Prince Henry of Wales

“ I fear thou art another counterfeit,
And yet, in faith, thou bearest thee like a king.
But mine I am sure thou art, whoe’er thou be,
And thus I win thee.
They fight; the King being in danger, enter Prince Henry.
PRINCE.
Hold up thy head, vile Scot, or thou art like
Never to hold it up again! The spirits
Of valiant Shirley, Stafford, Blunt are in my arms.
It is the Prince of Wales that threatens thee,
Who never promiseth but he means to pay.
[They fight. Douglas flies.]
Cheerly, my lord. How fares your Grace?
Sir Nicholas Gawsey hath for succour sent,
And so hath Clifton. ”

“ Besides, the little fellow was a mere child, and was, of course, a minor consideration in a country which had a natural dread of a long regal minority. "A boy of eight or nine," said one of the philosophers of the day, "cannot sit upon the throne, without bringing the kingdom into a state of sixes and sevens." It was, however, to strengthen the presumed legitimacy of his family that Henry got his son created Prince of Wales, and though the circumstance is said to have weighed but as a feather in the scales, the Prince of Wales's feathers must always go for something in the balance. ”

“ When Owyn Glyndowr raised the standard of rebellion in his native land, and assuming to himself the name and state and powers of an independent sovereign, under the title of "Prince of Wales," declared war against Henry of Bolinbroke and his son, he was fully impressed with the formidable power of his antagonists, and with the fate that might await him should he fail in his attempt to rescue Wales from the yoke of England. Embarked in a most perilous enterprise, a cause of life or death, he vigorously entered on the task of securing every promising means of success. ”

“ The title of Prince of Wales with a right to the homage of the Welsh chieftains satisfied his ambition; and he consented to swear fealty to Henry, and to pay him the sum of twenty-five thousand marks. The restoration of tranquillity allowed the King to direct his attention to the improvement of his people. He condescended to profit by the labors of his adversaries; and some of the most useful among the provisions of the barons were with other laws enacted by legitimate authority in a parliament at Marlborough. ”

“ On the occasion of the creation of Prince Henry as prince of Wales in 1610 he was made a knight of the Bath, subsequently travelled with Sir Henry Wotton, then ambassador to the duke of Savoy, and on his return married his first wife, Elizabeth, daughter of William Basset of Blore, Staffordshire, and widow of Henry Howard, 3rd son of the earl of Suffolk. ”

“ Nothing could outwardly have been more happy and successful than the life of Henry, Prince of Wales, the son of a poor Scotch king, raised suddenly to the position of heir to the most prosperous kingdom in Europe. Henry, Duke of Gloucester, on the contrary, was destined to take his share from his earliest childhood in the disasters of his family. ”

“ Time has not allowed the adverse influences of life and of royal power to corrupt them. Had Henry VIII. died young, he would have left a regretted name as a model of chivalric spirit and generous enthusiasm; yet we have no right to infer that Henry Prince of Wales, the eldest son of James, would have developed into such a character as the eighth Henry. ”

“ On the last day of the month the king held a council at Northampton, at which William of Scotland stood before him a prisoner, while Hugh of Durham, Mowbray, Ferrers, and the officers of the Earl of Leicester came to give up their fortresses. The castles of Huntingdon and Norfolk were already secured. The suspected Earls of Gloucester and of Clare swore fidelity at the King's Court. Scotland was helpless. A treaty was made with the Irish kings. Wales was secured by a marriage between the prince of North Wales and Henry's sister. ”

“ Henry, Prince of Wales, was dead, who, had he lived, might have changed the whole course of events in English history during the seventeenth century. And the [Pg 219] heir to the crown was Charles, Duke of York, destined within forty years to die upon the scaffold.
While our gallant young prince lay dying, the king showed himself as selfish and indifferent as we might expect. He came once to visit his son: but fearing that the fever might be contagious, he went away without seeing him, and retired to Theobalds, Lord Salisbury's estate. ”

“ It is a relief to turn to another feature of the age: it was an age of great men. Owen Gwynedd was probably the greatest. He disliked war, but he was an able general; he made Henry II. retire without great loss of life to his own army. He was a thoughtful prince, of a loving nature and high ideals, and his court was the home of piety and culture. He is more like our own ideal of a prince than any of the other princes of the Middle Ages. The Lord Rees was not less wise, and his life is less sorrowful and more brilliant. He also was as great as a statesman as he was as a general ”

“ The Prince of Wales, who was still, despite his forty years and more, one of the handsomest men in the three kingdoms, with the soul the most ugly and the most vile, had condescended to come and relate to everyone who was willing to listen to him that the King was madder than ever. ”

“ But Henry, to whose guardianship, (p. 017) whilst Prince of Wales, the young Earl had been intrusted, was no sooner seated on the throne, than he admitted this young man into a full share of his confidence; not with the suspicion of a rival, nor with the fear of an enemy, but with the openness of an acknowledged and kind master towards a trustworthy and devoted servant. (p. 018) The references to him which are found in the authentic records of that time (and they are not a few) all tend to establish this point. ”

