchess of Gloucester

“ It is certainly better not to live in hostility with society, and if one is so wrong-headed or unfortunate it is very pleasant to make one's daughter a means of reconciliation.
I have letters from England telling me that the Duchess of Gloucester has become the happiest person in the world; Lady Georgiana Bathurst is her lady of honour; she is at home every evening, and her house is the meeting-place of the high Tories ”

“ To have the power is my pride, and not using it in some measure pays the debt I owe the Duke for the honour he has done me. All that I wish of my relations is that they will show the world that they are satisfied with my conduct, yet seem to disguise the reason. If ever I am unfortunate [Pg 107] enough to be called the Duchess of Gloucester, there is an end of almost all the comforts which I now enjoy, which, if things go on as they are now, are many. ”

“ ELEANOR, Duchess of Gloucester
CARDINAL Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester, great-uncle to the King
DUKE OF SOMERSET
DUKE OF SUFFOLK
DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM
LORD CLIFFORD
YOUNG CLIFFORD, his son
VAUX
Richard Plantagenet, Duke of YORK ”

“ The king, who, unlike his people, much desired a peace with France, sailed with a noble company across the Channel, for at his express wish his famous uncle, John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, with his third duchess, the duke and duchess of York, and the duke and duchess of Gloucester, with their two daughters, sailed with him. It was with great unwillingness that Gloucester obeyed the summons of the king to attend his marriage. He hated his nephew for many reasons, and Richard was not slow to perceive and return his feelings. ”

“ His discarded Duchess may flit across the stage, for a brief moment he may revert to his early participation in the French war, but these are merely unimportant incidents in a busy political career. The rest of his life, too, is entirely moulded by the opposition he experiences. The spirit which had inspired the limitation of the Protector’s power was to meet him at every turn, and throughout the next twenty years all English history was to find its central theme in the great struggle between the Duke of Gloucester and the Beaufort faction. ”

“ Albans in accordance with a Royal Licence obtained as far back as 1441. [977] In spite of his inactivity, Gloucester did not entirely retire from public life, but his influence was gone, and the petition of the Parliament of 1442 that ladies of rank should have the same privilege as their husbands, and be tried by the peers for indictable offences, [978] shows his weakness, for this petition, which became a statute, is by way of a censure on the judicial system that had allowed the Duchess of Gloucester to escape with her life. ”

“ That this sudden change was entirely due to a loss of physical power is hardly likely; it is possible that with his usual impetuosity he had devoted himself to other pursuits, and that politics no longer occupied the prominent place in his thoughts that they had hitherto enjoyed.
On his return to England Gloucester rested from his labours, and together with his Duchess went down to his house at Greenwich. They both received New-Year’s gifts from the King. ”

“ Corresponding gifts were made to the younger daughters of the duchess, who married after Anne came to the throne. In 1698 an arrangement under the king's orders had closely connected the Earl of Marlborough himself with the domestic affairs of the prince and princess. The frail life of the little Duke of Gloucester, who to his mother before he died must have represented a hope seventeen times cherished and but once permitted to survive more or less speedy disappointment, alone safeguarded the succession as by law established. ”

“ Gloucester’s attitude towards, 322. London, 95; welcomes Henry V. after Agincourt, 32; visit of Sigismund to, 36; reception of Queen Catherine, 89; citizens support Gloucester, 84, 116, 170, 186, 319; Beaufort attacks, 172; welcomes Bedford, 176; reception of Henry VI. on his return from France, 229; Duchess of Gloucester’s public penance through, 273; Queen Margaret arrives in, 285. —— Bridge, 171, 174, 18O, 223. —— Bishop of. See Kemp, John, and Kempe, Thomas. —— Mayor of, 112, 229; escorts Henry IV. to Westminster, 4; requested to support war with a gift of money, 14; receives Sigismund, 38 ”

“ Guarino da Verona, 351, 369, 370, 421, 422. Guernsey, 62, 248. Guisnes, 253; castle of, 141. Gunthorpe, John, 421. Hadleigh Castle, 7. Hainault, Jacqueline, Countess of, Duchess of Gloucester, 38, 102, 103, 108, 120, 124, 125, 137, 165, 206, 282, 311, 321, 325, 326, 327, 335, 349, 384, 390, 453; early life, 91; marriage to John of Brabant, 92; flight to England, 93-95; sponsor for Henry VI., 126; marriage to Gloucester, 128; received into the Fraternity of St. Albans, 129, 130; the legality of her marriage to Gloucester, 133-135; return to Hainault, 141, 142; reception at Mons, 144 ”

