From Burton-Oii-Trent, where on July 17 he summoned the
forces of the shires to join him¹, he marched into Shropshire,
and offered to parley with the insurgents. The earl of Worcester
went between the camps, but he was either an impolitic or a
treacherous envoy, and the negotiations ended in mutual exas-
peration. On the 21 st the battle of Shrewsburywas fought;
Hotspur was slain ; Worcester was taken and beheaded two
days after. The old earl, who may or may not have been cog-
nisant of his son’s intentions from the first, was now marching
to his succour. The earl of Westmoreland, his brother-in-law,
met him and drove him back to Warkworth. But all danger
was over. On the nth of August he met the king at York,
and submitted to him². Henry promised him his life but not
his liberty. He had to surrender his castles ³ ; his staff as
constable was taken from him, and given to John of Lancaster ;
but Henry did not bear malice long ; the minor offenders were
allowed to sue for pardon⁴, and within six months Northumber-
land was restored to his liberty and estates.

310. Although Hotspur’s demands for reform were a mere
artifice, and his connexion with the Welsh proved his insurrec-
tion to be altogether treasonable, subsequent events showed
that the reform was really wanted, and that the spirit of dis-
content was becoming dangerous in each of the estates. The
cry was everywhere what had become of the money of the
nation ? The king had none, the Percies had received none,
the people had none to give, the clergy were in the utmost
poverty. Yet war was everywhere imminent. The Bretons
were plundering the coast ; hostilities with France were only
staved off by ill-kept truces; the Welsh were still in full
force. When Henry returned southwards and had gathered his
forces at AVorcester early in September, it was found that he
could not move for want of supplies⁵. To an application which

¹ Rymer, viii. 314.

² Otterbourne, p. 244; AnnaIes Henr. p. 371.

³ Ordinances, i. 21 ɪ.

⁴ Rymer, viii. 338 ; Ordinances, ɪ. 212.

⁵ Ann. Henr. p. 373 ; cf. Eulog. iiɪ. 398. A council was held at
Worcebter; Rot. Parl. iɪi. 525. It appears from Sir J. H. Ramsay’s

KVIII.]

was made for a grant from the clergy Arundel replied that they The clergy
were utterly exhausted ; and when, after an insolent demand ɪ-fɑʒ-
from the courtiers that the prelates should be stripped of their
equipag^es and sent home on foot, he had succeeded in assembling
the synod of his province and obtained a grant of half a tenth,
only .£50° could be raised immediately on the security of the
grant¹. Such a fact proves that all confidence in the stability of Weakness
the government was at an end. Complaints were becoming louder, government,
suspicions graver and more general. The parliament summoned
to Coventry in December, 1403, was afterwards ordered to meet
at Westminster in January, 1404³; a great Councilwasheld
preparatory to the parliament, and, when it met, every accusa-
tion of misgovernment, and every proposal for restraint on the
executive, which had been heard since the days of Henry III,
were repeated.

In this parliament bishop Beaufort was chancellor, the lord Parliament
of January*
Roos of Hamlake treasurer, and Sir Arnold Savage again 1404.
speaker of the commons. The election of Savage was in itself a
challenge to the king ; his long speeches invariably contained
unpalatable truths. As was generally the case, the minister
spoke chiefly of foreign dangers, the commons thought and said
most about domestic mismanagement, the sudden diminution of
the revenue, the lavish grants of the king, the abuses of liveries,
the impoverishment of the royal estates, the extravagant ad-
ministration of the household. A demand for a conference of
advisers resulted in a formal array of such complaints ; if those
complaints were satisfied, the commons would show themselves
liberal and loyal³. An unexpected amount of favour was shown Lenity of
to the carl of Northumberland ; the peers refused to find him ment*^rha'
guilty of treason ; it was not more than trespass ; he was

calculation, Antiquary, vi. 104, that the expenditure of the third year
θf the reign was £126,000; that of the fourth, ending September 1403,
~≈ 35,ooo.

¹ Ann. Henr. p. 374. The clergy of Canterbury met October 7, and
granted a half tenth; Wilkins, Cone. iii. 274.

Lords’ Report, iv. 785-790 : it met Jan. 14, Rot. Parl. iii. 522 ; and
Jat until March 20, Lords’ Report, i. 496 ; the great council was held
^bθ⅛ Christmas, Rot. Parl. iii. 525.

Rot. Parl. iii. 523, 524.

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