Some years later a second martyrdom took place.  But as the English people would not allow torture to be used in the case of the Knights Templars in the reign of Edward II (S265), so but very few of them seem to have believed that by committing the body to the flames they could burn error out of the soul.

The Lollards, indeed, were still cast into prison, as some of the extreme and communistic part of them doubtless deserved to be (S255), but we hear of no more being put to cruel deaths during Henry’s reign, though later, the utmost rigor of the law was again to some extent enforced.

284.  Henry’s Last Days.

Toward the close of his life the King seems to have thought of reviving the Crusades for the conquest of Jerusalem (S182), where, according to tradition, an old prediction declared that he should die.  But his Jerusalem was nearer than that of Palestine.  While praying at the tomb of Edward the Confessor in Westminster Abbey (S66), he was seized with mortal illness.  His attendants carried him into a room near by.

When he recovered consciousness, and inquired where he was, he was told that the apartment was called the Jerusalem Chamber.  “Praise be to God,” he exclaimed, “then here I die!” There he breathed his last, saying to his son, young Prince Henry: 

                                “God knows, my son,
        By what by-paths and indirect crook’d ways,
        I met this crown; and I myself know well
        How troublesome it sat upon my head;
        To thee it shall descend with better quiet,
        Better opinion, better confirmation;
        For all the soil of the achievement[1] goes
        With me into the earth.”

[1] “Soil of achievement”:  stain or blame by which the crown was won.  Shakespeare’s “Henry IV,” Part II, Act IV, scene iv.

285.  Summary.

At the outset of his reign Parliament showed its power by changing the succession and making Henry King instead of young Edmund Mortimer, the direct hereditary heir to the crown.  Though successful in crushing rebellion, Henry was obliged to submit to the guidance of a council.

Furthermore, he was made more entirely dependent on Parliament, especially in the matter of supplies, than any previous King, for the House of Commons now got and held control of the nation’s purse.  For the first time in English history heresy was made punishable by death; yet such was the restraining influence of the people, that but two executions took place in Henry IV’s reign.

Henry V—­1413-1422

286.  Lollard Outbreak at Henry’s Accession.

Henry’s youth had been wild and dissolute, but the weight of the crown sobered him.  He cast off poor old “Jack Falstaff"[1] (S282) and his other roistering companions, and began his new duties in earnest.

[1] Shakespeare’s “Henry IV,” Part II, Act V, scene v, beginning, “I know thee not, old man.”