History of the English People, Volume III: The Parliament, 1399-1461; The Monarchy 1461-1540Green, John Richard
History
History of the English People, Volume III: The Parliament, 1399-1461; The Monarchy 1461-1540
Green, John Richard
Great Britain -- History
In June Henry marched northward to end the trouble from the Scots. With
their usual policy the Scottish army under the Duke of Albany withdrew as
the English crossed the border, and looked coolly on while Henry invested
the castle of Edinburgh. The wants of his army forced him in fact to raise
the siege; but even success would have been fruitless, for he was recalled
by trouble nearer home. Wales was in full revolt. The country had been
devoted to Richard; and so notorious was its disaffection to the new line
that when Henry's son knelt at his father's feet to receive a grant of the
Principality a shrewd bystander murmured, "He must conquer it if he will
have it." The death of the fallen king only added to the Welsh disquiet,
for in spite of the public exhibition of his body he was believed to be
still alive. Some hold that he had escaped to Scotland, and an impostor
who took his name was long maintained at the Scottish Court. In Wales it
was believed that he was still a prisoner in Chester Castle. But the
trouble would have died away had it not been raised into revolt by the
energy of Owen Glyndwr or Glendower. Owen was a descendant of one of the
last native Princes, Llewelyn-ap-Jorwerth, and the lord of considerable
estates in Merioneth. He had been squire of the body to Richard the
Second, and had clung to him till he was seized at Flint. It was probably
his known aversion from the revolution which had deposed his master that
brought on him the hostility of Lord Grey of Ruthin, the stay of the
Lancastrian cause in North Wales; and the same political ground may have
existed for the refusal of the Parliament to listen to his prayer for
redress and for the restoration of the lands which Grey had seized. But
the refusal was embittered by words of insult; when the Bishop of St.
Asaph warned them of Owen's power the lords retorted that "they cared not
for barefoot knaves." They were soon to be made to care. At the close of
1400 Owen rose in revolt, burned the town of Ruthin, and took the title of
Prince of Wales.
[Sidenote: Owen Glyndwr]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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