Chapter VI: Part 6

With Normandy he had more trouble, and the military skill which he had displayed at Tinchebrai was more than once put to the test against Norman rebels. His Norman, like his English administration, was popular with the non-feudal classes, but doubtless oppressive towards the barons. The latter had abandoned the cause of Duke Robert, who remained a prisoner in England till his death (1134); but they embraced that of Robert's son William the Clito, whom Henry in a fit of generosity had allowed to go free after Tinchebrai. The Norman conspiracies of 1112, 1118, and 1123-24 were all formed in the Clito's interest. Both France and Anjou supported this pretender's cause from time to time; he was always a thorn in Henry's side till his untimely death at Alost (1128), but more especially after the catastrophe of the White Ship (1120) deprived the king of his only lawful son. But Henry emerged from these complications with enhanced prestige. His campaigns had been uneventful, his chief victory (Bremule, 1119) was little more than a skirmish. But he had held his own as a general, and as a diplomatist he had shown surpassing skill. The chief triumphs of his foreign policy were the marriage of his daughter Matilda to the emperor Henry V. (1114) which saved Normandy in 1124; the detachment of the pope, Calixtus II., from the side of France and the Clito (1119), and the Angevin marriages which he arranged for his son William Aetheling (1119) and for the widowed empress Matilda (1129) after her brother's death. This latter match, though unpopular in England and Normandy, was a fatal blow to the designs of Louis VI., and prepared the way for the expansion of English power beyond the Loire. After 1124 the disaffection of Normandy was crushed. The severity with which Henry treated the last rebels was regarded as a blot upon his fame; but the only case of merely vindictive punishment was that of the poet Luke de la Barre, who was sentenced to lose his eyes for a lampoon upon the king, and only escaped the sentence by committing suicide.

Henry's English government was severe and grasping; but he "kept good peace" and honourably distinguished himself among contemporary statesmen in an age when administrative reform was in the air. He spent more time in Normandy than in England. But he showed admirable judgment in his choice of subordinates; Robert of Meulan, who died in 1118, and Roger of Salisbury, who survived his master, were statesmen of no common order; and Henry was free from the mania of attending in person to every detail, which was the besetting sin of medieval sovereigns. As a legislator Henry was conservative. He issued few ordinances; the unofficial compilation known as the _Leges Henrici_ shows that, like the Conqueror, he made it his ideal to maintain the "law of Edward." His itinerant justices were not altogether a novelty in England or Normandy. It is characteristic of the man that the exchequer should be the chief institution created in his reign. The eulogies of the last _Peterborough Chronicle_ on his government were written after the anarchy of Stephen's reign had invested his predecessor's "good peace" with the glamour of a golden age. Henry was respected and not tyrannous. He showed a lofty indifference to criticism such as that of Eadmer in the _Historia novorum_, which was published early in the reign. He showed, on some occasions, great deference to the opinions of the magnates. But dark stories, some certainly unfounded, were told of his prison-houses. Men thought him more cruel and more despotic than he actually was.

Henry was twice married. After the death of his first wife, Matilda (1080-1118), he took to wife Adelaide, daughter of Godfrey, count of Louvain (1121), in the hope of male issue. But the marriage proved childless, and the empress Matilda was designated as her father's successor, the English baronage being compelled to do her homage both in 1126, and again, after the Angevin marriage, in 1131. He had many illegitimate sons and daughters by various mistresses. Of these bastards the most important is Robert, earl of Gloucester, upon whom fell the main burden of defending Matilda's title against Stephen.

Henry died near Gisors on the 1st of December, 1135, in the thirty-sixth year of his reign, and was buried in the abbey of Reading which he himself had founded.

ORIGINAL AUTHORITIES.--_The Peterborough Chronicle_ (ed. Plummer,
Oxford, 1882-1889); _Florence of Worcester_ and his first continuator
(ed. B. Thorpe, 1848-1849); Eadmer, _Historia novorum_ (ed. Rule,
Rolls Series, 1884); William of Malmesbury, _Gesta regum_ and
_Historia novella_ (ed. Stubbs, Rolls Series, 1887-1889); Henry of
Huntingdon, _Historia Anglorum_ (ed. Arnold, Rolls Series, 1879);
Simeon of Durham (ed. Arnold, Rolls Series, 1882-1885); Orderic
Vitalis, _Historia ecclesiastica_ (ed. le Prevost, Paris, 1838-1855);
Robert of Torigni, _Chronica_ (ed. Howlett, Rolls Series, 1889), and
_Continuatio Willelmi Gemmeticensis_ (ed. Duchesne, _Hist. Normannorum
scriptores_, pp. 215-317, Paris, 1619). See also the Pipe Roll of 31
H. I. (ed. Hunter, _Record Commission_, 1833); the documents in W.
Stubbs's _Select Chapters_ (Oxford, 1895); the _Leges Henrici_ in
Liebermann's _Gesetze der Angel-Sachsen_ (Halle, 1898, &c.); and the
same author's monograph, _Leges Henrici_ (Halle, 1901); the treaties,
&c., in the Record Commission edition of Thomas Rymer's _Foedera_,
vol. i. (1816).

MODERN AUTHORITIES.--E. A. Freeman, _History of the Norman Conquest_,
vol. v.; J. M. Lappenberg, _History of England under the Norman Kings_
(tr. Thorpe, Oxford, 1857); Kate Norgate, _England under the Angevin
Kings_, vol. i. (1887); Sir James Ramsay, _Foundations of England_,
vol. ii.; W. Stubbs, _Constitutional History_, vol. i.; H. W. C.
Davis, _England under the Normans and Angevins_; Hunt and Poole,
_Political History of England_, vol. ii. (H. W. C. D.)

