Henry IV of England
Henry IV took the English crown by force and spent his reign fighting to keep it. Born at Bolingbroke Castle in 1367, he was the son of John of Gaunt and grandson of Edward III, and was among the Lords Appellant who curbed Richard II in 1388. He was a noted jouster and crusaded with the Teutonic Knights in Lithuania and travelled to Jerusalem. Richard exiled him for ten years in 1398 after an aborted judicial duel, and then, when John of Gaunt died in 1399, seized the vast Lancaster inheritance and made the exile permanent. Henry landed in Yorkshire while Richard was in Ireland, claiming only his lands, gathered support, and took the throne when nobody defended the king. The seizure was the problem. His claim rested on conquest, on Richard's forced abdication and on a doubtful descent, and every subsequent revolt drew on that weakness — as did the Wars of the Roses two generations later. Richard died at Pontefract in early 1400, and Henry was widely believed to have ordered it. He faced the Epiphany Rising in 1400, Owain Glyndŵr's Welsh revolt from that year, and the rebellion of the Percys, who had helped put him on the throne. His son killed Hotspur at Shrewsbury in 1403. Archbishop Scrope was executed for treason in 1405, which shocked opinion. He depended on parliament for money and had to concede its right to audit expenditure. He suffered a disfiguring skin disease from about 1405, variously diagnosed, and periods of incapacity. He died in 1413.
- Lived: 1367 CE – 1413 CE
- Nationality: English
- Roles: king, head_of_state
