The Century of the French Wars The Scottish problem did not disappear in 1337; but it became rather a regional problem for the men of the north than the major preoccupation of their rulers. The city apparently provided troops in 1367, though its contribution to John of Gaunt's expedition in 1381 was merely to meet him on his return 'on a pretty little hill' near Wetherby. In 1385, however, the citizens were called upon to provision a royal army which passed through York on its way north; and doubtless they were alarmed in 1388 at rumours that the Scots were advancing on York, though in fact they had been checked at New castle and Otterburn. Even in July 1399, when a French invasion was feared, the city was absolved from sending troops south because it needed to protect itself from the Scots. In these circumstances it is not surprising that York's main contribution to the French wars was a financial one. It is true that some Parisian hostages under the Treaty of Bretigny were sent to York, where one of them died of the plague; and that the city provided a large and small balinger for service in the navy—something, they alleged, which no other city save London had done. In the intervals of war, however, these boats were used for trade, for one was sent to Bordeaux for wine in 1374 and captured an enemy ship on the way; but when they were ordered to Southampton in 1376 they were in such condition that one had to be sold to repair the other. The one which did eventually arrive was still so 'ill-arrayed' that a quarter of a royal tenth had to be imposed on the city by common assent to make it sea-worthy. In the end, moreover, in fighting off the Breton coast in 1379, the 'noble barge of York' was captured and foundered almost immediately with all on board. This modest role of York in political history is paralleled in constitutional history. It was occasionally visited by the King's Bench in its mission of keeping order, but Edward III scarcely saw York again after 1336 and Richard II was no frequent visitor. Certainly in 1392 he transferred the government offices to York to punish the Londoners for resisting his financial demands, housing the benches and the Exchequer in the castle and the Chancery in the archbishop's manor at Bishopthorpe. By the end of the year, however, the government was brought back to Westminster with the same 'levity' with which it had been taken away. This was not Richard's last sojourn in York. He was there for a time in 1396, and again in 1398 when he was royally entertained by the city. The mayor, one of the chamberlains, and eleven others went to meet him at Nottingham. A long bench was specially made for the mayor and leading citizens attending some gathering in the king's presence in the chapter house of the minster and the king witnessed the Corpus Christi plays from a special enclosure. The cost of the visit to the civic funds was about £250, and individuals may have found it no less onerous. It is tempting to see a connexion between the king's presence and the sums which certain wealthy citizens promised to lend him in this same year. They were in no hurry to fulfil their promises, for loans totalling nearly £2,000 were recorded as unpaid. Perhaps for these defaulters the Lancastrian revolution came at an opportune moment. The citizens may have felt they were striking a good bargain when, presumably during his march south, they lent 500 marks to Henry of Derby, 'in his necessity, before he undertook the governance of the realm'. The Lancastrian revolution, however, was the beginning of a time of troubles in which the city found itself involved. At first all was normal enough. In 1400 York was the rendezvous for an army against the Scots, and had to advance 1,000 marks to assist in financing it; but the campaign achieved so little that a parliament planned for York in November was prorogued to Westminster. Next yeare the city provided troops for the war against Glendower, and in 1402 found room over its gates for the quarters of Scottish traitors captured at Homildon. But it was soon civil conflict which dominated politics. Hotspur's head was placed over a gate of the city after his death at Shrewsbury; and Henry IV came to York straight from his victory to settle accounts with Hotspur's father. There on 10 August 1403, despite his supposed complicity in the rebellion, Archbishop Scrope celebrated mass in the minster in the king's presence. Meantime a prophesying hermit who inveighed against Henry had been beheaded, and on 11 August Northumberland came in from Warkworth to make his submission. Rumours, however, seem to have been rife in York and elsewhere that Richard II was still alive in Scotland, and in 1405 discontent came to a head. Northumberland and Bardolf in the far north, and Archbishop Scrope and Thomas Mowbray in York, fomented a rebellion. The archbishop drew the city into it: he posted a manifesto on the minster door, on the city gates, and in the streets; he went among the citizens, crozier in hand, urging the rebel case; he preached in the minster about the poverty of merchants and the burdens of taxation, royal borrowing, and purveyance. His persuasion was effective, for 'almost all the citizens of York capable of bearing arms' rallied to the rebel cause. But Scrope was a better propagandist than politician. On 29 May he was persuaded or tricked into surrender by the Earl of Westmorland, and on 6 June Henry IV arrived at Bishopthorpe. There, two days later, Mowbray and Scrope, with the latter's nephew, Sir Stephen Plumpton, were summarily condemned and executed at once in a field outside Skeldergate Postern by a prisoner from the castle gaol. Henry went on north to hound Northumberland out of the country, his progress being marked by the sending back of heads to York to set beside Mowbray's and Plumpton's on Bootham and Micklegate bars. Before leaving, Henry had dealt with the city. From Pontefract, on 3 June, he had threatened it with utter destruction if it resisted him and had sent Sir John Stanley and Sir Roger Leche to occupy it. On 6 June the citizens, barefoot and ungirt and with halters round their necks, came out to meet Henry at Bishopthorpe, but were curtly ordered home; and before he left for the north Henry mulcted them of 500 marks. Meantime, the city continued in the charge of royal governors, though on 22 July William Frost (already seven times mayor) was associated with them. On 25 August Frost became keeper of the city, but as late as Michaelmas was still accounting jointly for its issues with Stanley and Leche. The rule of the city was not restored to the citizens until 3 June 1406 and in return for a fine of £200. They were not altogether repentant. Archbishop Scrope's reputation for sanctity blossomed quickly. The barley field where he died was said to have borne a wonderful crop that harvest, and Henry Wyman (mayor 1407–9) treasured a 'pardon cup' blessed by the archbishop. When in 1407, at the king's command, the city serjeants conducted an investigation into those who made offerings at Scrope's tomb, the city authorities dismissed them; and in 1410 the authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury was invoked to counteract Scrope's reputation as a martyr. This did not, however, prevent men and women from making legacies and oblations to his tomb and cult. Humble as they had been in face of the king's anger, the citizens seem to have entered upon the rebellion of 1405 with a measure of conviction; but they took little if any part in Northumberland's last rising in 1408, and the quarters of the rebels again adorned their gates, Northumberland's having been pickled in cloves, cumin, and anise to make them keep the better. This was the last direct manifestation of Henry IV's rule in York, and under his son interest shifted again to the French wars. Once more they made only a slight impact on York. Occasionally York ships were required for the king's service and in 1419 two Norman prisoners were paroled and set to work for a York skinner. The Hundred Years War In 1436 a loan for France was demanded from the city and York fletchers made arrows for the army. The eyes of the city, however, were still more often directed to Scotland than to France. It provided troops for the marches in 1419 at the request of the Earl of Northumberland, saw Henry V briefly in 1421 when he was dealing with Scottish affairs, and was a venue for negotiations with the Scots in 1424 and the delivery of Scottish hostages in 1425. York men, too, served in the garrisons of northern castles or exercised their mercantile callings in provisioning Berwick and Carlisle. 1440s 1, 2, 3   'The later middle ages: Richard of Gloucester and Henry VII', A History of the County of Yorkshire: the City of York (1961), pp. 61-5. 'The twelfth and thirteenth centuries: York under the sheriffs of Yorkshire', A History of the County of Yorkshire: the City of York (1961), pp. 30-1. 'The later middle ages: Scottish and French Wars', A History of the County of Yorkshire: the City of York (1961), pp. 54-9.