The Fears of Henry IV: The Life of England's Self-Made King (77 page)

20
. It is tempting to say that his naming his first daughter after the mother he had never known says much for his regard for her, despite the tragedy of her death. However, it is impossible to be certain about this. The English royal family, like several medieval families, continued naming traditions in which a lord’s eldest daughter was named after his mother and his second daughter after one of his grandmothers. John had done this in naming his eldest daughter Philippa and his second daughter Elizabeth; Henry followed the same pattern.

21
.
ODNB,
under ‘Henry IV’.

22
. See
Issues,
p. 321, for the likeness commissioned by Henry V. Richard’s commission to the coppersmiths was dated on 24 April 1395. He had shortly before contracted (on 1 April) the masons Henry Yevele and Stephen Lote to make the tomb at Westminster for his wife Anne
(Syllabus,
ii, p. 527). Payment to Yevele and Lote was made on 14 July 1397
(Issues,
p. 264).

23
. Goodman,
John of Gaunt,
p. 155.

24
. This might have been a coincidence, but in a letter in which John protested his honesty and loyalty to the king in connection with the royal estate, and coming so soon after John requested that Henry be recognised as the heir, it may well be that the succession was the key matter discussed.

25
. By this time the earls of March were so far behind in the order of succession – habitually given an inferior status to Henry – that they hardly featured on the magnates’ map of the succession. Every potential beneficiary of Edward III’s entail was given precedence over the Mortimers. See ‘Succession’, p. 330.

26
. Tuck, p. 166; Goodman,
John of Gaunt,
p. 155.

27
.
Royal Household,
p. 392.

28
.
PROME,
1394 January, item 20; Tuck, p. 167, n. 3, which details his arrest and escape.

29
.
LC,
p. 155.

30
.
LK,
p. 40.

31
.
ODNB,
under ‘Henry IV’.

32
.
PROME,
1395 January, introduction.

33
. Cronin, ‘Twelve Conclusions’, pp. 292–304;
PC,
p. 59.

34
. He was still in London at the beginning of April. C 53/165 nos 4–5 (dated 30 March and 1 April respectively).

35
. DL 28/1/5 fol. 8r. Those who had accompanied him on his crusade who were still with him were John Brother, Robert Crakyll, William Bingley and Master John Nakerer
(Expeditions,
pp. 112, 133, 137, 141–2). The new musicians were John Alayn, piper, John Aleyn, trumpeter, and Gilbert Waferer.

36
. DL 28/1/5 fol. 3r (robe); 26v (gift).

37
. F. J. Furnivall (ed.),
The Babees Boke
(1868), p. 180.

38
. DL 28/1/5 fol. 28v; see also Appendix One. He gave alms and clothes to twenty-nine paupers on this occasion.

39
. The date Henry sent the messenger was 18 March. See DL 28/1/5 fol. 27r.

40
. DL 28/1/5 fol. 9r, 22r–v, 27v, 29r. This suggests she was in her twenty-fourth year at the time of her death, as Henry’s donation to twenty-nine paupers on Maundy Thursday suggests this accountant (or Henry) calculated age as of next birthday.

41
. DL 28/1/5 fol. 29r. The curtains are mentioned on fol. 12r. They were taken to Leicester, as shown by a reference on fol. 27v.

42
. DL 28/1/5 fol. 29r. The earliest entry in the
OED
to a close-stool is 1410.

43
.
King’s Council,
p. 504; for the barge, see DL 28/1/5 fol. 28r.

44
.
King’s Council,
pp. 135–7, 504–5
Froissart,
ii, pp. 572–7.

45
. C 53/165 nos 3 and 10.

46
.
CCR 1392–99,
p. 448.

47
. DL 28/1/5 fol. 27v. The journey took him three weeks. Henry’s saddle was repaired while at Plympton. See
ibid.,
fol. 22v.

48
.
CPR 1396–99,
p. 542.

49
. For his presence in Exeter, see DL 28/1/5 fol. 27v. The messenger was on the road for thirteen days and left London on 24 October. Henry was probably in London from 28 November to 23 December, during which time he was paying his London bargemen (fol. 28r). Cotton and a urinal were bought for him in London on 4 December (fol. 30r.).

50
. Henry ordered new lances to be bought for the joust at Christmas at Hertford. DL 28/1/5 fol. 22v. There are fewer payments than usual in this account.

