In 1403, a confederacy was entered into between the Earl of Northumberland, the Earl of Worcester, Henry Percy (called Hotspur), Owen Glendowr, and others, for an insurrection {3a} against Henry IV. In order to prevent its being interfered with by incursions from the Scotch, and probably also in order to have a valiant and useful confederate, Archibald Earl Douglas, who had been taken prisoner at the battle of Hallidown Hill in 1402, was liberated by Percy on condition of his engaging to join in the enterprise, and was allowed to go home, from whence he returned with a select party of his own men. The Earl of Northumberland was unwell, and remained at Berwick; but his son Henry Percy commenced his march towards Cheshire, where he expected to be reinforced by the gentlemen of that county, who had always been attached to the memory of Richard II., and he was not disappointed in that respect. Percy, with Earl Douglas and a great army, departed out of the northern parts, leaving his (Percy’s) father sick, and came to Stafford, where his uncle the Earl of Worcester and he met, {3b} and increased their forces by all the means they could devise; from thence they proceeded towards Wales, expecting there additional aid and reinforcements. {3b} Not any of the old annalists or chroniclers give us information as to the exact line of march, which Percy and his forces pursued from the north into Shropshire. From the circumstance of the confederates being stated to have issued a proclamation, in which they asserted that Richard II. was alive at Chester, {4a} and invited his partisans to meet in arms in that city; {4a} and from the reinforcements which the confederates obtained from Cheshire, it might perhaps be inferred that they entered Staffordshire from Cheshire, by the Whitchurch and Prees road; but on the other hand, if Percy marched, as we are told he did, with his army to Stafford, and was there joined by the Earl of Worcester {4b} and his forces, it is tolerably clear that the insurgent army must have entered Shropshire on its eastward side, in marching towards Shrewsbury; and it has been suggested, with much appearance of probability, that they entered the county through Newport, by High Ercall and Haghmond Hill. {4c} In either case, it is certain that they advanced to Shrewsbury, and arrived there some time on the 19th of July, but too late to get possession of the town; and in marching from the north (as the river encompasses the town nearly on three sides), it is tolerably certain, that they advanced in order to attack it at the north or Castle Gate. Henry IV. had assembled an army against the Welsh, and was with it at Burton-upon-Trent, when he heard of the confederates’ hostile movements; and by the Earl of Dunbar’s advice, immediately marched towards Shrewsbury. He was at Burton-upon-Trent on the 16th of July, {4d} and on the 17th at Lichfield, {4e} from whence he would probably take the