HENRY II. (1133-1189), king of England, son of Geoffrey Plantagenet, count of Anjou, by Matilda, daughter of Henry I., was born at Le Mans on the 25th of March 1133. He was brought to England during his mother's conflict with Stephen (1142), and was placed under the charge of a tutor at Bristol. He returned to Normandy in 1146. He next appeared on English soil in 1149[1] when he came to court the help of Scotland and the English baronage against King Stephen. The second visit was of short duration. In 1150 he was invested with Normandy by his father, whose death in the next year made him also count of Anjou. In 1152 by a marriage with Eleanor of Aquitaine, the divorced wife of the French king Louis VII., he acquired Poitou, Guienne and Gascony; but in doing so incurred the ill-will of his suzerain from which he suffered not a little in the future. Lastly in 1153 he was able, through the aid of the Church and his mother's partisans, to extort from Stephen the recognition of his claim to the English succession; and this claim was asserted without opposition immediately after Stephen's death (25th of October 1154). Matilda retired into seclusion, although she possessed, until her death (1167), great influence with her son.

The first years of the reign were largely spent in restoring the public peace and recovering for the crown the lands and prerogatives which Stephen had bartered away. Amongst the older partisans of the Angevin house the most influential were Archbishop Theobald, whose good will guaranteed to Henry the support of the Church, and Nigel, bishop of Ely, who presided at the exchequer. But Thomas Becket, archdeacon of Canterbury, a younger statesman whom Theobald had discovered and promoted, soon became all-powerful. Becket lent himself entirely to his master's ambitions, which at this time centred round schemes of territorial aggrandizement. In 1155 Henry asked and obtained from Adrian IV. a licence to invade Ireland, which the king contemplated bestowing upon his brother, William of Anjou. This plan was dropped; but Malcolm of Scotland was forced to restore the northern counties which had been ceded to David; North Wales was invaded in 1157; and in 1159 Henry made an attempt, which was foiled by the intervention of Louis VII., to assert his wife's claims upon Toulouse. After vainly invoking the aid of the emperor Frederick I., the young king came to terms with Louis (1160), whose daughter was betrothed to Henry's namesake and heir. The peace proved unstable, and there was desultory skirmishing in 1161. The following year was chiefly spent in reforming the government of the continental provinces. In 1163 Henry returned to England, and almost immediately embarked on that quarrel with the Church which is the keynote to the middle period of the reign.

Henry had good cause to complain of the ecclesiastical courts, and had only awaited a convenient season to correct abuses which were admitted by all reasonable men. But he allowed the question to be complicated by personal issues. He was bitterly disappointed that Becket, on whom he bestowed the primacy, left vacant by the death of Theobald (1162), at once became the champion of clerical privilege; he and the archbishop were no longer on speaking terms when the Constitutions of Clarendon came up for debate. The king's demands were not intrinsically irreconcilable with the canon law, and the papacy would probably have allowed them to take effect _sub silentio_, if Becket (q.v.) had not been goaded to extremity by persecution in the forms of law. After Becket's flight (1164), the king put himself still further in the wrong by impounding the revenues of Canterbury and banishing at one stroke a number of the archbishop's friends and connexions. He showed, however, considerable dexterity in playing off the emperor against Alexander III. and Louis VII., and contrived for five years, partly by these means, partly by insincere negotiations with Becket, to stave off a papal interdict upon his dominions. When, in July 1170, he was forced by Alexander's threats to make terms with Becket, the king contrived that not a word should be said of the Constitutions. He undoubtedly hoped that in this matter he would have his way when Becket should be more in England and within his grasp. For the murder of Becket (Dec. 29, 1170) the king cannot be held responsible, though the deed was suggested by his impatient words. It was a misfortune to the royal cause; and Henry was compelled to purchase the papal absolution by a complete surrender on the question of criminous clerks (1172). When he heard of the murder he was panic-stricken; and his expedition to Ireland (1171), although so momentous for the future, was originally a mere pretext for placing himself beyond the reach of Alexander's censures.

Becket's fate, though it supplied an excuse, was certainly not the real cause of the troubles with his sons which disturbed the king's later years (1173-1189). But Henry's misfortunes were largely of his own making. Queen Eleanor, whom he alienated by his faithlessness, stirred up her sons to rebellion; and they had grievances enough to be easily persuaded. Henry was an affectionate but a suspicious and close-handed father. The titles which he bestowed on them carried little power, and served chiefly to denote the shares of the paternal inheritance which were to be theirs after his death. The excessive favour which he showed to John, his youngest-born, was another cause of heart-burning; and Louis, the old enemy, did his utmost to foment all discords. It must, however, be remembered in Henry's favour, that the supporters of the princes, both in England and in the foreign provinces, were animated by resentment against the soundest features of the king's administration; and that, in the rebellion of 1173, he received from the English commons such hearty support that any further attempt to raise a rebellion in England was considered hopeless. Henry, like his grandfather, gained in popularity with every year of his reign. In 1183 the death of Prince Henry, the heir-apparent, while engaged in a war against his brother Richard and their father, secured a short interval of peace. But in 1184 Geoffrey of Brittany and John combined with their father's leave to make war upon Richard, now the heir-apparent. After Geoffrey's death (1186) the feud between John and Richard drove the latter into an alliance with Philip Augustus of France. The ill-success of the old king in this war aggravated the disease from which he was suffering; and his heart was broken by the discovery that John, for whose sake he had alienated Richard, was in secret league with the victorious allies. Henry died at Chinon on the 6th of July 1189, and was buried at Fontevraud. By Eleanor of Aquitaine the king had five sons and three daughters. His eldest son, William, died young; his other sons, Henry, Richard, Geoffrey and John, are all mentioned above. His daughters were: Matilda (1156-1189), who became the wife of Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony; Eleanor (1162-1214), who married Alphonso III., king of Castile; and Joanna, who, after the death of William of Sicily in 1189, became the wife of Raymund VI., count of Toulouse, having previously accompanied her brother, Richard, to Palestine. He had also three illegitimate sons: Geoffrey, archbishop of York; Morgan; and William Longsword, earl of Salisbury.

