March 20, 1412: Death of Henry IV, King of England and Lord of Ireland

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Duke of Lancaster, Henry Bolingbroke, Henry IV of England, Joanna of Navarre, John of Gaunt, King Edward III of England, King Richard II of England, Lord of Ireland, Mary de Bohun, Usurper

Henry IV (c. April 1367 – March 20, 1413), also known as Henry Bolingbroke, was King of England from 1399 to 1413. His grandfather King Edward III had claimed the French throne as a grandson of Philippe IV of France, and Henry continued this claim. He was the first English ruler since the Norman Conquest, over three hundred years prior, whose mother tongue was English rather than French.

Early Life

Henry was born at Bolingbroke Castle, in Lincolnshire, to John of Gaunt and Blanche of Lancaster. His epithet “Bolingbroke” was derived from his birthplace. Gaunt was the third son of King Edward III. Blanche was the daughter of the wealthy royal politician and nobleman Henry of Grosmont, Duke of Lancaster.

Henry of Grosmont was the only son of Henry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster (c. 1281–1345); who in turn was the younger brother and heir of Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster (c. 1278–1322). They were sons of Edmund Crouchback, 1st Earl of Lancaster (1245–1296); the second son of King Henry III (ruled 1216–1272) and younger brother of King Edward I of England (ruled 1272–1307).

Henry of Grosmont was thus a first cousin once removed of King Edward II and a second cousin of King Edward III (ruled 1327–1377). His mother was Maud de Chaworth (1282–1322). On his paternal grandmother’s side, Henry of Grosmont was also the great-great-grandson of King Louis VIII of the Franks.

John of Gaunt enjoyed a position of considerable influence during much of the reign of his own nephew, King Richard II. Henry’s elder sisters were Philippa, Queen of Portugal, (wife of King João I of Portugal) and Elizabeth, Duchess of Exeter. His younger half-sister, the daughter of his father’s second wife, Constance of Castile, was Katherine, Queen of Castile wife of King Enrique III of Castile.

Henry Bolingbroke also had four natural half-siblings born of Katherine Swynford, originally his sisters’ governess, then his father’s longstanding mistress and later third wife. These illegitimate children were given the surname Beaufort from their birthplace at the Château de Beaufort in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France.

Henry’s relationship with his stepmother, Katherine Swynford, was a positive one, but his relationship with the Beauforts varied. In his youth, he seems to have been close to all of them, but rivalries with Henry and Thomas Beaufort proved problematic after 1406. Ralph Neville, 4th Baron Neville, married Henry’s half-sister Joan Beaufort.

Neville remained one of his strongest supporters, and so did his eldest half-brother John Beaufort, even though Henry revoked Richard II’s grant to John of a marquessate. Thomas Swynford, a son from Katherine’s first marriage, was another loyal companion. Thomas was Constable of Pontefract Castle, where Richard II is said to have died.

Henry’s half-sister Joan was the mother of Cecily Neville. Cecily married Richard, 3rd Duke of York, and had several offspring, including Edward IV and Richard III, making Joan the grandmother of two Yorkist kings of England.

John of Gaunt died in February 1399. Without explanation, Richard cancelled the legal documents that would have allowed Henry to inherit Gaunt’s land automatically. Instead, Henry would be required to ask for the lands from Richard.

Henry was involved in the revolt of the Lords Appellant against Richard in 1388, resulting in his exile by King Richard II.

Accession

After some hesitation, Henry met the exiled Thomas Arundel, former archbishop of Canterbury, who had lost his position because of his involvement with the Lords Appellant. Henry and Arundel returned to England while Richard was on a military campaign in Ireland. With Arundel as his advisor, Henry began a military campaign, confiscating land from those who opposed him and ordering his soldiers to destroy much of Cheshire.

Henry initially announced that his intention was to reclaim his rights as Duke of Lancaster, though he quickly gained enough power and support to have himself declared King Henry IV, imprison King Richard (who died in prison under mysterious circumstances) and bypass Richard II’s 7-year-old heir-presumptive, Edmund de Mortimer, 5th Earl of March.

Henry’s coronation, on October 13, 1399 at Westminster Abbey, may have marked the first time since the Norman Conquest that the monarch made an address in English.

As king, Henry faced a number of rebellions, most seriously those of Owain Glyndŵr, the self-proclaimed ruler of Wales, and the English knight Henry Percy (Hotspur), who was killed in the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403. The king suffered from poor health in the latter part of his reign, and his eldest son, Henry of Monmouth, assumed the reins of government in 1410. Henry IV died in 1413, and his son succeeded him as King Henry V.

