Assassination: The Royal Family's 1000-Year Curse (15 page)

The row was investigated by the King, by Parliament and by a commission. In the end it was ruled that the truth of the matter should be decidedby combat. That way, Richard would secure the death of one of the last Appellants. Unfortunately, there were complications. If Henry Bolingbroke won, his power and popularity would be vastly increased; if Henry was killed, Richard would lose the vital support of Henry’s father, John of Gaunt. At the last moment, Richard intervened and ordered that Bolingbroke was to be exiled for ten years and that Mowbray was to be exiled for life. Mowbray died a year later. Henry was not so obliging. He took up residence at the French court, having secured Richard’s promise that despite exile he would still receive his Lancastrian inheritance when his father, John of Gaunt, died.

With all his enemies executed or in exile, Richard’s absolute power went to his head. Taxes were increased, those who annoyed Richard had to pay for a pardon, his personal spending soared, he sat on a giant throne, and all in his presence had to look to the ground.

In February 1399, John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster died. Claiming that Henry Bolingbroke’s name was one of the fifty on the secret list, Richard extended Henry’s exile to life, and, breaking his word yet again, Richard seized Henry’s Lancastrian inheritance. Then, with an air of over-confidence, Richard set off with his army to take control of Ireland.

If Richard thought that Henry Bolingbroke would accept the position and remain quietly in France, he was very much mistaken. Henry assembled a small force and made for England. The whole of the North raced to support him. Nobles were opposed to the confiscation of property, townspeople feared more taxes to pay for Richard’s court and favourites, and peasants with memories of Wat Tyler had good reason to hate the King. All of them backed Henry’s avowed claim: his inheritance, no more than that – he was no traitor.

Richard hurried back from Ireland and landed in Wales, ready to be joined by his supporters. But there were few. Most significantly, the Duke of York, faced with choosing between two of his nephews, sided with Henry. He was no doubt still bitter at the murder of his brother, the Duke of Gloucester.

The two armies moved towards the north-west, where Richard took his position in Conway Castle in north Wales, protected by its impregnable fortifications. Henry sent ambassadors to negotiate with him. True to form, the King had already told the members of his Council that he would have to accept Henry’s demands, but that as he was agreeing under duress, he had no intention of keeping to the bargain.

This time, knowing that Richard’s word was worthless, Henry would be equally, in fact even more, duplicitous. Richard agreed to restore Henry’s inheritance and to abandon control of Parliament. Next, Richard was to travel to Flint to meet Henry and seal the bargain, having received a promise made on oath of safe conduct. So Richard left Conway Castle; but halfway to Flint, Richard was ambushed, and he was taken to London as Henry’s prisoner. The waiting Londoners pelted Richard with rubbish as he rode into the city. It was particularly painful for a man who was almost obsessed with refinement; a man credited with the invention, or at least the introduction, of the pocket handkerchief.

Encouraged by the widespread support, Henry changed his ambition. It was no longer his inheritance, now Henry wanted the crown. But how could he gain it with a semblance of legality? No king really wanted to win the throne by force, as that justified someone taking the throne from him by force. So Henry established a committee to look into the issue. The committee decided that a king could be deposed if he was guilty of great crimes, and obligingly announced that Richard was guilty of just such crimes. However, they could not find it in themselves to declare that Henry was next in line. The House of Clarence was senior to Lancaster.

There was no alternative, it would have to be by force. In September 1399, while still in the Tower, Richard was compelled to abdicate, and Henry simply took the throne as
Henry IV, everyone ignoring the fact that the heir of Clarence, the eight-year-old Edmund 5th Earl of March, was next in line. Henry dismissed Edmund’s prior right by saying that Edmund claimed through his grandmother Philippa, the daughter of the Duke of Clarence, so it was not a direct male line such as his own; even though the Salic Law did not apply to the English crown. The result was a perverse balancing of the scales, as the descendant of the Roger Mortimer who sought the throne of Edward II when he had no right to it, was deprived of the throne to which he had every right. Here was the origin of the Wars of the Roses. Henry was the red rose of the House of Lancaster and Edmund was the House of Clarence – the white rose of the House of York was yet to enter the fray.

Richard was moved from the Tower to Leeds Castle in Kent, then to Pickering, and finally to Henry’s castle at Pontefract in Yorkshire, commanded by Henry’s step-brother, Sir Thomas Swynford.

An effort was now made to reverse Richard’s deposition, as supporters of the former king stormed Windsor Castle intent on murdering the new king. However, Henry had learned of the plot, and had left for the safety of London, a city still antiRichard. It took little time for Henry to capture and execute the rebels. Now he knew that he could not allow Richard to remain alive.

Killing an ex-king would not bring the same disapproval as killing a reigning king, but it was still hazardous. It would have to be done in an unobtrusive manner. Just as Edward II’s body had to be shown, so would Richard’s. One evening, when Richard had retired for the night, the door of his room was locked shut. He would never see it open again, not for food, not for drink, nothing. The cries of the ex-king went unheeded, the banging of his fists on the inside of his door was ignored; demands, pleas, prayers – it made no difference. In February 1400, Richard collapsed, fell unconscious and died. Starved to death, leaving his second wife a widow at the age of ten.

