1. Rutland and Kent, due to discontent

2. Northumberland's 3 rebellions, due to disappointment

(1) With Hotspur, Douglas and Glendwyr (Battle of Shrewsbury 1403)

(2) Northumberland with Scrope-" Redress of Grievances

(Wylie's Henry IV.

details cf. also

and York).

1. Dissensions in Council

2. Henry's Character and Work.

I. THE KING AND HIS RIVALS.

On 30th September, 1399, Henry of Lancaster was solemnly contains a mass of chosen to replace Richard, who had resigned. In Parliament Gairdner's Lancaster the new King stated that he had come to restore the realm which was all but " undone for default of governance and the undoing of good laws." This, he said, he did by right of (Stubbs iii, § 302). descent from Henry III. and with the help of God. His claim was in fact threefold,

1. Henry's threefold claim.

1.—As a true descendant,

2. As a champion favoured by Heaven,
3.-As a reformer of mis-government.

He would have added a fourth claim-as a conqueror-save for the dissuasion of eminent men.

Through his mother Blanche of Lancaster he could trace 1. Descent. back his descent to Edmund Crouchback, the second son, or

as some pretended, the first son, of Henry III. His second

assertion was due to a religious trait in his character which 2. Divine favour. found fuller expression in his grandson Henry VI. It is a claim often favoured by Might to cover the absence of Right.

His third plea was the popular view of the latter end of 3. Need of reform. Richard's reign.

His real title was his election. His seizure of the crown Real title was revolutionary, but became legal by the agreement of mentary. Parliament. Though hereditary succession had been the unwritten law for two centuries, yet now England returned to the ancient custom of choosing for its ruler the ablest man of the royal house (see p. 19, 38).

Parlia

For there were other claimants whose right of succession Other Claimants. was indisputable. The former king at Henry's accession was

still alive, though a prisoner. This led to plots, and even after 1. Richard II.
Richard's death Henry had to be constantly on the guard against
pretended belief in his existence. But there was a far more

serious rival in Edmund, earl of March, who was descended 2. EdmundMortimer
from the arch-plotter of Edward II.'s reign. His grandmother
had been the daughter of the duke of Clarence, Edward III.'s

second son, whilst Henry IV.'s father was the third son.

This Edmund was only six years old at this time. But his hereditary right was unquestionable and his father had been the recognised heir to the throne. In fact his claim was too sound for legal consideration, whilst his power was too weak from a practical point of view. His accession would doubtless

1. The Settlement of the Lancas

a, Causes of Difficulty.

have hastened the Wars of the Roses by fifty years. It is noticeable that the opponents of Henry IV. invariably put forward the plea of misgovernment for their revolts even when they urged the title of Mortimer to the Crown.

The existence of such claimants naturally added to the new trian Dynasty king's difficulties. Being a party leader, he found that his supporters expected more than he cared to grant. They overrated their claims; whilst the king under-estimated the value of their support. At first Henry had only to face the disappointed followers of the late king. Then gradually his friends became foes. The warmest adherents of his cause changed their note and spoke of him, as Shakespeare says, as This ingrate and canker'd Bolingbroke. Henry tried to find a settlement by balancing friends and foes. The clergy, the Parliament, the nobility, were won over to his side by concessions which weakened the royal prerogative, though they strengthened the new dynasty.

b, Rebellions:

1, 1400 Rutland and

contentment.

(Stubbs ii. 26.)

Early in the year 1400 a serious rebellion broke out fostered Kent due to dis- by adherents of Richard, the earls of Rutland and Kent, and Salisbury who had been degraded from the rank of duke. They hoped to seize the King on Twelfth Night and to restore Richard. But without national support, and probably betrayed by one of their colleagues, the whole conspiracy miserably failed. The ringleaders were put to death: their unhappy master mysteriously died.

2. Northumberland's

With Richard's death, conspirators had to find another three Rebellions, claimant to give rebellion a legal excuse. They found him

due to disappoint. ment.

in Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March, who in the next three (1.) with Hotspur, rebellions figured as the proposed king. Douglas and Glendwyr.)

(cf. Shakespeare's two parts of Henry IV.)

a, The Douglas.

b, Welsh under

Glendwyr.

Character of

Glendwyr.

The most serious plot of these, in all of which Northumberland shared, broke out in 1403. Its immediate cause was a display of force by Henry in Scotland. There had been a quarrel between two great Scottish lords, one of whom was an Earl of March, uncle to the young Mortimer who was now in Henry's charge. This Scottish feud brought the elder Mortimer over the border to seek help against the Douglas, whose lands were harried. To prevent an invasion of England, and to impress Robert III., Henry prepared a force with which he entered Scotland. Edinburgh was reached without opposition, but the Scots adopted a policy of "masterly inactivity which forced Henry to retire. His absence from England had been utilised by the Welsh to make a real attempt to throw off the English sovereignty. They had a capable leader in Owen Glendwyr, a gentleman of considerable property and far-reaching influence. Educated in London he had attracted the notice of Richard II. On the latter's death he had retired home. There he found that his estates had been encroached on by the Earl of Ruthin. When he could obtain no redress

in the English Courts he appealed to arms. His success was striking, and urged him to a more ambitious move. He would be Prince of Wales and free his country from her English thraldom.

iii. 1.)

