Greatest Battles
SHREWSBURY, SHROPSHIRE, ENGLAND, 21 JULY 1403
On the night of 21 July 1403, a 16-year-old soldier was carried into the candlelit sanctuary of Shrewsbury Abbey with a bloodied rag pressed against his face. Shortly before, he’d been evacuated from a nearby battlefield when an arrow had hit him just a little below his right eye.
Ordinarily, the young man would have been left to die. After all, this was medieval Britain, hundreds of years before the advent of anaesthetics, military surgeons or combat medics. The wounded teenager, however, was no ordinary soldier. He was Prince Hal, eldest son of King Henry IV and heir to the throne of England.
The origins of the Battle of Shrewsbury, in which Hal had just fought, could be traced back to the reign of the previous monarch, Richard II. His 22-year grip on power had been characterised by revolts, tyranny and treason and was eventually cut short in 1399 after his cousin Henry Bolingbroke staged a coup d’état. Richard was then locked away in Pontefract Castle, where he was starved to death, while Bolingbroke had himself crowned King Henry IV in his place.
Although Bolingbroke led the powerful House of Lancaster, he could never have pulled off this act of treason without some heavyweight help. Among those who’d backed him was the Percy family from Northumbria, whose eldest son Harry ‘Hotspur’ soon became Henry’s henchman-in-chief.
One important source of income for these supporters’ families came from ransoming hostages captured in battle. Hotspur’s allegiance to Henry IV had less to do with loyalty than it did with the opportunity it presented for gaining greater wealth and power.
In 1402, after routing a Scottish uprising on behalf of Henry IV, he took over 80 noblemen prisoner. Among them was the powerful Earl of Douglas, for whom he hoped to get a substantial ransom. The king, however, believed the likes of Douglas posed less of a threat if they remained in royal custody, so he demanded that Hotspur hand his hostages over to the crown.
Things were already tense between Henry IV and the Percy family. The king still owed the clan £20,000 for their help in seizing power. Meanwhile, land in Cumbria that he’d promised them had instead been handed over to his relatives the Neville family. For Hotspur, the king’s latest demand, which would deprive him of his rightful spoils of war, was a step too far. Not only did Hotspur refuse to hand over his hostages, but he also began planning a coup of his own. In a move that sounds like a storyline from Game Of Thrones, Hotspur now persuaded his hostage the Earl of Douglas to join his uprising against his former boss. He then made a pact with Welsh rebel Owain Glyndwr, whom he’
