APPENDIX.
Some readers of this tale may desire to know on what historicalfoundation it rests, and in what points the fiction departs from truth.
The Order of Predicant Friars was instituted by Dominic in 1215, withthe avowed object of maintaining Roman doctrine and supremacy, and ofopposing and superseding the wandering preachers sent out by theWaldensian Church into all parts of Europe, and known chiefly as_Boni-Homines_, or _Poor Men of Lyons_. But the Waldensian Church wasacute enough to take advantage of this movement; and no sooner had theOrder been founded than an army of "Gospellers" (as even thus early theywere called), issued forth under its shelter. It appears probable thatat an early period of their preaching, a very large percentage of thePredicant Friars were Gospellers. It is, moreover, an historical fact,that during the struggle between Edward the Second and his wretchedQueen, the Predicant Friars ranged themselves on the side of the King,who had always been their friend, and whose own confessor, Luke deWodeford, was of their Order. (_Rot. Ex., Pasc_, 2 Ed. III.) That theDespensers also patronised them is rather an inference founded uponfact, yet on such facts as very decidedly point to this conclusion. Itshould not be forgotten, that all accounts of the reign and character ofEdward the Second which have come down to us were written by monks, orby persons educated in the opinions of the monks; and the Church of Romehas never, at any period of her history, hesitated to accuse of thevilest crimes any who endeavoured to escape from her toils into the purelight of the Gospel of Christ.
That Hugh Le Despenser the Elder was an unprincipled and avaricious man,there can be little question. With him, if he embraced the principlesof the _Boni-Homines_ at all, it was evidently a mere matter ofintellectual opinion. Much less evidence can be found against his son,whose chief crime seems to have been that he aroused the hatred of the"she-wolf of France." Joan La Despenser (the ladies of the family arealways distinguished as _La_ Despenser in contemporary records) lived toa good age, for she was probably born about 1310, and she died in hernunnery of Shaftesbury, November 8, 1384 (I.P.M. 8 Ric. II., 14).
Richard Earl of Arundel, surnamed _Copped-Hat_, the elder of the twosons of Earl Edmund and Alesia, heiress of Surrey, was born about 1308,and died January 24, 1376. (Arundel MS. 51, fol. 18.) His father wasbeheaded with Hugh Le Despenser the Elder, October 8 or 27, 1326; hismother died before May 23, 1338. (Froissart's Chronicles, Book I.,chapter xi.; _Rot. Pat_. 12 Ed. III., Part 2.) His first marriage wasbefore February 2, 1321 (_Ib_. 14 Ed. II., Pt. 2); and his baby Countesswas probably not more than three years old at that time. Her divorceimmediately preceded the second marriage, and it was apparently justbefore June 24, 1345. On that day, "Isabel La Despenser, and Alianoradaughter of Henry Earl of Lancaster," are returned among the tenants ofRichard Earl of Arundel (_Ib_., 19 Ed. III., Pt. 1): the designationshowing that on that day neither was Countess of Arundel, but that themarriage-settlements of Alianora were already executed. After this dateall trace of Isabel disappears, until we meet with the name of "DameIsabel, daughter of Sir Hugh Spencer," among the persons buried in the
Chapter House of Westminster Abbey. (Harl. MS. 544, fol. 78.) TheCountess Alianora, at the time of her marriage, was the widow of JohnLord Beaumont, and the mother of two infant children; she had only justreturned from a pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint James of Compostella.(_Rot. Pat_. 18 Ed. III., Pt 1.) She died January 11, 1372 and wasburied at Lewes. (Reg. Lewes, fol. 108.) Her second family consistedof three sons and three daughters--Richard, John, Thomas, Joan, Alesia,and Alianora. The last-named died in childhood; all the rest survivedtheir parents.--Richard, a well-meaning and brave, but passionate andnarrow-minded man, was governed by his stronger-minded brother Thomas,and under his evil influence entered upon a treasonable conspiracy, forwhich he paid the penalty on Tower Hill in the spring of 1397.--John ischiefly remarkable for having married the heiress of Maltravers, andbecoming eventually the root of the family.--Thomas became Bishop of Elyand Archbishop of Canterbury--the persecuting Archbishop Arundel whowill perhaps be remembered by the readers of "Mistress Margery"--andafter suffering for his treasonable practices a richly-deservedbanishment, was at once recalled and restored by his friend andfellow-conspirator, Henry the Fourth. He died in 1413. That the Houseof Arundel had no "Gospel" sympathies is shown by more evidences thanone; though the Archbishop himself had at one time pretended friendshiptowards the Lollards. It did not last long; he would scarcely have beena true Arundel had it done so.