ABSTRACT
The early years of the reign saw some significant creations of peerages with these same ends in view. York’s youngest brother Richard was made Earl of Cambridge. Henry’s own brother John was made Duke of Bedford, and Humphrey, the youngest son of Henry IV, was made Duke of Gloucester and Earl of Pembroke (Thomas, older than both of these, was already Duke of Clarence). In 1416 there was another important promotion when Thomas Beaufort, Earl of Dorset, was created Duke of Exeter. Later in the reign there were not many new English creations. This was no doubt wise, for the grants of land that usually went with such promotions had in the past been a sore point between kings and those who wished to see them husbanding their resources. Besides, by that time many English lords were winning new titles and lands on French soil. Henry’s policy towards the aristocracy paid the intended dividend. There were, it is true, occasions early in the reign when revolt threatened. But John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham, was the only peer involved in the abortive Lollard rising of 1414. The Cambridge plot of 1415, which aimed to put the Earl of March on the throne, had wider potential ramifications among the peerage, but Henry chose wisely to proceed only against the principals, Cambridge, Lord
Scrope of Masham, and Sir Thomas Grey. The affair had no sequel, and during the rest of the reign there was never a threat of aristocratic revolt.1
