A fine head of white hair

On this day in 1408 the battle of Bramham Moor was fought in Yorkshire. This was the last battle of the Percy rebellion against Henry IV, or Henry of Bolingbroke, who had seized the throne from Richard II in 1399.

The Percies posed a serious threat to Henry's fragile regime. In 1403 he had narrowly won the battle of Shrewsbury and killed Henry 'Hotspur', the most famous of the Percy clan. However, pitched battles were rarely decisive, and Shrewsbury did not put an end to the disturbances in England. 

Hotspurs's father, the old Earl of Northumberland, fled to Scotland. In early February 1408 the king was informed that Northumberland and his loyal ally, Thomas Bardolf, had returned to raise a new army from the traditional Percy power base in the north. 

Despite his ill-health, Henry raced north to crush this latest revolt. His loyal sheriff of Yorkshire, Sir Thomas Rokeby, got there ahead of him. After mustering the local levies, Rokeby blocked the path of the rebel army at Grimbald Bridge near Knaresborough. This forced the earl to make a detour via Tadcaster, where his army was quickly surrounded by Lancastrian loyalists. 

Northumberland chose to make a stand on Bramham Moor, south of Wetherby. Battle was joined at about 2pm on 19th February. It probably began with an exchange of arrows, as the longbowmen on both sides sought to thin out the enemy ranks. 

Rokeby's main body then charged. After a brief but savage encounter, the rebels were utterly defeated. Northumberland himself was killed on the field, and Bardolf so badly wounded he died soon afterwards. Their heads were brought to Henry at Stony Stratford; he ordered that of Northumerbland, 'with its fine head of white hair', impaled on a lance and sent south to be displayed on London Bridge. His body was hanged, drawn and quartered and displayed in various towns, as was the custom for those deemed traitors.

The brief battle must have been hellish, fought during one of the harshest winters in living memory. Despite the appalling weather, and his own infirmity, Henry insisted on going north to supervise the mopping-up operations. He spent twelve days at Wheel Hall, south of York, sentencing or pardoning rebels, and then three weeks at Pontefract. By the end of May he was back in London. 

The stress of the revolt and its aftermath was too much for him. Towards the end of June 1408, after moving from London to Mortlake, Henry collapsed. His health would never recover.