The Plantagenets: England's Greatest Dynasty Part Three: The Rise of Lancaster Documentary

foreign The Man known to history as Richard II was born on the 3rd of January 1367 at the archbishops palace in the western French city of Bordeaux in the English province of Aquitaine his father was Edward Prince of Wales the eldest son and Heir designate of king Edward III of England the prince is more commonly known by his appellation of the black prince a name he most likely acquired from the color of the armor he often wore Edward had distinguished himself in fighting for his father's cause in France since he was a teenager and in some of the most significant battles of the early stages of the Hundred Years War which Edward III had initiated in 1337 to press his claim to the throne of France in recognition of his actions in France Edward III had made his namesake and designated Heir the prince of Aquitaine and gascony the corps of England's French territories in 1362. it was a result of the Black Prince's long stretches there that Richard was born in Western France as a result of his place of birth Earth he would subsequently be known as Richard of Bordeaux until he later became King Richard II Richard of bordeaux's mother was Joan the Countess of Kent she was the daughter of Edmund of Woodstock the first Earl of Kent and was herself the great granddaughter of king Edward the first Edward III's grandfather consequently the black prince whom she married in 1361 as her third husband was her cousin Joan was the older of the pair at 35 years of age but the union quickly produced two sons Edward who was born at angulam in the summer of 1364 and Richard who arrived two and a half years later Richard was born into a world and a family which was engaged in an enormous conflict spanning much of Western Europe in 1337 his grandfather King Edward III King of England ruler of Wales and Lord of significant parts of northern and western France began pressing his claim to the throne of France over that of King Philip VI of the House of valois who had been King of France since 1328. Edward's claim led to the outbreak of the conflict which historians have termed the Hundred Years War a conflict between the plantagenet Kings of England and the valuar kings of France for control of France though the conflict went through periods of intense activity and relative peace across the 116 years of conflict which actually occurred in part this was driven by Edward III already having significant possessions in France where he ruled over Aquitaine and gascony in the western parts of the country and other districts in the north such as the pale of Calais finally the plantagenet Dominion stretched further to the west across the Irish sea where an English lordship had been carved out and the Eastern and Southern parts of the country during the late 12th 13th and early 14th centuries this Irish inheritance was often neglected but would have a substantial significance for Richard's later reign surprisingly little is known about Richard's earliest years and the details of how he was educated and raised during his infancy and early childhood years are largely a mystery although we do know that Sir Simon De Burley a friend of the black prince tutored Richard for some time if this period in Richard's life is somewhat shadowy it is because the chroniclers of the time were understandably more concerned with examining the tortuous politics of these years and their implications for the Future King the first such development occurred in the winter of 1370 when Richard was still shy of his fourth birthday at this time his older brother Edward was struck by the Bubonic plague The Vicious disease which had arrived to Europe earlier in the century carried on fleas on the backs of Asiatic Rats the Black Death as the initial outbreak in the mid-14th century has has become known had quickly killed as much as one-third of Europe's people now the Young Prince the second in line to the throne after his father was carried away by it at some unknown date in late 1370 or possibly in January 1371 and this now meant that young Richard was his father's Heir and second in line to the throne at a time when the ruling Monarch Edward III was nearing his 60s and was showing signs of rapidly deteriorating Health himself to compound the succession problems further Richard's father the black prince was himself in poor health by the early 1370s despite his military prowess Prince Edward had been sick for some time this had begun during a military campaign into Spain in 1365 and 1366 just before Richard's birth many of Edward's troops had died of dysentery during the campaign and the prince fell seriously ill himself at the time many suspected that he had been poisoned whatever the truth of his malady he never fully recovered from it as a result the death of the younger Edward in 1370 placed Richard closer to the throne than it might otherwise have then in June 1376 the black prince finally succumbed to his illness steps were quickly taken to anoint Richard as the new Prince of Wales and the designated successor of Edward III and Parliament quickly ratified this as there was a fear which was probably unfounded that Richard's Uncle John of gaunt would move to usurp the throne if Edward III died while Richard was still so young as a consequence the so-called good parliament of 1376 formerly accepted Richard as Edward's successor so that when the Old King died on the 21st of June 1377 ten-year-old Richard succeeded him a minority government would now be needed Richard could not rule in his own right as a 10 year old and it would be several years before he could begin to exercise the kingship in a meaningful way consequently a council of courtiers and officials was now formed to effectively rule England and the other territories of the realm during Richard's minority but this minority government was somewhat toothless as a decision was made to try to limit the power of the king's uncles a decision which fragmented the government of the realm three of Richard's uncles had survived their father of these John of gaunt was the most significant he was born in the low countries in 1340 and his name was derived from a Corruption of the word gent the town where he was born he was the oldest of Edward III's surviving Sons when Richard ascended to the throne in 1377 and as such he had a claim to seniority within the royal family during his nephew's minority moreover he had campaigned extensively on the continent during the course of the Hundred Years War both in France and Spain and as such was wholly familiar with military Affairs and the tortuous politics of Western Europe in the late 14th century Beyond John Edward III's fifth son Thomas of Woodstock Earl of Buckingham and future Duke of Gloucester would also play an important role in future events Richard was crowned at Westminster Abbey on the 16th of July 1377. there were great hopes for the new king while Edward III had been one of England's greatest Kings and had reaffirmed the English presence in France the last years of his long Reign had seen a number of problems emerge in the realm and resentment building at large taxes and the domination of the Court by a faction surrounding the late King's mistress Alice Perez consequently the accession of Richard was greeted as a possibility for a fresh start in England but these hopes were soon dashed the heavy taxes which Edward III's administration had been forced to impose in England to pay for the war in France continued in the shape of the poll tax attacks of four Pence per person although it was originally charged in 1377 on only a select group people in England who could afford it additionally two members of the king's Council Sir Simon De Burley and Robert De Vere 9th Earl of Oxford began to monopolize power into their own hands and clashed with parliament in such a way that by 1380 the minority councils were largely discontinued all of this ensured that by the time Richard was entering his teenage years in 1380 and 1381 his regime was already increasingly unpopular even as Richard began to rule as king himself most troubling of all in the late 1370s and early 1380s was that the war effort was faring very badly it was one thing for England's nobility and wider political Community to be heavily taxed at home but it was doubly troubling to see that those same taxes were enabling nothing but defeat on the continent between 1377 and 1380 English arms suffered several defeats against French forces led by the Breton Knight and the Constable of France Bertrand against Clan by the time to guess Claire and King Charles V of France both died in 1380 the French had prized back most of the lands which Edward III had gained in the country under the terms of the Treaty of bretinyi in 1360 and the English presence was largely confined to Calais and some other Port Towns then the decision by the French government in Paris to try to tie the duchia Brittany to the French Crown in 1380 created an opportunity for the English to realign themselves with the duchy but even this ended in defeat Richard's Uncle Thomas of Woodstock LED an army to France in 1380 to try to take advantage of the State of Affairs but in the months that followed the government of Charles VI the new French King and himself a child like Richard reconciled with the britos and Thomas consequently found himself stranded in Northwest France with an army that was taking heavy casualties the only saving grace was that the king's uncle was able to secure a payment of 50 000 francs from the brittle in order to abandon his campaign nevertheless the war effort looked Grim during Richard's first years given all these problems it is unsurprising that Richard's early Reign is noteworthy for two major instances of civil social and religious unrest in England the first of these concerned the teachings of the Theologian and philosopher John Wycliffe and the following he acquired in the late 1370s and early 1380s Wycliffe was born at some stage in the 1320s and had attended the University of Oxford in the 1350s before subsequently acquiring a teaching position there and eventually becoming master of balio college thereafter he acquired several positions within the church while also continuing his teaching work periodically by the last years of the reign of king Edward III he was engaged in a project to translate the Bible into English from Latin and by the time Richard ascended to the throne in 1377 key he had become a figure of some controversy as he began to call for a striking series of reforms to be initiated in the English church these foreshadowed much of the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century in calling for a removal of ostentation from churches a closer reading of scripture in the vernacular languages and awareness of residual elements of pagan Superstition in popular religious practice more significantly he questioned many aspects of church belief including the power of the papacy in Rome the relative doctrinal Merit of some of the sacraments and the veneration of the Saints Wycliffe really began to become a problem from a political perspective in England in the first months of Richard's reign at that time he published desively dominio or on civil Dominion a work which called for a separation of church and state and which rebuked the power of the papacy in Rome earning Wycliffe his first official condemnation from Pope Gregory the 11th in contrast to the vast riches and power of the Roman Catholic Church Wycliffe argued that the church should renounce its wealth and Priests should live in poverty thereafter he clashed repeatedly with the church authorities in England and intensified his attacks on the pope his doctrinal discussion expanded at this time and by the end of the 1370s Wycliffe was questioning the concept of transubstantiation the idea that Christ is present in the Eucharist and it was not simply that he he was a lone Voice by the early 1380s Wycliffe had amassed a large following of priests and lay people who believed in his ideas some within the ranks of government and the court today these are known as the lollards though the term was a pejorative one which was applied by opponents of wycliffe's teachings in subsequent times as a result of all of this Wycliffe began to lose the support of many within the church and government notably over his rejection of transubstantiation by the early 1380s England was experiencing considerable unrest owing to wycliffe's teachings and the response of the church and Richard's government to them one of the major issues here was the manner in which wycliffe's teachings essentially argued for a society divested of its traditional hierarchies of state and church and it was no simple matter to silence him by 1382 he had amassed a very considerable contingent of followers within government circles and the English Parliament and Oxford had become the intellectual center of the lollard movement in England where the movement may have gone in future years had he lived longer is a matter of some interest but Wycliffe was not long for the world on the 28th of December 1384 he suffered a major stroke and died three days later the movement which he had spawned though can't continue to be a considerable one within England for the remainder of Richard's reign efforts to suppress the lollards were accordingly being implemented occasionally during the 1380s and 1390s and indeed well into the 15th century anti-wycliffe legislation was still being introduced into England in time wycliffe's teaching influenced the church Reform movement on the continent and was a very significant precursor to the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century wycliffe's movement also played a part in causing the other major social and political crisis of the early part of Richard's reign the demographic and economic changes which had been caused by the Black Death and the 1340s and 1350s had led to long-lasting tensions between land holders in England and the peasantry this was exacerbated by wycliffe's teachings which appealed to the lower orders and the poor then in 1381 the poll tax which had previously been imposed only on the more well-off in England was expanded to be collected from all adults even the poor a move which led to widespread unrest and then Rebellion The Peasants revolts of 1381 started in Kent and Essex in the early summer when large bands of armed peasants gathered at Blackheath near London they were led by what Tyler John Ball and Jack straw Tyler being a Tradesman who had led a contingent of the disaffected from Canterbury towards London and ball being a radical preacher who had been imprisoned and who mirrored the egalitarianism of wycliffe's preaching albeit while not being an acknowledged follower of wycliffe's in the days that followed their congregation at Blackheath The Peasant Army murdered the Archbishop of Canterbury Simon Sudbury and the Lord High treasurer of England Robert Hales as well as burning down John of gaunts Savoy Palace a major crisis now ensued across Southern England Richard's government had been caught off guard by the sudden advance of the peasant Army under Tyler and ball towards London the King was quickly moved to the Tower of London the central military Fortress in late medieval London here the government convened around the 14-year-old King and deliberated on negotiating with the rebels but this seemed impossible their demands were utopian for the time and extended as far as the complete abolition of serfdom as well as an abandonment of the poll tax and reform of the church by now the rebels were effectively swarming around London and there was little option but for Richard and his counselors to meet with Tyler and his sub-leaders meetings occurred at Mile End and Smithfield outside London on the 14th and 15th of June but the second meeting broke into a conference Temptation when Tyler refused to show adequate deference in front of the king a melee broke out and in the ensuing fighting Tyler was killed by William Walworth the Lord mayor of London thereafter Richard granted clemency to the Rebels on condition that they would disperse a promise which was later revoked with the Rebellion having lost its Drive the King was consequently able to mop up the last elements of unrest in Essex by the end of June 1381. The Peasants Revolt of 1381 was a watershed moment in Richard's reign prior to this we know little about the king himself on either his education his childhood or his role however small it might have been in ruling England between 1377 and 1381. however we first begin to see him at the center of events in the Chronicles and histories of the time during the summer of 1381 as he met with Tyler and his associates and campaigned actively in the field much of this information for Richard's reign comes from the works of Thomas Walsingham a contemporary of these events who was probably born in the mid-14th century he subsequently became a Benedictine Monk and spent much of his life at the monastery of Saint Albans Abbey in Hertfordshire here he was in charge of the scriptorium and is believed to have been the author of several key histories of the period including the chronica Majora which details much of the earlier part of Richard's reign during his minority and the Historia anglicana which provided a history of England between 1272 and 1422 the year of walsingham's own death other important sources of information on Richard's reign include the chronicles of Jean Fraser a contemporary Observer of events from France and the anonymously authored dulakra Chronicle which presents extensive details about Richard's later life from these authors we get a relatively coherent picture of the king who began to emerge from boyhood in the 1380s almost all contemporaries even the Chronicles who were generally opposed to Richard's rule unanimously agreed that Richard was a handsome Monarch standing just over six foot tall and with an athletic build the Wilton diptych a panel painting from the 1390s depicts him with reddish hair and he is known to have sported a beard he was well read and keenly intelligent while his religious views were conservative and he became implacably opposed to the lollards later in his Reign but there were other aspects of his personality which were more problematic as he became older Richard became increasingly autocratic with a tendency towards being an absolutist Monarch long before absolutist monarchy emerged as a failing political Orthodoxy amongst Europe's royal families in the 16th and 17th centuries and there were also psychological issues Richard could behave strangely in his adult years to the extent that earlier biographers have suggested he may have suffered from schizophrenia while one of the most in-depth recent studies of his rule concluded that Richard was possessed of what today would be termed a narcissistic personality disorder the ill effects of these personality defects would however not begin to manifest themselves for some time to come back in the early 1380s in the aftermath of the peasants Revolt there were pressing issues the nation was in a poor State there was little denying that the war in France had seen many defeats in recent years the common people of the country were extremely disaffected owing to high taxation and there was religious heresy proliferating throughout the country these issues would take time to amend but one thing which could be dealt with more easily was the issue of Richard's marriage by 1381 he was 14 and a wife was being actively sought for the young king so that he could begin citing heirs to continue the Royal Line the match that was eventually negotiated was with Anne of bohemia the eldest daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor and ruler of Luxembourg and Bohemia Charles IV Charles was arguably the most powerful ruler in Europe at the time and the manage Alliance was formed on the basis that he would Ally with England against the French in the years to come this latter belief though proved unfounded and Charles offered little effective