The First English Delegation to the Council of Basel

A. N. E. D. Schofield

doi:10.1017/S0022046900062771

The First English Delegation to the Council of Basel

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 March 2011

A. N. E. D. Schofield

Article contents

Extract
References

Get access

Rights & Permissions

Extract

In June 1432 Gerardo Landriani, the bishop of Lodi, visited England as an ambassador of the Council of Basel to address the king and parliament. The assembly in Basel, despite a late start, poor attendance and the threat of war in its immediate neighbourhood, had rebelled against Eugenius IV at the beginning of the year by continuing to meet in defiance of the papal bulls of dissolution. It persisted in its negotiations with the excommunicated Hussites and showed determination to achieve its other declared aims, the reform of the Church and the pacification of Christendom. Landriani found that a papal envoy bearing copies of the bulls of dissolution was also in London; he, nevertheless, succeeded in obtaining promises of English support and a delegation composed partly of Henry VI's ambassadors, partly of delegates of the English clergy, set out for Basel before the close of the year.

Type: Articles
Information: The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 12 , Issue 2 , October 1961 , pp. 167 - 196

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022046900062771 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1961

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

^{page 167 note 1} The relations between the Council and Eugenius IV during the latter part of 1431, the circumstances in which Eugenius issued his bulls of dissolution on 12 November and 18 December 1431 and the manner in which their contents became known to the Council are examined by Valois, N., La Crise religieuse du XV^e siècle: le Pape et le Concile, 1418–1450, Paris 1909, i. 118–33Google Scholar, 141–2; Leclercq, C. J. Hefele-H., Histoire des Conciles, Paris 1916, vii. 2. 685 ffGoogle Scholar.

^{page 167 note 2} The aims of the Council were defined at its first public session on 14 December 1431: Hefele-Leclercq, op. cit., vii. 2. 693.

^{page 167 note 3} This was Peter de Mera. The exact date of his arrival in England is not known. Zellfelder thinks that he might have set off on his mission as early as January 1432 but this is entirely conjectural: A. Zellfelder, England und das Basler Konzil (Historische Studien, ed. E. Ebering, Band 113), Berlin 1913, 55. He was in England early in July 1432 when the King's Council made him a payment of fifty marks: Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy Council of England, ed. SirNicolas, H., London 1835, iv. 120Google Scholar. On 3 July 1432 the Council of Basel was in receipt of information that de Mera and another curial official were in the diocese of Trent; this was presumably out-dated information by then: Concilium Basiliense. Studien und Quellen zur Geschichte des Concils von Basel, ed. Haller, J., Basel 1897, ii. 153Google Scholar; Sacrorum conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio, ed. J. D. Mansi, Venice 1798 (hereafter cited as Mansi), xxxi. 132–3; The Register of Henry Chichele, Archbishop of Canterbury (1414–1443), ed. Jacob, E. F., Oxford 1943, iii. 252Google Scholar.

^{page 167 note 4} The differentiation between members of the delegation who were royal ambassadors and those who were delegates of the clergy of the kingdom can be traced in the various official documents—safe-conducts, letters of protection, licences to take gold and silver out of the kingdom, etc.—which were issued from the summer of 1432 until the following year: Foedera, Conventiones, literae et cuiuscumque generis acta publica &c., ed. T. Rymer, The Hague 1740, iv. 4, 183 ff. Peter Pertrich, for example, was granted letters of protection in December 1432 and was described as ‘qui in Obsequium Regis de Licencia Regis ad Generale Concilium Basiliense, pro Clero Regni Regis Angliae, profecturus est’ (ibid., 188–9), but Thomas Brouns, who was a royal ambassador (ibid., 187), was described as follows, when granted letters of protection at the same time: ‘qui in praesenti Axnbassiata Regis versus Generale Concilium Basiliense profecturus est’: ibid., 188–9. That some members of the delegation had a double status is indicated by the fact that the bishop of Rochester, although described officially as a royal ambassador, was to be paid both by the king and by the clergy, presumably from the subsidy granted by Convocation for this purpose: ibid., 183, 186, 187; Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy Council of England, iv. 123, 125. The departure of the delegation from England before the close of 1432 can be conjectured from their arrival in Basel late in February 1433 (see below, 179).

^{page 168 note 1} Concilium Basiliense, Basel 1896–1936, i. 60, 62; v. 25.

^{page 168 note 2} They were expected in Basel in the autumn of 1432: Zellfelder, op. cit., 321; Deutsche Reichstagsakten (Königliche Akademie der Wissenschaften, Gotha 1906), x. 529, 573.

^{page 168 note 3} Concilium Basiliense, ii. 381; v. 48–9; Monumenta Conciliorum Generalium Saeculi XV. Concilium Basiliense Scriptores, ed. F. Palacky, etc. (Kaiserliche Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1857), i. 343–4. Payne reached Prague probably late in 1414: see E. F. Jacob, ‘The Bohemians at the Council of Basel’ in Prague Essays, ed. R. W. Seton-Watson, Oxford 1949, 88, and Emden, A. B., An Oxford Hall in Mediaeval Times, Oxford 1927, 153–4Google Scholar, 155, 156; Payne's active rô1e among the Bohemians is summarised by Jacob (loc. cit.).

^{page 168 note 4} The Official Correspondence of Thomas Bekynton, ed. G. Williams (Rolls Series, 1872), ii. 144.