“ DISGRACE OF DUCHESS OF GLOUCESTER
Steps were immediately taken to bring Eleanor to justice, for sanctuary was no protection for the crimes of heresy and witchcraft of which she was now accused. On July 22 she was cited to appear before the Archbishops of Canterbury and York and the Bishops of Winchester and Salisbury, and though she essayed to find safety in flight down the river, she was captured while making the attempt, and brought before her judges on the 25th in the Chapel of St. Stephen at Westminster. ”

“ Gloucester charged the cardinal with contempt for the laws of the realm; and the cardinal avenged himself by accusing Gloucester's duchess of endeavoring to destroy the king by witchcraft, and banishing her to the Isle of Man. It soon appeared that the rivalry between Duke Humphrey and his illegitimate kinsman would involve the sovereign and people of England in serious disasters.
Nature had not gifted Henry of Windsor with the capacity which would have enabled a sovereign to reconcile such foes. Never had the Confessor's crown been placed on so weak a head. ”

“ But the next day, the 11th of February, 1447, the Lord Beaumont, Constable of England, attended by the Duke of Buckingham, and several of the peers of Suffolk's party, arrested Gloucester, seizing, at the same time, all his attendants, and consigning them to different prisons. The Suffolk party now openly avowed that Gloucester had formed a scheme to kill the king, to usurp the throne, liberate his duchess, and make her queen. ”

“ Lorraine, René, Duke of, 75, 283. Louviers, capture of, 70. Lucian of Samosata, 361, 372. Luxemburg, Jacquetta of. See Bedford, Duchess of. Lydgate, John, 32 note 144; praise of Gloucester, 31; verses on Jacqueline, 205; translation of the Psalms, 343; quality of his poetry, 343, 390; The Falls of Princes, 300; A Ballade Warning Men to beware of Deceitful Women, 335 and note 1146; connection with Gloucester, 390-393. Lynn, 8, 385. Lyntall, Sir Roland, 52. Machiavelli, Niccolo, 342. Magnus, Albertus, 410. Maine, 51, 52; added to France, 289. Maisoncelles, 28. Man, Isle of, 274. ”

“ Eighteen years of happy wedded life followed, during which the duke and duchess lived for the most part in retirement, occupying themselves with various philanthropic schemes. After the duke's death the duchess lived in still greater seclusion, devoting herself almost entirely to good works. She outlived all her brothers and sisters, and died at Gloucester House, Park Lane, on 30 April 1857. ”

“ The sorrows of the one were close to their ending, while those of the other had little more than begun. Treated at first with apparent kindness and lenity—placed in the keeping of her uncle, and suffered to visit her beloved mother-in-law,—the Princess of Wales maintained so dauntless a front, and so unswerving a resolution, that Gloucester saw plainly that to wait for any change in her would be to wait for ever. No earthly consideration would ever make her willingly wed with him. ”

“ A letter written to Mons telling of Gloucester’s coming. This corresponds with Eberhard Windeck’s report of 4000 men (Windeck, cap. 215, p. 162) . Waurin, iii. 125, says 5000. Holkham MS., p. 8, follows Stow in saying 1200. Pierre de Fénin, p. 601, also says 1200. An entry in the Registre de Mons of November 27, 1424, says Gloucester arrived near Mons with between 4000 and 5000 men (Cartulaire, iv. 420) , but he had then been joined by some of the troops belonging to the Dowager-Duchess.
[523] Waurin, iii. 126; Monstrelet, 562.
[524] Kymer’s ‘Dietary,’ in Liber Niger Scaccarii, App. vol. ii. ”

“ At a council held in the Star Chamber, presided over by Gloucester, it was decided that as children could commit no crime they could need no sanctuary, and that therefore the duke of Gloucester, as acting regent, might withdraw his nephew Richard from his mother's care whenever he chose. A deputation of peers, headed by the cardinal archbishop of Canterbury waited on the queen to try to prevail on her to give up her boy, saying the king was wishful of a playfellow, but it was long before she would give her consent. ”

