who had temporarily transferred vessels for service with the admirals seem to have been unable to obtain their tonnage dues.[1] The count, however, did not proceed to Wales. He contented himself with an attempt upon Falmouth in November, but though he burnt the town, he was ultimately repulsed by the country people.[2] Other events which probably belong to the same year were the capture by Bretons and Flamands of numerous English merchantmen,[3] an abortive English attempt upon La Rochelle,[4] and the taking by the Captain of Calais of seventeen ships laden with wine;[5] but all of them are involved in much obscurity.
On February 20th, 1405, Prince Thomas of Lancaster, second son of the king, though less than eighteen years of age, was appointed sole Admiral of England, and sent to cruise against the French. This prince was afterwards created Duke of Clarence. At about the same time, Henry granted licences to two privateers of Bristol, the Trinity and the James, to cruise against the enemy at their own expense, and to keep as their own whatsoever they might take.[6]
The year was remarkable for the capture of Prince James, the heir to the throne of Scotland, then only fourteen years old. He was on his way from Leith, attended by the Earl of Orkney and a bishop, to be educated in France, when, on March 30th, he was taken off Flamborough Head by an "outlaw" named Prendergast, in a ship fitted out at Cley, in Norfolk. Prendergast, possibly in order to secure his own pardon, handed over his distinguished prisoner to Henry, and the prince was detained, and liberally educated, in England for about eighteen years, although he succeeded to the Scots throne as early as April 4th, 1406.[7] He has himself, in his poems,[8] made allusion to his capture:
"Upon the wavis weltering to and fro,
So infortunate was we that fremyt day.
That, maugre plainly quether we wold or no,
With strong hand by force, schortly to say,
Of inymyes taken and led away
We weren all, and brought in thair contrie."
- ↑ Parl. Rolls, iii. 554.
- ↑ Chron. of St. Denis, iii. 197.
- ↑ Walsingham, 413.
- ↑ Chron. of St. Denis, iii. 181.
- ↑ Otterbourne, 248.
- ↑ Patent Rolls, 6 Hen. IV.
- ↑ Otterbourne, 259, and Walsingham, 419, place the capture in 1406. The Scotichronicon ascribes it to March 30th, 1404. Wyntown, ii. 415, gives the date as Palm Sunday, 1405. The best Scots historians adopt the year, 1405.
- ↑ He wrote 'The King's Quhair,' and is supposed to have written 'Christis Kirk of the Grene' and 'Peebles to the Play.'
