Summary

Henry IV of Bolingbroke (English. Henry IV of Bolingbroke, spring 1367, Bolingbroke Castle, Lincolnshire - March 20, 1413, Westminster) - 3rd Earl of Derby 1377-1399, 3rd Earl of Northampton and 8th of Hereford 1384-1399, 1st Duke of Hereford 1397-1399, 2nd Duke of Lancaster, 6th Earl of Lancaster and 6th Earl of Leicester in 1399, King of England from 1399, son of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, and Blanca of Lancaster, founder of the Lancaster dynasty.

As a young man, Henry participated in the noble opposition that sought to limit the power of King Richard II of Bordeaux, but then, in 1388, entered into an alliance with the king. From 1390 to 1392 he led a life of itinerant knight in continental Europe and Palestine, taking part in the civil war in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In 1397 he received the title Duke of Hereford, but the king soon took advantage of Henry's quarrel with Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, to expel both from England.

In 1399, after John of Gaunt's death, Richard II confiscated his estates. Henry returned to England against the king's will and rebelled. He was supported by many noblemen of noble birth. Richard was deposed, and on his death Henry Bolingbroke, named Henry IV, took the vacant throne. During his reign he had to quell several revolts of the English nobility, as well as a rebellion in Wales, and to defend himself against attacks by the Scots. In 1401 he passed a statute against the Lollard movement.

The main sources describing Henry IV's biography are his contemporary chroniclers. Unlike his predecessor, Richard II, and his successor, Henry V, Henry IV's contemporary chroniclers described the history of his reign very sparingly. Only the first three years of the king's reign were described in more or less detail. The only chronicler who describes the whole reign of Henry IV most fully and informatively is Thomas Walsingham, a monk of St. Albans Abbey, but even in this work the last years of the king's life are covered worse. The other chronicles of this period (the Welsh priest Adam of Asc, the monk of St. Mary's Abbey, John Stritch, and the Franciscan author of Continuatio Eulogii describe the years of reign more sparingly.

Only from the middle of the fifteenth century did chroniclers begin to fill in the blanks about the "troubled times of Henry IV. But, as historian Chris Given-Wilson points out, this ruler remains "the most neglected of late medieval English monarchs. Many historians, "blinded by the brilliance of Henry V and the demonstrative self-destruction of Richard II," view Henry IV only as the ruler who overthrew Richard II and provided the heroism of Henry V, without paying much attention to his reign.

The reign of Henry IV is most fully described in the four-volume History of England under Henry the Fourth by J. H. Wiley (1884-1898). It contains a lot of information, but the author's goal was not to write a biography of the king, but to tell about the history of England during his reign. In the XX-XXI centuries several biographies of the king were published. Henry IV of England by J. L. Kirby (1970) is considered the most balanced, while Henry IV's Passion by I. Mortimer (2007) is the most readable. But, as Given-Wilson notes, these studies have the same flaw as all previous English historiography: the focus is on the first years of the king's reign, and the period after 1406 is not adequately described. This is largely due to the fact that it was in 1399-1406 that the key events of the king's reign occurred (the English rebellions of 1400, 1403 and 1406, the Welsh rebellions, the hostility between France and Scotland, the parliaments of 1401-1406 that were difficult for the king). In addition, the number of key sources decreases after 1406. It is to 1399-1406 that 70% of the surviving acts of the Privy Council, 3

Chris Gwen-Wilson's Henry IV, which presents a political biography of the king, was published in 2016.

Henry IV belonged by birth to the youngest branch of the Plantagenet dynasty. His father John of Gaunt was the fourth of the sons (and third survivor) of King Edward III of England - after Edward, Prince of Wales, and Lionel Antwerp, Duke of Clarence. Gaunt's first wife was Blanca of Lancaster, daughter and heiress of Henry Grossmont, Duke of Lancaster. Through this marriage he inherited vast estates in northern England, making him one of the richest and most influential English magnates, as well as the title Duke of Lancaster.

Thanks to his father's grants and a successful marriage, John was already, by the time his first son was born, the largest landowner in England after the king: he owned many estates and thirty castles in Wales, in the central and northern parts of the country. Gaunt held the titles of Duke of Lancaster, Earl of Richmond, Lincoln, Leicester and Derby; he tried to win the crown of Castile, but without success. His annual income was about £12,000, which exceeded even that of the heir to the crown, Edward the Black Prince.

Henry IV was the sixth child of the family. He was preceded by Philippa (1360-1415), later wife of King João I of Portugal, and Elizabeth (1364-1426), whose husbands were successively John Hastings, Earl of Pembroke, John Holland, 1st Duke of Exeter, and John Cornwall, 1st Baron of Fanhope, as well as three sons who lived only briefly. A year after Henry's birth another full sister was born, who soon died (1368). Blanc of Lancaster died in the same year. Later John of Gaunt married again - to Constance of Castile, who gave birth to his daughter Catherine (1371-1418), mother of King Juan II of Castile.

Henry had three half-brothers - bastards of John of Gaunt, born Catherine (Henry (Thomas (1377-1427), Duke of Exeter. He also had a half-sister, Joanna Beaufort (1379-1440), wife of Robert Ferrers, 2nd Baron Ferrers of Wem, and Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmoreland. In 1396, John Gaunt, with the king's permission, married Catherine Swinford, and the children born to her were legitimized by papal bull, but later, when Henry IV became king, he excluded the Beauforts from the line of succession by means of a small amendment to the act of legitimization.

Since all of his legitimate brothers had died in infancy, Henry was considered from birth as the sole and undisputed heir to his parents and was to inherit the vast inheritance of the House of Lancaster when they died.

Henry's date of birth is not given in the chronicles. He is the only monarch of the Plantagenet dynasty whose date of birth is doubtful. The only chronicler who mentions the birth of the future king is Jean Froissart, who indicates that he was born 7 years after the end of 1361. Another chronicler, John Capgrave, who was not a contemporary, does not mention the date of birth, but gives the place of birth as John of Gaunt's Bolingbroke Castle in Lincolnshire. This birthplace is confirmed by a number of other sources. The nickname by which Henry was known, "Bolingbroke" (Henry Bolingbroke), is associated with it.

J. L. Kirby, author of a monograph on Henry IV, did not specify a date of birth. E. Goodman, in a study of John of Gaunt, believes Henry was born in early 1367. C. B. McFerlane, author of the best study of Henry IV's younger years, Lancastrian Kings and Lollard Knights, indicates a range between April 4, 1366 and April 3, 1367. The Complete Peerage gives a birth date of April 4-7, 1366. The authors of an article about Henry in the printed version of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography thought he was "almost certainly in 1366 and possibly April 7." The dates of April 7, 1366, May 30, 1366, and April 3, 1367 are also found in various sources. A detailed study of Henry IV's date of birth was undertaken by researcher Ian Mortimer in his article "Henry IV's date of birth and the royal maundy", concluding that the future king was born between the end of March and the middle of May 1367 and probably on Holy Thursday of that year (April 15). This version has also been accepted in the online version of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. The same date is given by C. Givin-Wilson.

Henry is first mentioned in sources on June 1, when King Edward III, who received the news of his grandson's birth, paid a courier £5. His mother, Blanche, died of the plague on 12 September 1368, but by this time he and his elder sisters Philip and Elizabeth had been in the care of Blanche of Lancaster, Lady Wake, their maternal grandfather's sister for two years. She was in charge of bringing up John of Gaunt's children until 1372, after which they were brought up first by Constance of Castile, their father's 2nd wife, and then by Catherine Swinford, Gaunt's mistress, whom he later married. During this period they resided at Tutbury Castle, Staffordshire, the main Lancaster stronghold in the Midlands. Born of their father's relationship with Catherine Swinford, the sons, who took the surname Beaufort, became important friends to Henry. His closest friend during this period was probably Thomas Swinford, son of his father's mistress from his first marriage, who was only a year younger than him and also grew up in the ducal household. In December 1374, Thomas Burton, squire of John of Gaunt, became "steward" of the seven-year-old Henry. He was also assigned a chaplain, Hugh Hurl, who taught Henry to read and write French and English and gave him at least a working knowledge of Latin, and a closet keeper. To live the young prince was sent to the house of Lady Wake, his mother's cousin. In 1376 young Henry's military upbringing was taken over by the Gascon Sir William Montandre.

