Henry IV, originally Henry Bolingbroke c.1366-1413
First Lancastrian King of England

The son of John of Gaunt, he was surnamed Bolingbroke from his birthplace in Lincolnshire. His father was fourth son of Edward III, his mother a daughter of Duke Henry of Lancaster. In 1386 he married the co-heiress to the earldom of Hereford, Mary de Bohun (c.1394). In 1397 he supported Richard II against the Duke of Gloucester, and was created Duke of Hereford, but in 1398 he was banished, and in 1399, when his father died, his estates were declared forfeit to Richard. Henry landed at Ravenspur in Yorkshire then induced Richard, deserted and betrayed, to sign a renunciation of his claims. He had himself crowned king (1399), and four months later Richard died, possibly murdered. During Henry's reign rebellion and lawlessness were rife, and frequent descents were made upon the coast by expeditions from France, but his movements were constantly hampered for want of money. Under Owen Glendower the Welsh maintained a large degree of independence and although he invaded Scotland in 1400, besieging Edinburgh Castle, he was compelled by famine to retire. In 1402, while the king was engaged against the Welsh, the Scots invaded Northumberland, but they encountered and were defeated by Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, and his son Harry Percy (Hotspur), at Humbleton (or Homildon), where Archibald, 4th Earl ofv Douglas, was taken prisoner. The Percys shortly after allied with Douglas and Glendower against Henry, but the king met them at Shrewsbury (1403), where they were utterly defeated, Hotspur slain, and Douglas again taken prisoner. In 1406 Prince James of Scotland (afterwards James VI and I) was captured on his way to France, and detained and educated in England. The civil wars in France gave Henry an opportunity to send two expeditions (1411-12) there, but in his later years his physical strength waned, and he became a chronic invalid, afflicted with epileptic fits. He chose to be buried in Canterbury, where he had often visited the shrine of Thomas � Becket, and his second wife, Joan of Navarre, was later buried there with him.

Bibliography: J L Kirby, Henry IV of England (1970)