PREPARATIONS FOR WAR
Henry’s preparations were begun, as many believe, very soon after his
accession to the throne, and were not discontinued during negotiations
which can scarcely have been intended to succeed. His situation was,
on the whole, favourable for his undertaking. He had no reason to
dread a hostile diversion by way of Scotland. The Scottish king had
been for many years a prisoner in England, and though the chronic
disturbances of the Border did not cease, he was an effectual pledge
for the good behaviour of his subjects, who, if they wished to indulge
their hereditary enmity to England, had to take service with the
French king. The Welsh insurrection had long ceased to be dangerous,
but it had not been yet suppressed, and it might become troublesome
again when the royal forces were employed elsewhere. Henry did not
forget this contingency. From previous amnesties offered to the rebels
the name of the ringleader, Owen Glendower, had been omitted. Henry
now included him in his proposition. He commissioned his “faithful
counsellor, Gilbert Talbot, to treat with Owen Glendower of Wales,” and
promised to receive the said Owen and “others our rebels of Wales” to
his favour if they would only apply for it. This mandate to Gilbert
Talbot bears date July 5th, and was issued from Porchester Castle. At
home there was at least a better prospect of harmony and union than had
existed for many years. The Lollards indeed still gave some trouble,
but their favour with the people was not what it had been. The war
spirit which had seized the nation did not suffer it to think of the
grievances which had seemed so urgent and of the hopes of reform which
had been so attractive a few years before. As for the dynastic enemies
who in the next generation were to overthrow the house of Lancaster,
they were still feeble. The prince on whose claims they relied was
personally attached to Henry, and the ease with which the conspiracy of
Southampton was crushed shows that at this time they were not really
formidable.
Henry had no accumulated wealth to fall back upon when he set himself
to the task of providing for the many necessities of the campaign which
he meditated. On the contrary, he had found on his accession the public
treasury empty and even embarrassed with debt. But his subjects were
heartily with him in his purpose, and they came forward with liberal
subsidies. The first Parliament of his reign had continued to him the
grant of a tax on stoneware, of tonnage and poundage which they had
made to his father, and that which met in November 1414 had, as we have
seen, been not less generous.
Henry, on his part, was raising money in every possible way. We find,
for instance, a bond given to Paul Milan, a merchant from Lucca, for
a loan of two hundred marks, and a debt of £478 18s. 8d. for cloth
of gold and other merchandise supplied by the same Paul, the debt
being secured on the tolls of coast from the ports of Southampton and
Sandwich. Certain merchants of Venice, again, were given security for
the repayment of a loan of a thousand marks on the customs of the
port of London. These were ordinary transactions. We can hardly say
the same for the pledging of the crown called the Crown Henry to the
Duke of Clarence as security for the pay due to him and his men. It
was to be redeemed before January 1st, 1416; should this not be done,
the said Duke would be free to deal with it after his pleasure. Next
we find a certain great tabernacle, once belonging to the Duke of
Burgundy, of silver gilt, and garnished with twenty-two sapphires and
one hundred and thirty-seven pearls, pledged to various persons, among
whom are the Dean and Chapter of Exeter, for the repayment of a loan
of eight hundred and sixty marks; while some Norfolk creditors have a
great circlet of gold pledged to them in consideration of a loan of a
thousand marks. It will be remembered that Devonshire and Norfolk were
at this time among the richest, if not actually the richest, counties
in England.
Henry, it is clear, spared no expense in making his army as numerous
and effective as possible. In that wonderful collection of public
documents known as Rymer’s _Fœdera_ we find the contracts into which
he entered for the payment and maintenance of this force. It will be
interesting to give Dr. Lingard’s careful summary of their contents.
“1. Contracts were made by the Privy Seal with different lords and
gentlemen, who bound themselves to serve with a certain number of
men for a year from the day on which they were first mustered. 2.
The pay of a duke was to be 13s. 4d. per day; an earl, 6s. 8d.;
a baron or banneret, 3s. 4d.; a knight, 2s.; an esquire, 1s.; an
archer, 6d. 3. The pay, or security for its amount, was to be
delivered by the treasurer a quarter of a year in advance; and if
the money was not actually paid at the beginning of the fourth
quarter, the engagement was to be at an end. As an additional
remuneration, each contractor received the ‘usual regard’ or
douceur of 100 marks for every thirty men-at-arms. 4. A duke was
to have fifty horses; an earl, twenty-four; a baron or banneret,
sixteen; a knight, six; an esquire, four; an archer, one. The
horses were to be furnished by the contractor, the equipment by
the King. 5. All prisoners were to belong to the captor; but if
they were kings, the sons of kings, or officers high in command
bearing commissions from kings, they were to belong to the Crown,
on payment of a reasonable recompense to the captors. 6. The booty
taken was to be divided into three parts. Two remained to the men;
the third was again divided into three parts, of which the leader
took two and left the third to the King.”
These arrangements strike us as being as liberal as they are business
like. Henry, it is clear, would not run the risk of failure by starving
his great expedition, or by neglecting to enlist on his side the
interests of his troops.
