MarginaliaK. Henry the first of English kings, the christians with first.As king Henry the. iiij. who was the deposer of king Richard, was the first of all English kinges that began the vnmercifull burning of Christes saintes, for stāding against the Pope: so was this W. Sautre the true and faythfull Martyr of Christ, the first of all them in Wicliffes time, which I finde to be burned in the raygne of the foresaid king, which was in þ^e yere of our lord. 1400

After the martyrdome of this godly man, the rest of the same companye began to keepe them more closelye, for feare of the king, who was all together bent to holde with the popes prelacie. Suche was the raigne of thys prince, that to the godly he was euer terrible, in hys exactions immesurable, to few men hartely beloued, but princes neuer lack flatterers about them. Neither was the time of his raygne very quiet, but full of trouble, of bloud, & misery. Such was their desire of king Richard agayn, in the raygne of this king, that many yeares after he was rumored to be alyue (of them whych desired belike that to be true, which they knewe to be false) for the which, diuers were executed. MarginaliaMuch murder and beheading in K. Henries tyme the 4.For the space of sixe or seuen yeares together, almost no yeare passed wythout some conspiracy agaynst the king. Long it were here to recite the blood of all such nobles and other, which was spilt in the raygne of this kyng, as the Erle of * Marginalia* It is douted.Kent, Earle of Salisbury, earle of Huntington, named Iohn Holland &c. as writeth the story of S. Albans. But þ^e english writers differ something in their names, and make mention of. iiij. Earles, of Surrey, of Execester, of Salisbury, and L. Spenser Earle of Gloucester. Ex lib. cuitit. Calendarium Bruti.

MarginaliaEx calendario Bruti.And the next yeare followyng, sir Iohn Clarendon knight, with two of his seruants, the Priour of Laund, with. 8. Friers, were hanged and quartered. And after these Henry Percy the yonger, the Earle ot Worcester, named Thomas Percy his Vncle, L. of Kynderton, and L. Richard de Vernoua. Marginalia1403.The Earle of Northūberland scarce escaped with his pardon, an. 1403. In the which yere, the prison in Cornhil called the tonne, was turned into the conduit, there now standing.  

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Rebellion against Henry IV

Foxe had mixed feeling about Richard II, largely based on the king's treatment of the Lollards. Foxe saw Richard as more inclined to persecute the Lollards than was his predecessor Edward III (a good king, in Foxe's view), but coming well short of the lethal ferocity of Henry IV. Foxe regards Henry IV as a usurper and an evil king (largely because of the passage of De heretico comburendo in 1401 and the sharp prosecution of heresy in his reign). In Foxe's worldview, such wickedness cried out for providential chastisement and Foxe saw this reflected in the brevity and instability of Henry's reign. This, and the desire to convey the always timely lesson that persecutors of the True Church did not prosper, led Foxe to focus on the conspiracies and rebellions of Henry IV's reign.

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This account of the turmoils of Henry IV's reign was first printed in the 1570 edition and was unchanged in subsequent editions. Foxe cites two sources for two different lists of nobles executed for conspiring against Henry; the 'story of St. Albans', that is College of Arms MS Arundel 7, a version of Thomas of Walsingham's Chronica majora (see Thomas of Walsingham, Historia Anglicana, ed. H. T. Riley, 2 vols., Rolls Series 28, II, 244-45) and a 'lib. cui. tit. Calendarium Bruti', which must be one of the numerous continuations of the Brut in Latin. (The list of nobles in both versions is inaccurate and confusing. John Holland, the earl of Huntingdon and duke of Exeter, conspired with his nephew Thomas Holland, the earl of Kent, and with the earl of Salisbury against Henry IV in 1400. Kent and Salisbury were killed in battle; Exeter was executed). Foxe took his account of the 1403 conspiracy and 1405 rebellion from Arundel 7 (see Historia Anglicana, pp. 269-70 and 279). The libel against Henry IV posted on church doors was taken from a chronicle which Foxe called the 'Scala Mundi'. This actually a 'Compilatio de gestis brittanorum et anglorum' in College of Arms MS Arundel 5 (the libel is on fos. 163r-164v). Foxe called this chronicle the 'Scala Mundi' because Arundel 5 begins with a medieval chronological table entitled the 'Scala Mundi'.

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Thomas S. Freeman
University of Sheffield

To lette passe other moe hanged and quartered the same time, as Blount knight, and Benet Kely knight, & Thomas Wintersel Esquier. Also the same yeare was takē and executed sir Bernard Brokes knight, sir Iohn Shilley knyght, sir Iohn Mandelyn, and sir Wylliam Frierby. After all these L. Henry earle of Northumberland, and L. Bardolfe conspiring the kinges death, wer taken in the North and beheaded, which was in the. viij yeare of thys king Henry.

