Yet many still believed Henry to be a usurper. From the beginning of the reign rumour spread that Richard II still lived – that he was in Scotland, that he was in Wales, that he was everywhere. Dominican and Franciscan friars preached open sedition in marketplaces and taverns, with the news that the deposed king had survived. One Franciscan friar was brought before the king.
Henry: You have heard that King Richard is alive, and you are glad?
Friar: I am glad as a man is glad of the life of his friend, for I am in his debt, as are all my kin, for he was our patron and promoter.
Henry: You have said openly that he lives, and so you have excited and stirred the people against me.
Friar: No.
Henry: Tell the truth as it is in your heart. If you saw King Richard and me fighting on the battlefield together, with whom would you fight?
Friar: In truth with him. For I am more beholden to him.
Henry: Do you wish that I and all the lords of the realm were dead?
Friar: No.
Henry: What would you do if you had the victory over me?
Friar: I would make you duke of Lancaster.
Henry: Then you are not my friend.
Another interesting exchange took place with a friar.
Henry: Do you say that King Richard is alive?
Friar: I do not say that he is alive, but I say that if he is alive he is the true king of England.
Henry: He resigned.
Friar: He resigned against his will, in prison, which is against the law.
Henry: He was deposed.
Friar: When he was king, he was taken by force and put into prison, and despoiled of his realm, and you have usurped the crown.
At the conclusion of this spirited interview the king lost his temper and cried out, ‘By my head I shall have your head!’ So it proved.
The fact that Henry felt it necessary and expedient to confront these friars in person suggests how seriously he considered any such rumour or rumours to be. He could not be safe – he could not be an anointed king – if Richard were believed to be alive.
In the early months of 1400 some Ricardian loyalists attempted an insurrection by riding on Windsor. They were dispersed and fled westwards, where eventually they were surrounded and despatched by the citizens of Cirencester and Bristol. The king’s punishment was no more merciful. One of the accused, Sir Thomas Blount, was hanged at Smithfield for a minute or so before being cut down; he was then ordered to sit in front of a great fire while the executioner came to him with a razor in his hand. After begging the prisoner’s pardon he knelt down, opened up his stomach with his razor, and took out the bowels. Blount was asked if he would like a drink. ‘No,’ he replied, ‘for I do not know where I should put it.’ The executioner tied the bowels with a string so that, in the words of a contemporary, ‘the wind of the heart should not escape’; then he threw them into the fire. One of the bystanders shouted out in derision, ‘Go seek a master that can save you’. Blount cried that ‘I shall die in the service of my sovereign lord, the noble king Richard!’ The executioner cut off his head.
Yet the severity of the punishment did not deter other rebels. In the autumn of 1401 an attempt was made to assassinate Henry, by means of an ‘infernal machine’ with poisoned spikes placed in his bed. The plan fared no better than the attempt by another assassin to smear his saddle with a deadly poison. Yet Henry was aware that dangerous forces were working against him.
Protests grew of a different kind. Despite the king’s early promise to avoid taxation, he was soon obliged to break his word. In the parliament of 1401 the chief justice revealed that the deposed king’s ‘treasure’, if such it was, had disappeared into thin air. The real costs of defending and administering the realm were increasing to such an extent that the king was already heavily in debt. The Commons eventually granted his request for aid by taxation, but in return they submitted various petitions and complaints; only when these appeals were granted was their consent to taxation obtained. This would be the pattern for all of Henry’s parliaments. He would receive money only when he satisfied the demands of the Commons. In that sense he was not a strong king. The parliament of 1399, however illegally assembled and constituted, had in effect sanctioned the coronation of a new sovereign. Why should it not now attempt to curb that monarch’s power?
