Henry IV of England
Henry IV, also known as Henry Bolingbroke, was King of England from 1399 to 1413, Lord of Ireland and duke of Aquitaine. Henry was the son of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster and a grandson of King Edward III.
When Henry came of age, he was involved in the 1388 revolt of the Lords Appellant against his first cousin, King Richard II. Henry was later exiled from England in 1397. After Henry's father died in 1399, Richard blocked Henry's inheritance to the holdings of the House of Lancaster. So, Henry rallied Lancastrian supporters, imprisoned Richard II and formally deposed him, usurping the throne. These actions later contributed to dynastic disputes in the Wars of the Roses.
Henry was the first English ruler whose mother tongue was English since the Norman Conquest, over 300 years earlier. He was also the first monarch to come from the House of Lancaster. As king, he faced a number of rebellions, most seriously those of Owain Glyndŵr, the last Welshman to claim the title of Prince of Wales, and the English knight Henry Percy, who was killed in the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403. Henry IV had six children from his first marriage to Mary de Bohun, while his second marriage to Joan of Navarre produced no surviving children. Henry and Mary's eldest son, Henry of Monmouth, assumed the reins of government in 1410 as the king's health worsened. Henry IV died in 1413, and his son succeeded him as Henry V.
Early life
Henry was born at Bolingbroke Castle, in Lincolnshire, to John of Gaunt and Blanche of Lancaster. His epithet "Bolingbroke" was derived from his birthplace. Gaunt was the third son of King Edward III. Blanche was the daughter of the wealthy royal politician and nobleman Henry, Duke of Lancaster. Gaunt enjoyed a position of considerable influence during much of the reign of his own nephew, King Richard II. Henry's elder sisters were Philippa, Queen of Portugal, and Elizabeth, Duchess of Exeter. He also had five younger half-siblings: a sister, Catherine, later Queen of Castile, born of John of Gaunt's second marriage to Constance of Castile and four children born to Gaunt's mistress, Katherine Swynford. Swynford was originally the governess to Henry's sisters and later became his father's third wife. Her children were later legitimised and were given the surname Beaufort.Henry's relationship with his stepmother Katherine Swynford was amicable, but his relationship with the Beauforts varied. In his youth, he seems to have been close to all of them, but rivalries with Henry and Thomas Beaufort caused trouble after 1406. Ralph Neville, 4th Baron Neville, married Henry's half-sister Joan Beaufort. Neville remained one of his strongest supporters, and so did his eldest half-brother John Beaufort, even though Henry revoked Richard II's grant to John of a marquessate. Katherine Swynford's son from her first marriage, Thomas, was another loyal companion. Thomas Swynford was Constable of Pontefract Castle, where Richard II is said to have died.
One of Gaunt's esquires, Thomas Burton, was appointed Henry's tutor in December 1374, and a Gascon named William Montendre was made his instructor in military matters in 1376. It was likely Hugh Herle who taught Henry to read and write in English and French and some Latin as well; Herle served as Henry's chaplain for many years. By 1381–1382, Henry is recorded riding, hunting, and travelling with his father, as well as jousting and observing official events. He later became an active and highly successful jouster. He was besieged with King Richard and others in the Tower of London during the Peasants' Revolt in 1381 and narrowly escaped being murdered when the rebels stormed the tower. He was saved by a man named John Ferrour of Southwark, who participated in the Epiphany Rising against Henry, by then king of England, nearly twenty years later and was pardoned.
Henry had a close relationship with his father, but he did not participate much in public affairs while Gaunt was present in England. He accompanied Gaunt to negotiations with the French in Calais in November 1383. He took part in Richard's Scottish campaign with his father's forces in 1385, and he may have also served in an earlier incursion into Scotland by Gaunt. He was summoned to parliament for the first time in October 1385.
In his youth, Henry joined crusading expeditions; contemporaries remarked that he "never lost a battle", and John Gower described him as "full of knighthood and all grace".
Conflict at court
Relationship with Richard II
Henry experienced a more inconsistent relationship with King Richard II than his father had. First cousins and childhood playmates, they were admitted together as knights of the Order of the Garter in 1377, but Henry participated in the Lords Appellants' rebellion against the king in 1387. After regaining power, Richard did not punish Henry, although he did execute or exile many of the other rebellious barons. In fact, Richard elevated Henry from Earl of Derby to Duke of Hereford.Henry spent all of 1390 on a "reise", which were annual crusading expeditions organized by the Teutonic Order that attracted knights from all over Europe, who would serve for one winter-campaign as volunteers and then return home. Henry was supporting the unsuccessful siege of Vilnius by Teutonic Knights as one such volunteer, together with a retinue of 70 to 80 household knights. During this campaign, he bought captured Lithuanian women and children and took them back to Königsberg to be converted, even though Lithuanians had already been baptised by Polish priests for a decade by then.
Henry's second expedition to Lithuania in 1392 illustrates the financial benefits to the Order of these guest crusaders. His small army consisted of over 100 men, including longbow archers and six minstrels, at a total cost to the Lancastrian purse of £4,360. Despite the efforts of Henry and his English crusaders, two years of attacks on Vilnius proved fruitless. In 1392–93 Henry undertook a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, where he made offerings at the Holy Sepulchre and at the Mount of Olives. Later he vowed to lead a crusade to "free Jerusalem from the infidel", but he died before this could be accomplished.