Marriages and issue

First marriage: Mary de Bohun

The date and venue of Henry’s first marriage to Mary de Bohun (died 1394) are uncertain but her marriage licence, purchased by Henry’s father John of Gaunt in June 1380, is preserved at the National Archives. The accepted date of the ceremony is February 5, 1381, at Mary’s family home of Rochford Hall, Essex.

The near-contemporary chronicler Jean Froissart reports a rumour that Mary’s sister Eleanor de Bohun kidnapped Mary from Pleshey Castle and held her at Arundel Castle, where she was kept as a novice nun; Eleanor’s intention was to control Mary’s half of the Bohun inheritance (or to allow her husband, Thomas, Duke of Gloucester, to control it). There Mary was persuaded to marry Henry.

Henry had four sons from his first marriage, which was undoubtedly a clinching factor in his acceptability for the throne. By contrast, Richard II had no children and Richard’s heir-presumptive Edmund Mortimer was only seven years old. The only two of Henry’s six children who produced legitimate children to survive to adulthood were Henry V and Blanche, whose son, Rupert, was the heir to the Electorate of the Palatinate until his death at 20.

All three of his other sons produced illegitimate children. Henry IV’s male Lancaster line ended in 1471 during the War of the Roses, between the Lancastrians and the Yorkists, with the deaths of his grandson Henry VI and Henry VI’s son Edward, Prince of Wales.

Second marriage: Joanna of Navarre

Mary de Bohun died in 1394, and on February 7, 1403 at Winchester Cathedral Henry married Joanna of Navarre, the daughter of Charles II of Navarre, the daughter of Jean II of France (called The Good), and Bonne of Luxembourg.

She was the widow of Jean IV, Duke of Brittany (known in traditional English sources as Jean V), with whom she had had four daughters and four sons; however, her marriage to the King of England was childless.

Final illness and death

The later years of Henry’s reign were marked by serious health problems. He had a disfiguring skin disease and, more seriously, suffered acute attacks of a grave illness in June 1405; April 1406; June 1408; during the winter of 1408–09; December 1412; and finally a fatal bout in March 1413. In 1410, Henry had provided his royal surgeon Thomas Morstede with an annuity of £40 p.a. which was confirmed by Henry V immediately after his succession.

This was so that Morstede would ‘not be retained by anyone else’. Medical historians have long debated the nature of this affliction or afflictions. The skin disease might have been leprosy (which did not necessarily mean precisely the same thing in the 15th century as it does to modern medicine), perhaps psoriasis, or a different disease.

The acute attacks have been given a wide range of explanations, from epilepsy to a form of cardiovascular disease. Some medieval writers felt that he was struck with leprosy as a punishment for his treatment of Richard le Scrope, Archbishop of York, who was executed in June 1405 on Henry’s orders after a failed coup.

According to Holinshed, it was predicted that Henry would die in Jerusalem, and Shakespeare’s play repeats this prophecy. Henry took this to mean that he would die on crusade. In reality, he died in the Jerusalem Chamber in the abbot’s house of Westminster Abbey, on March 20, 1413 during a convocation of Parliament. His executor, Thomas Langley, was at his side.

Was He A Usurper? King Edward IV of England. Part I.

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5th Earl of March, Anne Mortimer, Edmund Mortimer, House of Lancaster, House of York, Joan of Kent, King Edward IV of England and Lord of Ireland, King Henry IV of England, King Henry V of England, King Henry VI of England, King Richard II of England, Usurper, Wars of the Roses

With the usurpation of the throne of England by Henry Bolingbroke as King Henry IV of England and Lord of Ireland this event brought instability to the Monarchy and planted the seeds for further usurpations during the period of the Wars of the Roses.

To get to the reign of King Edward IV of England we need to examine the complex genealogy of the descendants of King Edward III of England and the ancestry of King Edward IV.

The heir presumptive to childless King Richard II of England was Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March, a great-grandson of King Edward III’s second surviving son, Lionel, Duke of Clarence.

Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March

Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March, was born at New Forest, Westmeath, one of his family’s Irish estates, on November 6, 1391, the son of Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March, and Eleanor Holland. He had a younger brother, Roger (1393 – c. 1413), and two sisters: Anne Mortimer; and Eleanor, who married Sir Edward de Courtenay (d. 1418), and had no issue.

