and frightened both secular and clerical landowners, inspiring the first
anti-heresy statute, De Heritico Comburendo, to become law in 1401. Henry,
ailing from leprosy and epilepsy, watched as Prince Henry controlled the
government for the last two years of his reign. In 1413, Henry died in the
Jerusalem Chamber of Westminster Abbey. Rafael Holinshed explained his
unpopularity in Chronicles of England: "... by punishing such as moved with
disdain to see him usurp the crown, did at sundry times rebel against him,
he won(himself more hatred, than in all his life time ... had been possible
for him to have weeded out and removed." Unlikely as it may seem (due to
the amount of rebellion in his reign); Henry left his eldest son an
undisputed succession.
HENRY V (1413-1422)
Henry V, the eldest son of Henry IV and Mary Bohun, was born in 1387. As
per arrangement by the Treaty of Troyes, he married Catherine, daughter of
the French King Charles VI, in June 1420. His only child, the future Henry
VI, was born in 1421.
Henry was an accomplished soldier: at age fourteen he fought the Welsh
forces of Owen ap Glendower; at age sixteen he commanded his father's
forces at the battle of Shrewsbury; and shortly after his accession he put
down a major Lollard uprising and an assassination plot by nobles still
loyal to Richard II . He proposed to marry Catherine in 1415, demanding the
old Plantagenet lands of Normandy and Anjou as his dowry. Charles VI
refused and Henry declared war, opening yet another chapter in the Hundred
Years' War. The French war served two purposes - to gain lands lost in
previous battles and to focus attention away from any of his cousins' royal
ambitions. Henry, possessed a masterful military mind and defeated the
French at the Battle of Agincourt in October 1415, and by 1419 had captured
Normandy, Picardy and much of the Capetian stronghold of the Ile-de-France.
By the Treaty of Troyes in 1420, Charles VI not only accepted Henry as
his son-in-law, but passed over his own son to name Henry as heir to the
French crown. Had Henry lived a mere two months longer, he would have been
king of both England and France.
Henry had prematurely aged due to living the hard life of a soldier. He
became seriously ill and died after returning from yet another French
campaign; Catherine had bore his only son while he was away and Henry died
having never seen the child. The historian Rafael Holinshed, in Chronicles
of England , summed up Henry's reign as such: "This Henry was a king, of
life without spot, a prince whom all men loved, and of none disdained, e
captain against whom fortune never frowned, nor mischance once spurned,
whose people him so severe a justicer both loved and obeyed (and so humane
withal) that he left no offence unpunished, nor friendship unrewarded; a
terror to rebels, and suppressor of sedition, his virtues notable, his
qualities most praiseworthy."
HENRY VI (1422-61, 1470-71 AD)
Henry VI was the only child of Henry V and Catherine of Valois, born on
December 6, 1421. He married Margaret of Anjou in 1445; the union produced
one son, Edward, who was killed in battle one day before Henry's execution.
Henry came to the throne as an infant after the early death of his father;
in name, he was king of both England and France, but a protector ruled each
realm. He was educated by Richard Beauchamp beginning in 1428. The whole of
Henry's reign was involved with retaining both of his crowns - in the end,
he held neither.
Hostilities in France continued, but momentum swung to the French with
the appearance of Joan of Arc in 1428. The seventeen year old was
instrumental in rescuing the French Dauphin Charles in 1429; he was crowned
at Reims as Charles VII, and she was burned at the stake as a heretic.
English losses in Brittany (1449), Normandy (1450) and Gascony (1453) led
to the conclusion of the Hundred Years' War in 1453. Henry lost his claim
to all French soil except for Calais.
The Wars of the Roses began in full during Henry's reign. In 1453, Henry
had an attack of the hereditary mental illness that plagued the French
house of Valois; Richard, Duke of York, was made protector of the realm
during the illness. His wife Margaret, a rather headstrong woman, alienated
Richard upon Henry's recovery and Richard responded by attacking and
defeating the queen's forces at St. Albans in 1455. Richard captured the
king in 1460 and forced him to acknowledge Richard as heir to the crown.
