1 66 Chaucer and Henry, Earl of Derby 



I. THE EARL OF DERBY'S RETURN TO LONDON IN 1393 



On Saturday/ the 5th day of July, 1393, Henry, Earl of 

 Derby, just returned from a sojourn of nearly a year- abroad, 

 rode from Dartford to London,^ the last stage of his journey 

 from Canterbury. This was the fifth day since he left Canter- 

 bury, but he had rested over Friday, July 4, at Dartford, for 

 reasons which we can only conjecture. 



Though Derby had attained the age of 27 only about a month 

 before,* he was the father of four sons^ (besides one born in 

 1382, when Henry was not quite 16, and who died in infancy), 



^As bases for the calculation, we may note that April 17, 1390, fell on 

 a Sunday (Skeat 3. 373), and that Easter Sunday of 1393 was April 6 

 (D. A., p. Ixxvii). 



^ See the details in D. A., pp. Ixxii-lxxix. 



^ The route was his customary one. He had left Canterbury on July i, 

 and reached Sittingbourne (15 miles) the same day; on the 2d he was 

 at Rochester (26 miles; the mention of Ospring, as of July 2, D. A., 

 p. 276, must be a mistake) ; on the 3d at Dartford (40 miles) ; cf. 

 D. A., p. Ixxix. The same route was taken by Henry in the opposite 

 direction, May, 1390 {D. A., pp. xxvi-xxvii), returning about June i. 

 In 1413, his body was conveyed on a horse-bier from Gravesend to 

 Canterbury (Wylie 4. 113). In the following June, Henry V traveled 

 to Canterbury to attend a solemn obit in honor of his father, the stages 

 being Kensington (13), Rochester (14), Ospring (15), Canterbury (16). 

 Queen Isabella's stations in 1358 had been: London (June 6), Dartford 

 (7), Rochester (8), Ospring (9), Canterbury (10); cf. Furnivall, 

 Temp. Pref., p. 14. Those of King John of France in 1360 were : Lofidon 

 (June 30), Dartford (July i), Rochester (2), Sittingbourne and Ospring 

 (3), Canterbury (4); cf. Skeat 5. 415; i. xix. The body of Henry V 

 was to travel this way in 1422 (Ramsay, Lancaster and York i. 305). 

 In 1518 Campeggio traveled from Canterbury to London, starting on 

 Monday, July 26, and arriving on Thursday, the 30th (Brewer, Reign 

 of Henry VIII 1. 280) ; Henry VIII and Katharine went from London to 

 Canterbury, May 21-25, 1520 {ih. i. 345). Charles V and Henry VIII 

 made the journey as follows in 1522: Canterbury (May 30), Sitting- 

 bourne (May 31), Rochester (June i), Greenwich (June 2; ib. i. 452). 

 For maps and distances, see Littlehales, Some Notes on the Road from 

 London to Canterbury in the Middle Ages (Chaucer Society, 1898). 



^ Born May 30, 1366 (Ramsay 2. 100; Lancaster and York i. i, and 

 table opp. p. xlii ; D. A., p. Ixxxi; otherwise Beltz, p. 237; Diet. Nat. 

 Biog. Wylie 4. 166, 330-1, is uncertain. 



° Henry V (1386), Thomas (1387), John (1389), Humphrey (1390). 



