Henry le Despenser

During the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, rebels from Kent and Essex marched to London and, once admitted to the city, managed to capture the Tower of London. Richard, who had promised to agree to all the demands of the peasants, met the rebels outside the city, where the leader of the peasants Wat Tyler was killed and the rebellion was ended. The king's promises were retracted.

The rebellion quickly spread to other parts of England, including the diocese of Norwich, where it lasted for less than a fortnight.[11] On 14 June a group of rebels reached Thetford and from there the insurrection spread over south-western Norfolk towards the Fens. At the same time the rebels, led by a local dyer, Geoffrey Litster, moved across the north-eastern part of the county, urging insurrection throughout the local area. Over the next few days, the rebels converged on Norwich, Lynn and Swaffham.[11] Norwich, then one of the largest and most important cities in the realm, was taken and occupied by Litster and his followers, who caused considerable damage to the property and possessions of their enemies once they managed to enter the city.[11] The Norwich rebels then travelled to Yarmouth, destroying legal records and landowners' possessions; other insurgents moving across north-east Norfolk destroyed court rolls and taxation documents; there were numerous incidents of pillage and extortion across the whole county.[11]

The site of the Battle of North Walsham

Despenser first heard news of the rising in his own diocese at a time when he was absent at his manor of Burley in Rutland, 100 miles (160 km) west of Norwich. Armed, he hastened back to Norfolk via Peterborough, Cambridge and Newmarket, with a company of only eight lances and a small body of bowmen. His followers increased on the way, and by the time he reached North Walsham, near the Norfolk coast, he had a considerable force under his command. There he found the rebels entrenched and defended by makeshift fortifications.

According to the English chronicler Thomas Walsingham,[2] in the Battle of North Walsham, Henry le Despenser himself led the assault and overpowered his enemies in hand-to-hand fighting. Many of the peasants were slain or captured, including the rebels' leader, who was hanged, drawn and quartered soon afterwards. Despenser personally superintended Litster's execution. In the following months he proceeded to deal with other rebels in his diocese. But the rigour with which he put down the rebellion made him highly unpopular in Norfolk and in the following year a plot was organised to murder him. The scheme was betrayed in time by one of the conspirators, and the plotters were dealt with by the authorities.[2][12]

Following his successful crushing of the rebellion, Despenser commissioned a reredos to be placed on the altar in St Luke's chapel, Norwich Cathedral. The reredos, which has survived, illustrates scenes from Christ's final days. Despenser's intention may have been to remind the peasantry to accept their lot in life, as Christ had done.[13]

A map of Flanders and northern France during the 1383 campaign in Flanders, including the main area affected by the crusaders

Soon after Urban VI had been elected pope in 1378, Robert of Geneva was elected as a rival pope, taking the name Pope Clement VII and removing himself to Avignon. The so-called Western Schism subsequently caused a great crisis in the Church and created rivalry and conflict throughout Christian Europe. It was eventually resolved as a result of the Council of Constance (1414–1418).

In the autumn and winter of 1382, Flanders had been invaded by Charles VI of France. Philip Van Artevelde had fallen at the Battle of Roosebeke and the country had been compelled to submit to the French king, who obliged all the conquered towns to recognise Clement VII. In response to events in Flanders, Pope Urban issued bulls for the proclamation of a crusade, choosing Bishop Despenser to lead a campaign against the followers of Clement VII in Flanders. He granted Despenser extraordinary powers for the fulfillment of his mission and plenary indulgence to those who should take part in or contribute support to it.[14]

Both the commons and King Richard II were enthusiastic about the launch of a crusade to Flanders, for political and economic reasons: revenues from the English wool staple (that had ceased following the advance of the French) could be resumed; sending the bishop and not the king or his uncles to Flanders would enable John of Gaunt's unpopular plans for a royal crusade to Castille to be abandoned; French forces would be drawn away from the Iberian Peninsula; and Anglo-Flemish relations would be strengthened. Another advantage in approving a crusade was that its cost would be borne by the Church and not by means of government levies: ever since the Peasants' Revolt, the government was fearful of the consequences of imposing a tax to pay for a new war against the French.

On 6 December 1382, Richard ordered the crusade to be published throughout England.[2] Later that month the bishop and his men took the cross at St. Paul's Cathedral. In February 1383 Parliament, after hesitating in entrusting the mission to a churchman, ultimately assigned to him the subsidy which it had granted the king in the previous October for carrying on the war in Flanders.[15] The king's only stipulation was that the crusaders should await the arrival of William Beauchamp before launching offensive operations against the French and their allies.