Edmund Mortimer’s mother was Alianore Holland, born October 13, 1370 in Upholland, Lancashire, as the eldest child of Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent, and Lady Alice FitzAlan, who herself was the daughter of Richard de Arundel, 10th Earl of Arundel, and his second wife, Eleanor of Lancaster, daughter of Henry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster, grandson of King Henry III.

Alianore Holland’s paternal grandparents were Thomas Holland, 1st Earl of Kent, and Joan of Kent, mother of King Richard II by her third marriage to Edward, the Black Prince. As such, Alianore’s father was a maternal half-brother to King Richard II.

Incidentally, Joan of Kent, was the daughter of Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent (1301-1330), by his wife, Margaret Wake, 3rd Baroness Wake of Liddell. Edmund of Woodstock was the sixth son of King Edward I of England by his second wife, Margaret of France, daughter of King Philippe III of France.

Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March was thus a descendant of King Henry III and King Edward I and a half-great-nephew of Richard II through his mother, and more importantly a direct descendant of King Edward III through his paternal grandmother Philippa of Clarence, the only child of King Edward III’s second surviving son, Lionel of Antwerp, Duke of Clarence.

Because King Richard II had no issue, initially Edmund’s father, Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March, was heir presumptive during his lifetime, and at his death in Ireland on July 20, 1398 his claim to the throne passed to his eldest son, Edmund, 5th Earl of March.

Thus in terms of male primogeniture, Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March was heir to the throne over and above the House of Lancaster, including the children of Edward III’s third son John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster.

However, on September 30, 1399, when Edmund Mortimer was not yet eight years of age, his fortunes changed entirely. King Richard II was deposed by Henry Bolingbroke, the new Duke of Lancaster, who became King Henry IV and had his own son, the future King Henry V, recognized as heir apparent at his first Parliament.

The King put the young Edmund, 5th Earl of March and his brother Roger into the custody of Sir Hugh Waterton at Windsor and Berkhamsted castles, but they were treated honourably, and for part of the time brought up with the King Henry IV’s own children, John and Philippa.

The White Rose, Symbol of the House of York

Edmund Mortimer’s claim to the throne was the basis of rebellions and plots against Henry IV and his son Henry V, and was later taken up by the House of York in the Wars of the Roses, though Edmund Mortimer himself was an important and loyal vassal of Henry V and Henry VI.

Edmund Mortimer’s sisters, Anne and Eleanor, who were in the care of their mother until her death in 1405, were not well treated by Henry IV, and were described as ‘destitute’ after her death.

On his accession in 1413, King Henry V set Edmund Mortimer at liberty, and on April 8, 1413, the day before the new King’s coronation, Edmund Mortimer and his brother Roger were made Knights of the Bath.

King Henry V was succeeded by his nine-month-old son, King Henry VI, and on December 9, 1422 Edmund Mortimer was appointed to the Regency Council of the regency government, 1422–1437.

On May 9, 1423 he was appointed the King’s lieutenant in Ireland for nine years, but at first exercised his authority through a deputy, Edward Dantsey, Bishop of Meath, and remained in England.

However, after a violent quarrel with the King’s uncle Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, and the execution of his kinsman, Sir John Mortimer, Edmund Mortimer was “sent out of the way to Ireland”. He arrived there in the autumn of 1424, and on January 18 or 19, 1425 died of plague at Trim Castle.

Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March left no issue and his nephew, Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, the eldest surviving son of his sister, Anne Mortimer and her husband, Richard of Conisburgh, 3rd Earl of Cambridge, had a better claim to the throne of the English kings of the House of Lancaster.

It was her line of descent which gave the Yorkist dynasty its claim to the throne. Anne was grandmother of kings Edward IV and Richard III.

Her dynastic marriage with Richard of Conisburgh, 3rd Earl of Cambridge, another descendant of King Edward III, increased her family’s claim to the throne of England. That will be addressed in the next entry.

September 30, 1399: Henry Bolingbroke is declared King of England and Lord of Ireland as Henry IV.

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Duke of Lancaster, Earl of Richmond, Henry Bolingbroke, Henry IV, Henry Tudor, Joan of Kent, John of Gaunt, Katherine Swynford, King Richard II of England, Lords Appellant, Usurper

Henry IV (April 1367 – 20 March 1413) was King of England from 1399 to 1413. He asserted the claim of his grandfather King Edward III, a maternal grandson of Philippe IV of France, to the Kingdom of France. Henry was the first English ruler since the Norman Conquest, over three hundred years prior, whose mother tongue was English rather than French. He was known as Henry Bolingbroke before ascending to the throne.

