CHAPTER I HENRY IV.: 1399-1413 Born 1366; married (1380, Mary de Bohun. (1403, Joan of Navarre, Duchess of Brittany. CHIEF CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS Emperor. Sigismund, 1410-1437. Scotland. Robert III., d. 1406. France. Rebellions in Richard's Favour-The Lollards-Owen Glendower-The Risings of the Percies and of Scrope-Foreign Affairs-Henry's Constitutional Government. It would not be easy to find two men whose characters presented a greater contrast than those of Henry IV. and his predecessor. Few of the graces that marked Richard II. had fallen to the lot of his cousin. Character of His person, though sturdy and active, appears to have been Henry IV. neither handsome nor graceful; and his square face and thick beard had little of the charm and refinement which had distinguished the son of the Fair Maid of Kent. But whereas Richard had been a mere carpet-knight, untried in the field, and dependent on others both for counsel and execution, Henry was pre-eminently a man of action, who had seen much hard fighting in many lands, had been accustomed always to think and act on his own responsibility, and was capable of inspiring confidence in others by showing that he believed in himself. Nor was the difference between their conceptions of kingship less marked than that between their personal characters. Richard, as Shakespeare has rightly delineated him, was the holder of a theoretical view of the dignity of royalty of the most exalted kind, to which his personal insufficiency acted as a perpetual foil. Henry, on the other hand, put forward no such theoretical claim to respect; but his personal force of character and self-restraint secured him a deference to which Richard was a complete stranger. Richard's ment. The new government had to provide for the safe custody of the exking. By the advice of the lords, it was ordered that he should be removed to some safe place and there kept in custody; that Imprison- no former members of his household should have access to him; and that he should neither send nor receive letters of any kind. Accordingly, he was removed from the Tower at dead of night and taken to Leeds Castle, in Kent, and thence to the Lancastrian stronghold of Pontefract, in Yorkshire. He had still a good many personal friends, of whom the chief were the eldest son of the duke of York, com monly known as the earl of Rutland; the Hollands, Richard's half-brother and nephew, earls respectively of Huntingdon and Kent; John Beaufort, earl of Somerset ; and John Montague, earl of Salisbury. By request of the commons, the cases of these noblemen were examined by the lords, and after much consideration it was decided that they should forfeit all lands acquired since 1397, and they were expressly warned that any further support of Richard would be dealt with as treason. At the same time, a sweeping Act against retainers was passed, in hope of doing something to curtail the power for mischief possessed by the malcontents. In spite, however, of the warning against treason, the lords were no sooner at liberty than some of them began to plot. The chief conspirators Rebellion in were the earls of Huntingdon, Kent, Rutland, and Salishis favour. bury; Roger Walden, ex-archbishop of Canterbury; Thomas Merke, bishop of Carlisle; two abbots, and a priest named Maudelyn, who happened to be in appearance a double of Richard himself. Their scheme was to assemble at Kingston in January 1400, and to cut off Henry, who was expected to be at Windsor, from his supporters the Londoners. Henry was then to be seized, Richard proclaimed, and Maudelyn was to play his part until his place of imprisonment had been discovered. At the critical moment, however, the marplot, Rutland, revealed the plan to his father, and York lost not a moment in warning the king. Without hesitation, Henry rode through the night to the capital, appealed to the Londoners, and within twenty-four hours had 20,000 men-at-arms, archers, and billmen in the field. The king's midnight ride completely disconcerted the rebels; a sharp fight took place at Maidenhead Bridge, and then they fled westward to Cirencester. There a new danger confronted thein. The country people, flocking into the town, attacked the house occupied by the leaders, compelled them to surrender, and, without waiting the formalities of a trial, cut off the heads of Kent and Salisbury in the open street. Huntingdon was captured by the Essex men at Chelmsford, and beheaded at Pleshy; Lord Despenser, another conspirator, was put to |