The bishop issued mandates for the publication of the bulls[16] and the archbishop did the same.[17] The enterprise was ardently seconded by the friars and contributions of immense value were made from all quarters, but especially, according to Henry Knighton,[18] from "the rich ladies of England". The English landed at Calais in May 1383 and proceeded to attack Gravelines, which was in the hands of the French. Gravelines, Dunkirk and the neighbouring country (including the towns of Bourbourg, Bergues, Poperinghe and Nieuport) soon fell. On 25 May the crusaders put to flight a Franco-Flemish army, under the command of the Count of Flanders, in a pitched battle fought near Dunkirk.[19][20] Despenser was then persuaded by his followers to attempt to besiege Ypres, which was to prove to be the turning point of the crusade. He was unwilling to attack the city but his Gantois allies and some of his officers insisted that Ypres should be taken.[21]

Ypres during the Bishop of Norwich's siege. The illustration, a reproduction of an engraving published in 1610, shows the siege in progress.

The inhabitants of Ypres were well prepared for a siege by the time the English and their allies arrived and attacked the city on 8 June 1383. Dwellings in the outlying suburbs had been abandoned; the timber from them was used to strengthen the earth ramparts and the stone gates of the city. A mission had been dispatched to Paris to replace artillery powder stocks. The city was well organised under the command of the Castellan of Ypres, John d'Oultre, and had been divided into different defensive sectors. Although the ramparts were low, they were well protected with a double wet ditch, a high thorny hedge reinforced with stakes and a wooden stockade and fire-step.[22]

The English attacked the Temple Gate on the first day but were beaten off. Over the next three days the city gates were attacked simultaneously, without success. Before the end of the first week of the siege, reinforcements arrived to completely encircle the city walls and the outer ditch was breached using soil. On the eighth day (15 June) Despenser attacked the defences with artillery, firing on the Messines Gate and damaging it, but not enough to cause the city defences to be breached. Over the following days of the siege, sustained artillery attacks had little overall effect and the assaults of Despenser's troops were all beaten off.[23] An attempt to drain the ditches seriously threatened the Yprois, but the attempt was unsuccessful and the besieged managed to communicate with the Duke of Burgundy through Louis le Mâle, who was able to raise a large French army to come to the aid of the city.[24] On 8 August, after eight weeks of effort, Despenser abruptly decided to abandon the siege, leaving his allies to continue on their own.

After the débâcle at Ypres, the bishop's forces divided, some going back to England, some remaining with the bishop and others under Sir Thomas Trivet and Sir Hugh Calveley retiring to Bourbourg and Bergues.[25] The bishop and Calveley had wished to advance into France, but Sir William Elmham, Trivet and some of the other commanders refused to go.[26] The bishop, after entering Picardy for some distance, was obliged to fall back upon Gravelines. It turned out that the French had little stomach for a showdown with the English and their allies, preferring instead to negotiate: part of the French army was unwilling to fight when Despenser and Calveley encountered it when moving towards Picardy. It is possible that had King Richard crossed the Channel with a large English army, the campaign would have ended in a famous victory.[27] However, for the demoralised and disease-ridden English forces, the arrival of the French headed by the boy-king Charles was decisive. Charles had taken the oriflamme on 2 August and his army was mustered in Arras on 15 August.[28] They advanced into Flanders, reaching Thérouanne by the end of August, Drincham on 5 September, Bergues on 7 September (forcing Trivet's and Elmham's retreat to Bourbourg and Gravelines) and Dunkirk on 9 September. Bourbourg was besieged on 12 September:[29] two days later the Duke of Brittany persuaded the French to negotiate a surrender and the English garrison was given safe conduct from the town.[27] The French army then proceeded along the coast and besieged Gravelines. There, without Despenser's authority, the defenders accepted bribes and the bishop's treasurer pocketed 5,000 francs. Despenser at first refused the surrender terms,[29] but a few days later Gravelines was evacuated and Despenser ordered it to be sacked. By the end of October the remaining crusaders had returned across the English Channel.[28]

Norwich Cathedral, one of the great Norman buildings of England. Henry le Despenser is buried in front of the high altar.

