Henry IV (33 page)

Halfway through the meal the great north door opened to reveal Sir Thomas Dymmok, the king's champion, armed from head to foot, bearing a sword sheathed in black with a golden hilt and sitting astride one of the king's best war-horses. Flanked by two mounted knights, one bearing his spear and the other his shield, he rode up the hall before approaching a herald and handing him a scroll on which were written the following words: ‘If there is any man high or low, of any estate or condition, who says that Henry, king of England, here present and crowned this day, is not the rightful king nor rightfully crowned, I will either now, or whenever our lord king determines, offer him battle with my body and prove that he is a false liar.’
⁶²

Circling to each corner of the hall, the herald repeated the challenge four times in English and French. The predictable silence was broken only when Henry himself remarked bullishly, ‘If need be, Sir Thomas, I shall personally relieve you of this task,’ releasing Dymmok to ride out into the night again, taking with him the horse and its trappings as his fee. ‘And after he had voided the hall,’ states the London chronicler, ‘the revel ended’.
⁶³
There was, after all, a parliament due to meet in the morning.

The twin ceremonies of enthronement on 30 September and coronation on 13 October had marshalled every available argument to emphasize that Henry was as rightful a king as any who had come before him: descent through blood, the designation of his predecessor following his voluntary abdication, popular acclamation, divine favour as demonstrated by his virtually bloodless triumph, the explicit intervention of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the implicit sanction of England's two most famous saints, Thomas Becket and Edward the Confessor. For the future, Henry had stressed that, although he would uphold knightly values, he was not going to let the fact of his conquest lead him to abuse his powers: he would respect both property rights and the will of the people, and would temper his justice with mercy.

It would be a matter of no more than a few days before such undertakings began to be put to the test.

¹
Froissart,
Chronicles
, ed. Brereton, 470–1;
CR
, 155.
Usk
, 50–2, thought Henry might be the greyhound ‘because he came in the dog-days [of summer], and because he drove utterly from the kingdom countless numbers of harts’. References to the eagle derived from the
Prophecy of the Eagle
, and ultimately the Merlin prophecies. Of the king's capture at Flint, Usk (58) said it fulfilled the prophecy about the White King. Cf. L. Coote,
Prophecy and Public Affairs in Later Medieval England
(York Medieval Press, 2000), 63–4, 167; M. Bennett, ‘Prophecy, Providence and the Revolution of 1399’,
Prophecy, Apocalypse and the Day of Doom: Harlaxton Medieval Studies XII
, ed. N. Morgan (Donington, 2004), 1–18.

²
‘Metrical Chronicle’, 168–70.

³
Traïson et Mort
, 180–7, said Henry sent out ‘a hundred and fifty pairs of letters’ containing ‘artful fabrications’ about Richard, but these have not survived; see also
CE
, 381, and
Saint-Denys
, ii.704; and cf. Given-Wilson,
Chronicles
, 38–48.

⁴
Chronica Monasterii de Melsa,
ed. E. Bond (3 vols, RS, London, 1866–8), iii.254;
CCR 1396–9
, 513;
CPR 1396–9
, 597.

⁵
BL Harleian Ms 3775, fo. 87v;
Historical Collections
, 101;
Usk
, 60–1; Pearce,
William of Colchester
, 77. The riot was called a ‘hurlyng’, a word also used to describe the 1381 revolt. Joan, the daughter of Richard II's unpopular justice Robert Tresilian, was later granted an annuity of £5 as compensation for damage she suffered from looters in 1399 (E 404/24, no. 514).

⁶
CCR 1396–9
, 512, 521–2; these were still sent out in Richard's name, but with Henry's endorsement.

⁷
Walsingham says that he kept ‘only’ 15,000 men with him, while Creton says he kept thirty or forty thousand with him, figures which are not credible; Creton adds that this was to spare the countryside ‘for it had already been considerably devastated during their advance’ (
CR
, 123, 151, 252–3). Those who were dismissed were probably paid from the treasure seized at Holt castle. Richard had deposited £43,964 along with jewels and other treasure at Holt in the keeping of his clerk, John Ikelyngton (much of it probably seized from the earl of Arundel); Henry later acquitted Ikelyngton, acknowledging that he had made ‘certain payments’ out of this hoard to Henry both before and after he came to the throne (Creton said that Henry made off with all the money he found at Holt, but Ikelyngton's acquittance gives the lie to this:
Foedera
, viii.162–3; ‘Metrical Chronicle’, 124–5). In addition, John Leventhorpe collected £1,586 from the exchequer on 20 June and £1,733 from Westminster between 19 and 21 August, indicating that news of Richard's capture must have reached the capital by then (E 403/562, 20 June; DL 28/4/1, fo. 15r).

