That night Hotspur sent a document
into the royal camp, declaring Henry to be forsworn and perjured: in
the first place because he had sworn, under Holy Gospel, that he would
claim nothing but his own proper inheritance, and that Richard should
reign to the end of his life; secondly, because he had raised taxes and
other impositions, contrary to his oath, and by his own arbitrary
power; thirdly, because he had caused King Richard to be kept in the
castle of Pontefract, without meat, drink, or fire, whereof he perished
of hunger, thirst, and cold. There were other clauses, some of them
regarding his conduct to Sir Edmund Mortimer. The claims of the young
Earl of March to the throne were also set forward, and the document
ended with a defiance.
Henry simply sent, as reply, that he had no time to lose in writing;
but that he would, in the morning, prove in battle whose claims were
false and feigned.
Nevertheless, in the morning, when the two armies were arrayed in the
order of battle, the king sent the Abbot of Shrewsbury to propose an
amicable arrangement. Hotspur and Douglas, however, rejected the offer.
The trumpets then blew on either side, and the armies joined battle.
Their numbers were about equal.
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