Free 1415: Henry V's Year of Glory by Ian Mortimer Page A

to protest against those who asserted that he had an agreement to help the king of England – technically his agreement was not to hinder Henry – and to state that he was ready to march against the English as soon as he was commanded to do so.
    The reason for this change of tone was partly because of the shift of opinion made against him at Constance – and there was only somuch John could achieve by bribing cardinals. He wanted the French government to put pressure on the University of Paris, forcing them to discuss Jean Petit’s Justification anew and to clear it of heresy, thereby undermining Dr Gerson’s case. He also wanted all his Cabochien supporters pardoned, including the five hundred previously excluded. The dauphin had no option but to agree that the duke’s demands would be met in full. Just in case the dauphin reneged on his promise, the wily John made his oath conditional on the implementation of all his terms. 84
    Wednesday 31st
    The earl of March was due to ride to Cranbury today to meet the earl of Cambridge, Sir Thomas Gray and Sir Walter Lucy. But when he set out from Hamble in the Hook, he turned a different way: he went to see Henry at Portchester Castle. There he betrayed the conspirators who would have fought to make him king, telling Henry everything he knew.
    It must have been a tremendous shock. Henry believed he was performing God’s work. And yet these men – unimportant in God’s eyes, as far as Henry could see – could take it into their heads to rise against his great mission and his divine status.
    The implications were even more horrifying. He did not know how many other men were involved. It would have been reasonable to think that all those who stood to benefit from March’s accession would have supported him. That would have included Edward Courtenay, the heir to the earldom of Devon, and Lord Camoys, who was married to the earl’s aunt. It would have included various members of the Holland family – some of whom not only wanted revenge for the Epiphany Rising but also were related to the earl of March through his mother, Eleanor Holland. Then there were the relations of the other plotters: Lord Clifford, Lord Percy, Sir John Gray, Lady Despenser and maybe even the duke of York. What did the duke know about his brother’s plot?
    As for Lord Scrope – how could he have known about this plot and not said anything? Scrope had been in Wales with Henry; he had served him and his father loyally for well over a decade. He was a memberof the privy council, and one of the trustees of Henry’s estates. The chronicler Monstrelet asserted that Scrope ‘slept every night with the king’. 85 It was like Oldcastle’s rebellion all over again – a trusted friend had betrayed him and sought his death. Thomas Walsingham’s Chronica Maiora , made it clear how this betrayal was perceived by contemporaries. Being so close to the king, and so important, Scrope was presumed to have been the leader of the conspiracy; and being so often in France, it was presumed that he must have been bribed by the French. Walsingham describes him as ‘the first and chief’ plotter, and a man
in whose faith and constancy the king had trusted his whole heart … He was so much esteemed by the king that when the latter held public or private deliberations, the discussion was decided by his advice. He pretended, moreover, such gravity of demeanour, such modesty in his bearing, so much religious zeal, that whatever he said the king decided it must be done, as if he were an oracle descended from Heaven. If a solemn embassy had to be sent to France, the king thought that it should be carried out by the ability and person of Henry Scrope. But he entered into negotiations with the enemy, as a hidden foe to his lord the king, whom he soothed with false assurances. 86
    From this distance in time, and with the original records available to us, we can see that Scrope had not had any dealings with the French other than