The relationship between Henry and Richard had a second crisis. In 1398, a remark about Richard's rule by Thomas de Mowbray, 1st Duke of Norfolk, was interpreted as treason by Henry, who reported it to the king. The two dukes agreed to undergo a duel of honour at Gosford Green near Caludon Castle, Mowbray's home in Coventry. Yet before the duel could take place, Richard decided to banish Henry from the kingdom, although it is unknown where he spent his exile, to avoid further bloodshed. Mowbray was exiled for life.
John of Gaunt died in February 1399. Without explanation, Richard cancelled the legal documents that would have allowed Henry to inherit Gaunt's land automatically. Instead, Henry would be required to ask Richard for the lands.
Accession
After some hesitation, Henry met the exiled Thomas Arundel, former archbishop of Canterbury, who had lost his position because of his involvement with the Lords Appellant. Sailing from Boulogne, Henry and Arundel returned to England while Richard was on a military campaign in Ireland. With Arundel as his advisor, Henry began a military campaign, confiscating land from those who opposed him and ordering his soldiers to destroy much of Cheshire. Henry initially announced that he intended to reclaim his rights as Duke of Lancaster, though he quickly gained enough power and support to have himself declared King Henry IV, imprison Richard, and bypass Richard's heir-presumptive, Edmund de Mortimer, 5th Earl of March.Henry's 13 October 1399 coronation at Westminster Abbey may have been the first time since the Norman Conquest that the monarch made an address in English. Henry was also the first king to be anointed with the Virgin Mary's sacred oils.
In January 1400, Henry quashed the Epiphany Rising, a rebellion by Richard's supporters who plotted to assassinate him. Henry was forewarned and raised an army in London, at which the conspirators fled. They were apprehended and executed without trial.
In August 1400, urgently wanting to defend the Anglo-Scottish border, and to overcome his predecessor's legacy of failed military campaigns, Henry invaded Scotland. A large army was assembled slowly and marched into Scotland. Not only was no pitched battle ever attempted, but the King did not try and besiege Scotland's capital, Edinburgh. Henry's army left at the end of the summer after only a brief stay, mostly camped near Leith where it could maintain contact with its supply fleet. The campaign ultimately accomplished little except to deplete further the king's coffers, and is historically notable only for being the last one led by an English king on Scottish soil.
Reign
Henry consulted with Parliament frequently, but was sometimes at odds with the members, especially over ecclesiastical matters. In January 1401, Arundel convened a convocation at St. Paul's cathedral to address Lollardy. Henry dispatched a group to implore the clergy to address the heresies that were causing turmoil in England and confusion among Christians, and to impose penalties on those responsible. A short time later the convocation along with the House of Commons petitioned Henry to take action against the Lollards. On this advice, Henry obtained from Parliament the enactment of De heretico comburendo in 1401, which prescribed the burning of heretics, an act done mainly to suppress the Lollard movement. In 1404 and 1410, Parliament suggested confiscating church land, in which both attempts failed to gain support.Rebellions
Henry spent much of his reign defending himself against plots, rebellions, and assassination attempts. Henry's first major problem as monarch was what to do with the deposed Richard. After the early assassination plot was foiled in January 1400, Richard died in prison aged 33, probably of starvation on Henry's order. Some chroniclers claimed that the despondent Richard had starved himself, which would not have been out of place with what is known of Richard's character. Though council records indicate that provisions were made for the transportation of the deposed king's body as early as 17 February, there is no reason to believe that he did not die on 14 February, as several chronicles stated. It can be positively said that he did not suffer a violent death, for his skeleton, upon examination, bore no signs of violence; whether he did indeed starve himself or whether that starvation was forced upon him are matters for lively historical speculation.After his death, Richard's body was put on public display in Old St Paul's Cathedral, both to prove to his supporters that he was truly dead and also to prove that he had not suffered a violent death. This did not stop rumours from circulating for years after that he was still alive and waiting to take back his throne, and that the body displayed was that of Richard's chaplain, a priest named Maudelain, who greatly resembled him. Henry had the body discreetly buried in the Dominican Priory at Kings Langley, Hertfordshire, where it remained until King Henry V brought the body back to London and buried it in the tomb that Richard had commissioned for himself in Westminster Abbey.
Rebellions continued throughout the first 10 years of Henry's reign, including the revolt of Owain Glyndŵr, who declared himself Prince of Wales in 1400, and the rebellions led by Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland, from 1403. The first Percy rebellion ended in the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403 with the death of the earl's son Henry, a renowned military figure known as "Hotspur" for his speed in advance and readiness to attack. Also in this battle, Henry IV's eldest son, Henry of Monmouth, later King Henry V, was wounded by an arrow in his face. He was cared for by royal physician John Bradmore. Despite this, the Battle of Shrewsbury was a royalist victory. Monmouth's military ability contributed to the king's victory.
In the last year of Henry's reign, the rebellions picked up speed. "The old fable of a living Richard was revived", notes one account, "and emissaries from Scotland traversed the villages of England, in the last year of Henry's reign, declaring that Richard was residing at the Scottish Court, awaiting only a signal from his friends to repair to London and recover his throne."
A suitable-looking impostor was found and King Richard's old groom circulated word in the city that his master was alive in Scotland. "Southwark was incited to insurrection" by Sir Elias Lyvet and his associate Thomas Clark, who promised Scottish aid in carrying out the insurrection. Ultimately, the rebellion came to nought. Lyvet was released and Clark thrown into the Tower of London.