^{page 168 note 5} Concilium Basiliense, ii. 450, 454; v. 77; Monumenta Conciliorum Generalium, ii. (1873), 406, 580.

^{page 169 note 1} Op. cit., Beilage No. 16, 312–23, from a MS. in Munich (Hof- und Staats-Bibliothek, cod. lat. 22,372; pp. 407–13; cop. chart, coaeva).

^{page 169 note 2} Concilium Basiliense, ii. 111, 114, 116, 123. Racellus, the precentor of the Order of St. John, replaced the abbot of Ebrach who had been nominated earlier.

^{page 169 note 3} Ibid., 59, 74–5.

^{page 169 note 4} Ibid., 99–100.

^{page 169 note 5} Ibid., 115; Monumenta Conciliorum Generalium, ii. 185.

^{page 169 note 6} J. Toussaint in Les Relations Diplomatiques de Philippe le Bon avec le Concile de Bâle, Louvain 1942, 78, n. 2; Dickinson, J. G., The Congress of Arras, 1435, Oxford 1955, 87Google Scholar, n. 9.

^{page 169 note 7} See above, n. 1.

^{page 170 note 1} Zellfelder, op. cit., 312–13.

^{page 170 note 2} The Council's role in the field of peace negotiations is discussed by Miss J. G. Dickinson, op. cit., 86–8.

^{page 170 note 3} Zellfelder, op. cit., 313–14.

^{page 170 note 4} Ibid., 315–16. The ambassadors' promised visit to the duke on their journey back to Basel appears never to have been made. The prior of Chambéry later rejoined his colleagues: Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy Council of England, iv. 120, 124; Foedera, iv. 4, 182.

^{page 170 note 5} See his letters to the Council of 26 February and 18 March 1432: Veterum Scriptorum et Monumentorum Historicorum, Dogmaticorum Moralium Amplissima Collectio, Paris 1733, ed. E. Martène and U. Durand, viii. 68; Monumenta Conciliarum Generalium, ii. 141; Valois, op. cit., i. 158–9; Zellfelder, op. cit., 40.

^{page 171 note 1} Zellfelder, op. cit., 316.

^{page 171 note 2} ‘Ivit, rediit retulitque grata fuisse omnia, que diximus; ilium se offere totum et operam suum pollicitum esse ad expedicionem nostram’: ibid.

^{page 171 note 3} Ibid.

^{page 171 note 4} No date is recorded for the audience which was held in ‘aulam regiam splendide certe et more regis mirifice adornatam’: ibid., 317.

^{page 171 note 5} ‘… ut facile intelligi possit et ordinem rerum et modestiam morum hominibus illis non deesse’: ibid., 319.

^{page 171 note 6} ‘… rex teneris adhuc annis sed, quantum per indolem conjectura assequi potest, magne certe spei et expectacionis aliquando futurus princeps, qui pro singulari modestia et mirifica quadam morum elegancia sibi innata a quovis diligi coli observari amarique potest et debet, quique si vixerit, et ecclesia Dei et universus populus Christianus aliquando talem certe principem natum esse gaudebit’: ibid., 317.

^{page 171 note 7} Ibid., 318–19.

^{page 171 note 8} Mansi, xxix. 462–8. There is also a copy in the Bodleian Library; Digby MS. 66, fol. 9^v-11^v.

^{page 171 note 9} G. Voigt, Die Wiederbelebung des classischen Alterthums oder das erste Jahrhundert des Humanismus, Berlin 1893, ii. 31.

^{page 171 note 10} Mansi, xxix. 464–5.

^{page 171 note 11} Ibid., 466.

^{page 172 note 1} Valois, N., Histoire de la Pragmatique Sanction de Bourges sous Charles VII, Paris 1909, xxiv-xxviGoogle Scholar; La Crise religieuse du XV^e siècle. Le Pape et le Concile, 1418–1450, Paris 1909, 84–6. John of Ragusa, in his Initium et prosecutio Basiliensis Concilii, thought this incident was an indication of English enthusiasm for the Council: Monumenta conciliorum generalium, i. 66.

^{page 172 note 2} Mansi, xxiv. 465, 467–8; Zellfelder, op. cit., 318.

^{page 172 note 3} Zellfelder, op. cit., 319.

^{page 172 note 4} Mansi, xxiv. 372–4; xxxi. 132–3. This letter, like the other royal letters quoted in this article, was written in the name of Henry VI, but, even allowing for medieval precocity, the king was still too young for it to have been the expression of his own opinions. Towards the close of 1432, when the king was eleven, his tutor, the earl of Warwick, reported that he was growing rapidly not only physically but also ‘in conceyte and knoweleche of his hiegh and royale auctoritee and estate’: Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy Council, iv. 134. From 1437 he was allowed a share in the work of government, but he had exerted some degree of influence for a year or two before that date.

^{page 173 note 1} Mansi, xxiv. 374–5; xxxi. 133–4.

^{page 173 note 2} Emmanuel College Cambridge MS. 142, fol. 165^r-166^v. This document is included in a fifteenth-century collection of copies of documents relating to the Council of Basel; it came originally from Norwich Cathedral Priory and is probably the work of John Stowe. See James, M. R., The Western Manuscripts of Emmanuel College, Cambridge 1904, iiiGoogle Scholar; Bale, John, Index Britanniae Scriptorum, ed. Poole, R. L., Oxford 1902, 258Google Scholar.

