Despenser ' s Crusade Despenser ' s Crusade ( or the Bishop of Norwich ' s Crusade , sometimes just Norwich Crusade ) of 1383 was a military expedition led by Henry le Despenser , that aimed to assist the city of Ghent in their struggle against the supporters of Antipope Clement VII . It took place in the context of the Western Schism and the Hundred Years ' War between the mediaeval kingdoms of England and France . While France supported Clement , whose court was based in Avignon , the English supported Pope Urban VI in Rome . Popular at the time the lower and middle classes , Despenser ' s Crusade " was only widely criticised in hindsight " , and " for all its canonical propriety , [ it ] was the Hundred Years ' War thinly disguised " . Among contemporary critics of the crusade , besides John Wyclif , was the French chronicler Jean Froissart , who charged its leaders with hypocrisy . Background . Flemish revolt . The County of Flanders , in which Ghent lay , was an ally of France ( part of its territory was in France and part in the Holy Roman Empire ) . A revolt first broke out in Flanders in September 1379 , and the English parliament of 1380 , the last to convene at Northampton , recorded that no wool subsidy had been received because of the " present riot " in Flanders . Wool was a major English export to the Flemish looms , and between the fiscal years of 1381 – 82 and 1382 – 83 total exports dropped from 18 , 000 to 11 , 000 sacks . In 1382 – 83 , only 2 , 192 sacks passed through the main English staple port of Calais , leading to the rise of Middelburg in competition . When the citizens of Ghent rebelled against the count , Louis de Male , in January 1382 , they requested English assistance . Louis attempted to block English imports . Under the leadership of Philip van Artevelde the Flemings expelled Louis from Flanders at the Battle of Beverhoutsveld and took Bruges . Louis soon procured a French army to relieve him , and the militia of Ghent was decisively defeated at the Battle of Roosebeke on 27 November , where Philip was killed . The city was forced to accept Louis ' s terms , to acknowledge Clement as the legitimate pope and to aid in the fight against the English . The fleet of Ghent escaped to England , where it kept up the war . Charles VI of France entered Bruges and confiscated all the English merchants ' goods . Parliamentary debate . In October 1383 , Parliament convened to debate the financing of a crusade . One side , led by John of Gaunt , put forward a crusade to establish him on the throne of Castile , and gained the support of the upper chamber — the later House of Lords . The other side , led by the Courtenays , the Earl of Arundel and the Earl of Buckingham , argued for a campaign to relieve Ghent and was supported by the lower chamber — the later House of Commons . These were " two noble ways " ( " deux noble chymyns " ) to aid the king ' s friends ( the Flemish communes , and the Portuguese in the mist of a succession crisis ) against his enemies . The former option , the " way of Portugal " ( " chemin de Portyngale " ) , was a pet project of John of Gaunt ' s . He had formally claimed the throne of Castile since at least 30 January 1372 , when he received royal permission to include the arms of Castile and León on his own coat - of - arms . Edmund of Langley , the king ' s brother , led a disastrous military campaign in Portugal in favour of John ' s claim in 1379 . In January or February 1380 , Ferdinand I of Portugal declared for Clement , but then on 29 August 1381 he went over to Urban ' s camp . Then , in March 1382 , Urban issued the bull " Regimini sacrosancte " , condemning the Castilian king , Henry II , as a schismatic . During the parliamentary debate , John Gilbert , Bishop of Hereford , pointed out that while France remained within the Catholic fold , formally , Despenser ' s crusade would have to be a general effort against the Clementists , while John of Gaunt ' s could proceed against the excommunicated King of Castile specifically . The latter option , the " way of Flanders " , was cheaper and of more immediate military value , for it could relieve the pressure on the English - held port of Calais . Parliament approved funding and appointed Henry le Despenser , the Bishop of Norwich , as leader of the crusade , although it appears the crusade was initially to be led by John of Gaunt or another of the king ' s uncles . The bishop refused to accept Arundel as his lieutenant and secular leader of the expedition . Some peers criticised the crusade as threatening Richard II ' s claim on France , citing the way in which Urban VI had tried to control Naples after its successful defence against the Clementist Louis of Anjou ' s expedition in 1381 . Planning and organisation . Papal and ecclesiastical . As early as 1378 , the Cardinal Pietro Pileo di Prata expressed hope that through Richard II ' s marriage to Anne of Bohemia , an anti - French alliance between England and the Holy Roman Empire could be forged . The Bohemians , however , refused to go to war with France unless the nation was excommunicated , a measure Urban found too extreme . In 1379 Despenser published the bull " Nuper cum vinea " ( 6 November 1378 ) of Urban VI offering plenary indulgence s to both the living and the dead in return for contributions proportional to or consistent with the donor ' s wealth to the general crusade against the Clementists . ( Women generally gave jewellery and household effects . ) In March 1381 , by two bulls , Urban appointed Despenser in charge of the anti - Clementist crusade in England , and gave him the power to grant indulgences and to dispense priests to participate . This was probably a result of the diplomatic work of his clerk , Henry Bowet , who had gone to Rome on royal business in February 1380 . The two bulls he delivered to Despenser , " Dudum cum vinea Dei " ( 23 March ) and " Dudum cumjilii Belial " ( 25 March ) , survive in several copies . A further bull , " Dignum censemus " , of 15 May empowered Despenser to preach the crusade in both archdioceses of England , Canterbury and York , and to take action against opponents of his message . These three bulls reached England in August 1381 , and copies were distributed to the English episcopate on 17 September . Despenser " at once " , according to Ranulf Higdon ' s " Polychronicon " , sent out his collectors to receive donations in return for the granting of indulgences . They were wildly successful , especially among commoners , perhaps because of the economic benefit of restoring order to Flanders , with which England had extensive trade . On 21 December 1382 , in Saint Paul ' s Cathedral , London , the bishop of Norwich took the cross and formally vowed to go on the crusade . While the crusade was preached by friars , false confessors went about extorting money while some legitimate priests refused to hand over their collections to the war chest . The corruption inspired a series of denunciations from the reformer John Wyclif . Despenser , however , promised that the crusade would only attack the supporters of the " schismatic " antipope , and : if within the year it should happen that the realm of France was converted to the faith of the true Pope Urban , the bishop should be bound to fold up and put away the banner of the crusade , and thenceforth to serve our lord the king under his [ the king ’ s ] own colours [ in some other theatre ] . Royal and parliamentary . The Exchequer saw to the procurement of bows and arrows . The public finances were overseen by Despenser ' s treasurer , Robert Foulmere , and by a London merchant , Sir John Philpot , who also acted as the expedition ' s banker . With his private money he funded some recruits and their transport across the Channel . The ceremony whereat Despenser took the cross were characterised by the standard pageantry , " the cross and the crusade banner , and the sermons , masses , processions , and confessions " . Despenser appointed as captains of the crusade Hugh Calveley , William Elmham , Thomas Tryvet , John Ferris , Hugh Despenser , William Ferinton and Matthew Reedman . The crusade attracted a large number of recruits , but it also attracted undesirable ( and uninvited , according to the " Westminster Chronicle " ) volunteers : bored monks with no fighting ability , youthful apprentices of the London guilds and outright criminals . The crusaders who had taken the proper vows wore red crosses , which symbol was already being transformed into the English national banner . At the last moment , according to the historian Thomas of Walsingham , there was an effort to prevent the crusade ' s departure . King Richard II , who was advocating peace with France , ordered Despenser to await the arrival of William de Beauchamp , an experienced general , but the bishop ignored him . Campaign . The crusade was mustered at Sandwich on 27 April , and sailed for Calais on 16 May 1383 . The chronology of the crusade from the sailing until 25 May is provided in a letter Despenser wrote to another prelate . The first crusaders to arrive at Calais stayed only a few days , before the entire force had crossed the channel . The bishop led them in a successful attack on Gravelines . That month ( May 1383 ) , on the home front , one Thomas Depham of Norfolk was imprisoned for casting doubt on an official report from Flanders . Siege of Ypres . The crusade joined the milita of Ghent in June . There was some debate over whether to attack Bruges or Ypres in Flanders , or to invade France , " the worst schimastic " , as one historian puts it . The army decided to besiege Ypres , which was in fact an Urbanist city . Walsingham nevertheless describes the crusaders using typical but entirely misplaced rhetoric : Having the banner of the Holy Cross before them [ they ] thought that victory in this cause was glory but death reward . . . [ T ] hose who suffered death would be martyrs . . . and thus the blessing of the cross was achieved , and the " crucesignati " [ cross - signed ] gloriously captured the town and there destroyed the enemies of the cross so that not one of them remained alive . At Ypres the problem of the unpaid " volunteers " was exacerbated under siege conditions . In June Despenser ordered " all who are not in receipt of official wages " to return to England . These undisciplined elements had only joined the host for the opportunity of plunder , according to Walsingham . From Flanders , some of the captains wrote to the king that the campaign was falling apart " for lack of a lieutenant and of the good government of [ the bishop ] . " According to the transcript of the bishop ' s later trial , the king negotiated for Arundel to gather a group of men - at - arms and archers and go to Flanders , but the " ambiguously written " letters of Despenser , and reports of speeches he had made , indicated that he would not accept a lieutenant . When a French relieving force approached the town , Despenser decided to abandon the siege on 8 August , after eight weeks of effort . Calveley suggested turning towards Clementist France , but the leadership of the crusade then split . Despenser , who claimed at his trial to have supported an attack on France only to be opposed by the majority of his captains , took his forces to Gravelines , while the remaining captains were bribed to surrender the land they had conquered and go home . Truce . After burning Gravelines , which he had wanted to hold , Despenser made a deal with the French and sailed his army home by September . He later claimed that the restlessness of the 6 , 000 – 7 , 000 evacuees from the other surrendered towns and his lack of provisions , with the truce set to expire in a few days , forced his hand . He had in fact received royal permission to evacuate if he was short of victuals . At the time of the truce , the king : had appointed his uncle of Spain [ John of Gaunt ] to come quickly to [ Despenser ' s ] aid and support . And none the less , [ Despenser ] departed from there , leaving the same town to the enemy , contrary to the form of [ his ] indenture . The truce , so it was alleged by Despenser ' s opponents , was due " to the coming of our lord the king and my lord of Lancaster [ John of Gaunt ] , who was by the sea , ready to cross " at the time . Aftermath . Upon returning , Despenser and his captains were summoned by the chancellor , Michael de la Pole , at the insistence of parliament , which opened on 26 October . Impeachment of Despenser . At the end of the proceedings , which took place before king and parliament , the bishop was impeached , deprived of his temporalities for two years , on the basis " of several matters , but especially of four articles " . These four articles were the main allegations put against him by De la Pole . The first two alleged that although he was pledged " to serve the king in his wars of France " with 2 , 500 men - at - arms and an equal number of archers mustered at Calais for the period of a year , his force did not meet that quota , there was no muster of the whole at Calais and the force had returned and been disbanded after less than six months . The other two articles accused Despenser of refusing to abide by the condition that he take with him " the best and most sufficient captains of the realm , after royalties " — a condition he got around by refusing to name his captains until after permission for his expedition was already granted , and by deceiving the king through " " beaux promesses " " in order to retain complete control of military matters ( and avoiding taking Arundel with him ) . Despenser defended himself by claiming that the siege of Ypres was advised by the men of Ghent , that losses to both his own forces and those of Ghent ( an " act of God " , " aventure de Dieux " ) had forced his lifting the siege , and the truce with the French might be preliminary to a lasting peace . He further claimed that he had more than quota of forces at Ypres , even though they had not all assembled at Calais ; and that although Lord Neville had offered to go in the king ' s very presence Richard had refused permission . He admitted to having received in Flanders royal letters asking him to accept a lieutenant , to which he claimed to have replied asking king and council to appoint one . After being found guilty , Despenser asked the king for a hearing before parliament to present his defence without interruption , which was granted for 24 November . In his final defence , the bishop attempted to place some blame on his captains , but Michael de la Pole was given another opportunity to rebut him . His guilt was confirmed , and although he had acted " contrary to the common custom of the estate of [ a ] prelate of England " , Richard II offered to treat him as an ecclesiastic . His temporalities were suspended and he was fined for the entire public cost of the expedition , to be paid for out of the francs he had received in France . Punishment of the captains . The captains of the crusade were asked to answer allegations of receiving bribes totalling 18 , 000 gold franc s . The leaders did not deny the allegations , but argued that because they had been forced to leave behind valuable horses the money was compensation . The treasurer , Foulmere , and five of the captains ( notably , not Calveley ) were imprisoned and fined 14 , 600 gold francs . On 9 January 1384 , the Exchequer recorded the receipt of £287 9 " s " . 4 " d " . of money captured during the Flemish expedition , paid by one Henry Bowet on Foulmere ' s behalf , and the further receipt of £770 16 " s " . 8 " d " . for 5 , 000 francs " illicitly received " overseas .