On 21 June 1377, shortly before Edward III died, John of Gaunt summoned his son and nephew, the future King Richard II, slightly older than Henry, to be knighted on St George's Day (23 June), after which both became knights of the Order of the Garter. At Richard II's coronation ceremony on July 16, Henry, who had recently received the title of Earl of Derby, once held by his maternal grandfather, carried the Curtana, one of the ceremonial swords.

A report has survived, dated 1381-1382, in which it is reported that at this time Henry was traveling and hunting with his father, participating in a jousting tournament, and beginning to observe the affairs of state. During the peasant rebellion of Wat Tyler in June 1381, his father, who had been one of the main targets of the rebels, took refuge in Scotland, and Henry himself may have been forced to flee from his father's castle in Hertfordshire and later was in the Tower of London, besieged by rebels, with the king and other nobles. On June 14, Richard II met with rebel leaders at Mile End, trying to negotiate with them, but during his absence, the mob seized the royal residence. The garrison of the castle, for some unknown reason, offered no resistance. Once inside the castle, the rioters seized several royal ministers - the Archbishop of Canterbury Sudbury as Chancellor, the Treasurer Sir Robert Hales and the Parliamentary Bailiff John Legg, who was responsible for collecting taxes in Kent, and the physician John Gaunt - and beheaded them on Tower Hill. Henry's life, however, was saved "miraculously" by one John Ferrer of Southark. Nearly 20 years later, in gratitude, Henry pardoned Ferrer, who had participated in the rebellion against him in January 1400.

In July 1380, John of Gaunt paid the king 5,000 marks for the marriage of his son to the wealthy heiress Mary de Bogun, the youngest daughter of Humphrey de Bogun, 7th Earl of Hereford, who died in 1373. The marriage itself was probably consummated on February 5, 1381, at the Bohuns' estate of Rochford Hall in Essex. Mary's older sister, Eleanor, was married to Thomas Woodstock, Henry's uncle. Froissart reports that Woodstock, who wanted the entire legacy of the Boguns, persuaded Mary to join the Clarissean order. It is not known how reliable this is, but it is certain that the married sisters' uncle and nephew argued among themselves over the division of the Bohuns' estates. Henry's marriage was probably consummated in late 1384, when Mary was 14 years old, and on December 22 of that year Henry received the titles of Earl of Hereford and Earl of Northampton, previously held by his wife's father. The marriage was a successful one, with a sincere affection for one another (records show that Henry often sent gifts to his wife), reinforced by a shared interest in music and books. This marriage produced at least six children, including the future King Henry V. She died in 1394 after the birth of her daughter Philippa.

At the time of Richard II's accession to the throne, Richard II was only 10 years old, so the kingdom was officially ruled by a board of regents of 12 men. Although it did not include any of Edward III's sons, real power in England belonged to one of them, including John of Gaunt, Henry's father. Gaunt's personal estates occupied a third of the kingdom, his retinue consisted of 125 knights and 132 squires, and the Savoy Palace on the Thames was more luxurious than the palace in which Richard lived. Unlike his father, he had no great experience of government or military talent. John of Gaunt, as the king's uncle, had no less right to the throne and could have challenged his son Richard even after the coronation of Richard II, if he wished, but he did nothing to change the situation. Before and after the king's majority, he continued to be his faithful servant.

Henry Bolingbroke was John of Gaunt's sole heir and was close to his powerful father. In 1382 he took part in a jousting tournament organized on the occasion of the King's wedding to Anne of Bohemia, and later became one of the most indefatigable and experienced knights of the English kingdom. Yet when his father was in England, Henry took remarkably little part in public affairs. In November 1383 he accompanied Gaunt to a meeting with French envoys at Calais. It is possible that in 1384 he took part in his father's raid on the Scots, and in 1385 he took part in Richard II's Scottish campaign as part of a detachment led by John Gaunt. In October 1385 Henry participated for the first time in the English Parliament, but his main task at this time was to win military honor.

In 1386 John of Gaunt went on an expedition to Castile. Henry was present at Plymouth in July 1386, from where his father sailed for Spain. His campaign lasted until November 1389, during his absence Henry incurred the hatred of the king.

Richard II was not much older than Henry, but they had little in common. Unlike Henry, the English king showed no enthusiasm for jousting. Moreover, Richard II was suspicious of his cousin, for in 1376 Edward III had recognized John of Gaunt and his offspring as heirs to the kingdom. In addition, Richard's marriage was childless and Henry was becoming his potential successor. As a result, in the second half of the 1380s, the Earl of Derby had little contact with the royal court and enjoyed no royal patronage. The king, anxious to avoid Henry's succession to the throne, recognized as his heir Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March, maternal grandson of Lionel Antwerp, Duke of Clarence, the early dead elder brother of John of Gaunt. This move helps explain the political stance Henry took in the late 1380s.

Richard II gradually became less and less popular. This was because of his blind attachment to the favourites he had surrounded himself with, under their influence he became very self-confident, capricious and egotistical. At the same time he did not tolerate any objections, they drove him mad, he began to behave very offensively, losing his sense of royal and human dignity, not shrinking from swearing and insults. The favourites themselves, who had distinguished themselves by greed and frivolity, were more concerned with their own personal well-being. England also continued to be at war with France, which required additional expenditure.

On September 1, 1386, at a meeting of Parliament at Westminster, Lord Chancellor Michael de la Paul requested an impressive sum for the defense of England. In order to raise it, however, taxes had to be raised, which could have led to a new rebellion. As a result, Parliament formed a delegation that went to the king to complain against the chancellor, demanding his dismissal as well as that of the treasurer, John Fordham, bishop of Durham. Initially the king refused to comply with the demand, stating that he would "not kick even the cook out of the kitchen" at Parliament's request, but he eventually agreed to receive a delegation of 40 knights.

Later, Richard II did another act that angered the nobility by giving his favorite Robert de Vere, 9th Earl of Oxford, the title Duke of Ireland. The king and Henry's uncle, Thomas Woodstock, who had recently received the title Duke of Gloucester, saw the granting of such a title to an aristocrat from outside the royal family as an affront to his status. As a result, instead of forty knights, only Thomas Woodstock and his friend Thomas Fitzalan, brother of one of King Richard Fitzalan's former guardians, the 11th Earl of Arundel, whom he could not stand, appeared before the king. The Duke of Gloucester reminded the king of the exclusivity of the title of duke and that the law required the king to convene and attend parliament once a year. Richard accused his uncle of inciting rebellion, who in turn reminded him that war was going on and warned him that Parliament might depose the king if he did not throw out his advisers.

On 1 October 1386, Parliament, known in history as the Wonderful Parliament, began to meet, and Henry was present. Threatened with deposition, the king acceded to Parliament's demand, dismissing Suffolk and Fordham. The bishops of Ilya and Hereford were appointed to take their places. Michael de la Paul was put on trial, but soon most of the charges were dropped. On November 20 of the same year, a "Great Permanent Council" was appointed, with a term of 12 months. Its purpose was declared to be the reform of the system of government, as well as the desire to do away with favoritism and to take all measures to effectively oppose the enemies. Fourteen commissioners were appointed to the commission, of whom only three were opponents of the king: the Duke of Gloucester, the Bishop of Illy and the Earl of Arundel. But the commission had such broad powers (it was given control of finances, and had to administer the Great Seal and the Small Seal) that the king refused to recognize it. Moreover, he went to open conflict by appointing his friend John Beauchamp as steward of the royal court.

In February 1387 Richard II was on a tour of the north of England. During it he received legal assistance from the chief judges of the kingdom: Sir Robert Tresilian, supreme judge of the royal bench; Sir Robert Belknap, supreme judge of general litigation; and Sir William Berg, Sir John Hoult, and Sir Roger Foulthorpe. According to the right they gave, any intrusion into the prerogatives of the monarch was unlawful, and those who did so could be equated with traitors. All the judges signed the royal declaration at Nottingham, though they later claimed that they did so under pressure from Richard.

The king returned to London on 10 November 1387 and was greeted enthusiastically by the people of the capital. Although all the judges had sworn to keep their verdict secret, the Duke of Gloucester and the Earl of Arundel learned of it and refused to appear before Richard on his summons.

