While Richard was enjoying the scenery of Wales, Henry with his vast army was marching north from Bristol, reaching Hereford by 2 August, Ludlow on the 4th and Shrewsbury on the 5th. (This was not a man who messed around!) Here he received a delegation from Chester headed up by the Sheriff of Cheshire, Sir Robert Legh, who offered the submission of the city. On 9th August he entered Chester, with processions of the clergy and so on...
However according to the Dieulacres and Short Kirkstall Chronicles, the non-tyrant Bolingbroke had no sooner crossed the Cheshire boundary than he declared 'havoc'.
'Havoc' for those of you who don't know, was a licence for soldiers to burn, steal, rape, kill, and generally do as they liked; it was normally practised when English armies were let off the leash in France. Even there it was used sparingly, because by its very nature it damaged discipline.
So, in an English county, they were 'trampling down...the corn and the meadows throughout most of the county...and having killed many of the local inhabitants and confiscated numerous goods from them, the Duke accomplished what he set out to do.' (Short Kirkstall Chronicle.)
Oh, and non-tyrant Henry also had Sir Piers Legh of Lyme beheaded for 'oppressing the people.' Well, you should know Henry boy, because you sure as hell were good at it yourself.
Can you imagine what historians would have said of Richard III if he had done something like this to (say) Wiltshire in the aftermath of Buckingham's revolt? There would be whole books written about it!
But Lancastrian kings can do no wrong. It was a bloodless revolution, apparently.
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