He was well-fitted for the task. An orator of no mean (cf. Henry IV. pt. i. power, he easily touched the warm Celtic enthusiasm of his fellow-countrymen; by tactics which suited the physical features of the locality, he defied the cumbrous English infantry; by a reputation for supernatural knowledge he impressed superstitious minds in an age readily given to such fancies.

Under a leader like this the Welsh rising assumed serious proportions. Herefordshire was invaded and Mortimer (the elder) taken prisoner. Retaliation was necessary, but the King refused to ransom Mortimer, either through fear of his pretensions to the throne or through knowledge of some act of treason.

(Stubbs iii. 39.)

By this Henry mortally offended the great house of c, The Percies. Northumberland who had been mainly responsible for his successful usurpation. This family was the powerful ruler of the north of England and to it fell the duty of guarding the Northern Border. In those days that part of England, owing to the ceaseless raids, was a wild untamed district. The lord of it was necessarily entrusted with vast power; he always had a large following who recognised no other master. Henry Percy, (Henry IV. pt. i. 1. 3.) eldest son of the Earl of Northumberland-better known as Hotspur-was the daring leader of these. He was gallant and headstrong, imbued with a rough chivalry which made him . Course of Rebel.ion popular and famous. He was a capable leader, but whether he was the ideal cavalier of that age there is no historical evidence to show. Northumberland and Hotspur were dangerous friends and still more dangerous enemies. To the cunning of the father was added the daring of the son, and it was these two whom Henry had now affronted. For Hotspur had a, Union of The Douglas, Glendwyr married Mortimer's sister and demanded his brother-in-law's and Percies. ransom; whilst Henry demanded the surrender to him of the Douglas whom Hotspur had lately captured at Homildon Hill. Neither was willing to give way. Moreover the Percies, who had doubtless hoped to be the power behind the throne," had been rudely disappointed by the firmness of the new king. Their services had not really been overlooked since titles and offices had been showered on them, but no adequate supplies had been sent them in their arduous undertakings, for the government had been almost paralysed for want of money.

Percy, converting the Douglas from a prisoner to an ally, making an alliance with Owen Glendwyr, and supported by Mortimer (who had married Glendwyr's daughter) and the

(1402)

b, Battle of Shrewsbury, 1403.

2.) Northumberland with Scrope, 1405. (Stubbs iii. 51.)

"Redress of Grievanccs."

Earl of Worcester, quickly raised an army of 14,000 men. The
rumour that Richard lived was revived. The badges of the
Dragon, Lion, and Wolf, which were the heraldic designs of
Glendwyr, Percy, and Mortimer, seemed to fulfil an ancient
prophecy of Merlin. Henry to avoid disaster was forced to
act at once. Mustering an army, with unexpected energy he
intercepted the Percies on the borders of Wales where they had
hoped to form a junction with the Welsh. The Severn was
flooded and impassable. The delay was fatal to their plans.
Measures of peace were proposed by the King but scouted by
Hotspur. The armies engaged near Shrewsbury. The battle
was brief and sanguinary. Hotspur and Douglas with a
chosen body of knights pierced the royal forces. More than
once the King's person was in jeopardy, but eventually his
assailants were driven back. During their retirement Hotspur
was slain by an unknown hand; Worcester and the Douglas
were captured and the former executed. The old Earl of
Northumberland, who had been unable through an illness,
real or pretended, to join his son, was only found guilty by his
peers of
trespass," not treason, and was pledged to keep the
peace. The Welsh remained unsettled for the rest of the reign,
but lacking support from Scotland or France were never again
really dangerous.

But Henry had only scotched the snake, not killed it. He was not as yet strong enough to restrain his more powerful subjects, and Northumberland seemed determined to prove that trespass was really treason. The country was suffering from over-taxation, harassed by the Welsh war, and by the illconcealed quarrels of great nobles. Mowbray (son of Norfolk, p. 85), Scrope (Archbishop of York), and Northumberland, rose in arms. They justified their action by a document which set forth constitutional, political, and social grievances so as to appeal to all parties. It is this declaration which makes it hard to decide whither Northumberland's desire for revenge or Scrope's desire for reform was the real cause of the rising. Probably the resources of the former were essential to the hopes of the latter, and if their end had been gained the result would have seen a struggle between the victorious allies. Shipton Moor 1405. But the rising was a failure. The armies met at Shipton Moor. A conference bereft the malcontents of their troops and left them prisoners at the King's mercy. Northumberland escaped, an avowed traitor, whilst the other ringleaders suffered on the scaffold. In the execution of Scrope Henry was guilty of a most unwise fault. His usual political foresight seemed to fail him. For the fact that his victim was not only of a high and influential northern family, putting forward a definite plea for reform, but also one of the highest dignitaries of the

(Capes 159)