GLYNDOWR'S VIGOROUS MEASURES. -- SLAUGHTER OF HEREFORDSHIRE MEN. --
MORTIMER TAKEN PRISONER. -- HE JOINS GLYNDOWR. -- HENRY IMPLORES
SUCCOURS, -- PAWNS HIS PLATE TO SUPPORT HIS MEN. -- THE KING'S
TESTIMONY TO HIS SON'S CONDUCT. -- THE KING, AT BURTON-ON-TRENT, HEARS
OF THE REBELLION OF THE PERCIES.
1402-1403.
If Owyn Glyndowr, as we have supposed, allowed Wales to remain undisturbed
by battles and violence through the winter[131] and spring, it was only
to employ the time in preparing for a more vigorous campaign. The first
battle of which we have any historical certainty, was fought June 12,
1402, near Melienydd, (Dugdale says, "upon the mountain called Brynglas,
near Knighton in Melenyth,") in Radnorshire. The whole array of
Herefordshire was routed on that field. More than one thousand (p. 130)
Englishmen were slain, on whom the Welsh were guilty of savage,
unheard-of indignities. The women especially gave vent to their rage
and fury by actions too disgraceful to be credible were they not
recorded as uncontradicted facts. For the honour of the sex, we wish
to regard them as having happened only once; whilst we would bury the
disgusting details in oblivion.[132] Owyn was victorious, and took
many of high degree prisoners; among whom was Sir Edmund Mortimer, the
uncle of the Earl of March. Perhaps the most authentic statement of
this victory as to its leading features, though without any details,
is found in a letter from the King to his council, dated
Berkhampstead, June 25.
[Footnote 131: At the opening of the year 1402
(January 18), one hundred marks were paid by the
treasury to the Bishop of Bangor, whose lands had
been in great part destroyed.--Pell Rolls. This
prelate was Richard Young, who was translated to
Rochester in 1404.]
[Footnote 132: To the present day the vestiges of
two temporary encampments (army against army) are
visible; and there are barrows in the
neighbourhood, which, according to the tradition of
the country, cover the bones of those who fell in
this battle, not less, they say, than three
thousand men. The remains of Owyn Glyndowr's camp
are found at a place called Monachdy, in the parish
of Blethvaugh; and about two miles below, in the
parish of Whittow, is the earthwork supposed to
have been thrown up by Sir Edmund Mortimer.
Half-way between is a hill called Brynglas, where
the battle is said to have been fought. In the
valley of the Lug are two large tumuli, which are
believed to cover the slain.]
"The rebels have taken my beloved cousin,[133] Esmon Mortymer, and
many other knights and esquires. We are resolved, consequently, to go
in our own person with God's permission. You will therefore (p. 131)
command all in our retinue and pay to meet us at Lichfield, where we
intend to be at the latest on the 7th of July." The proclamation for
an array "to meet the King at Lichfield, and proceed with him towards
Wales to check the insolence and malice of Owyn Glyndowr and other
rebels," was issued the same day. On the 5th of July,[134] the King,
being at Westminster, appointed Hugh de Waterton governor of his children,
John and Philippa, till his return from Wales. An order of council at
Westminster, on the last day of July, the King himself being present,
seems to leave us no alternative in deciding that Henry made two
expeditions to Wales this summer; the first at the commencement of
July, the second towards the end of August. This appears to have
escaped the observation of historians. Walsingham speaks only of one,
and that before the Feast of the Assumption, August 25; in which (p. 132)
he represents the King and his army to have been well-nigh destroyed
by storms of rain, snow, and hail, so terrible as to have excited the
belief that they were raised by the machination of the devil, and of
course at Owyn's bidding. This order of council is directed to many
sheriffs, commanding them to proclaim an array through their several
counties to meet the King at Shrewsbury,[135] on the 27th of August at
the latest, to proceed with him into Wales.[136] The order declares
the necessity of this second array to have originated in the
impossibility, through the shortness of the time, of the King's
chastising the rebels, who lurked in mountains and woods; and states
his determination to be there again shortly, and to remain fifteen
days for the final overthrow and destruction of his enemies. How
lamentably he was mistaken in his calculation of their resistance, and
his own powers of subjugating them, the sequel proved to him too
clearly. The rebellion from first to last was protracted through
almost as many years as the days he had numbered for its utter
extinction. The order on the sheriff of Derby commands him to go (p. 133)
with his contingent to Chester, "to our dearest son the Prince," on
the 27th of August, and to advance in his retinue to Wales. On this
occasion,[137] it is said that Henry invaded Wales in three points at
once, himself commanding one division of his army, the second being
headed by the Prince, the third by Lord Arundel. The details of these
measures, under the personal superintendence of the King, are not
found in history. Probably Walsingham's account of their total failure
must be admitted as nearest the truth. That no material injury befel
Owyn from them, and that neither were his means crippled, nor his
resolution daunted, is testified by the inroads which, not long after,
he made into England with redoubled impetuosity.
