Assassination: The Royal Family's 1000-Year Curse (16 page)

A further problem developed in Wales when a Welsh squire named Owen Glendower became involved in a boundary dispute with his English neighbour, Reginald Grey of Ruthin. Glendower attacked and burned Ruthin. Carried away with his success, Glendower proclaimed himself Prince of Wales, and he seized Conway Castle. Henry sent an army to quell the uprising, and one of the men leading Henry’s forces was Sir Edmund Mortimer, uncle of young Edmund 5th Earl of March, the person who should really have been king.

Glendower’s support came mainly from northern Wales, and significant allies were his cousins the three Tudor brothers, who had travelled from Anglesey to give their assistance. The uprising became more serious when Glendower defeated Henry’s forces, capturing Sir Edmund Mortimer who was held forransom.Henry,nodoubtcontentthatsomeonewithabetter right to the throne was imprisoned, refused to pay the ransom. So Mortimer was kept captive by Glendower, later taking his side and marrying Glendower’s daughter to seal the alliance.

Henry also married; his second wife was Jean of Brittany, but there would be no children. With the Welsh revolt continuing, another rebellion commenced as one of Henry’s most powerful allies, Henry Percy, son of the Earl of Northumberland, took up arms against the King.

The fiery Henry Percy, known as Hotspur, brought the rest of his family with him, the Percy family resentful that lands promised to them for supporting the then Henry Bolingbroke when he returned from exile had been given to others. To make matters worse for King Henry, Hotspur was married to Sir Edmund Mortimer’s sister, Elizabeth, the aunt of Edmund 5th Earl of March. The Glendower–Mortimer–Percy alliance was formed.

Undaunted, Henry marched to battle, and he moved so quickly that he was able to engage Hotspur before he had been joined by Glendower and Sir Edmund Mortimer. The Battle of Shrewsbury saw Henry’s forces attack Hotspur’s inferior numbers. The fighting was savage, with thousands of English longbowmen on either side for the first time, each archer able to discharge twelve arrows in a minute. Casualties were enormous, and Hotspur decided to risk all and win the battle by killing Henry. He charged forward. Henry retired, so drawing Hotspur and his charging knights deep into the royal ranks. In order to confuse his enemies, Henry had taken the wise, if ungallant, step of dressing two of his knights in his suits of armour. Determined to kill the King, Hotspur attacked with his sword again and again. But each time he killed the wrong man. Then, as he raised the visor of his helmet, possibly trying to spot the real Henry, an arrow struck Hotspur in the forehead and killed him.

Henry fought tirelessly in the battle, slaying at least 30 men. Although he avoided a confrontation with Hotspur, others did attack Henry. The assaults on him were not without danger, so much so that Henry was hurled from his saddle three times as his assailants tried to kill him. With great good fortune, each time Henry found himself on the ground and at risk of imminent death, his soldiers came to his rescue.

When Hotspur’s death became known, his forces lost their resolve and the battle ended, giving victory to Henry. Hotspur was buried; but there were rumours that he was still alive, so Henry had the corpse dug up and impaled on a spear. It was later beheaded and quartered, each quarter sent for display in a different city, the head being sent to York.

The Earl of Northumberland’s life was spared, but he was required to hand over his castles, and he was also obliged to pledge allegiance to Henry in York, having to ride into the city through the gate over which his son’s head was fastened. Sir Edmund Mortimer was taken to Windsor Castle, later escaping to join Northumberland and the Archbishop of York in another uprising. It ended in defeat. Northumberland and Sir Edmund Mortimer rode away, but the Archbishop was captured and executed – an act that shocked the Christian world.

In what was seen as God’s punishment, Henry came down with a serious illness, and he became partially paralysed.
The next twist in the rivalry of the Royal Houses occurred in 1406 when Richard Earl of Cambridge, the second son of the late Duke of York and brother of the present duke, married Anne Mortimer, sister of Edmund Mortimer 5th Earl of March, so uniting the Houses of Clarence and York. This union still allowed the two Houses to exist separately, as Anne and Richard were third and second in their respective Houses. Ahead of them in Clarence were Anne’s brothers Edmund 5th Earl of March and Roger; ahead of them in York was Richard’s elder brother Edward Duke of York. Roger Mortimer died in 1409. Anne died in childbirth in 1411, but her newborn son Richard survived; he was part Clarence/Mortimer and part York. With the death of his mother and her brother Roger, the child Richard was second in Clarence (behind his childless uncle Edmund 5th Earl of March) and third in York (behind the Duke of York and Richard Earl of Cambridge – the child’s father).
Matters improved for Henry as the Earl of Northumberland was slain in a skirmish, the King of Scotland was captured, Sir Edmund Mortimer died of plague, and Glendower disappeared never to be heard of again.
Henry’s crown was now secure, but he would never enjoy it. Still partly paralysed, he suffered illness after illness, then a mysterious disease said to have been leprosy or syphilis. Worse than physical illness, throughout his reign Henry was haunted by the guilt of having usurped and murdered the anointed king.
Taking advantage of the King’s infirmity, Parliament acquired more rights and the Church secured its long-desired privilege of burning heretics.

King Henry’s diseases now led to a disfigurement of his body and his face, such that he had to retire from public life. The sight was too shocking and would lose him respect. He also suffered fits, with epilepsy and cardiovascular problems being possibilities. The vacuum was filled when the King’s son, also named Henry, but better known as Prince Hal, took effective power.

So, in his early forties, this one-time warrior who had ridden with the Teutonic Knights and had stolen the throne of England, became a neurotic; a physical and mental wreck. However, he was encouraged by a prophecy that he would die in Jerusalem. To him that meant recovery and then death on crusade.

