Henry IV. was not unfrequently in Derbyshire in connection with the rebellious movements of that much-troubled reign. In the summer of 1402 the King tarried for some little time at the small town of Tideswell in a secluded district of the Peak, issuing from thence a variety of orders to sheriffs and other officials as to the military preparations against the Welsh. When sojourning about the same time at the royal hunting lodge at Ravensdale, he dispatched thence orders for hastening resistance against serious Scotch invasion.
In the following year, when the Percys and their followers suddenly raised the standard of revolt, the King hastened to Derby with all the forces he could gather. After waiting there a few days to rally the musters, he proceeded through Burton-on-Trent to Shrewsbury, where a terrible battle was fought on July 20th. Early that morning, before the fray began, Henry knighted several of the gallant esquires of Derbyshire. Of these Sir Walter Blount, who bore the King’s standard, Sir John Cokayne, and Sir Nicholas Longford were slain in the fight, whilst Sir Thomas Wendesley died soon afterwards of the wounds he had received. It is not a little interesting to note that the last three of these Derbyshire knights, who held their honour for so brief a period, have their effigies still extant in fair preservation in the respective churches of Ashbourne, Longford, and Bakewell; the fourth, Sir Walter Blount, was buried, in acordance with his will, at Newark. Of the 4,500 men slain or grievously wounded on the King’s side in the Battle of Shrewsbury, a large proportion must have been Derbyshire men. It was, perhaps, out of compliment to this county that Henry, when the fray was over, proceeded yet again to Derby before going north to York to receive the Earl of Northumberland’s submission.
It was under Henry V. that the memorable Battle of Agincourt was fought on October 25th, 1415. In this battle the county played a prominent part. Richard, Lord Grey of Codnor, was at the head of a large contingent of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire retainers and tenants. The list of horsemen under him begins with two Derbyshire knights—Sir John Grey and Sir Edward Foljambe, and it also includes such well-known county names as Cokayne, Strelley, FitzHerbert, and Curzon. Another contingent of Derbyshire men was in the retinue of Philip Leach, of Chatsworth, whilst an important command was held by Thomas Beresford, of Fenny Bentley, as recorded on his monument in that church.
MELBORN CASTLE in the County of DERBY.
Formerly a Royal Mansion, now in Ruins; where John Duke of Bourbon taken Prisoner by K: Henry Vth. in the Battle of Agincourt (Ano. 1414.) was kept Nineteen Years in Custody of Nicholas Montgomery the Younger; he was released by K: Henry VIth.
This Draught is made from a Survey now in the Dutchy office of Lancaster, taken in the Reign of Q: Elizabeth. Sumptibus, Soc: Ant: Lond: 1733.
The notable triumph of Agincourt must have been long held in remembrance in Derbyshire, for the midland fortress of Melbourne Castle was selected as the place of imprisonment for the most notable prisoner taken on that field of French disaster. John, Duke of Bourbon, was confined at Melbourne for nineteen years; at first under the custody of Sir Ralph Shirley, one of the leaders in the fight, and afterwards in the charge of Nicholas Montgomery the younger.
In the deplorable Wars of the Roses, between the Lancastrians and the Yorkists, which extended over thirty years from 1455 to 1485, Derbyshire men took no small part, now on one side, now on the other, whilst occasionally they were found in the ranks of both parties. A commission issued in December, 1461, to Sir William Chaworth, Richard Willoughby, and the Sheriff of Derbyshire, illustrates the disturbed condition of the county in the beginning of the reign of Edward IV. These commissioners were ordered to arrest John Cokayne, of Ashbourne, who is represented as wandering about in various parts of the county with others, killing and spoiling the King’s subjects, and to bring him before the King in council.
A manuscript list of the “names of the captayns and pety captayns wyth the bagges, in the standerds of the army and vantgard of the king’s lefftenant enterying into Fraunce the xvj day of June,” 1513, begins with George, Earl of Shrewsbury, the King’s lieutenant of the vanguard, who bore on his standard “goulles and sabull a talbot sylver passant and shaffrons gold”; the Derbyshire banneret, Sir Henry Sacheverell, with John Bradburne for his petty captain, bearing “goulles a gett buk sylver.” Other Derbyshire gentlemen who were captains in this array, each having his petty captain and his “bagges” (badges) or arms as borne on his standard, were:—Robert Barley with John Parker, Nicholas Fitzherbert with John Ireton, Sir John Leek with Thomas Leek his brother, Sir Thomas Cokayne with Robert Cokayne, Sir William Gresley with John Gresley, Sir Gylbert Talbot the younger with Humphrey Butler, Robert Lynaker with George Palmer, Thomas Twyford with Roger Rolleston, Sir John Zouch (of Codnor) with Dave Zouch (his brother), Arthur Eyre with Thomas Eyre (his brother), Ralph Leach and John Curzon (of Croxall) with Edward Cumberford.
In addition to all these Derbyshire gentlemen, William Vernon bore the banner of St. George, John Leach the banner of the lieutenant’s arms, and Thomas Rolleston the standard of the talbot and chevrons. Derbyshire considerably preponderated in this army of the vanguard, there being twelve companies from that county. Shropshire had nine companies, Staffordshire eight, Nottinghamshire six, and Leicestershire and Cheshire two each; five other counties only furnished a single company.
Into the grievous question of the cruel way in which the monasteries were suppressed by Henry VIII. it is not proposed here to enter, even after the briefest fashion. It may, however, be remarked that although the county had no religious houses of first importance within its limits—the most noteworthy being the Premonstratensian Abbeys of white canons at Dale and Beauchief, and the houses of black or Austin canons at Darley Abbey and Repton Priory—the amount of landed estates, both large and small, held throughout Derbyshire under abbeys or priories situated in other shires, was very considerable. If there is one social or economic fact that is thoroughly established in connection with this great upheaval, whose main object was to secure pelf for the Crown, it is that the condition of the monastic tenantry was far better than that of those under often changing secular rule.