Henry IV 1399-1413

• Henry IV was King of England

  1399 to 1413
• Plantagenets


  Descended from Geoffrey Plantagenet who lived from 1113 to 1151 and fathered Henry II
• Henry IV was the first Plantagenet king who effectively took the crown rather than it being handed to him
• Henry IV overthrew his cousin Richard II, the sitting King
• Henry IV's actions inspired the Yorkist descendants of his grandfather Edward III to go to war against his own Lancastrian line, leading to the Wars of the Roses
• Henry IV was born

  1367
• Henry IV's father was John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster, one of England's richest men
• Henry IV was in the line of succession but only distantly at the time of his birth
• Henry IV grew up alongside his cousin the future Richard II, and the two were made Knights of the Garter together
• In 1387, a group of Barons confronted the young King Richard II, effectively taking control of the country and keeping Richard II as a figurehead, in an event known as the Lords Appellant Rebellion
• Henry Bolingbrook, the future Henry IV, was involved in the Lords Appellant Rebellion, though not part of the inner core
• In the late 1390s, Richard II had two of the original appellants executed and the others banished from the kingdom
• In 1398, Henry Bolingbrook was banished from England for 10 years by Richard II
• While Henry Bolingbrook was in exile, his father John of Gaunt died, making Henry the Duke of Lancaster and the richest man in England
• Richard II seized everything from Henry Bolingbrook, preventing him from inheriting his father's lands, title, and wealth
• Henry Bolingbrook returned to England, raised an army, and toppled Richard II, who was later imprisoned and died, rumored to have been murdered
• Henry Bolingbrook was crowned King Henry IV in 1399
• Henry IV's 14-year reign was characterized by him facing down a series of rebellions, most notably by the Earl of Northumberland, whom he defeated at the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403
• Henry IV was plagued by ill health and suffered a series of debilitating bouts of illness, finally succumbing in 1413 while praying at the tomb of Edward the Confessor in Westminster Abbey
• Henry IV was buried at Canterbury Cathedral
• Before becoming King, Henry IV had married Mary de Bohun in the 1380s, and they had a child who would one day rule as King