51
.
HA,
ii, p. 219. Although Walsingham mentions that Richard held Christmas at Langley, and that this was where he met John, it was not necessarily at Christmas that the meeting took place. Richard stayed at King’s Langley until 7 January. See Saul, p. 473.

52
. Goodman,
John of Gaunt,
p. 156.

53
. See the articles on
ODNB
(under ‘John of Gaunt’, ‘Swynford, Katherine’), and Goodman,
Katherine Swynford.

54
. Goodman,
John of Gaunt,
p. 156.

55
. Goodman,
John of Gaunt,
p. 157.

56
. C 53/166 nos 4 & 5.

57
. As stated in
Froissart,
ii, p. 610.

58
. This was when he witnessed a royal charter at Westminster. C 53/166 no. 6.

59
. Wylie, quoting Michael Ducas,
Historia Byzantina
(1649), states that Henry was present at Nicopolis, in command of 1,000 archers. There is no corroboration of this, however. Froissart does not mention Henry’s participation on the Nicopolis Crusade, and nor is there any reference in his accounts. In addition, he could not have fought
on 25 September at Nicopolis (in modern Bulgaria, about seventy-five miles from Bucharest) and been at Calais in early October. His accounts mention the purchase of medicines for him early in 1396, which might more correctly explain his absence from court. See Wylie, i, pp. 6, 157; iv, p. 171.

60
. Fier-a-Bras de Vertain was given a grant for life of forty marks a year on 7 July 1396. Presuming that this precedes his visiting Henry, it is reasonable to connect Henry’s appearance at court on the 25th with the king’s refusal (at the request of John of Gaunt) to allow Henry to depart. See
Froissart,
ii, p. 610;
CPR 1396–99,
p. 12.

7:
By Envy’s Hand and Murder’s Bloody Axe

  
1
.
Froissart,
ii, p. 618. For Henry’s expenses in Calais, see DL 28/1/9 fol. 4r–8v.

  
2
. Saul, p. 229. There is a detailed description of the meeting
in Annales,
pp. 188–94.

  
3
.
Froissart,
ii, p. 618; DL 28/1/9 fol. 4r (for Henry at Saint-Omer).

  
4
. He was at Dover Castle on 15 November.
CCR 1396–99,
p. 73.

  
5
. DL 28/1/9 fol. 5r (hay bought for his horses at Dartford, 19 November).

  
6
. DL 28/1/9 fol. 13v.

  
7
. DL 28/1/9 fol. 7v.

  
8
. For example, the gifts of velvet from the count of Virtue in DL 28/1/5 fol. 9r–v (for the year 1395–6).

  
9
. Hinds (ed.),
State Papers … Milan,
i, p. 2. This relates to Henry before his exile. Negotiations probably began in late 1397, as the marriage was a rumour circulating in Siena in early March 1398. See Bueno de Mesquita, ‘Foreign Policy’, pp. 634–5.

10
.
Froissart,
ii, pp. 604–7.

11
. On 2 January 1397, Thomas Mowbray and Thomas Holland were preparing a force of 150 lances and 500 archers to help the French; the earl of Huntingdon was also preparing to go. Bueno de Mesquita, ‘Foreign Policy’, pp. 628–9.

12
.
PROME,
January 1397, item 10.

13
. For Richard’s mental state, see Saul, especially chapter 17 (and pp. 459–60 for the identification of his ‘narcissism’), and Steel,
Richard II.
Alison McHardy comments on both of these views in her ‘Personal Portrait’, and adds further very interesting observations. For a view on how the idea of Richard’s insanity arose, see Stow, ‘Stubbs, Steel and Richard II’.

14
. Bueno de Mesquita, ‘Foreign Policy’, pp. 630–32;
Annales,
p. 199.

15
. The Evesham chronicler, in
CR,
p. 54.

16
. The earliest reference yet noticed of Edward being described as ‘the king’s brother’ appears in his commission to negotiate with France dated 27 February 1397
(Syllabus,
p. 530). Thereafter he is usually so described in official documents, including patent letters and royal charters. He is described as ‘our very dear brother’ in C 53/167 nos 5–10 (23 April, 1 May and 9 May 1399), 16–17 (13 and 24 April 1398). This is also the way he is named in Richard’s will. See
Royal Wills,
pp. 196, 199.

17
. For adoptive brotherhood in medieval England, see Pierre Chaplais,
Piers Gaveston: Edward II’s Adoptive Brother
(Oxford, 1994), pp. 6–22.

