Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 26.djvu/50

Henry V the submission of the counties of Merioneth and Carnarvon. But Percy shortly afterwards resigned, and his departure was the signal for a fresh outbreak. On 30 Aug. the prince was ordered to advance again against the rebels (, p. 242), and in October the king joined him in person (, p. 68). After harrying the country the king (15 Oct.) was back at Shrewsbury, where he arranged for the administration of Wales. The prince was to have Anglesey with 1,000l. yearly out of the estates of the Earl of March, and Thomas Percy, earl of Worcester, was appointed as his tutor (Ann. Hen. IV, p. 361). On 8 May 1402 Henry gave his assent in London to a proposed marriage between himself and Catherine, sister of the young King Eric of Denmark. On the 14th he was at Berkhampstead, and on the 26th at Tutbury. Meantime Owen Glendower [q. v.] had been gathering strength in Wales, and a fresh invasion became necessary in September. Henry commanded one of the three divisions of the English army, but the expedition proved a failure (, p. 76; Ann. Hen. IV, pp. 343–4). On 7 March 1403 the prince was appointed by the council to represent his father in Wales and the marches (Fœdera, viii. 291). He fixed his headquarters at Shrewsbury, and early in May again invaded Wales. The Welsh retired before him, but he burned Glendower's residences at Sycarth and Glyndyvrdwy, and devastated the whole cymmwd of Edeyrnion and part of Powys (Proc. Privy Council, ii. 61–2; a letter from Henry, dated Shrewsbury, 15 May, clearly belonging to 1403, see, p. 342). On 30 May he wrote to the council that his troops were eager for pay, that the rebels were taking advantage of his difficulties, and that he had been forced to sell his own jewels to meet the most pressing needs (Proc. Privy Council, ii. 62–3). On 16 June the sheriffs of the border counties were ordered to send troops to his assistance (Fœdera, viii. 304), and on 10 July the king ordered 1,000l. to be sent him with all speed, in order that he might keep his troops together (Proc. Privy Council, i. 206–7). Meantime Glendower was very active, but the prince could offer no resistance.

News of the conspiracy of the Percies reached the king at Lichfield on 11 July 1403, and he at once joined his son at Shrewsbury. Hotspur was close at hand, and on the 21st the decisive battle was fought at Berwick, two miles north of the town. The prince fought bravely; although wounded in the face with an arrow, he charged and broke the opposing line (Ann. Hen. IV, pp. 367–8). Shakespeare's story that he slew Hotspur with his own hand is unauthenticated. On the king's departure to meet Northumberland the prince was left at Shrewsbury with full powers to deal with the rebels in Cheshire, Denbigh, and Flint (Fœdera, viii. 320; cf. Rot. Viag. 27 ap., p. 365, where it is stated that ‘the prince is not able to move’). Henry seems to have been absent from the border during part of the winter. In the council held at Lichfield on 29 and 30 Aug. the gentlemen of Hereford requested that the prince might be thanked for the good protection of the county, and at the same time money was granted to pay his troops (Proc. Privy Council, i. 231–2, 235). During October Henry was able to act with vigour, and in November, accompanied by his brother Thomas, attempted to relieve Coyty Castle. On 11 March 1405 he wrote from Hereford that the rebels having burned Grosmont Castle in Monmouthshire, he had sent Lord Talbot against them, who had defeated the Welsh with heavy loss, but he does not seem to have been present in person (ib. i. 248–50; Cont. Eul. Hist. iii. 402). An intended invasion of Wales by the king was delayed, in consequence of Scrope's conspiracy, till September. In that month Coyty Castle was at length relieved, but the expedition was otherwise unsuccessful. On 22 Sept. the king wrote from York that he had left his ‘first-born son in Wales for the chastisement of the rebels’.

Early in 1406 negotiations were opened without result for a marriage between the prince and one of the French king's daughters. On 3 April the commons prayed the king to thank the prince for his services in chastening the rebels, and begged that the command on the Welsh marches should be entrusted to him (Rot. Parl. iii. 569); his appointment as lieutenant in Wales was renewed two days later. On 7 June the commons once more petitioned that the prince might be sent into Wales with all haste (ib. iii. 576), and he accordingly went there shortly after. But in December he was back in London. He took part in the presentation of the great petition against the lollards (ib. iii. 583–4;, Const. Hist. iii. 359), and was present in the council on 8 Dec., and again on 23 Jan. 1407. In the summer he was again in Wales and captured Aberystwith. Glendower recovered by a stratagem soon after, but on 1 Nov. the town once more surrendered to the English (, Hist. Angl. ii. 277; Fœdera, viii. 419—wrong date—497–9). In November Henry led an expedition into Scotland in such force that the Scots yielded without fighting, and a truce was made for a year (, liv. i. c. 35). He attended the parliament at Gloucester, where he was