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Nevertheless although she had been very honourably A.D. 1400. sent back, as has been said, no rents or revenues were assigned to her for her dowry, for which the king and all the Princes of France were not well pleased with the King of England, and the French were very desirous that the King of France might incline himself to go to war with the English.

Here ends the fifth book of this fourth volume, and the sixth and last follows.

HERE BEGINS THE SIXTH AND LAST BOOK OF THIS
FOURTH VOLUME, WHICH CONTAINS THIRTY-ONE
CHAPTERS. IN THE FIRST IT TREATS OF THE
REASON WHY DISSENSION AROSE BETWEEN KING
HENRY AND THE LORDS PERCY AFTER THE DEATH
OF KING RICHARD. CHAPTER I.

A.D. 1402. AFTER the death of King Richard and [after] Sir Thomas de Percy, then Constable of England, had by order of King Henry escorted beyond sea Queen Isabella, widow of the late King Richard, and had

given her into the hands of the French lords, as is above contained, the said Sir Thomas being returned into England to the said King Henry, news came how that the Earl of Douglas, a Scotchman, accompanied by a great force, had entered England, where he was doing much damage. Wherefore, the king ordered the said Percy his constable [with a] large army to stop the incroachment of the said Earl of Douglas, and the constable having this charge made such diligence to pursue his enemies that he found and gave them battle, in which he remained the victor, and took prisoner the said Earl of Douglas, whom he brought to his own country, where he placed him under good guards. When King Henry knew that the Earl of Douglas was a prisoner, and that his army had won the battle, he sent a pursuivant to the said Sir Thomas de Percy to order him to send the Earl of Douglas to him in the town of London, to whom the said Percy replied that the Earl of Douglas was his prisoner and not the king's, and that he would not send him, but that he would himself go in a little

while to him to make his excuses. The king was A.D. 1402. much disturbed at this answer, and bethought himself how he could be revenged on the said Percy, forgetting the good services received by him from the said Percy and his relations and allies, for as has been said above the Earl of Northumberland, father of the said Sir Thomas, with the aid of his children and allies had been the principal cause of the deposition of King Richard, of the rise and glory of King Henry under certain promises which King Henry made him to provide for them and advance them to great offices in the kingdom, of which he performed nothing. The said Sir Thomas de Percy about six days after the departure of the pursuivant betook himself to London to the king, who when he was about to do him reverence and excuse himself demanded very haughtily if he had brought him the Earl of Douglas, to which the said Sir Thomas answered that he had not, and that he was his prisoner in his own country, at which speech the king got very angry and gave the said Percy a heavy box on the ear, upon which Sir Thomas departed without taking his leave, mounting his horse and returned to his house, and complained of this insult to his father and his brother John de Percy, the Earl of Exeter, his uncle, and his other friends, and prayed them that they would help him to be avenged, who all together promised him aid and comfort, saying that as they had been the means of raising up King Henry, they would take the trouble to oust him and drive him from the kingdom.

1 Returned to his country, where on arrival he made complaint to his father, the Earl of Northumberland, Sir John de Percy, his brother, and

Sir Thomas de Percy, Earl of
Worcester (Orcester), his uncle, and
his other friends, praying, &c., S.

A.D.

1402-3.

How King Henry discomfited in battle the Lords
Percy and their allies. CHAPTER II.

THIS resolution being taken by the party of Percy, they sent for all their friends and allies in every place where they thought themselves beloved to serve them in their need, and then went into the country of Wales without giving any sign of their intentions, and there found some great lords of the country, who they knew were of the party of King Richard when he was living, and had taken a great hatred against King Henry, telling these lords that if they liked they would help them to drive out of Wales all those who were in castles and towns on the part of King Henry, and to replace their rightful heir of the principality of Wales in possession and the other lords in their patrimonies from which they had formerly been driven. out by King Edward the Second1 of this name, who had disinherited them and annexed the country of Wales to the Crown of England. These Welsh lords hearing the Percys speak in this manner were rejoiced, for sooth to say the Welsh never naturally loved the English, for they thought themselves more noble by extraction than the English, for that they issued and descended from the ancient Britons, who formerly held all Great Britain, which now the English occupy, and which as in this history is above contained in the first volume a great prince named Hengist conquered from the Britons, and repeopled with divers nations, that is to say, with Saxons, Germans, Flemings, Picards, Normans, and other people, and thus was the country called England from Hengist, which name has remained to it to this day.

1 Should be Edward the First.

So then to return to our history, the men of Wales, A.D. 1403. very glad of the alliance made and agreed upon with the Earl of Northumberland and the Lords Percy, asked that letters of this alliance might be made, written, and sealed with the seals of both parties, and moreover the more firmly to maintain this alliance they swore and promised on the Body of Our Lord to keep these agreements unto death. These matters. thus passed, each one on his side sent for friends, followers, and allies round about, and the lords of the principality of Wales assembled their power and appointed day and place for assembling in one army in order to take the field. The Earl of Northumberland, Sir Thomas de Percy, and Sir Henry went into their marches, and sent into Scotland to the Earl of Douglas, on whose account, as you have heard, this ill-will had arisen, who in like manner sent for all his friends, who came in great numbers, for the said Lords Percy had delivered him from prison, foregoing his ransom that he might aid them. At length all these lords assembled in Northumberland, where they found themselves to number twenty-four thousand stout archers, and two thousand lances, who were always multiplying and increasing, and who all together and in good order took the field, where they commenced raising fires and putting to the sword all those whom they knew to be opposed to them, and who were not on their guard, for the enterprise was so sudden and kept so secret, that if King Henry had not had private friends who advised him of it secretly, the thing would have gone badly for him, and he would not have been able or known how to prevent being totally undone, and driven from his kingdom, or taken prisoner or slain. But as soon as these Lords Percy with the Welsh and Scotch had joined together and entered the country, messengers came to London from all sides and related to King Henry the great evils

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