Henry's power impressed the imagination of his contemporaries, who credited him with aiming at the conquest of France and the acquisition of the imperial title. But his ambitions of conquest were comparatively moderate in his later years. He attempted to secure Maurienne and Savoy for John by a marriage-alliance, for which a treaty was signed in 1173. But the project failed through the death of the intended bride; nor did the marriage of his third daughter, the princess Joanna (1165-1199), with William II., king of Sicily (1177) lead to English intervention in Italian politics. Henry once declined an offer of the Empire, made by the opponents of Frederick Barbarossa; and he steadily supported the young Philip Augustus against the intrigues of French feudatories. The conquest of Ireland was carried out independently of his assistance, and perhaps against his wishes. He asserted his suzerainty over Scotland by the treaty of Falaise (1175), but not so stringently as to provoke Scottish hostility. This moderation was partly due to the embarrassments produced by the ecclesiastical question and the rebellions of the princes. But Henry, despite a violent and capricious temper, had a strong taste for the work of a legislator and administrator. He devoted infinite pains and thought to the reform of government both in England and Normandy. The legislation of his reign was probably in great part of his own contriving. His supervision of the law courts was close and jealous; he transacted a great amount of judicial business in his own person, even after he had formed a high court of justice which might sit without his personal presence. To these activities he devoted his scanty intervals of leisure. His government was stern; he over-rode the privileges of the baronage without regard to precedent; he persisted in keeping large districts under the arbitrary and vexatious jurisdiction of the forest-courts. But it is the general opinion of historians that he had a high sense of his responsibilities and a strong love of justice; despite the looseness of his personal morals, he commanded the affection and respect of Gilbert Foliot and Hugh of Lincoln, the most upright of the English bishops.

ORIGINAL AUTHORITIES.--Henry's laws are printed in W. Stubb's _Select
Charters_ (Oxford, 1895). The chief chroniclers of his reign are
William of Newburgh, Ralph de Diceto, the so-called Benedict of
Peterborough, Roger of Hoveden, Robert de Torigni (or de Monte),
Jordan Fantosme, Giraldus Cambrensis, Gervase of Canterbury; all
printed in the Rolls Series. The biographies and letters contained in
the 7 vols. of _Materials for the History of Thomas Becket_ (ed. J. C.
Robertson, Rolls Series, 1875-1885) are valuable for the early and
middle part of the reign. For Irish affairs the _Song of Dermot_ (ed.
Orpen, Oxford, 1892), for the rebellions of the princes the metrical
_Histoire de Guillaume le Marechal_ (ed. Paul Meyer, 3 vols., Paris,
1891, &c.) are of importance. Henry's legal and administrative reforms
are illustrated by the _Tractatus de legibus_ attributed to Ranulph
Glanville, his chief justiciar (ed. G. Phillips, Berlin, 1828); by the
_Dialogus de scaccario_ of Richard fitz Nigel (Oxford, 1902); the
_Pipe Rolls_, printed by J. Hunter for the Record Commission (1844)
and by the Pipe-Roll Society (London, 1884, &c.) supply valuable
details. The works of John of Salisbury (ed. Giles, 1848), Peter of
Blois (ed. Migne), Walter Map (Camden Society, 1841, 1850) and the
letters of Gilbert Foliot (ed. J. A. Giles, Oxford, 1845) are useful
for the social and Church history of the reign.

MODERN AUTHORITIES.--R. W. Eyton, _Itinerary of Henry II._ (London,
1878); W. Stubbs, _Constitutional History_, vol. i. (Oxford, 1893),
_Lectures on Medieval and Modern History_ (Oxford, 1886) and _Early
Plantagenets_ (London, 1876); the same author's introduction to the
Rolls editions of "Benedict," Gervase, Diceto, Hoveden; Mrs J. R.
Green, Henry II. (London, 1888); Miss K. Norgate, _England under the
Angevin Kings_ (2 vols., London, 1887); Sir J. H. Ramsay's _The
Angevin Empire_ (London, 1893); H. W. C. Davis's _England under the
Normans and Angevins_ (London, 1905); Sir F. Pollock and F. W.
Maitland, _History of English Law_ (2 vols., Cambridge, 1898); and F.
Hardegen, _Imperialpolitik Konig Heinrichs II. von England_
(Heidelberg, 1905). (H. W. C. D.)

FOOTNOTE:

[1] For a supposed visit in 1147, see J. H. Round in _English
Historical Review_, v. 747.

HENRY III. (1207-1272), king of England, was the eldest son of King John by Isabella of Angouleme. Born on the 1st of October 1207, the prince was but nine years old at the time of his father's death. The greater part of eastern England being in the hands of the French pretender, Prince Louis, afterwards King Louis VIII., and the rebel barons, Henry was crowned by his supporters at Gloucester, the western capital. John had committed his son to the protection of the Holy See; and a share in the government was accordingly allowed to the papal legates, Gualo and Pandulf, both during the civil war and for some time afterwards. But the title of regent was given by the loyal barons to William Marshal, the aged earl of Pembroke; and Peter des Roches, the Poitevin bishop of Winchester, received the charge of the king's person. The cause of the young Henry was fully vindicated by the close of the year 1217. Defeated both by land and sea, the French prince renounced his pretensions and evacuated England, leaving the regency to deal with the more difficult questions raised by the lawless insolence of the royal partisans. Henry remained a passive spectator of the measures by which William Marshal (d. 1219), and his successor, the justiciar Hubert de Burgh, asserted the royal prerogative against native barons and foreign mercenaries. In 1223 Honorius III. declared the king of age, but this was a mere formality, intended to justify the resumption of the royal castles and demesnes which had passed into private hands during the commotions of the civil war.