[Footnote 133: A general mistake has prevailed
among historians with regard to this prisoner of
Owyn's. Walsingham, Stowe, Hall, Rapin, Hume,
Sharon Turner, with others, have uniformly
represented Edmund Earl of March to have been the
notable warrior then captured by Glyndowr; whereas
he was only ten years of age, and a prisoner of the
King. Dr. Griffin, a Monmouthshire antiquary,
pointed out the mistake many years ago.]
[Footnote 134: On the 14th of July the council
issue commands to the Archbishop of Canterbury and
the Bishop of Norwich to array their clergy for the
defence of the realm; a measure seldom resorted to,
and only on occasions of great emergence and alarm.
A fortnight before this order (30th June), the King
had written from Harborough to his council,
acquainting them with the victory gained for him
over the Scots at Nisbet Moor by the Scotch Earl of
March, and commanding them to protect the marches.]
[Footnote 135: The Monk of Evesham says that in
this year, about August 29, (Festum Decollationis
Johannis Bapt.) the King went again with a great
force into Wales, and after twenty days returned
with disgrace.]
[Footnote 136: An order, dated Ravensdale, is made
on the sheriff of Lincoln to be ready,
notwithstanding the last order, to go towards the
marches of Scotland; and, if the Scots should not
come, then to be at Shrewsbury on the 1st of
September.]
[Footnote 137: Walsingham's words would seem to
apply more fitly to this second and more important
expedition of 1402 than the preceding one in July:
"Tantus armorum strepitus."]
The following winter, we may safely conclude, was spent by the Welsh
chieftain in negociations both with the malcontent lords of England,
and with the courts of France and Scotland; in recruiting his forces
and improving his means of warfare;[138] for, before the next
midsummer, (as we know on the best authority,) he was prepared to
engage in an expedition into England, with a power too formidable (p. 134)
for the Prince and his retinue to resist without further reinforcement.
During this winter also a most important accession accrued to the
power and influence of Owyn by the defection from the royal cause of
his prisoner Sir Edmund Mortimer, who became devotedly attached to
him. King Henry had, we are told, refused to allow a ransom to be paid
for Mortimer, though urged to it by Henry Percy, who had married
Mortimer's sister. The consequence of this ungracious refusal[139]
was, that he joined Glyndowr, whose daughter, as the Monk of Evesham
informs us, he married with the greatest solemnity about the end of
November.[140] In a fortnight after this marriage, Mortimer announced
to his tenants his junction with Owyn, and called upon them to forward
his views. The letter, written in French, is preserved in the British
Museum.
[Footnote 138: On 20th October 1402, a commission
issued to receive into their allegiance and amnesty
the rebels of Usk, Caerleon, and Trellech, in
Monmouthshire.]
[Footnote 139: Leland, in his Collectanea, quotes a
passage from another chronicler, which records the
very words of Percy and the King on this occasion.
Percy asked the King's permission for Mortimer to
be ransomed, to whom the King replied that he would
not strengthen his enemies against himself by the
money of the realm. Percy then said, "Ought any man
so to expose himself to danger for you and your
kingdom, and you not succour him in his danger?"
The King answered in wrath, "You are a traitor; do
you wish me to succour the enemies of myself and of
my kingdom?"--"I am no traitor," rejoined Percy;
"but a faithful man, and as a faithful man I
speak." The King drew his rapier against him. "Not
here," said Percy, "but in the field;" and
withdrew.]
[Footnote 140: Circa festum Sancti Andreæ.]
