Transcriber’s Note
The page headers on the odd pages of Chapters I to VIII of the originaltext provided a running account of the year and topic discussed. These areretained as highlighted notes such as “14XX] TOPIC”In Chapters IX and X, there are no dates in these topic notes.
Please see the Notes at the end of this text for more detaileddiscussion on any changes or corrections.
HUMPHREY
DUKE OF GLOUCESTER
A Biography
BY
K. H. VICKERS, M.A.
EXETER COLLEGE, OXFORD
LECTURER IN MODERN HISTORY AT UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, BRISTOL
ORGANISER AND LECTURER IN LONDON HISTORY FOR THE
LONDON COUNTY COUNCIL
LONDON
ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE AND COMPANY
LIMITED
1907
Edinburgh: T and A. Constable, Printers to His Majesty
TO
THOSE KIND FRIENDS WITHOUT WHOSE
SYMPATHY AND KINDNESS THIS
BOOK WOULD NEVER HAVE
BEEN BROUGHT TO
COMPLETION
PREFACE
The following pages have been written amidst many interruptions andcompleted amidst great difficulties. The excuse for their existence isto be found in the total absence of any adequate biography of theirsubject, and the attraction (to the author at any rate) of a varied andinteresting career. My indebtedness to those who have made a study ofthe fifteenth century is acknowledged in the bibliography, but myobligations extend much further. My thanks are due to many librarianswho have given me every facility to inspect manuscripts in their care,but to Mr. Falconer Madan of the Bodleian Library at Oxford I am underno ordinary debt of obligation. His consistent kindness and interest hasmade many paths smooth that would otherwise have been rough. I amindebted to Lord Leicester for his kindness in allowing me to examine amanuscript life of the Duke which forms part of his Library, and to Mr.Yates Thompson for a similar permission with regard to the Duke’sPsalter. Still more do I desire to thank Dean Kitchin for his courtesyand kindness in sending me a transcript of a letter in a Durhammanuscript, whilst Professor Oman has given me the great encouragementof his sympathy and advice. To Dr. Morris of Bedford I owe assistance onsome points of difficulty, and Sir Alfred Scott-Gatty, Garter, was kindenough to answer several questions with regard to the Duke’s armorialbearings. To my mother, who has spent many weary hours in copying mymanuscript; to my sister, who is largely responsible for the index; andto my friend, Mr. H. W. Ward of Frenchay, whose assistance, bothclerical and critical, has been freely given, the mere record of mygratitude is not sufficient.
Mr. E. Alfred Jones has kindly allowed me to reproduce the photograph ofa cup which once belonged to Duke Humphrey, and which forms part of thecollection he has made for his book on The Old Plate of the CambridgeColleges, whilst the possessor of the manuscript copy of Beccaria’sdedication to Duke Humphrey, prefaced to his translation of Boccaccio,was good enough, through the kind instrumentality of Mr. StricklandGibson of the Bodleian Library, to allow me to