support to Richard on the battlefield in the 1380s and into the 1390s Richards managed to an proved problematic in more ways than one Not only was her father unforthcoming in providing military assistance to England in the years that followed but the union did not result in children although Richard and Anne were seemingly very committed to one another thus as the years went by the king's lack of a male Heir would become a major political issue in England the matter of the king's marriage and lack of children also fed into increasing discontent about the influence of a handful of close advisors of the young king who were deemed to have too much influence over the governing of the realm Chief amongst these was Michael De La pole de la pole was a member of an English Merchant family which had risen to power during the reign of Edward III by acting as the king's Chief financier Sir William de la Poe Michael's father had been made the chief Baron of the English exchequer and under Edward and now Richard continued this preference for the family by appointing Michael as Lord Chancellor of England in 1383. two years later he ennobled him as the first Earl of Suffolk but de la pole had been Central to negotiating the marriage alliance with Charles IV and as the alliance soured in the years ahead de la poll increasingly became a lightning rod for discontent within Richard's realms resentment at figures such as de la pole and his influence increasingly coalesced in the mid-1380s around the issue of the war with France on one side were Richard and his close advisors such as de la pole and the Earl of Oxford Robert De Vere who were aware of the need for Financial stringency in order to avoid a repeat of the peasants Revolt as well as the need for heavy taxes as there could be no sustained large-scale campaign on the continent without them on the opposite side was a court faction increasingly led by the king's uncle's John of gaunt and Thomas of Woodstock this loose Coalition supported the resumption of large-scale campaigning in France to reinvigorate the war there to how it had been during the Glory Days of Edward III and the 1340s and 1350s but they were to be disappointed in 1385 when a French army landed an Allied Scotland and raids were carried out against Northern England Richard did lead an army into Scotland accompanied by John of gaunt but having reached Edinburgh without engaging the Scots in any meaningful fashion Richard elected to return home against John's pleas to continue the campaign further north to Fife no sooner were they all back in England than joint Franco Scottish raiding parties were attacking South as far as Durham and Carlisle in northern England these were inauspicious developments where Edward III had once threatened Paris the French were now operating on English soil 1386 brought a fresh round of Crisis for Richard and his government a deep split had now opened between Richard's advisors and others such as gaunt and Buckingham rumors were even circulating that gaunt would be murdered this was partly responsible for Jon's decision shortly after the Scottish campaign to head for Spain to try and enforce his claim to the throne of the kingdom of Castile there which he had inherited through his marriage to Constance of Castile he would not return to England for over three years in the interim his brother Richard's other Uncle Thomas of Woodstock became the leader of the discontented element in England these were now increasingly opposed to Dulla pole and his running of the government's finances and the handling of the war most notably because it was widely believed that the only reason the French had not invaded Southern England that year was owing to Charles VI being distracted by a Revolt in the low countries which drew his forces there instead as a result when the so-called wonderful parliament convened in the Autumn of 1386 and de la poll made requests for an extensive new taxes the parliament responded by demanding reform of the government and greater oversight of the Crown's finances in return for agreeing new taxes the stage was set for a showdown Richard's initial reaction to this call for additional parliamentary oversight of his administration and its finances in particular was reactionary at first he claimed there was no possibility of him entertaining parliament in this fashion but when it became clear that the necessary taxes would not be granted to maintain the defense of the Kingdom if he did not comply he reluctantly agreed to allow the establishment of a limited parliamentary commission which could monitor Royal expenses and spending for one year then he began planning his real response in February 1387 he left London for a long Countrywide tour designed to build support for a future confrontation with Parliament for instance he installed one of his closest advisors the Earl of Oxford Robert De Vere as overseer of the powerful Palatine country of Chester and he obtained a legal rule from the Chief Justice of King's bench Sir Robert tressilian that the wonderful parliament's actions had been at least a breach of the law and quite possibly treasonous others such as the mayor of London Nicholas brombora and ecclesiastical figures such as the Archbishop of York Alexander Neville were also prepared for the coming confrontation Richard finally returned to London in November 1387 after an eight-month absence but his return did not go according to plan no sooner had he reached the capital than the heads of the opposition within the government and Parliament confronted him these were led by Thomas of Woodstock who by this time had been elevated to the title of Duke of Gloucester but the party went further than expected and presented claims of treason against a number of Richard's closest supporters specifically de la pole de via amtrasilian then although Richard attempted to stall for time his position was made impossible when Gloucester was joined by several other peers known to posterity as the Lord's appellant Chief amongst whom was the Earl of Derby Henry bowling broke bowling broke was John of gaunt's eldest son and had stepped into the World created by his father's Department culture for Spain when he combined with Gloucester Richard's uncle in late 1387 it presented two unified and opposition for the king to ignore them in the weeks that followed devere and de la pole were forced to flee from England and in the new merciless parliament of 1388 they were sentenced to death in absentia while dressilian and several of Richard's other supporters were tried and executed in the months that followed thus by 1388 the king had been severely humbled by a faction of his own family members and Senior Nobles who now exercised great control over the country eventually the Ferrari from the crisis of the wonderful parliament of the Lord's appellant would Abate and Richard was able to re-establish his power as king as he entered his adult years this quick about face was in large part because the Lord's appellant were unable to follow through on the ambitious plans for the war which their party had been advocating for in one shape or another for much of the 1380s having removed de la pole and others from the Helm of State Gloucester bowling broke and their allies found themselves confronted with exactly the same problem that the Fallen Lord Chancellor had faced there simply was not anywhere near enough money available to the English crown to conduct a large-scale military Expedition into France as a consequence the government agreed in the Autumn of 1388 to reopen peace talks with the French and for their part the French were willing to countenance the same as their own young King Charles VI was showing signs of a severe mental illness and psychotic episodes which would plague his long 42-year rule consequently a truce was signed in July 1389 promising an end to hostilities for three years and concluding the hostilities which had been occurring on the Iberian Peninsula for decades as an extension of the war with a temporary cessation of the Hundred Years War entered into the cause of much of the tension between Richard and his nobles was removed for the time being and there were other developments at this time which allowed for the king and the Lord's appellant to make a clear break with the past on the 3rd of May 1389 for instance Richard who was now 22 years of age assumed full control of the government following his minority and he used the occasion to make it clear to the political nation that he considered that the conflicts of the past were due to his having been poorly advised by de la pole De Vere and others Richard almost certainly did not believe this but the pretense that he did allowed for political reconciliation in England at roughly the same time John of gaunt returned to England after his three years in ex Exile in Spain and France for all that he has been presented as an over Mighty Lord who wished to usurp Richard in the past John would act as a stabilizing influence in England in the years that followed Bridging the Gap between the more radical elements within the Lord's appellant and Richard himself his return combined with these other changes effectively ushered in a period of unprecedented stability during Richard's reign in the years that followed the early and mid 1390s were the honeymoon period of Richard's reign when some level of calm existed within England's own politics and the country's Foreign Relations were also inherently stable it consequently allowed for the flourishing of late medieval English culture it was between the late 1380s and 1400 that Jeffrey Chaucer an individual who had sat in the wonderful parliament in 1386 and who was subsequently appointed as Clark of the king's work in 1389 composed the Canterbury Tales widely regarded as a foundational text in the formation of Modern English literature Richard as well as John of gaunt continued to patronize Chaucer throughout the 1390s and elsewhere Richard patronized numerous artists and writers a notable example of this artistic work which still survives today is the Wilton diptych a two-hinged religious panel painting which is housed today in the National Gallery in London it depicts Richard kneeling before the Virgin and child while three English Saints stand over him the diptych is a striking example of late Gothic style on the cusp of the Renaissance and from an architectural perspective Richard was also active in the 1390s commissioning the Master Mason Walter Walton to add extensive and elaborate new Royal Apartments onto potchester Castle in Hampshire in the latter years of his reign as much as the 1390s ushered in a period of relative stability during Richard's reign the prospect of children with his first wife Anne of bohemia was ended in June 1394 when Anne died quite suddenly the cause was most likely the same Bubonic plague which had carried off Richard's older brother more than 20 years earlier although the most catastrophic outbreak of the disease in the 1340s and 1350s was not repeated in later years periodic outbreaks of the plague continued across Europe for decades and even centuries to come Anne now fell foul of one such incidents in the summer of 1394 and Richard was devastated theirs had been a relationship of genuine affection so grief stricken was the king that he ordered the demolition of Sheen Manor in sari the place where she had died and this possibly had Graver consequences still for the rain and the realm historians have long speculated that Anne as one of her husband's principal counselors had a moderating impact on Richard and that her death in the summer of 1394 ushered in a new period of Reckless and autocratic behavior on the king's part if this is so her demise must be seen as a major factor in the deterioration of Richard's rule in the years that followed for the time being Richard simply sought to distract himself just weeks after his wife's death he became the first English king in nearly 200 years to visit Ireland contingents of Canberra Norman Knights had first conquered much of Ireland for the English crown in the late 12th century but the conquest had never been completed with the Irish Lords retaining control of large parts of West Ulster connect and parts of Munster and lindster no English king had visited the country since King John in 1210 and the Advent of the Hundred Years War in France had seen the English lordship in Ireland starved of resources as a result during the 14th century the Irish or Gaelic Lords were resurgent expanding westwards themselves to reconquer parts of the country which had been under English rule notably East Ulster where an earldom of Ulster had been created but which was now restored to the rule of a branch of the O'Neills and other noble families there all of the early indicators of Richard's reign had suggested that he had little interest in his Irish lordship and in fact viewed the country solely as a political Wilderness to which he could Exile his enemies at home but now in 1394 he elected to undertake the first Royal expedition to the country in over 170 years the this Irish surgeon would have interesting results Richard landed near Waterford with an army of over 7 000 men in October 1394. he then campaigned primarily in linster and Eastern Munster throughout the late Autumn winter and spring of 1395 principally against Art mcmurda of Southern Leinster who had recently tried to re-initiate a claim to the Irish High kingship which had been dormant for several centuries but this military activity was limited in range and effect the real success of Richard's campaign lay in a series of treaties which he negotiated with some of the principal Irish Lords such as the great O'Neill of Tyrone and Ulster and the O'Briens of tomund in the Far West these were effectively treaties whereby he attempted to recognize these Irish Lords as English subjects if they promised to pay homage to him as Lord of Ireland political arranged such as this would be tried decades later by the Tudors as part of their ultimately successful efforts to conquer Ireland but it is noteworthy that Richard was employing this method much earlier in the late 14th century this served to stabilize the political and Military situation in Ireland somewhat in the mid-1390s and with that done Richard returned to England in May 1395 but it was not the last time he would set foot in Ireland and the second visit would have greater political ramifications back at home the major concern was with Richard's marital status and of course France England needed time to restore its ability to pay for the wars on the continent and France had to deal with a bitter Civil War which was beginning over the issue of Charles VI increasing bouts of mental illness it seemed in 1395 that the two issues could be confronted simultaneously a proposal had been put forward in 1393 to bring a more lasting conclusion to the Hundred Years War if the French agreed to acknowledge Richard as the ruler of Aquitaine in Western France and also enlarge the size of that territory in return for Richard paying homage to Charles VI as his liege Lord as king of France but this latter stipulation with its inference that the king of England was in some way a subject to the king of France was politically unacceptable for the English government accordingly new negotiations were entered into in the mid-1390s whereby if the war could not be ended it could at least be postponed for a very long time and in such a way that both monarchs could save face by late 1395 the basis of a 28-year truce had been worked out and the possibility of a sustained period of Peace was on the horizon as part of the proposed piece it had been decided that Richard would also marry Isabella of valois the daughter of King Charles VI and Isabel of Bavaria there was just one problem with this Isabella was only six years of age while Richard was nearing his 30th year even by the standards of the time Isabella's age and the idea that she would be sent to live in a foreign land while still just a child was viewed as being problematic and was discussed during the negotiations for their part many on the English side were conscious that the marriage would not be consummated for many years and Isabella would not produce any children and consequently an heir for Richard for the better part of a decade at least but in the end the prospect of establishing a lasting peace between France and England after half a century of near continuous Warfare won out Richard visited Paris in the Autumn of 1396 to celebrate the Union at the French Court there and days later after returning to the English Enclave at Calais the wedding ceremony was performed on the 31st of October the pair returned to England then where Isabella was crowned as Queen the following year and was established with her own household and governess at Windsor Castle thus the unusual marriage had resulted in a temporary cessation to hostilities in the Hundred Years War but the issue of the succession to Richard was left precariously unsettled the establishment of a more sustained peace with France in 1396 has often been viewed as having instilled a new determination in Richard to consolidate his power at home and seek revenge on many of those who had tried to overrule him a decade earlier if this was the case he had been harboring a grudge against figures such as his uncle Thomas of Woodstock for eight years and he was now determined to act on it beginning in early 1397 Richard became a far more forceful and autocratic ruler than he had been during the early and mid-1390s accordingly he developed a new faction of close followers much like that which had centered on de la pole and avir in the 1380s this new kotery of adherence included individuals like John and Thomas Holland whom he honored by promoting them to the titles of of Exeter and Duke of Surrey and Richard's first cousin Edward of York another grandson of Edward III these and others were showered with new lands titles and political officers in 1397 and 1398. additionally he began building up a new power base in Western England and Wales to act as a counterbalance to the financial power of London and its Hinterland simultaneous with this advancement of his own followers Richard moved against his enemies on the 11th of July 1397 Thomas of Woodstock first Duke of Gloucester and several others who had acted with him in 1386 and 1387 were arrested in the weeks that followed their lands officers and titles were stripped from them and it was these with which Richard rewarded his own followers in the months that followed trials followed from September 1397 onwards and eventually several of the Lords were convicted and executed others were simply executed without judicial procedure as seems to have been the case with Gloucester who was killed while imprisoned late in 1397 then to consolidate the situation Richard had a new Parliament convened at Shrewsbury this was packed with his supporters and during the course of 1398 8 it overturned much of the legislation and acts which had been passed through the wonderful Parliament and the merciless parliament in 1386 1387 and 1388. moreover the parliament of Shrewsbury saw to it that power moving forward was far more Consolidated in Richard and his factions hands perhaps given all this there is little surprise that this period came to be known by near contemporaries as the tyranny what all of this amounted to was an effort by Richard to establish a much more powerful and absolutist kingship signs of this were evident at court where more deferential forms of address such as high Majesty were now adopted when speaking to the king but Richard had badly miscalculated absolutist monarchs would later manage to emerge on the 16th and 17th centuries in England France and elsewhere because these Kings ran centralized states with a large taxation base that gave them the funding to be able to over all their own nobles this was most certainly not the case in 14th century England the Hundred Years War had seen the crown desperately reliant on the nobility for funding and Military contributions as it