The Welsh cause would receive a final, ultimately fatal blow at the hands of the notoriously hard winter of 1407-1408. The same harsh weather saw the end of Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland.
Northumberland and Lord Bardolph had failed to obtain any help from the increasingly sceptical French, and had met with no more success in Flanders. Their prospects were grim. Glyn Dwr was plainly in trouble. The Scots were divided among themselves, and the Regent, the Duke of Albany, was seeking a truce with England. Nobody had any confidence in Northumberland’s claims of potential support in England.
However, Northumberland and Bardolph still convinced themselves there were large numbers of Englishmen ready to take up arms against King Henry. They were in touch with some apparent malcontents, such as Sir Thomas Rokeby, Sheriff of York, who appeared sympathetic, and there were hopes of allies in Cumberland and the Midlands. Some of the men garrisoning the former Percy strongholds such as Alnwick were also thought likely to rally to the banner of the Blue Lion.
Northumberland and Bardolph had made their way to Scotland, where the Duke of Albany tried without success to talk them out of a new attempt in England. But other Scottish lords urged them on, and Northumberland may have recruited a few troops north of the border.
Winter was, of course, the worst time to launch a military campaign, and the winter of 1407-1408 – long remembered as ‘the big winter’ – was the worst in living memory. The major rivers of Europe were frozen completely and there was heavy snow. In England the snow lasted from December to March with livestock and thousands of birds dying and people starving.
In late January, in the midst of this bitter weather, Northumberland and Bardolph crossed the Tweed into England with a few Scottish mercenaries and a handful of Yorkshire retainers. Late in the month, Northumberland raised the standard of rebellion at Thirsk, calling upon all those opposed to the Lancastrian regime to join him. The response was not large. A number of clergy and monks from the North rallied to his cause and brought some of their tenants and parishioners with them. But the gentry, and especially the leading magnates, held aloof from what they clearly felt to be a hopeless venture. Most of Northumberland’s followers were tradesmen and peasants from the Thirsk and Topcliffe areas of the old Percy estates. The sheriff, Sir Thomas Rokeby – whether because he had been acting as an agent provocateur all along or because he felt Northumberland to be doomed – did indeed call out the militia, but ordered it to march against the rebels, not with them. He took position guarding the crossing of the River Nidd at Gimbaldsbridge, near Knaresborough. Northumberland could not force a crossing and instead moved east, crossing the river further down. He reached Wetherby late on Saturday, 18 February, and next day, passing through Tadcaster, took up a defensive position on high ground on Bramham Moor.
The strength of the opposing armies is unknown, though both were fairly small, and details of the action that followed are also scanty.
Fighting is said to have begun around 2pm on 19 February, when Rokeby and his men arrived. The royalist forces are thought to have attacked uphill against the rebel position, and a disorganized mêlée spread across the area around Camp Hill, Headley Hill and Oglethorpe Hill. It appears that Northumberland’s force was quickly routed and Bardolph mortally wounded. The Earl of Northumberland, now aged 66, traditionally died in a rearguard action. He was supposedly killed in a hollow between Oglethorpe Hill and Old Wood 250 metres north of Toulston Lane. It is unclear whether he died fighting or was summarily executed.
Bardolph died the same night. The grey-haired and bearded head of Northumberland was sent to London on a pike and paraded through the streets before being displayed on London Bridge. His quarters were displayed at Berwick, Lincoln, Newcastle and York. On 2 July 1408, Northumberland’s remains were buried alongside Hotspur in York Minster.
The usual executions of lesser rebels and confiscation of their property followed. Among the prisoners was Lewis Byfort, Glyn Dwr’s emissary and Bishop of Bangor. Sir Thomas Rokeby was rewarded with the Percy manor of Spofforth.
The Percy threat to the English throne was at an end. Hotspur’s infant son would eventually return from exile to become a devoted supporter of the House of Lancaster.