THE LANCASTRIAN KINGS AND THE WARS OF THE ROSES

The Position and Character of Henry IV

Henry of Lancaster claimed the throne by virtue of his descent from Edward III, and because, as he said, the realm was in point to be undone for default of governance and undoing of good laws." Parliament, in accepting him as king, was undoubtedly influenced by this hereditary claim, though in reality there was little in it, but it was moved much more by the desire to have a king dependent on itself for his authority. Henry was the first parliamentary king in English history; but he represented rather the conservative and aristocratic portion of parliament, the lords, lay and spiritual; than the knights and burgesses, the party of the future. It is not strange, therefore, that he should have been himself conservative, even reactionary. He was, in fact, medieval in policy, an upholder of the temporal power of the church, hostile to the Lollards, and opposed to those movements that during Richard's reign had striven to free the people from the authority of the church on one side, and of the manorial lords on the other. Though his election gave a great opportunity to parliament to extend its authority and influence, yet it was not destined to aid even in the least degree the emancipation of the peasant or the Lollard. Progress in this particular was almost imperceptible; neither king nor parliament did anything to hasten it.

Attempts to dethrone Henry IV

The choice of parliament did not by any means find unanimous support in England, and during Henry's early years as king, attempts were made to unseat him. At the beginning of his reign a conspiracy was formed by Richard's half-brothers, the earls of Kent and Huntingdon, but the plot was discovered and the earls were executed. After Richard's death, at Pontefract, in January, 1400, his adherents turned to the Earl of March, whom Richard had designated as his successor, and a revolt began in the north, where the Percys, of whom the earl of Northumberland was the head, ruled as practically independent feudal lords. Though they had aided Henry in his struggle for the throne, they now turned against him, on the pretext of an insult to Edmund Mortimer, their kinsman; and while Henry was in Wales, fighting Owen Glendower, whose people, the Welsh, had always been devoted to Richard, they plotted against him. Acting in conjunction with the Welsh, the Percys advanced southward, but were defeated at Shrewsbury on the Welsh border (1403).

HENRY IV,

From Vertue's engraving, based on a picture at Hampton Court.

There Henry Percy (Hotspur) was killed. Glendower warred on, fighting in a hopeless cause, till his death in 1415; while the father of Hotspur, who had submitted in 1403, again conspired, with Mowbray, Earl of Nottingham, and Scrope, Archbishop of York. The conspiracy was betrayed, and Mowbray and Scrope were beheaded. Northumberland was slain at Bramham Moor in 1407.

Toward the end of his reign the position of Henry became more secure. He was fortunate in capturing Prince James, son of Robert III of Scotland, when the prince was on his way to France to be educated. By retaining his captive in England for eighteen years as a hostage (1406-1424), he was able to ward off all trouble from Scotland during that time. Danger from France was removed by the civil war in that country between the Orleanists and the Burgundians, a war similar in character to that which soon broke out between the Houses of Lancaster and York in England.