The Fears of Henry IV: The Life of England's Self-Made King (81 page)

27
. Rogers, ‘Royal Household’, p. 755.

28
.
CR,
pp. 194–5.

29
. Although it should be noted that the fifteen days of starvation in the Percy manifesto was probably an exaggeration. If Richard died on 14 February, and Richard started to go without water on 31 January, then Henry would have had to give the order on 28 January, which is before he could have heard from France about the French king’s belief in Richard’s death.

30
. ‘
Festiationis causa’.
This detail is not in
Issues
but appears in Wylie, i, p. 115.

31
. A garbled version of such a precautionary order might be preserved in the account given in
Froissart,
which states that Henry promised he would not kill Richard unless he took part in a plot to oust him. See
Froissart,
ii, p. 708.

32
. Wylie, i, p. 117.

33
.
Creton,
p. 221.

34
. For example, Burden, ‘How do you bury a deposed king?’; Strohm,
Empty Throne,
chapter four; Morgan, ‘Shadow of Richard II’.

35
. Richard had ordered another tomb to be moved to make way for his, so it would have been quite acceptable for Henry to move Richard and Anne’s tomb to Langley or elsewhere in Westminster Abbey. See
HKW,
i, pp. 487–8.

36
. Duffy,
Royal Tombs,
p. 157.

37
.
Issues,
p. 276.

38
. He was at Eltham on 26 February, 8 and 16 March and 8 April but must have returned to London at some point to attend the Mass for Richard at St Paul’s between 8 and 16 March.
Signet Letters,
p. 21;
Syllabus,
ii, p. 538.

39
. Details of Henry’s work at Eltham are to be found in
HKW,
ii, pp. 935–6.

40
.
RHL,
i, pp. 25–7. The offer was for negotiators to meet at Kelso on 5 January. Robert III claimed two months later that he had received the letter too late to send representatives. The first offer had been made in September 1399, before Henry’s accession.

41
.
RHL,
i, pp. 23–5. The letter was dated 18 February, at Dunbar Castle. It would have taken at least ten days to cover the distance to Eltham in winter. Henry’s safe-conduct to Dunbar was dated 8 March.

42
.
RHL,
i, pp. 28–9. The nature of this information was reported by word of mouth and thus is unfortunately unknown to us. Its importance can be gauged from the fact that it could not safely be written in a letter to the king.

43
.
PC,
i, pp. 118–20; Pistono, ‘Confirmation of the twenty-eight-year truce’, pp. 353–65.

44
. Brown, ‘English Campaign in Scotland’, pp. 44–5. This is comparable with the size of the armies led to Scotland in 1314, 1335 and 1385.

45
. Wylie, iv, pp. 230, 232.

46
. Brown, ‘English Campaign in Scotland’, p. 43.
Signet Letters,
p. 23, states they were offering peace on the lines agreed between Edward I and Robert Bruce. However, there was no such treaty. The text of Henry’s letter, printed in
PC,
i, p. 123, shows that he did not specify Edward I but ‘our well-remembered ancestor, Edward, formerly king of England’.

47
. She had been married to John Holland, duke of Exeter, who had died at the hands of the mob in Essex after the Epiphany Rising.

48
.
PROME,
1402 September, item 16.

49
.
PC,
i, p. 169.

50
.
Annales,
pp. 332–3; Wylie, i, p. 132. The naval successes included the capture of Sir Robert Logan, the Scottish admiral, and David Seton, a secretary of Robert III, who was carrying letters to France.

51
.
Eulogium,
iii, p. 387; Brown, ‘English Campaign in Scotland’, p. 44.

52
.
Revolution,
p. 203.

53
. Rogers, ‘Royal Household’, p. 72–4.

54
. Dyer,
Standards of Living,
p. 263; Rogers, ‘Royal Household’, p. 54.

55
. Henry continued southwards until he arrived at Northampton. He may have heard about the Welsh rising earlier in the month, before the proclamation of Glendower. See
Vitae,
pp. 167, 212, n. 492.

12: The Great Magician

  
1
. The story of the land dispute which was not settled in parliament comes from Thomas Walsingham’s Annales, p. 333. The letters between Glendower and Reginald Grey are printed in
RHL,
i, pp. 35–8. See also
Glyn Dŵr,
p. 102.

