Richard II and Henry IV

Early Reign
 Born 1367, r. 1377-1399, d. 1400)
 Ambitious, with a lofty view of royal office
o Perceived to rule arbitrarily and thru factions
 Crowned quickly to prevent Gaunt from usurping
 Role in Peasant’s Revolt
 Starts to take own initiative in 1381 at 14 years old
o Chose Anna of Bohemia as wife (daughter of HRE Charles IV)
o 1383: selects his own advisors, principally Chancellor (Sir Michael de la Pole)
o Forms friendships with ambitious young men who were jealous of Gaunt’s power and prestige
 Repeatedly criticize duke, even involved in attempt on his life
 Rancor and suspicion at court
 By 1385, deteriorating relations between Richard and nobility

Crisis of 1386
 Gaunt to Spain in July to pursue claim to Castile (through wife)
 French plan invasion w/ largest army seen in Hundred Years’ War
o De la Pole seeks unprecedented quadruple grant $ for coastal defense
o Parliament resists (what is Richard doing w/ his $) – demands resignation
 Richard responds that he won’t remove a single kitchen boy from his staff at the behest of Parliament
o Forced to back down, replace Chancellor, appoint 1-year government commission
 Richard travels to Midlands to rally support
o Has royal courts review his rights as king  affirm them
 King’s enemies bring accusation (formal appeal) vs. king’s supporters
o Lords Appellant: Duke Thomas of Gloucester (king’s uncle); Earls of Warwick, Arundel; Earl of
Nottingham (later Duke of Norfolk); Earl of Derby (Henry Bolingbroke)
o Raise forces in self-defense (c. 4500)
o Under 4000 royalist forces march south, but defeated at Radcot Bridge (Dec 20, 1387)
 Appellants occupy London and Richard returns humiliated
 “Merciless Parliament”: Appellants purge court, executing some and dismissing others
o Richard resumes office on May 3, 1389
o Replaced Appellant ministers with his own selections
 Issues Manifesto promising better gov’t and eased taxes

Mature Kingship (1389-1394)

 Truce w/ France in 1389 – lower taxes: no new taxes 1389-91
 Spreads patronage to wider group of recipients
 Develops program to strengthen royal authority
o Created own group of loyal followers (wear king’s badge – white hart)
o Appoints professional, royalist ministers
o Enhances dignity/mystique of office: “my lord” replaced w/ “your highness”, “your Majesty”
o Court protocol: solemn crown-wearings, rituals, ceremonies and Westminster Abbey
Tyranny (1394-99)
 Unrest of Ireland: travels in 1394-5 to assert overlordship with large army (8000-men, largest in period)
o All local Irish lords go to Dublin and submit t him
o Notions formed, displayed in Ireland translated to England in 1397
 July 1397: arrested 3 major Appellants
o Gloucester murdered in prison
o Arundel executed – Warwick exiled for life to Isle of Man
 Justified actions in letters to foreign rulers as punishments for earlier rebellion
o Brings peace: absence of war, foundation of strong realm
 Jan 1398: quarrel b/w 2 remaining Appellants  Richard exiles both
o Feb 99: Gaunt dies while son in exile  Richard seizes Lancastrian lands
 Richard travels to Ireland again w/ Lancastrian $ to settle dispute
 Leaves Uncle Edmund, Duke of York in charge as “Keeper of the Realm”
o Bolingbroke returns from exile to Yorkshire – convinces Earl of Northumberland to support (Henry
Percy)
 March across England as champion of nobility
 Richard returns to Wales in mid-July w/ diminishing support
o York surrenders to Bolingbroke
o August 15: Richard surrenders to Northumberland, handed to Bolingbroke
 Sept 99: Parliament summoned, drafts deposition
o Sept 29: Richard agrees to abdicate to save his life
o Sept 30: Parliament approves abdication and passes deposition
 Abdication could be rescinded
 Richard taken to imprisonment at Pontefract
 Jan 1400: plot to restore Richard crushed
o Put to death in Feb
o Quietly, quickly buried
 Henry V had him honorably buried in Westminster Abbey
 Character
o Tall, vigorous, handsome – preoccupied with image (possible narcissistic)
o Rejected “Warrior King” of Edward III for new vision of more domineering overlord

 Poll tax: 4p from everyone over 14 – 3 days of labor according to Statute of Laborers
 1st time peasants join forces to seek change
o 1382: Poll Tax only applied to rich
o 1390 new Statute of Laborers – JPs fix wages in district to prevailing price
 Beginning of end for feudal system and villeinage

