Shakespeare's Kings (55 page)

If
Henry
did
not
in
fact
sail
quite
as
soon
as
he
had
hoped,
this
was because
on
31
July
the
Earl
of
March
came
to
him
at
Portchester
Castle near
Portsmouth
with
disturbing
news:
a
conspiracy
was
being
hatched against
him,
and
chief
among
the
plotters
was
March's
former
brother-in-law
Richard
of
Conisborough,
Earl
of
Cambridge
and
younger brother
of
the
Duke
of
York.
After
the
death
of
his
first
wife,
Anne Mortimer,
Richard
had
married
the
sister-in-law
of
Harry
Percy's daughter;
he
was
thus
in
close
contact
with
the
family
of
Northumberland,
and
in
particular
with
Hotspur's
cousin,
a
certain
Sir
Thomas Grey.
His
intention
-
with
the
help
of
the
Scots,
of
Glendower
and
his Welsh
rebels,
and
of
Oldcastle
and
his
Lollards
—
was
to
assassinate Henry
and
his
brothers
on
1
August,
replacing
him
with
March,
as Richard
II's
legal
heir.
The
third
member
of
the
conspiracy
was
one of
the
King's
most
trusted
confidants,
'whom
he
greatly
loved
and
who had
many
times
slept
in
his
chamber':
¹
Henry,
Lord
Scrope
of
Masham, nephew
of
that
Archbishop
Scrope
whom
Bolingbroke
had
executed ten
years
before.
The
three
had
approached
March
as
early
as
21
July; it
was
only
ten
days
later
that
he
had
decided
to
expose
them.

The
King,
on
the
other
hand,
lost
no
time.
Summoning
a
council of
his
chief
magnates
-
they
included
Cambridge,
Grey
and
Scrope
-he
announced
that
rumours
had
come
to
him
of
a
possible
plot,
almost incredible
as
it
seemed
to
be.
Perhaps
he
was
looking
hard
at
the
three men
as
he
spoke;
in
any
case
they
all
immediately
confessed
—
Scrope maintaining
that
although
he
was
aware
of
the
plot
he
knew
nothing of
the
intended
assassination
-
and
were
immediately
sentenced
to
be hanged,
drawn
and
beheaded.
By
the
royal
prerogative
the
hanging
was remitted,
and
so
also,
for
Cambridge
and
Grey,
was
the
drawing;
only

1. St Remy,
Chronique,
I, 224.

Scrope
was
drawn
on
a
hurdle
through
the
streets
of
Southampton
to the
north
gate,
where
all
three
were
executed
just
outside
the
city
wall. Later
Scrope's
head
was
spiked
on
one
of
the
gates
of
York,
and
Grey's on
the
Tower
at
Newcastle
-
a
ghastly
warning
to
the
north
that
did not
go
unheeded.
There
remained
the
Earl
of
March.
True,
he
had revealed
the
plot;
but
it
had
taken
him
ten
days
to
do
so,
and
he
may have
been
thinking
only
to
save
his
own
skin.
Not
till
9
August
was
he granted
a
full
pardon
and
restored
to
royal
favour.
And
two
days
later, on
Sunday
the
nth,
leaving
as
Regent
his
brother
John,
Duke
of Bedford,
and
carrying
such
of
the
crown
jewels
as
were
not
in
pawn together
with
a
hefty
piece
of
the
True
Cross,
the
King
boarded one
of
his
'great'
ships,
La Trinite Roy
ale,
and
crossed
the
Channel
to Harfleur.

From
the
moment
that
he
had
called
his
forces
to
Hampshire
rather than
to
Kent,
it
had
been
clear
that
he
had
already
decided
against
Calais as
a
port
of
disembarkation.
Not
only
did
he
have
in
the
Solent
a
superb natural
harbour;
his
objective
was
not
Picardy
but
the
mouth
of
the Seine,
less
than
a
hundred
miles
of
easily
navigable
river
from
Paris. The
one
serious
obstacle
in
his
way
was
Harfleur
itself,
whose
great castle,
towering
above
the
harbour,
was
generally
believed
to
be
impregnable.
Its
walls
ran
some
two
and
a
half
miles
from
shore
to
shore, protected
by
a
broad,
deep
moat
and
no
less
than
twenty-six
towers. The
fleet
anchored
in
the
estuary
safely
out
of
range
of
its
cannon, while
the
army
landed
on
the
soft,
marshy
terrain
a
little
to
the
east
of the
town
and
trundled
its
siege
engines
into
position.
On
the
following day
the
operation
began.

It
was
to
continue
for
the
next
five
weeks
-
weeks
which,
to
the besieging
army,
rapidly
became
a
nightmare.
The
marshes,
unhealthy at
the
best
of
times,
swarmed
with
flies
in
the
August
heat;
and
the
only available
food
supplies,
which
consisted
largely
of
rotten
fruit
and dubious
shellfish
washed
down
with
raw
Normandy
cider,
led
to
fever and
dysentery,
which
quickly
spread
through
the
whole
army.
Within a
month
the
Bishop
of
Norwich
and
the
Earl
of
Suffolk
were
dead, together
with
many
of
the
leading
knights
and
some
2,000
men;
another 5,000,
including
the
King's
brother
the
Duke
of
Clarence
and
the
Earls of
March
and
Arundel,
were
sent
back
to
England
on
stretchers.
But life
was
equally
hard
for
the
people
of
Harfleur.
They
were
by
now running
seriously
short
of
food;
and
on
18
September
the
seigneur
d'Estouteville, commander of the garrison, sent to the King asking for terms. Henry's first reaction was to insist on unconditional surrender; then, realizing that his own army could not long continue in its present condition, he relented and gave permission for a delegation from the town to appeal for help to the Dauphin in Rouen, on condition that if this were not forthcoming within four days, Harfleur would capitulate. The delegation set off, only to be informed that the French army was not yet ready for action; and on the
22nd,
as promised, d'Estouteville surrendered. There followed a ceremonial entry into the town, with all the pomp and panoply that the King could muster; even then, however, he dismounted at the gates, removed his shoes and went barefoot into the church of St Martin to give thanks.