THE NOBLE AUTHORS OF ENGLAND. HENRY FIRST DUKE OF LANCASTER, [ILLUSTRIOUS for family honours and distinctions, hereditary and acquired, the son of Henry Plantagenet, earl of Leicester, Derby, and Lincoln, appears to have written a pious treatise, entitled, "Livre de seintes Medicines :" extant in the library of C. C. C. C. num. ccxviii 3. This Henry, says Mr. Nichols 4, surnamed Grismond from the place of his birth, being Grismond castle in Monmouthshire, was the only son of Henry earl of Lancaster, the second son of king Henry III. He was created earl of Derby in his father's life, xi Edw. III. earl of Lincoln, xxiii Edw. III. and duke of Lancaster, xxv Edw. III. and married Isabel, daughter of Henry lord Beaumont, by whom he had issue two daughters, of whom Blanche, the younger, • Bolton's Extinct Peerage, p. 167. being married to John of Gaunt, brought him the estate and title of Lancaster. He signalized himself as a soldier and statesman, says Granger, and acquitted himself with reputation in several treaties and embassies 5. This duke has been generally considered as the founder of Corpus Christi or Benet College, Cambridge: but Mr. Wilson informs us, that college owed its origin, in the year 1350, to a union between two guilds or religious societies in the town of Cambridge, called Corpus Christi and the Blessed Virgin Mary; which, in order to obtain a license from king Edward the third, to convert their houses into a college, claimed and obtained the protection and munificent liberality of Henry first duke of Lancaster. This duke, he adds, accompanied Edward the third, to whom he was a kind of guardian, in all his expeditions; and acquitted himself with the highest reputation. His retinue was more splendid than that of any nobleman of his period, never having less than eight hundred men at arms, and two thousand archers. His daily expenditure is calculated at one hundred pounds a day, an immense sum at that time; and he spent seventeen thousand pounds sterling in the French wars, beside his pay. He was advanced by the king's special charter, and by the general consent of all the prelates and peers then sitting in parliament, to the dukedom of Lancaster, for his prudent conduct Biog. Hist. vol. i. p. 35. • Memorabilia Cantabrigiæ, p. 37. and renowned exploits in the wars; and was elected a knight of the garter, and constituted admiral of the king's whole fleet westward of the river Thames. Dugdale has recorded many of his military adventures. He received a challenge from the duke of Brunswick to personal combat before the king and court of France; but when every thing was prepared, the challenger became so dismayed and panic-struck by the appearance of the English hero, that he was advised by his friends to submit himself to the award of the French king, who with some difficulty effected a reconciliation between the parties. At another time, being about to retire with his army from Normandy, after having in vain invited the king of France to battle, he received a message that the king would fulfil his desire. Whereunto he returned answer, "that he was come into those parts upon special business, which he had already in part effected; and that he was then going back to some other parts, where he had somewhat to do; adding, that if the king of France, or any one of his subjects, should endeavour to hinder him, he was ready to make his way by force, resolving to do nothing obscurely; and that he would cause a lantern to be carried behind him, that the king of France might know which way he bent his course." The king forbore to follow him 7. Henry built and resided at the palace of the Savoy in London, but died at Leicester of the plague in 1360, and was buried in the collegiate church of St. 'Dugdale's Baronage, tom. i. p. 788. |