Henry IV (26 page)
Authors: Chris Given-Wilson
23
PROME
, vii.331–428.
24
CR
, 59. It was later alleged that at least some of the MPs had not been fairly elected but appointed at the king's will (
SAC II
, 78, 186–7).
25
Usk
, 30–1.
26
Historical Collections
, 96; BL Harleian MS 3775, fo. 87r.
27
PROME
, vii.350–1.
28
CR
, 219–21; Given-Wilson, ‘Richard II, Edward II and the Lancastrian Inheritance’, 562–3.
29
CR
, 79;
PROME
, vii.411–12.
30
CR
, 78–83. A confession which Gloucester had written ‘by his own hand’ at Calais on the afternoon that he died was read out on the Tuesday in order to provide further justification for his conviction, although it was abbreviated; the true date of his death was concealed and his pleas for mercy omitted (
PROME
, vii.413–14).
31
CR
, 61;
PROME
, vii.415–16. ‘By St John the Baptist,’ Richard declared, ‘this confession of yours, Thomas of Warwick, is worth more to me than the value of all the lands of the duke of Gloucester and the earl of Arundel.’
32
SAC II
, 252–5.
33
PROME
, vii.354–5. The pardon stated that in 1387–8 they had ‘come to [the king] as loyal lieges, away from the company of the said duke [of Gloucester] and the earls of Arundel and Warwick, and had remained with our lord the king since’.
34
Apart from Henry, the new promotions were: Edward earl of Rutland to duke of Aumale; John Holand earl of Huntingdon to duke of Exeter; Thomas Holand earl of Kent to duke of Surrey; Thomas Mowbray earl of Nottingham to duke of Norfolk; Margaret Marshal to duchess of Norfolk; John Beaufort earl of Somerset to marquess of Dorset; Thomas Despenser to earl of Gloucester; William Le Scrope to earl of Wiltshire; Thomas Percy to earl of Worcester; Ralph Nevill to earl of Westmorland. The Counter-Appellant to miss out was John Montague, earl of Salisbury, who had only inherited his earldom two months earlier.
35
DL 28/1/6, fos. 7v, 8r, 15v; E 326/9376. Henry paid for ‘regal canopies’ to be made for the king and queen.
36
PROME
, vii.359.
37
CPR 1396–9
, 207, 210–12.
38
PROME
, vii.369;
CR
, 211.
39
For Henry's itinerary in October–November 1397, see DL 28/1/10.
40
For this privilege the tenants and residents of Brecon, Hay and Cantref Selyf had to give him a ‘gift’ of £1,233, the first instalment of which (£530) was handed over to Henry that same day: SC 6/1157/4. This was separate from the rents and other perquisites of the lordship which, as already noted, frequently yielded over £1,000 a year.
41
Richard was at Woodstock from 15–21 November: Saul,
Richard II
, 473; Henry and his servants stayed ‘in the household of the lord king’ on 19 November (DL 28/1/10, fo. 9r).
42
PROME
, vii.369–70.
43
Given-Wilson, ‘Richard II, Edward II, and the Lancastrian Inheritance’, 555–7.
44
Ibid., 559.
45
CE
, iii.379.
46
Richard stayed in the Midlands in December and January, while Henry spent most of December in London before travelling to Leicester to spend Christmas with his father and then on to Framlingham castle (Suffolk), the home of Margaret Marshal, newly created duchess of Norfolk, where he spent New Year (DL 28/1/6, fos. 5v, 24v; Saul,
Richard II
, 473).
47
Nor did he omit to send the king an Epiphany gift, a gold tablet with an image of John the Baptist, and to Queen Isabella a hart of gold with pearls for its crown (DL 28/1/10, fos. 12r, 22v, 24r;
CPR 1396–9
, 571).
48
Saul,
Richard II
, 473.
49
He came with an impressive retinue: he paid £27 for the wages of the knights, esquires and archers who accompanied him to Shrewsbury for the parliament (DL 28/1/10, fos. 3v, 32v).
50
PROME
, vii.370; Henry's pardon was dated 25 January at Lilleshall (Shropshire), indicating that he probably remained with Richard, who was at Lilleshall that day, until parliament met (
CPR 1396–9
, 280).
51
Usk
, 48–9;
Traïson et Mort
, 16–17.
52
PROME
, vii.370.
53
PROME
, vii.387.