Family Connections

Henry was the son of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, and his first wife Blanche. Gaunt was the third son of King Edward III. Blanche was the daughter of the wealthy royal politician and nobleman Henry of Grosmont, Duke of Lancaster.

Henry of Grosmont was the only son of Henry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster (c. 1281–1345); who in turn was the younger brother and heir of Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster (c. 1278–1322). They were sons of Edmund Crouchback, 1st Earl of Lancaster (1245–1296); the second son of King Henry III (ruled 1216–1272) and younger brother of King Edward I of England (ruled 1272–1307). Henry of Grosmont was thus a first cousin once removed of King Edward II and a second cousin of King Edward III (ruled 1327–1377). His mother was Maud de Chaworth (1282–1322). On his paternal grandmother’s side, Henry of Grosmont was also the great-great-grandson of Louis VIII of France.

Henry Bolingbroke’s elder sisters were Philippa, Queen of Portugal, as the wife of King João I of Portugal, and Elizabeth of Lancaster, Duchess of Exeter.

Elizabeth of Lancaster was the third wife of John Holland, 1st Duke of Exeter, the third son of Thomas Holland by his wife Joan of Kent, “The Fair Maid of Kent”. Joan was the daughter of Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent, a son of King Edward I (1272–1307), and Thomas would be made Earl of Kent, in what is considered a new creation, as husband of Joan, in whom the former Earldom was vested as eventual heiress of Edmund of Woodstock. Joan later married Edward, the Black Prince, the eldest son and heir apparent of her first cousin King Edward III, by whom she had a son, King Richard II, who was thus a half-brother of John Holland.

Henry Bolingbroke’s younger half-sister, the daughter of his father’s second wife, Constance of Castile, was Katherine, Queen of Castile, the wife of King Enrique IV of Castile. The later King’s of Spain descend from this union and therefore, technically speaking, they had a better hereditary claim to the English throne than the Tudor monarchs.

Henry Bolingbroke also had four natural half-siblings born of Katherine Swynford, originally his sisters’ governess, then his father’s longstanding mistress and later third wife. These illegitimate children were given the surname Beaufort from their birthplace at the Château de Beaufort in Champagne, France.

Henry’s relationship with his stepmother, Katherine Swynford, was a positive one, but his relationship with the Beauforts varied. In youth he seems to have been close to all of them, but rivalries with Henry and Thomas Beaufort proved problematic after 1406. Although the Beauforts were later legitimized they were legitimized without succession rights. Despite that sticky technicality it was from this line descended Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, who became King Henry VII of England in 1485.

Ralph Neville, 4th Baron Neville, married Henry’s half-sister Joan Beaufort. Neville remained one of his strongest supporters, and so did his eldest half-brother John Beaufort, even though Henry revoked Richard II’s grant to John of a marquessate. Thomas Swynford, a son from Katherine’s first marriage, was another loyal companion. Thomas was Constable of Pontefract Castle, where Richard II is said to have died. Henry’s half-sister Joan was the mother of Cecily Neville. Cecily married Richard, 3rd Duke of York, and had several offspring, including Edward IV and Richard III, making Joan the grandmother of two Yorkist kings of England.

Accession to the Throne

Bolingbroke’s father, John of Gaunt enjoyed a position of considerable influence during much of the reign of his own nephew, King Richard II. Henry Bolingbroke was involved in the revolt of the Lords Appellant against Richard in 1388.

In 1398, a remark by Thomas de Mowbray, 1st Duke of Norfolk, regarding Richard II’s rule was interpreted as treason by Henry Bolingbroke and he reported it to the king. The two dukes agreed to undergo a duel of honour (called by Richard II) at Gosford Green near Caludon Castle, Mowbray’s home in Coventry. Yet before the duel could take place, King Richard II decided to banish Henry from the kingdom (with the approval of Henry’s father, John of Gaunt) to avoid further bloodshed. Mowbray himself was exiled for life.

John of Gaunt died in February 1399 and without explanation, Richard II cancelled the legal documents that would have allowed Henry to inherit John of Gaunt’s land and titles utomatically. Instead, Henry would be required to ask for the lands and titles directly from Richard. After some hesitation, Henry met the exiled Thomas Arundel, former archbishop of Canterbury, who had lost his position because of his involvement with the Lords Appellant.

