‘Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.’ The words are Shakespeare’s – the head in question belongs to the title character of Henry IV, Part 2, and the crown is the one plonked on it just over 625 years ago, on 13 October 1399.
Regarded as the first Lancastrian king, Henry Bolingbroke – Henry IV to be – was born around 3 April 1367, the eldest surviving son of John of Gaunt (fourth son of Edward III and effective ruler of England from around 1371) and his first wife, Blanche of Lancaster (daughter of Duke Henry of Lancaster). His surname came from Old Bolingbroke Castle, his Lincolnshire birthplace. As a grandson of Edward III, Henry was a cousin to Richard II, who had acceded in 1377 as a ten-year-old, at which point Henry became Earl of Derby. Richard had then faced down the 1381 Peasants’ Revolt when only 14. A year before this near-calamity, Henry married wealthy heiress Mary de Bohun, heir to the earldoms of Hereford, Essex, and Northampton.
Writing before in these pages about Henry (MHM 44, May 2014), I singled out his 1403 triumph at the Battle of Shrewsbury for particular focus. Although that standout victory can’t be ignored, I shall look in more detail this time at the earlier campaign that led to his successful usurpation of the throne in 1399.