“ None of our kings seem to have been less beloved; and indeed he had little claim to affection. But what men denied to the reigning king they poured in full measure upon the heir of his throne. The virtues of the prince of Wales are almost invidiously eulogized by those parliaments who treat harshly his father ”

“ The child was named Henry, styled Prince of Wales, and given a serjeant-at-arms on the 14th, and a clerk of the signet on the 19th of February. Three days later he was dead; he was buried at the cost of some ten thousand pounds in Westminster Abbey. The rejoicings were turned to grief, which, aggravated by successive disappointments, bore with cumulative force on the mind of the King and his people. ”

“ Though no one can hesitate at present to acknowledge that the Prince of Wales's legitimacy is out of all question, there was enough to raise a reasonable apprehension in the presumptive heir, that a party not really very scrupulous, and through religious animosity supposed to be still less so, had been induced by the undoubted prospect of advantage to draw the king, who had been wholly their slave, into one of those frauds which bigotry might call pious. ”

“ The question of the future marriage of Henry Frederick Prince of Wales was treated in a kindred spirit though not exactly in the same way.
All eyes were already directed to this young prince and his future prospects. He was serious and reserved; a man of few words, sound judgment, and lofty ideas; and he gave signs of an ambitious desire to rival his most famous predecessors on the throne. [355] He understood the calling of sovereign in a different sense from his father. ”

“ For the hatred at least a good reason will be shown in its proper place.
The Prince then having consulted with his advisers—and the principal of these were the Duke of Marlborough, Lord Carteret and Mr. Pulteney—decided to appeal to Parliament to petition the King to grant him that same income as Prince of Wales, which he himself received from George the First. ”

“ The Prince of Wales attended in his Venetian-Chinese barge (the rowers in Chinese habits) being greatly cheered by the people, “at which he pulled off his hat.”
Turning to other matters, there was an accident at Kensington Palace which occurred when Lady Yarmouth—our old acquaintance Madame Walmoden—took up her quarters there, very nearly causing the demolition of the building, which would have been an event much to be regretted from the point of view of picturesqueness. ”

“ An early marriage with a beautiful girl such as Lady Diana Spencer would probably have been the best thing which could have happened to the young Prince of Wales; it would possibly have obliterated the scars of his old love for his cousin Wilhelmina, which wounds certainly broke out again at a later period, and it might have kept him from disgraceful liaisons ”

“ On 8 May 1402 Henry gave his assent in London to a proposed marriage between himself and Catherine, sister of the young King Eric of Denmark. On the 14th he was at Berkhampstead, and on the 26th at Tutbury. Meantime Owen Glendower [q. v.] had been gathering strength in Wales, and a fresh invasion became necessary in September. Henry commanded one of the three divisions of the English army, but the expedition proved a failure (Usk, p. 76; Ann. Hen. IV, pp. 343–4) . On 7 March 1403 the prince was appointed by the council to represent his father in Wales and the marches (Fœdera, viii. 291) . ”

“ The two Highlanders who came in yesterday and beat up for volunteers for him they called His Royal Highness Charles, Prince of Wales, offered five guineas advance; many took on; each received one shilling to have the rest when the Prince came.
“They do not appear to be such terrible fellows as has been represented. Many of the foot are diminutive creatures, but many clever men among them. The Guards and officers are all in a Highland dress, a long sword and stuck with pistols; their horses all sizes and colours. ”

“ Prince Henry's Expedition to Scotland, and Success. — Thanks presented to him by Parliament. — His generous Testimony to the Duke of York. — Is first named as President of the Council. — Returns to Wales. — Is appointed Warden of the Cinque Ports and Constable of Dover. — Welsh Rebellion dwindles and dies. — Owyn Glyndowr's Character and Circumstances; his Reverses and Trials. — His Bright Points undervalued. — The unfavourable side of his Conduct unjustly darkened by Historians. — Reflections on his Last Days. — Fac-simile of his Seals as Prince of Wales. ”

“ From October 1400 the administration of Wales was conducted in his name; less than three years later he was in actual command of the English forces and fought against the Percies at Shrewsbury. The Welsh revolt absorbed his energies till 1408. Then through the king’s ill-health he began to take a wider share in politics. From January 1410, helped by his uncles Henry and Thomas Beaufort, he had practical control of the government. Both in foreign and domestic policy he 285 differed from the king, who in November 1411 discharged the prince from the council. ”

“ He conceived himself to have been unjustly treated, for reasons which do not concern our present purpose, and to avenge his wrongs he formed an alliance with Owen Glendower and with the Earl of Douglas on behalf of the King of Scotland. Glendower was to invade Gloucestershire. To meet this danger the King issued briefs, under date of June 16th, to the Lieutenants of Gloucestershire, Shropshire, Worcestershire, and Herefordshire, directing that all persons liable to serve should put themselves at the command of his son, Henry, Prince of Wales. ”