⁸
Dryhurst, who was from ‘West Chester’, also retrieved the ornaments of Richard's chapel which had been left there, as well as eight tuns of red wine; he was paid £69 (E 403/569, 5 March).

⁹
CR
, 152; there may also have been an attempt by some of the Cheshiremen to rescue Richard at Cholmondeston, near Nantwich: Morgan,
War and Society
, 204.

¹⁰
CR
, 124; however, these instruments were often issued ‘by the assent’ of Henry, Archbishop Arundel, or others:
CPR 1396–9
, 589–98 for examples. Henry also ceased to date his duchy letters by Richard's regnal years from 10 September 1399 onwards: Somerville,
Duchy of Lancaster
, i.138, n.3.

¹¹
CR
, 159; ‘Metrical History’, 176–7; Bennett,
Richard II and the Revolution of 1399
, 173, 233; K. Parker, ‘Politics and Patronage in Lynn, 1399–1416’, in
Rebellion and Survival
, 210–27 at p. 212.

¹²
‘Metrical Chronicle’, 180–1; Creton says he ‘wept very much’ on seeing Gaunt's tomb.

¹³
‘Metrical Chronicle’, 181; he may also have spent some time at Hertford:
Traïson et Mort
, 215 n. 1.

¹⁴
The order specified ‘all of their chronicles which touched upon the state and governance of the kingdom of England from the time of William the Conqueror until the present’ (
CR
, 124; E 403/564, 1 December).

¹⁵
Usk
, 62–3. For the Record and Process, see
The Deposition of Richard II
, ed. D. Carlson (Toronto Medieval Latin Texts, Toronto, 2007), translated in
CR
, 168–89.

¹⁶
The ultimately Aristotelian idea that a king who was unable to control his own passions and impulses was incapable of governing his kingdom well was almost an axiom of political thought at the time – as expressed, for example, in the works of Gower (Saul, ‘John Gower: Prophet or Turncoat?’, 90–1).

¹⁷
Usk
, 62–3;
Deposition of Richard II
, ed. Carlson, 57.

¹⁸
CR
, 162–7. Its author may have been Thomas Chillenden, prior of Christ Church, Canterbury, who was present in the Tower; it was used by the author of
CE
(382–4) as the basis for his account of these events.

¹⁹
Before the articles were read, the archbishop of York gave a sermon on the theme of Isaiah 51:16 (‘And I have put my words in thy mouth’ – misconstrued in ‘The Manner’, but cf.
Usk
, 68–9); whether anyone noticed the irony is not recorded.

²⁰
The Deposition of Richard II
, ed. Carlson; Given-Wilson,
Chronicles
, 70–2.

²¹
Walsingham may have derived this from the ‘Protestation of King Richard before Resignation’, printed in
The Deposition of Richard II
, ed. Carlson, 69–70, and used by the author of the
Vita
(p. 159).

²²
CR
, 187–9. Compare the ‘Protestation’: ‘he did not wish nor intend to renounce the qualities [
carecteris
] impressed upon his soul by his anointing’; he did, however, go on to renounce the ‘rule of the realm’ (
regimen regni
) to Henry, ‘inasmuch as he could’.

²³
CR
, 155 (Dieulacres Chronicle);
Usk
, 68–9.

²⁴
Thus the king's act of renunciation was called his ‘Renunciation, Resignation, Demission and Cession’.

²⁵
The Deposition of Richard II
, ed. Carlson, 8.

²⁶
W. M. Ormrod, ‘The Use of English: Language, Law and Political Culture in Fourteenth-Century England’,
Speculum
78 (2003), 750–87, at p. 750.

²⁷
Thus ‘The Manner’ suggests that on his arrival at Westminster at nine o'clock he had been treated like a king-in-waiting, being greeted at the cemetery gate by the abbot and monks and escorted in procession to the abbey, and that when he entered the Great Hall (between twelve and one) he was preceded by Sir Thomas Erpingham ‘carrying his splendidly decorated and bejewelled sword’ (
CR
, 164–5, 172;
Usk
, 68–9).

²⁸
N. Saul, ‘Richard II and the Vocabulary of Kingship’,
EHR
110 (1995), 854–77.

