Widespread conspiracy.
Flight of the young Earl of March. 1405.
The great conspiracy was thus but half broken. Wales, Scotland, France, and the English malcontents were still in communication. From France, indeed, serious difficulties seemed to threaten. In presence of the weakness of Charles VI., the King of that country, the real power was disputed by his brother Louis of Orleans and his uncle the Duke of Burgundy. Louis had at this time the upper hand. He took in great dudgeon the events which had taken place in England; and rumours were abroad, strengthened by the distribution among the malcontents of Richard’s crest by the old Countess of Oxford, the mother of De Vere, the late King’s favourite. These rumours pointed to a great conspiracy, coupled with an invasion of Essex by France, in favour of the spurious Richard in Scotland. For a time the threat of invasion compelled the King to remain quiet; but after the French fleet, which had attacked the Isle of Wight and Plymouth, had been defeated at Portland, he was able to turn his attention to the North, and again to compel Northumberland to come to an explanation. But that explanation he found himself obliged to accept. Almost at the same time a fresh alarm met him. Lady Constance Spenser had contrived to withdraw the young Earl of March from Windsor, and to fly with him. She was shortly captured, and the young Prince brought back, but it was plain that the danger was great.
Renewed activity of Northumberland, Scrope and Mowbray.
In April the King went against Wales. His absence in that direction was at once taken advantage of by his northern enemies. The difficulty with which he could secure supplies was one of Henry’s main obstacles to success, and in the last Parliament the opposition had been headed by Sir Thomas Bardolph. That gentleman now appeared in close conjunction with Northumberland, assisting him to garrison his fortresses. At the same time Mowbray, the son of that Duke of Norfolk with whom Henry had quarrelled at the time of his banishment, and Scrope, the Archbishop of York, the brother of that Lord Scrope who had been Richard’s chancellor at the beginning of his reign, and whom that King had been forced to remove, joined the insurrection. The Earl of Westmoreland, who remained constantly faithful to Henry, was sent against them while Henry was engaged in Wales. Again, the royal army was too strong for the insurgents. Scrope and Mowbray were induced to disband their forces, and were then immediately apprehended. Gascoigne, the chief justice, was called upon to try them and convict them summarily. He was one of those constitutional lawyers who were gradually rising in England, and he refused to do so, pointing out that he should infringe the liberties both of the Church and the House of Lords. Henry found in Sir William Fulthorpe a more complacent judge. They were both beheaded, not without arousing, as Gascoigne had foreseen, the anger of the Lords. Upon the capture of his confederates, Northumberland fled with Bardolph to Scotland, but being refused an interview with the impostor, and mistrusting the honesty of Albany, he subsequently withdrew to Wales. It was there alone that the war continued, nor was it finally suppressed during the reign.
Events which secured Henry’s triumph. 1406.
Capture of James of Scotland.
Murder of Orleans. 1407.
Final defeat and death of Northumberland.