In another important matter, little regarded or wholly disregarded
before his time, he showed his remarkable capacity for military
command. This was the medical service of the army. Generals, of course,
had often taken their physicians with them into the field. We have, for
instance, the diaries, with notes of symptoms and treatment, of the
physicians who attended Alexander the Great. But now, for the first
time, at least in English history, we find a commander-in-chief making
regular provision for the medical and surgical treatment of his sick
and wounded. Early in the year (the indentures bear date April 29th,
1415) the King had agreements drawn up with his physician Nicholas
Colnet and his surgeon Thomas Morstede. Each was to have the daily pay
of twelve pence, and to have a guard of three archers, each archer
receiving the daily pay of sixpence.
We do not hear of Nicholas Colnet being furnished with any assistance.
Anything like hospital treatment of disease was probably impossible
in a campaign of those days; and a staff of physicians could hardly
have had any proper facilities for using whatever knowledge they may
have possessed. On the other hand, Thomas Morstede, the surgeon, was
accompanied by a considerable establishment. When a wound had been
received, life could often be saved, or efficiency preserved, by
immediate surgical treatment. The surgeon-general, as we may call him,
was accordingly directed to take with him twelve of his own craft.
Each of the twelve was to receive the daily pay of an archer; and in
addition to the daily twelve pence, a quarterly allowance of a hundred
marks was assigned to each of the two chief medical officers.
Nearly a month later Morstede presented a petition to the King praying
for a sum of money for the purchase of such things as were necessary
for his office, and also that all persons engaged in the surgical
service of the army should be directed to act under his instructions,
and should receive such wages as he should appoint. A third request was
for a transport-service, modestly limited to a chariot and two waggons,
Morstede wished also to know what wages he was to receive, and how
many attendants were to be allowed him. The King’s reply granted the
chariot and waggons for the ambulance service and twelve assistants;
but it is not clear that these twelve were the same surgeons whom
Morstede had been originally directed to take with him.
Sixpence a day could not have been a very attractive remuneration.
Accordingly we are not surprised to find Morstede afterwards applying
to the King for power to press, “as well within as without franchise
birth, persons of his craft such as he should choose to accompany him.”
In the following year, that it may not be necessary to return to the
subject, the King issued a writ to Morstede and William Breowardine,
his colleague, to this effect:
“Know ye that we have appointed to you, conjointly and severally,
surgeons and other workmen, to take and provide without delay for
the making of certain instruments necessary and fitting for your
mystery, such as may be required for our present campaign beyond
the sea.”
The army, raised and equipped with such care and forethought, numbered,
it is said, six thousand men-at-arms and twenty-four thousand archers.
Cannons as effective as the manufacturing skill of that day could
produce, and other engines of war had been procured. So effective and
so well prepared an army had never before been collected in England for
service abroad. A splendid relic of the expedition remains to this day
in the Record Office. On July 20th a roll was prepared in which should
be written the names of all who were to set forth with the King. It is
still to be seen, a splendid example of the caligraphy of a time when
that art was approaching its perfection.
The army was on the point of embarking, Henry himself having come to
Southampton to superintend the operation, when everything was delayed
by the discovery of a conspiracy which had for its object nothing less
than a change of dynasty.
Its ringleader was Richard Plantagenet, Earl of Cambridge, second
son of Edmund of Langley, Duke of York. He had received his title
from Henry, but he seems to have conceived the hope of advancing
his fortunes more effectively by supporting the elder branch of the
Plantagenets. “He intended,” says the record of his trial, “to kill
the usurper Henry of Lancaster, and to set the Earl of March upon the
throne.” He had married Anne, the Earl’s sister, and in the event of
the Earl dying without issue, as actually happened nine years later,
his own son Richard would be heir to the throne.[8] This conspiracy,
therefore, was a premature attempt to assert the claims which were
afterwards advanced for the house of York, whose head at this time
was the conspirator’s elder brother. The Earl had also, it is said,
what may be called a second string to his bow in a person supposed to
be Richard the Second, escaped from the Tower. This pretender, Thomas
of Trumpyngton, was then in Scotland. With the Earl of Cambridge
were associated Sir Thomas Grey of Heton, in Northumberland, who was
probably the intermediary of the King’s enemies on both sides of the
Scotch border, and Lord Scrope of Mersham, nephew of the Archbishop of
York whom Henry the Fourth had executed. Scrope was the King’s intimate
companion.
The plan of the conspiracy was to conduct the Earl of March to the
Welsh border and then proclaim him king. Henry Percy, who had not
yet returned from Scotland, and some Scotch lords were to create a
diversion in the north.
The King acted with his accustomed vigour. The conspirators were at
once put upon their trial and found guilty. They were too dangerous to
be spared. It would be impossible to carry on the war with vigour if
the enemies of the dynasty were to be allowed to plot against it at
home. But Henry, though he was stern, was not cruel. The guilty persons
were executed, but without the indignities that usually accompanied the
punishment of treason. The friendly relation between the Earl of March
and the King was not disturbed by this rash attempt. The story that the
Earl encouraged the conspirators and then betrayed them, may be safely
disregarded.