In March 1413, whilst at prayer in Westminster Abbey, the crippled king suffered a violent fit. He was carried away to the abbot’s quarters and died in the Jerusalem Chamber.

None of Henry’s would-be killers in duel, battle or conspiracy was able to strike a fatal blow. Yet in time Henry must have yearned for the mercy of a sudden and violent death.

The first attempt to kill Prince Hal was the Epiphany Plot at the beginning of his father’s reign. The conspirators intended to restore Richard II to the throne, and it was therefore necessary for them to kill not only Henry IV, but also his four sons. As we have seen, the assassins were betrayed and Henry IV and his sons escaped.

The second attempt to kill Prince Hal came nearer to success. During the rebellion of Owen Glendower, the 16-yearold Hal was nominally in command of his father’s army, although Henry Percy (Hotspur) was the true commander. With Hotspur’s desertion, Henry IV took charge, and Prince Hal fought alongside his father at the bloody Battle of Shrewsbury.

At a similar stage of the battle, Hotspur and Prince Hal must each have raised the visors on their helmets to survey the battle-scene, or maybe they were gasping for air. Then, random arrows from a shower or aimed by archers with intent to kill a knight struck each of Hotspur and Prince Hal little more than an inch from the eye. For Hotspur it was just above the eye, the arrowhead entered his brain and he was killed. For Prince Hal it was just below the eye. He carried on fighting, and after the battle he was taken away with the arrow still lodged in his face.

The arrow had entered Hal’s face below the left eye, close to his nose, taking a diagonal course, continuing below the nose and across his mouth to the right jaw bone. He was fortunate, it was the perfect angle to avoid the central spinal cord, the carotid artery and all brain connections. Any other minimally different angle would have been fatal.

In another piece of good fortune, the arrowhead was not triangular, rather it was a slim heart-shape – so it could be pulled out. The arrowhead had a short tube-like socket at the base, into which the wooden shaft was fitted. As it was being slowly pulled out of Hal’s face, the shaft came out of the socket, leaving the arrowhead behind.

Over the course of several days, the royal surgeon crafted a metal tube and screw. The tube was inserted in Hal’s face until it slipped into the empty socket at the base of the arrowhead. Next, the surgeon took the long screw; it had a handle at the end, much like a corkscrew. The screw was inserted in the tube and slowly screwed further and further down the tube. Then, another turn of the screw forced the tube to expand slightly within the socket until it was tightly fixed. Now the screw could be pulled out, bringing the tube and arrowhead with it – and all without any form of anaesthetic.

Having been flushed out with alcohol, daily applications of honey allowed the wound to heal. Hal remained scarred for life, but royal painters provided cosmetic improvement.

Hal took the throne on his father’s death in 1413 as King Henry V. He was the king’s oldest son and was crowned without opposition even though his father was a usurper and Edmund Mortimer 5th Earl of March of the senior House of Clarence had the better entitlement.

All the time, little was made of the child Richard, son of Richard Earl of Cambridge (younger brother of the Duke of York) and his late wife, Anne Mortimer (the sister of Edmund Mortimer 5th Earl of March). The child Richard was still second in the House of Clarence (behind his uncle the 5th Earl of March) and third in the House of York (behind the Duke of York and his brother the Earl of Cambridge – the child’s father).

Henry V started his reign as a popular king. Trouble came from a source that would cause difficulties for many future monarchs: religion. The Lollard movement was gaining strength; these were Christians (followers of John Wycliffe) who sought a purer form of Christianity, adhering strictly to the Bible. They did not believe in confession, they wanted to reduce the powers of priests, and they wanted to do away with the Pope. The Church, supported by the King, dealt with the problem by burning Lollards at the stake for heresy.

Sir John Oldcastle was the leader of the Lollards. Oldcastle was seized and condemned to death, but whilst in the Tower awaiting execution, he escaped. He then assembled a group of conspirators who devised a plot to kill Henry and his brothers. They planned to disguise themselves as mummers (from the Old French
momeur
– wearer of a mask), who were masked actors performing folk plays at festivals. As performers, they could easily gain access to the court at Eltham Palace.

However, their group was infiltrated by Henry’s spies, and in the knowledge of what was planned, Henry quietly left Eltham Palace on 8th January. The following morning, the day of the intended assassination, the conspirators were seized. They were tried and executed, apart from Oldcastle. He had escaped again, although not for long; he would eventually be executed along with many Lollards throughout the country.

The memory of Sir John Oldcastle lives on as Falstaff in several Shakespeare plays. In the early versions, the character is actually called Sir John Oldcastle; but following a complaint by one of Sir John’s descendants, Shakespeare was forced to change the name to Falstaff (after another knight, Sir John Fastolf who also may have been a Lollard). It was at a cost, for the change from a name with three syllables to a name with two syllables means that references to Falstaff are unmetrical throughout
Henry IV Part I
. In a piece of mischievous revenge by Shakespeare, in Act 1 Scene 2 Prince Hal refers to Falstaff as “my
old
lad of the
castle
”.

It was time for action, and that meant restarting the Hundred Years’ War by claiming the throne of France, the entitlement of Henry’s great-grandfather, Edward III. First Henry listed his demands. Apart from the French crown, he wanted the duchy of Normandy, half of Provence, the hand of King Charles’s daughter in marriage, a dowry of two million crowns, and more. The French actually tried to find a compromise, but the English demands would always be too much. Indeed, they were intended to be impossible to accept. In 1415, the negotiations collapsed.