  
2
. Wylie, i, p. 144.

  
3
.
ODNB,
under ‘Glyn Dŵr, Owain’.

  
4
.
CPR 1399–1401,
p. 555. He was at Shrewsbury on the 15th and 16th, Shifnal on the 18th.

  
5
. Boardman suggests that Henry might have averted further rebellion if he had ‘made any effort’ to enquire into the grievances of Glendower and the Welsh people (Boardman,
Hotspur,
p. 119).

  
6
.
Revolution,
p. 203.

  
7
. Wylie, iv, pp. 141, n. 8, 263.

  
8
. Wylie, iv, p. 263.

  
9
. Wylie, i, p. 158.

10
.
Adam Usk,
p. 119.

11
. Details of the tournament have been drawn from an article by John Priestley, ‘Christmas day and knights’, in the November 2006 issue of
Heritage Today,
the English Heritage magazine, pp. 28–31. See also Nicol, ‘Byzantine Emperor’.

12
. Wylie, iv, pp. 129–30.

13
.
Issues,
p. 282.

14
. This figure is drawn from Rogers, ‘Political crisis’, p. 89. Rogers’ claim that this amounted to more than Richard II’s household had spent in its last three years does not seem to be borne out by Given-Wilson’s more recent study. See
Royal Household,
pp. 76–92, 94 (in particular), 107–8, 271.

15
. Wylie, iv, pp. 315–18. According to Given-Wilson in
PROME,
1401 January, introduction, Pope Boniface VIII had recommended in 1298 that burning should be adopted throughout Christendom. Given-Wilson adds that the Lollard William Swinderby ‘fully expected to be burned’ at his trial in 1382.

16
. Usually depictions of burnings are without the barrel. John Badby, who suffered
the same fate as Sawtre nine years later, was described as being burned in a barrel by the contemporary Thomas Walsingham. See
CM,
p. 376.

17
. Rogers, ‘Political Crisis’, pp. 87–8; Castor,
King, Crown and Duchy,
pp. 30–31.

18
. Brown, ‘Commons and the council’, p. 3.

19
.
PROME,
1401 January, introduction; Kirby, pp. 112–13; Rogers, ‘Political Crisis’.

20
. His attempts to limit the anti-Welsh legislation were restricted to granting a pardon to all those who had taken part in Glendower’s rising – except William and Rees ap Tudor, and Glendower himself – and a three-year limit on the period during which Welshmen could not sue Englishmen in Wales.

21
.
PROME,
1401 January, item 48.

22
.
Adam Usk,
p. 131.

23
. Harriss,
Shaping the Nation,
p. 496, describes this as an ‘open letter’. However, it was written at Henry’s own request: in Repingdon’s words, ‘when, with a heavy heart, I last departed from your presence, your excellent majesty requested me, your humble servant, to inform you without delay of anything I might hear … ’
(Adam Usk,
p. 137) … ‘I am saying no more than I have already said to you by word of mouth, when I was in your presence’ (
ibid.,
p. 143). It seems to have been a private letter, written for Henry’s information and with his approval, which later came to Usk’s attention, perhaps through the offices of the archbishop of Canterbury.

24
. It appears in
Adam Usk,
pp. 137–43.

25
. Wylie iv, pp. 198–9.

26
. Gwilym Dodd, ‘Henry IV’s Council’, p. 100.

27
.
Issues,
p. 284.

28
. Wylie, ‘Dispensation’, pp. 96–7. Edmund was in his eleventh year on 15 January 1412.

29
. Otway-Ruthven,
Medieval Ireland,
p. 341. Thomas was officially appointed on 27 June and arrived on 13 November.

30
.
Adam Usk,
p. 135; Wylie, i, pp. 228–9.

31
.
RHL,
pp. 73–6.

32
. To add to the six chapters of the 1401 statute concerning the Welsh, on 18 March a further ordinance for Wales was issued. This added a number of precautionary measures but these arose from petitions presented in the parliament to prevent a reoccurrence of Glendower’s rising. It cannot therefore be said to have greatly extended what was agreed in parliament.

33
. Wylie, i, pp. 212–18;
Adam Usk,
p. 129.