Gloucester and Arundel, joined by Thomas de Beauchamp, 12th Earl of Warwick, took refuge at Haringey near London. From there they went to Waltham Cross (Hertfordshire), where supporters began to flock to them. Their numbers alarmed the king. But although some of his favourites, notably Archbishop Alexander Neville of York, insisted on dealing with the rebels, many members of the Grand Standing Council did not support them. As a result, eight members of the council traveled to Waltham on November 14, where they urged the rebel leaders to end the confrontation. Gloucester, Arundel and Warwick brought an appeal (lat. accusatio) against the actions of the king's favorites - the earls of Suffolk and Oxford, the archbishop of York, the high judge Tresilian and the former mayor of London, Sir Nicholas Brembre, from whom the king had borrowed a large sum of money. The envoys responded by inviting the lords to Westminster to meet the king.

On November 17, the lords-appellants met with the king at the Palace of Westminster. But they did not disband their army and acted from a position of strength, demanding that the king arrest the favourites with their subsequent trial in Parliament. The king agreed, setting a hearing for February 3, 1388. But he was in no hurry to accede to the appellants' demands, not wishing to have a trial of his cronies, who had escaped. The Archbishop of York took refuge in the north of England, the Earl of Suffolk went to Calais, and the Earl of Oxford left for Chester. Judge Tresilian took refuge in London. Only Brembre met with the judges.

Soon, however, the lords-appellants learned that the king had deceived them. The judicial orders that were issued in his name to Parliament urged everyone to forget the strife. Eventually hostilities resumed. The appellants were joined by two other noble lords: Henry Bolingbroke and Thomas de Mowbray, 1st Earl of Nottingham and the Earl of Marshall (former favourite of Richard II, now son-in-law to the Earl of Arundel).

Henry's reason for joining the lords-appellants is unknown. Perhaps he was trying to vindicate the interests of his absent father in England and his own interests in the succession to the throne. He may also have been outraged at the way in which de Vere, who had been a judge of Chester, was using his power in Northwest England to enrich himself at the expense of the revenues of the Duchy of Lancaster. In addition, he was probably unhappy with the hostility with which the king and his minions had often treated his father John of Gaunt in the early 1380s. In any case, the decision to join the appellants was fatal, for from that moment Richard II's distrust of Gont was directed with increasing force towards Henry himself.

On December 19, an army of appellants ambushed the Earl of Oxford returning from Northampton near Redcote Bridge. Henry defended the bridge by breaking the top of its arches. Oxford's escorts were captured, but he himself escaped and then made his way to France, where he lived out the rest of his life. Henry was the hero of this campaign, though his home accounts describe the event as a raid.

After this battle, reconciliation between the appellants and the king was out of the question. After Christmas at the end of December, the rebel army approached London. The frightened king took refuge in the Tower, attempting to negotiate with the appellants through the Archbishop of Canterbury. But the appellants were unwilling to make concessions and proclaimed the possible deposition of the king. Wishing by any means to retain his crown, Richard surrendered. He issued new judicial orders to parliament and also ordered the sheriffs to detain the five fugitives, bringing them to trial.

The members of the council, although their term of office expired in November, conducted a search of the royal court, the king did not prevent it. In addition, warrants were issued for the arrest of Sir Simon Burleigh, who lost his posts as vice-chamberlain and keeper of the Five Ports, the royal steward John Beauchamp, and the six judges who had signed the royal declaration at Nottingham, who lost their posts. Many other royal employees were also dismissed.

On February 3, 1388, Parliament met in the hall of the Palace of Westminster. The king was seated in the center, with the secular lords to his left and the ecclesiastical lords to his right. On a sack of wool was seated the Bishop of Iliya. This tumultuous parliamentary session went down in history as the Merciless Parliament.

Five lords-appellants dressed in robes of gold held hands to bring charges against the king's minions. As a result, four of the king's minions were sentenced to execution. Two, Oxford and Suffolk, managed to escape, but Brembre and Tresilian were executed under the pressure of the appellants. The archbishop of York, as a clergyman, was spared his life, but all his estates and possessions were confiscated. Several of the king's lesser associates were also executed. At the same time, Henry and the Earl of Nottingham argued for the life of Sir Simon Burleigh, the king's confidant and former tutor. Queen Anne also pleaded for mercy for Simon Burleigh, but to no avail. A total of eight men were executed. In addition, a number of the king's cronies were banished from England.

The result of this trial was, among other things, to set a series of precedents that would cost England much turmoil in the fifteenth century and lead to the War of the Scarlet and White Rose.

Although Henry attended the council meetings and witnessed a number of royal charters, only three of the appellants - the Earls of Gloucester, Arundel and Warwick - were in charge of the government of the kingdom until May 1389, when Richard II succeeded in regaining power.

By 1389 the domestic situation in the state had improved markedly. On May 3, Richard, who was by then 22 years old, told the council that he was an adult, would not repeat the mistakes made in his youth, so was ready to rule the country himself. The appellants, believing that the king had learned his lesson, allowed him some independence, since they had no desire to rule for him for life. Needing support, Richard sought help from his uncle John of Gaunt, who had never been able to obtain the Castilian crown and had lived in Gascony since 1387. Although his son had been one of the lords-appellants, Gaunt chose to stay away during the crisis. Now, after receiving a letter from his nephew, he decided to return. He arrived in England in November 1389, becoming the king's right-hand man, which brought stability to the kingdom. The lords-appellants ended up taking care of other matters.

The return of his father allowed Henry to move away from politics. In March-April 1390, he and other English knights took part in the great international tournament of knighthood at St. Inglevert near Calais and were thought to have gained great fame. He next planned to go on a crusade to Tunisia, leading a force of 120 men, but the French (probably at the request of the English king) denied him a letter of protection. As a result, he decided to go to Prussia and join the Knights of the Teutonic Order in a campaign against Lithuania. He hired 2 ships and sailed from Boston in July 1390, accompanied by 32 knights and squires. On August 10 he reached Danzig, where he joined the knights of the order and soldiers on a campaign up the Neman River. By September 4 they reached Vilnius, where they captured a fort, but the siege of the main castle was unsuccessful, so by September 22 all the knights returned to Königsberg, the capital of the Teutonic Order's holdings. It was too late to return home by sea, so Heinrich decided to winter here. On March 31, 1391, he sailed for England, reaching Hull on April 30. This expedition cost 4,360 pounds, most of the sum provided to him by his father. In the end he obtained only gratitude from the Knights of the Order, but gained military experience. As early as 1407 the Knights of the Order spoke very warmly of him.

On July 24, 1392, he set out again for Prussia, reaching Danzig on August 10, but upon arriving in Königsberg he found that there would be no campaign this year, so he decided to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. On September 22 he left Danzig accompanied by 50 men, deciding to reach through Eastern Europe. To announce his rank, he sent heralds ahead. His route took him through Frankfurt an der Oder to Prague, where he was entertained by King Wenzel, brother of Queen Anne. Next he arrived in Vienna, where he met with Duke Albrecht III of Austria and King Sigismund of Hungary and the future emperor. He then moved through Leoben, Fillach, and Treviso, arriving in Venice on December 1 or 2. There the senate, warned of his arrival, allotted him ships for his further voyage. He sailed from Venice on December 23.

Henry celebrated Christmas in Zara, then sailed past Corfu, Rhodes and Cyprus and landed in Jaffa in the second half of January 1393. He spent more than a week in the Holy Land, visiting various shrines and making various offerings. At the end of January he sailed back. After making a long stop in Rhodes, he returned to Venice on March 21, where 2,000 marks sent by his father were waiting for him. On March 28 he sailed onward. Henry's further journey lay through Padua and Verona, then he arrived in Milan, whose governor, Gian Galeazzo Visconti, entertained him for several days. After crossing the Mont-Senis Pass, he proceeded through West Burgundy to Paris, then reached Calais and arrived in Dover on June 30 and in London on July 5. This expedition cost him 4,915 pounds, most of which, as in the previous case, was allocated to him by his father.

Both expeditions brought Henry international fame, but they were no less important for English politics, for the men who accompanied him from the household formed a core of loyal vassals who later supported him in all the trials of the rest of his life.

