Transcribed from the 1912 Macmillan and Co. edition ,email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk
When the venture has been made of dealing with historical eventsand characters, it always seems fair towards the reader to avow whatliberties have been taken, and how much of the sketch is founded onhistory. In the present case, it is scarcely necessary to do morethan refer to the almost unique relations that subsisted between HenryV. and his prisoner, James I. of Scotland; who lived with him throughouthis reign on the terms of friend rather than of captive, and was absolutelysheltered by this imprisonment throughout his nonage and early youthfrom the frightful violence and presumption of the nobles of his kingdom.
James’s expedition to Scotland is wholly imaginary, thoughthere appears to have been space for it during Henry’s progressto the North to pay his devotions at Beverley Minster. The heroof the story is likewise invention, though, as Froissart ascribes toKing Robert II. ‘eleven sons who loved arms,’ Malcolm maywell be supposed to be the son of one of those unaccounted for in thepedigrees of Stewart. The same may be said of Esclairmonde. There were plenty of Luxemburgs in the Low Countries, but the individualis not to be identified. Readers of Tyler’s ‘HenryV.,’ of Agnes Strickland’s ‘Queens,’ Tytler’s‘Scotland,’ and Barante’s ‘Histoire de Bourgogne’will be at no loss for the origin of all I have ventured to say of thereally historical personages. Mr. Fox Bourne’s ‘EnglishMerchants’ furnished the tradition respecting Whittington. I am afraid the knighthood was really conferred on Henry’s firstreturn to England, after the battle of Agincourt; but human—orat least story-telling—nature could not resist an anachronismof a few years for such a story. The only other wilful alterationof a matter of time is with regard to the Duke of Burgundy’s interviewwith Henry. At the time of Henry’s last stay at Paris theDuke was attending the death-bed of his wife, Michelle of France, buthe had been several times in the King’s camp at the siege of Meaux.
Another alteration of fact is that Ralf Percy, instead of being secondson of Hotspur, should have been Henry Percy, son of Hotspur’sbrother Ralf; but the name would have been so confusing that it wasthought better to set Dugdale at defiance and consider the reader’sconvenience. Alice Montagu, though her name sounds as if it cameout of the most commonplace novelist’s repertory, was a veritablepersonage—the heiress of the brave line of Montacute, or Montagu;daughter to the Earl of Salisbury who was killed at the siege of Orleans;wife to the Earl of the same title (in her right) who won the battleof Blore Heath and was beheaded at Wakefield; and mother to Earl Warwickthe King-maker, the Marquis of Montagu, and George Nevil, Archbishopof York. As nothing is known of her but her name, I have venturedto make use of the blank.
For Jaqueline of Hainault, and her pranks, they are to be found inMonstrelet of old, and now in Barante; though justice to her and QueenIsabeau compels me to state that the incident of the ring is whollyfictitious. Of the trial of Walter Stewart no record is preservedsave that he was accused of ‘roborica.’ JamesKennedy was the first great benefactor to learning in Scotland, andfounder of her earliest University, having been himself educated atParis.
The Abbey of Coldingham is described from a local compilation ofthe early part of the century, with an account of the history of thatgrand old foundation, and the struggle for appointments between theparent house at Durham and the Scottish Government. Priors Akefieldand Drax are historical, and as the latter really did commission a bodyof moss-troopers to divert an instalment of King James’s ra