Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1902-02-28
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III
RALPH HARDELOTS y
MEDIATION 8
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BY WILLIAM MINTO W
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ances OF longer standing than even the
outrageous cost and the outrageous fail
ure OF the wars with France began to be
more acutely felt as the pressure above
increased the pinch on the masses be-
low. The evaporation was especially
keen among that large class of peasant
population which still remained in var
ious forms and degrees of serfdom, sub
ject to indefinite eXactions from their
lords and masters. The hardships and
irritations Of their position, which for
a generation had, under various inhu-
ences, grown more and more ittolera-
BILE, were aggravated by the general dis
tress, and their discomfort now became
so intense that it was ready, at the
slightest disturbing touch, to burst into
destructive tempest.
Our story concerns the fortunes of
heroic spirit, who, like many others,
saw the mischief that was brewing,
but, unlike most, felt called upon to
labor with all his might to avert the
impending strife. The particulars of
his strange devotion and dauntless en-
deavor to reconcile domestic enemies
we have gathered from old and neglect
ed chronicles, and here present to the
reader in the hope that they may seem
to him as they have seemed to us-not
unworthy of preservation.
The most heavily -burdened man in
the kingdom much over -burdened
as the event proved-was Simon Sud-
bury, Archbishop of Canterbury and
Lord High Chancellor. He was head
of the Church and at the same time
head of the secular administration;
and both branches of constituted author
ity were objects of bitter hatred and
clamorous criticism.
AS primate he had his troubles
recalcitrant monks to be browbeat,
pestilent heresy to suppress, difficulties
between the pope and the clergy to ad-
just, difficulties between the pope and
the government, jealousies between the
higher clergy and the baronage; but,
grave as some of these troubles were,
they were light compared with the des-
perate cares of the chancellorship, at
that time the highest of the great Offices
of state, as measured by the weight and
number of its responsibilities.
There was not in those days the same
subdivision of duties that exists now
among the kings ministers, and the
responsibility of ways and means to re-
plenish the empty treasury fell upon
the lord high chancellor. This base
necessity was the problem of problems
for the government.
To find employment for the restless
English chivalry, and to give the
youngest of the kings uncles, Thomas
of Woodstock, Earl of Buckingham,
taste of the glorious game of war, a
splendid expedition had been sent
across into France early in the summer.
But the glorious game is costly; the
expenses were not yet paid, nor was
there any money in the treasury where
withal to pay them. The crown jewels
were in pawn.
Further, Buckingham's expedition
did not promise to be success. The
French would not fight; at least in
pitched battle. This was the pusillan-
imous policy of Charles the Sage, which
had rendered so many grand and gal
liant expeditions abortive-to keep
within walled towns and fortresses, to
remove to safe shelters all that could
conveniently be removed, to leave the
rest to the mercy of the invaders, and
to keep the track of devastation as mar
row as possible by hanging on their
flanks and cutting off adventurous ex-
cursion parties of plumber. No barbar-
ity of fire and sword perpetrated on the
defenseless country had availed as yet
to tempt the Sage King out of this cold
blooded policy of endurance. Nothing
had been achieved by the expedition to
put Parliament in better humor to pay
the outrageous cost of the war.
Other debts were urgent, notably the
wages of the few English garrisons re-
naming in France-Calais and Cher
bourg, and Brest and Bayonne-which
were year and quarter in arrear.
They were so hemmed in that they
could not, as in happier times, make
up for the want of pay by pillaging the
country.
The noble institution of national
credit, whereby such bills might have
been left to posterity, was as yet unde-
veloped. The ministers of Richard Ii.
had no such resource. The pawning OF
the crown jewels shows how very rudi-
mentary were their methods of finance.
The government had no choice but
to 60 once more to Parliament. Their
last reception had not been encourag-
ing, but there was no alternative. And
the money had to be raised at once by
taxation from people who had pro-