^{page 173 note 3} Foedera, iv. 4, 187.

^{page 173 note 4} The royal procuration (ibid.) bears the heading, ‘De Tractando super Reductione Boemorum’, and contains the phrase ‘… in hiis, quae Fidei Ortodoxae Conservationem et Stabilimentum, et praesertim principaliterque Reductionem Boemorum ad Sanctae Matris Ecclesiae integritatem concernere poterunt’. The archiepiscopal procuration (see above, n. 2) has the phrase,‘… de et super hiis qui inibi in negotio fidei et ad reductionem ipsorum de Regno Bohemie qui per longum tempus a fide catholica, de quo dolendum est, deviarunt canonice ordinari debent et diffiniri…’.

^{page 173 note 5} Concilium Basiliense, ii. 99; Mansi, xxx. 227.

^{page 174 note 1} J. Toussaint prints the duke's letter to Beaufort (in which the duke repeats the contents of his letter to Henry VI) in Philippe le Bon et le Concile de Bâle, No. cvii (Bulletin de la Commission Royale d'Histoire, 1942, vol. 107).

^{page 174 note 2} Valois, La Crise religieuse du XV^e siècle. Le Pape et le Concile, 1418–1450, i. 153–4.

^{page 174 note 3} Zellfelder, op. cit., 319.

^{page 174 note 4} ‘Ad illustrem ducem Gloucestrie unicam certain spem legacionis et omnium rerum nostrarum’: ibid., 320.

^{page 174 note 5} ‘Regis majores suos ceterosque Anglicos pro magnitudine animi semper apertos sinceros nihil obscurum nihil involutum vel loqui vel facere; non esse perplexe loquendum vel faciendum in re aperte honesta’: ibid.

^{page 174 note 6} Ibid.

^{page 175 note 1} Ibid.; Die Urkunden Kaiser Sigmunds, 1410–1437, Regesta Imperil, xi, ed. W. Altmann, Innsbruck 1897–1900, ii. 216; Deutsche Reichstagsakten, x. 361–3, 446–8.

^{page 175 note 2} ‘Ivimus igitur ad ilium, a quo nunquam nisi leti et contend discedebamus, ad illustrem videlicet ducem Gloucestrie’: Zellfelder, op. cit., 320–1.

^{page 175 note 3} ‘… atque ita respondit, ut facile intellexerimus summam illius affeccionem erga sacrum concilium’: ibid.

^{page 175 note 4} Ibid.

^{page 175 note 5} Ibid., 57. Landriani was a humanist of distinction: see Voigt, op. cit., i. 247 ff.; Pastor, L., History of the Popes (English translation by Antrobus, F. I. I., London 1891) i. 307Google Scholar.

^{page 175 note 6} British Museum, Cotton MS. Nero E V, with the inscription, ‘Cest livre est A moy Homfrey due de Gloucestre lequel jachetay des executeurs maistre Thomas Polton feu eveque de Wurcestre’. For the death of Polton at Basel on 31 August 1433, see Concilium Basiliense, v. 62.

^{page 176 note 1} Vickers, K. H. (Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, London 1907, 222–4Google Scholar, 316) describes the noticeably more ruthless official policy towards illegal acts and Lollardy when Humphrey held power, 1430–2. His suppression of Jack Sharpe's rebellion has been called a ‘cheap triumph’— McFarlane, K. B., ‘England: the Lancastrian Kings 1399–1461’ in Cambridge Mediaeval History, Cambridge 1936, viii. 395Google Scholar. See also the evidence marshalled and examined by Vickers (op. cit., 321–3) to show Humphrey's reputation for orthodoxy and as a protector of the Church.

^{page 176 note 2} Zellfelder, op. cit., 321–2; Landriani also mentioned that some persons had written from England to the Council saying that the number of English clerics they expected to leave for Basel was far greater than the number who had gone to any earlier council.

^{page 176 note 3} Ibid.; Mansi, xxx. 156–7 (Kemp's letter dated 22 July), 165 (Humphrey's letter dated 27 July), 156 (Langley's letter dated 19 July, the day before the king's answer to the ambassadors from Basel). Beaufort's letter remains unpublished; Haller refers to a MS. copy in Basel (Concilium Basiliense, ii. 219) and Valois refers to one in Grenoble (op. cit., i. 202 n. 7). Humphrey's letter is also given by Martène and Durand (op. cit., viii. 158) where it carries the date 17 July.

^{page 177 note 1} Landriani's report to the Council after his second visit to England, in the autumn of 1433, is no longer extant but John of Segovia summarised it in his history of the Council. Cardinal Beaufort and duke Humphrey apparently gave Landriani a friendly reception: Monumenta Conciliorum Generalium, ii. 580.

^{page 177 note 2} Zellfelder, op. cit., 57, 76–8. In 1426, at the beginning of Martin V's great offensive against the Statute of Provisors, Cesarini had come to England as a papal nuncio and had confirmed the unfavourable reports that had already reached Martin concerning Chichele: Haller, J., England und Rom unter Martin V (Quellen und Forschungen aus italienschen Archiven und Bibliotheken, Rome 1905), viii. 270Google Scholar, 273; Jacob, E. F., Henry Chichele and the Ecclesiastical Politics of his Age, Creighton Lecture 1951, London 1952, 3–15Google Scholar.

