The Fears of Henry IV: The Life of England's Self-Made King (73 page)

18
.
Revolution,
p. 140.

19
. Morgan, ‘Apotheosis of a warmonger’;
PK,
p. 394.

20
. Keiser, ‘Edward III and the Alliterative “Morte Arthure”’.

21
.
PK,
pp. 427–9.

22
.
PK,
p. 266.

23
. Alison McHardy, ‘Personal portrait’, p. 11.

24
. McHardy, ‘Personal portrait’, p. 12.

25
.
Froissart,
ii, p. 166.

26
.
The Poetical Works of Geoffrey Chaucer
(Aldine ed., 1845), v, p. 283. The last line has been modernised slightly, from ‘Nas sene so blissfull a tresore’.

27
. Goodman,
John of Gaunt,
p. 46.

28
. Wylie, iv, p. 331.

29
. Goodman,
John of Gaunt,
p. 46.

30
. Goodman,
Katherine Swynford,
p. 11. He suggests that Blanche, being so named, might have had the duchess as her godmother. If so she must have been born before 1368, and been older than Thomas. However, it is possible that another Blanche stood as her godmother, or that she was named after the late duchess by her mother. Given-Wilson & Curteis,
Royal Bastards,
p. 148, notes that John stood godfather to her, but states that she was younger than her brother.

31
. Goodman,
John of Gaunt,
p. 49. He had married Constanza in September 1371. He was authorised to use the Castilian royal title in January 1372.

32
. As noted in Goodman,
Katherine Swynford,
p. 11, John’s return in November 1371 – the same month as Sir Hugh Swynford died – almost certainly rules out the often-mentioned possibility that they started their affair during her husband’s lifetime.

33
. For example,
Register 1372–76,
i, pp. 208–9, 211.

34
.
ODNB,
under ‘Mowbray Thomas (I)’.

35
. For Richard’s character see McHardy, ‘Personal portrait’; Saul, chapter seventeen.

36
. At the age of seventeen Richard built a small lodge on an island in the Thames near Sheen Palace, which one can only see as an attempt to remove himself from court life and find either privacy or isolation. See Mathew,
Court,
p. 33.

37
. In 1372 and early 1373 John spent practically all his time either at Hertford Castle or his London palace, and so would have spent many weeks in Henry’s company. His register has him at Hertford throughout March, in August and from October through to early March 1373, with occasional visits to the Savoy. He spent Holy Week 1373 at Hertford prior to departing with an army to France.

38
.
Register 1372–76,
i, p. 169.

39
. The dates of birth of the Beauforts are open to doubt. The dates 1373–7 for all four, put forward by Simon Walker in
ODNB
(under ‘Swynford, Katherine’), seems to be far too compact a range, especially given John of Gaunt’s absence in France for over a year, not to mention the fact that John’s liaison with Katherine was illicit. Armitage-Smith gives a more likely range of 1373–9. See Armitage-Smith, p. 389.

40
. For the illegitimate child by Marie de Saint-Hilaire see Given-Wilson & Curteis,
Royal Bastards,
p. 147.

41
.
Register 1372–76,
ii, p. 191. The gifts were to (1) his brother the prince, (2) the princess, (3) his wife, the queen of Castile, (4) his brother Edmund, earl of Cambridge, (5–7) Henry, Philippa and Elizabeth, (8) the countess of Cambridge, (9) Lady Poynings, (10) Lady Segrave, (11) his niece, the countess of March, (12)
Lady de la Warre, (13) Lady Gourtenay (14) Lord Latimer, (15) Alan Buxeille, (16) Louis Clifford, (17) ‘Monsieur Richard’, (18) Nicholas Sharnesfield, (19) Simon Burley (20) John d’Ypres, (21) William Menowe, (22) John Clanvowe, (23) the queen of Castile’s lady, (24) the governess of his children (Katherine Swynford), (25) John Darcy (26) ‘Senche, a buttoner’.

42
.
Register 1372–76,
i, p. 251.

