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Percy and, though Hotspur recovered it after a month's siege, he could only get the half of his expenses out of the king, with a hint that if he had taken proper precautions they need not have been incurred. He complained bitterly, too, that his soldiers in the Scottish marches were left unpaid (, p. 60; Chronique de la Traïson, p. 284; Ord. Privy Council, i. 146–53, ii. 57). He was evidently weary of his Welsh charge, and on his appointment on 1 Sept. as one of the commissioners to negotiate a peace with Scotland, Sir Hugh le Despenser succeeded him as justiciar (ib. i. 168;, i. 242). In March 1402 he was called upon to surrender Anglesey to the Prince of Wales, and to accept compensation out of the Mortimer estates (Ord. Privy Council, i. 177). Roxburgh Castle was at the same time transferred to Ralph Neville, earl of Westmorland, the great rival of the Percys in the north. This arrangement seems to have been part of a scheme by which Hotspur became lieutenant of North Wales, his uncle, Thomas Percy, earl of Worcester [q. v.], receiving the same position in South Wales (ib. i. 146, 173). But the appointment, if made, never took effect.

The state of affairs on the Scottish border imperatively demanded the presence of the warden of the east march. After a preliminary raid in June, the Scots in August repeated the great invasion of 1388. A great force under Murdoch Stewart, earl of Fife, son of the regent Albany, and Archibald, fourth earl of Douglas, harried Northumberland with fire and sword, and, according to one account, penetrated beyond the Wear. Thirty French knights were with them. But the Percys had now the assistance of the cool-headed George Dunbar, earl of March, Hotspur's old antagonist at Otterburn. They occupied a position at Millfield on the Till, some six miles north of Wooler, completely commanding the line of retreat of the main body of the Scots. The latter coming up on 14 Sept., and finding their progress barred, halted irresolutely on the slope of Humbledon Hill (called by the chroniclers Homildoun Hill), within bowshot of the English. March restrained Hotspur's eagerness to charge, and the English archers riddled the exposed ranks of the Scots. Within an hour the battle was won, the English men-at-arms having never come into action. Five earls, including Douglas and Fife, and many scores of gentlemen of name laid down their arms; five hundred of the fugitives were drowned in the Tweed, thirteen miles from the field (, ii. 251;, p. 180; [a page of Hotspur, who was present], p. 359; , i. 291).

This brilliant success of the Percys stood in sharp contrast to the miserable failure of the king's own expedition into Wales, and their relations, which for some time had not been very cordial, soon became strained almost to breaking-point. Henry was threatened by a combination of Scots, Welsh, and French, and his position was critical. Yet he gave mortal offence to Hotspur by forbidding the ransom of his brother-in-law, Sir Edmund Mortimer [q. v.], who had been captured by Glendower, and by taking into his own hands the prisoners made at Humbledon. Hotspur refused to send up Douglas to London with the other prisoners, and, in a stormy interview with the king during the October parliament, demanded permission to ransom Mortimer. Henry refused, and high words were exchanged, the king calling him a traitor, and even drawing his dagger upon him. Whereupon Hotspur withdrew, crying, ‘Not here, but in the field’ (Cont. Eulog. Hist. iii. 295). Wavrin's version is that the king had given him ‘ung grant soufflet.’ Meanwhile, Hotspur's father had been pressing for payment of the arrears of his own and his son's salaries as wardens of the marches, while Henry, on being asked what had become of Richard's treasure, threw the responsibility upon the earl. But an outward reconciliation was effected, Henry appointing commissioners to report on all claims in reference to the Scottish prisoners, and endeavouring to conciliate the earl, and perhaps dissociate him from his son, by a grant (March 1403) of Scotland south of the Tweed, including the county of Douglas.

Hotspur in May besieged the border peels of Cocklaw, near Yetholm, and Ormiston, near Hawick, but, meeting with considerable resistance, departed with the undertaking to surrender if not relieved by 1 Aug., and recrossed the border. The arrangement was communicated to the king, who was on his way northward in the middle of July to assist the Percys on the borders, when he suddenly learnt that Hotspur was on the Welsh border and had thrown off his authority (Ord. Privy Council, i. 207; Fœdera, viii. 313). He was aware that the Percys were still disaffected, but does not seem to have been prepared for their revolt. They had written to many nobles protesting their loyalty, but criticising Henry's government, more especially his financial administration, and expressing their determination to get those who poisoned his mind against them replaced by better counsellors. A large