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.

December 6, 1421: Birth of Henry VI, King of England and Lord of Ireland

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16th Earl of Warwick, Charles VI of France, Isabeau of Bavaria, King Edward IV of England, King Henry VI of England, Lord of Ireland, Margaret of Anjou, War of the Roses

Henry VI (December 6, 1421 – May 21, 1471) was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1422 to 1461 and again from 1470 to 1471, and disputed King of France from 1422 to 1453. The only child of Henry V, and Catherine of Valois was the youngest daughter of King Charles VI of France and his wife Isabeau of Bavaria.

Henry succeeded to the English throne at the age of nine months upon his father’s death, and succeeded to the French throne on the death of his maternal grandfather, Charles VI, shortly afterwards.

Henry inherited the long-running Hundred Years’ War (1337–1453), in which his uncle Charles VII contested his claim to the French throne. He is the only English monarch to have been also crowned King of France, in 1431. His early reign, when several people were ruling for him, saw the pinnacle of English power in France, but subsequent military, diplomatic, and economic problems had seriously endangered the English cause by the time Henry was declared fit to rule in 1437.

Henry VI found his realm in a difficult position, faced with setbacks in France and divisions among the nobility at home. Unlike his father, Henry is described as timid, shy, passive, well intentioned and averse to warfare and violence; he was also at times mentally unstable. His ineffective reign saw the gradual loss of the English lands in France.

Partially in the hope of achieving peace, in 1445 Henry married Charles VII’s niece, the ambitious and strong-willed Margaret of Anjou, the second eldest daughter of René, King of Naples, and Isabella, Duchess of Lorraine.

The peace policy failed, leading to the murder of one of Henry’s key advisers, William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk, and the war recommenced, with France taking the upper hand; by 1453, Calais was Henry’s only remaining territory on the continent.

As the situation in France worsened, there was a related increase in political instability in England. With Henry effectively unfit to rule, power was exercised by quarrelsome nobles, while factions and favourites encouraged the rise of disorder in the country.

Regional magnates and soldiers returning from France formed and maintained increasing numbers of private armed retainers, with whom they fought one another, terrorised their neighbours, paralysed the courts, and dominated the government. Queen Margaret did not remain unpartisan and took advantage of the situation to make herself an effective power behind the throne.

Amidst military disasters in France and a collapse of law and order in England, the Queen and her clique came under accusations, especially from Henry VI’s increasingly popular cousin Richard, Duke of York, of misconduct of the war in France and misrule of the country. Starting in 1453, Henry had a series of mental breakdowns, and tensions mounted between Margaret and Richard of York over control of the incapacitated King’s government and over the question of succession to the English throne.

Margaret of Anjou, Queen of England

Civil war broke out in 1455, leading to a long period of dynastic conflict known as the Wars of the Roses. Henry was deposed on 4 March 1461 by Richard’s son, who took the throne as Edward IV. Despite Margaret continuing to lead a resistance to Edward, Henry was captured by Edward’s forces in 1465 and imprisoned in the Tower of London. Henry was restored to the throne in 1470 but Edward retook power in 1471, killing Henry’s only son and heir, Edward of Westminster, in battle and imprisoning Henry once again.

Having “lost his wits, his two kingdoms and his only son”, Henry died in the Tower during the night of May 21, possibly killed on the orders of King Edward. Miracles were attributed to Henry after his death and he was informally regarded as a saint and martyr until the 16th century. He left a legacy of educational institutions, having founded Eton College, King’s College, Cambridge, and (together with Henry Chichele) All Souls College, Oxford. Shakespeare wrote a trilogy of plays about his life, depicting him as weak-willed and easily influenced by his wife, Margaret.

July 7, 1307: Death of King Edward I of England

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Edward longshanks, English Parliament, Hammer of the Scots. Simon de Montfort, King Edward I of England, Lord Edward, Lord of Ireland, Second Barons War

Edward I (June 17/18, 1239 – July 7, 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1272 to 1307.

Edward was born at the Palace of Westminster on the night of June 17–18, 1239, to King Henry III and Eleanor of Provence. Edward is an Anglo-Saxon name, and was not commonly given among the aristocracy of England after the Norman conquest, but Henry was devoted to the veneration of Edward the Confessor, and decided to name his firstborn son after the saint.

Before his accession to the throne, he was commonly referred to as The Lord Edward. The first son of Henry III, Edward was involved from an early age in the political intrigues of his father’s reign, which included an outright rebellion by the English barons. In 1259, he briefly sided with a baronial reform movement, supporting the Provisions of Oxford. After reconciliation with his father, however, he remained loyal throughout the subsequent armed conflict, known as the Second Barons’ War.