did the power of the nobility relative to the king had increased dramatically such that historians of long spoken of the period as one of over Mighty subjects and bastard feudalism where the feudal order was compromised by certain Lords becoming nearly as powerful as monarchs themselves in this environment Richard could not hope to impose the kind of absolutist kingship which he tried to without it garnering a major reaction from some of his Nobles and Richard would learn that fact very quickly there were many threats still present for Richard even after the initial purges of 1397 and 1398 principle amongst them was the lancastrian royal line headered by John of gaunt John acted shrewdly and politically during the initial stages of the Tyranny not challenging the king and standing by While others such as his brother Thomas were effectively arrested and murdered by Richard there was after all a possibility that he or more likely his eldest son Henry Berling broke would Ascend to the throne in the near future if Richard were to die without an heir but Richard was alive to this possibility too and when bowling broke ended up in a quarrel at court with the Duke of Norfolk Richard took the opportunity to banish Henry from England Bolingbroke headed for France where he learned shortly afterwards that his father had died died of seemingly natural causes in England on the 3rd of February 1399. moreover it was soon public knowledge that Richard had used John of gaunt's death as an opportunity to fully disinherit Henry stripping him of the vast lancastrian Estates in England Henry was unwilling to accept this unchallenged and by the spring of 1399 he was amassing a coalition of disaffected English Nobles in Exile in France with the intention of overthrowing Richard thus it was that Henry bowling broke with a small group of followers landed in Yorkshire in the summer of 1399. Berling Brook's plans were aided by the fact that Richard had opportunely chosen this moment to depart once again for Ireland exactly why the king elected to undertake a second expedition to the country is a matter of debate conventionally it has been assumed that he was unhappy with the Irish Lords whom he had made agreements with four years earlier and the fact that these agreements had not been honored however a Welsh chronicler of the time called Adam of ask suggests that Richard had intended to Crown one of his Rising Court favorites his nephew Thomas Holland first Duke of Surrey as king of Ireland and that in this capacity Holland would be installed in Dublin with the goal of reinvigorating crown rule in Ireland we may never know what the actual purpose of Richard's second expedition was but we do know how it played out he landed at Waterford on the 1st of June 1399 with an army of approximately 3 000 men but he would have quickly come to regret his decision as word reached Ireland of bolingbrook's Landing in England as a result Richard was no sooner arrived in Ireland than he was making plans for his departure consequently he landed back in Wales on the 24th of July just seven weeks after reaching Ireland it was a short but fateful trip which ensured the bowling broke's conspiracy was able to take effect in his absence there was no real war to speak of between Richard and Henry in the end after Henry had landed in Yorkshire disaffected elements from all over Northern England began rallying To His Banner while Richard had made the fatal error of bringing many of his key allies with him to Ireland so that there was no concerted response to bolingbrook's arrival within England by the time Richard made landfall back in Wales Henry had moved South towards London his cause received a massive boost in Late July when Edmund Duke of York the last living son of Edward III and the man whom Richard had appointed as Lord protector of England while he was in Ireland gathered an army to confront Henry and then changed his mind and instead sided with Bolingbrook given all this it was clear to Richard within days of his return that his cause was doomed consequently on the 19th of August Richard surrendered to Burling broke at Flint Castle in Wales two weeks later when the party had returned to London he was imprisoned in the tower within less than three months Richard's absolutist reign had been overthrown it was a stunning turn of events the question no was what would happen next Henry had not launched his military campaign with a clear statement that he intended to usurp the throne from Richard and become king himself rather he had presented himself as just a leading Noble trying to bring an end to Richard's tyranny but however he presented himself in public there is no doubt that by the time he brought Richard back to London that he was determined to depose the king and have himself crowned as his successor but this posed two problems firstly a reasonable legal justification needed to be found for the removal of Richard from the throne this would not go wanting as the political Community were willing to accept the idea that Richard's tyrannous Behavior alone in recent years was a suitable basis on which to depose him however the second issue was thornia Henry was not the next in line to the throne this distinction fell to Edmund de Mortimer the fifth Earl of March a great grandson of Edward III who was just seven years old but who had a better Claim by right of his descent from Edward III's second oldest son Lionel of Clarence whereas Henry's right was as the son of the great King's third eldest son however this problem was rapidly overcome Henry had been the one to overthrow Richard and there was no appetite for another child King such as Richard had initially been in the late 1370s and 1380s accordingly in haste Richard was formally deposed on the 1st of October 1399 and Henry was crowned as King Henry IV of England less than two weeks later on the 13th of October Henry would rule for 14 years generally fighting off rebellions in Wales and elsewhere while his son Henry V would rule for a brief few years thereafter during a period in which he recommenced the Hundred Years War in France in a strikingly successful manner at the famous Battle of Agincourt but Richard who it should be remembered was still only 32 years of age at the time of his deposition would not live to see any of these latter victories in France in January 1400 a number of the Lords and courtiers whom Richard had promoted in the late 1390s and who were not out of favor in England attempted an Insurrection known as The Epiphany Rising with the goal of killing Henry and setting Richard free to become king once again Henry received news of it before the rising could be successfully implemented but it in the aftermath of the failed cool he was determined to ensure that no new Rebellion could be launched on Richard's behalf accordingly Richard was starved to death that pontefract castle and the first half of February of 1400. he was bedded shortly afterwards without great Fanfare at King's Langley Priory a Dominican Priory in Hertfordshire so died Richard II but his usurpation by bowling broke and subsequent death had created a political uncertainty within England which few can have imagined having the consequences which it would in years to come the removal of Richard and the accession of Henry IV had opened the possibility that rival claimants to the throne descended from the mid-eared family lines of Edward III's children could press their own claims to the throne and that possibility was not easily done away with once it had been employed once thus when Henry IV's grandson Henry VI proved to be unfit to rule and often mentally incapacitated then another great-grandson of Edward III's through his fourth son Edmund began to press Acclaim to the throne in the 1450s this was Richard Duke of York whose son Edward wood of eventually rule England as Edward IV thus the autocracy of Richard III had created a situation whereby rival claims to the English Throne could be pressed consequently while the most intense period of the wars of the Roses lies between the 1450s and the 1480s many historians have suggested that its roots can actually be traced to the political crisis Richard created in the 1390s in this way Richard's actions in the last years of his rule might be viewed as the root of the wars of the Roses Richard II was one of England's most complex Kings in many ways he was a victim of his circumstances he somewhat unexpectedly ascended to the throne when he was just 10 years of age in 1377 owing to the premature deaths of both his father and older brother in the few years before the eventual death of Edward III as a result Richard's reign was substantially shaped by the individuals around him while he himself was continuing to grow into an adult in the late 1370s and early 1380s already before he could rule for himself multiple crises had developed in his dominions notably The Peasants Revolt in 1381 owing to excessive levels of Taxation to pay for the war with France the spread of the lollard heresy preached by John Wycliffe and the DraStic setbacks in the Hundred Years War concert currently there was little that he could do to remedy the situation when he began to take a more activist role in ruling England himself in the mid-1380s and this point was proved when the Lord's appellant managed to remove Richard's advisors and seize power in England themselves briefly in the late 1380s they had called for a more aggressive approach to the war for years but when they were provided with the opportunity to do so they too could not figure out how to finance it and eventually a temporary cessation of hostilities with France was agreed in 1389. these qualifications aside there is no doubting that Richard was responsible for the deterioration in his kingdom in the late 1390s after several years of stability in the early and mid 1390s he elected from 1397 onwards to begin moving against several of those Lords who had challenged his authority years earlier at this point Richard attempted to effectively introduce a species of absolute monarchy one in which the power of the king could be unchallenged by his nobility in doing so he set off a new political crisis in England one which eventually saw opposition coalesce around his first cousin Henry Bolingbroke in the course of just a few short months in 1399 Henry seized power deposed his cousin and proclaimed himself as King Henry IV in these events lay some of the origins of the wars of the Roses which would destabilize England for much of the 15th century Richard was responsible for this insofar as he misjudged the extent of his power had he lived in the 17th century and been the ruler of a centralized early modern bureaucratic State he might well have been able to exercise the brand of absolutism which he attempted to impose from 1397 onwards but this was the late Middle Ages and any King still had to appease his feudal Lords Richard failed to recognize that and it was ultimately his downfall and the beginning of much Strife in England what do you think of King Richard II was he a very poor Monarch who was responsible for igniting the wars of the Roses or was he a victim of circumstance one whose Reign largely played out while he was still a child and a teenager please let us know in the comments section and in the meantime thank you very much for watching [Music] The Man known to history as both Henry bowling broke and King Henry IV of England was born on the 15th of April 1367 at bowling broke Castle Lincolnshire England his father was John of gaunt Duke of Lancaster who was born on the 6th of March 1340 in Ghent in what is today Belgium he was the third son of King Edward III and his wife Philippa of hainu Henry's mother was Blanche of Lancaster the daughter of Henry of grossmore first Duke of Lancaster and his wife Isabel of Beaumont she was born in March 1345 at Bowling Brook Castle John of gaunt and Blanche were third cousins both descended from King Henry III they married on the 19th of May 1359 at reading Abbey in Berkshire when she was only 14 and he 19. she gave John seven children but only three survived to adulthood Philippa born in 1360 Elizabeth in 1364 and Henry in 1367. John of gaunt grew up overshadowed by his more militarily illustrious older brother Edward of Woodstock also known as the black prince and the heir to the English Throne although both John and Edward had served in important battles John's efforts proved a disappointment to his father yet fate had a different plan for John his brother Edward developed an inexplicable wasting disease suffering from it for eight years he died in 1376 before he could Ascend to the throne Edward only had one son Richard who was 10 years old when he became king after Edward III died the following year as the young king's uncle and a leading member of the royal family John did his best to provide a moderating force for his nephew even taking on the role of Peacemaker as Richard's Behavior became increasingly more erratic it could be said that John's greatest achievement was to keep not only himself but his son and Heir Henry alive through the tumultuous years of Richard II's reign Henry Bolingbroke entered the world during uncertain times in many ways his Reign was a transitional period from the societal chaos of the Middle Ages to the beginnings of modern State craft and nation building his birth occurred during a brief lull in one of the longest periods of conflict between France and England known to us as the Hundred Years War which began in 1337 and ended in 1453 in addition to tensions with France England experienced birthing pains as it evolved not only into a nation but also struggled to create a reliable responsive government since the difficult reign of King John the kingdom suffered through a roller coaster of powerful nation-building Kings such as Edward the first and Edward III interspersed with weak recalcitrant Kings such as Henry III Edward II and Richard II who nearly brought the country to Civil War surrounding regions like Wales and Scotland also asserted their nationhood leading to continued conflicts with England in addition in 1378 the Catholic Church split creating two seats of power and two popes one still in Rome and the other in Avignon the great papal Schism upset the established hierarchy that had held medieval Europe together in this vacuum people began to question aspects of Catholic practice such as transubstantiation groups such as the lollards in England led by John Wycliffe actively protested the excessive involvement of clergy in temporal Affairs they presented what they called the 12 conclusions which demanded reform and greater transparency within the church the general populace had to not only Brave the ravages of war and religious uncertainty but also had to endure repeated plagues famines extreme weather and economic dislocation due to population fluctuations and the destruction of war the people began to demand a more transparent and responsive government one way of achieving this came by implementing Provisions found in the Magna Carta that served as the foundation for a new Royal advisory system called the parliament as the country moved into the 15th century Parliament continued to increase its influence on how government functioned yet there was a downside to this advance in its effort to address Financial shortfalls created by Decades of War it imposed more taxes on the populace in response Artisans and the poor determined they had nothing to lose and decided to make their voices heard against this tax abuse The Peasants Revolt of 1381 was the first protest of its kind and caught the government of King Richard II completely off guard although the protesters vented their spleen by killing those leaders believed responsible for their suffering it largely failed as a political movement however the king increasingly had to work with Parliament which began to demand more accountability of the crown to the people both Richard II and Henry IV encountered the challenges of the changing meaning of Royal prerogative it was their responses to this threat of change that determined the success or failure of their reign Richard responded vindictively and wielded autocratic power Henry determined it best to accommodate this change and worked with Parliament to navigate the violent Waters of the early 15th century to arrive battered but safe on a rocky Shore his son Henry V benefited greatly from the moderating force of his father's actions during his turbulent reign Henry bowling broke's early life began surrounded by his two older sisters and the extended Lancaster family his great-aunt Blanche lady wake looked after the three children until they were old enough to begin formal education Henry did not know his mother because she died a year after his birth from an early age he heard stories about not only his beautiful Charming mother but of the chivalric exploits of his great-grandfathers grandfathers uncles and other relatives he played with Children of noble families who would grow up to be key political players during his lifetime including his cousins John and Thomas mowbray Henry Percy who was also known as hot spur Thomas and Ralph Percy and Richard and Thomas Arundel Henry rarely saw his father until 1371 when he returned with his new new bride constanza of Castile Henry was transferred to her household until 1374 when his father felt it time for him to begin his formal education John appointed Henry Burton as his son's Governor Burton served as Henry's martial teacher to prepare him to take up the chivalric mantle of his ancestors John also assigned Chaplin Hugh herl as Henry's academic tutor and religious guide Henry learned quickly and became proficient in reading and writing not only Latin but also English and French he developed a love of music books and learning and true to his familial Heritage he excelled at the martial arts Henry's life was relatively idyllic and secure until the succession crisis hit around 1376 as the black prince near death the question became who should succeed Edward III since his Heir Apparent was about to die and his only son was just a minor should The Inheritance run through each child's line meaning that the throne could be inherited through the female line or should it only pass through the male line and should a minor inherit the throne it was determined that young Richard would inherit Parliament then voted John the eldest and the male line as King's Lieutenant to hold the parliament the black prince made his father and John promised to support his son's right to the throne John a man who believed in Duty promised and never reneged from it even when his his nephew tried to harm him and his family years later once the black prince had died John was able to convince his father to keep the line of inheritance through the male line only effectively removing the descendants of his brother Lionel's daughter Philippa the mortimers from The Inheritance however this ruling was not made public causing problems years later Henry along with some of his Playmates entered Richard's Court in 1376. it must have been strange for Richard to be thrown into a group of children who had known each other for years he had led a lonely sheltered life and must have felt awkward in his new surroundings and role he also had not been trained in the nightly ways like the other boys leading to feelings of jealousy and alienation on the 23rd of April 13th 77 Richard Henry and 10 other young men received an honor created by Edward III they were knighted and nominated into the Knights of the Garter two months later King Edward III of England was dead Richard was born on the 5th of January 1367 in Bordeaux France he was just three months older than Henry and only 10 when he ascended to the throne like all coronations it was a magnificent Affair filled with pageantry Henry participated by having the honor to hold the katana a blunt-tipped sword of Mercy once wieldered by Saint Edward the Confessor Richard relied heavily on his counselors during those early years of his kingship however in 1380 Parliament chose to put an end to