This ciuill rebellion of so many nobles and other against the king, declared what grudging harts the people then bare toward this king Henry. MarginaliaArchb. of Yorke, and L. Moubray against K. Henry. 4.Among whom I cannot pretermit here also the Archbishop of Yorke named Richard Scrope, who with the L. Moubrey Marshall of Englande, gathered a great companye in the North country, against the foresayd king, MarginaliaL. Bardolfe. Hen. Percy. Erle of Northūberland against the Kyng.to whom also was adioyned the helpe of L. Bardolfe, and Henrye Percy earle of Northumb. Ex chron. D. Albani. And to styr vp the people more wyllingly to take their parts, they collected certayne Articles against the sayde kyng, to the number of. x. and fastened them vpon the doores of churches and monasteries, to be red of all men in English. MarginaliaEx histor. de Scala mundi.Which articles if anye be disposed to vnderstande, and forsomuch as the same also contayne a great part of the doinges betwene king Henry and king Richarde aforesayd, I thought for the better opening of the matter here vnder to insert the same, in suche fourme as I found them in the history of Scala mundi expressed.

MarginaliaArticles set vpon church dors against K. Henry 4.
1405 IN the name of God. Amen. Before the Lorde Iesus Christ, iudge of the quicke and dead. &c. We A. B. C.D. &c. not long sithens became bounde by othe vpon the sacred Euangelicall booke, vnto our soueraigne Lord Richard, late kyng of England and Fraunce, in the presence of many prelates potentates, and nobilitie of the realme: that we so long as we liued, should beare true allegeance and fidelitie towardes him and his heyres succedyng hym in the kyngdome by iust title, right, & lyne, accordyng to the statutes and custome of this realme of Englād: By vertue wherof, we are bound to foresee that no vices or haynous offences arise in the common weale do take effect or wished ende, but that we ought to geue our selues & our goodes to withstande the same, without feare of sword or death what soeuer, vpō payne of periurie, which payne is euerlastyng dānation. Wherfore, we seyng & perceauing diuers horrible crimes, & great enormities dayly w^tout ceassing to be cōmitted, by þ^e children of þ^e deuil & Sathans souldiors agaynst þ^e supremacy of þ^e church of Rome, þ^e libertie of the church of Englād, þ^e lawes of þ^e realme, agaynst the person of K. Richard & his heires, against the prelates, noble men, religion, & cōminaltie, and finally agaynst the whole weale publicque of the realme of England, to the great offence of the maiesty of Almighty God, and to the prouocatiō of his iust wrath and vengeaunce towardes the realme and people of the same. And fearyng also the destruction both of the churche of Rome and Englād, and the ruyne of our coūtrey to be at hand, hauyng before our eyes the iustice & kyngdome of God, callyng alwayes on the name of Iesus, hauyng an assured confidence in his clemency mercy and power: haue here taken vnto vs certaine articles subscribed in forme folowyng, to be proponed, tried, and heard before the iust Iudge Iesus Christ, and the whole world, to his honour, the deliuerie of the churche, the clergy and comminaltie, and to the vtilitie and profite of the weale publicke. But if (which God forbid) by force, feare or violence of wicked persons we shalbe cast in prison, or by violent death preuented, so as in this worlde we shall not be able to proue the sayd articles as we would wish, then doe wee appeale to the high celestiall iudge, that he may iudge and discerne the same, in the day of hys supreme iudgement.

MarginaliaA bill of Articles set vp agaynst K. Henry. 4.¶ First, we depose, say, excepte, and entend to proue agaynst the L. Henry Derby, sonne vnto the Lord Iohn of Gaunt late Duke of Lancaster, and commonly called kyng of England (him selfe pretēding the same, although without all right and title therunto) and agaynst his adherents, fautours, & complices: that euer they haue been, are, and wilbe, traitours, inuaders, and destroyers of Gods churche in Rome, England, Wales, and Ireland, and of our soueraigne Lord Richard late kyng of England, his heyres, his kyngdome, and common wealth, as shall hereafter manifestly appeare.

Secondarely we depose &c. agaynst the sayd Lord Henry, for that he had conceaued deuised, and conspired certaine haynous crimes and traiterous offences agaynst his sayd soueraigne Lord Richard his state and dignitie, as manifestly didde appeare in the contention betwene the sayd Lord Hēry, & the Lord Thomas duke of Northfolke begon at Couentry, but not finished throughly. Afterwardes he was sent in exile, by sentence of the sayd kyng Richard, by the agreement of his father the Lord Iohn Duke of Lancaster, by the voyce of diuers of the Lordes temporall, and nobilitie of the realme, and also by his owne consent: there to remaine for a certeine time appoynted vnto him by the sayd Lordes, and withall he was bounde by othe not to returne into England before he had obteyned fauour and grace of the kyng. Not long after, whē the kyng was departed into Ireland, for reformation of that country apperteynyng to the crowne of England, but as then rebellyng against the same: the said Lord Henry in the meane tyme contrary to his othe and fidelitie, and long before the tyme limited vnto him was expired: withall his fautors and inuaders, secretly entred into the realme, swearyng and protestyng before the face of the people, that his comming into the realme in the absence of the kyng was for none other cause, but that hee mighte in humble sorte with the loue and fauour of the