After the Battle of Lewes, Edward was hostage to the rebellious barons, but escaped after a few months and defeated the baronial leader Simon de Montfort at the Battle of Evesham in 1265. Within two years the rebellion was extinguished and, with England pacified, Edward joined the Ninth Crusade to the Holy Land. He was on his way home in 1272 when he was informed that his father had died. Making a slow return, he reached England in 1274 and was crowned at Westminster Abbey.

Edward spent much of his reign reforming royal administration and common law. Through an extensive legal inquiry, he investigated the tenure of various feudal liberties, while the law was reformed through a series of statutes regulating criminal and property law. Increasingly, however, Edward’s attention was drawn towards military affairs.

After suppressing a minor rebellion in Wales in 1276–77, Edward responded to a second rebellion in 1282–83 with a full-scale war of conquest. After a successful campaign, he subjected Wales to English rule, built a series of castles and towns in the countryside and settled them with English people.

Next, his efforts were directed towards the Kingdom of Scotland. Initially invited to arbitrate a succession dispute, Edward claimed feudal suzerainty over Scotland. The war that followed continued after Edward’s death, even though the English seemed victorious at several points. Simultaneously, Edward found himself at war with France (a Scottish ally) after King Philippe IV of France had confiscated the Duchy of Gascony, which until then had been held in personal union with the Kingdom of England.

Although Edward recovered his duchy, this conflict relieved English military pressure against Scotland. At the same time there were problems at home. In the mid-1290s, extensive military campaigns required high levels of taxation, and Edward met with both lay and ecclesiastical opposition. These crises were initially averted, but issues remained unsettled. When the King died in 1307, he left to his son Edward II an ongoing war with Scotland and many financial and political problems.

Edward I was a tall man for his era, at 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m), hence the nickname “Longshanks”. He was temperamental, and this, along with his height, made him an intimidating man, and he often instilled fear in his contemporaries.

Nevertheless, he held the respect of his subjects for the way he embodied the medieval ideal of kingship, as a soldier, an administrator, and a man of faith. Modern historians are divided on their assessment of Edward: while some have praised him for his contribution to the law and administration, others have criticised him for his uncompromising attitude towards his nobility.

Currently, Edward I is credited with many accomplishments during his reign, including restoring royal authority after the reign of Henry III, establishing Parliament as a permanent institution and thereby also a functional system for raising taxes, and reforming the law through statutes.

At the same time, he is also often criticised for issuing the Edict of Expulsion in 1290, by which the Jews were expelled from England. The Edict remained in effect for the rest of the Middle Ages, and it was over 350 years until it was formally overturned under Oliver Cromwell in 1657.

Edward’s Regal Number

Whoever began numbering the kings and queen of England ignored centuries of royal tradition and began numbering the monarchs from the time of the Norman Conquest. There were kings of England for a few centuries prior to the year 1066. The name most effected by this tradition was Edward.

The use of ordinal numbers had not come into common usage during the reign of Edward Longshanks, he was simply known as King Edward or King Edward Longshanks.

It wasn’t until the successive reigns of his son and grandson, also named Edward, that Edward Longshanks became known as Edward I. But this was not accurate for there were three Anglo-Saxon kings named Edward prior to the Norman conquest. Therefore, Edward I was in reality the fourth King of England by that name and should have been called King Edward IV. This means that the most recent King Edward, Edward VIII, the Duke of Windsor, was in reality King Edward XI.

Tomorrow I will post on Edward’s two marriages.

June 15, 1215: King John of England signs the Magna Carta at Runnymede

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Henry II of England, John Lackland, King John of England, Lord of Ireland, Magna Carta, Rebel Barons, Runnymede

John (December 2504, 1166 – October 19, 1216) was King of England from 1199 until his death in 1216.

John was the youngest of the four surviving sons of King Henry II of England and Duchess Eleanor of Aquitaine. He was nicknamed John Lackland because he was not expected to inherit significant lands.

John lost the Duchy of Normandy and most of his other French lands to King Philippe II of France, resulting in the collapse of the Angevin Empire and contributing to the subsequent growth in power of the French Capetian dynasty during the 13th century.

The baronial revolt at the end of John’s reign led to the sealing of Magna Carta, a document considered an early step in the evolution of the constitution of the United Kingdom.

John held a council in London in January 1215 to discuss potential reforms and sponsored discussions in Oxford between his agents and the rebels during the spring. He appears to have been playing for time until Pope Innocent III could send letters giving him explicit papal support.

This was particularly important for John, as a way of pressuring the barons but also as a way of controlling Stephen Langton, the Archbishop of Canterbury. In the meantime, John began to recruit fresh mercenary forces from Poitou, although some were later sent back to avoid giving the impression that John was escalating the conflict. The King announced his intent to become a crusader, a move which gave him additional political protection under church law.