Henry and Arundel returned to England while Richard was on a military campaign in Ireland. With Arundel as his advisor, Henry began a military campaign, confiscating land from those who opposed him and ordering his soldiers to destroy much of Cheshire. Henry initially announced that his intention was to reclaim his rights as Duke of Lancaster, though he quickly gained enough power and support to have himself declared King Henry IV of England, Lord of Ireland on September 30, 1399. Henry had King Richard II imprisoned (who died in prison under mysterious circumstances) and bypassed Richard’s 7-year-old heir-presumptive, Edmund de Mortimer, 5th Earl of March.

Henry’s coronation, on 13 October 1399 at Westminster Abbey, may have marked the first time since the Norman Conquest when the monarch made an address in English.

Henry procured an Act of Parliament to ordain that the Duchy of Lancaster would remain in the personal possession of the reigning monarch. The barony of Halton was vested in that dukedom. This is why the present monarch, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom is also the Duke of Lancaster.

April 30, 1383: Birth of Lady Anne of Gloucester, Countess of Stafford.

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2nd Duke of Buckingham, Countess of Stafford, Elizabeth Woodville, English Nobility, Henry Stafford, House of Plantagenet, House of Stafford, King Edward III of England, King Richard II of England, Kings and Queens of England, Lady Anne of Gloucester, Thomas of Woodstock

Lady Anne of Gloucester, Countess of Stafford (April 30, 1383 – October 16, 1438) was the eldest daughter and eventually sole heiress of Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester by his wife Eleanor de Bohun.

Lady Anne was born on April 30, 1383 and was baptised at Pleshey, Essex, sometime before 6 May. Her uncle, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, (third son of King Edward III), ordered several payments to be made in regards to the event. She was the granddaughter of King Edward III of England.

Coat of Arms of Lady Anne of Gloucester, Countess of Stafford.

Family

Father

Her father was Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester (January 7, 1355 – September 8 or 9, 1397). He was the fifth surviving son and youngest child of King Edward III of England and Philippa of Hainault.

In 1377, at the age of 22, Thomas of Woodstock was knighted and created Earl of Buckingham. On June 22, 1380 he became Earl of Essex Jure uxoris (in right of his wife). In 1385, he received the title Duke of Aumale, and at about the same time was created Duke of Gloucester.

Thomas married Eleanor de Bohun, the elder daughter and co-heiress with her sister, Mary de Bohun, of their father Humphrey de Bohun, 7th Earl of Hereford. Thomas of Woodstock and his wife Eleanor had:

1. Humphrey, 2nd Earl of Buckingham (c. 1381 – 1399). English peer and member of the House of Lords. Died unmarried.
2. Anne of Gloucester (c. 1383 – 1438) who married three times.
3. Joan (1384–1400), who married Gilbert Talbot, 5th Lord Talbot (1383–1419) and died in childbirth.
4. Isabel (12 March 1385/1386 – April 1402), a nun of the Order of Minoresses
Philippa (c. 1388), died young

Thomas of Woodstock was the leader of the Lords Appellant, a group of powerful nobles whose ambition to wrest power from Thomas’s nephew, King Richard II of England, culminated in a successful rebellion in 1388 that significantly weakened the king’s power. Richard II managed to dispose of the Lords Appellant in 1397, and Thomas was imprisoned in Calais to await trial for treason.

During that time he was murdered, probably by a group of men led by Thomas de Mowbray, 1st Duke of Norfolk, and the knight Sir Nicholas Colfox, presumably on behalf of Richard II. Thomas was buried in Westminster Abbey, first in the Chapel of Saint Edmund and Saint Thomas in October 1397, and two years later reburied in the Chapel of Saint Edward the Confessor. His wife was buried next to him.

As he was attainted as a traitor, his dukedom of Gloucester was forfeit. The title Earl of Buckingham was inherited by his son, who died in 1399 only two years after Thomas’ own death.

Mother

On Lady Anne’s maternal side she was also a descendant of the Kings of England.

Lady Anne’s mother was Eleanor de Bohun (c. 1366–1399) the elder daughter and co-heiress (with her sister, Mary de Bohun), of Humphrey de Bohun, 7th Earl of Hereford (1341–1373), by his wife Joan Fitzalan, a daughter of Richard FitzAlan, 10th Earl of Arundel and his second wife Eleanor of Lancaster.

Lady Anne’s grandmother, Eleanor of Lancaster, Countess of Arundel (sometimes called Eleanor Plantagenet; 1318-1372) was the fifth daughter of Henry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster and Maud Chaworth.

Her great-grandfather, Henry, 3rd Earl of Leicester and Lancaster (c. 1281-1345) was a grandson of King Henry III of England (1216–1272) via his son, Edmund Crouchback, 1st Earl of Lancaster; and was one of the principals behind the deposition of King Edward II (1307–1327), his first cousin.