The personal rule of Henry III. began in 1227, when he was again proclaimed of age. Even then he remained for some time under the influence of Hubert de Burgh, whose chief rival, Peter des Roches, found it expedient to quit the kingdom for four years. But Henry was ambitions to recover the continental possessions which his father had lost. Against the wishes of the justiciar he planned and carried out an expedition to the west of France (1230); when it failed he laid the blame upon his minister. Other differences arose soon afterwards. Hubert was accused, with some reason, of enriching himself at the expense of the crown, and of encouraging popular riots against the alien clerks for whom the papacy was providing at the expense of the English Church. He was disgraced in 1232; and power passed for a time into the hands of Peter des Roches, who filled the administration with Poitevins. So began the period of misrule by which Henry III. is chiefly remembered in history. The Poitevins fell in 1234; they were removed at the demand of the barons and the primate Edmund Rich, who held them responsible for the tragic fate of the rebellious Richard Marshal. But the king replaced them with a new clique of servile and rapacious favourites. Disregarding the wishes of the Great Council, and excluding all the more important of the barons and bishops from office, he acted as his own chief minister and never condescended to justify his policy except when he stood in need of subsidies. When these were refused, he extorted aids from the towns, the Jews or the clergy, the three most defenceless interests in the kingdom. Always in pecuniary straits through his extravagance, he pursued a foreign policy which would have been expensive under the most careful management. He hoped not only to regain the French possessions but to establish members of his own family as sovereigns in Italy and the Empire. These plans were artfully fostered by the Savoyard kinsmen of Eleanor, daughter of Raymond Berenger, count of Provence, whom he married at Canterbury in January 1236, and by his half-brothers, the sons of Queen Isabella and Hugo, count of la Marche. These favourites, not content with pushing their fortunes in the English court, encouraged the king in the wildest designs. In 1242 he led an expedition to Gascony which terminated disastrously with the defeat of Taillebourg; and hostilities with France were intermittently continued for seventeen years. The Savoyards encouraged his natural tendency to support the Papacy against the Empire; at an early date in the period of misrule he entered into a close alliance with Rome, which resulted in heavy taxation of the clergy and gave great umbrage to the barons. A cardinal-legate was sent to England at Henry's request, and during four years (1237-1241) administered the English Church in a manner equally profitable to the king and to the pope. After the recall of the legate Otho the alliance was less open and less cordial. Still the pope continued to share the spoils of the English clergy with the king, and the king to enforce the demands of Roman tax-collectors.

Circumstances favoured Henry's schemes. Archbishop Edmund Rich was timid and inexperienced; his successor, Boniface of Savoy, was a kinsman of the queen; Grosseteste, the most eminent of the bishops, died in 1253, when he was on the point of becoming a popular hero. Among the lay barons, the first place naturally belonged to Richard of Cornwall who, as the king's brother, was unwilling to take any steps which might impair the royal prerogative; while Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester, the ablest man of his order, was regarded with suspicion as a foreigner, and linked to Henry's cause by his marriage with the princess Eleanor. Although the Great Council repeatedly protested against the king's misrule and extravagance, their remonstrances came to nothing for want of leaders and a clear-cut policy. But between 1248 and 1252 Henry alienated Montfort from his cause by taking the side of the Gascons, whom the earl had provoked to rebellion through his rigorous administration of their duchy. A little later, when Montfort was committed to opposition, Henry foolishly accepted from Innocent IV. the crown of Sicily for his second son Edmund Crouchback (1255). Sicily was to be conquered from the Hohenstaufen at the expense of England; and Henry pledged his credit to the papacy for enormous subsidies, although years of comparative inactivity had already overwhelmed him with debts. On the publication of the ill-considered bargain the baronage at length took vigorous action. They forced upon the king the Provisions of Oxford (1258), which placed the government in the hands of a feudal oligarchy; they reduced expenditure, expelled the alien favourites from the kingdom, and insisted upon a final renunciation of the French claims. The king submitted for the moment, but at the first opportunity endeavoured to cancel his concessions. He obtained a papal absolution from his promises; and he tricked the opposition into accepting the arbitration of the French king, Louis IX., whose verdict was a foregone conclusion. But Henry was incapable of protecting with the strong hand the rights which he had recovered by his double-dealing. Ignominiously defeated by Montfort at Lewes (1264) he fell into the position of a cipher, equally despised by his opponents and supporters. He acquiesced in the earl's dictatorship; left to his eldest son, Edward, the difficult task of reorganizing the royal party; marched with the Montfortians to Evesham; and narrowly escaped sharing the fate of his gaoler. After Evesham he is hardly mentioned by the chroniclers. The compromise with the surviving rebels was arranged by his son in concert with Richard of Cornwall and the legate Ottobuono; the statute of Marlborough (1267), which purchased a lasting peace by judicious concessions, was similarly arranged between Edward and the earl of Gloucester. Edward was king in all but name for some years before the death of his father, by whom he was alternately suspected and adored.

Henry had in him some of the elements of a fine character. His mind was cultivated; he was a discriminating patron of literature, and Westminster Abbey is an abiding memorial of his artistic taste. His personal morality was irreproachable, except that he inherited the Plantagenet taste for crooked courses and dissimulation in political affairs; even in this respect the king's reputation has suffered unduly at the hands of Matthew Paris, whose literary skill is only equalled by his malice. The ambitions which Henry cherished, if extravagant, were never sordid; his patriotism, though seldom attested by practical measures, was thoroughly sincere. Some of his worst actions as a politician were due to a sincere, though exaggerated, gratitude for the support which the Papacy had given him during his minority. But he had neither the training nor the temper of a statesman. His dreams of autocracy at home and far-reaching dominion abroad were anachronisms in a century of constitutional ideas and national differentiation. Above all he earned the contempt of Englishmen and foreigners alike by the instability of his purpose. Matthew Paris said that he had a heart of wax; Dante relegated him to the limbo of ineffectual souls; and later generations have endorsed these scathing judgments.