their corrupting influence even so they had not acted swiftly enough as anger swelled among the populace over the ever-increasing tax burden what became known as The Peasants Revolt began in May 1381 in Kent and Essex as the rebel numbers weld they moved towards London their goal was to destroy the king's hated advisors and other Lords of the realm including John of gaunt and Simon Sudbury Archbishop of Canterbury Henry and his Guardians along with Richard and his government moved to the protection of the Tower of London John of gaunt was in the north fighting the Scots the rabble moved through London destroying John's great palace called The Savoy and left a path of destruction in their wake as they moved towards the Tower of London on the 13th of June Richard headed out of the Tower with his Entourage to negotiate with the rebels although he claimed sympathy for their plight he could not offer them what they wanted but instead encouraged them to take justice for themselves the next morning Richard made his way out of of the tower leaving those who remained to their fate including Henry as the rabble stormed the Fortress many key governmental officers were killed during the foray including the Archbishop of Canterbury if it had not been for a night by the name of John Farah who spoke up for the young nobleman Henry's head would have wound up on a spike it can be said that in many respects this was the defining moment in the relationship between Richard and Henry Richard believed he had proven himself kingly by his actions and could rule as he willed Henry learned he could never trust his cousin because he had been willing to let others die while he fled to safety by early 1381 John had taken control of Henry's education and began to groom his young son to be a prince of the realm John first ensured he had a suitable marriage his bride was Mary Bowen only 11 years old she came from an important family whose lands had been under the care of John's younger brother Thomas of Woodstock also known as the Duke of Gloucester while Gloucester wanted to send Mary to a nunnery to gain these lands for himself John determined it would be better for his son Henry to benefit from them instead Mary and Henry were married on the 5th of February 1381 at Rochford Hall in Essex she remained with her mother for another four years after which Henry and she began to live together it was a good match some would say a a love match for they both shared a fondness for fine Books and Music she gave birth to six children in eight years and Henry did not seem to look for love elsewhere during this marriage she died in Peterborough Castle in 1394 giving birth to their last daughter Philippa she was buried at the church of Saint Mary de Castro in Leicester her death hit Henry hard and it would take him several years to remarry John also taught Henry how to behave like a prince including the importance of loyal Behavior to his Sovereign even in adversity how to dress as a prince how to show charity to the poor and how to honor God and the church Henry grew to be a man of Reason a lover of order and logic one chronicler capgrave described to him as a man who had a tenacious memory and enjoyed a good debate over issues of morality in January 1382 Henry participated in the jousting tournament at Smithfield to celebrate the coronation of Richard's new Queen Anne of bohemia Henry was one of the youngest participants at only 14. he not only addressed himself in style but he also proved himself one of the best fighters in the land this only heightened Richard's jealousy of his cousin as a result of the peasants revolt and the teachings of his tutor Sir Simon Burley Richard believed a good king must demonstrate absolute control over his realm he began to see King Edward II as his preferred model for how to rule not his grandfather Edward III his First Act was to surround himself with his favorite at courtiers who would tell him what he wanted to hear next he began to to break the power of people like his Uncle John by acting in ways contrary to customary practice for example when the Earl of March Edmund Mortimer husband to the daughter of Lionel Duke of Clarence died in 1381 rather than hold the properties in trust for The Heirs he proceeded to distribute the lands to his favorites when one Minister protested he was removed from office a highly irregular move that shocked the court Richard was clever and had a Supple mind that could run rings around those who tried to argue with him therein lay the danger Henry saw what was happening around him as opposition to Richard's rule of favorites grew at the 1383 Parliament those in attendance told Richard he had poor advisers and he must remove them Richard would have none of it and began to see any opposition as a slight Henry watched his father navigate these Troubled Waters because although John sympathized with Richard's opponents he had to uphold his promise to his brother to help his nephew John also had a second consideration to protect his only son and his inheritance he tried to keep his son out of much of the controversy for now and he indeed had reason to be concerned for example a friar named John Latimer told Richard that John was planning to assassinate him and when Jon found out he ran to the king to declare his innocence in response rich should have the friar arrested tortured and killed mutterings of frustration grew to the point that many in the realm began to question Richard's Fitness to be king this made things even more difficult for John who continued to try to appease the king and to retain his favor by the end of 1384 things had become so bad in England with the Scots rebelling in the north and War looming in France that tensions had reached a boiling point Henry watched as his family came increasingly under attack for example John announced that he would lead a force into France but this was against the wishes of the king John was then blamed for the situation because of the failings of the peace treaty that he had helped negotiate publicly rebuked John and his two brothers stormed out insulted Richard plotted to assassinate John but the Duke of Lancaster was warned in time and managed to escape harm ten days later he marched into the Hall where Richard was sitting and presented a blistering critique of Richard and his government declaring that he could no longer serve such a King Richard's mother broke into tears and pleaded with Richard to make amends with his uncle he did so a few days later but John never trusted Richard again everyone attending the parliament of 1385 knew it was going to be an intense session the Lords presented their complaints to the king in 13 Clauses that could be summed up as Richard must seek advice from his Council and follow it he must obey the law he could no longer dispense lands and grants without advice and pardons could not be granted wantonly as he had done previously after much debate it was decided that all financial decisions would be made under a commission of four to monitor distribution which Richard weakened through parliamentary Maneuvers and then distributed lands and titles to his favorites anyway this angered those in attendance ignoring their holes of protest Richard reached out to John giving him permission to leave England to pursue his rights to Castile via his marriage to constanza during his preparations John prepared his son to step into his shoes to manage the interests of the Lancaster family in his absence on the 9th of July 1386 Henry said goodbye to his father Henry soon found himself faced with the challenges his father had managed until now most importantly navigating Richard and his whims he rightly chose initially to stay away from court and instead headed home in time to see his first son Henry born on the 16th of September 1386. even so events pointed him in the direction of Westminster the French threatened to invade England but when the king announced at Parliament that October that he would lead an army to France it refused to Grant him the right of Taxation explaining that he had failed to heed their advice and refused to act in accordance with their directives Furious Richard stormed out of the chamber while those in attendance remained with the Duke of Gloucester leading the opposition the Gathering began to determine the best course of action and decided it was time to propose the deposition of the king Gloucester and Thomas Arundel the bishop of Ely were chosen to report this decision to the king when told Richard rebuffed this report by saying that he would rather seek the aid of his cousin in France against his enemies then caved to Parliament for Gloucester these were fighting words over the next few days Parliament poured over legal documents to see how Edward II had been deposed it had become clear to everyone that Richard was unfit to rule when told to return to Parliament Richard agreed that he had planned a trap he pointed out that the most likely candidate to succeed him was in Spain and there was no guarantee he was coming back and the primary alternative was still a child is that what the parliament wanted a child King this Revelations stymied the assembly for it implied that Roger Mortimer a child had been declared Richard's true Heir for Henry it proved earth-shattering after this shock Richard then agreed to a commission of 14 to manage his government for one year Henry was not selected for this committee and returned home confused and angry but he did not express it he had learned from his father's example to keep his true feelings secret Richard chose to play along with the decision knowing that the committee's rule would be over in a year or less if he could find a way to disable it in August 1387 Richard asked some judges to investigate if the actions of parliament were legal he wanted them to provide the answers that he desired and those judges who refused did so facing threats of death so they affixed their seal Richard then presented this document declaring that Parliament only had an advisory role and could would Grant permission for taxation but could not order the king to do anything Richard went so far as to revoke Edward III's statute of treason from 1352. unease filled the realm as the end of the commission of 14 approached Richard then ordered the arrest of the Duke of Gloucester and other Lords of the realm only to find that they had armed themselves against him even Thomas Mortimer guardian of Roger Mortimer and Richard's preferred heir to the throne took up arms Richard had miscalculated badly and England was now on the verge of Civil War in November Richard sent representatives to determine what the Lords wanted and the Lords made it clear that Richard's five closest advisors must be tried for treason on the 17th of November the Lord's rode in full armor to Westminster with 300 soldiers at the ready where Richard sat on his elevated throne and listened in the end he agreed to a trial of these five men to be held on the 3rd of February 1388. although Henry supported this cause for obvious reasons he did not play an active role until he rode up to Westminster to meet with the King on the 17th of November he had hesitated because likely he wanted permission from his father before fully participating but once he had gained that permission he played an active role having heard that a trial was coming many of Richard's supporters deserted him it was decided not to depose Richard because the messy question of the succession would come up again instead they determined to destroy the resolve of Richard and his supporters by rounding them up and punishing them with a traitor's death their biggest threat came from Robert De Vere the ninth Earl of Oxford who had raised an army and Henry was assigned to go after him through clever Swift action the opposition forces managed to channel davia into a place where he could be captured Henry and his men left the main group to circle around trapping devere at radkut bridge near Oxford on the 19th of December realizing he had lost devere slipped away and fled to Europe while his troops surrendered to Henry and his men a week later the opposition entered London Ready for War a delegation with Henry his uncle the Duke of Gloucester along with the Earls Arundel Warwick and Nottingham met Richard in the Tower of London to negotiate although they did discuss deposition it proved a messy topic and the group chose to keep the status quo with only one change that the ruling of Edward III regarding inheritance through the mail line must remain in place Richard had been muzzled for now but the worst was yet to come in February the Lord's appellant as the opposition was called tried the traitors and sentenced most of them to death Even In Absentia what made this event most horrific was the fact that it was not the rule of law that ran this court of judgment but military power and revenge and so it would come to be known as the merciless Parliament for this reason when Parliament met again in September it had become clear to everyone that the Lord's appellant could not rule any better than the king as they focused on their own needs and not those of The Realm by the following year Richard had taken much of the government back when the Royal council meeting was called for the 3rd of May 1389 Henry following his father's example of Duty was the only one of the appellants to attend Richard removed all of the officers appointed by the appellants and The Inheritance issue remained unsettled with the only accomplishment being that the Duke of Gloucester had not seized the throne and Roger Mortimer was not the official Heir Henry left the meeting feeling dismayed but his father would return to England in November 1389. although battered Henry had held his own while his father was away Richard surprisingly welcomed John back with open arms and even extended the lancastrian palatin at duchy to John's heirs when a chance came for Henry to demonstrate his military prowess overseas he was granted permission to attend the josting festival at sarongo ver in France in March 1390. he would be up against the best fighters from all of Europe these were no ordinary encounters because these were josts of War meaning the tips would not be blunted but sharpened so they could kill Henry left England with many of his fellow Nobles he traveled into a different world where he met young men like himself who loved to celebrate life he not only made lifelong friends but also proved to Europe that he was one of the best fighters around it was here he learned about going on crusades it is important to point out here that the Crusades to the Holy Land had ended but there still remained efforts to convert the Infidel in places such as Tunis and Eastern Europe he returned to England in may he immediately set about planning his trip to the Tunis Crusades unfortunately the king of France refused to Grant his group permission to pass through his kingdom not wanting to put all of the preparation to waste Henry chose instead to Head East to Lithuania to assist the Knights of the Teutonic order in their efforts to convert the Baltic pagans he arrived in Poland on the 8th of August and made his way East to meet with the Teutonic forces while there Henry played a critical role in a skirmish on the river willier he then assisted with the taking of the city of Vilnius where he was able to place the banner of Saint George on the parapet of the city bringing glory to his English cohorts he stayed and feasted at koenigsberg through the winter he returned to England in late March having matured as a prince of the realm and having proven his skill as a warrior to all of Europe when he attended parliament in November 1391 tensions had not improved much since he had left over a year before in fact a third faction had formed around the Mortimer children because it had become clear that Richard had yet to produce an heir more disturbing still where Richard's machinations to increase his power and his use of the division among the appellants to further weaken them controversy swelled on several fronts from conflicts with the London Merchants to a treaty with France to the usual squabbles over inheritance and governmental power so when Henry received letters of protection on the 27th of June 1392 to travel east again Henry leapt at the chance to get out of England however when he arrived it turned out that the Crusades in Lithuania had ended he remained in Danzig for a few weeks to decide his next move which was to go on pilgrimage to the Holy Land as he wanted to visit Jerusalem he used not only the fame of his grandfathers but also his connections through marriages to smooth his way as he traveled south to Italy he journeyed through Hammerstein Frankfurt under UDA Nisa golitz Prague Vienna kragenfoort vilach traviso and Venice along the way he met heads of state including King Wenceslas of bohemia and king sigismund of Hungary at each stop he took time to tour important sites especially churches and Cathedrals he even received funding for his trip to Jerusalem from the Senate of the Venetian Republic in December 1392 he set sail for Jerusalem arriving in Jaffa was an emotional experience for Henry for he was now not only walking in the footsteps of his crusading ancestors but also that of Christ he embarked on the Pilgrim's Path to the holy city of Jerusalem once in the city he toured the holy sites he had done something that few English Royals had ever done even Richard the lionheart who never actually entered the city of Jerusalem he returned to Venice in March 1393 then crossed to Milan from there he made his way through France Charming the French Court by telling them of his adventures he arrived back in England on the 30th of June 1393. rather than being greeted warmly Richard's supporters wanted to kill him his father and his uncle the Duke of Gloucester because of rumors saying they were plotting to kill the King when he was called to attend Parliament set for January 1394 he went reluctantly after his father discovered he must go to gascony to defend English rights there he asked Richard to recognize Henry as The Keeper of the realm in his stead as The Heir Apparent to Richard the mortimers protested and the whole thing blew up next came the dispute over funding for John's travels Henry left Parliament having seen the lancastrians completely disparaged in public then Richard provided the ultimate insult with Jon away to defend English rights in gascony Richard named Edmund Duke of York as The Keeper of the realm a public rebuke to the lancastrians Henry followed his father's example and put on a public face of support for his King which he continued through the parliament of January 1395 and the council meeting in July the most significant thing that happened during that year was John Wycliffe pinned the 12 conclusions of the lollards to the door at Westminster Abbey otherwise the usual squabbles continued and Henry did his best to protect his family's interests John returned disappointed about the results in gascony he felt sick and concerned about the challenges facing his family Henry wanted to leave England and when an opportunity arose to serve in a war in Friesland he began preparations only to be stopped by his father in October 1396 both John and Henry attended the wedding celebration in Calais of Richard to his new wife after the death of Anna she was the French King's Daughter Isabella and it was a splendid Affair upon their return Richard felt emboldened to begin attacking his enemies especially the former Lord's appellant which included Henry to make matters worse in February 1397 Richard made his cousin Edmund Earl of Rutland his quote brother if effectively announcing that the heir to the throne would pass through the York Clan and not the Mortimer or the Lancaster families then came the rise of the counter appellants who systematically began to destroy the Lord's appellant and their supporters Henry had a choice remain loyal to them or to the king he chose to condemn his former conspirators to protect himself Richard did not openly attack Henry or his friend Thomas