Henry Bolingbroke sought the English Crown and successfully defended his right to rule as Henry IV. But there is more to the man and his reign. In the end, Henry wanted his remains to rest at Canterbury Cathedral close to the shrine of Thomas a`Becket. (Digital recreation of the Thomas a`Becket shrine below)
We begin the third and final segment of Henry's story with the aftermath of the 21 July 1403 Battle of Shrewsbury: 1500 words, a 6-minute read.
Hotspur's father, Henry Percy, Duke of Northumberland, did not participate in the battle. The elder Percy's brother, Thomas, Earl of Worcester, engaged the enemy at Shrewsbury. He was captured and later beheaded. His head adorned a spike at London Bridge.
Henry Percy, sometime later, met with the King and pledged his loyalty in an oath of fealty. However, by 1405, Percy was in league with Owain Glyndwr, and others intent upon defeating Henry IV. Once again, the King's forces prevailed. Percy retreated north into Scotland. In 1408, Percy and the Scots faced the King's troops at the Battle of Bramham Moor. Henry Percy died in battle.
Sir Edmund Mortimer, the champion of young Mortimer’s claim to the Throne, in league with Glyndwr, continued to resist Henry IV after Shrewsbury. He died in 1409, or possibly 1411, after an eight-month siege of Harlech Castle, Glyndwr's Welsh stronghold. Mortimer's wife, Catrin, and three daughters, along with Catrin's mother, were taken to the Tower of London, where they were held. Catrin died in 1413. She and two of her daughters are buried at an Anglican church in London.
Henry IV held the potential heir-apparent and threat to his Crown, young Edmund Mortimer, and his brother, Roger, at Windsor under close supervision. Young Mortimer and Henry of Monmouth, the Prince of Wales, became friends. Edmund remained loyal to his friend when Monmouth, upon his father's death, became Henry V. Edmund participated in Henry V's campaigns in France. Shortly after Edmund Mortimer arrived at Trim Castle in Ireland, he died of the plague on 18 January 1425. Mortimer’s death ended the Mortimer line, and the Mortimer claim to the Throne. With no heir, Mortimer’s wealth and status reverted to Lady Anne Mortimer's son, Richard, Duke of York, and a key player in the Wars of the Roses.
Owain Glyndwr's efforts to resist Henry IV's reign came to naught after Shrewsbury. In 1406 Henry's forces defeated Glyndwr at the Battle of Pwll Melyn (poosh MELin). Glyndwr escaped capture and became a hunted outlaw with a price on his head. The English failed to arrest him, but his precise fate is unclear. He is believed to have died c. 1415. In an ironic twist, some believe that his mortal remains are buried in England.
Archibald, Earl of Douglas (c.1372-1424), the Scot loyal to Percys, continued to resist English domination. He fought against the English in France, where he and a fellow Scot commanded a sizeable French force. Douglas died at the Battle of Verneuil on 17 August 1424.
The Rest of the Story
When John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster, died on 4 February 1399, the Lancaster title and wealth passed to his eldest son, Henry IV. One of Henry IV's first acts was to assure that the Lancaster inheritance is held separately and apart from all other Crown possessions and passed down in perpetuity to succeeding monarchs. The Duchy of Lancaster is in northwest England, well north of Liverpool, and a considerable distance from London. Today, Queen Elizabeth II holds the title, Duke of Lancaster, and receives a stipend from the Duchy, separate from the Crown's assets.
Henry IV had two sisters from John of Gaunt’s first marriage to Blanche of Lancaster. Philippa of Lancaster became Queen of Portugal by her marriage to John I of Portugal. Elizabeth of Lancaster was the Duchess of Exeter.
He had one half-sister, Catherine of Lancaster, from Gaunt's second marriage to Constance of Castile. She became Queen consort to Henry III of Castile.
Henry’s four half-siblings from Gaunt's third marriage to Kathrine Swynford, as follows;
1. John Beaufort (1371-1410), 1st Earl of Somerset,
2. Henry Cardinal Beaufort (1374-1447),
3. Thomas Beaufort (1377-1426), Duke of Exeter, and
4. Joan Beaufort (1379-1440), Queen of Scots.
Upon Blanche's passing, Henry appeared to have maintained an amicable relationship with his former governess and step-mother, Katherine Swynford.
The half-siblings from the Beaufort line played an active role in the politics of the day and later in the Wars of the Roses.