Henry IV (b.1366, r.1399-1413), first Lancastrian

 1st appearance as 1 of Appellants when father Gaunt was in Spain
 Crusades in Lithuania (1390), Prussia (1392) before exile
 Years of Rebellion (1399-1408)
o First attempt to restore Richard II in Jan 1400
o Sept 1400: Owen Glendower leads Welsh revolt
 Henry IV leads many expeditions 1400-1405, but fruitless until Prince Henry
 Allies w/ Percy family (Henry, earl and son Henry-Hotspur)
 Northumberland the great-great grandson of Henry III
 July 1403: Hotspur killed in Battle of Shrewsbury
 Most serious challenge to throne ended
  French aid Welsh in 1405-6; Scots raid across border
 Prince Henry largely ends Welsh rebellion in 1408, but not fully concluded until
1415
o 1405: Duke of Norfolk’s eldest son (Thomas Mowbray), and Archbishop of York (Richard Scrope)
executed for conspiring w/ Northumberland
 1408: Northumberland rebels again, killed in battle
 Domestic Politics
o Began to suffer from recurring illness
 Probably syphilis, not the leprosy his enemies claimed
o Struggled w/ Parliament 1401-6 to raise $
 Accuse Henry of fiscal mismanagement
 Parliament acquires precedents – power over royal expenditures and appointments
o Factions: Thomas Arundel (Archbishop Canterbury, Chancellor, Henry IV favorite) vs. Prince Henry
(and Beaufort half-brothers)
 Arundel overthrown in 1410
 Prince’s party can’t effectively govern
 Henry IV even signs agreements with factions of French court that were fighting
Burgundians (Prince’s friends)
o Incapacitated in late 1412, dying months later in 1413

Henry V b.1387 r.1413-22

 Well-educated under uncle Henry Beaufort (bishop Winchester)
o 1st king well-read, write in English w/ ease
 Stories of reckless/dissolute youth converted when king over-exaggerated by Tudor authors
o Circulate shortly after death, so some truth may be there
 July 1415: domestic attempt by Richard of York to put Edmund Mortimer, earl of March on throne
o Descendent (great-grandson of Lionel, Gaunt’s older brother)
o Henry forewarned and suppressed without mercy
 #1 concern = war with France
o Wants Aquitaine, but alo Normandy, Touraine, and Maine (Angevin holdings) + more
 Charles VI never going to surrender such land, but Henry V seemed genuinely convinced
that claims were just, and he’d fight for them
 Negotiations broken in 1415
o French wars revealed his true genius at planning and executing campaigns
 Diplomacy w/ John the Fearless of Burgundy – guaranteed neutrality
 Concentrated on depriving France of any maritime assistance for naval dominance
 Guaranteed financing
 Borrows and taxes readily granted (national enthusiasm)
 Henry backed by magnates, united nations
o Military strategy thoroughly planned out
 Not win battles, but reduce and conquer towns, fortresses in Northern France
 English hold, reinforce, then bring in bureaucrats to administer, tax (pay for war)
 Execution takes longer than expected (7 years)
 Military successes
o Capture Harfleur (Sept 15)
o Battle of Agincourt (Oct 25, 1415)
 English lose 400 of 6000; French lose 5000 of 30,000
 1416: Forms alliance w/ HRE Sigismund
 Ends papal schism
  Genoa abandons French alliance
o Jan 1419: Captures Rouen, capital of Normandy and Northern France
 Sept 1419: Burgundian alliance after John’s assassination
o May 21, 1420: Treaty of Troyes
 Henry V made heir and regent of France
 June 2: Marries Princess Catherine
o Health fails with camp fever
 D. 1422 after capturing more towns

Henry VI (b.1421, r.1422-61, 1470-1, d. 1471)

 Henry V d. Sept 1; Charles VI of France d. Oct 21
 Pious, studious, recluse – incapable of governing, which causes War of Roses
 1437: minority not ended officially, but rules for self
o Plans educational foundations: Eton College 1440-41, King’s College, 1441
 Early reign: over-powerful ministers
o Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester; Henry Cardinal Beaufort; William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk
o Suffolk falls in 1449
o New conflict b/w Lancastrian Edmund Beaufort, duke of Somerset and Richard, Duke of York
 French lands steadily lost
o Truce in April 1445 w/ marriage to Margaret of Anjou
o Maine and Normandy lost
 Rest of France (except Calais) lost by 1453
 July 1453-December 1454: Mental disturbances: Edward of York made Lord Protector
o Heir born: Edward Oct 13, 1453
o Lawlessness rife
o Taxation burdensome
o Noble factions interested in enriching selves and fighting for control of king
o Queen Margaret a powerful, dominating, ambitious

Phase I (1455)
 When Henry recovered in 1455, Margaret gains upper hand vs. York
o Somerset restored to power to replace York
o York fearful for life, takes arms for self-protection
 He’d been planning on having Somerset executed
 Principal supporter: nephew Richard Neville, earl of Warwick (Kingmaker)
o Battle of St. Albans