de mowbray the third Earl of Norfolk instead he used psychological tactics when it was announced that the Duke of Gloucester had been murdered Henry felt real fear but Richard was not done with him yet at the September 1397 Parliament Richard declared that he was revoking all pardons for previous actions he said he had a list of 50 traitors but did not read the names in order to produce the maximum amount of fear he hoped that rash actions would rid the realm of his opponents Then Came Death Threats confiscation of property and banishment for those who remained it became known as the Revenge Parliament it was a slow difficult March through Terror but Henry did his best to remain strong then came the bombshell that it was his friend Norfolk who had killed his uncle but this was a lie it had really been a man by the name of William Searle Richards Valley who had done the deed but Henry would not learn that until years later in exchange for their loyalty both mowbray and Henry were raised to dukedoms however Henry knew something was awry and purchased a Bezos Stone to counteract poison in December mowbray ran into Henry and told him that they were both in trouble because of their actions in 1387. Henry went immediately to his father to ask what to do John reported what he had learned to Richard the king declared that the only way to settle the matter was a Jost to the death between mowbray and Henry and the date was set for September 1398. with all of the court in assembly the two men dressed in their best jousting regalia prepared to begin battle in what was termed the court of chivalry they were about to start when Richard called out declaring that the joust be stopped he then declared that mowbray was to be banished for life and Henry was to be banished for 10 years everything that John had worked for had been destroyed they had all been played for fools on the 13th of October 1398 Henry said goodbye to his father before he embarked from Dover to France to begin his Exile it would be the last time he would ever see his father unexpectedly thousands arrived at the harbor cheering to show their support before he sailed away and it left him with a glimmer of hope that all was not lost he was sympathetically welcomed into the French court and worked to begin his new life while the French felt sorry for this charming talented young man they were aware that he had been banished by his King for treason so they embraced him weirdly when news arrived of his father's death on the 3rd of February 1399 Henry was devastated then he learned that Richard had confiscated all of the lancastrian lands for himself and Henry had to make a choice he could do nothing and waste away in Exile or he could act Henry determined to engender support from others who had also been punished by the Revenge Parliament the former Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas of Arundel had learned of John's fate and left Utrecht to find Henry Thomas's nephew Thomas fitzallen also appeared ready to support Henry and he had a loyal band of retainers who came with him into Exile Henry knew it was time to return to regain his Birthright so he created a deception he thanked the French court for their generosity and explained that he must go to Spain he requested the king's leave which was granted when he departed in July 1399 he headed west to maintain the deception and then turned North touching the coastline periodically to confuse those trying to stop him from entering England he landed at spern head and headed to pontefract castle arriving around the 14th of July 1399. from there he greeted supporters that had been amassing in Doncaster while all that Henry wanted was the return of his ancestral lands the moment had come to grab something larger and it looked like he had the support to do it however his allies especially the Earl of Northumberland and his son Hotspur demanded he promised them two key things first he would not take the throne by force and second he had to find a way to disempower Richard as they moved West Henry's supporters continued to appear Richard's followers gave way to Henry's growing Army the king arrived in Wales from Ireland and headed to carmarthen with his soldiers here could have been the decisive moment when Henry had to choose loyalty to King or treason demanding Justice yet Richard answered that question by abandoning his army at carmarthen even Richard's adopted brother threw in his support with Henry the Dukes of Exeter and Sari some of the few Lords who had remained loyal to the king met Henry in Chester they told Henry that Richard was prepared to forgive his past actions in exchange for disbanding his army Henry smiled then detained them Henry's team devised a plan to lure Richard out of his hiding place and Richard believed the deception he was captured and taken to Flint castle where he refused to eat Richard was then moved to London because Parliament had been called to meet when Henry entered London he asked the mayor what he wanted him to do with Richard and was told to take him to Westminster so he did Henry then marched triumphantly through London to Saint Paul's Cathedral and prayed at the high altar there he would need guidance for what was to come next he then gathered together a team of lawyers to help him determine what he could do now in terms of the deposition of Richard and his legal right of inheritance it was decided that he would use his dual lineage to King Henry III rather than Edward III to claim right of inheritance then Richard would have to voluntarily abdicate the throne signing a document as proof at first Richard refused to sign when told this by Henry's Representatives but once he had Henry before him to discuss things he agreed to sign the document of abdication only asking if he could have an income sufficient enough to be well maintained the deed was done the next day Parliament met after all of the legal niceties about birthright's line of succession and the nature of Richard's abdication had been addressed the parliament proceeded to vote Henry to become king then the Archbishop of York and the soon to be reinstated Archbishop of Canterbury walked Henry up to the throne Henry bent on one knee and prayed before taking his seat it was a momentous occasion and England had a new king his coronation took place on the 13th of October 1399. one of Henry's first acts was to create a new honorary Knighthood the order of the bath and he proceeded tonight over 50 men the next day at Parliament he fulfilled his obligation to his supporters by first repealing the rulings of the Revenge Parliament and reinstating the those of the merciless Parliament he then declared to the prelates that he would work to address heresy in the realm he would also use the funds from his lancastrian Holdings to pay for his expenses at least for now his goal was to rule as his grandfather Edward III had done events would play against this hope because of endless funding issues and numerous rebellions against his rule in the end he did everything he could to protect his kingdom and to keep his dynasty safe many in Parliament assumed it was time to take revenge on those who had enabled Richard's tyranny while some were brought to Justice most were given leniency which shocked the members of parliament it was during these trials that Henry learned who gave the order to kill his uncle and how he died the next big question was what to do with Richard Henry wanted to consult not only with the lawyers but also with the prelates to determine the best course of action they decided to remove Richard to pontefract and to keep him under guard for now for the counter appellants they also received the king's Mercy Henry felt pleased by his performance but he would feel the wrath of his generosity soon enough former counter appellants and their supporters met secretly at Westminster in December to plan a vote against Henry their objective was to assassinate him the Archbishop of Canterbury and Henry's four Sons on the 4th of January 1400 the plot was foiled when Edward Richards adopted brother dined with his father the Duke of York and happened to leave the written version of the plan on the table when his father discovered it he confronted his son and they agreed to betray the plot once Henry learned about this he acted quickly and rounded up the conspirators in the end 26 men were beheaded and six received a traitor's death some received Mercy including John Farah who had saved Henry's life back in 1381. this plot came to be known as Epiphany Rising it had far-reaching implications poor Henry now realized how naive he had been he also knew that keeping Richard alive was dangerous no one knows how Richard died but we do know that he was dead by the 14th of February 1400 probably from starvation events continued to conspire against Henry's dream of being a just warrior king the root of much of his troubles over the next five years was lack of money while in initially he used his own lancastrian wealth that ran out quickly enough consecutive parliaments demanded that Henry cut his household expenses and address other excessive expenditures just as they blamed bad advisors for the financial shortfalls under Richard they did the same for Henry but he allowed new people to be placed in roles of responsibility even though it meant removing long-time friends from key positions he also did what he could to cut expenditures but one thing he would not cut were annuities as he felt that would be a betrayal of trust Financial pressures grew as Scotland Wales and Ireland rebelled the French Allied themselves with one or more of these countries threatened to invade Calais gascony or even England and ran a shipping proxy war known as the Pirates War to damage shipping there were a series of bad harvests and the collapse of the World Trade that led to financial shortfalls and increased commodity prices due to food shortages he also had to keep up the appearance of a lavish Royal Court in addition the church put pressure on Henry to Stamp Out heresy in February of 1401 the prelates sent a petition to the king to address the heretic William Sartre who had been arrested tried and found guilty of heresy the 1401 parliament passed the day heretic combiorendo that author is the burning of Heretics Sartre met his fate in March 1401 the first person to be burned at the stake in England the second was John badby guilty of law artism who was burned in 1410. the parliament of 1401 did Grant attacks after thoroughly embarrassing Henry about his difficult financial situation yet the money could not be collected because the tax collectors were attacked even murdered people felt Henry had betrayed them by imposing new taxes during peacetime despite rebellions in Wales and Scotland as well as numerous French threats Henry's Confessor Philip reppington dared to draft a report to Henry that explained just how bad things had become if the harsh demands of parliament had not woken Henry to the fact that the world had changed from the warrior king ideal this report did Henry took immediate action to begin making changes becoming more directly involved in the functioning of government and utilizing his family including his young Sons more directly in managing The Realm by placing his first son Henry with Hotspur to address issues in Wales and his second son Thomas in Ireland while these new efforts helped Parliament tied His Hands by not providing enough money to do the work properly with Henry's son's letters back to their father being filled with requests for more money in a to all of this chaos assassination attempts on Henry and rumors that Richard was still alive continued fomenting additional rebellions for any threat including military or Henry could afford were quick incursions to calm things down for a time as he just did not have the money for more soldiers battling rebellions in Scotland and Wales began to Grumble about back pay and Henry's troubles kept multiplying Henry's main antagonist was a Welsh nobleman Owen glendower or Owen glindour in Welsh who turned against England declaring himself Prince of Wales beginning his rebellion in 1400 although Henry did his best to control it he could accomplish little without money in 1402 Edmund Mortimer was captured during the Battle of Brynn glass Henry decided to send three armies into Wales in a three-pronged approach to destroy the Welsh Rebellion but he only allowed two weeks for the effort and it was a dismal failure the only good news that year was the victory at the Battle of Hamilton Hill in September over the Scots yet trouble was brewing Hotspur increasingly resented not being reimbursed for his growing military expenses he and his family also felt that Henry had not lived up to his promises at Doncaster in other words Henry could not be manipulated by them the Percy family determined it was time to overthrow Henry and joined forces with glendower and Edmund Mortimer who had become a glendara supporter after his capture Henry first became aware of the growing threat of this Rebellion on the 12th of July 1403 as he marched to address issues in the North he acted quickly sending troops to Shrewsbury to establish a foothold there hoping to trap Hotspur who was amassing a major Force against him the two armies arrived in Shrewsbury on the 20th of July and the next morning the two armies clashed in what is still considered one of the bloodiest battles in English history for Henry it proved a decisive Victory resulting in hotspur's death and the temporary weakening of glendower's rebellion Parliament even granted him the right to tax which was a small win but an important one and Henry received a much needed gift in July 1404 in the form of the capture of William Searle the man who had killed the Duke of Gloucester this provided the perfect opportunity to finally end rumors that Richard still lived because sir had stolen Richard's Signet ring and now even the French knew that Richard was clearly dead Henry had another success during the 1404 October Parliament Henry's officials made it clear that the king could do nothing regarding Wales and other challenges unless he had the revenue to address it in order to raise more funds serious measures had to be taken and they offered some solutions for one all temporalities of the church should be confiscated which pleased the commons immensely secondly or ancient inheritancers of the crown dating from the reign of Edward III should be rebuilt from resources found in royal castles lands and related fees they proposed that a commission be established to process these records to determine what revenues could be pulled from these resources the parliament was so pleased by these ideas that they granted the king a generous tax renewed The Wool subsidy for two years and increased the income tax on Nobles to five percent it was a major victory orchestrated by Henry's key advisor Thomas of Arundel the Archbishop of Canterbury Henry continued to defend the realm as best he could and his son Henry was able to defeat glendower at Grossmont in March 1405. the French attacked Calais but were beaten back with the use of England's skillful archers then as Henry moved towards Wales he was informed that a rebellion was forming near Scotland in what would become known as the Yorkshire Rising Northumberland Thomas de mowbray fourth Earl of Norfolk and Sir Thomas bardolph had rebelled against the king as well as the Archbishop of York Richard scrope who had amassed an Army in Shipton Moore Henry's Army led by the Duke of Westmoreland and Henry's third son John resoundingly defeated this Rebellion Northumberland fled into Scotland but others were not so lucky as Henry was not in the mood to be merciful this time and he gave the order to execute the Archbishop after he had been found guilty of treason this action sent shock waves throughout Christendom yet Henry felt it necessary to assure the safety of the realm on the 8th of June 1405 the day of scrope's execution Henry woke up screaming traitors traitors you have thrown fire over me he had red pustules all over his body and was extremely sick some thought it was divine Visions for executing an Archbishop it instead was a mysterious illness that would slowly weaken and kill him over the next eight years it had similar symptoms to the disease that had killed the black prince the parliament in March 1406 dealt with critical issues first they discussed succession because clearly the King was ill and no one knew how long he might live second they began to pull more power towards themselves substantially weakening royal power by handing most of the decision-making role to the council it issued the 31 articles spelling out what the king could and could not do and what power the council had it was an important precedent but it worried Henry of Lancaster for this very reason since he wondered what would happen to his power when he assumed his role as king during the debate over taxation Thomas of Arundel Henry's Chief advisor pointed out that it was the king who agreed to refrain from expenditures for a year it in order to get things back on track but blaming the king for the financial constraints could no longer apply it was Parliament who had to solve the problem the king had already done what he could it proved a decisive moment in the changing relationship between the king and his government yet rebellions continued Northumberland however would not give up he again raised the standard of rebellion against Henry on the 15th of February 1408 the Rebellion forces met Henry's Army at Brahma Moore and were defeated with Northumberland killed during the battle in 1409 Henry's Army crushed glendower's forces at halik Castle and glendara fled into the hills and disappeared Family Matters and his legacy began to occupy more of Henry's thoughts one troubling event started in 1410 when his eldest son began to move into the power vacuum itching to take more control for himself he even pushed Arundel aside to further this process and some spoke of deposition but even so Henry had kept abreast of events he chose to intervene when his son and Council determined that to make up the financial shortfall they would go after the annuities Henry throughout his Reign had refused to hurt people who relied on these funds to survive now his son had made a grave mistake and Henry began to reassert himself he attended the 1411 Parliament where he stated clearly that he wanted no Novelties meaning he did not want to discuss abdication he then asked the members of the council to come before the throne and thanked them for their service what he had just done was dismissed them so he could re-establish control over the government his actions infuriated his son after a few months he had calmed down on the 29th of July 1411 Henry entered his father's chamber and knelt before him he begged forgiveness and then handed his father his dagger and said my Lord and father my life is not so dear to me that I would live one day that I should be in your displeasure I forgive you my death Henry the king tossed away the dagger in raised his son and cried Henry attended his final Parliament on the 1st of December 1412 and spent the Christmas holiday in the Embrace of his family it was obvious he was not well in January he was taken to Lambeth to receive the best care everyone held their breath and wondered when the time would come on the 21st of February 1413 they moved Henry to Westminster Abbey he attempted to make an offering at The Shrine of Saint Edward the Confessor but collapsed unconscious he had wanted to die in Jerusalem but that was not going to happen now they picked him up off the floor and moved him into the abbots chamber when he awoke Henry did not recognize where he was and the Chamberlain told him he was in the Jerusalem chamber he died played on the 20th of March 1413 thinking of the holy land they waited until his son Thomas could return from defending gascony for the funeral Henry was buried on the 18th of June 1413 in Trinity Chapel in Canterbury Cathedral as he had requested he had taken England through a turbulent time