LETTER FROM EDMUND MORTIMER TO HIS TENANTS. (p. 135)
"Very dear and well-beloved, I greet you much, and make known to
you that Oweyn Glyndor has raised a quarrel, of which the object
is, if King Richard be alive, to restore him to his crown; and if
not, that my honoured nephew, who is the right heir to the said
crown, shall be King of England, and that the said Owen will
assert his right in Wales. And I, seeing and considering that the
said quarrel is good and reasonable, have consented to join in
it, and to aid and maintain it, and, by the grace of God, to a
good end. Amen! I ardently hope, and from my heart, that you will
support and enable me to bring this struggle of mine to a
successful issue. I have moreover to inform you that the
lordships of Mellenyth, Werthrenon, Raydre, the commot of Udor,
Arwystly, Keveilloc, and Kereynon, are lately come into our
possession. Wherefore I moreover entreat you that you will
forbear making inroad into my said lands, or to do any damage to
my said tenantry, and that you furnish them with provisions at a
certain reasonable price, as you would wish that I should treat
you; and upon this point be pleased to send me an answer. Very
dear and well-beloved, God give you grace to prosper in your
beginnings, and to arrive at a happy issue.--Written at
Mellenyth, the 13th day of December.
"EDMUND MORTIMER."
"To my very dear and well-beloved M. John Greyndor, Howell Vaughan,
and all the gentles and commons of Radnor and Prestremde."[141]
[Footnote 141: Cott. Cleop. F. iii. fol. 122, b.]
Of the Prince himself, between the end of August 1402, and the
following spring, little is recorded. In March 1403 he was made
Lieutenant of Wales by the King, and with the consent of his (p. 136)
council, with full powers of inquiring into offences, of pardoning
offenders, of arraying the King's lieges, and of doing all other things
which he should find necessary. This appointment, implying personal
interference, would lead us to infer, either that he tarried through the
winter in the midst of the Principality, or near its borders, or that he
returned to it early in the spring.[142] To this year also we shall
probably be correct in referring the following letter of Prince Henry
to the council, dated Shrewsbury, 30th May; but which Sir Harris
Nicolas considers to have been written the year before. That it could
not have been written by the Prince at Shrewsbury on the 30th of May
1402, seems demonstrable from the circumstance of his having been
personally present in the Tower of London on the 8th of May, and of
his having executed a deed in the Castle of Tutbury on the 26th of May
1402. Whilst the probability of its having been written in the end of
May 1403, is much strengthened by the ordinance of the King, dated
June 16, 1403, in which he mentions the reports which he had received
from the Prince's council then in Wales of Owyn Glyndowr's intention
to invade England; and also by the order made July 10, 1403, by the
King, that the council would send 1000_l._ to the Prince, to (p. 137)
enable him to keep his people together,--the very object chiefly
desired in this despatch. The letter is in French.
[Footnote 142: On the 1st of April 1403, the King
most earnestly requests loans from bishops, abbots,
knights, and others, in the sums severally affixed
to their names, to enable him to proceed against
the Welsh and the Scots.]
LETTER FROM PRINCE HENRY TO THE COUNCIL.
"FROM THE PRINCE.
"Very dear and entirely well-beloved, we greet you well. And
forasmuch as our soldiers desire to know from us whether they
will be paid for the three months of the present quarter, and
tell us that they will not remain here without being promptly
paid their wages according to their agreements, we beseech you
very sincerely that you will order payment for the said months,
or supply us otherwise, and take measures in time for the
safeguard of these marches. For the rebels are trying to find out
every day whether we shall be paid, and they well know that
without payment we shall not be able to continue here: and they
propose to levy all the power of Northwales and Southwales to
make inroads, and to destroy the march and the counties adjoining
to it; and we have not the power here of resisting them, so as to
hinder them from the full execution of their malicious designs.
And when our men are withdrawn from us, we must at all events
ourselves retire into England, or be disgraced for ever. For
every one must know that without troops we can do no more than
another man of inferior rank. And at present we have very great
expenses, and we have raised the largest sum in our power to meet
them from our little stock of jewels. Our two castles of Harlech
and Lampadern are besieged, and have been so for a long time, and
we must relieve them and victual them within these ten days; and,
besides that, protect the march around us with the third of our
forces against the invasion of the rebels. Nevertheless, if this
campaign could be continued, the rebels never were so likely (p. 138)
to be destroyed as at present. And now, since we have fully shown
the state of these districts, please to take such measures as shall
seem best to you for the safety of these same parts, and of this
portion of the realm of England; which may God protect, and give
you grace to determine upon the best for the time. And our Lord
have you in his keeping.--Given under our signet at Shrewsbury,
the 30th day of May. And be well assured that we have fully shown
to you the peril of whatever may happen hereafter, if remedy be
not sent in time.
