SHREWSBURY

In 1403, English archers faced each other in battle for the first time as rebels sought to topple Henry IV

- NICK SOLDINGER

On the night of 21 July 1403, a 16-year-old soldier was carried into the candlelit sanctuary of Shrewsbury Abbey with a bloodied rag pressed against his face. Shortly before, he’d been evacuated from a nearby battlefield when an arrow had hit him just below his right eye.

Ordinarily, he’d have been left to die. After all, this was medieval Britain, 400 years before the advent of anaesthetics, military surgeons or combat medics. The wounded teenager, however, was no ordinary soldier. He was Prince Hal, eldest son of King Henry IV and heir to the throne of England. It wasn’t only his survival that now rested on the successful removal of the arrowhead still wedged in his skull, but the fate of a nation.

For years, the British Isles had been in turmoil. In fact, the origins of the Battle of Shrewsbury, in which Hal had just fought, could be traced back to the reign of the previous monarch, Richard II. His 22-year grip on power had been characterised by revolts, tyranny and treason and was eventually cut short in 1399 after his cousin Henry Bolingbroke staged a coup d’état. Richard was then locked away in Pontefract Castle, where he was starved to death, while Bolingbroke had himself crowned King Henry IV in his place.

Although Bolingbroke led the powerful House of Lancaster, he could never have pulled off this outrageous act of treason without some heavyweight help. Among those who’d backed him was the Percy family from Northumbria, whose eldest son Harry ‘Hotspur’ soon became Henry’s henchman-in-chief.