but left the kingdom in better shape than he had found it and in the capable hands of his eldest son and his brothers he had achieved what he set out to do to heal his troubled Homeland what do you think of King Henry IV was he a good king or is he deserving of his bad reputation please let us know in the comment section and in the meantime thank you very much for watching [Music] The Man known to history as Henry of Monmouth and King Henry V of England was born on the 16th of September 1386 at Monmouth Castle in Wales near the border with England he was the eldest son of Henry of Bolingbrook who became King Henry IV of England in 1399 when Henry of Monmouth was only 13 years old his mother was Mary of Bowen who came from an old aristocratic family with extensive land Holdings in East Anglia and other parts of England Mary and Henry of Bolingbrook were married on the 5th of February 1381 at Rochford Hall in Essex because she was only 11 years old at the time of their marriage she remained with her mother for another four years in 1385 Henry and Mary began to live together it proved a good match one based on Mutual affection and a shared fondness for fine Books and Music she gave birth to six children in eight years Henry in 1386 Thomas in 1387 John in 1389 Humphrey in 1390 Blanche in 1392 and Philippa in 1394. Mary died prematurely in Peterborough Castle giving birth to their last daughter and was buried at the church of Saint Mary de Castro in Leicester as a Young Man Bolingbroke had proven himself to be a true cultured Warrior of Royal Blood he was well educated and could read and write English French and Latin and loved music and books he excelled in jousting participated in a crusade to Lithuania went on pilgrimage to the Holy Land and had learned from his father John of gaunt the Duke of Lancaster how to navigate the sometimes Dangerous Waters of Court life since his father was Edward III's third son his entire life was overshadowed by the question of the right to inherit the throne he had been told as a young child that if the current King Richard II had no heirs he stood to inherit the throne because of the threat the lancastrian family posed to the autocratic and insecure Richard both Bowling Brook and his first son the Future King Henry V became porn in a power struggle after being exiled by the king in 1398 and his father's lands being confiscated after John of gaunt died in 1399 bowling broke had to decide whether to remain in Exile or reclaim his ancestral lands when he arrived back in England in mid-summer of 1399 thousands welcomed him with open arms and this wave of support propelled him to depose Richard II and accept the throne some felt he usurped it such legal niceties aside his Reign proved a never-ending challenge due to the constant military threats from Wales Scotland and France and the numerous internal plots to depose him additionally his inability to raise funds to combat these threats only made the situation worse finally he was stricken with a mysterious illness in 1406 that slowly weakened him during the last years of his Reign yet during those later years the overall situation improved as he and his advisors began to regain control over the Kingdom's finances and both internal and external threats this laid the groundwork for his son Henry of Monmouth to inherit a throne that rested on a more solid foundation however the question of his legitimate right to that Throne remained Henry of Monmouth entered the world at a time of political power struggles not only within Royal dynasties of England and France but also within the Catholic Church These clashes included one of the longest periods of conflict between France and England known to us as the Hundred Years War which erupted in 1337 and had been fought intermittently ever since the roots of the conflict lay in the question of the right of English kings to control not only their ancestral lands in France including the provinces of Normandy Brittany gascony orju and Aquitaine but also to the French throne itself for instance the Kings of England had held the duchy of Normandy in northern France from the Norman conquest of 1066 through to the loss of this territory by King John to the French in the early 13th century actually during the Hundred Years War English kings fought to reclaim these territories only to be repelled again and again by French forces at the time of Henry of monmouth's birth all that remained under English control was gascony and a small sliver of land around the port city of Calais in the northeast of France increasingly as large land Holdings became Consolidated under one ruler leading to the birth of nation-states that lacked the outlet of military conquest extended royal family members turned on themselves as happened with the Richard II lancastrian Feud that clouded so much of monmouth's young life however this feud paled in comparison to the infighting within the valwa Royal House of France there the king of France Charles VI suffered from intermittent insanity and royal family members vied to fill this power vacuum as a result of this a French Civil War would begin in 1407 when John Duke of burgundy also known as John The Fearless assassinated his uncle Louis Duke of orleo this would have major consequences for Henry in his later years as king of England there were numerous other issues which obtained in England during the late 14th century which would lead to problems for Henry when he became king of the country years later many of these centered on religious Affairs in England in the 1370s a church reformer by the name of John Wycliffe had begun demanding reforms and greater transparency within the church through the eradication of Corrupt Practices such as nepotism and simony while the doctrine of the church as promulgated from Rome was also being called into question the lollards as wycliffe's followers became known after his death in 1384 were a major group within the English church throughout the 1390s and 1400s and Henry would have to engage with them in years to come as a form of hereticism within the English church in addition to this issue there were growing problems around dancing of the English government and the country more widely these two would have a significant bearing on Henry in his adult years Henry of Monmouth grew up in his family's lancastrian land surrounded by his extended family and their retainers Henry learned much from these highly educated and culturally sophisticated people he not only followed his father in learning to speak and write French Latin and English he also absorbed his parents love of Music which included learning how to play the harp and sing he became one of the first Kings of England to regularly write his correspondence in English furthermore he received intensive training and rhetoric and logic in line with a new form of humanist education which was just beginning to become popular in Western Europe as the Italian Renaissance entered its most substantial period by age eight his education shifted to the military Arts where he became an expert equestrian jouster combat fighter and Military strategist but in 1398 at age 12 the young Henry found his world turned upside down when King Richard exiled his father from England and took him Henry himself hostage in order to ensure his father's further good behavior The Taking of hostages in this way was a common medieval practice to control the behavior of people but generally speaking Richard is believed to have treated young Henry well disorienting events evolved quickly for Henry when his father returned to England as Henry's father took advantage of the dislike of Richard's reign within the political community of England to depose Richard and have himself crowned as King Henry IV of England the first usurpation of the English crown which had occurred in well over 200 years on the day of his father's coronation on the 13th of October 1399 Henry participated in the coronation ceremony he had the honor to carry the Sword of Justice and soon after this the young Henry became not only the Prince of Wales but also Duke of Cornwall Earl of Chester Duke of Aquitaine and Duke of Lancaster it was through these Estates that the young Henry received income to fund his household and it was his responsibility to oversee them in addition while he was only 13 years of age at this time his father increasingly handed him significant responsibilities this was seen in the case of the rebellion of Owen glendor a Welsh prince who had initiated a revolt against the English crown in 1400 this would drag on throughout Henry IV's reign with the King having much the worse of the conflict between 1400 and 1406 the king decided in 1406 when his son was just 19 years of age to place him directly in charge of the suppression of this rebellion in the Crown's western territories it can be said that the man Henry of Monmouth became was forged during his time in Wales he learned a milliad of lessons he would use throughout his life one of the most important was the question of fiscal management Henry's father's Reign was blighted by issues around fiscal mismanagement and the Young Prince of Wales began to understand from an early age that the way to succeed as King was to ensure that the exchequer had more money coming in than out of it this became extremely apparent in Wales during the mid-1400s when young Henry's forces had difficulties in terms of their supplies and activities owing to an insufficient flow of money from London consequently Henry found himself writing on several occasions during these years to his father begging for more money he learned that military skill was only one component of becoming a good warrior the other was having money to finance military campaigns because of these money troubles as well as other political tensions Henry's Mentor Sir Henry Percy a powerful Lord from the north of England who is generally known as hot spur grew so frustrated that he along with other members of his family and the political Nation rebelled against King Henry IV the younger Henry had the unenviable position of having to fight directly against the very man who had trained him as a military leader once the Rebellion broke out on the 21st of July 1403 as part of the northern rebellion of Hotspur King Henry IV and the Young Prince Henry along with her supporters fought one of the bloodiest battles in England's history the Battle of Shrewsbury it proved an important victory for the king and ended the lies of Hotspur and other key members of the aristocracy Henry played a key role during this battle he also demonstrated profound courage after an arrow pierced his face just below his right eye and penetrated six inches into his skull most men would have collapsed following this incident but Henry kept fighting afterwards an English surgeon John Bradmore devised a way to not only extract the arrowhead from his skull but also used a method whereby he stuffed wine and probes into the wound to facilitate the healing process us this kept any infection in the wound to a minimum a major medical feat in an age before antibiotics nevertheless while it had been hard one through an injury of this kind Shrewsbury had taught young Henry the value of loyalty and he learned quickly how to effectively Foster loyalty toward himself as the Prince of Wales and later as the king of England in addition he like his father clung to family and used their skills to help him govern rather than relying on characters such as Hotspur who would Rebel if the situation appeared propitious to do so in fact Henry's family provided him not only with three brothers of immense talent but also his Beaufort uncles and the extended lancastrian family and retainers he would never have achieved all of the things which we will see he did during his breed if rain without their efforts although Henry and his father had managed to put down one segment of the mass rebellions which had broken out across their dominions with victory at the Battle of Shrewsbury The Wider struggle was not over the Revolt of Owen glendor was still a major problem in Wales and the Western marches of England it was here that Prince Henry focused his efforts from the mid-1400s onwards while his father focused on quelling the remainder of the Revolt in the north of England notably by executing the Archbishop of York Richard strobe the his role in the Hotspur rebellion in March 1405 Henry defeated glendor in a clash at Grossmont and managed to capture one of the Welsh Prince's Sons this was quickly followed by another Victoria's ask in May 1405 the first major victory for English arms over the Welsh in a pitched battle since the War Began from this point onwards the conflict turned in the English Crown's favor in 1407 Henry laid Siege to aberystwyth which fell a year later even the French who had Allied themselves with the Welsh pulled back realizing the tide was turning in 1408 Henry turned to the Welsh stronghold harlech it proved a decisive encounter because not only was glendower there but also the remains of his family and one of his key English supporters Edmund Mortimer who was the Rival to the lancastrian claim to the throne of England by 1409 halek had fallen and Mortimer had died during The Siege his wife and daughters died in captivity in London afterwards and his sons were already imprisoned glendower and one of his other Sons fled into the mountains and was rarely ever heard from again through this experience Henry became a person who could Galvanize the King's Men He also developed novel approaches to solve old problems for example the hit and run method of his father that was used to control Rebellion with limited funds clearly did not work Henry chose instead to use the resources he had to retake key fortresses and hold them then pushed forward in a new wave of capture and control slowly and systematically constricting the enemy and its resources it proved decidedly effective and he gained respect of others in his father's Court overall Wales provided the theater in which Prince Henry came of age as a military commander and leader in his youth by the time the war in Wales was coming to an inexorable end the prince was playing an Ever more significant role in the governance of England his father King Henry IV had been struck by a mysterious illness in 1405 one which became gradually more debilitating in the years that followed with the King often suffering from Caesars and periods when he was effectively bedridden as his health declined more and more responsibility was gradually given to the Prince of Wales young Henry attended his first meeting of the king's Council on December 1406 and would participate in these confidences and successive parliaments from that time forward also starting around this time Henry IV's Chancellor Thomas Arundel the Archbishop of Canterbury began to play a more substantial role in government Affairs he was particularly concerned to begin systematically addressing the financial shortfalls of the crown after years of financial mismanagement by Henry's father and the onerous burden of fighting multiple Wars on different fronts Arundel looked to other untapped resources in order to acquire greater revenue for the crown under Arundel and Prince Henry the government began looking to use the extended royal family to address many of the problems confronted by the crown thus Henry's brother Thomas was sent to Ireland although he was only 12 years of age his presence there with royal advisors provided a clear symbol of the Rejuvenation of Royal Authority across the Irish sea similarly hen Henry's third brother John was sent North to assist in stifling the rebellions on the Scottish Borderlands towards the end of Henry IV's Ray John proved to be not only an excellent Soldier but a creative government administrator it would be these people the beauforts his brother and key lancastrian retainers to whom Henry V would turn to during his Reign and even after his death to help him achieve his goals as the years went by and Henry IV's illnesses showed no signs of improving but rather continue to get worse Henry was more and more presenting himself as a king in Waiting this was mirrored in his growing control over the government for instance Arundel was effectively forced out of his position within the government in 1409 and he and others were replaced by the prince's supporters the prince's government in essence ruled England for much of the remaining years of Henry IV's reign their major efforts focused on reforming the Crown's finances Henry went after annuities to cut expenses which his father always avoided because he thought it betrayed the trust of loyal supporters who were in financial distress Henry also began to address the situation in France where a civil war had effectively broken out as a consequence of Charles VI increasing bouts of Madness and psychological incapacity Henry decided to support the claim of John The Fearless the Duke of burgundy to try to seize power from Charles Henry viewed this as advantageous both because civil unrest in France was always advantageous to England and because of the possibility that Henry would marry one of John's daughters as such by the late 1400s Prince Henry was effectively running the English government this effective usurpation of his position as king did not always sit well with Henry IV himself and in 1411 during one of his periodic bouts of partial recovery from his health issues he moved to reclaim control of the government and to remove his son and his followers from power in November of that year he suddenly reappeared on the political stage playing a central role in the parliament which was underway there were many reasons for this but one of the most obvious was the differing attitude of Father and Son towards Royal annuities these were payments made annually by the crown to prominent subjects effectively to reward them for their loyalty the cost of them had been huge in the 1400s and contributed to the financial problems of the government the prince had accordingly decided to begin cutting them back drastically in the late 1400s but his father disagreed with this approach he felt his son's approach was well-meaning but naive and would only serve to alienate the crown supporters and unleash a new wave of rebellions Henry also did not find young Henry's choice in a French Ally a good one King Henry knew the players in the French Court personally he had stayed at the court during jousting tournaments as a youth and paid a visit on his return trip after his travels to the Holy Land he had already taken the mark of the French court and backed the supporters of King Charles VI he did not think it's sensible to support the burgundians who were led by John The Fearless as such he believed young Henry had backed the wrong side in the Civil War in France as a result of these issues King Henry entered Parliament on the 30th of November 1411 and calmly stated that he would no longer tolerate what he referred to as Novelties in the government of the country by this he meant the attitudes towards French policy the annuities and other measures but he was also referring to Growing rumors that he should abdicate the throne in favor of his son Henry made it wholly clear that this was not going to happen instead he asked those who had served his son and those who had served in his government to come forward at which point he politely thanked them for their service and dismissed them it took time for them to understand what had just happened and when the realization hit young Henry was Furious this action created extreme tensions within their father-son relationship it did not help that the king reinstated Archbishop Arundel as Chancellor and placed Henry's brother Thomas as head of the king's Council following Prince Henry's removal from the head of the government his father changed a number of policies notably towards France in May 1412 the Treaty of Borge was sealed it acknowledged Henry IV in possession of the duchy of Aquitaine and the west of France in exchange for England providing military support for the