Henry escaped, joined the Lancastvian forces and attacked at Towton in
March 1461, only to be defeated by the Yorks. Richard's son, Edward IV, was
proclaimed king; Margaret and Henry were exiled to Scotland. They were
captured in 1465 and imprisoned in the Tower of London until 1470. Henry
was briefly restored to power in Settember 1470. Edward, Prince of Wales,
died after his final victory at Tewkesbury on May 20, 1471 and Henry
returned to the Tower. The last Lancastrian king was murdered the following
day.
THE YORKISTS
The Yorkist conquest of the Lancastrians in 1461 did not put an end to
the Wars of the Roses, which rumbled on until the start of the sixteenth
century. Family disloyalty in the form of Richard III's betrayal of his
nephews, the young King Edward V and his brother, was part of his downfall.
Henry Tudor, a claimant to the throne of Lancastrian descent, defeated
Richard III in battle and Richard was killed. With the marriage of Henry to
Elizabeth, the sister of the young Princes in the Tower, reconciliation was
finally achieved between the warring houses of Lancaster and York in the
form of the new Tudor dynasty, which combined their respective red and
white emblems to produce the Tudor rose.
EDWARD IV (1461-1470 and 1471-1483)
Edward IV was able to restore order, despite the temporary return to the
throne of Henry VI (reigned 1470-71, during which time Edward fled to the
Continent in exile) supported by the Earl of Warwick, 'the Kingmaker', who
had previously supported Edward and who was killed at the Battle of Barnet
in 1471. Edward also made peace with France; by a shrewd display of force
to exert pressure, Edward reached a profitable agreement with Louis XI at
Picquigny in 1475. At home, Edward relied heavily on his own personal
control in government, reviving the ancient custom of sitting in person 'on
the bench' (i.e. in judgement) to enforce justice. He sacked Lancastrian
office-holders and used his financial acumen to introduce tight management
of royal revenues to reduce the Crown's debt. Building closer relations
with the merchant community, he encouraged commercial treaties; he
successfully traded in wool on his own account to restore his family's
fortunes and enable the King to 'live of his own', paying the costs of the
country's administration from the Crown Estates profits and freeing him
from dependence on subsidies from Parliament. Edward rebuilt St George's
Chapel at Windsor (possibly seeing it as a mausoleum for the Yorkists, as
he was buried there) and a new great hall at Eltham Palace. Edward
collected illuminated manuscripts - his is the only intact medieval royal
collection to survive (in the British Library) - and patronised the new
invention of printing. Edward died in 1483, leaving by his marriage to
Elizabeth Woodville a 12-year-old son, Edward, to succeed him.
EDWARD V (April-June 1483)
Edward V was a minor, and his uncle Richard, Duke of Gloucester, was made
Protector. Richard had been loyal throughout to his brother Edward IV
including the events of 1470-71, Edward's exile and their brother's
rebellion (the Duke of Clarence, who was executed in 1478 by drowning,
reputedly in a barrel of Malmsey wine). However, he was suspicious of the
Woodville faction, possibly believing they were the cause of Clarence's
death. In response to an attempt by Elizabeth Woodville to take power,
Richard and Edward V entered London in May, with Edward's coronation fixed
for 22 June. However, in mid-June Richard assumed the throne as Richard III
(reigned 1483-85). Edward V and his younger brother Richard were declared
illegitimate, taken to the Royal apartments at the Tower of London (then a
Royal residence) and never seen again. (Skeletons, allegedly theirs, found
there in 1674 were later buried in Westminster Abbey.)
RICHARD III (1483-1485)
Richard III usurped the throne from the young Edward V, who disappeared
with his younger brother while under their ambitious uncle's supposed
protection. On becoming king, Richard attempted genuine reconciliation
with the Yorkists by showing consideration to Lancastrians purged from
office by Edward IV, and moved Henry VI's body to St George's Chapel at
Windsor. The first laws written entirely in English were passed during his
reign. In 1484, Richard's only legitimate son Edward predeceased him.
Before becoming king, Richard had had a strong power base in the north, and
his reliance on northerners during his reign was to increase resentment in
the south. Richard concluded a truce with Scotland to reduce his
commitments in the north. Nevertheless, resentment against Richard grew. On
7 August 1485, Henry Tudor (a direct descendant through his mother Margaret
Beaufort, of John of Gaunt, one of Edward III's younger sons) landed at
Milford Haven in Wales to claim the throne. On 22 August, in a two-hour
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