The New Murrey and Blue blog

The sources for these weeks take some unravelling. The most useful secondary source is Three Armies in Britain by Douglas Biggs, a book that, unfortunately, has not received the credit due to it. Nigel Saul‘s Richard II is of value, as is Chronicles of the Revolution by Chris Given-Wilson. The analysis that follows is largely based on these three works but the conclusions are my own, and should not be taken as Holy Writ.

First, it is important to note that Henry Bolingbroke, Duke of Lancaster, had not been forfeited or attainted by Richard II as is sometimes implied. He still had control of the estates he possessed in his own right, as well as those of his late wife, Mary de Bohun. This added up to a substantial amount of land. Brecon alone is calculated to have been worth £1,500 a year at a time when qualification for an earldom was only 1000 marks – roughly £666.66. On top of this, he received a very substantial pension from the King, albeit from the Lancastrian livelihood. Unlike Exeter and Somerset in the late 1460s, he was not a penniless exile. Very far from it in fact.

John of Gaunt‘s lands had indeed been taken into the King’s hands and some had temporarily been devolved to others. However, the very grants made it clear that this was only until Henry or his heir sued for them in Chancery. They were not forfeited.

Of course, Henry may well have suspected Richard II’s intentions. There had been some talk, in the late 1390s of the Judgement of Thomas of Lancaster being reopened. Had Richard done this a very sizeable chunk of the Lancastrian inheritance would have fallen to the King or others. Henry was in no position to do anything about it while in exile, and this fear (justified or not) may have prompted his return.

Henry appears to have landed in Yorkshire (possibly Bridlington) in late June. He had previously made landfall at Pevensey and, perhaps, Cromer, but either these were feints or the Duke of York’s defensive arrangements made landings untenable. Once in Yorkshire, Henry took some time securing several Lancastrian castles and faced little resistance. At Doncaster on 16 July he was joined by the earls of Northumberland and Westmorland, having sworn on oath that his return was merely to recover his inheritance.

The Duke of York marched north to meet his nephew. He was not out of sympathy with Henry’s desire to recover his lands, and although he had secured the southeast of the country successfully, it is not clear that he was passionate in any desire to destroy Henry. He may have hoped from the first to come to terms. He advanced no further than Oxford, then moved to Stow-in-the-Wold and apparently decided to retreat to Bristol, with the hope of holding that city until Richard joined him.

Richard II’s first problem was he didn’t have enough ships to embark his entire army. So he sent the Earl of Salisbury, with a relatively small advanced force to North Wales to secure that area and Cheshire. He had good reason to hope for the loyalty of the people there and perhaps forgot that the best and most loyal of the region’s warriors were already with him.

It is sometimes said that this decision to split his army was advised by Edward of York, Duke of Aumale, for malign reasons. It could equally well have been a pragmatic decision, given that ships cannot be conjured out of the air.

Edward, although sometimes depicted in fiction as a fool, was in reality highly intelligent – one chronicle describes as a ‘second Solomon’ – but also opportunistic and possessed considerable political skills. He also had a sharp sense of self-preservation – imagine Thomas, Lord Stanley on steroids. It is quite possible that he was in communication with Henry Bolingbroke, but not necessarily with a constant intention of overthrowing Richard. Like the later Lord Stanley though, he rarely found himself on the losing side.

In any event, the bulk of Richard’s army marched to Waterford and embarked there, reaching Milford Haven on 24 July. By this time Henry was in Evesham and York possibly at Gloucester. (York’s specific movements are hard to track in detail.) By this time his force was beginning to disintegrate. For whatever reason, he was certainly not hastening. Inexplicably, he took 6 days to cover the 20 miles from Gloucester to Berkeley, having left the Sheriff of Gloucester and his posse at Gloucester, presumably to garrison the castle there. Even if York was so ill that he had to be carried in a litter it is almost impossible to account for such snail-like progress. Less than four miles a day!

On 27 July, Henry caught up with York at Berkeley Castle. Lord Berkeley – almost certainly pro-Henry and quite possibly in cahoots with him – organised a meeting between the principals. By this time, York’s army – if it can be described as such – had dwindled to few more than 1,000 effectives, most of whom – including York himself – had no particular desire to fight Henry. York’s capitulation to his nephew was all but inevitable, and that is what happened. The Duke was hopelessly outnumbered and resistance was futile. A few stubborn individuals, notably the Bishop of Norwich, insisted on striking a blow for King Richard but were rapidly overwhelmed and disarmed. No one seems to have died.

York’s defection – as he was the lawful Keeper of England – gave Henry the first veneer of legitimacy. In that sense, it was important. York, like Northumberland before him, may have chosen to believe Henry’s assertion that he was merely seeking to claim his own.