Letters of support from the Pope arrived in April but by then the rebel barons had organised. They congregated at Northampton in May and renounced their feudal ties to John, appointing Robert fitz Walter as their military leader. This self-proclaimed “Army of God” marched on London, taking the capital as well as Lincoln and Exeter. John’s efforts to appear moderate and conciliatory had been largely successful, but once the rebels held London they attracted a fresh wave of defectors from John’s royalist faction. John instructed Langton to organise peace talks with the rebel barons.

John met the rebel leaders at Runnymede, near Windsor Castle, on June 15, 1215. Langton’s efforts at mediation created a charter capturing the proposed peace agreement; it was later renamed Magna Carta, or “Great Charter”.

The charter went beyond simply addressing specific baronial complaints, and formed a wider proposal for political reform, albeit one focusing on the rights of free men, not serfs and unfree labour. It promised the protection of church rights, protection from illegal imprisonment, access to swift justice, new taxation only with baronial consent and limitations on scutage and other feudal payments. A council of twenty-five barons would be created to monitor and ensure John’s future adherence to the charter, whilst the rebel army would stand down and London would be surrendered to the King.

Neither John nor the rebel barons seriously attempted to implement the peace accord. The rebel barons suspected that the proposed baronial council would be unacceptable to John and that he would challenge the legality of the charter; they packed the baronial council with their own hardliners and refused to demobilise their forces or surrender London as agreed.

Despite his promises to the contrary, John appealed to Pope Innocent III for help, observing that the charter compromised the Pope’s rights under the 1213 agreement that had appointed him John’s feudal lord. Innocent obliged; he declared the charter “not only shameful and demeaning, but illegal and unjust” and excommunicated the rebel barons. The failure of the agreement led rapidly to the First Barons’ War.

April 28, 1442: Birth of Edward IV, King of England and Lord of Ireland

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Duke of Clarence, Duke of Gloucester, Earl of Warwick, Elizabeth Woodville, King Edward IV of England, King Henry VI, King Richard III, Lord of Ireland, Richard Neville, Wars of the Roses

Edward IV (April 28, 1442 – April 9, 1483) was King of England and Lord of Ireland from March 4, 1461 to October 3, 1470, then again from April 11, 1471 until his death in 1483. He was a central figure in the Wars of the Roses, a series of civil wars in England fought between the Yorkist and Lancastrian factions between 1455 and 1487.

Edward was born on April 28, 1442 at Rouen in Normandy, eldest surviving son of Richard, 3rd Duke of York, and Cecily Neville. Until his father’s death, he was known as the Earl of March. Both his parents were direct descendants of King Edward III, giving Edward a potential claim to the throne. This was strengthened in 1447, when York became heir to the childless King Henry VI on the death of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester.

Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester was the fourth and youngest son of Henry IV of England and his first wife Mary de Bohun. Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester was the brother of Henry V, and the uncle of Henry VI. The Duke of Gloucester fought in the Hundred Years’ War and acted as Lord Protector of England during the minority of his nephew.

Allegations of illegitimacy toward Edward of York were discounted at the time as politically inspired, and by later historians. Edward and his siblings George, Duke of Clarence, and Margaret, Duchess of Burgundy, were physically very similar, all three being tall and blonde, in contrast to Richard, 3rd Duke of York who was short and dark. His youngest brother, who later became King Richard III, closely resembled their father.

Edward inherited the Yorkist claim when his father, Richard, 3rd Duke of York, died at the Battle of Wakefield in December 1460. Yorkist armies went on defeating Lancastrian armies at Mortimer’s Cross and Towton in early 1461.

On February 2, 1461, Edward won a hard-fought victory at the Battle of Mortimer’s Cross in Herefordshire. The battle was preceded by a meteorological phenomenon known as parhelion, or three suns, which he took as his emblem, the “Sun in splendour”. However, this was offset by Warwick’s defeat at the Second Battle of St Albans on February 17, the Lancastrians regaining custody of Henry VI.

On March 4, Edward, 4th Duke of York deposed King Henry VI and took the throne. Edward was hastily crowned as King Edward IV, before marching north, where the two sides met at the Battle of Towton. Fought on March 29, in the middle of a snowstorm, it was the bloodiest battle ever to take place on English soil, and ended in a decisive Yorkist victory.

Estimates of the dead range from 9,000 to 20,000; figures are uncertain, as most of the mass graves were emptied or moved over the centuries, while corpses were generally stripped of clothing or armour before burial.

Margaret fled to Scotland with Edward of Westminster, while the new king returned to London for his coronation. Henry VI remained at large for over a year, but was caught and imprisoned in the Tower of London. There was little point in killing him while his son remained alive, since this would have transferred the Lancastrian claim from a frail captive to one who was young and free.

Although Edward preferred Burgundy as an alliance partner, he allowed Warwick to negotiate a treaty with Louis XI of France, which included a suggested marriage between Edward and Anne of France or Bona of Savoy, respectively daughter and sister-in-law of the French king.