^{page 177 note 3} Jacob, E. F., ‘Two Lives of Archbishop Chichele’, Bulletin of John Rylands Library, xvi. No. 2 (1932), 26–7Google Scholar; The Register of Henry Chichele, i. xlix-1.

^{page 177 note 4} Register of Henry Chichele, iii. 231–3; Jacob, Henry Chichele and the Ecclesiastical Politics of his Age, 19. Zellfelder (op. cit., 76–8) used only the notice of this meeting of Convocation in Wilkins, Concilia Magnae Britanniae et Hibemicae, London 1737, iii. 520–1 which is incomplete; in consequence he did not know of the plan for sending an embassy to Eugenius IV.

^{page 177 note 5} Above, 173. The date of this archiepiscopal procuration is confirmed by Peter Pertrich's reference to it in the protestation he made against deputations at Basel in 1433: Zellfelder, op. cit., 250–1. See also below, 182 n. 1.

^{page 178 note 1} Zellfelder, op. cit., 321. Before he left England Landriani was also told that the bishops of London, Worcester and Rochester, and the earl of Huntingdon with two other unnamed noblemen, some doctors and masters, would go to Basel as royal ambassadors: ibid.

^{page 178 note 2} The letter already refered to; above, 172.

^{page 178 note 3} Mansi, xxxi. 137.

^{page 178 note 4} Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy Council, iv. 123–6; Foedera, iv. 4, 183–94; Calendar of French Rolls in 48th Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records, London 1887, 289–93; Calendar of Patent Rolls, Henry VI, London 1907, ii. 248–67Google Scholar.

^{page 178 note 5} This list is the result of an exhaustive search through the sources for the Council of Basel. It is possible to give here only a reference to the main evidence for the inclusion of each name. For example, the two protestations issued by the English at Basel in 1433 reveal the presence there of Polton, Worstede, Brouns, Symondesburgh, Salisbury, Burton and Pertrich: see below, 181. An anonymous diary of the Council edited by Gustav Beckmann in Concilium Basiliense, v. 42, records the arrival of the bishop of London. Archdeacon Sparrow is mentioned in several narratives: Monumenta Conciliorum Generalium, i. 361, 703, 788. The particulars of account which ambassadors presented to the English Exchequer on completion of their missions and the subsequent entries on the Roll of Accounts give us the additional name of Colvyle who was sent with others on two royal errands to Basel between the autumn of 1432 and the summer of 1433: Public Record Office, London, Lists and Indexes, 1900, No. xi. 81; 1912, No. xxxv. 202. It is possible that Henry Abendon, chancellor of Wells and formerly Warden of Merton College, Oxford, and John Cliderow, bishop of Bangor, were also with the English delegation. Both had been nominated as delegates of the clergy in 1432. They cannot be traced in Basel in 1433 and are not mentioned in the preparations for the second delegation in 1434 but from documents printed by Zellfelder (op. cit., 307, 310) it is clear that they were in Basel in the autumn and winter of 1434. They may, therefore, have left England with the first delegation in 1433 and have remained abroad through 1433 and 1434. William Sprever, the notary, was also with the English at Basel; see below, 196 n. 6.

^{page 179 note 1} Jacob, Prague Essays, 110–11. See also the articles in Dictionary of National Biography on Polton by J. Tait, on Fitzhugh by Canon Venables, on Pertrich (s.v. Partridge) by A. F. Pollard, on Brouns (s.v. Brown) by A. Jessop. Polton is erroneously stated to have left England only in the spring of 1433; Fitzhugh's presence at Basel is overlooked here, as elsewhere, and Brouns is mentioned as being at Basel in 1436, which is erroneous.

^{page 179 note 2} Emden, op. cit., 131.

^{page 179 note 3} Concilium Basiliense, v. 42. Cf. Monumenta Conciliorum Generalium, i. 311.

^{page 179 note 4} British Museum Harleian MS. 826, fol. 50^r.

^{page 179 note 5} Monumenta Conciliorum Generalium, i. 319.

^{page 179 note 6} Jacob, op. cit., 92–3, 100.

^{page 179 note 7} Concilium Basiliense, ii. 245, 272. The first English representative to appear at the Council was Johannes Ghele or Ghelz who was incorporated as the proctor of the bishops of Bath, Lincoln and Worcester on 8 March 1432 but stayed only a few days: Concilium Basiliense, ii. 52, 55–6; see also The Register of John Stafford, Bishop of Bath and Wells, 1425–1443, ed. T. S. Holmes, Somerset Record Society 1915, i. 115–16. Probably at some date before the beginning of 1433 William Swan, who had had many years' experience as an English proctor at the Roman Curia, had also appeared at the Council as the proctor of the bishop of Bath and Wells and of the bishops of Worcester and Lincoln: H. J. Zeibig, Beiträge zur Geschichte der Wirksamkeit des Basler Konzils in Österretch in Sitzungsberichten der Wiener Akademie der Wissenschaften (Phil-histor. Klasse), Vienna 1852, Band viii, Heft iv, 599–600; see also P. Lazarus, Das Basler Konzil: seine Berufung und Leitung, seine Gliederung und seine Behörden-organisation, in Historische Studien, ed. E. Ebering, Band ioo, Berlin 1912, 344. The presence of Swan at the Council has remained unnoticed. Cf. E. F. Jacob ‘To and From the Court of Rome in the Fifteenth Century’ in Studies in French Language and Mediaeval Literature Presented to Professor M. K. Pope, Manchester 1939. Swan's letter-book in the British Museum (Cotton MS. Cleopatra C IV) contains an undated letter from the bishop of Bath to Swan asking for news about the Council of Basel (fol. 180^v).

