Gloucester, Prince Humphrey, Earl of Pembroke and Duke of, nicknamed Good Duke Humphrey 1391-1447
English prince and literary patron

The youngest son of King Henry IV, as Regent of England (1420-21) and Protector (1422-29) during the minority of Henry VI, he was overshadowed by his elder brother, the Duke of Bedford, and greatly increased Bedford's difficulties by his greed, irresponsibility, and factious quarrels with their uncle, Cardinal Henry Beaufort. In 1447 he was arrested for high treason by Suffolk, Beaufort's successor as First Minister, at Bury St Edmunds and five days later was found dead in bed (apparently from natural causes). The first great figure in the English Renaissance, he cultivated friendships with literary figures like John Lydgate and the Italian humanists who supplied him with manuscript books. He later presented these to Oxford to form the nucleus of the Bodleian library. He learnt his nickname from his patronage of literature.

Bibliography: K H Vickers, Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester (1907)