Marriages

Lady Anne married three times. Her first marriage was to Thomas Stafford, 3rd Earl of Stafford (c. 1368 – July 4, 1392) who was the second son—but the senior surviving heir—of Hugh Stafford, 2nd Earl of Stafford and Philippa de Beauchamp, daughter of Thomas de Beauchamp, 11th Earl of Warwick. The marriage occurred around 1390. He died on July 4, 1392. He is interred in Westminster, and was interred in Stone, with his father; his widow, Anne, with whom he had had no children, married his youngest brother Edmund Stafford, 5th Earl of Stafford.

On June 28, 1398, Anne married Edmund Stafford, 5th Earl of Stafford (March 2, 1378 – July 14, 1403). They had three children together:

1. Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham, who married his second cousin, Anne, daughter of Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland, and Joan Beaufort, Countess of Westmorland. Joan was a daughter of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, and his third wife Katherine Swynford.
2. Anne Stafford, Countess of March, who married Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March. Edmund was a great-grandson of Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence (the third son, but the second son to survive infancy, of the English king Edward III and Philippa of Hainault). Edmund and Anne had no children. She married secondly John Holland, 2nd Duke of Exeter (d. 1447), and had one son, Henry Holland, 3rd Duke of Exeter (d. 1475), and a daughter Anne, who married John Neville, 1st Baron Neville de Raby.
3. Philippa Stafford, died young.

In about 1405, Anne married William Bourchier, 1st Count of Eu (d. 1420), son of Sir William Bourchier and Eleanor of Louvain, by whom she had the following children:

1. Henry Bourchier, Earl of Essex. He married Isabel of Cambridge, daughter of Richard of Conisburgh, 3rd Earl of Cambridge, and Anne de Mortimer. Isabel was also an older sister of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York.
2. Eleanor Bourchier, Duchess of Norfolk, married John Mowbray, 3rd Duke of Norfolk.
3. William Bourchier, 9th Baron FitzWarin
4. Cardinal Thomas Bourchier
5.John Bourchier, Baron Berners. John was the grandfather of John, Lord Berners, the translator of Froissart.

Lady Anne died on October 16, 1438 aged 55 and was buried in Llanthony Secunda Priory, Gloucester.

On Anne’s death, in 1438, the title of Earl of Buckingham (as well as her other titles) passed to her son Humphrey Stafford, Earl of Stafford, who in 1444 was created Duke of Buckingham by King Henry VI. his title remained in the Stafford family until the attainder and execution of Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, in 1521, Anne’s great-great grandson.

As we have seen Lady Anne was not only a granddaughter of a King of England, she was related to many noble families of England, her descendants continued that trend. They were among England’s noble families as well has being related to England’s Royal Family.

Descendants
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Son

Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham, 6th Earl of Stafford, KG (December 1402 – July 10, 1460). Humphrey Stafford married Lady Anne Neville, daughter of Ralph Neville, Earl of Westmorland and Lady Joan Beaufort. Joan Beaufort (c. 1379-1440), was the youngest of the four legitimised children and only daughter of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster (third surviving son of King Edward III), by his mistress, later wife, Katherine Swynford. Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham, was killed during the Battle of Northampton on July 10, 1460.

Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham

Grandson

Humphrey Stafford (c. 1425 – c. May 22, 1458), generally known by his courtesy title of Earl of Stafford, was the eldest son of Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Lady Anne Neville (d. 1480). Stafford married Lady Margaret Beaufort, daughter of Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset and Lady Eleanor Beauchamp. By her father, Lady Margaret Beaufort, was a niece of Joan Beaufort, Queen of Scots and a cousin to Lady Margaret Beaufort (mother of King Henry VII of England). Humphrey Stafford Predeceased his father. Lord and Lady Stafford had a single son, Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham (1455–1483).

Great-Grandson

Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham (September 4, 1455 – November 2, 1483). He inherited his title, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, after his grandfather, the 1st Duke of Buckingham, was killed during the Battle of Northampton on July 10, 1460. In February 1466, at age 10, he was married to Catherine Woodville, sister of Edward IV’s queen, Elizabeth Woodville, and daughter to Richard Woodville, 1st Earl Rivers. [I will write more on him tomorrow].

Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham

Great-Great Grandson

Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham (February 3, 1478 – May 17, 1521) was an English nobleman. He was the son of Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, and Katherine Woodville, and nephew of Elizabeth Woodville and King Edward IV. Thus Edward Stafford was a first cousin once removed of King Henry VIII. Buckingham was one of few peers with substantial Plantagenet blood and maintained numerous connections, often among his extended family, with the rest of the upper aristocracy, which activities attracted Henry VIII’s suspicion.