During Henry's absence from England, Richard II regained his power and confidence. In 1391 he received assurances from Parliament that he was "allowed to enjoy all the royal regalia, liberties and rights equally with his forebears ... and notwithstanding any former statutes and ordinances establishing otherwise, especially in the time of King Edward II, resting in Gloucester ... and any statute passed in the time of the said King Edward which offended the dignity and privileges of the crown, was to be repealed." Since his return, Henry had been periodically at court, attending meetings of parliament and councils. His signature appears on 14 of the 42 royal charters issued between 1393 and 1398. However, he continued to be excluded from the circle of the king's associates.

In 1394 Mary de Bogun, Henry's wife, died, after which he remained in mourning for a year. In October 1396 he accompanied Richard II's new wife, Isabella of France, from Ardres to Calais with his father and some other members of the nobility.

In early 1394, John Gaunt suggested that Richard II recognize Henry as heir to the English throne; this was opposed by the Earl of March, whom the king had previously recognized as his heir. Richard II reacted in no way to this, leaving the question of the heir open. But the king's suspicions of Henry grew. John of Gaunt's influence with the king waned, and he became wary of the Duchy of Lancaster following Richard II's attempts to persuade the Pope to canonize his great-grandfather, Edward II. The holdings of Thomas of Lancaster, executed by Edward II in 1322, were confiscated by him, but after the king was deposed in 1327, the decree was annulled. Now Thomas's heirs suspected that Richard II might revoke the decree restoring the Lancaster estates.

Concern also grew after Richard II's reprisal of the three lords-appellants in 1397. On September 17, 1397, Parliament convened at Westminster - the last during Richard's reign. It was a kind of mirror image of the Merciless Parliament, but now the accused were former prosecutors Gloucester, Arundel and Warwick. The order of the trial was the same as nine years earlier. Eight lords acted as appellants, including the king's half-brother, John Holland, Earl of Huntingdon; his nephew, Thomas Holland, Earl of Kent; and his cousins, Edward of Norwich, Earl of Rutland and John Beaufort, Earl of Somerset (John Gaunt's legitimate son by Catherine Swinford). As a result, the Earl of Arundel was executed and the Earl of Warwick was sentenced to exile for life. The Duke of Gloucester was declared to have died in confinement at Calais, though no one doubted that he had been murdered on the king's orders. All their estates were confiscated. Proclamations announced that John of Gaunt and Henry Bolingbroke had endorsed these decisions: Gaunt had presided at the trials in Parliament, and Henry had spoken in favor of the execution of Arundel.

After the massacre of the appellant lords, the king rewarded his supporters. On September 29, Henry Bolingbroke received the title of Duke of Hereford, as well as a pardon for his part in the appellants' rebellion ten years earlier. Another former appellant, Thomas Mowbray, received the title Duke of Norfolk, John Holland the title Duke of Exeter, Thomas Holland the title Duke of Surrey, and Edward of Norwich the title Duke of Albemail (Omerl). The earldom of Cheshire and several other Arundel possessions in Wales were annexed to the crown. On September 30, Parliament approved all decisions and went into recess.

Despite the reward, Henry feared to displease the king and tried in every way to please him. He appeared at court more often, gave Richard II a great feast and entertained him during the Parliament.

In mid-December, Henry left London for Windsor. On the way he was overtaken by his former fellow rebel, Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk. The conversation between them is known from the report Henry gave to Richard II in January 1398. It said that Norfolk had informed Henry of the king's plans to capture or kill John of Gaunt and Henry at Windsor in September 1397 in retaliation for his attack on the Earl of Suffolk near Redcote Bridge in 1387, and to disinherit Henry and Norfolk. Although Henry himself, he said, spoke little, he was frightened. He made a little pilgrimage north to the shrines of Beverly and Bridlington, and then told of the conversation to his father, who conveyed it to the king. At the end of January, Henry himself appeared to Richard II, took the opportunity to receive two more pardons from the king for his past actions, granted on 25 and 31 January. Amid rumors of a plot against him in the king's inner circle, John of Gaunt and his heir received assurances from the king that he would not use the confiscation judgment against Thomas of Lancaster to claim any Lancastrian estates. The Duke of Norfolk was removed from his offices and imprisoned.

To investigate the Duke of Norfolk's alleged plot, the king appointed a special commission of 18 men, which met at Windsor Castle on April 29. The Dukes of Norfolk and Hereford appeared before it. Norfolk refused to admit that he had plotted anything against the king. According to him, if there was anything, it was long ago, and he received a royal pardon for it. But Henry insisted, accusing Norfolk of giving bad advice to the king, of being responsible for many of the kingdom's misfortunes, including the murder of the Duke of Gloucester, and offered to prove his case by a court duel.

The duel was set for September 17 in Coventry. It was attended by peers, knights, and ladies from all over England. Only John of Gaunt was absent, who, after a session of parliament at Shrewsbury, had retired - according to Froissard - because of an illness that eventually led to his death. Henry trained earnestly for the duel and also hired gunsmiths from Milan. The audience greeted both dukes with cheers, with Bolingbroke greeted more loudly. But then Richard II unexpectedly intervened. He disliked his cousin and feared that the Duke of Hereford's likely victory would make him the most popular man in the country. Throwing down his rod, he stopped the duel. It was announced that neither duke would receive the divine blessing, and both must leave England no later than October 20: Bolingbroke was banished for ten years and Mowbray for life.

Henry's son and heir, Henry Monmouth (the future King Henry V), was forbidden to accompany his father, effectively remaining a hostage. Although the king outwardly showed favor by providing Henry with a thousand marks to cover expenses and a letter guaranteeing that he would receive an omission for any possession during the exile, the letter was withdrawn on March 18, after John Gaunt's death (he died February 3, 1399), on the grounds that it had been provided "by inattention.

Gaunt's death proved fatal for the king, for only the old duke helped to maintain the prestige of the crown. The king refused to recognize the duke's will. If Richard II had any plans for Henry's future and his inheritance, they were never clear. Although the Duke of Lancaster's estates were not officially confiscated, he placed them in the care of his favorites, the Dukes of Exeter, Albermyle and Surrey. Richard II made no clear statement as to the fate of the exiled Henry, although one of his advisers told parliament that in March 1399 the king had sworn that "while he lives, the present Duke of Lancaster will never return to England". It is possible that the king intended to leave an inheritance to Henry Monmouth bypassing his father. If there was still hope for a peaceful resolution to the conflict up to this point, Richard had demonstrated by his rash actions that the law of succession was no longer in force in England.

Henry left England around 1398 and went to Paris, where he was received by King Charles VI and his dukes. The exile was provided with the Hôtel de Clisson for lodging. He had no trouble with money, for he retained his late wife's estates. Moreover, even after the loss of his father's estates, he continued to receive money from them sent by Italian merchants. He also began to plan a new marriage. As a bride he considered first Lucia Visconti, niece of the Duke of Milan Gian-Galeazzo, and then Maria, Countess d'Ais, niece of the French king. The prospect of the latter marriage so alarmed the English king that he sent the Earl of Salisbury to Paris with instructions to thwart Henry's marriage plans. He also planned to go on a crusade, but his father dissuaded him, recommending that he go to Castile and Portugal, where Catherine and Philippa, Henry's sisters, were queens. But these plans were thwarted by John of Gaunt's death and Henry's de facto disinheritance.

The actual power in France was in the hands of his uncle, Philip II the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, a supporter of peace with England. Since Richard II was now married to a French princess, it was likely that the duke should have watched Henry and thwarted his actions that were contrary to the interests of the English king. After the plague epidemic of May 1399, however, he found himself outside Paris, and power in the kingdom passed to his rival, the king's brother Duke Louis of Orleans. He was the leader of the French war party, so on June 17 he made a formal alliance with Henry, by which each pledged to be "the friend of the other's friends and the enemy of the other's enemies." In fact, he cynically gave Henry carte blanche to return to England. Though he hardly expected the exile to succeed against a fairly firmly entrenched Richard II. He probably hoped that Henry could only create problems for the English king by weakening his influence in Aquitaine, where the Duke of Orleans' own ambitions extended. And he hardly wanted the peace-loving Richard II to be replaced on the throne by the hardened fighter Henry.