At his installation on 13 October 1399, Henry IV spoke in the vernacular, Middle English. He was the first English monarch to do so since the Norman Invasion of 1066. Until then, French was the language of English Royalty.
Henry married twice.
Thirteen-year-old Henry married eleven-year-old Mary de Bohun (1369-1394) on 27 July 1380. Mary gave birth to six children by Henry:
1. Henry Monmouth (1386-1422, Henry V,
2. Thomas of Lancaster (1387-1421), 1st Duke of Clarence,
3. John of Lancaster (1389-1435), 1st Duke of Bedford,
4. Humphrey of Gloucester (1390-1447), Duke of Gloucester,
5. Blanche (1392-1409), Lady of the Garter, and
6. Philippa (1394-1430), Queen consort of Denmark.
Mary de Bohun died at Peterborough Castle while giving birth to her daughter, Philippa, on 4 June 1394. Mary did not live to see her husband crowned King of England.
The widow Joan of Navarre (c. 1368-1437) married Henry on 7 February 1403. Joan was born in Pamplona, Spain, and living in Brittany on the Armorica Peninsula in northwest France. Years earlier, she had married the Duke of Brittany, a much older, twice widowed man.
Joan met the widowed Henry IV at Richard II’s marriage to Isabella of Valois in 1396. Correspondence from Joan to Henry dated 1400 hints that the union was more than an arranged affair, perhaps a love match. While Joan was in Brittany, she and Henry married by proxy on 2 April 1402. Upon her arrival in England, the couple celebrated the formal rite of matrimony and began family life together.
Joan bore six children by her first husband. She had no children by Henry IV, but she is said to have had a good relationship with her step-son, the future Henry V. She frequently sided with him in his arguments with his father. In 1419, Joan and Henry V had a falling out, and the relationship changed dramatically.
Upon Henry IV's death in 1413, Joan had an altar built upon the site of her second husband's demise. After the falling out, Henry V accused Joan of necromancy and imprisoned her at Leeds Castle. Joan remained a prisoner until 1422 when, weeks before his death, Henry V released her, and returned her estates to her. Joan lived on until 1437, a wealthy widow.
Foreign and Domestic Policy
Henry's foreign policy appeared to be a continuation of his activities as a young man, in direct contrast to his predecessor’s administration. Richard II had negotiated a twenty-eight-year truce with France; the contract sealed by Richard's marriage to seven-year-old Isabelle of Valois (1389-1409), daughter of Charles VI of France. Henry walked away from that agreement. He sought to protect England's interests in France, and, if possible, expand England's presence there. The aristocracy overwhelmingly supported the renewal of hostilities with France. War was their way to attain wealth and glory.
As head of state, Henry dealt with the Crown's complicated relationship with Rome, both an international and domestic issue. At the time of Henry's reign, the English Crown was beholden to the Catholic orthodoxy in Rome, a century before the Protestant Reformation and Henry VIII's establishment of the independent Church of England. Henry IV, as was his uncle before him, Edward, the Black Prince, was a Catholic and supporter of the Cult of Thomas a'Becket.
However, early rumblings of discontent with the Church in Rome spread across England. A group known as the Lollards advocated a dogma that repudiated the Catholic theology and practice that dominated religious thought throughout Europe for centuries. Henry reacted. In 1401, his Parliament enacted the de heretico comburendo, which allowed for the burning of heretics, a heretic defined as anyone who did not conform to the established religious orthodoxy. Henry brought to England a process that began in France in the 13th century.
The End
Serious health issues cut short Henry's reign. Historians point out that by 1410, Henry's son, the twenty-four-year-old Prince of Wales, assumed much of his father's royal power and influence.
As early as 1405, Henry IV began to intermittent seizures that continued until he died in 1413. A skin malady added to his woes. The problem was sufficiently severe that Henry became reclusive. There has been much speculation about the nature of Henry's ailments, but no hard evidence of the sources of his problems exists.
A final and fatal seizure struck down the King on 20 March 1413, as he was praying at St. George's Shrine in Westminster. He was forty-six years old.
Henry's remains are at rest at Canterbury Cathedral, not at Westminster Abbey, the usual resting place for English royals. Henry is on the north side of the shrine of Thomas a’Becket. Henry's uncle, Edward the Black Prince, is buried on the south side.
Henry IV never successfully dispelled the stigma of a usurper to the Throne.
Next up: Henry V.
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