The curse had struck again; another English king murdered. It must have been on the orders of Henry IV. What else could he have done? Accepted a promise of good behaviour from Richard? Hardly. Who locked the door? Very likely Sir Thomas Swynford. His reward was to be appointed the Governor of Calais. It was a prestigious position, but more importantly it would keep him permanently out of England.

Henry Bolingbroke became Henry IV in 1399 on taking the throne for the House of Lancaster from his cousin, Richard II. Bolingbroke was not Henry’s family name, rather it was the name of the castle in Lincolnshire where he was born. He had been born on Maundy Thursday (the Thursday before Easter, commemorating Christ’s last supper), and at the age of fifteen he started the practice of giving alms to the poor every year on his birthday. Later it became the tradition for the sovereign to do the same every Maundy Thursday, even though not that sovereign’s birthday.

Once crowned, Henry dealt with his father John of Gaunt’s children by Katherine Swynford, barring the possibility of the Beauforts ever inheriting the throne by inserting a prohibition to that effect in their Declaration of Legitimacy. Henry had young children and no brothers, so his three half-brothers were a threat. With the passage of years, things would not turn out quite as he had planned.

At the age of fourteen, Henry had married Mary de Bohun, daughter of the wealthy Earl of Hereford and Essex, and she bore Henry four boys and two girls. However, Mary died at the age of twenty-four while giving birth to their second daughter. So Mary did not live long enough to become queen.

King Henry IV, or Henry the Usurper as he came to be known, had already suffered one brush with death by the time he was crowned. That was following the incident when he accused Thomas Mowbray of treason.

Henry and Mowbray had been ordered to resolve their dispute in trial by battle; in effect, a duel. A fight to the death between two English dukes was to be one of the dramatic highlights of the age. People travelled from all over England and from overseas to witness the event that was to take place just outside Coventry, including King Richard and the entire court.

The hour arrived, and the two dukes took the field. They were supplied with the finest weapons and armour, Henry’s brought from Italy, Mowbray’s from Germany. Mowbray was the first to enter the arena, his horse dressed in crimson velvet and embroidered with silver. Henry was no less magnificent, on a white horse dressed in blue and green velvet embroidered with golden swans and antelopes. Henry addressed the onlookers, repeating the allegation of treason and asserting that he would kill his opponent. He raised his shield, the red cross of St George on a white background, and then he turned and rode to his tent, adorned in Lancastrian red roses. Mowbray rode forward, declared his innocence and his intention of defending his honour, and then he rode to his tent.

Each donning a helmet and taking hold of a lance, the two men made their way to opposite ends of the arena and turned round, ready to charge. They started to move forward gently. Before either man could dig his spurs into his horse’s sides, King Richard stood up and ordered both combatants to return to their tents.

After a wait of some hours, Richard’s decision was announced. The two dukes were furious; neither would be allowed to clear his name. Mowbray was banished for life and Henry was banished for ten years, a curious combination of punishments. Anyway, for either to win would have brought problems for Richard. Expelling both adversaries from the country seemed to be the best option; but it was not, for as we have seen it led to Richard’s death.

The next attempt to kill Henry occurred after he had been crowned, when supporters of the deposed Richard II stormed Windsor Castle in January 1400, intending to murder Henry and his sons during a great tournament arranged for Epiphany (the end of the twelve days of Christmas, celebrating the arrival of the three wise men). The leaders of the plot were men who had been granted titles by Richard II as reward for supporting him against the Appellants. They were angered when Henry, the last surviving Appellant, reduced the dukes to earls and the earls to barons, principally for involvement in the murder of his uncle, the Duke of Gloucester.

The conspirators planned to restore Richard II, and until he was released they would use a look-alike. They had no difficulty in gaining access to Windsor Castle, as they had been invited to the tournament. But Edward Earl of Rutland (demoted from Duke of Aumale), the oldest son of the Duke of York, revealed all to Henry. So, when Windsor Castle was seized, Henry was no longer there. The would-be assassins fled to the west. They could raise no support, and in time most of them were captured.

Having betrayed his colleagues, the Earl of Rutland was pardoned. Within weeks his father had died, and Edward became the Duke of York.

Henry had won the throne with little spilling of blood, but a great deal of blood would be spilled in keeping the throne. Executing thirty of the Windsor rebels and bringing their dismembered bodies to London in sacks, their heads paraded on poles, did not bring peace.

Rebellion started in Wales, and it had to be put down. In the summer of 1402, Henry marched north-west to deal with the Welsh, and he gathered his forces outside Shrewsbury, where they made camp. On the night of 8th September, Henry was asleep in his tent, with his sword, shield and lance propped up beside him. In the middle of the night, the heavy lance suddenly toppled over and fell directly on to Henry. Fortunately, he was sleeping in full armour, otherwise he would have been killed. The heavy wind was blamed for the incident; or did someone give the lance a push? Was it a murder attempt? Severely bruised and in pain, Henry set out with his forces the next morning, but they were unable to engage the Welsh, so Henry returned to London.