Henry died at Westminster on the 16th of November 1272; his widow, Eleanor, took the veil in 1276 and died at Amesbury on the 25th of June 1291. Their children were: the future king Edward I.; Edmund, earl of Lancaster; Margaret (1240-1275), the wife of Alexander III., king of Scotland; Beatrice; and Katherine.

ORIGINAL AUTHORITIES.--Roger of Wendover, _Flores historiarum_ (ed. H.
O. Coxe, 4 vols., 1841-1844); and Matthew of Paris, _Chronica majora_
(ed. H. R. Luard, Rolls Series, 7 vols., 1872-1883) are the chief
narrative sources. See also the _Annales monastici_ (ed. H. R. Luard,
Rolls Series, 5 vols., 1864-1869); the collection of _Royal and other
Historical Letters_ edited by W. Shirley (Rolls Series, 2 vols.,
1862-1866); the Close and Patent Rolls edited for the Record
Commission and the Master of the Rolls; the _Epistolae Roberti
Grosseteste_ (ed. H. R. Luard, Rolls Series, 1861); the _Monumenta
Franciscana_, vol. i. (ed. J. S. Brewer, Rolls Series, 1858); the
documents in the new _Foedera_, vol. i. (Record Commission, 1816).

MODERN WORKS.--G. J. Turner's article on the king's minority in
_Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, New Series_, vol.
xviii.; Dom Gasquet's _Henry III. and the Church_ (1905); the lives of
Simon de Montfort by G. W. Prothero (1871), R. Pauli (Eng. ed., 1876)
and C. Bemont (Paris, 1884); W. Stubbs's _Constitutional History of
England_, vol. ii. (1887); R. Pauli's _Geschichte von England_, vol.
iii. (Hamburg, 1853); T. F. Tout in the _Political History of
England_, vol. iii. (1905), and H. W. C. Davis in _England under the
Normans and Angevins_ (1905). (H. W. C. D.)

HENRY IV. (1367-1413), king of England, son of John of Gaunt, by Blanche, daughter of Henry, duke of Lancaster, was born on the 3rd of April 1367, at Bolingbroke in Lincolnshire. As early as 1377 he is styled earl of Derby, and in 1380 he married Mary de Bohun (d. 1394) one of the co-heiresses of the last earl of Hereford. In 1387 he supported his uncle Thomas, duke of Gloucester, in his armed opposition to Richard II. and his favourites. Afterwards, probably through his father's influence, he changed sides. He was already distinguished for his knightly prowess, and for some years devoted himself to adventure. He thought of going on the crusade to Barbary; but instead, in July 1390, went to serve with the Teutonic knights in Lithuania. He came home in the following spring, but next year went again to Prussia, whence he journeyed by way of Venice to Cyprus and Jerusalem. After his return to England he sided with his father and the king against Gloucester, and in 1397 was made duke of Hereford. In January 1398 he quarrelled with the duke of Norfolk, who charged him with treason. The dispute was to have been decided in the lists at Coventry in September; but at the last moment Richard intervened and banished them both.

When John of Gaunt died in February 1399 Richard, contrary to his promise, confiscated the estates of Lancaster. Henry then felt himself free, and made friends with the exiled Arundels. Early in July, whilst Richard was absent in Ireland, he landed at Ravenspur in Yorkshire. He was at once joined by the Percies; and Richard, abandoned by his friends, surrendered at Flint on the 19th of August. In the parliament, which assembled on the 30th of September, Richard was forced to abdicate. Henry then made his claim as coming by right line of blood from King Henry III., and through his right to recover the realm which was in point to be undone for default of governance and good law. Parliament formally accepted him, and thus Henry became king, "not so much by title of blood as by popular election" (Capgrave). The new dynasty had consequently a constitutional basis. With this Henry's own political sympathies well accorded. But though the revolution of 1399 was popular in form, its success was due to an oligarchical faction. From the start Henry was embarrassed by the power and pretensions of the Percies. Nor was his hereditary title so good as that of the Mortimers. To domestic troubles was added the complication of disputes with Scotland and France. The first danger came from the friends of Richard, who plotted prematurely, and were crushed in January 1400. During the summer of 1400 Henry made a not over-successful expedition to Scotland. The French court would not accept his overtures, and it was only in the summer of 1401 that a truce was patched up by the restoration of Richard's child-queen, Isabella of Valois. Meantime a more serious trouble had arisen through the outbreak of the Welsh revolt under Owen Glendower (q.v.). In 1400 and again in each of the two following autumns Henry invaded Wales in vain. The success of the Percies over the Scots at Homildon Hill (Sept. 1402) was no advantage. Henry Percy (Hotspur) and his father, the earl of Northumberland, thought their services ill-requited, and finally made common cause with the partisans of Mortimer and the Welsh. The plot was frustrated by Hotspur's defeat at Shrewsbury (21st of July 1403); and Northumberland for the time submitted. Henry had, however, no one on whom he could rely outside his own family, except Archbishop Arundel. The Welsh were unsubdued; the French were plundering the southern coast; Northumberland was fomenting trouble in the north. The crisis came in 1405. A plot to carry off the young Mortimers was defeated; but Mowbray, the earl marshal, who had been privy to it, raised a rebellion in the north supported by Archbishop Scrope of York. Mowbray and Scrope were taken and beheaded; Northumberland escaped into Scotland. For the execution of the archbishop Henry was personally responsible, and he could never free himself from its odium. Popular belief regarded his subsequent illness as a judgment for his impiety. Apart from ill-health and unpopularity Henry had succeeded--relations with Scotland were secured by the capture of James, the heir to the crown; Northumberland was at last crushed at Bramham Moor (Feb. 1408); and a little later the Welsh revolt was mastered.

