nged any sovereign power, they must tell him that the
English nation was a free people, and their King had dependence on no
monarch on earth; and they were resolved, in defence of the liberty of
the people, and the rights of their King, to oppose his landing on
their shores." The answer of the Emperor set them at ease on this
point, and he was received with every mark of respect and honour;
among other testimonies of Henry's feelings towards him, was his
installation of him as a Knight of the Garter at Windsor.[156]

[Footnote 155: Lord Talbot was to be associated
with the Captain of Calais to receive the Emperor
in that city. At Dover, the Duke of Gloucester,
with the Lords Salisbury, Furnival, and Haryngton,
were to welcome him to the English shores; at
Rochester, the Constable and Marshal of England,
the Earl of Oxford, and others; at Dartford, the
Duke of Clarence, with the Earls of March and
Huntingdon, Lord Grey of Ruthing, Lord Abergavenny,
and others, were to meet him. At Blackheath, the
Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and good people of London
were to await his arrival; whilst Henry himself was
to receive Sigismund between Deptford and
Southwark, at a place called St. Thomas
Watering.--"Privy Council," April 1416, Pour la
venue de l'Empereur.]

[Footnote 156: The Archbishop of Canterbury
commanded all his suffragans to take especial care
that prayers be offered in all congregations for
the good estate of Sigismund.--Rymer's Foed.
1416.]

It is impossible not to contrast the conduct of our countrymen on this
occasion and the behaviour of Sigismund, with his conduct in France,
and the readiness with which that conduct, however humiliating, was
submitted to. Sigismund was received with much ceremony and (p. 207)
magnificence at Paris; but, before he left it, he had surprised and
disgusted the King by exercising an act of sovereignty in the very
house of parliament. By courtesy he was seated on the chair usually
occupied by the King himself. A trial was proceeding, the result of
which seemed to turn on the knighthood of one