18
. For instance Alison McHardy states that it is ‘notable’ that Robert de Vere ‘had no successor’ as Richard’s favourite, ignoring this adoption of Rutland. See
McHardy, ‘Personal Portrait’, p. 30. The adoption is also ignored by the author of the
ODNB
article on Edward and the second edition of
CP,
and by most other writers on the subject of Richard II’s life.

19
. DL 28/1/9 fol. 8r, DL 28/1/9 fol. 21v (Leicester, March 1397); DL 28/1/6 fol. 25v, DL 28/1/9 fol. 12r, 16r (Tutbury April 1397). The foregoing are tentative, based on payments for household expenses which indicate his presence, such as large amounts of expensive fish being delivered to Tutbury between 30 March and 14 April (DL 28/1/9 fol. 21v). He was at Leicester on 1 May 1397 (
CPR 1396–99,
p. 122). He was still in London on 7 March (DL 28/1/6 fol. 30v).

20
. The commission to negotiate a marriage between Henry and Navarre was dated 28 February 1397.
Syllabus,
p. 530.

21
. DL 28/1/9 fol. 15r.

22
. The story given in
Traïson –
that Gloucester and Arundel were arrested following a plot staged with Henry, Warwick and Mowbray, Thomas Arundel, the abbot of St Albans (Thomas of Woodstock’s godfather) and the prior of Westminster – is a muddled version of the events of 1387 rehashed in order to explain why Richard took action against these lords in 1397. Richard’s accusations in 1397 specifically refer to the events of 1387–8. In addition, by 1397, the abbot of St Albans was dead. In addition to a sound debunking of this story in Tuck, pp. 184–6, it is worth noting that the plot is supposed to have been concocted at Arundel, and Henry is said to have been present. It is difficult to find a space in his itinerary to attend a meeting at Arundel. Following the parliament of January 1397 he travelled north and remained in the Midlands until June, when he was at Hertford, and two weeks later he was with Richard at Westminster. He remained with the king for a month and travelled back again to the Midlands until the time of parliament. He could at some point have made a dash to Arundel but there are no signs of such a journey in his accounts, nor of messengers being sent to Arundel.

23
. C 53/167 no. 25 (5 July). John Bernard and Philip Young were paid wages by Henry when they were with him in the king’s household from 6 July to 1 August. At 3d per day each, the payment of 13s 6d suggests they were in constant attendance at that time. Similarly Thomas Young and John Aderstone were with Henry in the king’s household (at wages of 4d per day between them) for twenty-seven days (as they received 9s). Thomas Ferro was with Henry in the king’s household from 14 July to 10 August; John Waurin from 6 July to 1 August. See DL 28/1/9 fol. 16r.

24
. Saul, p. 367.

25
. Sharpe,
City of London, Letter-Book H,
p. 437.

26
. DL 28/1/9 fol. 20v. Richard was at Nottingham on 5 July (Saul, p. 473), having probably just arrived there. He was at Lutterworth on 14 August. For the assembly see Goodman,
John of Gaunt,
p. 159.

27
.
CPR 1396–99,
p. 191.

28
.
CPR 1396–99,
p. 192.

29
. There were 312 royal archers in Richard’s personal bodyguard, according to Tuck, p. 187, quoting E 159/175 r. 9 and E 101/42/10. For his raising of two thousand archers in Cheshire, see
ibid.,
p. 186. For chroniclers’ accounts of the presence of two thousand archers see
CR,
p. 57. The combined forces of the king, John, Edmund and Henry might account for Usk’s statement that there were four thousand archers present.

30
. For the date of the announcement, see Tait, ‘Did Richard II Murder the Duke of Gloucester?’, pp. 208–10; Wright, ‘Death of the Duke of Gloucester’, p. 277.
Gregory’s Chronicle –
a London chronicle – placing the date of death ‘around Bartholomewtide’ (25 August) is an indication of when the news was circulated in London.

31
. The duke’s death was certainly announced while he was still alive. This is evident in the confession of a witness to his murder, John Hall, and it is supported by the fact that Richard sent writs to enquire into the estates of the late duke of Gloucester on 7 September, but his confession was made in Calais on 8 September. See
PROME,
1399 September, item 92 (8 September);
CPR 1391–99,
p. 224 (7 September); Wright, ‘Richard II and the death of the duke of Gloucester’, pp. 276–7.