^{page 180 note 1} Concilium Basiliense, ii. 315, 324, 326, 327, 330, 334; Monumenta Conciliorum Generalium, i. 264, 269, 277–8, 292, 300–1.

^{page 180 note 2} See above, 170 n. 5. The first instalment of the Burgundian delegation arrived on 16 March 1433, the second on 18 September following, although individual Burgundians had come earlier: Toussaint, Les Relations Diplomatiques de Philippe le Bon avec le Concile de Bâle, 22–6, 134–7.

^{page 180 note 3} Emmanuel College, Cambridge (from the letter-book already mentioned above) MS. 142, fol. 165^r.

^{page 180 note 4} Concilium Basiliense, ii. 305.

^{page 181 note 1} ‘Vos in recessu vestro de regno nostro Anglie instruxisse meninimus quod ad locum Concilii venientes in causa fidei et pro Bohemorum reductione dumtaxat cum ceteris cooperari et vestras partes interponere deberetis; verum quia audivimus quod concilium ipsum non per naciones sed per deputaciones procedere deliberavit in quo casu timendum esse conspicimus ne non secundum pluralitatem nacionum sed personarum decreta dicti concilii procedere debeant et proferri. Cumque Boemi pro quorum reductione principaliter missi estis nondum venerunt ad locum Concilii ut refertur, volumus quod ipsis Boemis a loco predicto absentibus vos etiam ab eodem absentetis in aliquo loco congruo remansuri donee alii oratores nostri venturi vobiscum convenerint ut simul ad eundum locum accedere valeatis’: ibid.

^{page 181 note 2} ‘Quod si Bohemi iam venerunt vel ante adventum coambassiatorum vestrorum illo accessuri sint sic quod propter ipsorum accessum vos eo oportebit celerius accedere ad locum Concilii; memorati volumus ut tune ad locum ipsum vestrum iter arripientes protestacione discrete et efficaci in locum premissa tali videlicet quo usque adventum aliorum Ambassiatorum nostrorum cum instructione pleniori illuc venturorum. Tam nos et Nationem nostram Anglicanam quam vos et dictos alios ambassiatores nostros in omni ea libertate servare posset et tueri qua sumus et ante huiusmodi ingressum vestrum absque eo quod per eundem ingressum vestrum obligemur aut approbare videamur aliqua usque hue appunctuata in dicto Concilio quo ad modum procedendi vel alios de quibus nescis neque vos sumus hucusque aut fuimus informati’: ibid.

^{page 182 note 1} Zellfelder (op. cit., 248–52) printed copies of these protestations which he found in Paris—Bibliothèque Nationale, MS. latin 1448 (‘Codex Sprever’) fols. 83–5. There are also copies in the Bodleian Library: Digby MS. 66 fol. 5^v–6. The Bodleian copy of Pertrich's protestation carries a superscription which gives its date as 5 May. On internal evidence Pertrich's protestation was made after Polton's. There is another copy of the latter in Emmanuel College MS. 142, fol. 167^r. Both Valois (op. cit,, i. 232) and Zellfelder (op. cit., 65) (cf. Jacob, ‘Two Lives of Archbishop Chichele’, 27) thought that Pertrich was fulfilling instructions given him at the Convocation of Canterbury in September 1432, a mistaken impression that seems to have arisen from his citation of the archiepiscopal procuration of 16 September 1432 as his authority for acting on behalf of the archbishop and his province; the procuration does not, of course, contain any reference to the ‘deputations’ which had not been heard of in England at that time. Zellfelder corrected this error in his Addenda (op. cit., 371) but made a further mistake (‘1432’ for ‘1433’).

^{page 182 note 2} Monumenta conciliorum generalium, ii. 342–3.

^{page 182 note 3} Correspondence of Bekynton, ii. 61–6.

^{page 182 note 4} Ibid., 62–3.

^{page 183 note 1} Monumenta conciliorum generalium, ii. 120, 126–8, 260–3, 352–5; Lazarus, op. cit., 47–51, 113–14.

^{page 183 note 2} Jacob, Essays in the Conciliar Epoch, 2nd ed. Manchester 1953, 244–5.

^{page 183 note 3} Concilium Basiliense, ii. 365, 383, 406, 458, 495, 532. Among these new entrants were, for the first time, representatives of the province of York. On 15 April 1433 their archbishop had received Eugenius's letter of the previous February authorising the holding of the Council of Basel and asking that delegates should be sent: Records of the Northern Convocation, ed. G. W. Kitchin, Surtees Society, cxiii (1907), 174.

^{page 183 note 4} Concilium Basiliense, ii. 400, 402, 452, 482, 524.

^{page 183 note 5} See above, 168, n. 3.

^{page 184 note 1} Concilium Basiliense, ii. 386; Jacob, Prague Essays, 117–19.