In October 1464, Richard Neville 16th Earl of Warwick known as the “Kingmaker” was enraged to discover that on May 1, Edward IV had secretly married Elizabeth Woodville, a widow with two sons, whose Lancastrian husband, John Grey of Groby, died at Towton.

If nothing else, it was a clear demonstration that Warwick was not in control of the king, despite suggestions to the contrary. Edward’s motives have been widely discussed by contemporaries and historians alike.

Although Elizabeth’s mother, Jacquetta of Luxembourg, came from the upper nobility, her father, Richard Woodville, was a middle ranking provincial knight. The Privy Council told Edward with unusual frankness that “she was no wife for a prince such as himself, for she was not the daughter of a Duke or an Earl.”

The marriage was certainly unwise and unusual, although not unheard of; Henry VI’s mother, Catherine of Valois, married her chamberlain, Owen Tudor, while Edward IV’s grandson Henry VIII created the Church of England to marry Anne Boleyn.

By all accounts, Elizabeth possessed considerable charm of person and intellect, while Edward was used to getting what he wanted.

Historians generally accept the marriage was an impulsive decision, but differ on whether it was also a “calculated political move”. One view is the low status of the Woodvilles was part of the attraction, since unlike the Nevilles, they were reliant on Edward and thus more likely to remain loyal.

Others argue if this was his purpose, there were far better options available; all agree it had significant political implications that impacted the rest of Edward’s reign.

In 1470, with the Earl of Warwick still an enemy of Edward IV, he led a revolt against the King along with Edward’s brother, George, Duke of Clarence. After a failed plot to crown Edward’s brother, George, Duke of Clarence as King and there by deposing his brother, Edward IV, Warwick instead restored Henry VI to the throne.

The triumph was short-lived. Edward IV fled to Flanders, where he gathered support and invaded England in March 1471. On April 14, 1471, Warwick was defeated by Edward IV at the Battle of Barnet in which Warwick was killed and Edward IV resumed the throne.

Edward IV entered London unopposed and took Henry VI prisoner. A second army defeated the Lancastrian army at Tewkesbury on May 4. 17-year-old Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales the heir to the throne and the only son of King Henry VI of England and Margaret of Anjou, was killed at the Battle of Tewkesbury.

Shortly afterwards, Henry VI was found dead in the Tower of London. Despite a continuing threat from Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond (later Henry VII, the last Lancastrian claimant) Edward reigned in relative peace for the next twelve years.

However, The tumultuous relationship between Edward IV and his brother George, Duke of Clarence came to a head when Clarence was imprisoned in the Tower of London and put on trial for treason against his brother Edward IV. The accusations of Treason of George towards his brother are complex and will be the subject of a future blog entry.

Edward himself prosecuted his brother, and demanded that Parliament pass a bill of attainder against him declaring that he was guilty of “unnatural, loathly treasons.” Following his conviction and attainder, he was “privately executed” at the Bowyer Tower on February 18, 1478.

Edward IV died suddenly in April 1483, and was succeeded by his minor son as King Edward V, but Edward IV’s brother, the Duke of Gloucester, sized the throne as King Richard III citing that Edward V was illegitimate due to his parents marriage being unlawful.

April 22, 1355: Death of Eleanor of Woodstock, Duchess of Guelders

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Edward II of England, Edward III of England, Eleanor of Castile, Eleanor of Woodstock, English Princess, Isabella of France, Lord of Ireland, Philippe IV of France, Reginald II of Guelders

Eleanor of Woodstock (June 18, 1318 – April 22, 1355) was an English Princess and the Duchess of Guelders by marriage to Reginald II of Guelders. She was a younger sister of Edward III of England.

Early life

Eleanor was born at Woodstock Palace in Oxfordshire to King Edward II of England, Lord of Ireland and Isabella of France, the daughter of King Philippe IV of France and Queen Joan I of Navarre.

Eleanor was named after her paternal grandmother, Eleanor of Castile, daughter of Fernando III of Castile and Joan, Countess of Ponthieu.

It’s interesting to note that although Eleanor of Woodstock was named after her Castilian grandmother, her name traces back to English royalty.

Eleanor of Castile’s name, was Leonor in her native land but became Alienor or Alianor in England, and Eleanor in modern English. Eleanor of Castile was in turn named after her paternal great-grandmother, Eleanor of England, the daughter of Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry II of England.

In 1325, there were negotiations between England and Castile for Eleanor to be betrothed to Alphonso XI of Castile, but this fell through due to the dowry.

In early 1328 Eleanor’s new sister-in-law, Philippa of Hainaut, wife of Edward III, became Eleanor’s guardian. In 1329, during the minority government, negotiations were underway for a match between Eleanor and the future Jean II of France; the following year the prospective bridegroom was Pedro, son of Alphonso IV of Aragon, but these negotiations fell through also.