54
PROME
, vii.386–9. Richard accomplished much else at Shrewsbury, including a grant of the wool subsidy for life, the annulment of all the acts of the Merciless Parliament, the reaffirmation of the Questions to the Judges of 1387, and the trial of John Lord Cobham, an elderly peer whose crime was to have been involved in the setting up of the Commission of Government in 1386. Although convicted of treason, Cobham was sentenced, like Warwick, to exile for life rather than to death.
55
C. Given-Wilson, ‘Chronicles of the Mortimer Family, 1250–1450’, in
Family and Dynasty in Late Medieval England
, ed. R. Eales and S. Tyas (Donington, 2003), 67–86, at p. 75;
CR
, 60, 62;
Usk
, 38–40. Usk said that it was in order to prevent the loss of Denbigh that March had come over from Ireland, of which he was lieutenant, to attend the Shrewsbury session of parliament.
56
CPR 1396–9
, 285; Gaunt had a copy made and kept in the Duchy archive (DL 10/363).
57
Traïson et Mort
, 142;
CCR1396–9
, 249;
ANLP
, no. 56. Henry's household account (DL 28/1/10) also makes it clear that he remained at liberty.
58
He was held first at Windsor and later in the great wardrobe at Baynard's castle in London:
Usk
, 48.
59
CCR 1396–9
, 291–2;
CPR 1396–9
, 317. Bagot was also suspected of being involved in the anti-Lancastrian plot. He later admitted, in the October 1399 parliament, that he had once planned to put Gaunt to death, despite his years of service to the house of Lancaster (Given-Wilson, ‘Richard II, Edward II and the Lancastrian Inheritance’, 559).
60
PROME
, vii.422–3; Given-Wilson, ‘Richard II, Edward II and the Lancastrian Inheritance’, 564–5.
61
Westminster Chronicle
, 437.
62
Traïson et Mort
, 13–17 (the author was an eyewitness);
CR
, 99, 103–4.
63
That Henry accused Mowbray of Gloucester's murder is confirmed in
CE
, 379.
64
He also received some grants from the king, notably the reversion of the properties which he had surrendered to Gloucester for life in 1395 (Westcott, Wethersfield, Nuthampstead and Newnham), restored to him in May 1398 as part of Mary de Bohun's inheritance (
CCR 1396–9
, 246, 266, 269), and a gift of £300 from the king, part of an unspecified larger sum which Richard ordered to be paid to Henry ‘for certain reasonable causes particularly moving the said lord king’ (E 403/559, 24 July 1398).
65
On 19–20 June he visited the shrine of St Mary at Walsingham (Norfolk), praying, perhaps, for a resolution to his predicament (DL 28/1/10, fos. 29r–v).
66
Walker,
Lancastrian Affinty
, 204 (‘this great circular tour of his father's dominions’); Davies,
Lords and Lordship
, 90.
67
DL 28/1/6, fos. 22r–23r (some of these collars included his favoured motto,
Souvenez vous de moi
).
68
DL 28/1/10, fos. 29v–34r; 28/1/6, fos. 22r–24r.
69
The duke of Brittany sent two men to Henry at Hertford in May, the steward and three knights of Charles VI of France stayed with him at Birmingham on 5 August, and in September messengers arrived from the dukes of Burgundy and Orléans; Henry sent his old jousting companion Marshal Boucicaut a saddle (DL 28/1/10, fos 14v, 23r, 25r, 31r; 28/1/5, fo. 24v; 28/1/9, fos. 6v, 7r).
70
Oeuvres de Froissart
, xvi.95–6; DL 28/1/5, fo. 21r. In return he sent the duke a saddle. Mowbray ordered a suit of armour from Germany, probably Bohemia. Francis de Courte liaised between Henry and Gian Galeazzo.
71
CCR 1396–9
, 324.
72
M. Bennett,
Richard II and the Revolution of 1399
(Stroud, 1999), 132.
73
E 403/559, 31 August.
74
On 12 August Henry had had his armour moved to Kenilworth, and here he based himself for the next few weeks, although he did twice visit nearby Coventry, presumably in preparation for the combat; he also made brief visits to London and Hertford in late August or early September (DL 28/1/6, fo. 42v; 28/1/10, fos. 23–8). What follows is based primarily on the eyewitness account in
Traïson et Mort
, 17–23, 149–58.
75
Usk
, 50–1.
