The lords come to Windesore. The conspirators comming to Windsore, entered the castell, and vnderstanding that the king was gon from thence to London, determined with all spéed to make towards the citie: but changing that determination as they were on their waie, they turned to Colbroke, and there staied. King Henrie issuing out of London with The king goeth foorth against them.
They retire. twentie thousand men, came streight to Hunslo heath, and there pitched his campe to abide the comming of his enimies: but when they were aduertised of the kings puissance, amazed with feare, and forthinking their begun enterprise, as men mistrusting their owne companie, departed from thence to Berkhamstéed, and so to Circester, They come to Circester.
The bailiffe of Circester setteth vpon them on their lodgings. & there the lords tooke their lodging. The earle of Kent, and the earle of Salisburie in one Inne, and the earle of Huntington and lord Spenser in an other, and all the host laie in the fields, wherevpon in the night season, the bailiffe of the towne with fourescore archers set on the house, where the erle of Kent and the other laie, which house was manfullie assaulted and stronglie defended a great space. The earle The lords set fire on their lodgings. of Huntington being in an other Inne with the lord Spenser, set fire on diuerse houses in the towne, thinking that the assailants would leaue the assault and rescue their goods, which thing they nothing regarded. The host lieng without, hearing noise, and seeing this fire in the towne, thought verelie that king Henrie had béene come Hall. Froissard. thither with his puissance, and therevpon fled without measure, euerie man making shift to saue himselfe, and so that which the lords deuised for their helpe, wrought their destruction; for if the armie that laie without the towne had not mistaken the matter, when they saw the houses on fire, they might easilie haue succoured their chéefeteins in the towne, that were assailed but with a few of the townesmen, in comparison of the great multitude that laie abroad in the fields. But such was the ordinance of the mightie Lord of hostes, who disposeth althings at his pleasure.
The earle of Huntington and his companie seeing the force of the townesmen to increase, fled out on the backside, intending to repaire to the armie which they found dispersed and gone. Then the earle seeing no hope of comfort, fled into Essex. The other lords which were left fighting in the towne of Circester, were wounded to death and taken, and their heads stricken off and sent to London. Thus writeth Hall Thom. Wals. of this conspiracie, in following what author I know not. But Thomas Walsingham and diuerse other séeme somewhat to dissent from him in relation of this matter; for they write that the conspiratours ment vpon the sudden to haue set vpon the king in A maske. the castell of Windsore, vnder colour of a maske or mummerie, and so to have dispatched him; and restoring king Richard vnto the kingdome, to haue recouered their former titles of honour, with the possessions which they had lost by iudgement of the last parlement. But the king getting knowledge of their pretensed treasons, got him with all spéed vnto London.
The conspirators, to wit, the earles of Kent and Salisburie, sir Rafe Lumlie, and others, supposing that the king had not vnderstood their malicious purpose, the first sundaie 1400.
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Harding. of the new yeare, which fell in the octaues of the Innocents, came in the twilight of the euening into Windsore with foure hundred armed men, where vnderstanding that the king was withdrawne upon warning had of their purposed intention, they forthwith returned backe, and came first vnto Sunnings, a manor place not farre from Reading, where the quéene wife to king Richard then laie. Here setting The words of the earle of Kent. a good countenance of the matter, the earle of Kent declared in presence of the queenes servants that the lord Henrie of Lancaster was fled from his presence with his children and fréends, and had shut up himselfe & them in the Tower of London, as one afraid to come abroad, for all the brags made heretofore of his manhood: and therefore (saith he) my intention is (my lords) to go to Richard that was, is, and shall be our king, who being alreadie escaped foorth of prison, lieth now at Pomfret, with an hundred thousand men. And to cause his spéech the better to be beléeued, he tooke awaie the kings cognisances from them that ware the same, as the collars from their necks, and the badges of cressants from the sleeues of the seruants of houshold, and throwing them awaie, said that such cognisances were no longer to be borne.
Thus hauing put the quéene in a vaine hope of that which was nothing so, they departed from thence vnto Wallingford, and after to Abington, intising the people by all meanes possible vnto rebellion, all the waie as they went, and sending their agents abroad for the same purpose: at length they came to Circester in the darke of the night, and tooke vp their lodgings. The inhabitants of that towne suspecting the matter, and iudging (as the truth was) these rumors which the lords spred abroad to be but dreams, they tooke therevpon counsell togither, got them to armor, and stopped all the entries and outgates of the Innes where these new ghestes were lodged, insomuch that when they about midnight secretlie attempted to haue come foorth, and gone their waies, the townesmen with bow and arrowes were readie to slaie them, and keepe them in. The lords perceiuing the danger, got them to their armor and weapons, and did their best by force to breake through and repell the townesmen. But after they had fought from midnight till three of the clocke in the afternoone of the next daie, and perceiued they could not preuaile, they yeelded themselues to the The lords yéeld themselues. townesmen, beseeching them to haue their liues saued, till they might come to the kings presence.