For Henry, however, the treaty was vital, for it gave him hope of revenge, although there was a certain risk. He decided to take full advantage of Richard II's absence from England to march on Ireland, where, following the assassination of the king's viceroy, Earl March in 1398, the situation had been complicated by the rebellion of two Irish kings. Although the king's advisers tried to dissuade Richard II from the campaign, fearing that the exiled Henry might take advantage of his absence, the king listened to no one. Richard II landed in Ireland on June 1, 1399. Henry soon enough learned of Richard's expedition and left Paris in secret at the end of June, accompanied by his loyal vassals and two other exiles - Thomas Fitzalan, heir of the executed Earl of Arundel, and the exiled Archbishop of Arundel, brother of the executed Earl. After outfitting three ships, they set sail from Boulogne. It is not known whether he was already planning to overthrow Richard II at that time or only wished to regain his inheritance. But knowing the king's suspicion and vindictiveness, he knew that he would never be safe in England without wielding the full extent of his power. The treaty with the Duke of Orleans may indicate that he regarded himself not only as the future Duke of Lancaster, but also as the probable heir of Richard II.

Adam of Usk reports that Henry was accompanied by no more than 300 companions. Initially Henry landed in Sussex, where his men captured Pevensey Castle, but this was probably a diversion designed to sow confusion among the king's supporters. His ships then sailed as far as Ravenspur in North Yorkshire. At the end of September, a cross was placed at the site of his landing. On June 1 he was at Bridlington. These lands were Lancaster possessions, and here Henry could count on support. Visiting his own castles of Pickering, Nersborough, and Pontefract, he passed through areas inhabited by his vassals. Here Henry declared himself Duke of Lancaster and on July 13 was already at Dorncaster, where he was joined by two powerful northern barons - Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, with his eldest son Henry Hotsper, as well as Ralph Neville, Earl of Westmoreland and several other northern lords. The commoners also flocked to Henry's banners - he had a charm that Richard lacked. Though the chronicles exaggerate the size of his army, it was a considerable force. And there were so many men that Bolingbroke had to send some of them home. Although Henry publicly announced that he had come to receive his inheritance, the northern nobles were probably aware that he was a claimant to the English throne.

The protector of the kingdom in Richard II's absence was his uncle, Edmund Langley, Duke of York, assisted by Chancellor Edmund Stafford, Bishop of Exeter, Treasurer William le Skrup, Earl of Wiltshire, and Keeper of the Great Seal Richard Clifford, Bishop of Worcester. Also remaining in England were Sir John Bushy, Sir William Bagot, and Sir Henry Green. At the end of June, the Duke of York received news of men about to cross the Channel. Not trusting the Londoners, he went to St. Albans, where he began to recruit an army, while simultaneously making requests to Richard to return. He gathered over 3,000 men at Weir in Herefordshire. On July 11-12, however, the Duke of York learned that Henry had landed in Yorkshire, whereupon he and his council traveled west to meet the king, but on the way he ran into rebels. The Duke of York eventually took refuge at Berkeley, while the Earl of Wiltshire, Bushey, and Green went to Bristol, where they attempted to organize resistance. William Bagot fled to Cheshire.

On July 27, Henry, meeting little or no resistance, approached Berkeley with his army. The Duke of York did not even try to resist and surrendered. From there Bolingbroke marched to Bristol, where he forced York to order the surrender of the castle, after which he ordered the execution of the captured Wiltshire, Bushy and Green; their heads were displayed on the gates of London, York and Bristol.

Upon learning of Bolingbroke's landing in England, Richard sailed from Ireland on July 27. The Duke of Albermaille recommended that the king divide the army. According to historians, he knew immediately that Richard could not win and decided to side with Lancaster. On hearing his advice, Richard sent an advance party under the Earl of Salisbury to North Wales to gather reinforcements, while he landed at Haverfordwest. He then tried unsuccessfully for several days to find additional troops in Glamorgan, before moving on to Chester, apparently wishing to gain support in his county. Henry, however, had figured out his plan and quickly led his growing army back north through Hereford and Shrewsbury to Chester, reaching there on 9 August. There he seized the treasury of Richard II. The king eventually reached only Conway Castle, where Salisbury awaited him, informing him that Chester had been captured by Henry.

Salisbury's army had scattered by then because word had spread that the king was dead. The Earl of Worcester and the Duke of Albermayle sided with Bolingbroke. Richard II had an opportunity to retreat - he had ships left in which he could either return to Ireland or flee to France. But the king remained in the castle, trusting no one. Richard II sent the Duke of Exeter and the Earl of Surrey to meet Henry, but they were immediately arrested. In turn, Henry sent the Duke of Northumberland and Archbishop Arundel to the king, whom Richard II ordered to be let in.

The exact demands conveyed to the king are not known. But apparently they were not too onerous. According to them, the king was to return to Henry all his father's inheritance and restore him to his rights. In so doing, Henry's right as steward of England was to be reviewed by Parliament without interference from the king, and five of the king's advisers were to stand trial. Northumberland swore that if the demands were met, Richard would retain his crown and power, and the Duke of Lancaster would fulfill all the terms of the agreement. Richard agreed to all the demands and left the castle, accompanied by a small retinue, to meet his cousin. On the way, however, the king was ambushed by Northumberland (but the latter later denied it) and taken to Flint Castle, where he became Henry's prisoner.

Henry was well aware that once free, Richard would take revenge. There was no trust in the king. In addition, in Bolingbroke's opinion, England needed another king. Since Richard had no children, in 1385 Parliament approved as heir Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March, who was the maternal grandson of Lionel, Duke of Clarence, second son of Edward III. But Roger died in 1398, his heir Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March, was only 8 years old. Henry Bolingbroke was older and more experienced, and the enthusiastic welcome he received from the population convinced him that the English would accept him as king. Although his father was the younger brother of the Duke of Clarence, he could only justify his rights by descent in the male line, not in the female line.

But Bolingbroke needed to persuade parliament to depose Richard by proclaiming the Duke of Lancaster as the new king. There was a precedent for overthrowing a king - Edward II was deposed in 1327, but he was succeeded then by his eldest son Edward III. Something else was needed to justify his rights, since the Earl of March, whose father had been confirmed as heir by Parliament, had a preferable claim to the throne. Henry could not find the precedents he needed. He even tried to use the old legend that his mother's ancestor, Edmund the Hunchback, had been born before his brother Edward I, but because of physical defects he was removed from the throne, but of course Bolingbroke could not prove the veracity of this story either. His next idea was to justify the seizure of the crown by the right of the conqueror, but it was immediately pointed out to him that such a thing was against the law. This left only one option: Bolingbroke could be proclaimed king by parliament. But here too there was a pitfall: Parliament had too much power and could overturn its ruling if it so wished. But Bolingbroke managed to find a way out.

From Flint Castle Richard was taken to Chester, from there to Westminster, and in September he was transported to London, housed in the Tower. On September 29 he signed the act of abdication in the presence of many witnesses, after which he placed the crown on the ground, thus surrendering it to God. On September 30 a "parliament" convened at Westminster, convened by an order signed by Richard on Bolingbroke's instructions. Henry's idea was that it was not a full parliament, but only an assembly (an assembly of the elected) - unlike parliament, the king's personal presence was not required at the assembly. The throne remained empty. Archbishop Richard le Scroupe of York read the king's abdication as well as a document listing all his crimes. Although Richard wished to defend himself personally, he was not given this opportunity. An attempt by Bishop Thomas Merck of Carlisle and a number of other supporters of the king to speak in his defense was also ignored. Richard's abdication was eventually recognized by the assembly. Henry Bolingbroke spoke next, making his claim to the throne, after which he was proclaimed king.

Entrance to the Throne

On October 6, a new parliament was convened in Henry's name, with the same composition as that of the assembly. Archbishop Arundel spoke at it, giving an account of Bolingbroke's reasons for ascending the throne and his intention to rule well, and comparing the new king to Judas Maccabees, the biblical hero who had led the God-given people in rebellion against their oppressors by driving them out of Jerusalem. The work of parliament was then suspended for the coronation. The ceremony took place on St. Edward's day, October 13, and was held in the traditional manner, although the new king, who took the name of Henry IV, was first anointed with the sacred oil of the phial, which, according to legend, was given to Thomas Becket by the Virgin Mary and later passed into the possession of Henry Grossmont, the king's maternal grandfather. He was also likely to have been the first English king to be enthroned on the Scone Stone, taken by Edward I from Scotland. A traditional coronation banquet followed at Westminster Hall. It culminated in the arrival of Sir Thomas Dymock, who told those present that he was the king's defender and that if anyone wished to challenge Henry IV's claim to the English crown, he was "ready to prove it personally here and now". There was no one willing to challenge him.