Henry, stricken with sore disease, was unable to reap the advantage. His necessities had all along enabled the Commons to extort concessions in parliament, until in 1406 he was forced to nominate a council and govern by its advice. However, with Archbishop Arundel as his chancellor, Henry still controlled the government. But in January 1410 Arundel had to give way to the king's half-brother, Thomas Beaufort. Beaufort and his brother Henry, bishop of Winchester, were opposed to Arundel and supported by the prince of Wales. For two years the real government rested with the prince and the council. Under the prince's influence the English intervened in France in 1411 on the side of Burgundy. In this, and in some matters of home politics, the king disagreed with his ministers. There is good reason to suppose that the Beauforts had gone so far as to contemplate a forced abdication on the score of the king's ill-health. However, in November 1411 Henry showed that he was still capable of vigorous action by discharging the prince and his supporters. Arundel again became chancellor, and the king's second son, Thomas, took his brother's place. The change was further marked by the sending of an expedition to France in support of Orleans. But Henry's health was failing steadily. On the 20th of March 1413, whilst praying in Westminster Abbey he was seized with a fainting fit, and died that same evening in the Jerusalem Chamber. At the time he was believed to have been a leper, but as it would appear without sufficient reason.

As a young man Henry had been chivalrous and adventurous, and in politics anxious for good government and justice. As king the loss and failure of friends made him cautious, suspicious and cruel. The persecution of the Lollards, which began with the burning statute of 1401, may be accounted for by Henry's own orthodoxy, or by the influence of Archbishop Arundel, his one faithful friend. But that political Lollardry was strong is shown by the proposal in the parliament of 1410 for a wholesale confiscation of ecclesiastical property. Henry's faults may be excused by his difficulties. Throughout he was practical and steadfast, and he deserved credit for maintaining his principles as a constitutional ruler. So after all his troubles he founded his dynasty firmly, and passed on the crown to his son with a better title. He is buried under a fine tomb at Canterbury.

By Mary Bohun Henry had four sons: his successor Henry V., Thomas, duke of Clarence, John, duke of Bedford, and Humphrey, duke of Gloucester; and two daughters, Blanche, who married Louis III., elector palatine of the Rhine, and Philippa, who married Eric XIII., king of Sweden. Henry's second wife was Joan, or Joanna, (c. 1370-1437), daughter of Charles the Bad, king of Navarre, and widow of John IV. or V., duke of Brittany, who survived until July 1437. By her he had no children.

The chief contemporary authorities are the _Annales Henrici Quarti_
and T. Walsingham's _Historia Anglicana_ (Rolls Series), Adam of Usk's
_Chronicle_ and the various _Chronicles of London_. The life by John
Capgrave (_De illustribus Henricis_) is of little value. Some personal
matter is contained in _Wardrobe Accounts of Henry, Earl of Derby_
(Camden Soc.). For documents consult T. Rymer's _Foedera_; Sir N. H.
Nicolas, _Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy Council_; Sir H.
Ellis, _Original Letters illustrative of English History_ (London,
1825-1846); _Rolls of Parliament_; _Royal and Historical Letters,
Henry IV._ (Rolls Series) and the _Calendars of Patent Rolls_. Of
modern authorities the foremost is J. H. Wylie's minute and learned
_Hist. of England under Henry IV._ (4 vols., London, 1884-1898). See
also W. Stubbs, _Constitutional History_; Sir J. Ramsay, _Lancaster
and York_ (2 vols., Oxford, 1892), and C. W. C. Oman, _The Political
History of England_, vol. iv. (C. L. K.)

HENRY V. (1387-1422), king of England, son of Henry IV. by Mary de Bohun, was born at Monmouth, in August 1387. On his father's exile in 1398 Richard II. took the boy into his own charge, and treated him kindly. Next year the Lancastrian revolution forced Henry into precocious prominence as heir to the throne. From October 1400 the administration of Wales was conducted in his name; less than three years later he was in actual command of the English forces and fought against the Percies at Shrewsbury. The Welsh revolt absorbed his energies till 1408. Then through the king's ill-health he began to take a wider share in politics. From January 1410, helped by his uncles Henry and Thomas Beaufort, he had practical control of the government. Both in foreign and domestic policy he differed from the king, who in November 1411 discharged the prince from the council. The quarrel of father and son was political only, though it is probable that the Beauforts had discussed the abdication of Henry IV., and their opponents certainly endeavoured to defame the prince. It may be that to political enmity the tradition of Henry's riotous youth, immortalized by Shakespeare, is partly due. To that tradition Henry's strenuous life in war and politics is a sufficient general contradiction. The most famous incident, his quarrel with the chief-justice, has no contemporary authority and was first related by Sir Thomas Elyot in 1531. The story of Falstaff originated partly in Henry's early friendship for Oldcastle (q.v.). That friendship, and the prince's political opposition to Archbishop Arundel, perhaps encouraged Lollard hopes. If so, their disappointment may account for the statements of ecclesiastical writers, like Walsingham, that Henry on becoming king was changed suddenly into a new man.