--Joan Fitzalan was a woman of intenseenergy and terrible passions. She did not live happily with herhusband, Humphrey Earl of Hereford, as appears from a curious and uniqueentry on the Patent Rolls (33 Ed. III., Pt. 3), providing that Humphreyshould not divorce Joan on any pretence of precontract. The Earl,however, died at the early age of thirty-one, and Joan, whose twodaughters were married to Princes (Alianora to Thomas Duke ofGloucester, Mary to Henry the Fourth), became a very powerful andwealthy widow. One anecdote will show what her character was betterthan volumes of description. She presided in person at the execution ofJohn Duke of Exeter (brother of her sister Alesia's husband), he beingloyal to his half-brother, King Richard, while Joan was a vehementpartisan of her son-in-law, Henry the Fourth. When no one came forward,in answer to her appeal, as the Duke's executioner, Joan exclaimed,"Cursed be you villains! are none of you bold enough to kill a man?" Asquire volunteered to officiate, but when he had seen and heard the manwhom he was to slay, he shrank from the terrible task. "Madam," was hisremonstrance to the Countess, "for all the gold in the world, I cannotkill such a Lord!" "Thou shalt do what thou hast promised," said Joan,"or I will cut thy head off." And, probably knowing that she was likelyto "do what she had promised," the squire preferred the fall of theDuke's head to his own. (_Lystoire de la Traison et Mort du RoyRichart_, pp. 98-9.) This strong-minded woman died April 7, 1419, andwas buried at Walden, having previously been admitted a sister of theGrey Friars in her brother's Cathedral of Canterbury. (I.P.M. 7 H.V.,59:--Arundel MS. 51, fol. 18:--_ib_. 68, fol. 51, b.) Of Alesia,Countess of Kent, little personal is known. She left no mark on hertime, though the members of her numerous family were very prominentcharacters. She died March 17, 1416 (I.P.M. 4 H.V., 51).
By all genealogists who have hitherto written on the Arundel family, twomore daughters are ascribed to Earl Richard the Copped-Hat. These arePhilippa Sergeaux, the heroine of the tale; and Mary L'Estrange. At thetime when this story was written, I was misled to follow thissupposition, though I had already seen that in that case, Isabel, andnot Alianora, must have been the mother of Philippa. Some months afterthe story was first published, I began to suspect that this was also thecase with regard to Mary L'Estrange. But I was not prepared for thediscovery, made only last May, that Philippa Sergeaux was not thedaughter of Earl Richard at all! In two charters recorded on a CloseRoll for 20 Ric. II., she distinctly styles herself "daughter of SirEdmund of Arundel, Knight," This was a younger brother of Earl Richard;and his wife was Sybil Montacute, a daughter of the Lollard House ofSalisbury. It is probable, though no certainty has yet been found, thatMary L'Estrange was also a daughter of Sir Edmund, since datesconclusively show that she cannot have been the daughter of Alianora ofLancaster. She died August 29, 1396, leaving an only child, AnkarettaTalbot. (I.P.M. 20 R. II., 48).
As early, therefore, as I have the opportunity of doing it, I make the_amende honorable_ to my readers for having unwittingly misled them onthis point. It is scarcely a discredit not to have known a fact whichwas known to none. The tale must therefore be regarded as pure fiction,so far as Philippa is concerned; for Isabel La Despenser apparently hadno child. The facts remain the same as regards other persons, wheretheir history is not affected by the discovery.
Philippa Sergeaux is represented in the opening of the story as a childof three years old. It is more than probable that she was about tenyears younger. The date of her marriage is not on record. She waseventually the mother of five children, though all were born subsequentto the period at
which my story closes. They were--Richard, bornDecember 21, 1376, and died issueless, June 24, 1396; Elizabeth, born1379, wife of Sir William Marny; Philippa, born 1381, wife of RobertPassele; Alice, born at Kilquyt, September 1, 1384, wife of Guy de SaintAlbino; Joan, born 1393, died February 21, 1400. Philippa became awidow, September 30, 1393, and died September 13, 1399. (I.P.M., 17Ric. II., 53; 21 Ric. II., 50; 1 H. IV., 14, 23, 24.)
Some of the Christian names may strike the reader as having a verymodern sound. I may therefore note that not one name occurs in thestory which is not authenticated by its appearance in the state papersof the time.
It only remains to be added, that the fictitious characters of the taleare Giles de Edingdon and Guy of Ashridge, the nurse Alina, Agnes thelavender, the nuns Laura and Senicula, and the woodcutter's childrenElaine and Annora. The details given of Earl Richard's will are true;but the presence of the Earl and Sir Richard Sergeaux in the train ofJohn of Gaunt in Guienne, has been assumed for the purposes of thestory.
The Well in the Desert Page 11
