Beaufort, Henry 1377-1447
English cardinal and politician

He studied at Oxford and Aix-la-Chapelle, was consecrated Bishop of Lincoln (1398) and Winchester (1405), and became a cardinal in 1426. He was Lord Chancellor on three occasions (1403-05, 1413-17, 1424-26). He strongly opposed Henry V's proposition to levy a new impost on the clergy for the war against France, but he lent the King (1416-21), out of his own private purse, �28,000 - a sum which justifies the belief that he was the wealthiest subject in England. In 1427 the pope sent him as legate into Germany, to organize a crusade against the Hussites. This undertaking failed, and he fell from papal favour. During the 1430s he controlled the government of the young King Henry VI of England.

Bibliography: L B Radford, Henry Beaufort (1908)