76
‘dargent a une croix rouge pareille aux armes Saint George’ (
Traïson et Mort
, 19).
77
Henry's second at the duel was his esquire Robert Waterton (
CPR 1396–9
, 514). Mowbray was attended by the Bohemian esquire Jacques Felm (
Traïson et Mort
, 149).
78
Traïson et Mort
, 21;
CR
, 63, 68, 97.
Usk
, 50–1, said that the two dukes actually began the combat, but when ‘it seemed to [the king] that the duke of Hereford was going to win’, he ordered a halt to the proceedings, but this is contradicted by all other accounts.
79
CR
, 89–92.
80
Usk
, 50–1;
CR
, 63;
SAC II
, 108–9, 120–3.
81
The Kirkstall chronicler, for example, wrote of the worthy (
venerabilis
) duke of Hereford appealing the frightful (
horrificum
) duke of Norfolk (
Kirkstall Abbey Chronicles
, ed. J. Taylor, Thoresby Society Publications, 1952, 120); Usk (pp. 50–1) claimed that Richard planned to recall Mowbray as soon as possible.
82
The comment of the author of
CE
that Mowbray spoke to Henry ‘secretly and in total confidence’ is easy to believe (
CR
, 68).
83
The French chroniclers reflected this dismay, but included some strange and implausible additions. The
Chronographia Regum Francorum
(iii.165) said that when Richard announced his decision to halt the combat and exile Henry and Mowbray, John of Gaunt tried to dissuade him, saying ‘I know them better than you; they are both worthless, and as for my son, I assure you that he will enrage and confound you again and again to an extent that you have never been enraged or confounded. Let them fight for God's right and die in the duel, nothing withstanding’, to which Richard simply replied that he intended to keep a close eye on Henry.
Saint-Denys
(ii.670–4), in contrast, said that Gaunt advised the king to forbid the combat, asking Richard what he would do should Henry lose. ‘I will have him drawn to the gallows,’ replied the king, adding that even if it were Gaunt himself who was involved he would do exactly the same.
84
Froissart's belief that Richard reduced Henry's term of exile to six years has no basis in fact, although Henry did have two more meetings with the king before he left England: at Nuneaton on 20 September and at Windsor on 3 October (
Oeuvres de Froissart
, xvi.109–10;
CPR 1396–9
, 417, 514). Cf.
Traïson et Mort
, 23, 158, where ‘Nonetes’ is wrongly taken to be Leicester.
85
DL 28/1/10, fo. 30r; Goodman,
John of Gaunt
, 165.
86
Richard Chalons was ‘esquire of the lord's daughters’; two grooms and two ladies-in-waiting, Katherine and Marie, were responsible for their daily care. The seven-year-old Humphrey had the esquire William Gyse to attend him, and was occasionally taken to Tutbury or Kenilworth to spend time with his grandfather. Humphrey had his own goat, which his maid Lucy Salmay was paid sixpence to milk for eight weeks (DL 28/1/6, fo. 11r; 28/1/9, fos. 13r, 15v, 19v–21r; 28/1/10, fos. 11v, 31r, 34r; SC 6/1157/4, m. 4r).
87
DL 28/4/1, fos. 13v–14v. When Gaunt died in February, a boy was sent from London to Eaton Tregoz with black livery robes for the three younger children.
88
Historical Collections
, 101, says that Thomas returned from exile with his father in the summer of 1399 (cf. G. Harriss, ‘Thomas, Duke of Clarence’,
ODNB
, 54.284–5; DL 28/1/10, fo. 28r;
CR
, 35). Richard knighted the young Henry in Ireland (Allmand,
Henry V
, 12).
89
PROME
, vii.424–5.
90
SC 8/332/15718A and B: the full list was: Erpingham, Rempston, Norbury, Totty, Loveney, John Dabrichecourt, John Cokeyn, Henry Bowet, John Payn, Robert Chalons, Esmond Bugge, John Knyveton, John Multon, Henry Longdon, Ralph Ramsey, John Topcliff of Kent and William Pomfreit. Totty was licensed to impress ‘sufficient vessels . . . called
passageres
’ for Henry's channel crossing
(CPR 1396–9
, 417, 425, 440).
91
Richard also gave instructions allowing Henry to stay at Calais for a month with twelve persons or at Sangatte castle (Pas-de-Calais) with his household (
CPR 1396–9
, 440, 470, 499, 537;
CCR 1396–9
, 339).