^{page 184 note 2} Correspondence of Bekynton, ii. 62. The passage quoted above (182) then follows.

^{page 184 note 3} Mansi, xxix. 1234.

^{page 185 note 1} Foedera, iv. 4, 183–95 passim; Calendar of Patent Rolls, Henry VI, ii. 248–67 passim.

^{page 185 note 2} This was the first attempt to send a double-embassy to the Council, thus giving expression in the diplomatic field to the notion of Henry VI's ‘double-monarchy’. The attempt was repeated in 1434. See Dickinson, op. cit., 25–8.

^{page 185 note 3} MS. 143, fol. 148.

^{page 185 note 4} MS. 142, fol. 91 and Digby MS. 66 fol. 4^t—on the lower half of this leaf a passage has been entered under the heading ‘Nacio’; it consists of sentences extracted verbatim from the English delegation's Vindicatio or answer to the French attack upon their right to form a separate ‘nation’ in the Council of Constance (March 1417). See van der Hardt, H., Magnum oecumenicum concilium Constantiense, Frankfurt and Leipzig 1699Google Scholar, v. 7, cols. 88, 92, 93, 94.

^{page 185 note 5} Cf. M. R. James, The Western Manuscripts in the Library of Emmanuel College, 142, where these names are wrongly described as those of the English ambassadors to the Council of Basel.

^{page 186 note 1} Toussaint, op. cit., 78; U. Plancher, Histoire génerale et particulière de Bourgogne, Dijon 1739–81, iv. 166–8; du Fresne de Beaucourt, G., Histoire de Charles VII, Paris 1881–91, ii. 451Google Scholar–3.

^{page 186 note 2} ‘Dominus Cardinalis sancte crucis incessanter assidue laborat in negotio tractande pacis inter Regem et Delphinum quern creditur et speratur non post multos dies Calesiam adventurum. Duces quoque Aureliensis et Burbonensis ob earn causam adducti sunt dovoriam ubi vel in Calesia firmissime creditur predicto pacis negotio efficaciter intendendum quod ad exitum felicem et optatum perducat pacis auctor’: Emmanuel College MS. 142, fol. 148.

^{page 186 note 3} Vickers, op. cit., 234–6; Radford, L. B., Henry Beaufort, Bishop, Chancellor, Cardinal, London 1908, 214–16Google Scholar; Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy Council of England, iv. 157–9. The Great Seal was delivered to the Clerk of the Rolls in the absence of the Chancellor so that public business should not be interrupted. The Lord Treasurer also stated that he had been unable to procure sufficient money to pay the archbishop of York and Lord Hungerford who were going to the Council of Basel; 15 April 1433. See also Letters and Papers illustrative of the Wars of the English in France during the reign of Henry VI, ed. J. Stevenson, Rolls series, 1864, ii. 1, 254–5; this reply of Henry VI to the Burgundian ambassadors in July 1433 gives an interesting review of the course of peace negotiations from the English point of view: ibid., 249–62.

^{page 186 note 4} Rotuli Parliamentorum; Petitions, Pleas, and Proceedings in Parliament, London 1767–77, iv. 371Google Scholar.

^{page 187 note 1} See the quotation below, n. 5; also at 188, 189.

^{page 187 note 2} Rowe, B. J. H., ‘The Grand Conseil under the Duke of Bedford’, in Oxford Essays in Mediaeval History presented to H. E. Salter, Oxford 1934, 224–5Google Scholar.

^{page 187 note 3} The Brut or the Chronicles of England, edited from Bodleian MS. Rawl. B. 171 by F. W. D. Brie (Early English Text Society 1908), ii. 466.

^{page 187 note 4} Oxford 1905, 135. Cf. The Historical Collections of a Citizen of London in the Fifteenth Century (William Gregory's Chronicle), ed. Gairdner, J. (Camden Society 1876), 176Google Scholar.

^{page 187 note 5} ‘In dicto quoque Consilio Calesie inter dominos Bedfordʼ Gloucestrʼ et Reverendissimum in Christo patrem dominum meum Cardinalem curis et mediantibus Consiliis utriusque Regni reformati sunt et repromissi plenissime Amicitie deo duce perpetue mansuri.… Tractatum est insuper et appunctuatum de celebranda conventione apud civitatem sanctum homerum inter dominos regentem, Cardinalem et ducem Burgundʼ pro pacificanda per medium domini Cardinalis quadam, licet levi, displicencia nuper exorta inter dictos dominos Bedfordʼ et Burgundʼ et est data per dominum Gloucestrʼ per suas literas patentes prefatis dominis Bedfordʼ et Cardinali plena potestas arbitrandi, disponendi et appunctuandi super omnibus discordiis inter dictos dominos Gloucestrʼ et Burgundʼ dudum exortis.’ Cf. Vickers, op. cit., 234–5; Radford, op. cit., 215–16; Letters and Papers illustrative of the Wars of the English in France, ii. 2. 417–18. La Chronique d'E. de Monstrelet, ed. Douet-d'Arcq, L., Paris 1861Google Scholar, v. 57; J. de Waurin, Recueil des croniques et anchiennes istories de la Grant-Bretaigne, ed. Sir William Hardy and E. L. C. P. Hardy, Rolls Series, 1884, i. 38.