“ The drama of Gloucester’s life is drawing to a close, and the tragedy of its end is in sight. Any lingering regard for his uncle in the mind of the King had passed, and his attitude during the visit of the French embassy which came to England in 1445 illustrates the success of the tactics employed by Margaret. It was on July 15 that the ambassadors came before the King, whom they found supported by Suffolk, Dorset, the Cardinal of York, the Chancellor, Adam Moleyns, Gloucester, Chester, and Warwick. ”

“ Leonard’s Day, Sunday, November 6, that the coronation took place, shorn of some of its glories by reason of the haste with which preparations for it had been made. Archbishop Chichele, assisted by the Cardinal Bishop of Winchester, who had returned from France for the occasion, performed the ceremony, which ended with a banquet in Westminster Hall, such as Gloucester had supervised nearly ten years before on the occasion of Queen Catherine’s coronation. ”

“ The very men who had petitioned the Pope to divorce Jacqueline from the Duke of Brabant, [582] now sought to win favour from him whom they had opposed. Such was the state of public opinion when Gloucester rejoined his wife at Mons after his fiasco at Soignies. [583]
In the capital the citizens had never whole-heartedly welcomed the rule of the foreigner, and had always disliked the regent’s English followers. ”

“ But to think of him in my uncle Gloucester's power—ah! the world may well ask which is king and which is prince!'
'Yes, since Gloucester broke his promise to the council to have him crowned on the fourth of May my heart is ever fearful,' answered Elizabeth; 'of little avail was it to bring him clothed in purple and ermine through the city when he was surrounded by none but followers of the Boar'—for such was the duke's device. 'I misdoubt me that he will not long be left in the palace of the good bishop of Ely.' Then both sisters fell silent for a long time. ”

“ All these matters were carefully noted by the discontented Duke of Gloucester, still more morose from the king's refusal of his daughter, on the plea of her being too near akin. Gloucester, during the whole marriage visit to France, did not conceal his hostility to the alliance. It was in vain that the king made him rich presents to win his good-will. He was still sullen, morose, and destitute of all courtesy, returning the attentions of the nobles with abrupt and curt answers, so that they said amongst themselves, if ever Gloucester could stir up a war he would. ”

“ By his wife Maud, Gloucester had several children, of whom the most noteworthy were (1) his successor Gilbert (the 'Red') [q. v.] , (2) Thomas de Clare, the friend of Prince Edward (d. 1287) , (3) Boso or Bono the good, a canon of York. Of his daughters, Margaret married Edmund, a younger son of Richard, earl of Cornwall, and Roesia married Roger Mowbray in 1270 (Land of Morgan, pp. 141-2; Pat. Rolls, 31 a) .
Gloucester was the most powerful English noble of his time. ”

“ The wretched mother knows instinctively the fate in store for her offspring, and takes sanctuary at Westminster with her second son, the little Duke of York, a boy of eleven years of age. With fair and specious words a prince of the Church persuades the widow to surrender the lad, and forthwith he joins his brother in the Tower.
And now Gloucester ruthlessly hurries to the block those who by the ties of kindred and friendship are likely to befriend the boys, and ere long no man dares raise his voice against any of his bloodthirsty acts. He is a dictator—and dictators easily develop into kings. ”

“ During the regency he acted with the opposition, and adhered to the Duke of Sussex on the breach with the prince regent occasioned by Princess Charlotte's refusal of the Prince of Orange. He afterwards took the side of the queen during the parliamentary proceedings against her. He supported catholic emancipation (9 June 1828) , but voted against Earl Grey's reform bill (7 Oct. 1831, 13 April 1832) .
Gloucester's intellectual powers were by no means of a high order. His life was blameless, and much of his income was spent in charity. He died, without issue, on 30 Nov. ”

“ There the young king stayed for the night with his attendants, while Lord Rivers returned to Northampton to meet the late king's brother, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who was hurrying down from the Scotch marches—ostensibly to pay homage to his nephew.
A struggle had been long impending between two rival parties in the state. On one hand the Queen, with her relations, who had been raised to wealth and power by her marriage. On the other, Gloucester, with many of the old nobility, whose jealousy had been roused by the sudden advance of the Woodville family. ”