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The Percy-Mortimer Alliance; Part 1

The Percy-Mortimer Alliance; Part 1

In this view Henry IV is found in a class with Alfred, Harold, William III, George I, and we may perhaps add Cromwell, the "chosen of the people"; while Richard II may be classed with Edward II, Charles I, James II, the "rejected of the people". But though it is important to remember that Henry IV's title was mainly Parliamentary, and that as a consequence Parliament during his reign was petted and encouraged to be precociously active beyond its real powers - in its way a turning-point in our history - yet from the point of view which we are at present taking, the accession of the Lancastrian Henry IV was merely an event long foreshadowed, only the successful ending of a long plot, only the first revolution in the constantly turning wheel of the succession. In short, it was the triumph of the Lancastrians in the party struggle. And this struggle was not merely for good government. No attempt was made to reform Richard, or to make him rule well. The prize was the Crown, and the winner took it. But the victory of this Lancastrian - who was so ardent a supporter of the constitution that he had to depose his royal cousin, and later to procure his death, all doubtless in the cause of good government - in no way altered or ended the bitterness of the party struggle. That went on as before.

This fact is at once plain when we recollect that from 1399 to 1407 Henry IV was never free from rebellion. The first rising was planned by Richard II's half-brothers, the Hollands, Earls of Kent and Huntingdon, who plotted to seize Henry as he was keeping Christmas at Windsor and liberate Richard II from Pontefract. Henry got news of their design, and fled to London. The plotters scattered to raise their retainers, but were all captured. No trial was given them; all were beheaded: and, to prevent any further rebellions with the same object, Henry caused Richard's dead body to be brought to London and displayed there. A death, in its date so extremely convenient to King Henry, could hardly be accepted as natural: the report of the chronicler that Richard was so "vexed at heart over the loss of his friends that he neither ate nor drank from that hour, and thus, as they say, it came to pass that he died" is unconvincing. Doubtless he was murdered.

Thus fell Richard II and the party of the "White Hart", but his death did not make Henry IV the nearest heir to the throne. That right belonged to the house of Mortimer, and accordingly we find a Mortimer deeply concerned in the next plot: and it is scarcely surprising that it should begin in Cheshire and the North Welsh border, which had been Richard II's stronghold.

The Percy-Mortimer Alliance; Part 1

Chronology