A priest set fire on the houses of Circester. This request they had obteined, if a préest that was chapleine to one of them, had not in the meane time set fire vpon certeine houses in the towne, to the end that whiles the townesmen should busie themselues to quench the fire, the lords might find meanes to escape. But it came nothing to passe as he imagined, for the townesmen leauing all care to saue their houses from the rage of the fire, were kindled more in furie towards the lords, and so to reuenge themselves of them, they brought them foorth of the abbei where they had them in their hands, and in the twilight of the Abr. Fl. out of Tho. Walsin. pag. 404. euening, stroke of their heads. ¶ The earle of Salisburie (saith Thomas Walsingham) who in all his life time had béene a fauourer of the Lollards or Wickleuists, a despiser of images, a contemner of canons, and a scorner of the sacraments, ended his daies * He died vnconfessed. (as it was reported) without the *sacrament of confession. These be the words of Thom. Wals. which are set downe, to signifie that the earle of Salisburie was a bidden ghest to blockham feast with the rest: and (as it should séeme by his relation) the more maligned, bicause he was somwhat estranged fro the corruption of the religion then receiued, and leaned to a sect pursued with spitefulnesse and reuenge.
The lords beheaded. Iohn Holland earle of Huntington (as Thomas Walsingham writeth) was not with the lords at the castell of Windsore, but staied about London to behold the end of his businesse: and hearing how the matter went, farre contrarie to that he wished, he sought to flie by sea; but not able to get awaie, by reason the wind being contrarie would not permit him, he tooke his horsse, and hauing a knight with him Chr. S. Alb. called sir Iohn Shellie, he road into Essex, attempting to haue fled from thence by sea: but still the wind was so against him, that he was continuallie driuen backe when he was about to make saile, and so comming againe to land, he was taken one The earle of Huntington taken. euening at Pitwell in Essex, in a mill (that belonged to one of his trustie fréends) as he sat there at supper, togither with the said sir Iohn Shellie. The commons of the countrie that tooke him, brought him first to Chelmesford, and after to Plashie, where He is beheaded. on the daie of S. Maurie, that is the fiftéenth of Ianuarie, about sun setting he was beheaded, in the verie place in which the duke of Glocester was arrested by king Richard. He confessed with lamentable repentance (as writers doo record) that diuers & manie waies he had offended God and his prince, because that vnderstanding the purpose of the other lords, he had not reuealed the same.
* Thomas Spenser, saith Wal. & others.
Hall. The lord *Hugh Spenser, otherwise called earle of Glocester, as he would haue fled into Wales, was taken and carried to Bristow, where (according to the earnest desires of the commons) he was beheaded. Maudelen fléeing into Scotland, was taken by the waie, and brought to the Tower. Manie other that were priuie to this conspiracie, Execution. were taken, and put to death, some at Oxford, as sir Thomas Blunt, sir Benet Cilie knight, and Thomas Wintercell esquier; but sir Leonard Brokas, and sir Iohn Shellie knights, Iohn Maudelen, and William Ferbie chapleins, were drawne, hanged, and beheaded at London. There were ninetéene in all executed in one place and Tho. Walsing. Hall. other, and the heads of the cheefe conspirators were set on polles ouer London bridge, to the terror of others. Shortlie after, the abbat of Westminster, in whose house the The abbat of Westminster dieth suddēlie. Thom. Wals. conspiracie was begun (as is said) gooing betweene his monasterie & mansion, for thought fell into a sudden palsie, and shortlie after, without speech, ended his life. The bishop of Carleill was impeached, and condemned of the same conspiracie; but The bishop of Carleill dieth through feare, or rather thorough gréefe of mind, to sée the wicked prosper as he tooke it. Hall. the King of his mercifull clemencie, pardoned him of that offense, although he died shortly after, more through feare than force or sicknesse, as some haue written. Thus all the associats of this vnhappie conspiracie tasted the painefull penance of their plesant pastime.
Thus haue yee heard what writers haue recorded of this matter, with some difference betwixt them that write, how the king should haue béene made awaie at a iusts; and other that testifie, how it should haue béene at a maske or mummerie: but whether they meant to haue dispatched him at a mumming, or at a iusts, their purpose being reuealed by the earle of Rutland, they were brought to confusion (as before yée haue heard.) And immediatlie after, king Henrie, to rid himselfe of anie such like danger to be attempted against him thereafter, caused king Richard to die of a violent death, that no man should afterward faine himselfe to represent his person, though some haue The sundrie reports of K. Richar. death. said, he was not priuie to that wicked offense. The common fame is, that he was euerie daie serued at the table with costlie meat, like a king, to the intent that no creature should suspect anie thing done contrarie to the order taken in the parlement; and when the meat was set before him, he was forbidden once to touch it; yea, he was not permitted so much as to smell to it, and so he died of forced famine.
Abr. Fl. out of Thom. Walsi. pag. 404, 405. ¶ But Thomas Walsingham is so farre from imputing his death to compoulsorie famine, that he referreth it altogether to voluntarie pining of himselfe. For when he heard that the complots and attempts of such his fauourers, as sought his restitution, and their owne aduancement, annihilated; and the chéefe agents shamefullie executed; he tooke such a conceit at these misfortunes (for so Thomas Walsingham termed them) and was so beaten out of hart, that wilfullie he starued himselfe, and so died in Pomfret castell on S. Valentines daie: a happie daie to him, for it was the beginning of his ease, and the ending of his paine: so that death was to him daintie and swéet, as the poet saith, and that verie well in bréefe,
Corn. Gall. Dulce mori miseris, Neque est melius morte in malis rebus.