actions of the French King against the burgundians it was a stunning reversal of young Henry's plan to make things even more tense between Henry and his brother Thomas King Henry sent Thomas to gascony to bolster the provisions specified in the treaty for all intents and purposes his father had shut Henry out of government and then completely reversed his French policy among other matters Henry eventually decided he had no option but to relent after all nobody knew in the early 1410s if his father would make a full recovery from his illnesses if he did he might well rule for another 20 or 30 years Henry could not afford to be locked out of the political decision-making of the realm he would inherit one day for that long thus after much soul-searching and worry on the 29th of July 1412 he entered his father's chamber a note before him Henry begged forgiveness then he handed his father his dagger and said my Lord and father my life is not so dear to me that I would live one day that I should be in your displeasure I forgive you my death King Henry immediately tossed away the dagger embraced his son and cried the reconciliation however was short-lived not because the two quickly quarreled again that because Henry IV's ill health resumed again within weeks early in 1413 he became seriously ill and was moved to Lambeth Palace Across the River Thames from Westminster to try to recover he did and as his condition continued to deteriorate he was moved about a month later to Westminster Abbey there he died in the Jerusalem chamber in the Abbott's quarters on the 20th of March 1413. in spite of their differences Prince Henry had reconciled with his father before he died and received his Blessing to inhabit the throne the funeral service was not held until June to give Thomas time to return from gascony in Western France then King Henry IV was finally laid to rest on the 18th of June 1413 in Trinity Chapel at Canterbury Cathedral although Henry may have experienced some youthful exuberance at the prospect of becoming King of England in his own right the reality that he was about to be king changed him as one story goes on the night his father died Henry left his family and headed towards Saint Bennett's Chapel he visited a Hermit there by the name of William anik Henry stayed up all night talking with the hermit about morality and his fear of potential conflict among the various Nobles since his father's hold on the throne had always been precarious this episode is indicative of how his Ascent to the kingship at 26 years of age changed Henry substantially rather than being an ambitious prince who wanted to assert himself in the political realm he now had the burden of full responsibility for his subjects placed upon Him thus it was that Henry was crowned King of England on the the 9th of April 1413 at Westminster Abbey the unusual spring blizzard that day made people wonder what it potended many saw it as a good omen that the new king would cleanse away the instability of the recent past and bring on a new age of moral kingship this bolstered Henry's almost Messianic mission to demonstrate Divine approval of the lancastrian family to rule over England and also of the Crohn's rightful claim to the French throne which his great-grandfather had first pressed three-quarters of a century earlier from the first days of his Reign Henry approached his task with purpose and energy he quickly began addressing a number of outstanding issues remaining from his father's Reign for instance he freed Edmund Mortimer and his brother Roger who had claimed to be Richard II's true heirs and had posed a political risk in the 1400s Edmund in particular had been the focus of a conspiracy to Dethrone Henry's father and place Mortimer on the throne back in 1405. the mortimers had been under guard ever since Henry not only freed them but made them both Knights of the bath and returned their family estates to them he then freed all of the Scottish prisoners except the young King James the first of Scotland who had been captured by English Pirates as he sailed to France in 1406 and had been held hostage ever since he would be kept in England until well into the 1420s Henry also reached out to other children whose parents had displeased the King Edward Duke of York had his title restored and his brother Richard was made Duke of Cambridge he even freed hotspur's son also named Henry Percy who would eventually have his family's estate's return to him as well finally he ordered Richard II's body disinterred from his burial place in King's Langley Priory Church in Hertfordshire and had him re-bedded at Westminster Abbey next to his first wife Anne of bohemia as he would have wished the import of all of this was clear it was a new Reign and the disunity and civil Discord which admired his father's years as king were over it was time for England to unite behind a new Young Monarch and Revitalize the kingdom one further outstanding issue which Henry had to contend with immediately was that of the lollards as we have seen these had emerged during the reign of Richard II but continued to pose a problem to the religious unity of England long after the death of their leader John Wycliffe in 1384. there had been various efforts to muzzle these dissenters under Henry IV notably through the issuing of a statute entitled de heretico combiorendo which effectively prescribed the lollards while prominent lollards such as William sawtry and John badby had been burned at the stake for refusing to recant their heretical beliefs as King Henry found himself again confronted with trying to get a heretic to recant in this case it was an old friend of his Sir John Oldcastle a long-standing Ally of Henry and a trusted Soldier during the well Welsh conflict yet he was an unabashed lollard who was brought before Archbishop Arundel in September 1413 and declared a heretic Henry intervened and gave old castle a period of 40 days in which to reflect on his conscience and recant his heretical beliefs this did not have the desired effect instead old castle escaped from the Tower of London he then hatched a plot to kill the king but the plot was exposed some of old Castle's supporters were killed or captured but he managed to escape and remain at large until 1417 when he met his fate and was hanged and burned to death it was a bitter pill to swallow for Henry but as God's instrument on Earth he had no choice the great people Schism also intruded on Henry's kingship beginning in the early 14th century a run of seven successive popes had established themselves at Avignon in France rather than residing at the Vatican in Rome then from the mid-1370s there have been two popes at once in Europe one residing at Avignon and the other at Rome but with both claiming to be the rightful head of the Roman Catholic Church efforts have been intermittently made to end this papal Schism over the years notably through a political and ecclesiastical council convened at the Italian city of Pisa in 1409 when this failed the king of Hungary and Croatia and the king of the Romans King sigismund who later became the Holy Roman Emperor pressured the newly elected Pope John the 23rd in 1413 to call for a council of prelates and government officials from all over Europe to meet in the German city of constance in November 1414 to resolve the ampas by Henry's calculations in sending diplomats to this meeting he could achieve two key things first he could prove his credentials as a Pious King loyal to church and God by helping end the Great Schism and secondly it was an opportunity to build a relationship with one of the most powerful men in Europe King sigismund and gain his support against the French ultimately these efforts proved largely successful as the Council of constance sat for four years until 1418 at the end of which the great schism was brought to an end and Pope Martin V was elected to rule over a reunited Church in addition the teacher of John Wycliffe and the actions of the lollards in England as well as several heretical groups such as the hasites in Bohemia were condemned at the Council of constance in 1415 providing Henry with the papal justification he needed to initiate a further series of crackdowns on the lollards at home from the beginning of his Reign Henry began planning for what he perceived to be the most important aspect of his duties as king of England to regain his Birthright in France the foundations of the Hundred Years War lay largely in the succession question plaguing France by the early 14th century France no longer had a direct Royal line to the French throne the three key claimants included the king of Navarre who could claim the throne through his marriage to jar the daughter of Louis X Philippe de valois cousin to Charles IV and nephew to Philippe IV and Edward III of England who was the grandson of Philippe IV through his mother who was Philippe's daughter Isabel the title of King was given to Philippe de valois by the 1330s Edward III decided he wanted to take what he felt was rightfully his and thus went to war with the French in 1337 to impose the claim of the English crown to also hold the French Crown Edward Henry's great-grandfather one stunning victories at Chrissy in 1346 and poetier in 1356 at the last battle King John of France was taken prisoner and ransomed for the enormous sum of three million gold coins yet rather than press his luck and demand the French throne for himself Edward III decided to negotiate with the French the resulting Treaty of bretoni of 1360 gave Edward full control over guyen gascony lemosa the port city of Calais and other lands in Southwestern France in exchange for these he had to renounce his rights to to Normandy Anjou and Maine those that followed as king of France did not hold to these terms and much was lost over the intervening years due to French aggression and English Royal ineptitude leaving England with only the significant gascony region in Western France and the port city of Calais in the northeast of the country Henry determined that he would follow his great-grandfather's Playbook but would not settle for just control over these rich lands he intended to demand the French Crown as his Birthright and felt that the recent destructive struggles which had occurred in France as a result of the mental instability of King Charles VI made the time propitious for him to press these claims the first order of business to set the ball rolling towards this goal was to follow proper medieval protocol and negotiate with French officials to try to come to some form of settlement neither side entered these negotiations in good faith for the French their focus was on their own infighting and each side tried to gain Henry's support for their cause Henry used this as a wedge to help Propel negotiations in his favor the French added secondly believe that England was as weak as it had been under Richard II and Henry IV from its own internal problems and would never be able to bring the war to France in the same way that Edward III had been able to over a half a century earlier Henry for his part had no intentions of caving into their demands but he played along during the summer of 1414 for example Henry's diplomats presented an offer he would renounce his claims to the French throne if he was given much of the traditional lands his forebears and his father had held in northern and western France in the 12th century along with additional territories in Flanders and Brittany in addition he requested the hand of Charles VI's daughter Catherine along with a dowry of two million crowns the French lamely offered a diary of 600 000 crowns along with Aquitaine which of course the English turned down negotiations continued like this for months meanwhile Henry was gradually initiating his plans for an invasion of France from the very moment he became king of England Henry had begun overseeing the strengthening of the English Army and Navy with the goal of intervening in France unlike his father Henry was not with the exception of the unrest provoked by Sir John Oldcastle plagued by a wave of rebellions at the outset of his reign as such he was free to begin diverting resources towards a resumption of the Hundred Years War in France first he ordered the building of both a strong land Army to operate on the continent and a Navy to transport this Army across the English Channel and to protect key ports for the disembarking of troops and to ensure strong resupply and communication channels he then had his officials Foster a National Industry to create tens of thousands of arrows Lancers armor and even cannons in in tandem he spent much of 14 14 and 1415 building alliances with key European players such as requesting ships from Flanders he negotiated a truce with Spanish traders who liked to raid English Merchant ships and disrupt trade in the English Channel and a similar truce with Brittany but Henry's greatest success was in reaching an agreement with John The Fearless the Duke of burgundy that he would not come to Charles VI's Aid when Henry invaded France in addition to these efforts he continued to support King sigismund's work at the Council of constance which nominally gained him support among the German principalities while making these logistical and diplomatic preparations Henry also ensured that England and Wales would be secure while he absented himself in France to do this he ordered extensive repairs and renovations to be carried out of existing castles and strongholds and the construction of new fortifications along the coasts especially the southern ports and along the Welsh and Scottish Borderlands he also refused to release King James the first of Scotland using his captivity to guarantee peace with the Scots and ensure that they would not Ally with the French once the war resumed all of this took money and Henry not only used traditional means of support such as rents from Royal Estates and court fees and fines but also aggressively milked trade subsidies and duties to bring in extra Revenue while he reviewed his father's sacred cow and annuities he only continued them if he could gain something in return from the recipients otherwise he pulled that support he also requested donations or loans from supporters who generously supplied the bulk of his resources like any modern fundraising effort Henry's team worked the people of England for these contributions in such a way that just about everyone in England felt that they had a critical role to play in the war effort this helped to build staunch support for the king and his goals that would last long after Henry Died what is not often discussed by historians is the fact that Henry used the crown jewels and other Treasures not only as collateral for these loans but also pawned some of these materials including the Royal Crown although many people both modern and contemporary were critical of the poor money management of Henry IV his son incurred a huge debt just for this first campaign to France the crisis for money would only grow as Henry pushed deeper into France to claim the French throne many of the Crown's Treasures were never returned to the Royal house because it took so long for the Next Generation to pay off his War debts despite the severity of these fundraising measures they were doubtlessly effective by 1415 Henry felt he was ready to go to France yet God wanted Henry to wait or so he thought he had planned to leave in early summer but the delay of the arrival of French envoys to continue negotiations postponed his departure once they had left he mustered the troops and was ready to sail on the 1st of August only to be informed that some key players such as Richard Earl of Cambridge Lord Henry skrobe Sir Thomas Gray and Sir Robert umphreville were plotting to kill the king and put Edmund Mortimer Earl of March on the throne Mortimer who had played along with the plotters told the king of course Henry could not leave this conspiracy which is known to posterity as the Southampton plot unaddressed the guilty parties were rounded up and gray and scope were tried with Thomas Henry's brother presiding over the trials both were found guilty and quickly executed Henry then did something surprising he immediately ordered the confiscation and sale of scrope's property it was an illegal act but the underlying motivation could have been his desperate need for money this done Henry completed his will made his brother John duka Bedford his lieutenant in England and headed for France on what would become one of the most infamous military campaigns in English and European history on the 11th of August 1415 Henry finally boarded his Flagship the Trinity Royal and sailed to France of course the French had known for quite some time that an invasion was likely however based upon past performance they did not have much concern about what would be heading their way between the boats of insanity of their King Charles VI and the infighting among royal family members the most significant question became who would lead the defense of the country against the Invaders nominally Char dobre career Soldier was made Constable of France and jealous also known as Marshall bukiko one of France's greatest military Fighters was appointed Captain General more importantly would The Heir Apparent the dofar Louis lead the Army for the French Henry's 14 15 assault would prove a perfect storm which led to a political and Military disaster Henry had planned to attack our Fleur in the north of France first because of its strategic location near the mouth of the river sane he first stopped at Chef Deco on the 13th of August as a cautionary measure there appeared to be no resistance even so he ordered no one to leave the ships until a search party scouted the region including the situation at our Fleur the message which arrived back was that it was safe to go ahead they moved to our Fleur and began to disembark which took three days salt marshes and Estuary and strong walls protected the tone of our floor once settled Henry ordered his brother Thomas to move his forces around to the other side of the town to camp on the hillside overlooking the region having surrounded the town Henry followed medieval military procedure rooted in the rules set down in the book of Deuteronomy verse 10 to talk with the town's leaders and offer them the choice to choose peace over Bloodshed they rejected the English calls for peace thus the siege of our Fleur began with heavy bombardment and efforts made to cut off all supplies and Communications into or out of the town as The Siege dragged on for weeks the constant bombardment and beginnings of starvation made The Siege difficult for the town's people to make matters worse starting late in the second week or early in the third week of The Siege dysentery began to impact on the forces of both sides the town's People Prayed for Relief and even managed to get Letters Out requesting help from the French forces but by the third week of September after a brief truce to permit one last official attempt to call for help it had become clear to those in our Flair that no one one was coming to relieve them they were on their own on the 23rd of September Henry and his forces finally entered the town of aflur he headed straight to the church of Saint Michael and prayed grateful for his victory the young king also took the opportunity to reiterate to his troops their code of conduct the military operations in France churches and religious buildings were not to be pillaged clergy and women were not to be harmed unless they were clearly hostile and rape was prohibited non-combatants within the English armed forces were similarly required to follow military rules including obeying all orders from Military Officers or foraging Expeditions had to be authorized and no buildings were to be pillaged or burned unless explicit commands to that effect had been received rules about taking of hostages proved strict as well Henry's intent for all of these rules was to build trust among the French people he wanted them to see that he cared for his people as their true king and the new ruler of