On this date in 1400, the Thomas le Despenser was beheaded — as much a lynching as an execution — by a mob at Bristol.
The heads of Salisbury, Spencer, Blunt, and Kent.”
-Henry’s loyal (for now) nobleman Northumberland summing up the destruction of the Epiphany Rising in the last scene of Shakespeare’s Richard II
House Despenser had painstakingly rebuilt its position in the three generations since Thomas’s great-grandfather, the notorious royal favorite Hugh Despenser, was grotesquely butchered for the pleasure of Roger Mortimer. (Readers interested in a deep dive should consult this doctoral thesis (pdf))
By the end of the 14th century, the family patriarch, our man Thomas, had by 1397 parlayed his firm support of Richard II against the Lord Appellant into elevation to a peerage created just for him, the Earldom of Gloucester.
The “Gloucester” sobriquet had just gone onto the market thanks to the beheading that year of the attainted Duke of Gloucester and the consequent revocation of that patrimony. This ought to have been a hint, if his ancestors’ fate did not suffice, that such glories are fleeting. Thomas le Despenser had barely two years to enjoy his newfound rank before Richard II was deposed by Henry Bolingbroke who now styled himself Henry IV.
Despite initially making his terms with the new regime, Despenser joined a conspiracy of nobles that contemplated a coup d’etat during the 1399-1400 holidays — the Epiphany Rising, whose misfire has brought other victims to our attention previously.* Titles are the least of what one forfeits in such circumstances; Thomas managed to grab a boat for Cardiff and possible refuge but to his unhappy surprise the ship’s captain put in at Bristol to deliver him to his enemies: death was summary, his head posted to the capital for duty on the London Bridge.
The Despensers had already proven the resilience of their line in the face of the violent death of this or that scion and although this was a rough coda for their century of glory they were not done for the English political scene by a long shot. Thomas’s widow Constance** got her own plotting afoot by conspiring unsuccessfully in 1405 to kidnap Richard II’s heir from Henry’s custody as an instrument to leverage for political realignment. (Constance, Executed Today is grieved to report, was not executed for this.)
* Episode 134 of the History of England podcast grapples with the Epiphany Rising.
** Constance’s brother is popularly believed to have betrayed the Epiphany Rising.
On this day..
- 1928: Earle Nelson, the Dark Strangler
- 2011: Leroy White
- 1973: Lt. Col. Mohamed Amekrane, no asylum
- 1864: Private Samuel Jones, in retaliation for Private Daniel Bright
- 1809: Seven Valladolid ruffians, by Napoleon
- 1869: William German, surprising Klan lynch victim
- 1979: Pin Peungyard, Gasem Singhara, and (twice) Ginggaew Lorsoungnern
- 1943: Jarvis Catoe
- 2010: Liu Lieyong and Chen Xiaohui, Hubei gangsters
- 1825: Joaquim do Amor Divino Rabelo, Frei Caneca
- 1759: The Tavora family
- 1871: Kawakami Gensai