d, and when Henry marched
against Wales in =1402= they invaded England. They were met by the
Percies and defeated at Homildon Hill. The Percies had still something
of the enormous power of the feudal barons of the eleventh century.
Their family estates stretched over a great part of Northumberland,
and as they were expected to shield England against Scottish invasions
they were obliged to keep up a military retinue which might be
employed against the king as well as in his service. It was mainly
through their aid that Henry had seated himself on the throne. Their
chief, the Earl of Northumberland, and his brother, the Earl of
Worcester, were aged men, but Northumberland's son, Henry Percy--Harry
Hotspur as he was usually called--was of a fiery temper, and
disinclined to submit to insult. Hotspur's wife was a Mortimer, and
her brother, Sir Edmund Mortimer, the uncle of the young Earl of
March, had been taken prisoner by Glendower. It was noticed that
Henry, who had ransomed other prisoners, took no steps to ransom
Mortimer, and it was believed that he was in no hurry to set free one
whose hereditary claim to the crown, like that of the Earl of March,
came before his own. Other causes contributed to irritate the Percies,
and in =1403=, bringing with them as allies the Scottish prisoners
whom they had taken at Homildon Hill, they marched southwards against
Henry. Southern England might not be ready adequately to support Henry
in an invasion of Wales, but it was in no mood to allow him to be
dethroned by the Percies. It rallied to his side, and enabled him
signally to defeat the Percies at Shrewsbury. Hotspur was killed in
the fight, and his uncle, the Earl of Worcester, being captured, was
beheaded without delay. Northumberland, who was not present at the
battle, was committed to prison in =1404=, but was pardoned on promise
of submission.

[Illustration: The battle of Shrewsbury: from the "Life of Richard
Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick;" drawn by John Rous about 1485.]

7. =The Commons and the Church. 1404.=--After such a deliverance the
Commons could not but grant some supplies. In the autumn of =1404=,
however, they pleaded for the confiscation of the revenues of the
higher clergy, which were sufficient, as they alleged, to support 15
earls, 1,500 knights, 6,200 esquires, and 100 hospitals as well. The
king refused to listen to the proposal, and money was voted in the
ordinary way. It was the first deliberate attempt to m