Duchess of Guelders

In May 1332 Eleanor married the count of Guelders, Reinoud II “the black” (English: Reginald), of the House of Wassenberg (born c. 1287), a marriage arranged by her brother, Edward III, and her mother’s cousin Joan of Valois. The groom, quite dark of colour and according to chronicles, also of character, was a widower with four daughters. He was known for, among other things, having imprisoned his father for over six years.

According to legend, she was sent from court in 1336 under the pretext that she had leprosy. Her husband was reportedly under the influence of the priest Jan Moliart, who had been active in her exile and the false pretense of her alleged leprosy. During her supposed exile, she is said to have stayed in Deventer; she does appear to have been active as the protector of the Franciscan Friars, and a financier of their new church.

Again according to legend, her husband tried to annul the marriage. Although there is no firm evidence to support this story, which finds parallels in the legends surrounding numerous other royal women, Eleanor turned up in Court in Nijmegen to contest the annulment, and proceeded to strip down, proving she was no leper, and thus forcing her husband to take her back. He died from a fall from his horse on October 12, 1343.

She was regent as the guardian of their minor son Reginald III from 1343 until 1344.

On April 22, 1355, twelve years after she became a widow, Eleanor died at age 36 and was buried in the Franciscan church in Deventer. Her tombstone had the simple inscription ELEANOR on it; however, in England, on the south side of Philippa of Hainault’s tomb in Westminster Abbey there is an image of her and her husband.

November 16, 1272: Death of King Henry III of England, Lord of Ireland and Duke of Aquitaine. Part I.

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/he First Barons War, Cardinal Guala, Duke of Aquitaine, Henry III of England, King John of England, King Louis VIII of France, Lord of Ireland, Pope Honorius III, Prince Louis of France, William Marshal

Henry III (October 1, 1207 – November 16, 1272), also known as Henry of Winchester, was King of England, Lord of Ireland, and Duke of Aquitaine from 1216 until his death in 1272. The son of King John and Isabella of Angoulême, Henry assumed the throne when he was only nine in the middle of the First Barons’ War.

Cardinal Guala declared the war against the rebel barons to be a religious crusade and Henry’s forces, led by William Marshal, defeated the rebels at the battles of Lincoln and Sandwich in 1217. From 1216 to 1217, Prince Louis, the future King Louis VIII of France (1187 – 1226), invaded and claimed the Kingdom of England.

In September 1216, John marched from the Cotswolds, feigned an offensive to relieve the besieged Windsor Castle, and attacked eastwards around London to Cambridge to separate the rebel-held areas of Lincolnshire and East Anglia. From there he travelled north to relieve the rebel siege at Lincoln and back east to Lynn, probably to order further supplies from the continent. In Lynn, John contracted dysentery.

John’s illness eventually grew worse and by the time he reached Newark Castle, Nottinghamshire, he was unable to travel any farther; he died on the night of 18/19 October. Numerous—probably fictitious—accounts circulated soon after his death that he had been killed by poisoned ale, poisoned plums or a “surfeit of peaches”. His body was escorted south by a company of mercenaries and he was buried in Worcester Cathedral in front of the altar of St Wulfstan. A new sarcophagus with an effigy was made for him in 1232, in which his remains now rest.

In his will, John ordered that his niece Eleanor, who might have had a claim to the throne of his successor, Henry III, never be released from prison

Henry was staying safely at Corfe Castle in Dorset with his mother when King John died. On his deathbed, John appointed a council of thirteen executors to help Henry reclaim the kingdom, and requested that his son be placed into the guardianship of William Marshal, one of the most famous knights in England.

The loyalist leaders decided to crown Henry immediately to reinforce his claim to the throne. William knighted the boy, and Cardinal Guala Bicchieri, the papal legate to England, then oversaw his coronation at Gloucester Cathedral on October 28, 1216. The royal crown had been either lost or sold during the civil war or possibly lost in The Wash, so instead the ceremony used a simple gold corolla belonging to Queen Isabella. Henry later underwent a second coronation at Westminster Abbey on May 17, 1220.

The young King inherited a difficult situation, with over half of England occupied by the rebels and most of his father’s continental possessions still in French hands. He had substantial support from Cardinal Guala who intended to win the civil war for Henry and punish the rebels. Guala set about strengthening the ties between England and the Papacy, starting with the coronation itself, where Henry gave homage to the Papacy, recognising Pope Honorius III as his feudal lord.

Pope Honorius declared that Henry was his vassal and ward, and that the legate had complete authority to protect Henry and his kingdom. As an additional measure, Henry took the cross, declaring himself a crusader and so entitled to special protection from Rome.

Prince Louis negotiated terms with Cardinal Guala, under which he would renounce his claim to the English throne; in return, his followers would be given back their lands, any sentences of excommunication would be lifted and Henry’s government would promise to enforce the Magna Carta.