Henry and York now moved to Bristol and rapidly took both town and castle. The Earl of Wiltshire, Sir John Bussy, Sir Henry Green and Sir John Russell, all members of Richard’s Council had gone ahead to Bristol – having parted from York at Wallingford. Wiltshire, Bussy and Green were summarily executed. Russell would have been, but he either lost his mind or feigned insanity and so was spared. He was to recover and serve Henry as a JP for some years.

King Richard, meanwhile was advancing through West Wales. He received emissaries from his uncle, who brought him news and funds, but at this stage, he was unaware that York had given up. He sent Edward, Duke of Aumale to Carmarthen and Thomas Despenser, Earl of Gloucester to Glamorgan (Despenser’s private lordship). The object was to recruit more men, but these two ventures ended in failure. One reason for this may be that Lancastrian elements in Wales were already up in arms, and made men reluctant to leave their homes unguarded.

In one sense, Richard’s position was strong. He had a chain of castles ahead of him secured by his own people. However, his scouting expeditions, if they may be called such, revealed that two out of three routes to England were effectively blocked by elements friendly to Henry. He was not equipped to besiege castles, and in any case, such sieges would take up valuable time. Moreover, there may well have been inadequate food and fodder to keep his army stationary in West Wales for very long.

The remaining route was north, along the coast, to join Salisbury. This is not a fast journey today, even with much better roads and bridges over at least some of the estuaries. In 1399 it was far more challenging. Imagine following goat tracks up and down steep hills and working your way around significant river mouths to the first bridging point, not just once, but repeatedly. Settlements, such as they were on the route, were few and far between and small even by medieval standards.

Richard now received news of York’s surrender. This coupled with Northumberland’s previous defection may have led the King to suspect two of his most important lords – Edward of York, Duke of Aumale and Constable of England, York’s son and Thomas Percy, Earl of Worcester, Steward of Richard’s household and Northumberland’s brother. In any event, he set off north accompanied by a small but very aristocratic group of followers that pointedly excluded these two men.

This meant, of course, that he left the great bulk of his army behind. Possibly he left instructions for Aumale and Worcester. It’s equally possible he did not. We simply do not know.

What happened was that Aumale and Worcester decided the game was up. Worcester broke his staff of office – usually done only when the king was dead – and told what was left of the household to disperse. The same advice was given to the army. Aumale, Worcester and various other notables set off east to obtain what terms they could from Henry. Elements of the Welsh took the opportunity to plunder the disorganised rabble that fled to England and chaos ensued.

Aumale and Worcester eventually caught up with Henry at Shrewsbury and were taken into his peace without much fuss, although Henry had already granted the constableship to Northumberland, without any authority.

Meanwhile, King Richard struggled northwards to Conwy, arriving there on 12 August. Unfortunately for him, Salisbury’s army had dissolved. It appears there was a rumour of the King’s death, but apart from that many of the men of Cheshire and North Wales probably wanted to go home to protect their families.

Henry had reached Chester by 10 August. (York had left him, going first to Wallingford and then to London.) He now had the likes of Aumale and Worcester with him, while the Sheriff of Cheshire had met him at Shrewsbury to offer the county’s submission. This did not stop Henry from issuing the ‘havoc’ order when he crossed the boundary, and the Dieulacres Chronicle reveals that his men behaved as if in the land of an enemy. At Chester, Henry had Piers Legh executed, presumably for trying to organise resistance. The motive, as with the similar murders at Bristol, appears to have been pure terrorism, in the original sense of the word.

Richard, although in a strong castle, had but a handful of followers left, ironically including Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Lincoln, Henry’s half-brother. He would have been wise to take a ship back to Ireland, and perhaps to have gone on from there to France. Instead, he sent the Duke of Exeter (his half-brother) and the Duke of Surrey (his half-nephew) to Chester to negotiate.

Henry detained them and sent the Earl of Northumberland (some sources also claim Archbishop Arundel) to Conwy. Northumberland swore on the Host that all Henry wanted was his inheritance and a Parliament to try some (but by no means all) of Richard’s supporters. Richard was to remain as King.

Northumberland lied, but whether he knowingly lied is another matter. Henry had gone out of his way to stress that he wanted his lands, and implication a share in the government, but had not openly proposed Richard’s deposition. Against this, he had executed five men without any legal authority, including an earl, and had issued sundry appointments under his duchy seal. He had, in effect, been behaving like a king.

Richard possibly thought that if he kept his head down for a while he would be able to turn the tables again, as he had in 1389. He quite underestimated his cousin’s ruthlessness and Northumberland’s oath may have persuaded him to agree terms. After all, the earl, like York, had been a moderate supporter of his for many years.

In any event, Richard accepted Henry’s terms. However, he had barely emerged from Conway before he and his supporters were surrounded by Northumberland’s armed men. From then on he was a prisoner and his fate was sealed. He met Henry at Flint (Y Fflint) on 16 August and was taken from then to London, to face deposition and what was almost certainly murder.