During 1520, Buckingham became suspected of potentially treasonous actions and Henry authorised an investigation. The King personally examined witnesses against him, gathering enough evidence for a trial. The Duke was finally summoned to Court in April 1521 and arrested and placed in the Tower. He was tried before a panel of 17 peers, being accused of listening to prophecies of the King’s death and intending to kill the King. Buckingham was executed on Tower Hill on 17 May 17, 1521. Buckingham was posthumously attainted by Act of Parliament on July 13, 1523, disinheriting most of his wealth from his children.

Great-Great-Great Grandson

Henry Stafford, 1st Baron Stafford (September 18, 1501 – April 30, 1563). After the execution for treason in 1521 and posthumous attainder of his father Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, with the forfeiture of all the family’s estates and titles, he managed to regain some of his family’s position and was created Baron Stafford in 1547. However, his family never truly recovered from the blow and thenceforward gradually declined into obscurity, with his descendant the 6th Baron being requested by King Charles I in 1639 to surrender the barony on account of his poverty.

This Date in History. September 30, 1399. Henry IV is declared King of England and Lord of Ireland.

Tags

Blanche of Lancaster, Duke of Lancaster, Edmund Crouchback, Edward III, Henry III, John of Gaunt, King Henry IV of England, King Richard II of England, Kings and Queens of England

Henry IV (April 15, 1367 – March 20, 1413), also known as Henry Bolingbroke was King of England from 1399 to 1413. He asserted the claim of his grandfather King Edward III, a maternal grandson of Philippe IV of France, to the Kingdom of France.

Henry was the son of John of Gaunt (the fourth son of Edward III) and Blanche of Lancaster. I would like to briefly mention the lineage of Blanch of Lancaster for it will be a significant factor in Henry Bolingbroke’s claim to the English throne.

Blanche of Lancaster (March 25, 1342 – September 12, 1368) was a member of the English royal House of Plantagenet and the daughter of the kingdom’s wealthiest and most powerful peer, Henry of Grosmont, 1st Duke of Lancaster and his wife, Isabel de Beaumont of the House of Brienne.

Henry of Grosmont, 1st Duke of Lancaster was the son of Henry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster (c. 1281–1345) and his wife Maud Chaworth (1282-1322). Henry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster was the younger brother and heir of Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster (c. 1278–1322) both were sons of Edmund Crouchback, 1st Earl of Lancaster (1245–1296), and his second wife Blanche of Artois, widow of King Henry I of Navarre, and daughter of Robert I of Artois and Matilda of Brabant.

Edmund Crouchback, 1st Earl of Lancaster was the second son of Henry III of England (ruled 1216–1272) and Eleanor of Provence. This means that Edmund Crouchback was a younger brother of King Edward I (ruled 1272–1307). Edmund’s nickname , “Crouchback” (meaning “crossed-back”), refers to his participation in the Ninth Crusade.

Henry of Grossmont was thus a first cousin once removed of King Edward II and a second cousin of King Edward III (ruled 1327–1377). This makes Blanch of Lancaster a great-great granddaughter of King Henry III.

Henry experienced a rather more inconsistent relationship with King Richard II than his father had. First cousins and childhood playmates, they were admitted together to the Order of the Garter in 1377, but Henry participated in the Lords Appellants’ rebellion against the king in 1387. After regaining power, Richard II did not punish Henry, although he did execute or exile many of the other rebellious barons. In fact, Richard elevated Henry from Earl of Derby to Duke of Hereford.

The relationship between Henry Bolingbroke and the king met with a second crisis. In 1398, a remark by Thomas de Mowbray, 1st Duke of Norfolk regarding Richard II’s rule was interpreted as treason by Henry and Henry reported it to the king. The two dukes agreed to undergo a duel of honour (called by Richard II) at Gosford Green near Caludon Castle, Mowbray’s home in Coventry. Yet before the duel could take place, Richard II decided to banish Henry from the kingdom (with the approval of Henry’s father, John of Gaunt) to avoid further bloodshed. Mowbray himself was exiled for life.