The proposed agreement soon began to unravel amid claims from some loyalists that it was too generous towards the rebels, particularly the clergy who had joined the rebellion. In the absence of a settlement, Louis remained in London with his remaining forces.

On August 24, 1217, a French fleet arrived off the coast of Sandwich, bringing Louis soldiers, siege engines and fresh supplies. Hubert de Burgh, Henry’s justiciar, set sail to intercept it, resulting in the Battle of Sandwich. De Burgh’s fleet scattered the French and captured their flagship, commanded by Eustace the Monk, who was promptly executed. When the news reached Louis, he entered into fresh peace negotiations.

Henry, Isabella, Louis, Guala and William came to agreement on the final Treaty of Lambeth, also known as the Treaty of Kingston, on 12 and 13 September. The treaty was similar to the first peace offer, but excluded the rebel clergy, whose lands and appointments remained forfeit. Louis accepted a gift of £6,666 to speed his departure from England, and promised to try to persuade King Philippe II to return Henry’s lands in France. Louis left England as agreed and joined the Albigensian Crusade in the south of France.

Henry assumed formal control of his government in January 1227, although some contemporaries argued that he was legally still a minor until his 21st birthday the following year. The King richly rewarded Hubert de Burgh for his service during his minority years, making him the Earl of Kent and giving him extensive lands across England and Wales. Despite coming of age, Henry III remained heavily influenced by his advisers for the first few years of his rule and retained Hubert as his justiciar to run the government, granting him the position for life.

Titles of British Monarchs: Part I.

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Alfred the Great, Æthelstan, John Lackland, King Henry VIII, King James VI of England and Scotland, King of England, King of the English, Kingdom of Great Britain, Lord of Ireland, Royal Titles

This is a list of titles of Kings and Queens of the Kingdoms of Wessex, Anglo-Saxons and England prior to the creation of the Kingdom of Great Britain.

After the fall of the Roman Empire in Britain many small kingdoms arose. The Kingdom we will address is the Kingdom of Wessex, also known as the Kingdom of the West Saxons. Wessex was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom in the south of Great Britain, from 519 until England was unified by Æthelstan in 927.

The Anglo-Saxons believed that Wessex was founded by Cerdic and Cynric, but this may be a legend.

Cerdic is described in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as a leader of the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, being the founder and first King of Saxon Wessex, reigning from 519 to 534 AD. Subsequent Kings of Wessex were each claimed by the Chronicle to descend in some manner from Cerdic.

Arms of the Kingdom of England

His origin, ethnicity, and even his very existence have been extensively disputed. However, though claimed as the founder of Wessex by later West Saxon kings, he would have been known to contemporaries as king of the Gewissae, a folk or tribal group. The first king of the Gewissae to call himself ‘King of the West Saxons’, was Caedwalla, in a charter of 686.

The two main sources for the history of Wessex are the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and the West Saxon Genealogical Regnal List, which sometimes conflict. Wessex became a Christian kingdom after Cenwalh was baptised and was expanded under his rule.

We see the first major title change with Alfred the Great, who initially ruled Wessex, one of the seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms which later made up modern England. Afred is the only English King with the epitaph “The Great.”

Alfred styled himself King of the Anglo-Saxons from about 886, and while he was not the first king to claim to rule all of the English, his rule represents the start of the first unbroken line of kings to rule the whole of England, the House of Wessex. He was succeeded by his son Edward the Elder.

Edward the Elder (c. 874 – 17 July 924) was King of the Anglo-Saxons from 899 until his death in 924. He was the elder son of Alfred the Great and his wife Ealhswith. When Edward succeeded to the throne, he had to defeat a challenge from his cousin Æthelwold, who had a strong claim to the throne as the son of Alfred’s elder brother and predecessor, Æthelred.

Æthelstan (c. 894 – 27 October 939) was King of the Anglo-Saxons from 924 to 927 and King of the English from 927 to his death in 939. He was the son of King Edward the Elder and his first wife, Ecgwynn. Modern historians regard him as the first King of England and one of the “greatest Anglo-Saxon kings”. He never married and had no children. He was succeeded by his half-brother, Edmund I.

