heraldryofyorkmi01custuoft

402 THE HERALDRY OF YORK MINSTER.
in 1428, having been made by the Pope, Cardinal Legate. Gloucester
immediately took violent umbrage at this, refused to receive him, and
called upon him to resign the see of Winchester; but no action was
taken
thereon.
In 1429 Henry was crowned, first at Westminster, afterwards at Paris,
by Beaufort, during which time Gloucester moved his expulsion from the
council, and, assisted by a cabal of his own, seized his plate. When the
Cardinal returned, he pleaded his justification before Parliament, which
was accepted, and his plate, &c., restored, and Gloucester became entangled
in a quarrel with his brother. In 1435 Bedford returned to France, and
Gloucester immediately renewed his attack on Beaufort, which was aggravated,
perhaps, by his second wife, Eleanor Cobham, being arrested on the
charge of treasonable sorcery, and condemned by the two archbishops and
Beaufort, to perpetual imprisonment. Beaufort seems now to have devoted
himself principally to the education of the young King, "who," says
Bishop Stubbs, " learned from him the policy of peace, though not of
"government." Gloucester continued his impracticable conduct, which
eventually involved him in a quarrel with the Parliament. In 1447 they
assembled at Bury St. Edmunds, on account of the plague in London ;
and on Gloucester arriving he was ordered to his lodgings, placed under
arrest, and died, probably of disappointment and mortification,
in a few
days.
There are no evidences that he died by violence, none to implicate
Beaufort in his death, indeed he had no motive for it; but in six
weeks, on the nth of April, he himself passed away at the Wolvesley
Palace, at Winchester. How far the circumstances of his decease justify
of an
Shakespeare's dramatic account may be judged by the testimony
eye-witness : " As he lay a-dying, he had many men, monks and clergy
" and laymen, gathered in the great chamber where he was, and there he
" caused the funeral service and the requiem mass to be sung. During
"the last few days of his life he was busy with his will. In the evening
"before he died he had the will read over and corrected. The following
" morning he confirmed it in an audible voice ;
then took leave and died,
"leaving, after large legacies, the residue to charity." He had been
munificent to the poor while he lived. He practically rebuilt and enlarged
the Hospital of St. Cross, at Winchester, which, founded by Henry de
Blois, in the twelfth century, for " men decayed and past their strength,"
had, after much perversion, been revived by William of Wykeham. Cardinal
Beaufort added a distinct establishment, called "Nova domus Eleemo-
" synaria nobilis paupertatis," for the support of two priests, thirty-five
brethren, and two nuns, building the infirmary so that one end opens into
the triforium of the church, in order that the sick in their beds might
participate
in the service.