²⁹
CR
, 186–7. He had seized the lands of Le Scrope, Bussy and Green by right of conquest, but his right to do so was later challenged (below, p. 442).

³⁰
CR
, 195–6;
Usk
, 64–7; Given-Wilson,
Chronicles
, 71–2; and see above, p. 141.

³¹
CR
, 166. Alternatively, the author of ‘The Manner’ may have interpreted Henry's words as being less ambiguous than they were intended to be.

³²
CR
, 193–5; for the 1403 rebellion, see below, pp. 216–32. It was John Hardyng, writing in the mid-fifteenth century, who reported the Percys' objections in 1399. Hotspur, the husband of Edmund Mortimer's aunt, may well have hoped that Edmund would be made king, but whether he said as much in 1399 is another matter.

³³
This helps to explain the prominence accorded to the signet in the Record and Process and the chronicle of a knowledgeable commentator such as Usk (
CR
, 186).

³⁴
See above, pp. 96–7. Despite the uncertain status of the idea of royal designation of a successor, it was often claimed by usurpers (Given-Wilson, ‘Legitimation, Designation and Succession to the Throne’, 89–105).

³⁵
1 Samuel 9:17.

³⁶
CR
, 186.

³⁷
CR
, 166–7. Henry began to use the royal style immediately: further appointments were made later that day (E 404/15, nos. 1–17).

³⁸
SAC II
, 210.

³⁹
PROME
, viii.9–11. For more details, see below, pp. 366–7.

⁴⁰
Traditionally, coronations were on a Sunday, but Richard II's was on a Thursday, perhaps because it was felt that he needed to be crowned quickly (C. Given-Wilson, ‘The Coronation of Richard II’,
Ceremonial de la Coronacion, Uncion y Exequias de los Reyes de Inglaterra
, ed. E. Ramirez Vaquero (Pamplona, 2008), 195–227, at p. 201).

⁴¹
Dubbings had taken place at coronations in the past, but never on such a scale or in such conspicuous fashion: nine new knights were created at Richard's coronation, but not until the banquet with which the ceremony concluded (ibid., 199–200). Also in the Tower at the knighting ceremony on Sunday were Henry Green, king of the heralds of Scotland, and other heralds from England and abroad (E 403/565, 21 November:
Oeuvres de Froissart
, xvi.204–5).

⁴²
As well as the king's three younger sons (Prince Henry having already been knighted), they included the heirs to the earldoms of Arundel, Warwick, Stafford and Devon, John Pelham, Ralph Rochford, John Tiptoft, Robert Chalons and Thomas Dymmok (
Chronicles of London
, ed. Kingsford, 48;
Traïson et Mort
, 224–5;
Usk
, 70; R. Strong,
Coronation. A History of Kingship and the British Monarchy
(London, 2005), 162; BL Harleian Ms 1386, fo. 18). Despite a belief that this marked the foundation of the Order of the Bath, it was more in the nature of a fellowship, being limited neither by statutes nor in number, although it did inaugurate a tradition of creating ‘Knights of the Bath’ on the eve of the coronation. There are references to ‘the order of knighthood of the Bath’ in the fifteenth century (M. Keen, ‘Treason Trials under the Law of Arms’,
TRHS
1962, 85–103, at p. 90), but it was not formally founded until 1725. Froissart stated merely that each of the knights ‘had his chamber and his bath where they were bathed that night’ (
Oeuvres de Froissart
, xvi.205). The great wardrobe livery roll of the coronation, which listed forty-six knights, included
milites de balneo
, but in a later hand:
The Coronation of Richard III
, ed. A. Sutton and P. Hammond (Gloucester, 1984), 92; see also F. Pilbrow, ‘The Knights of the Bath: Dubbing to Knighthood in Lancastrian and Yorkist England’,
Heraldry, Pageantry and Social Display
, 195–218; J. Risk,
The History of the Order of the Bath
(London, 1972), 6–9.

⁴³
P. Linehan,
History and the Historians of Medieval Spain
(Oxford, 1993), 584–601; Henry's sister Katherine was married to Juan I of Castile.

⁴⁴
The livery roll (
Coronation of Richard III
, 92–9) lists 85 lords, 62 ladies, 64 clerks, 197 knights, 230 esquires of the body, 225 ‘other esquires’, 416 valets, 573 yeomen, 208 grooms, 25 minstrels and 25 bargemen. Strong,
Coronation
, 142, doubted Froissart's figure of 6,000 horses, but it is not impossible.