English invasion of Scotland (1400) the Solway Firth. As Historian Chris Given-Wilson has put it, 'England's confusion was Scotland's opportunity,' and in May 1399 Wark Castle was destroyed by a Scottish raid. The invasion, then, started being planned alsmost as soon as Henry took the throne. At least one historian has noted a tradition, by then, of newly crowned kings of England launching military campaigns at the beginning of their reigns. Edward III had done so the same year his reign commenced; Richard II immediately on reaching his majority, and Henry V would do so within three years. These campaigns have been summarised as "enforcing...royal
Gilbert Denys William Dennis in 1701, last of the male line. Following Gaunt's death in 1399, Denys joined the retinue of Edmund, Earl of Stafford(d.1403), and probably fought with the Earl in Henry IV's campaign against the Scots in 1400. In 1403 he was appointed by the King as constable of the late Earl of Stafford's Newport Castle, Monmouth, in charge of 80 archers and 40 lances, specifically to resist the rebellion of Glendower. Having been discouraged from attacking nearby Chepstow Castle, a far larger fortification, Glendower turned his force on Newport, which Denys's force was clearly unable to resist, for the