The reign began with the very remarkable conspiracy formed by the Abbot of Westminster, and the Lords of Albemarle, Surrey, Exeter, and Salisbury and Gloucester. This rebellion was speedily put down with the help of the Londoners, and the chiefs of the rebellion were all beheaded. The Abbot of Westminster was struck by paralysis. It was probably in consequence of this rebellion, and the knowledge that there would be more risings as long as Richard lived, that he was murdered at Pontefract. But his death did not put a stop to conspiracies.
Early in the second year of Henry there were more executions for treason, viz. Sir Roger Claryngton, two of his servants, and eight Franciscan friars. London Bridge and the City Gates were decorated with the heads of the traitors. In the year 1404 one of the murderers of the late Duke of Gloucester at Calais was arrested and brought to London, where he was tried, found guilty and drawn all the way to Tyburn, to be hanged and quartered. The next year the Archbishop of York and Lord Mowbray rebelled, were defeated, and taken. As a new thing in the land the Archbishop was beheaded as well as the noble. The general horror aroused by this execution of a Prelate is shown by the story that grew up. “The Archbishop,” it was said, “in worship of Christ’s five wounds, entreated the executioner to strike him five times. At each stroke the King sitting in his lodging felt that stroke exactly as if some person were striking him. And shortly after he was stricken with leprosy, so that he recognised the hand of God. And soon after God shewyd many miracles for the sayde Bishop, which called the Kynge into the more repentance.”
In 1407 there was an ordeal by battle held at Smithfield between “one named the Welsh Clerk” and a knight, Sir Percyval Sowdan. The latter was accused by the clerk of treason. They fought for a “season,” but the clerk proved recreant: therefore they took off his armour; laid him on a hurdle and so to Tyburn, where he met the usual death. In the same year London Bridge received the heads of the Earl of Northumberland and Lord Bardolf. And after these examples the land for a brief season had rest from rebellions.
Returning to the relations of the City and the King. Henry granted a Charter the provisions of which are enumerated in the Liber Albus. They confirm the fullest liberties, and privileges are granted to the City. He also repealed the Act (27 Ed. III.) by which the Mayor, Aldermen, and Sheriffs were liable to be tried by a foreign inquest taken from the counties of Kent, Sussex, Essex, Hertfordshire, Bucks, and Berks, together with the penalties and forfeitures belonging to the Act; he gave the London merchants the same liberty of packing their cloths as was enjoyed by the foreigners; and he won the favour of the commonalty by allowing all fishermen foreign or not, provided they belonged to countries at amity with the King, to sell fish in the London market. The first appearance of Free Trade, it will be seen, is intended to cheapen provisions. The City was able to show its readiness to support the King in the business of the conspiracy above mentioned. When Henry went to meet the rebels it was with an army of twenty thousand men, among whom was a strong contingent of six thousand Londoners. They were rewarded by a Charter giving them, with the custody of the City, all the Gates and Fortresses, the collection of the Tolls and Customs in Cheap, Billingsgate, and Smithfield, and also the Tronage or weighing of lead, wax, pepper, alum, madder, etc.
FUNERAL-PROCESSION OF RICHARD II.
From Froissart’s Chronicles.
Whether honestly or not, there were many who professed to believe that the late King Richard was still living, and one William Serle was active in spreading abroad this persuasion. Yet Henry had caused the face of the dead King to be exposed when the body was brought to London in order that there might be no possible doubt. Serle was arrested at length and brought to London, where he was executed at Tyburn. But still the delusion lingered on. Sixteen years later one Thomas Ward, called “Trumpyngtone,” personated the King, and two London citizens named Benedict Wolman and Thomas Bikering hatched a conspiracy to produce the false Richard. They were, however, arrested: one of them died in prison, the other was executed. Four years later, when Ward was dead, two more Londoners were arrested for keeping up the mischievous story. One of them was released, the other was kept in prison.
The Church and the clergy at that time had grave cause for anxiety. The spirit of discontent was abroad. It was shown by the late rebellion of the Essex and the Kentish men; it was shown by the falling off in bequests and donations and foundations of chantries, obits, and anniversaries; it was shown by the general hatred of the mendicant orders, and especially of the Franciscans, formerly so widely, and so deservedly loved; it was shown by the murmurings, deep and low, against the wealth of the Church, against the laziness and luxury of the Religious, against the general immorality imputed, rightly or wrongly, to the Ecclesiastics of all kinds—there were sixty clerks in Holy Orders caught in the act of adultery in the years 1400 to 1440: there were notoriously women who kept disorderly houses for priests and procured girls for them (see Riley’s Memorials). The spirit of revolt was shown by the action of the City when it prayed for the dissolution of St. Martin’s Sanctuary on the ground that the place was a mere receptacle of murderers, thieves, and bankrupts; it was shown most decisively and unmistakably in the remarkable prayer of Parliament that the King would take over into his own hands the whole of the Church lands. This petition demands larger notice. The following is Fabyan’s account:—
“In this yere (xi Henry IV.) the kyng helde his parliament at Westmynster, during the whiche the commons of this lande put up a bylle to the kyng, to take the temporall landes out from spiritual mene’s handes or possession. The effect of whiche bylle was, that the temporaltes, disordynately wasted by men of the churche, myghte suffice to find for the kyng xv erles, xv C knyghts, xi M and CC esquyers and C houses of almes, to the releef of poore people, more than at these dayes were within Englande. And over all thyse aforesayd charges the kynge myght put yerely in his coffers xx M pounds. Provyded that every erle should have of yerely rent iii M marke, every knyght an C marke & iiii ploughe lande, every esquyer xl marke by yere, with ii plughe land, and every house of almesse an C marke and oversyght of ii trewe seculers into every house. And also with provicion that every township shoulde kepe all poore people of theyr owne dwellers, whiche myght not labour for theyr lyvynge, with condycyon that if more fell in a towne than the towne myght maynteyn, that the said almesse houses to releve suche townshyppes. And for to bere thyse charges, they allegyd by theyr sayd bylle, that the temporalyties beyng in the possession of spirituell men, amounted to CCC and xxii M marke by yere, whereof they affermyd to be in the see of Caunterbury, with the abbeys of Cristes Churche, of Seynt Augustyns, Shrowsbury, Coggeshale, and Seynt Osiys xx M marke by yere.