John of Gaunt died in February 1399. Without explanation, Richard cancelled the legal documents that would have allowed Henry to inherit Gaunt’s land automatically. Instead, Henry would be required to ask for the lands from Richard. After some hesitation, Henry met with the exiled Thomas Arundel, former Archbishop of Canterbury, who had lost his position because of his involvement with the Lords Appellant. Henry and Arundel returned to England while Richard was on a military campaign in Ireland. With Arundel as his advisor, Henry began a military campaign, confiscating land from those who opposed him and ordering his soldiers to destroy much of Cheshire. Henry initially announced that his intention was to reclaim his rights as Duke of Lancaster, though he quickly gained enough power and support to have himself declared King of England as Henry IV, imprison King Richard II who died in prison under mysterious circumstances) and bypass Richard’s 7-year-old heir-presumptive, Edmund de Mortimer.

When Richard II was forced to abdicate the throne on September 29, 1399, Henry was next in line to the throne according to Edward III’s entailment of 1376. That entailment clearly reflects the operation of agnatic primogeniture, also known as the Salic law. At this time, it was by no means a settled custom for the daughter of a king to supersede the brothers of that king in the line of succession to the throne.

Indeed, it was not an established belief that women could inherit the throne at all by right: the only previous instance of succession passing through a woman had been that which involved the Empress Matilda, and this had involved protracted civil war, with the other protagonist being the son of Matilda’s father’s sister (not his brother). Yet, the heir of the royal estate according to common law (by which the houses and tenancies of common people like peasants and tradesmen passed) was Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March, who descended from the daughter of Edward III’s third son (second to survive to adulthood), Lionel of Antwerp. Bolingbroke’s father, John of Gaunt, was Edward’s fourth son and the third to survive to adulthood. The problem was solved by emphasising Henry’s descent in a direct male line, whereas March’s descent was through his grandmother.

Edward of Woodstock, The Black Prince, Prince of Wales

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Abu Said, Edward of Woodstock, Enrique of Trastamara, King Edward III of England, King Pedro the Cruel of Castile, King Richard II of England, Kings and Queens of England, Prince of Wales, The Black Prince, the prince of Wales

Today I am featuring Edward the Black Prince a man who never lived to be King of England.

Edward of Woodstock, Prince of Wales, Duke of Cornwall, Prince of Aquitaine, KG was the eldest son of King Edward III of England and his wife Philippa of Hainault as well as father to King Richard II of England. All the reading I have done through the years indicate that Edward would have been an excellent king. In the history of England, and most monarchies in Europe, rarely was a strong and powerful ruler followed by a ruler that was equally capable, powerful and strong.

Edward was born on June 15, 1330 and he was created Duke of Cornwall in 1337 which was the first dukedom created in England and at the age of 13 he was invested with the title Prince of Wales. He was raised with his cousin Joan “the Fair” of Kent who would become his wife. They had two children, Edward of Angoulême who died in 1372 at the age of 7 and Richard who became King Richard II of England in 1377.

What was it that historians see in this prince that makes them conclude he would have been a good if not a great king? Well, for one thing I think it is that he demonstrated great intelligence. Also, Edward was born in the age of chivalry and his chivalrous behavior toward all, especially his captured enemies King Jean II of France and Duke Philippe II of Burgundy, has created a very positive image of him. The main reason that I think he was judged as having the potential of being a good king was the fact that he excelled at something that many medieval monarchs and princes engaged in…the art of War. Edward the Black Prince was a warrior prince.

There are a couple of theories to how Prince Edward earned his sobriquet “The Black Prince.” One reason is due to either black plated armor he wore during battle or a black shield he also used. Some historians theorize that his cruel behavior was also a reason for this sobriquet. Despite his chivalrous behavior Edward had a darker side. Edward was exceptionally harsh toward and contemptuous of members of the lower classes in society.

There are too many campaigns I could list that he was involved in so for the sake of brevity I will talk about two of them.

The Crécy Campaign which Edward lead crippled the French army for ten years and this victory brought back Normandy under English control which had been lost by King John in 1204.

The other campaign I find interesting is the one where Edward came into possession of what is now called the Black Prince’s Ruby, a spinel which now features prominently in the Imperial State Crown. The Ruby came into the possession of King Pedro the Cruel of Castile who had gotten it from Abu Said, the Moorish Prince of Granada. Pedro was envious of Abu Said’s wealth and Pedro had Said’s servants kill him and the Ruby was found on his body. In 1366 Pedro’s illegitimate brother, Enrique of Trastamara, lead a revolt against Pedro. Needing assistance in defeating his brother Pedro hired The Black Prince to suppress the revolt. Edward was successful and demanded the Ruby as payment for his efforts.

Edward died from dysentery at the age of 45 in 1376 one year before the death of his father, King Edward III.