The day after the coronation parliament resumed its work. At it the decisions of the parliament of 1397-1398 were abolished and the decisions of 1386 were restored. As early as October 15, Henry IV took the first step toward securing the throne for his descendants: his eldest son Henry of Monmouth, aged 12 or 13, received the titles of Prince of Wales, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Lancaster and Cornwall and Earl of Chester. The next day the trials of Richard II's friends began, but the new king was lenient enough. So Sir William Bagot, a vassal of John of Gaunt and his heir, who in 1398 had been a trusted adviser to the deposed king and had pursued Henry, appeared as a witness against his recent friends and got off with a year's imprisonment, after which he received a rent of £100 from the king and since 1402 was again seated in parliament. The five surviving appellants of 1397 were stripped of the titles and grants then made to them by Richard II, but did not suffer any punishment. By December, however, some of them were back on trial. John Montague, Earl of Salisbury, was accused, with the king's support, of conniving at the murder of the Duke of Gloucester, and his valet John Hall, who confessed to being present at the murder, was executed. The House of Commons also demanded that Richard II be punished for his crimes and held in secret and secure custody. The former king was taken under close guard first to Leeds Castle in Kent and then to Pontrefract Castle in Yorkshire.

To mark the beginning of a new era, Henry IV, on the eve of his coronation, created a new association of knights, called the Knights of Bath. Henry IV himself took a bath at least once a week, which was rare for the period. Before initiation, the Knights of Bath had to take a bath as a sign of purification before God, after which they received the blessing of the priest. A total of 46 knights were initiated.

The new king, who enjoyed unquestioning support, appeared to feel confident enough to show mercy to his enemies. Because of the paradoxical nature of his reign, however, Henry's position was seriously flawed. Henry received the throne by right of conquest, not by inheritance. Although he repeatedly emphasized that he considered himself the rightful successor of previous kings and expected to rule as they had, without diminishing the prerogatives he had inherited to take the throne, the new king had to make concessions. Although some of these were simply traditional trappings of good government like a promise to uphold the laws of succession, one of them, historians estimate, had a serious impact on his ability to rule. When he landed in England he vowed at Doncaster that he was simply going to assert his rights to the title of Duke of Lancaster, but later at Nurseborough he apparently also vowed to reduce taxes. Many took such a thing as a promise not to levy taxes. When the Earl of Northumberland spoke at Canterbury in the fall of 1399 as Henry's representative, he said that the new king had no intention of levying money from his kingdom except when it was necessary for the immediate needs of war. In July 1403, a London tailor, accused of high treason, allegedly reported that Henry, upon becoming king, "swore that he would pay his debts in full and not levy taxes on the kingdom." At the same time, royal subjects were aware that Henry IV had much more wealth than his predecessors. In addition Lancaster inheritance of his father, which brought him an annual income of 12.5-14 thousand pounds, his share of the inheritance of Bogun and the income from the royal estates, he seized the savings of Richard II, amounting to more than 60 thousand pounds in cash, as well as a large number of gold and silver items, whose value was estimated at more than 110 thousand pounds. However, the new king was unable to live up to the expectations of his subjects.

Henry had no administrative experience. Before his father's death, he relied mainly on the money he allocated. On becoming king, Henry continued to treat the Lancaster and Bogun estates as personal property, administratively separating them from the crown lands, using the income from them mainly to finance the considerable and very expensive fees for the maintenance of the court. In addition, in the first months of his reign he gave away large quantities of lands and rents to buy the loyalty of Richard II's vassals as well as to reward his supporters. As a result, the maintenance of the royal court in the early years of Henry IV's reign was greatly increased. In the first year, expenses amounted to about 52 thousand pounds - as much as Richard II spent in the last years of his reign. At the same time, the House of Commons was unwilling to levy taxes, refusing the king an extension of the tax levy, which exacerbated the problem. Although Parliament confirmed the customs duties, they were far less than Henry IV had hoped for because of the significant decline in wool imports.

At the same time, the policy of toleration brought Henry IV some success: he managed to draw to his side the officials appointed by Richard II, who had certain talents and were willing to reconcile. In addition, he was able to increase his authority by promoting his supporters as sheriffs, judges, and commissioners, often at the expense of recalcitrant associates of the former king. He also attracted to the court men of his vassals from the North of England; in many ways it was loyal and experienced Lancastrian servants like Sir Hugh Waterton, Sir Thomas Earpingham and Sir Thomas Rempston that enabled the king to compensate for his own ignorance of the government of England, and provided him with a solid support to hold the throne. The cost of this support, however, was high, both literally and figuratively.

The Epiphany conspiracy

Henry IV spent Christmas 1399 at Windsor, and in early January 1400 he faced his first conspiracy against himself, known in history as the Epiphany Plot. It was led by a group of supporters of Richard II, led by Edward of Norwich, Earl of Rutland, John Holland, Earl of Huntingdon, Thomas Holland, Earl of Kent, John Montague, Earl of Salisbury and Thomas le Dispenser, Baron Dispenser. Their plan was to break into Windsor Castle on Epiphany Day, January 6, the deposed king's birthday, and kidnap or kill Henry IV and his sons before freeing Richard II. But on 4 January Edmund Langley, Duke of York, informed the king of the conspirators' plans, learning of them from his son, the Earl of Rutland, whereupon Henry immediately set off for safer London.

Upon learning of their failure, the conspirators fled. They tried to revolt, but were unsuccessful; locals, not nostalgic for the deposed monarch, captured and executed the rebel leaders: the Earl of Kent and Salisbury in Cyrencester, the Earl of Huntington in Plesha, Baron Dispenser in Bristol. Only the Earl of Rutland survived. Inheriting the title of Duke of York after his father's death, he served Henry IV and Henry V faithfully thereafter. On 12 January at Oxford, the king himself presided at the trial of lesser rebels, sentencing 22 to execution but pardoning 37.

The Baptismal Conspiracy showed Henry IV that Richard II alive was a threat to his throne. Although examination of Richard II's skeleton in the nineteenth century found no evidence of violence. Thomas Walsingham reports that when the former king learned of the failed rebellion, "his mind was troubled and he starved himself - such were the rumors." Another chronicler claimed that Richard II was murdered by Sir Pierce Exton, who split his skull open with an axe. Contemporary historians have no doubt that the former king was murdered - most probably starved to death. He died no later than February 17. His body was delivered to London with his face hanging open, but that didn't stop later rumours from circulating that he was still alive. Richard II's body was given a humble burial at the Dominican monastery at King's Langley. Henry IV attended the funeral service for the deceased at St. Paul's Cathedral. In December 1413, his son Henry V, who became king, reburied the body of Richard II in Westminster Abbey.

Scottish Campaign

Early in his reign, Henry IV hoped to maintain peaceful relations with the Scottish kingdom. However, King Robert III refused to recognize his title. In addition, Scottish raids into northern England became more frequent during this period. As a result, at a meeting of Parliament on November 10, 1399, the English king declared war on his northern neighbor.

One way to solve the Scottish problem was to annex Scotland to England. To this end, Henry sent his agents north, wanting to know the mood of the Scottish nobility. Upon receiving news that many Scots were not opposed to becoming English, the English king began preparations for an invasion. To justify the legitimacy of his claim, in February 1400 he ordered his treasurer, John Norbury, to compile a body of documents proving England's right to suzerainty over Scotland. Henry IV received the requested legal corpus on July 15. It was based on the charter of omens, which the Scottish King John Balliol had given to Edward I, supplemented by excerpts from the treaties with Scotland of 1291-1296, presented in a light favorable to England. In July, Henry IV demanded that Robert III pay him an oath for the kingdom. Although the demand was legally incorrect, the Scots offered to begin negotiations.

On August 7, Henry IV appealed to the Scottish nobles, demanding that they come to him and pay an oath for their possessions. In response, David, Duke of Rothesay, offered the English king a jousting match between 200-300 English and Scottish knights, but was refused.