Soon after returning from Flanders, the bishop was impeached in parliament, on 26 October 1383, in the presence of the king.[30] The chancellor Michael de la Pole accused him of not mustering his troops at Calais, as had been agreed; not recruiting a high enough number of armed men; refusing to certify properly who his military leaders were; deceiving the king by not allowing a secular lord to command the expedition to Flanders; and disbanding his forces prematurely.[30] Despenser denied all the charges, insisting that enough men had assembled at Ypres, that he had chosen his commanders well and that he had not refused to obey the king's orders. After de la Pole declared the bishop's replies to be insufficient, Despenser requested another hearing to defend himself still further, which was granted. In this hearing Despencer proceeded to blame his own commanders for forcing him to retreat from Ypres and then evacuate the garrisons. All his arguments were refuted and he was blamed for the failure of the expedition. His temporalities were confiscated and he was ordered to repay any costs taken from money gained from the French.[31][32]

Despenser's fall from grace did not last long. Following Scottish incursions into England, it was decided that the 18-year-old King Richard should lead an army into Scotland, marking the start of his military career.[33] In 1385 every magnate of consequence, including Despenser, joined the immense host that advanced north with the king,[34]

finding a country totally waste, where there was nothing to plunder, and little that could even be destroyed, excepting here and there a tower, whose massive walls defied all means of destruction then known, or a cluster of miserable huts.... (Sir Walter Scott, Scotland, vol. 1).[35]

The English army reached Edinburgh, which was sacked, but then retreated back to England, despite John of Gaunt's wish to go on to Fife.[34] The Scottish campaign was one of the last times that Despenser marched with an army.

The ruins of Despenser's manor house at North Elmham, built over the site of the ancient Saxon cathedral and a Norman chapel

Henry le Despenser continued to be controversial after his fighting career was over, mainly because of the vigorous methods he used to maintain control over the laity in his diocese and his own cathedral church. He defended the orthodoxy of the church against Lollardy as passionately as he defended his episcopal rights and privileges.

For over a decade Despenser was involved in disputes with the chapter of Norwich Cathedral and with other religious communities in his diocese, mainly concerning the bishop's right to intervene in their internal affairs. In 1394 the monks appealed successfully to Pope Boniface IX against Despenser, but in 1395 matters were still not resolved, for that year the pope ordered William Courtenay the Archbishop of Canterbury to assist in mediating between the parties. On Richard II's instruction, the bishop and the convent instead appeared before Archbishop Courtenay and a royal council, but Courtenay's death in July 1396 prevented a resolution of the dispute from being finalised until 1398, when a royal commission decided in favour of Despenser. Pope Boniface annulled the decisions of the commission in 1401, after the convent appealed to him, but the papal sentences were ignored by Despenser. Eventually the monks came to terms with the bishop and accepted a loss of their autonomy.[36]

The execution of William Sawtrey

Since 1381, there had been a growing fear of Lollardy among the English political elite. The Lollards had first appeared in the 1370s and had briefly found favour with the upper classes, but in 1382 power was given for the authorities to detain heretics and examine them in a Church court. During the second half of his reign Richard II became steadily more determined to maintain religious orthodoxy and acted increasingly harshly to suppress the Lollards.[37] His successor Henry IV went even further, introducing the death penalty for heresy and for possession of a bible.

Despenser took active steps to maintain orthodoxy in his own diocese. Walsingham praised Henry's actions against the Lollards and contrasted him with his fellow bishops:

He swore, moreover, and did not repent of what he said, that if anyone belonging to that perverse sect should presume to preach in his diocese, they should be taken to the fire or beheaded. Consequently, having understood this, no one belonging to that tendency had any desire to embrace martyrdom, with the result that, up to now, the faith and true religion have remained unaffected within the bounds of his episcopal authority. (Walsingham, Historia Anglicana).[38]

Henry however appears not to have dealt too savagely in dealing with heretics. On 1 May 1399, William Sawtrey, a Norfolk curate and a Lollard, was examined before him. Sawtrey recanted his heresies in public and apparently received no serious punishment, but after moving to London, Sawtrey's heretical preaching attracted the attention of Archbishop Thomas Arundel and he was summoned to appear before a convocation at St. Paul's. Despenser did not attend but sent a written memorandum on 23 February. Following his trial Sawtrey was condemned as a relapsed heretic and was burned in chains at Smithfield in 1401.[1]

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Despenser, Henry, le". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.