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Home Lancaster and York The Percy-Mortimer Alliance; Part 3 |
The Percy-Mortimer Alliance; Part 3The issue was fought out at Shrewsbury, the sternest battle seen in England since the days of Hastings. Some seven thousand men fell; Hotspur was killed making a last desperate charge. Thomas Percy, Earl of Worcester, was beheaded two days later. Henry triumphed; the conspiracy was shattered; the Earl of Northumberland submitted to the king, and Henry treated him with more generosity than he deserved. He remembered his old friendship, and forgot his treason: in six months he set "his trusty Mattathias" free, and gave back his lands. The " trusty Mattathias" made an ill use of this clemency. In 1405 he embarked on another conspiracy with Mowbray, Earl of Nottingham, and Scrope, Archbishop of York. Eight thousand men gathered in Yorkshire, and Scrope put forth a series of accusations against the king, holding him guilty of winning the Crown by treachery, conniving at Richard's murder, putting men to death without trial, and ruining his subjects by illegal taxation. There was enough truth in these charges to make them intolerable, even if Scrope and his comrades were not actually plotting to dethrone Henry. The rebels dispersed on the belief that the leaders on both sides had come to terms Nottingham and the Archbishop were seized and beheaded. To put an Archbishop to death for treason was a strong step. Men darkly hinted that Henry's subsequent illness was but the judgment of heaven on his impiety.Once again the prime mover, the "trusty" Earl, escaped. He had been too prudent to be at Shrewsbury, and too cautious to venture, like Scrope, into the enemy's clutches. For a time he made the round of Henry's foes, visiting Scotland, WalOs, Flanders, and France. At length he threw away prudence, and tried one more stroke in Yorkshire. Sir Thomas Rokeby, with the local levies, met him at Bramham Moor. His force was routed, and he was killed on the field. And with this fight Henry's troubles came practically to an end. |
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