HENRY IV

HENRY IV

	The reign of Henry IV began in usurpation. The superior claim to the crown of Edmund, Earl of March caused no acute difficulties for him or his son, Henry V, but the claims of the House of York (through the March line) would in later reigns return to haunt the Lancastrian kings.
	In 1380 Henry had married Mary Bohun, daughter of the Earl of Hereford. She was a wealthy heiress and bore him seven children - dying giving birth to the last in 1394.
	In 1403 he married Joanna, daughter of Charles the Bad, King of Navarre. She had married John of Brittany, who died in 1399. Henry's marriage to her was aimed at securing the friendship of Brittany, both for its strategic control of parts of the Channel Coast and to secure economic links between Brittany and England.

Rebellions against Henry IV

The Percies

Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland (1342-1408) had played an important part in helping Henry IV overthrow Richard II. He was rewarded by being made Constable of England, but neither he nor his son Henry ("Harry Hotspur") was satisfied.

In 1403, Harry Hotspur and his uncle Thomas Percy, Earl of Worcester began a revolt against Henry IV - probably aimed at placing Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March on the throne.

The Battle of Shrewsbury, 21 July 1403
Hotspur assembled his forces at Chester and marched south. Henry IV's son, Prince Henry was already posted with a small force at Shrewsbury to counter the Welsh. Henry IV joined him and the two positioned themselves about three miles north of Shrewsbury. Hotspur arrived and occupied high ground just to their north. The Abbot of Shrewsbury attempted, without success, to arrange a truce.
	Both sides had large numbers of archers, and the battle commenced with an exchange of arrows between the two. When the royal forces began to withdraw because their firing was less effective uphill, Hotspur advanced. Chaotic fighting broke out in the area around the church. Hotspur and his knights tried to cut their way through to Henry IV and kill him. Prince Henry's force (which had suffered less in the exchange of arrows) moved against Hotspur's right flank. Prince Henry was struck in the face by an arrow and bore the scar for the rest of his life.
When Hotspur was killed by an arrow, his forces collapsed and were slaughtered en masse by the royal soldiers. The Battle of Shrewsbury was a particularly bloody one by contemporary standards (c. 1,500 dead; 3,000 wounded.)

	The Battle of Shrewsbury was on a Saturday; Thomas Percy, Earl of Worcester was tried and beheaded the following Monday.
	Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland submitted to Henry IV, but not for long. In 1405, he rebelled along with Richard Scrope, Archbishop of York, and Thomas Mowbray, Earl of Nottingham (son of Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, one of the Lords Appellant.)
	Henry IV defeated the rebels and executed Scrope and Nottingham.
	Northumberland fled to Scotland, then to Wales, then France, then back to Scotland. He finally invaded from Scotland in February 1408, but was defeated and killed at the Battle of Bramham Moor.

The Welsh

The high taxation and economic stagnation of the late 14th Century had impoverished the Welsh and when Owen Glendower (Owain Glyn Dŵr; or Glyndŵr) revolted in 1400, he found many Welsh supporters.

Owen Glendower was descended from Welsh princes, but he was also connected to the English gentry. He married the daughter of a judge in King's Bench and himself had legal training. A major landowner in north Wales, he had served on an expedition against the Scots in 1385.

Owen Glendower formed alliances with Edmund Mortimer and the Percy family to further his cause. He also allied with Charles VI, King of France, who sent French ships to attack Caernavon and English castles on the coast of Wales.

By 1405, Glendower controlled much of Wales, including the castles of Harlech and Aberystwyth, though many of Henry IV's castles continued to hold out.

The final defeat of Northumberland allowed Henry to direct all his forces against the Welsh, and when Harlech Castle at last fell in 1409, Glendower fled to the hills. He died a few years later, although the exact date is not known; he soon moved into Welsh legend.

Court factions

Much of the Welsh military operations had been commanded by Prince Henry, Henry IV's eldest son.

The Prince was especially friendly with the Beauforts - sons of his grandfather John of Gaunt by his second wife, Katherine Swynford (or Swinford.) John Beaufort, Earl of Somerset died young in 1410, but his brother Henry became Bishop of Winchester and later a Cardinal. Thomas Beaufort was an accomplished naval commander.

Cardinal Beaufort's chantry in Winchester cathedral

	Henry V was very popular and the appearance that he was running a rival court sparked his father's suspicion and resentment. Henry V also seemed to be placing himself at the head of an anticlerical faction, undermining the Church's power.
	During the later years of his reign Henry IV was certainly in poor health, and there was no doubt of Prince Henry's abilities and ambition. Nevertheless, there was no open breach between them, and an opposition centered on the Prince of Wales was not fundamentally dangerous.

Parliament

	After the extravagance of Richard II's reign, the parliaments of Henry IV tried to control royal expenditure. In particular, they were determined that money voted for defense should be spent only for that purpose.
	The 1404 Parliament appointed treasurers to collect the taxes and supervise their disbursement. The 1406 Parliament voted only modest amounts of money and insisted on their right to nominate councilors and audit expenditure.
	Parliament was also more than ready to criticize Henry for failures in naval defenses that left the Channel trade and coastal ports vulnerable to attack. In some ways the urge to limit and control taxation and the desire for a strong military worked in opposite directions, for when war with France resumed, Parliament again began to vote ample taxes.