Under One Sceptre, or Mortimer's Mission: The Story of the Lord of the MarchesHolt, Emily Sarah
General
Under One Sceptre, or Mortimer's Mission: The Story of the Lord of the Marches
Holt, Emily Sarah
Historical fiction; Mortimer, Roger de, Earl of March, 1328-1360 -- Fiction
The Earl of Arundel had been induced by his brother to unite with the
conspirators, who were also joined by Thomas Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick,
a weak man who was as much a dupe as a criminal. It was not till a
later period that they were joined by the cautious Henry of Bolingbroke,
Earl of Derby, and by another who ought for very shame to have held
aloof,—the King’s favoured friend and trusted councillor, Thomas
Mowbray, Earl of Norfolk. William Courtenay, Archbishop of Canterbury,
was also ready to help them, on account of his personal dislike to his
brother Archbishop, who had recently received a lucrative appointment
whereon Courtenay had set covetous eyes.
Of course the real causes of hatred were not paraded before that
innocent, deceivable creature, the public. The true reasons for hating
the four obnoxious councillors were that they had the ear of the King,
while he declined to be governed by the five conspirators and their
priestly guides, who were accordingly much scandalised at his allowing
himself to be governed by any one—themselves of course excepted. This
is the usual secret of complaints that a man is governed. Put the
complainer in the place of the governor, and the complaint will not be
heard again.
The ostensible reasons were plausible. The Archbishop of York, said the
conspirators, was covetous and arrogant, and took liberties with the
King: which of course meant that equal liberties were not allowed to
themselves, the Archbishop being in reality one of the gentlest and most
unworldly of men. The Duke of Ireland was "a puppy;" he made the King
do whatever he liked, and bestow on him lands, titles, and offices
(instead of on the conspirators). The Earl of Suffolk was a mere
nobody, the scum of the earth, yet he took upon himself to dictate to
the King and to oppose the nobles. Sir Simon Burley had proposed, under
colour of an expected invasion of the French, to remove the shrine of
St. Thomas from Canterbury Cathedral to Dover Castle, on the pretence
that Canterbury was not so strong as Dover: of course he could only mean
to pocket the rich offerings, and make his own profit out of the
guardianship of the shrine. All of them were accused of defalcations of
the Crown revenues.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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