CHAP. and confusion of the scene." This was cer XIX. 1358. Sons of Edward III. tainly too much to pay for the most enchanting theatrical exhibition that was ever performed: and these were the effects of the detestable pretensions set up by Edward III. to the crown of France. We have already said that Edward III. was fortunate in his sons. It does not appear that he had ever a serious misunderstanding with any of them. They beheld him surrounded with the lustre which the battle of Cressy, and his gallant and honourable demeanour on that and many other occasions, had thrown upon him, and thought it the greatest honour of their lives to be the sons of such a father. Edward the Black Prince, the eldest of them, has universally been considered as the most consummate hero the school of chivalry ever bred; and he passed a glorious life of forty-six years, untarnished with the breath of a censure. Lionel of Antwerp, the king's second son, Hume, ubi supra. XIX. 1358. was frank, generous, polite, and eminently CHAP. popular he was guileless, easy and sincere, with the understanding of a gentleman in the purest sense of that word, and the carriage which might best become a prince. John of Gaunt, Edward's third son, the patron and friend of Chaucer, was in a great degree the favourite and confident of his father. Edmund of Langley, the fourth son, was a weak prince, but of unblemished character; and Thomas of Woodstock, the youngest, a youth of great promise and splendid abilities. At the period at which we here take up the history of the English court, Edward III. had attained his forty-sixth year, and his queen was nearly of the same age. The Black Prince, who had already distinguished himself at the field of Cressy, won the battle of Poitiers, and taken the king of France prisoner, but who was yet a bachelor, was now twenty-eight. Lionel of Antwerp was twenty years of age, John of Gaunt eighteen, Edmund of Langley seventeen, and Thomas of Woodstock still an infant. Lionel had been contracted, as a compliment to the Irish na CHAP. tion, in the third year of his age to the XIX. 1358. daughter and heiress of the earl of Ulster and, this marriage being afterward consummated, the fruit of it was an only daughter, born in the year 1355. Lionel being already in prospect, in consequence of this contract, earl of Ulster, John of Gaunt his next brother was, while yet an infant, advanced to the honours of earl of Richmond. The inheritance of the crown on the demise of the reigning sovereign, a species of presumptive futurity which has always a great effect upon the present weight and importance of the person to whom it points, was first with the Black Prince, next with Lionel, and in their failure with Lionel's infant daughter; thus cutting off the young earl of Richmond from any reasonable prospect to the diadem. We will not here extend our view of the English court beyond the survey of the dif ferent members of the family on the throne CHAP. XX. JUVENILE HISTORY OF JOHN OF GAUNT EARL OF XX. His birth. JOHN of GAUNT earl of Richmond was CHAP. born on the day of February 1340*, and raised to the title by which he is here described, 20 September 1342 b. He was born at Ghent in Flanders, precisely at the period when his father assumed the title of king of France, and had come with his queen to that city, with the view of concerting mea Stow, ad ann. Compare Barnes, Book I, Chap. xiv, §. 2, 3. Sandford, Genealogical History, Book IV, Chap. i. Dug dale, Baronage, Vol. II, p. 114. Rymer, Foedera, Tom. V, 14 Edv. 3, Feb. 8. CHAP. sures for his projected invasion. His stature XX. was considerably above the ordinary size, his Plan of his education. 1 limbs were well proportioned, and he early discovered symptoms of a masculine and brave disposition. His father therefore spared no attention in cultivating his youthful mind. He designed him for a soldier, to which profession his nature, as well as the propensity of the times, seemed to guide him and he was careful to familiarise his early years with the elements of literature, for which purpose Chaucer, with others, was placed near his person. We know nothing specifically of the education of the young earl; but the mode of educating persons of rank was at this time so uniform, that we shall hazard little in supposing that his nonage was conducted according to the most approved ideas of the age in which he lived. Edward III. was, as we have seen, the professed devotee and reviver of the manners of chivalry, and we cannot doubt that he employed them with scrupulous fidelity in the education of his children. |