France but there were also stringent expectations of his new subjects the people of our Fleur for instance were given an ultimatum anyone who swore allegiance to him could remain and help rebuild the town those wealthy citizens who refused to swear loyalty would be ransomed while all poor sick women and children were permitted to take all they could carry and then were escorted towards the French army at the same time all those within the English military who were sick or injured were sent back to England including Henry's brother Thomas who had fallen ill with dysentery on the 5th of October 1415 Henry held a military Council to determine what his next move would be many of his advisors wanted to return home having scored a substantial success in conquering our Fleur yet Henry believed God wanted him to continue so on the 8th of October the English army broke camp at our Fleur and headed for Kali Henry left Thomas Beaufort Earl of Dorset at our Fleur to hold the town with about 100 soldiers and 900 archers along with support Personnel he also ordered the English Fleet to patrol the coastline and Estuary of the river sane Henry had suffered losses historians debate how many but his forces had been depleted the best guess is Henry left England with roughly 12 000 fighting men plus support Personnel after our Fleur he had roughly 10 1000 Fighters left having then left about 1200 men to hold half lure he was returning to Calais with a total force of not much more than nine thousand along with support personnel Henry's actions followed Edward III's Playbook his goal was to cross the Somme River at an old Roman Ford near Blanche attack the French knowing that history did everything they could to stop him from Crossing they destroyed this Ford and smashed other Bridges and causeways all down the river forcing Henry deeper into French territory and away from his goal of Calais Henry also had the challenge of maintaining discipline especially after Food Supplies began to run low while some villagers along the way submitted to Henry and offered food others did not accompanied by a few skirmishes then luck finally came their way at nail one of the villagers told them about an unguarded Ford Henry finally had a way to cross the Somme which they did on the 19th of October near bethancor from here the French seemed to heard the English into their chosen location for battle yet it would all prove a disaster for the French on the night of the 24th of October Henry V that his English forces settled in for the night outside of the village of missile cell the French spread out near the town of tramacor and began sending appeals out to the local nobility and gentry to send whatever Military Support they could the following day one of the most significant battles in English military history would be fought it was named for a small town near the French forces ajinkor the battle would finally be joined between the English and French the following day the 25th of October 1415 after days of the two sides shadowing each other strangely the French selected a battlefield that had been plowed and had grains sowed in it it was about a mile in length with Woods on either side and rather than provide room for the vast numbers of French of which there were around 12 000 troops the shape of the field would force them into a tight squeeze before meeting the English fortuitously for Henry it rained during the night turning the field into a plane of sticky mud early the next morning Henry performed his devotionals ordered the archers to spike the field with Stakes as a defense against a cavalry charge and formed the men up into three groups called battles they would move as one with Henry commanding the center battle dressed to attract the attention of the enemy the French also formed up but controversy continued to Reign Over who was the true leader nominally the dolphin Louis commanded Heralds were sent to a convocation before the battle so formal medieval niceties could be adhered to and then they waited neither side wanting to start the battle finally Henry had enough he gave the command to begin startling the French with a cloud of arrows that filled the sky the French responded with an ill-prepared cavalry charge but since the English held up just past the narrowest part of the field they were channeled into the stakes and another hail storm of arrows the sticky mud made quick Maneuvers impossible and this combined with the French being confined to a narrow area and the devastating impact of wave after wave of arrows Unleashed by the English longbows was what would make agincour such a spectacular victory in the period that followed terrified Frenchmen and horses tried to flee only to be trampled by the next onslaught of soldiers Cavalry and English arrows bodies piled up making it hard to move then the French began to see how numbers can be a disadvantage when hand-to-hand combat started they were so thick that they could not move to swing their swords slipping and sliding in the mud only exacerbated the situation hundreds died and the melee all were crushed at one point Henry's brother Humphrey was injured and fell to the ground Henry leptin uncovered his brother against his assailant until he could be dragged away to safety after hours of fighting there was a pause to permit the French to regroup after the English had demolished two of their battles the hostilities had not ended or had they Henry realized that the French had more men ready to charge in but would they use them he assumed it was only a matter of time in this moment Henry did something that not only violated the medieval rules of War but his own rules of conduct set forth for his army in the Medieval World unarmed prisoners especially Nobles who could be ransomed were not to be killed however Henry lacked the men to watch these prisoners and feared they might join the fight making it a two-pronged battle so he gave the ignoble order to Massacre all of the prisoners despite this precaution or perhaps because of it the renewed charge which he feared did not happen there was one final French cavalry charge with the English archers responding with a cloud of arrows then realizing further engagement would almost certainly only lead to more Carnage the French withdrew from the field only hours before Henry and his army faced certain defeat but with military skill the technological superiority of the English Longbow and more than a little luck in terms of the positioning of the battle an astonishing Victory had been won by Henry over the French the Battle of Agincourt soon became the stuff of legend for the French this was an unmitigated disaster with up to 7 000 troops and auxiliaries dead and injured accusations of blame flew at any one and anything to try to explain how this could have happened during the backbiting John The Fearless tried to take advantage of the weakened French government and made an effort to seize Paris for the English they gathered their injured and made a slow three-day journey to Calais the wounded was sent to England immediately but Henry remained in Calais until the 16th of November 1415. thus it was not until the 23rd of November that he made his triumphant parade through London cheered on by joyous citizens by that time Henry was already planning his next foray into France the victory at Agincourt and the disarray which it had created across France had opened up the possibility of an English conquest of Paris itself and that Edward III's dream of uniting the kingdoms of England and France under one Monarch could finally be achieved by his great-grandson however Henry was unable to follow up the campaign of 1415 with a crushing blow in 1416. first he had to deal with the presence of Genevieve's ships in the English Channel who were allied with France and were determined to block English supply lines between England and Calais and aflur then Henry's return to France was delayed by the arrival of King sigismund to England on the 3rd of May 1416 to negotiate for support of his his efforts at the Council of constance in England Henry received him warmly and treated him to the best of England he also made sigismund a knight of the Garter then on the 15th of August 1416 they agreed the Treaty of Canterbury a mutually beneficial trade and Military agreement sigismund subsequently failed to uphold his end of this but what the treaty did do was lend further legitimacy to Henry's claim to the French throne as under the terms of the treaty sigismund declared his support to build on this diplomatic success Henry reaffirmed support from other quarters including the castilians he even traveled to Calais to negotiate with John The Fearless to gain his support for his claim to the French throne Henry also addressed the financial situation in England in order to fund his military needs with all of this undertaken he then finally returned to France in August 1417 having landed at talk he began his renewed efforts by moving to take core in the north of the country this Siege went in similar fashion as aflur with the town surrendering on the 20th of September 1417. soon after the towns of Bayer and lesue surrendered and over the next few weeks additional towns capitulated to Henry throughout late 1417 and early 1418 he began solidifying his control all over northern France with his brother Humphrey moving to seize the western side of Normandy in February 1480. yet the port city of cherberg refused to fall and it took a five-month Siege to finally defeat its Defenders finally that summer on the 29th of July Henry began his Siege of Roar the capital of Normandy it was a long Deadly Affair in December in desperation the Ruan townspeople expelled their starving poor including old men women and children Henry refused to show Mercy by feeding them declaring I did not put them there and many died ruar opened its gates in defeat on the 19th of January 1419. Henry had successfully conquered Normandy the duchy which his ancestors had once come from to conquer England in the mid 11th century perhaps his dream of fulfilling Edward III's goal of conquering France was not as Fantastical an ambition as many might have believed concern was certainly growing amongst the French about Henry's successes thus a meeting was called for May 1419 in mellor where the French would meet with Henry and his emissaries both King Charles VI and John The Fearless attended it was the first time Henry met the woman he had sought to be his bride Catherine Henry now reiterated his desire to have her hand in marriage thus tying his line to that of the French monarchy and also that he would hold all of the lands promised under the terms of the Treaty of britin ye which Edward III had concluded over half a century earlier this would effectively have restored England to possession of much of northern and western France the only concession Henry would offer was that he might renounce his right to the French Crown if he received everything else else John The Fearless remained silent during these negotiations and then secretly decided to betray his agreement with Henry by allying himself with the dofa Charles the Future King Charles VII thus while both sides had now made their negotiating position clear little tangible was achieved by the meeting at Miller Henry's response was Swift on the 29th of July he sent some of his army to attack pontwas John the fearless's headquarters on the 3rd of August the army of Henry's brother Thomas had reached sandini near Paris and continued to move forward threatening Paris itself while this was going on a meeting was set between the dofa and John in a rare decisive moment the dofan's servants murdered John this event changed the political Dynamics considerably on the 27th of September Henry met with the King of France and his supporters only Henry demanded the French throne and Catherine without a dowry he insisted that it would be ruled as two separate kingdoms but their children would inherit the French throne by Birthright he would permit Charles VI to remain on on the throne until his death stunningly the French agreed consequently on the 21st of May 1420 the Treaty of tra was officially sealed making Henry Regent of France on the 2nd of June 1420 he then married Catherine of France atra in a simple wedding it seemed that Henry had finally conquered France over 80 years after his great-grandfather had initiated the Hundred Years War in an effort to do so he must have felt that the task was largely complete when he entered Paris on the 1st of December 1420 for the first time in Triumph he remained there to celebrate Christmas yet all was not well Henry still had some mopping up to do because a few cities refused to surrender and the dofar Charles continued you to ferment trouble in England people had grown tired of the war and its expense it was time to return to England to introduce his new bride he left his brother Thomas as his lieutenant in France he made his way back to the coast and sailed to England arriving in Dover on the 2nd of February 1421 although Henry had been gone for three years the kingdom had been in the capable hands of Bishop Henry Beaufort and then the bishop of Durham Thomas Langley three weeks after their arrival Catherine was crowned Queen of England at Westminster Abbey they then set out on a grand tour to show Catherine England the tour also served as a fundraiser for his military needs in France yet as Henry soon discovered it was proving more and more difficult to continue raising large Financial subsidies in England the same problem which had eventually thwarted his great-grandfather in his efforts to conquer France fundraising proved harder than before then on the 21st of March 1421 Henry received shocking news Thomas as his acting lieutenant in France had engaged the dolphin Charles at the Battle of va beauge overly eager to claim a stunning victory of his own Thomas had foolishly raced into battle without properly placing his troops in formation he was killed several English officers were taken prisoner and a formidable victory was won by the dofa and the French this Victory bolstered the confidence of the dofa and proved that the English were not Invincible the Henry it was a disastrous reversal however he did not return immediately to France as Catherine was pregnant eventually on the 9th of June 1421 Henry sailed from Dover for France there things declined even further the Duke of Brittany had signed a treaty with the dofa while the young Duke of burgundy John the fearless's son was also beginning to have second thoughts about his alliance with the English once in France Henry is set to work he first addressed the situation at Dr which capitulated after about four weeks he then headed to shartra to address the siege there upon his arrival the Dothan pulled back ending The Siege and he retreated to tour Henry returned to Paris and attacked sites still loyal to the doe fan nearby he began his Siege on Murr and Marche in October the weather was miserable dysentery and fever ravaged the troops morale was low the only good news Henry received was the announcement of the birth of his son in December he was christened Henry like his father and grandfather the town of Mer fell in March 1422 a Marche in May compagna surrendered soon after as had been the case since 1415 Henry's personal presence and Military leadership in France brought Victory after victory despite these victories all was not well Henry was clearly ill during his latest campaign on the continent as with so many other Royal illnesses of the time it is difficult to know precisely what the malady was but it seems likely that he was suffering from dysentery the situation was serious Enough by the spring of 1422 that Queen Catherine left England to be with the King arriving to France in May there she witnessed the further decline of her husband on the 26th of August 1422 the situation was so drastic that Henry reviewed his will and added a codicil to address the care of his son and Heir the infant Henry who was still short of his first birthday he would soon be king as King Henry VI of England for his father died in France at chateau on the 31st of August 1422 Henry's body was taken through France in commemoration and then sent to England he was buried at Westminster Abbey on the 7th of November 1422. following Henry's death a Regency government was established to rule England on behalf of his infant son this included figures such as Bishop Henry Beaufort the Duke of Exeter and Chancellor Thomas Langley while Henry's Widow Queen Catherine would also play a prominent role over the next several decades as a fierce advocate for her son but there was trouble ahead a Regency government could never sustain the kind of military campaigning which Henry V had been able to in the 1410s and early 1420s in France moreover just weeks after Henry's own death the dofa Charles succeeded to the throne of France as King Charles VII in the years that followed as England suffered from a weak minority government France was strengthened by Charles's effective kingship and the appearance of Joan of Arc as a heroine of the French side in the war in the late 1420s then when Henry VI finally came of age he proved to be mentally unstable thus England faced major political crises from the 1440s onwards all of this saw the English war effort collapse in France in 1451 the city of Bordeaux the capital of the English presence in gascony fell to Charles VII's armies and following the Battle of castillon 1453 England was expelled from all its territories in France other than the town of Calais and its Hinterland while this would remain in English hands until the 1550s 1453 is typically viewed as marking the end of the Hundred Years War moreover as Henry VI's mental collapse worsened in the 1450s England itself was plunged into Civil War the famed Wars of the Roses for the next 30 Years Henry V is one of England's most lionized Kings much of that reputation rests on the spectacular English victory at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415 and the fact that English arms and political power in France peaked in the years that followed there is no doubting that Henry was a dynamic King and an effective military campaigner and that this allowed him to succeed in this way but if Henry succeeded in this way in France it was to a large extent owing to the French being massively divided owing to the psychological Frailty of their long-reigning King Charles VI it was owing to Charles's incapacity as king and the Civil War which it provoked in France in the 1400s that Henry was able to succeed so spectacularly there between 1415 and 1422 when the tables were reversed thereafter the war flipped in France's favor again what is perhaps most striking is that Henry faced the same issues which his great-grandfather Edward III had namely the inability of the English government to pay for a sustained war against France had he lived longer it seems likely that Henry would have succeeded where the Regency government for his son failed in this sense Henry's Legacy largely rests on his premature death what do you think of Henry V does his victory at Agincourt make him England's Greatest Warrior King or was his victory against the French a carbon copy of the tactics used by Edward III and the black prince please let us know in the comment section and in the meantime thank you very much for watching [Music] foreign [Music]

Channel: The People Profiles

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Keywords: Biography, History, Historical, Educational, The People Profiles, Biography channel, the biography channel, biography documentary channel, biography channel, biography highlights, biography full episodes, full episode, biography of famous people, full biography, biography a&e, biography full episode, biography full documentary, bio, history, life story, mini biography, biography series on tv, full documentary biography, education, 60 minutes, documentary, documentaries, docs, facts

Id: UL7zDrLFBBM

Length: 206min 35sec (12395 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 24 2022