The standard title for all English monarchs from Æthelstan until the time of King John was Rex Anglorum (“King of the English”). In addition, many of the pre-Norman kings assumed extra titles, as follows:

Æthelstan: Rex totius Britanniae (“King of the Whole of Britain”)

Edmund the Magnificent: Rex Britanniæ (“King of Britain”) and Rex Anglorum cæterarumque gentium gobernator et rector (“King of the English and of other peoples governor and director”)

Eadred: Regis qui regimina regnorum Angulsaxna, Norþhymbra, Paganorum, Brettonumque (“Reigning over the governments of the kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxons, Northumbrians, Pagans, and British”)

Eadwig the Fair: Rex nutu Dei Angulsæxna et Northanhumbrorum imperator paganorum gubernator Breotonumque propugnator (“King by the will of God, Emperor of the Anglo-Saxons and Northumbrians, governor of the pagans, commander of the British”)

Edgar the Peaceful: Totius Albionis finitimorumque regum basileus (“King of all Albion and its neighbouring realms”)

Cnut the Great: Rex Anglorum totiusque Brittannice orbis gubernator et rector (“King of the English and of all the British sphere governor and ruler”) and Brytannie totius Anglorum monarchus (“Monarch of all the English of Britain”)

In the Norman period Rex Anglorum remained standard, with occasional use of Rex Anglie (“King of England”). The Empress Matilda styled herself Domina Anglorum (“Lady of the English”).

From the time of King John onwards all other titles were eschewed in favour of Rex or Regina Anglie.(“King of England”).

John Lackland, King of England and Lord of Ireland

John Lackland, son of King Henry II had been given the Lordship of Ireland. Following the deaths of John’s older brothers he became King of England in 1199, and so the Lordship of Ireland, instead of being a separate country ruled by a junior Norman prince, came under the direct rule of the Angevin crown.

English monarchs continued to use the title “Lord of Ireland” to refer to their position of conquered lands on the island of Ireland. The title was changed by the Crown of Ireland Act passed by the Irish Parliament in 1542 when, on Henry VIII’s demand, he was granted a new title, King of Ireland, with the state renamed the Kingdom of Ireland.

Henry VIII changed his title because the Lordship of Ireland had been granted to the Norman monarchy by the Papacy; Henry had been excommunicated by the Catholic Church and worried that his title could be withdrawn by the Holy See. Henry VIII also wanted Ireland to become a full kingdom to encourage a greater sense of loyalty amongst his Irish subjects, some of whom took part in his policy of surrender and regrant.

In 1603 with the death of Queen Elizabeth I of England and Ireland, who left no heirs, the English throne was inherited by James VI, King of Scots. In England he is known as James I of England while in Scotland he is regarded as James VI of Scotland. I like to combine both regal numbers and refer to him as King James I-VI of England, Scotland and Ireland.

In 1604 King James I-VI adopted the title (now usually rendered in English rather than Latin) King of Great Britain. The English and Scottish parliaments, however, did not recognise this title until the Acts of Union of 1707 under Queen Anne (who was Queen of Great Britain rather than king).

Until the Acts of Union of 1707 the official title of the monarch was King/Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland.

February 18, 1478: Execution of George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence.

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Bill of Attainder, Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, Duke of Clarence, George Plantagenet, House of Lancaster, House of York, King Edward IV of England, King Henry VI of England, King Richard III of England, Lord of Ireland, Mary of Burgundy, Wars of the Roses

George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence (October 21, 1449 – February 18, 1478), was a son of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, and Cecily Neville, and the brother of English kings Edward IV and Richard III. He played an important role in the dynastic struggle between rival factions of the Plantagenets known as the Wars of the Roses.

Coat of Arms of George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence

George’s father died in 1460. In 1461 his elder brother, Edward, became King of England as Edward IV. In that year George was made Duke of Clarence and invested as a Knight of the Garter, and in 1462 Clarence received the Honour of Richmond, a lifetime grant, but without the peerage title of Earl of Richmond.Despite his youth, he was appointed as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in the same year.

Having been mentioned as a possible husband for Mary of Burgundy, daughter of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, Clarence came under the influence of his first cousin Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, and in July 1469 was married in Église Notre-Dame de Calais to the earl’s elder daughter Isabel Neville.

Here is a side story to the connection of the House of Burgundy and the House of Plantagenet. In 1454, at the age of 21, Charles the Bold was looking to marry a second time. Charles the Bold’s first wife was Catherine of France (1428 – 13 July 1446) was a French princess and the fourth child and second daughter of Charles VII of France and Marie of Anjou. Catherine fell ill with violent coughing in 1446 and died with what was likely tuberculosis.

Mary, Duchess of Burgundy

For his second marriage, Charles the Bold wanted to marry Margaret of York, daughter of his distant cousin Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York (a sister of Kings Edward IV and Richard III of England), but under terms of the Treaty of Arras of 1435, he was required to marry another French princess. His father, Philippe III the Good of Burgundy, chose Isabella of Bourbon, who was Charles the Bold’s first cousin being the daughter of his father’s sister, Agnes of Burgundy and Charles I, Duke of Bourbon. Agnes of Burgundy and Charles of Bourbon both were very distant cousins of Charles VII of France, the father of Charles the Bold’s first wife, Catherine. Charles the Bold and Isabella of Bourbon were the parents of Mary of Burgundy, potential bride of George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence.

Isabella of Bourbon died September 25, 1465, and July 3, 1468 Charles the Bold finally married Margaret of York as his third wife. As Duchess of Burgundy Margaret acted as a protector of the duchy after the death of Charles the Bold in January 1477.