^{page 188 note 1} ‘Turbabat autem inter alia dominos et consiliarios antedictos articulus quidam nuper decertatus in Concilio qui in preiudicium Regum nonnullorum et presertim Christianissimi principis domini nostri Regis tendere credebatur eo quidem quod per eundem sibi tolli videtur et auferri honoris ilia prerogativa hactinus optenta semper et observata in suis videlicet Ambassiatoribus in Curia, Concilio et alibi tam in stando quam in sedendo preferendis.‘

^{page 188 note 2} Concilium Basiliense, ii. 242, 268–9; Monumenta Conciliorum Generalium, ii. 277; Deutsche Reichstagsakten, x. 657 n. 3; Zellfelder, op. cit., 45, 61–2.

^{page 189 note 1} ‘Convenisse nuper in hac villa Calesie dominos et regie celsitudinis Consiliarios Francie et Anglie quorum nomina describuntur in cedula presentibus interclusa pertractasseque materias plerasque magni ponderis tangentes de vicino statum et prosperitatem utrorumque regnorum. Ubi iuxta repromissionem nobis antefactam concordari debuisset et concludi de communi consensu avisamentoque dictorum dominorum et consiliorum instructio vobis ceterisque collegis et coambassiatoribus nostris et nobis danda quam a multis diebus et temporibus sumus prestolati pro qua sic concordanda, concludenda et nobis danda impendimus, novit deus, dietim sollicitudinem et diligenciam nobis possibilem adeo quod ante festum Natalem domini ministravimus questiones et difficultates occurentes scrupulosas omnes quas putamus instructionem dignare. Super quibus subsequenter Consilium Anglie deliberavit differendo tamen et prorogando responsionem usque Calesiam ut illic de consensu avisamentoque Consiliorum predictorum concludetur presentim in articulis statum Regni et utrumque Regnum concernentibus ea quidem inter alia potissimum ratione ne ex dispari et discordi sentencia vel instructione Ambassiatorum Anglie et Francie stante discordia necdum sopita inter sanctissimum dominum et Concilium de qua, quod absit, pestiferum scisma nascendum formidatur scisma sequeretur inter dicta Regna. Nobis autem dum in Calesia sic dietim instetissemus pro instructione supradicta concorditer concludenda; respondebatur finaliter per Consilium Francie quod difficultas ipsa questionum et materie antedicte que non minuitur quin pocius per facta Concilii crescit et augetur requirit omnimode deliberacionem procerum et maiorem [sic] dicti regni quibus inconsultis nullatinus respondere presumerent vel auderent, quorum super hiis deliberacionem et consilia se cum omni diligencia promiserunt exacturos; consultumque reputabant et tutum super hiisdem ante transmissionem Ambassiate regie de Anglie per tres regni status in parliamento iam in proximo sicut creditur in Anglia celebrando diligencius avisari.’

^{page 190 note 1} Rotuli Parliamentorum, iv. 135.

^{page 190 note 2} Dickinson, op. cit., 88–9.

^{page 191 note 1} Correspondence of Bekynion, ii. 265–7.

^{page 191 note 2} ‘… testis enim est nobis deus, testes sunt nobis familiares et conscii diligenciarum nostrarum, quod a tempore suscepti per nos cum aliis dominis et collegis nostris oneris Ambassiate Regis eundi videlicet ad sacrum basiliense concilium et ab inde si opus esset ad sanctissimum dominum nostrum, impendimus sine dolo, fraude qualicumque vel malo ingenio diligencias nobis possibles pro disponendo nos, familiam nostram, paramenta et generaliter que putabamus oportuna, et presertim ad habendas instructiones in ea parte super omnia requisitas pro quibus comiter et concorditer concludendum. Est data spes et facta repromissio ad hanc villain Calesiam dum convenirent istae excellencie vestre et una vobiscum consiliarii utrorumque Regnorum sicuti gratias altissimo convenistis post quorum adventum instetimus quantum valuimus pro dictis instructionibus appunctuandis ad effectum itineris nostri ab huic usque basiliam de directo continuandi quod tamen hue usque nequivimus obtinere’: Emmanuel College MS. 142, fol. 91.

^{page 191 note 3} Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy Council, iv. 167–8.

^{page 192 note 1} De Beaucourt, op. cit., ii. 455–9; Letters and Papers illustrative of the Wars of the English in France, ii. 1, 218–49.

^{page 192 note 2} Ibid., 259–60.

^{page 192 note 3} See above, 188–9.

^{page 192 note 4} Rotuli Parliamentorum, iv. 420; Radford, op. cit., 224.

^{page 193 note 1} De Beaucourt, op. cit., ii. 454.

^{page 193 note 2} Ibid., 462; Plancher, op. cit., iv. Preuves IV, No. cxi; Foedera, iv. 4, 197–8.

^{page 193 note 3} Toussaint, op. cit., 79; Dickinson, op. cit., 88.

^{page 193 note 4} Valois, op. cit., 234–6.

^{page 193 note 5} Correspondence of Bekynton, ii. 61–6; Mansi, xxx. 616–17; xxxi. 180–1. An unprinted letter from the king to his ambassadors, dated 24 July, can be seen in Emmanuel College MS. 142, fol. 150, and in British Museum Harleian MS. 826, fol. 50.

^{page 193 note 6} Mansi, xxx. 633–4.

^{page 193 note 7} Register of Henry Chichele, iii. 242, 250.

