On 2nd June 1402, John Bernard gave testimony at his trial that he had been ploughing near his home in Offley (Hertfordshire) when William Balsshalf told him that Richard II was still alive and well and living in Scotland and would return with William Serle’s help to meet his supporters at Atherstone, near Merevale Abbey in Warwickshire on 24th June. Richard II had supposedly ‘died’ at Pontefract Castle in February 1400. Henry IV later stated at the end of the January-March 1404 parliament that he granted a general pardon to all ‘provided always, however, that William Serle, Thomas Warde of Trumpington, who affects and pretends to be King Richard, and Amy Donet, do not have or enjoy any benefit from this grace and pardon, but that they should be expressly exempted from the aforesaid pardon and grace.’ Serle was captured, hanged and cut down, barely alive, at many towns between Pontefract and London, being finally hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn.

In June 1404, the Abbot of the Cistercian abbey of Revesby (Lincolnshire) declared that there were ten thousand men in England who believed that Richard II was alive; the ex-king reportedly having ‘died’ at Pontefract Castle in February 1400.

On 17th April 1404, Henry IV sent two men to arrest John Staunton, servant of the Countess of Oxford, as well as a canon of St Osyth, a goldsmith and the Countess herself for broadcasting that Richard II, who had ‘died’ at Pontefract Castle in February 1400, was still alive and would be returning imminently.

On 22nd December 1403, William Blyth, who claimed to have visited the ‘dead’ Richard II in Scotland (the king supposedly having died at Pontefract in February 1400) met John Staunton, servant of the Countess of Oxford, at Great Bentley and both were ordered to ride to Ipswich to make preparations for the ex-king to meet them at Northampton. Sermons were preached announcing the return of Richard at Colchester and in the Colne Valley.

On 13th December 1402, Sir Edmund Mortimer, uncle of the Earl of March, who had been captured by Owen Glendower at the Battle of Bryn Glas and had subsequently married Glendower’s daughter, wrote to his tenants in Radnor and Presteigne that ‘he had joined Glendower in his efforts either to restore the Crown to King Richard, should the king prove still to be alive, or, should Richard be dead, to confer the throne on his honoured nephew Edmund Mortimer, who is the right heir to the said Crown.’ This was said in the febrile atmosphere appertaining at the time that Richard II, who had supposedly ‘died’ at Pontefract Castle in February 1400, was possibly still alive.

On 5th June 1402, sheriffs throughout England were instructed to suppress all rumours that that Richard II, who had ‘died’ at Pontefract Castle in February 1400, was still alive. By 18th June, a writ informed sheriffs that this was no longer to be the case and that people need not fear arrest as only the leaders would be punished.

On 1st June 1402, Franciscans from Leicester, Nottingham and Northampton were sent to the Tower for spreading the news that Richard II, who had ‘died’ at Pontefract Castle in February 1400, was still alive.

On 27th May 1402, the head of the Dominicans at Winchelsea and the Rector of Horsmonden (Kent) plus four other Franciscan friars were ordered to be sent to the Tower after claiming that Richard II, who had ‘died’ at Pontefract Castle in February 1400, was still alive.

By 19th May 1402, the recently dismissed Prior of Launde and eight Franciscan friars had been arrested and executed after claiming that Richard II, who had ‘died’ at Pontefract Castle in February 1400, was still alive.

On 11th May 1402, Henry IV wrote to the prior of the Dominicans at Oxford warning him to restrain his preachers from broadcasting that Richard II, who had ‘died’ at Pontefract Castle in February 1400, was still alive.