Henry succeeded his father on the 20th of March 1413. With no past to embarrass him, and with no dangerous rivals, his practical experience had full scope. He had to deal with three main problems--the restoration of domestic peace, the healing of schism in the Church and the recovery of English prestige in Europe. Henry grasped them all together, and gradually built upon them a yet wider policy. From the first he made it clear that he would rule England as the head of a united nation, and that past differences were to be forgotten. Richard II. was honourably reinterred; the young Mortimer was taken into favour; the heirs of those who had suffered in the last reign were restored gradually to their titles and estates. With Oldcastle Henry used his personal influence in vain, and the gravest domestic danger was Lollard discontent. But the king's firmness nipped the movement in the bud (Jan. 1414), and made his own position as ruler secure. Save for the abortive Scrope and Cambridge plot in favour of Mortimer in July 1415, the rest of his reign was free from serious trouble at home. Henry could now turn his attention to foreign affairs. A writer of the next generation was the first to allege that Henry was encouraged by ecclesiastical statesmen to enter on the French war as a means of diverting attention from home troubles. For this story there is no foundation. The restoration of domestic peace was the king's first care, and until it was assured he could not embark on any wider enterprise abroad. Nor was that enterprise one of idle conquest. Old commercial disputes and the support which the French had lent to Glendower gave a sufficient excuse for war, whilst the disordered state of France afforded no security for peace. Henry may have regarded the assertion of his own claims as part of his kingly duty, but in any case a permanent settlement of the national quarrel was essential to the success of his world policy. The campaign of 1415, with its brilliant conclusion at Agincourt (October 25), was only the first step. Two years of patient preparation followed. The command of the sea was secured by driving the Genoese allies of the French out of the Channel. A successful diplomacy detached the emperor Sigismund from France, and by the Treaty of Canterbury paved the way to end the schism in the Church. So in 1417 the war was renewed on a larger scale. Lower Normandy was quickly conquered, Rouen cut off from Paris and besieged. The French were paralysed by the disputes of Burgundians and Armagnacs. Henry skilfully played them off one against the other, without relaxing his warlike energy. In January 1419 Rouen fell. By August the English were outside the walls of Paris. The intrigues of the French parties culminated in the assassination of John of Burgundy by the dauphin's partisans at Montereau (September 10, 1419). Philip, the new duke, and the French court threw themselves into Henry's arms. After six months' negotiation Henry was by the Treaty of Troyes recognized as heir and regent of France, and on the 2nd of June 1420 married Catherine, the king's daughter. He was now at the height of his power. His eventual success in France seemed certain. He shared with Sigismund the credit of having ended the Great Schism by obtaining the election of Pope Martin V. All the states of western Europe were being brought within the web of his diplomacy. The headship of Christendom was in his grasp, and schemes for a new crusade began to take shape. He actually sent an envoy to collect information in the East; but his plans were cut short by death. A visit to England in 1421 was interrupted by the defeat of Clarence at Bauge. The hardships of the longer winter siege of Meaux broke down his health, and he died at Bois de Vincennes on the 31st of August 1422.

Henry's last words were a wish that he might live to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. They are significant. His ideal was founded consciously on the models of Arthur and Godfrey as national king and leader of Christendom. So he is the typical medieval hero. For that very reason his schemes were doomed to end in disaster, since the time was come for a new departure. Yet he was not reactionary. His policy was constructive: a firm central government supported by parliament; church reform on conservative lines; commercial development; and the maintenance of national prestige. His aims in some respects anticipated those of his Tudor successors, but he would have accomplished them on medieval lines as a constitutional ruler. His success was due to the power of his personality. He could train able lieutenants, but at his death there was no one who could take his place as leader. War, diplomacy and civil administration were all dependent on his guidance. His dazzling achievements as a general have obscured his more sober qualities as a ruler, and even the sound strategy, with which he aimed to be master of the narrow seas. If he was not the founder of the English navy he was one of the first to realize its true importance. Henry had so high a sense of his own rights that he was merciless to disloyalty. But he was scrupulous of the rights of others, and it was his eager desire to further the cause of justice that impressed his French contemporaries. He has been charged with cruelty as a religious persecutor; but in fact he had as prince opposed the harsh policy of Archbishop Arundel, and as king sanctioned a more moderate course. Lollard executions during his reign had more often a political than a religious reason. To be just with sternness was in his eyes a duty. So in his warfare, though he kept strict discipline and allowed no wanton violence, he treated severely all who had in his opinion transgressed. In his personal conduct he was chaste, temperate and sincerely pious. He delighted in sport and all manly exercises. At the same time he was cultured, with a taste for literature, art and music. Henry lies buried in Westminster Abbey. His tomb was stripped of its splendid adornment during the Reformation. The shield, helmet and saddle, which formed part of the original funeral equipment, still hang above it.

Of original authorities the best on the English side is the _Gesta
Henrici Quinti_ (down to 1416), printed anonymously for the English
Historical Society, but probably written by Thomas Elmham, one of
Henry's chaplains. Two lives edited by Thomas Hearne under the names
of Elmham and Titus Livius Forojuliensis come from a common source;
the longer, which Hearne ascribed incorrectly to Elmham, is perhaps
the original work of Livius, who was an Italian in the service of
Humphrey of Gloucester, and wrote about 1440. Other authorities are
the Chronicles of Walsingham and Otterbourne, the _English Chronicle_
or _Brut_, and the various _London Chronicles_. On the French side the
most valuable are Chronicles of Monstrelet and St Remy (both
Burgundian) and the _Chronique du religieux de S. Denys_ (the official
view of the French court). For documents and modern authorities see
under HENRY IV. See also Sir N. H. Nicolas, _Hist. of the Battle of
Agincourt and the Expedition of 1415_ (London, 1833); C. L. Kingsford,
_Henry V., the Typical Medieval Hero_ (New York, 1901), where a fuller
bibliography will be found. (C. L. K.)

HENRY VI. (1421-1471), king of England, son of Henry V. and Catherine of Valois, was born at Windsor on the 6th of December 1421. He became king of England on the 1st of September 1422, and a few weeks later, on the death of his grandfather Charles VI., was proclaimed king of France also. Henry V. had directed that Richard Beauchamp, earl of Warwick (q.v.), should be his son's preceptor; Warwick took up his charge in 1428; he trained his pupil to be a good man and refined gentleman, but he could not teach him kingship. As early as 1423 the baby king was made to appear at public functions and take his place in parliament. He was knighted by his uncle Bedford at Leicester in May 1426, and on the 6th of November 1429 was crowned at Westminster. Early in the next year he was taken over to France, and after long delay crowned in Paris on the 16th of December 1431. His return to London on the 14th of February 1432 was celebrated with a great pageant devised by Lydgate.