^{page 193 note 8} Concilium Basiliense, ii. 458.

^{page 193 note 9} Ibid., v. 62.

^{page 194 note 1} ‘Adhuc vos instare volumus et rogamus; scientes quod, sive sanctissimus Dominus noster eorum monitis, LX dierum de quibus nostis elapso spacio, se conformare decrevent, sive non, vos tamen dicto concilio nomine nostro incorporari volumus sed vetamus, nisi prius prefati juramenti rigore sublato libere una cum aliis incorporari poteritis, et quod non per deputationes, sed per nationes procedatur in eodem. Quod si juramenti ipsius prestacionem ipsos tollere vel per naciones, ut olim, nolle procedere videritis, volumus et vobis mandamus quod, protestacionibus congruis nostro, regnorum ac dominiorum subditorumque et ligeorum nostrorum nomine per vos discrete emissis, ab ipso loco Basiliensi recedatis, apud Coloniam vel alibi, versus Angliam, moraturi donec de nostra voluntate aliter fueritis informati’: British Museum Harleian MS. 826, fol. 48^v; (there is also a copy in Emmanuel College MS. 142, fol. 150^r).

^{page 194 note 2} ‘Ceterum carissimi quia a nonnullis predicatum audivimus quod Archiepiscopus Rothomagensis, Abbas Sancte Petri Gaudenen’ et allii quidem in preiudicium nostri coronarum nostrarum et jurisdictionis nostre temporalis, tam in Regno nostro Anglie quam in ducatu nostro Norman’ et tam ecclesiasticarum personarum quam temporalium subditorum nostrorum in eisdem nonnulla in dicto concilio prosequi intendunt. Volumus et vos rogamus quod ad prosequenda per ipsos oculum habeatis. Et si aliqua in nostri iurisdictionis temporalis preiudicium attemptare decreverunt instare curetis secundum discreciones vobis a deo datas penes ilium vel illos ubi vobis videbitur faciendum ad hoc videlicet quod in nostri dominii temporalis preiudicium in quo superiorem non recognoscimus in terris nil decernatur aut fiat. Intimantes eisdem quod quibuscumque penes nos conqueri sive prosequi volentibus parati sumus et erimus facere iustitie complementum’: British Museum Harleian MS. 826, fol. 48^V.

^{page 194 note 3} Thompson, E. M., The Carthusian Order in England, London 1930, 230–2Google Scholar, 239, 242–5.

^{page 194 note 4} Toussaint, op. cit., 17–18; Zellfelder, op. cit., 79.

^{page 195 note 1} Zellfelder (op. cit., 252–6) prints a version from the ‘Codex Sprever’, Bibiothèque Nationale, Paris, which has a detailed superscription. There is another copy in Bodleian Digby MS. 66, fol. 4^v–5, which has a much less detailed superscription. Valois (op. cit., i. 232) used the latter and was ignorant of the date and circumstances of this protestation.

^{page 195 note 2} Monumenta Conciliorum Generalium, ii. 466–7; Deutsche Reichstagsakten, xi. 82, 87.

^{page 195 note 3} P.R.O. Lists and Indexes, xi. 81; xxxv. 202; Calendar of Close Rolls Henry VI, ii. 269; Foedera, v. 1. 1.

^{page 195 note 4} See above, 178 n. 5.

^{page 195 note 5} Kenninghale was still in Basel in 1435: Concilium Basiliense, iii. 398.

^{page 195 note 6} See above, 178 n. 5.

^{page 195 note 7} Thompson, A. Hamilton (The English Clergy and their Organisation in the Later Middle Ages, Oxford 1947, 93Google Scholar) states that Burton remained in Basel four years from his arrival in 1433.

^{page 195 note 8} Monumenta Conciliorum Generalium, ii. 662.

^{page 195 note 9} Ibid., ii. 580.

^{page 196 note 1} Register of Henry Chichele, iii. 243–50.

^{page 196 note 2} Correspondence of Bekynton, ii. 260–9.

^{page 196 note 3} Zellfelder, op. cit., 256; Concilium Basiliense, i. 87, iii. 165, v. 99.

^{page 196 note 4} Zellfelder, op. cit. 262–3.

^{page 196 note 5} Correspondence of Bekynton, ii. 265–7. On 8 July 1434 Beaufort, Bedford and Gloucester were again empowered by the English Parliament to seek peace with the Dauphin: Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy Council, iv. 279–80.

^{page 196 note 6} Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy Council, iv. 257–8. The second delegation remained at Basel until the summer of 1435 when it appears to have been withdrawn (Concilium Basiliense, iii. passim). After this time, some French and Irish subjects of Henry VI can be traced at the Council but they presumably did not enjoy official status. The impressive English embassy which the archbishop of York led to the Congress of Arras in August was not recruited (apart from the only known exception of William Sprever, the notary) from those who had been sent to Basel in the delegations. Cf. J. G. Dickinson, op. cit., 44–6. Pierre Cauchon, the bishop of Lisieux, who had been at Basel, led the Lancastrian-French embassy to Arras.

Article contents

The First English Delegation to the Council of Basel

Extract

Access options

References

Save article to Kindle

Save article to Dropbox

Save article to Google Drive

Reply to: Submit a response

Your details

You have entered the maximum number of contributors

Conflicting interests