34
.
ODNB,
under ‘Glyn Dŵr, Owain’. The reference to
PC,
ii, p. 55, quoted indicates that Glendower was in the Carmarthenshire/Cardiganshire area in May, not June.

35
.
Signet Letters,
p. 28.

36
.
RHL,
i, p. 71.

37
.
PC,
i, pp. 156–64; Kirby, pp. 127–8.

38
.
Adam Usk,
p. 135.

39
.
PC,
i, p. 154; Kirby, p. 128. This was made up of £13,000 for Calais, £5,000 for Ireland, £10,000 for Aquitaine, £8,000 for returning Isabella, £24,000 in annuities granted by the king, £16,000 to repay loans, £16,000 for the wardrobe, and £38,000 for the war in Scotland, the campaigns in Wales and the defence of the sea. See also
Royal Household,
p. 129.

40
. Rutland was created lieutenant of Aquitaine on 28 August.
CP,
xii, 2, p. 903.

41
. Wylie confused Henry’s itinerary in Wales in 1401 with that of 1400. Henry was at Hereford on 10–11 October 1401, and then at Llandovery on the 14th (see Wylie, i, p. 243;
Signet Letters,
p. 31; Kirby, p. 130). He returned to England via Worcester (where he was on the 27th), not Shrewsbury and Shifnal as Wylie states, mistakenly placing the undated
rotulus viagii
of 2 Henry IV at the start of 3 Henry IV.

42
.
Adam Usk,
p. 145.

43
.
Adam Usk,
pp. 149–53.

13: Uneasy Lies the Head

  
1
.
Annales,
p. 337;
EC,
p. 23;
Eulogium,
iii, p. 389.

  
2
.
HA,
ii, p. 248.
Vitae,
p. 171, adds the details that the attempted assassination took place in early September 1401 at Westminster and that the murderous contraption was placed in the king’s bed by a member of Queen Isabella’s household, who confessed to the crime and was later pardoned.

  
3
. It may be noted that (1) high-status beds did not normally have straw mattresses at this time, (2) Henry was at Windsor, not Westminster, in early September 1401, and (3) Isabella and her household had left Westminster several months earlier. Nevertheless, the story is unlikely to have been a complete fiction, and certainly not one started by the king himself (despite Paul Strohm’s assertion in Strohm,
Empty Throne,
p. 64), for no element of this story can have rebounded to the benefit of the king’s public image.

  
4
.
Vitae,
p. 171; Dyer,
Standards of Living,
p. 263.

  
5
. Kirby, p. 127.

  
6
.
Adam Usk,
p. 147.

  
7
.
PC,
p. 178.

  
8
.
PC,
p. 178.

  
9
.
ODNB,
under ‘Joan of Navarre’.

10
. Froissart states that he went to Brittany and met her at Nantes on his way to Spain. See
Froissart,
ii, p. 687; Strickland,
Lives,
ii, pp. 60–61.

11
.
RHL,
i, pp. 19–20.

12
. For example, see Kirby, p. 136. ‘Whether or not its terms are more effusive than common courtesy required is not easy to determine’, Kirby says, even though he must have realised that no other extant letter addressed to Henry is exclusively devoted to expressions of goodwill towards him. ‘At least Henry might assume on the receipt of this that the duchess was not ill-disposed towards him,’ he adds, with cautiousness so extreme it is comical.

13
.
PC,
i, p. 188.

14
.
ODNB,
under ‘Joan of Navarre’.

15
. In addition to Henry’s two love matches we might add his father’s first and third marriages (to Blanche and Katherine), his uncle’s (the Black Prince and Joan of Kent), his aunt’s (Isabella and Enguerrand de Coucy) and his sister’s (Elizabeth and John Holland). The last three especially were choices made out of affection, not political gain.

16
. Morgan, ‘Shadow of Richard II’, p. 17.

17
.
EC,
p. 26;
Annales,
p. 339.

18
. The prior of Launde’s arrest is placed just before Trinity (21 May) by Walsingham. See
Annales,
p. 339.

19
. Wylie, i, p. 277.

20
. The dialogue here has been modernised from
EC,
pp. 24–5. The execution is also mentioned by Walsingham
(Annales,
p. 340).