Ye Lady Spenser, wydow to
the Lord Spenser executed at Bristow, and syster to
ye Duke of York, was comytted cloase prysonner,
whare she accused her brother predict for the
actor, for ye children predict; and that he sholde
entend to breake into the King's manor att Eltham
ye last Crystmas by scaling the walles in ye
nighte, and there to murther ye Kinge; and, for
better proaffe hereof, that yf eyther knight or
squyer of England wold combatt for her in the
quarrell, she wold endure her body to be burned yf
he war vanquished. Then W. Maydsten, one of her
sqyres [undertook?] his Mrs. quarrell with gage of
his wheed [so], and was presently arrested by Lord
Thomas, ye Kyng's son, to the Tower, and his goods
confyscatt. Thomas Mowbray, Erll Marshall, accused
to be privy to the same, butt was
pardoned."--Lansdown, 860 a, fol. 288 b.]

[Footnote 20: 14 Nov. 1414. MS. Donat. 4600.
Reference is made there to June 9, 1413, not three
months after Henry's accession.]

[Footnote 21: 1417, July 20, at Porchester. 1418, 2
June, at Berneye. December 1418, in the camp before
Rouen. 11 June 1416.--Rymer.]

[Footnote 22: In the summer after the battle of
Agincourt the King "takes into his especial care
William of Agincourt, the prisoner of his very dear
cousin Edmund Earl of March."]

These are a few among the many examples upon record of the (p. 020)
generous and noble spirit of Henry; whilst history may be challenged
to bring forward any instances of cruelty or oppression to neutralize
them. Sir Matthew Hale confessed that he could never discover any act
of public injustice and tyranny during the Lancastrian sway; and the
inquirer into Henry of Monmouth's character may be emboldened to
declare, that he can discover no act of wanton severity, or cruelty,
or unkindness in his life. The case of the prisoners in the day and on
the field of Agincourt, the fate of Lord Cobham, and the wars in
France, require each a separate exam