Deaths of Richard Le Scrope and Thomas de Mowbray - Naked History

On June 8, 1405, Richard le Scrope, Archbishop of York and Thomas Mowbray, Earl of Norfolk, were executed in York on Henry IV's orders. From the article:

"When Westmoreland arrived at Shipton on the 27th May, 1405, he was slightly alarmed to see Northumberland’s forces under Scrope numbering around 8000 men, significantly larger than his own numbers. Rather than risk engaging the rebel force, Westmoreland took advantage of Scrope’s intention to talk rather than fight, to trick him into a form of surrender, by agreeing to hear and settle the rebel’s malcontent, in return for the disbandment of their forces.

Scrope agreed to the plan, although Mowbray remained nervous, and the army were sent home on the 29th without a drop of bloodshed. However as soon as their forces were removed, Westmoreland placed his hand on Scrope’s shoulder and formally placed the three men under arrest by power of the King and had them removed to Pontefract Castle, whilst hastily trying to convene a council with which to try them for their ‘treason’. Scrope continued to protest his innocence, declaring his interests were merely of voicing concerns on behalf of the Church, and requesting an audience with the King, which he was denied.

The King arrived on June 3rd, and after refusing the three their right to a trial by their Peers, convened instead a commission headed by Thomas Arundel and Sir Thomas Beaufort. Arundel raced to York to plead for clemency, Henry refused and convened Sir William Gascoigne as Chief Justice, and lawyer William Fulthorpe to sit in judgement, as the kangaroo court took place in Scrope’s own hall at his home in Bishopthorpe. Gascoigne refused to participate in the illegitimate proceedings or to pronounce sentence on a Bishop, leaving it to Fulthorpe to deliver the guilty verdict.

On the 8th June 1405, Richard Scrope, Archbishop of York, Thomas Mowbray, Earl of Norfolk, and William Plumpton were taken to a field, outside the walls of York and in front of a large crowd, executed. Scrope allowed the others to go first, particularly young Mowbray who was aged just 19 and terrified of his imminent execution. Mowbray’s head was summarily spiked on Bootham Bar for a period of roughly two months. Scrope requested that the executioner deliver five blows to his neck representative of the five wounds of Christ. His body was subsequently by permission of the King, interred in the Lady Chapel of York Minster as was his right as a Bishop.

Westmoreland did not hang around to see the fruits of his labours, having being rewarded for his efforts in quelling the uprising without bloodshed was granted a large portion of the Northumberland estates, he made his way north the day after the King arrived in York. Henry Percy never made his way to Shipton to join his rebel comrades, instead he fled to Scotland and on to Holland. He returned in 1407 to Scotland and raised a new force, taking on Henry’s forces in the Battle of Bramham Moor in February 1408. During the course of this battle, Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland was killed."