ʒo                Constitutional Histori/.            [chap.

first charge gave rise to a large number of informations. Thomas
Mowbray, the earl-marshal, was unable to deny that he had some
inkling of the plot, and archbishop Arundel had to purge him-
self from a like suspicion. The king forgave Mowbray and
thanked the archbishop for the assurance of his faithfulness,
but the sore rankled still ; and in two meetings of the council
held at London and at S. Alban’s the king found himself
thwarted by the lords’. On the ɪst of March a dispute about
precedence took place in council between the earl of Warwick
and the earl-marshal, the son of the king’s old adversary Nor-
folk ; it was decided in favour of Warwick, and Mowbray left
the court in anger ². Whilst this was going on in the south,
Northumberland and Westmoreland were preparing for war in
the north. Possibly the attitude of Northumberland may have
been connected with the Mortimer plot, and Mowbray was
certainly cognisant of both. It was said that on the 28th of
February Grlendower, Mortimer and Northumberland had signed
an agreement for a division of England and Wales between
the three³. The lord Bardolf, who had opposed the king
strongly in the recent councils, had joined Northumberland,
and Sir William Clifford had associated himself with them ⁴.
Unfortunately for himself and all concerned, the archbishop of
York, Richard Ie Scrope, placed himself on the same side.
These leaders drew up and circulated a formal indictment
against the king, whom they described as Henry of Derby.
Ten articles were published by the archbishop^δ ; Henry was a
usurper and a traitor to king and church ; he was a perjurer
who on a false plea had raised the nation against Richard ; he
had promised the abolition of tenths and fifteenths and of the
customs on wine and wool ; he had made a false claim to the

¹ Ann. Henr. p. 399 ; Stow, Chr. p. 332.

³ Eulog. iii. 405 ; Chr. ed. Giles, p. 43 ; Ordinances, ii. 104.

^s Chron. Henr. ed. Giles, pp. 39, 59; Hall, Chr. p. 28. See Tyler,
Henry of Monmouth, i. 150. See above, p. 36, note 4.

ⁱ Ann. Henr. p. 402 ; Otterbourne, p. 254.

⁵ Anglia Sacra, ii. 362-368. Another form, drawn up as a vindication
of the archbishop after his death, by Clement Maidstone, is given in the
same work, p. 369. See also Rogers, Loci e Libro Veritatum T. Gascoigne,
pp. 225-231 ; Foxe, Acts and Monuments, iii. 230 s4.

crown ; hθ had connived at Bichard’s murder ; he had illegally
destroyed both clerks and prelates ; and without due trial had
procured the deaths of the rebel earls, of Clarendon and of
Hotspur ; he had confirmed statutes directed against the pope
and the universities ; he had caused the destruction and misery
₀f the country : the tenth article was a protest that these
charges were not intended to give offence to the estates of the
realm. Another document stated the demands of the insurgents
in a less precise form¹. They demanded a free parliament, to The rebels
be held at London, to which the knights of the shire should be lay their °
duly elected, without the arbitrary exclusion which the king S⅛^apa?-
had attempted in the parliament of Coventry. Before this as- ^h^^nιeπt∙
sembly four chief points were to be laid : the reform of govern-
ment, including the relief of church and nation from the unjust
burdens under which both were groaning ; the regulation of
proceedings against delinquent lords, which had been a fruitful
cause of oppression ; the relief of the third estate, gentlemen,
merchants, and commons, to be achieved by restricting the
prodigality of the crown ; and the rigorous prosecution of war
against public enemies, especially against the Welsh². These
demands, which were circulated in several different forms, cer-

tainly touched all the weak points of Henry’s administration,
and, although it must ever remain a problem whether the rising
was not the result of desperation on the part of Northumber-
land and Mowbray rather than of the hope of reform conceived
by Scrope, their proposals took a form which recommended itself
to all men who had a grievance. As soon as it was known that Military
11    ₁    ,             .             __         1     .       1       ∣₁            τ τ 1     ∙ operatior

tne lords were in arms Henry hastened to the north, and having 1405.
reached Derby on the 28th of May summoned his forces to
meet at Pomfret³. The contest was quickly decided. The earl
OfWestmoreland, John of Lancaster, and Thomas Beaufort, at
the head of the king’s forces, encountered the rebels on Shipton
moor and offered a parley. The archbishop there met the earl
of Westmoreland, who promised to lay before the king the

₂ Ann. Henr. pp. 403-405 ; Wals. ii. 422.

_r, Another form occurs in the Eulogium, iii. 405. See also Capgτave,
₃^, p. 289; Chron. Henr. ed. Giles, p. 44.

Ordinances, i. 264 ; Rymer, viii. 400.

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