Henry IV's Usurpation

One of the nobles Richard unwisely put in the latter category was his cousin, Henry of Bolingbroke. In 1397 Richard moved against a group of powerful nobles who had several years earlier forced him to banish or execute certain favourites. His uncle, the Duke of Gloucester was murdered, the Earl of Arundel was executed, the Earl of Warwick, the Duke of Norfolk and the Archbishop of Canterbury were attainted and exiled for life. Bolingbroke was exiled for ten years.

As the eldest son of John of Gaunt, Bolingbroke was heir to the enormously wealthy Lancastrian estates. Henry went to France, but prior to his leaving, Richard declared publicly that Bolingbroke would succeed to all Gaunt's titles and estates. Richard made a grave mistake after Gaunt's death in 1399, when he increased Bolingbroke's period of exile to life and seized his estates for himself.

This was too much for Bolingbroke. He broke his exile and returned to England to claim back his inheritance. As he marched on London he gathered enormous support from both nobles and commons. Richard was unable to gather enough adherents to his side and he was captured. A committee of Lords and commons forced Richard to abdicate and Bolingbroke was declared King Henry IV.

This usurpation laid the foundations for the power struggle that would ensue fifty years later. After Richard's line failed (he died childless several months after his deposition, probably murdered) the throne should have gone to the heirs of Edward III's second son. This claim now lived in Roger Mortimer, Earl of March (see family tree ), who was only a child at the time. Henry declared he had a better claim, as March was descended from a female, but there was no law in England barring a woman from succeeding or transmitting a claim to the throne.

Despite spending a great deal of his reign defending his title to the throne, when he died in 1413, Henry's son, Henry V succeeded unchallenged to the throne. It seemed the House of Lancaster was secure.


Background	Henry V