For answers to these questions we must return to the days of John of Gaunt.
In 1398 Richard II, seeing that his uncle John of Gaunt was in failing health and that John’s son, Henry Bolingbroke earl of Hereford, might press his claim to the throne of England in case of Richard’s death without issue, took advantage of a quarrel between Bolingbroke and the duke of Norfolk, in which each accused the other of treason, to banish them both from the realm.
The loss of his son fell heavily on John of Gaunt, who died at the end of January or the beginning of February 1398; and it is important to bear in mind that the year 1399 began on the 25th March and not the 1st January.
Richard, being free for a time from the menace of the House of Lancaster, seized the whole of the Lancastrian estates in the absence of the banished heir and crossed to Ireland to complete his conquests and strengthen his hold on that country.
During Richard’s absence in Ireland the banished Henry, hearing the news of his father’s death and the confiscation of the Lancastrian estates, landed on the Yorkshire coast with a few trusted friends and three thousand men-at-arms.
He was at once joined by the great barons of the north and with an army, which increased as it advanced, he ultimately reached London; where he was well received by the people, who were tired of Richard and looked to Henry as their future king.
On hearing the news of Henry’s return Richard, after much delay through rough weather, recrossed the Irish Channel to Milford Haven, only to find that both his friends and his armies in England had melted away and that his kingdom was lost.
He was forced by Henry and his supporters to resign his crown and, in Westminster Hall on the 29th September 1399, his resignation was received with shouts of applause; on the following day his cousin Henry Bolingbroke, son and heir of John of Gaunt, was proclaimed King of England as Henry IV.
On Henry’s accession he regained the estates of the duchy of Lancaster, which however remained in his hands as crown property.
The above events and the dates on which they occurred are of importance in considering the two Hawksyard deeds; and if we are to understand how and why they came into existence, we must also trace the early history of Highe Frith and learn something of the conditions then prevailing as to the holding and devolution of landed estates in England; more especially with regard to earldoms honours and manors, which formed the basis of the feudal system.