Henry IV's desire to invade Scotland was strengthened when he had an additional reason to intervene in internal Scottish affairs. In early 1400 there was a quarrel between representatives of two noble Scottish families, George Dunbar, Earl of March, and Archibald, Earl of Douglas, who were rivals in the Anglo-Scottish frontier. The Earl of March planned to marry his daughter Elizabeth to the Duke of Rothesay, but this ambition aroused the displeasure of the Earl of Douglas, who, with Robert, Duke of Albany, upset the marriage and instead arranged for the latter to marry his daughter Margaret, offering the king a larger dowry. In addition, Robert III refused to return from the treasury the dowry previously given by Dunbar. As a result, the angry earl left the royal court and went to his estates, from where he wrote to the English king. His first letter was dated February 18, in which he outlined the nature of the conflict. And in his second letter Dunbar offered to take him into his service to Henry IV. On March 12 he was given a letter of protection "for himself, his household and 100 men," and on March 14 the English king, who understood the political benefits for himself, offered to meet "as soon as possible." In Henry IV's opinion, the passage of the Scottish earl might have initiated the passage of other Scottish lords into English subjection as well. Dunbar left his Scottish estates to his nephew, who soon surrendered them to the Douglases on the orders of Robert III. He himself settled in northern England and contacted Ralph Neville, Earl of Westmoreland, and Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, after which his men raided Scotland with a detachment of English earls. True, the Earl of Douglas succeeded in repulsing the attack, with the result that they were forced to return to England.

In response to the raid, the Scottish king demanded that Dunbar, declared an "enemy of society," be surrendered to him, threatening to terminate the peace treaties if he refused, but Henry IV refused, declaring that he did not intend to break the royal word of protection and patronage he had given him. On July 25, Dunbar formally paid his homage to the English king, gaining possessions in northern England.

On June 9, Henry IV ordered the sheriffs of the northern counties to prepare for an invasion of Scotland. Negotiations then began, which went rather hard. The English demanded an oath, refusing to recognize the treaty of 1328. The Scots, on the other hand, demanded compliance with the treaty. No agreement was reached, and war became inevitable. On August 13 the army of Henry IV invaded the territory of the Scottish county of Haddington. It numbered over 13,000 men, including 800 foot soldiers and 2,000 archers. Having seized the capital of the county, the king stayed there for three days. Then, meeting little or no resistance, the English army marched through the East Scotch Mark and Lothian, plundering several abbeys along the way. On March 17 Henry reached Leith, north of Edinburgh, where warships with reinforcements and equipment for the siege awaited him. There he had an exchange of messages with the Duke of Rothesay. A few days later the English took Edinburgh, aided by the "sluggishness of the garrison command of the Edinburgh fortress. At this point the hostilities were effectively over. Robert III and his court retreated inland, the Scottish army withdrew without fighting a general battle. Although the Duke of Albany was about to march to Edinburgh's aid, it was not required. The English king's last appeal for an oath of allegiance occurred on August 21. The English had problems with provisions, and as a result, Henry IV decided to return to England on August 23, without waiting for a reply. He returned to northern England on 29 August, ending, as the historian R. MacDougal put it, Henry IV's "incomprehensible campaign". One Scottish chronicler, describing the campaign, wrote: "Nothing worthy of memory was done.

Thereafter, Henry did not undertake new campaigns to Scotland. On November 9 a truce was signed for 6 weeks, later extended until December 1401. Border raids continued, though. In 1402 a Scottish army invaded northern England but was defeated by the Earl of Northumberland at Hamildon Hill, with four earls and a number of strong commanders either killed or taken prisoner.

Rebellion in Wales

When Henry returned from Scotland in 1400, he learned of a rebellion in Wales at Northampton. It was raised by a Welsh nobleman, Owain Glyndur, who had declared himself Prince of Wales and had begun to raid English towns in Shropshire and North Wales. Having sent orders to all men of the Midlands and Welsh marks capable of bearing arms to arrive at Shrewsbury, Henry himself moved there. He reached the town on September 26. Although the immediate danger had passed, the king undertook a raid through Bangor, Carnarvon, Harlech.

But the rebellion continued, covering much of Central and North Wales by June 1401. However, neither Henry nor his advisers immediately appreciated that the rebellion against English rule was not only political but also economic. Henry himself and his son, the Prince of Wales, were very large Welsh landowners. It is estimated that they owned more than half of Wales, and the income from the estates amounted to at least £8,500. As a result, as the rebellion spread, not only was revenue lost, but huge sums were spent to suppress it, largely because the rebellion could not be suppressed by a general battle. As a result, until 1407, it was necessary to reinforce the garrisons in the castles to contain the rebels. The king himself undertook five more campaigns: in May and October 1401, in October 1402, in September 1403 and in September 1405. But others led the main hostilities in Wales: first Percy, later the Prince of Wales, and the captains and castellans of the castles.

Percy's Rebellion

The main supporters and advisers of Henry IV in the early period of his reign were members of the Percy family - especially Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland. For the leading role they played in his seizure of power, the king rewarded them generously. The Earl of Northumberland was the king's chief adviser, receiving from him the lifelong offices of constable of England, custodian of the West of Scotland and Carlisle. In addition, he was given the Isle of Man as a hereditary possession. His brother, Thomas Percy, Earl of Worcester, also joined the royal council, was made admiral of England, and was appointed head of the commission negotiating with France. In addition, in 1401, he also became administrator of the royal court. Heir to the Earl of Northumberland, Henry Hotspur, was also given a number of posts, becoming magistrate of Chester and North Wales, keeper of a number of Welsh castles and of the East of Scotland, captain of Berwick and Roxborough, and from 1401 also vicar to the Prince of Wales.

The king soon realized that such a concentration of power in one family could be dangerous. As a result, in 1401 he began to take steps to reduce it. In Wales, Henry regained custody of the hereditary estates of the Mortimers, which had been given to the Earl of Northumberland in October 1399; he also gave the Prince of Wales the island of Anglesey, which had been held by Hotspur since November 1399. As a result, Percy's annual income was reduced by 2,000 pounds. Also in opposition to Percy, the king began to promote the interests of Ralph Neville, Earl of Westmoreland, in northern England, giving him first an annual rent of 300 pounds, and in March 1402 he replaced Hotspur as captain of Roxborough. When Henry IV demanded that the Scottish lords captured in 1402 at the Battle of Hamildon Hill be sent to London, the Percys refused to do so, declaring that "they were prisoners of the earl and not of the king." At the same time, Henry IV refused to do his duty as suzerain and ransom Edmund Mortimer, son-in-law to the Earl of Northumberland, who had been captured by the Welsh in June 1402.

To somehow allow Percy to realize their ambitions, on March 2, 1403, Henry IV granted the Earl of Northumberland and his heirs a large tract of land north of the Anglo-Scottish border with the promise of financial support to conquer it. In May Hotspur invaded Scotland and laid siege to Cooklow, a small fortification near Hoek. He and his father then appealed to the king, demanding the promised aid.

From 1408 Henry IV's health deteriorated, he had some sort of skin disease, thought to be leprosy. At times he was unable to attend to state affairs at all, and from 1410 to 1411 his son Henry ran the country on his father's behalf. He sent English troops into France to support the Duke of Burgundy at war with the House of Orleans. But, having recovered somewhat from his illness, Henry IV, in contrast, began to support Charles, Duke of Orleans. In 1412 the king forced his son to leave the royal council, but he died the following year.

Henry IV died on March 20, 1413. He died in the Jerusalem Chamber of the Palace of Westminster. Several stories have survived about his final hours, the veracity of which is unknown. One was told a quarter of a century later by the Burgundian chronicler Anguerran de Monstrelais, and was later borrowed by the sixteenth-century chroniclers Edward Hall and Raphael Holinshed. According to it, next to the dying Henry IV on the couch lay the crown. When the king's breathing became almost imperceptible, the attendants next to him thought he was dead and covered his face with a sheet. The Prince of Wales, who had received the news of his father's death, came and took the crown and left the room, but suddenly a sigh was heard from under the sheet. The servants, who realized the mistake, yanked back the sheet. Looking around, the king asked where the crown had gone. "The prince, your son, took it." The summoned heir answered his father's question, "These men assured me that you were dead, and since I am your eldest son and after your death I own both your kingdom and your crown, I took it." Henry IV reminded his son that he himself had no right to the crown, to which the prince promised that, like his father, he would hold the kingdom with his sword. "Very well," replied the king, "I leave the rest to God and ask Him to have mercy on me. Thereupon he died. William Shakespeare later borrowed this story for his chronicle.