43
.
Signet Letters,
pp. 4, 51 (Latin and French), 148 (English), 152 (English), 191 (French), 194 (English).

44
. See W. L. Warren,
King John
(1961), pp. 48–9 for the legitimacy of this.

45
. Galbraith (ed.),
Anonimalle,
p. 83.

46
. Bennett, ‘Edward III’s Entail’, p. 585;
Froissart,
i, p. 509.

47
.
SAC,
p. 39.

48
.
SAC,
p. 41.

49
. British Library: Cotton Charter XVI 63.

50
. Bennett considers the possibility that it is a fifteenth-century forgery and concludes that it is ‘inconceivable’. See Bennett, ‘Edward III’s Entail’, p. 584.

51
. There is no indication of the date when Henry was given the courtesy title of Derby; the earliest reference to him as such is the 12 April 1377 writ for the preparation of robes for his knighting at Windsor. See Galway, ‘Alice Perrers’ son John’, p. 243. His father continued to use the title and to receive the profits of the Derby estates for several years.

52
. There is no evidence to suggest Henry was in the royal household prior to 1376. However, it would appear that he had already left the custody of Katherine Swynford before 25 July 1376. See
Register 1372–76,
ii, p. 302.

53
. Saul, p. 454, for Arundel.
ODNB,
under ‘Mowbray, Thomas (I)’ and ‘Vere, Robert de’.

54
. Saul, p. 35.

55
. For Henry acting as his father’s lieutenant, see
Register 1379–83,
i, xlvii.

56
. McHardy, ‘Personal portrait’, p. 24.

57
. DL 28/1/1 fol. 3v. This mentions gilded spangles purchased for the jousts in January 1382. While this payment does not necessarily relate to his taking part in the jousting, just his intention to be there, it has to be noted that spangles were also bought for the 1 May jousts at Hertford, at which Henry definitely did take part. The account includes a payment ‘for six lances for the lord on the last day of April for the jousts which were at Hertford on the first day of May 6s’ on fol. 6r, and goes on to record payments for armour and points for the armour used by Henry on this occasion.

58
. Mortimer, ‘Henry IV’s Date of Birth’.

59
. Montendre’s 1376 appointment appears in
ODNB,
under ‘Henry IV’; his wages amounted to a shilling per day in 1381–2. See DL 28/1/1 fol. 7r–9v

60
.
LC,
p. 153.

61
.
Register 1379–83,
i, p. 152 (no. 463);
CP,
iv, p. 325.

62
. On 29 November 1380, at Henry’s request, the king pardoned Thomas Bate of Brynsford for the killing of a man.
CPR 1377–81,
p. 561.

63
. On 7 November 1379 John wrote to his receiver in the county of Norfolk demanding that Henry’s allowance be paid to Hugh Waterton, Henry’s treasurer, for the last Michaelmas term. This shows that Henry’s own household had been established
by then, but even so it could have operated to support Henry while he was with the king, in the same way that Henry had his own household and budget even when he was in his father’s household. Further evidence is required for us to be certain of Henry’s independence from Richard’s household by this stage.

64
. For the minstrels see
LK,
p. 16. For the inclusion of the king in Henry’s list of annual 1 January gifts, see for example DL 28/1/2 fol. 17r; DL 28/1/4 fol. 18r.

2: All Courtesy from Heaven

  
1
. See
ODNB,
under ‘Henry IV’, for the date of 5 February. The article in the same work on Thomas of Woodstock states that the marriage ‘undoubtedly took place in 1380’.

  
2
. Kirby, p. 17.

  
3
. Holmes,
Estates,
p. 24.

  
4
. See Goodman,
John of Gaunt,
p. 276, for a discussion of Froissart’s reliability on the haste of the wedding.

