His temporalities were confiscated by Richard II of England, but were returned in 1385, the year he accompanied the king northward to repel a potential French invasion of Scotland.

[6] Hugh le Despenser had become Edward II's adviser, holding power until the king's defeat at the Battle of Bannockburn, but he was later restored to favour.

[11] Despenser first heard news of the rising in his own diocese at a time when he was absent at his manor of Burley in Rutland, 100 miles (160 km) west of Norwich.

Armed, he hastened back to Norfolk via Peterborough, Cambridge and Newmarket, with a company of only eight lances and a small body of bowmen.

According to the English chronicler Thomas Walsingham,[2] in the Battle of North Walsham, Henry le Despenser himself led the assault and overpowered his enemies in hand-to-hand fighting.

The so-called Western Schism subsequently caused a great crisis in the Church and created rivalry and conflict throughout Christian Europe.

Philip Van Artevelde had fallen at the Battle of Roosebeke and the country had been compelled to submit to the French king, who obliged all the conquered towns to recognise Clement VII.

[15] Both the commons and King Richard II were enthusiastic about the launch of a crusade against Flanders, for political and economic reasons: revenues from the English wool staple (that had ceased following the advance of the French) could be resumed; sending the bishop and not the king or his uncles to Flanders would enable John of Gaunt's unpopular plans for a royal crusade to Castille to be abandoned; French forces would be drawn away from the Iberian Peninsula; and Anglo-Flemish relations would be strengthened.

In February 1383 Parliament, after hesitating in entrusting the mission to a churchman, ultimately assigned to him the subsidy which it had granted the king in the previous October for carrying on the war in Flanders.

[18] The enterprise was ardently seconded by the friars and contributions of immense value were made from all quarters, but especially, according to Henry Knighton,[19] from "the rich ladies of England".

Although the ramparts were low, they were well protected with a double wet ditch, a high thorny hedge reinforced with stakes and a wooden stockade and fire-step.

Before the end of the first week of the siege, reinforcements arrived to completely encircle the city walls and the outer ditch was breached using soil.

Bourbourg was besieged on 12 September:[30] two days later the Duke of Brittany persuaded the French to negotiate a surrender and the English garrison was given safe conduct from the town.

[31] The chancellor Michael de la Pole accused him of not mustering his troops at Calais, as had been agreed; not recruiting a high enough number of armed men; refusing to certify properly who his military leaders were; deceiving the king by not allowing a secular lord to command the expedition to Flanders; and disbanding his forces prematurely.

[31] Despenser denied all the charges, insisting that enough men had assembled at Ypres, that he had chosen his commanders well and that he had not refused to obey the king's orders.

After de la Pole declared the bishop's replies to be insufficient, Despenser requested another hearing to defend himself still further, which was granted.

Following Scottish incursions into England, it was decided that the 18-year-old King Richard should lead an army into Scotland, marking the start of his military career.

[34] In 1385 every magnate of consequence, including Despenser, joined the immense host that advanced north with the king,[35] finding a country totally waste, where there was nothing to plunder, and little that could even be destroyed, excepting here and there a tower, whose massive walls defied all means of destruction then known, or a cluster of miserable huts.... (Sir Walter Scott, Scotland, vol.

Henry le Despenser continued to be controversial after his fighting career was over, mainly because of the vigorous methods he used to maintain control over the laity in his diocese and his own cathedral church.

For over a decade Despenser was involved in disputes with the chapter of Norwich Cathedral and with other religious communities in his diocese, mainly concerning the bishop's right to intervene in their internal affairs.

The Lollards had first appeared in the 1370s and had briefly found favour with the upper classes, but in 1382, power was given to the authorities to detain heretics and examine them in a Church court.

During the second half of his reign Richard II became steadily more determined to maintain religious orthodoxy and acted increasingly harshly to suppress the Lollards.

Walsingham praised Henry's actions against the Lollards and contrasted him with his fellow bishops: He swore, moreover, and did not repent of what he said, that if anyone belonging to that perverse sect should presume to preach in his diocese, they should be taken to the fire or beheaded.

Consequently, having understood this, no one belonging to that tendency had any desire to embrace martyrdom, with the result that, up to now, the faith and true religion have remained unaffected within the bounds of his episcopal authority.

[1] Upon the death of John of Gaunt on 3 February 1399, his son Henry became the Duke of Lancaster, but Richard II moved quickly to strip him of his patrimony.

[41] Despenser was with York at Berkeley Castle when he came to terms with Bolingbroke at the end of July, but the bishop refused to submit and was arrested and briefly imprisoned.

[44][45] Henry was implicated in the abortive Epiphany Rising of January 1400, during which his nephew Thomas, Earl of Gloucester played a key part and was subsequently executed.

He joined in the conspiracy of the earls of Rutland, Kent and Huntingdon and was with their army at Cirencester, when they were attacked by the townsmen, who burnt Thomas le Despenser's lodgings.

Thomas fled, boarding a ship, but the captain forced him to Bristol, where on 13 January[46] he was released to the mob and beheaded at the high cross.

[47] In the aftermath of the rebellion Henry le Despenser appointed John Derlington, the archdeacon of Norwich, as his vicar-general on 5 February 1400 and then submitted himself to the custody of Archbishop Arundel who accompanied him to Parliament on 20 January 1401.