During these early years Bedford ruled France wisely and at first with success, but he could not prevent the mischief which Humphrey of Gloucester (q.v.) caused both at home and abroad. Even in France the English lost ground steadily after the victory of Joan of Arc before Orleans in 1429. The climax came with the death of Bedford, and defection of Philip of Burgundy in 1435. This closed the first phase of Henry's reign. There followed fifteen years of vain struggle in France, and growing disorder at home. The determining factor in politics was the conduct of the war. Cardinal Beaufort, and after him Suffolk, sought by working for peace to secure at least Guienne and Normandy. Gloucester courted popularity by opposing them throughout; with him was Richard of York, who stood next in succession to the crown. Beaufort controlled the council, and it was under his guidance that the king began to take part in the government. Thus it was natural that as Henry grew to manhood he seconded heartily the peace policy. That policy was wise, but national pride made it unpopular and difficult. Henry himself had not the strength or knowledge to direct it, and was unfortunate in his advisers. The cardinal was old, his nephews John and Edmund Beaufort were incompetent, Suffolk, though a man of noble character, was tactless. Suffolk, however, achieved a great success by negotiating the marriage of Henry to Margaret of Anjou (q.v.) in 1445. Humphrey of Gloucester and Cardinal Beaufort both died early in 1447. Suffolk was now all-powerful in the favour of the king and queen. But his home administration was unpopular, whilst the incapacity of Edmund Beaufort ended in the loss of all Normandy and Guienne. Suffolk's fall in 1450 left Richard of York the foremost man in England. Henry's reign then entered on its last phase of dynastic struggle. Cade's rebellion suggested first that popular discontent might result in a change of rulers. But York, as heir to the throne, could abide his time. The situation was altered by the mental derangement of the king, and the birth of his son in 1453. York after a struggle secured the protectorship, and for the next year ruled England. Then Henry was restored to sanity, and the queen and Edmund Beaufort, now Duke of Somerset, to power. Open war followed, with the defeat and death of Somerset at St Albans on the 22nd of May 1455. Nevertheless a hollow peace was patched up, which continued during four years with lack of all governance. In 1459 war broke out again. On the 10th of July 1460 Henry was taken prisoner at Northampton, and forced to acknowledge York as heir, to the exclusion of his own son. Richard of York's death at Wakefield (Dec. 29, 1460), and the queen's victory at St Albans (Feb. 17, 1461), brought Henry his freedom and no more. Edward of York had himself proclaimed king, and by his decisive victory at Towton on the 29th of March, put an end to Henry's reign. For over three years Henry was a fugitive in Scotland. He returned to take part in an abortive rising in 1464. A year later he was captured in the north, and brought a prisoner to the Tower. For six months in 1470-1471 he emerged to hold a shadowy kingship as Warwick's puppet. Edward's final victory at Tewkesbury was followed by Henry's death on the 21st of May 1471, certainly by violence, perhaps at the hands of Richard of Gloucester.

Henry was the most hapless of monarchs. He was so honest and well-meaning that he might have made a good ruler in quiet times. But he was crushed by the burden of his inheritance. He had not the genius to find a way out of the French entanglement or the skill to steer a constitutional monarchy between rival factions. So the system and policy which were the creations of Henry IV. and Henry V. led under Henry VI. to the ruin of their dynasty. Henry's very virtues added to his difficulties. He was so trusting that any one could influence him, so faithful that he would not give up a minister who had become impossible. Thus even in the middle period he had no real control of the government. In his latter years he was mentally too weak for independent action. At his best he was a "good and gentle creature," but too kindly and generous to rule others. Religious observances and study were his chief occupations. His piety was genuine; simple and pure, he was shocked at any suggestion of impropriety, but his rebuke was only "Fie, for shame! forsooth ye are to blame." For education he was really zealous. Even as a boy he was concerned for the upbringing of his half-brothers, his mother's children by Owen Tudor. Later, the planning of his great foundations at Eton and King's College, Cambridge, was the one thing which absorbed his interest. To both he was more than a royal founder, and the credit of the whole scheme belongs to him. The charter for Eton was granted on the 11th of October 1440, and that for King's College in the following February. Henry himself laid the foundation-stones of both buildings. He frequently visited Cambridge to superintend the progress of the work. When at Windsor he loved to send for the boys from his school and give them good advice.

Henry's only son was Edward, prince of Wales (1453-1471), who, having shared the many journeys and varying fortunes of his mother, Margaret, was killed after the battle of Tewkesbury (May 4, 1471) by some noblemen in attendance on Edward IV.

There is a life of Henry by his chaplain John Blakman (printed at the
end of Hearne's edition of Otterbourne); but it is concerned only with
his piety and patience in adversity. English chronicles for the reign
are scanty; the best are the _Chronicles of London_ (ed. C. L.
Kingsford), with the analogous _Gregory's Chronicle_ (ed. J. Gairdner
for Camden Soc.) and _Chronicle of London_ (ed. Sir H. N. Nicolas).
_The Paston Letters_, with James Gairdner's valuable Introductions,
are indispensable. Other useful authorities are Joseph Stevenson's
_Letters and Papers illustrative of the Wars of the English in France
during the Reign of Henry VI._; and _Correspondence of T. Bekynton_
(both in "Rolls" series). For the French war the chief sources are the
_Chronicles_ of Monstrelet, D'Escouchy and T. Basin. For other
documents and modern authorities see under HENRY IV. For Henry's
foundations see Sir H. C. Maxwell-Lyte, _History of Eton College_
(London, 1899), and J. B. Mullinger, _History of the University of
Cambridge_ (London, 1888). (C. L. K.)