THE SOUTHAMPTON PLOT

THE SOUTHAMPTON PLOT

The Hundred Years War had reached a stalemate, and weary of battle, England was moving towards some sort of peace with France.
The accession of King Henry V soon squashed that thought, as he demanded that the French recognize him as heir to the French throne.
Negotiations faltered and Henry prepared to once more take the fight to France.

In the hot summer of 1415, Southampton was a city preparing for war.
The streets were full of troops, as King Henry V made the final preparations for the assault on France.
This would culminate in his famous triumph, at the Battle of Agincourt.

Southampton bristled with important and influential men.
The King’s imminent departure for France raised fears of revolt and succession.
Anyone of any note or influence, wanted to be present to whatever discussions were taking place around the King.

With his Kingdom secure in the north, King Henry V was able to focus his attention on the preparations for his assault on France.
With just days to go before his departure, a distant cousin Sir Edmund Mortimer the Earl of March, revealed a secret conspiracy to the King.
He told Henry the details of a plot that was being hatched, that would have declared Henry a usurper and made himself, the Earl of March, King instead.

The chief conspirator appears to have been the Earl of Cambridge.
His mother had an affair with the half brother of King Richard II, a man called Thomas Holland, and it is possible that the conspiring Richard was his son.
The Earl of Cambridge had no lands of his own, but seven years prior to the plot, Richard married Lady Anne Mortimer and they had a son who grew up to become Richard Duke of York, the father of King Richard III and King Edward IV…….

On 31st July 1415, King Henry lost no time in putting in place a commission which heard the case at the Red Lion Inn in Southampton.
The commission condemned the conspirators to death.
Despite pleas for clemency, Cambridge was exEcuted just outside Bargate on Southampton Green, on 5th August 1415.

The Southampton Plot was significant in that it reveals the immense undercurrents over King Henry V’s reign.
It failed, but ironically Richard Duke of York, the Earl of Cambridge’s son ~ and his sons ~ did depose the last Lancastrian monarch, and took the throne as Edward IV.