Unlike his predecessors, Henry was not buried in Westminster Abbey but in Canterbury Cathedral - on the north side of the Chapel of the Holy Trinity next to the tomb of St. Thomas Becket. His second wife, Jeanne of Navarre, was also buried with him. Henry's motives for choosing this burial site are not entirely clear. Christopher Wilson has suggested that Henry may have associated himself with Thomas Becket out of political expediency, namely the need to legitimize his seizure of power after the overthrow of Richard II. Proof of such an assumption he considers the tomb itself, where a wooden panel on the west side depicts Becket's martyrdom. In addition, according to the researcher, important is the connection between the death of one of the representatives of the House of Lancaster (ancestors of Henry on his mother's side) - Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster, who, like Becket, was "martyred".

The tombstone bears alabaster images of Henry IV and Joan of Navarre, crowned and dressed in ceremonial robes. In 1832 Henry's body was exhumed and found to be well embalmed. As a result, researchers assume with reasonable certainty that the image fairly accurately conveys the king's appearance.

Henry IV's contemporary chroniclers, regardless of how they regarded him, feared and respected his authority. Thomas Walsingham points out that the king "reigned gloriously for thirteen and a half years. Adam of Asc praises his "mighty reign, during which he crushed all who rebelled against him." The Anonymous Chronicle writes that in spite of his constant extortion of taxes, Henry IV was much loved by his people. But according to historian Chris Given-Wilson, closer to reality was the opinion of another chronicler, John Stritch, who, while extolling the king's military prowess, pointed out that by breaking his promises he had lost the trust of the people. Nonetheless, the chronicler points out that "few were his equals, many were his followers, and he was never defeated in battle". Another chronicler, Angerrand de Monstrelle, who was never a friend of the kings of England, calls Henry IV "a valiant knight, fierce and cunning toward his enemies.

The basis of Henry's coat of arms was the coat of arms adopted by his grandfather Edward III - a shield, where on the 1st and 4th quarters were the arms of the kings of France (the so-called France ancien), and on the 2nd and 3rd quarters - the arms of the Plantagenets. On it was superimposed a lambel with 5 ribbons of ermine. After his father's death, he replaced the lambel, which now consisted of 5 ribbons: 3 ermine and 2 azure lilies. After becoming king, Henry adopted the royal coat of arms, which around 1400 was modernized to match the coat of arms of the kings of France (the so-called France moderne), where in 1376 the field of heraldic lilies was replaced by 3 lilies, alluding to the Trinity.

Henry IV is a character in three of Shakespeare's plays in the historical chronicle genre: Richard II, Henry IV (Part 1), and Henry IV (Part 2).

In The King (2019), the role of Henry IV was played by Ben Mendelsohn.

In the television series "The Empty Crown" the role of the young Henry Bolinbroke in the series "Richard II" played Rory Keener, in the two subsequent parts - Jeremy Irons.

1st wife: from c. 5 February 1381 (Rochford Hall, Essex) Mary de Bogun (c. 1369 - 4 July 1394), daughter of Humphrey de Bogun, 7th Earl of Hereford, and Joan Fitzalan. Children:

Allison Weir also believes that Henry and Mary had another son, Edward, who was born in April 1382 and lived four days.

2nd wife: Jeanne d'Evreux (c. 1370 - 9 July 1437), Infanta of Navarre, daughter of Charles II the Evil, King of Navarre, and Jeanne of France, widow of Jean V de Montfort, Duke of Brittany. There were no children from this marriage.

Sources

1. Henry IV of England
2. Генрих IV (король Англии)
3. Бланка происходила из Ланкастерского дома, основателем которого был Эдмунд Горбатый, младший сына короля Генриха III. Вскоре после гибели в 1265 году в битве при Ившеме Симона де Монфора, графа Лестера большая часть его владений, включая онор[en] и замок Лестер с титулом графа Лестера, были переданы Эдмунду. Через 2 года его владения ещё увеличились за счёт конфискованных у восставшего Роберта де Феррерса, графа Дерби земель, включая онор и замок Ланкастер с титулом графа Ланкастера и онор Пикеринг[en] в Йоркшире. Эти владения стали территориальной основой для величия Ланкастерского дома. В 1296 году годовой доход с этих владений составлял около 4,5 тысяч фунтов. Позже эти владения ещё увеличились за счет наследства графов Линкольн, полученного Томасом, 2 графом Ланкастером, посредством брака. Эти земли приносили ежегодный доход в 6,5 фунтов, что сделало графов Ланкастер самыми богатыми и могущественными лордами в Англии после короля. Хотя в результате восстания Томаса его владения были конфискованы, его брату Генри, графу Лестеру, после свержения Эдуарда II удалось вернуть большую часть владений рода. После смерти Генри при его наследнике, Генри Гросмонте, который был одной из главных опор Эдуарда III, Ланкастерский дом обладал тем же богатством и влиянием, что и при первых его двух представителях; сам Гросмонт получил от короля титул герцога Ланкастера, а графство Ланкашир было возведено в статус палатината, из-за чего его правитель обладал в своих владения фактически как суверенный правитель. Он оставил 2 дочерей, однако старшая умерла бездетной, в результате чего единственной наследницей всех ланкастерских владений стала вторая дочь, Бланка, на которой женился Джон Гонт[5].
4. На 15 апреля 1367 года приходился Великий четверг — праздник, к которому король в последние годы своей жизни всегда относился с большим вниманием[12].
5. Ричард II был сыном Эдуарда Чёрного Принца, старшего сына Эдуарда III.
6. При этом есть версия, что у Генриха и Марии в апреле 1382 года родился сын Эдуард, который прожил 4 дня[16].
7. Первый брак Джоанны Кентской был аннулирован решением папы римского, кроме того, Джоанна и Чёрный Принц были близкими родственниками, из-за чего на брак также потребовалось разрешение папы. Любое из папских разрешений Джон Гонт мог опротестовать, используя своё влияние и раздавая денежные подачки[17].
8. I. Mortimer, Henry IV's date of birth and the royal Maundy, in Historical Research 80 (2007), pp. 567-576. DOI 10.1111/j.1468-2281.2006.00403.x
9. a b I. Janvrin - Catherine Rawlinson, The French in London: From William the Conqueror to Charles de Gaulle, Londen, 2013, p. 16. Rotuli Parliamentorum; ut et Petitiones, et Placita in Parliamento, III, Londen, 1767, nr. 53, pp. 422-423.
10. Uit de DNA-analyse, die na de ontdekking van het skelet van Richard III van Engeland in 2012 werd uitgevoerd, bleek er langs de mannelijke kant geen DNA-verwantschap te zijn met vijf potentiële familieleden, net als Richard III afstammelingen van Eduard III van Engeland. Het is echter niet te zeggen op welk punt in de lijnen van Eduard III naar Richard III en de huidige afstammelingen er DNA van buitenaf is ingeslopen. (T. King - e.a., Identification of the remains of King Richard III, in Nature Communications (2/12/2014), p. 4).
11. B. Bevan, Henry IV, New York, 1994, pp. 5-6.
12. B. Bevan, Henry IV, New York, 1994, p. 5.
13. ^ The idea that Henry and Mary had a child Edward who was born and died in April 1382 is based on a misreading of an account which was published in an erroneous form by JH Wylie in the 19th century. It missed a line which made clear that the boy in question was the son of Thomas of Woodstock. The attribution of the name Edward to this boy is conjecture based on the fact that Henry was the grandson of Edward III and idolised his uncle Edward of Woodstock yet did not call any of his sons Edward. However, there is no evidence that there was any child at this time (when Mary de Bohun was 12), let alone that he was called Edward. See appendix 2 in Ian Mortimer's book The Fears of Henry IV.
14. Bien que la tradition soit de transmettre les comtés par lignée masculine, aucune tradition n’existe pour la succession au trône d’Angleterre. Un précédent existe en France où les prétentions pour le trône de France par le roi d’Angleterre ont été invalidées car passant par la lignée féminine, ce qui est à l’origine de la guerre de Cent Ans.