Now back to George, Duke of Clarence…

Though a member of the House of York, he switched sides to support the Lancastrians, before reverting to the Yorkists. Clarence had actively supported his elder brother’s claim to the throne, but when his father-in-law, Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, known as “the Kingmaker,” deserted Edward IV to ally with Margaret of Anjou, consort of the deposed King Henry VI, Clarence supported him and was deprived of his office as Lord Lieutenant. Clarence joined Warwick in France, taking his pregnant wife. She gave birth to their first child, a girl, on April 16, 1470, in a ship off Calais. The child died shortly afterwards. Henry VI rewarded Clarence for his loyalty by making him next in line to the throne after his own son, justifying the exclusion of Edward IV either by attainder for his treason against Henry VI or on the grounds of his alleged illegitimacy. After a short time, Clarence realized that his loyalty to his father-in-law was misplaced.

George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence

In 1477 Clarence was again a suitor for the hand of Mary, who had just become Duchess of Burgundy in her own right. Edward IV objected to the match, and Clarence left the court.

The arrest and committal to the Tower of London of one of Clarence’s retainers, an Oxford astronomer named Dr John Stacey, which led to his confession under torture that he had “imagined and compassed” the death of the King, and also implicated Thomas Burdett and Thomas Blake, a chaplain at Stacey’s college (Merton College, Oxford). All three were tried for treason, convicted, and executed.

This was a clear warning to Clarence, which he chose to ignore. He appointed Dr John Goddard to burst into Parliament and regale the House of Commons with Burdett and Stacey’s declarations of innocence that they had made before their deaths. Goddard was a very unwise choice, as he was an ex-Lancastrian who had expounded Henry VI’s claim to the throne. Edward IV summoned Clarence to Windsor, severely upbraided him, accused him of treason, and ordered his immediate arrest and confinement.

Edward IV, King of England and Lord of Ireland

Clarence was imprisoned in the Tower of London and put on trial for treason against his brother Edward IV. Clarence was not present – Edward IV himself prosecuted his brother, and demanded that Parliament pass a Bill of Attainder* against his brother, declaring that he was guilty of “unnatural, loathly treasons” which were aggravated by the fact that Clarence was his brother, who, if anyone did, owed him loyalty and love.

Following his conviction and attainder, he was “privately executed” at the Tower on February 18, 1478, by tradition in the Bowyer Tower, and soon after the event, the unfounded rumor gained ground that he had been drowned in a butt of Malmsey wine.

Richard III biographer Paul Murray Kendall believes that the reason Edward was so harsh with his brother was that he had discovered from Bishop Robert Stillington of Bath and Wells that George had let slip the secret of Edward IV’s marriage precontract with Lady Eleanor Talbot, which would mean that Edward IV’s marriage with Elizabeth Woodville was null and void, making their children illegitimate. Although legend claims Richard III had brought about his brother’s death, the opposite may be true: he tried to prevent it.

* A bill of attainder (also known as an act of attainder or writ of attainder or bill of penalties) is an act of a legislature declaring a person or group of persons guilty of some crime and punishing them, often without a trial.

On this date in History: April 21, 1509, 1894, 1926.

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Henry VII of England, kings and queens of the United Kingdom, Lord of Ireland, Queen Elizabeth II, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom

The birth of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. April 21, 1926.

Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; born April 21, 1926) is Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the other Commonwealth realms.

Her Majesty The Queen of The Untited Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Elizabeth was born in London as the first child of the Duke and Duchess of York, later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, and she was educated privately at home. Her father acceded to the throne on the abdication of his brother King Edward VIII in 1936, from which time she was the heir presumptive. She began to undertake public duties during the Second World War, serving in the Auxiliary Territorial Service. In 1947, she married Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, a former prince of Greece and Denmark, with whom she has four children: Charles, Prince of Wales; Anne, Princess Royal; Prince Andrew, Duke of York; and Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex.

On this date in History: April 21, 1509. Death of King Henry VII of England, Lord of Ireland.

Henry VII (January 28, 1457 – April 21, 1509) was the King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizure of the crown on August 22, 1485 to his death on April 21, 1509. He was the first monarch of the House of Tudor.

Henry VII died at Richmond Palace on April 21, 1509 of tuberculosis at the age of 52 and was buried at Westminster Abbey, next to his wife, Elizabeth of York, in the chapel he commissioned. He was succeeded by his second son, Henry VIII (reign 1509–47). His mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond, survived him, dying two months later on June 29, 1509.

On this day 125 years ago (April 21, 1894) this famous picture of Queen Victoria and many royals was taken at Edinburgh Palais in Coburg during the wedding festivities of the Queen’s grandchildren Grand Duke Ernst-Ludwig of Hesse and by Rhine and Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.