On this letter it is impossible not to remark that, so far from having
an abundant supply of money to squander on his supposed vices and
follies, Henry was compelled to pawn his own little stock of plate and
jewels to raise money for the indispensable expenses of the war.
The first direct mention made of the Prince after this is found in the
ordinance above referred to, dated June 16, 1403, which informs us
that he certainly was then in Wales, and strongly implies that he had
been there for some time previously. The King says, "I heard from many
persons of my son the Prince's council, now in Wales, that Owyn Glyndowr
is on the point of making an incursion into England with a great power,
for the purpose of obtaining supplies. I therefore command the sheriffs
of Gloucester, Salop, Worcester, and Hereford, to make proclamation for
all knights, and gentlemen of one hundred shillings' annual income, to
go and put themselves under the governance of the Prince." Another
letter from Henry to his council, dated Higham Ferrers, July 10, (p. 139)
1403,[143] is deeply interesting, not only as bearing testimony to the
persevering bravery of his son Henry, but as affording an example of
the uncertainty of human calculations, and the deceitfulness of human
engagements and friendships. He informs the council that he had received
letters from his son, and information by his messengers, acquainting him
with the gallant and good bearing of his very dear and well-beloved
son, which gave him very great pleasure. He then commissions them to
pay 1000_l._[144] to the Prince for the purpose of enabling him to
keep his soldiers together. "We are now," he adds, "on our way to
succour our beloved and loyal cousins, the Earl of Northumberland and
Henry his son, in the conflict which they have honourably undertaken
for us and our realm; and, as soon as that campaign shall have ended
honourably, with the aid of God, we will hasten towards Wales."[145]
[Footnote 143: The Pell Rolls (July 17, 1403)
record the appointment of the Prince as the King's
deputy in Wales, to see justice done on all rebels,
and the payment of a sum amounting to 8108_l._
2_s._ 0_d._ for the wages of four barons and
bannerets, twenty knights, four hundred and
seventy-six esquires, and two thousand five hundred
archers.]
[Footnote 144: On the next day, July 11, the King
issued a proclamation against selling horses, or
armour and weapons, to the Welsh.]
[Footnote 145: Astonishing confusion pervades
almost all our historians as to the circumstances
under which Henry IV. first became acquainted with
the defection of the Percies, and then hastened to
resist their hostilities; and most absurd
inferences as to the national interest taken in the
ensuing struggle have in consequence been drawn.
The King is almost universally represented as
having left London, accompanied by all the forces
he could, after much preparation, command, for the
express purpose of quelling the rebellion of the
Percies; whereas he left London for the express
purpose of joining his forces to those of the
Percies, and to proceed, in conjunction with them,
against the Scots; and he had never heard of their
defection till he reached Burton-upon-Trent. The
news came upon him with the suddenness of an
unexpected thunderstorm.]
This letter had not been written more than five days when King (p. 140)
Henry became acquainted with the rebellion of those, his "beloved and
faithful lieges," to assist whom against his northern foes he was then
actually on his road. His proclamation for all sheriffs to raise their
counties, and hasten to him wherever he might be, is dated
Burton-on-Trent, July 16, 1403. On the morrow he sent off a despatch
to his council, informing them that Henry Percy, calling him only
Henry of Lancaster, was in open rebellion against him, and was
spreading far and wide through Cheshire the false rumours that Richard
was still alive. He then assures them, "for their consolation," that
he was powerful enough to encounter all his enemies; at the same time
expressing his pleasure that they should all come to him wherever he
might be, except only the Treasurer, whom he wished to stay, for the
purpose of collecting as large sums as possible to meet the exigence
of the occasion. The Chancellor, on Wednesday, June 18th, met the
bearer of these tidings before he reached London, opened the letters,
and forwarded them to the council with an apology.[146]
[Footnote 146: Minutes of Privy Council.]