  
5
. Kirby notes that the Inquisitions Post Mortem relating to her father’s estate (he dying on 16 January 1373) give her age as two, three or four. On 22 December 1384 she proved herself to be of age (fourteen). See Kirby, p. 18 n. 1. In addition, Mary made an age-related Maundy Thursday payment in 1388 to eighteen poor women (DL 28/1/2 fol. 26r) It would appear almost certain, therefore, that she was born in late 1369 or early 1370, and so eleven years old at the time of her marriage.

  
6
. Alexander & Binski (eds),
Age of Chivalry,
pp. 501–4.

  
7
. Summerson, ‘English Bible’.

  
8
.
Register 1379–83,
i, p. 179.

  
9
. Given-Wilson & Curteis,
Royal Bastards,
p. 149.

10
. DL 28/1/1.

11
. DL 28/1/1 fol. 5r. See also Appendix Three for a note on Wylie’s mistranscription of this.

12
. DL 28/1/1 fol. 4v. These spangles were made of gilt copper.

13
.
LK,
p. 22.

14
.
LK,
p. 21.

15
. For example, Edward III ordered 21,800 gold threads, costing £8 3s 4d, just for two jousting harnesses for a tournament at Clipstone in the first year of his reign, when he was fourteen. See E 101/383/3.

16
. E 101/393/10 m. 1.

17
. DL 28/1/1, fol. 5v.

18
. For a photograph of Edward III’s handwriting, see
PK,
second plate section; also Charles George Crump, ‘The arrest of Roger Mortimer and Queen Isabel’,
EHR,
xxvi (1911), pp. 331–2. For Richard II, see Saul, illustration no. 7. The letters are relatively neat but awkwardly formed. For Henry, see C 81/1358 4b.

19
. It is cautiously said that he could ‘at least quote a Latin tag’ (Summerson, ‘English Bible’, p. 111). But given the grammar-based education of the period, it is unlikely that he would have learnt to write so well if he had not learnt Latin. He also owned a number of books in Latin, and wrote pithy Latin statements in his own hand.

20
. Summerson, ‘English Bible’, p. 113. The Greek gloss might have been supplied by a clerk who came with the emperor of Byzantium in 1400. Several Greek clerks were in the party which went to Eltham, where Henry kept his books, and they spent several months in England. Permission was given to thirteen Greeks, ‘lately sent to the king by the emperor of Constantinople’ to leave England on 29 March 1403
(Syllabus,
ii, p. 547).

21
.
CB,
p. 2.

22
. Gower, quoted in Grady, ‘Lancastrian Gower’, p. 560.

23
. Wylie, iv, p. 138.

24
.
LK,
p. 23; Kirby, p. 203.

25
.
IH,
p. 116.

26
.
Creton,
p. 61.

27
. Trowell, ‘Recorder-Player’, pp. 83–4.

28
. DL 28/1/2 fol. 9v (cover for his harp [
cither
]); fol. 25v (strings [
cordarum
]). Although his wife paid for the strings, she bought a total of forty-eight, first a set of eight, then three dozen and four.

29
. DL 28/1/5 fol. 27r.

30
. Although musicologists differ in their opinions on whether Henry or his son wrote this piece, it is nevertheless a striking example of what a king was capable of, despite all the other commitments on his time. Wilkins, ‘Music and poetry’, p. 188, states that it seems likely that ‘Roy Henry’ was Henry IV. The authors of Henry’s entry in
ODNB
agree. On the other hand, some writers (such as the author of the entry in
Gothic,
p. 157) link the compilation of the manuscript with a musician who may be later associated with Henry’s son, Thomas, and thus supposes that the ‘Roy Henry’ authorship indicates that the two pieces were written after 1413 by Henry V. However, this argument rests on the assumption that the compiler of the manuscript himself knew which King Henry had written it. If the compiler was – as may be reasonably presumed – working from a copy which was simply marked ‘by King Henry’, unless he had first-hand information as to which king had written it he could have done little more than copy his source. Thomas died in 1421; it is thus more likely that someone working for him had picked up a piece of music written by Thomas’s much-loved father and not Henry V, with whom Thomas had a difficult relationship before 1413. In addition, when two kings were likely to be confused, the practice was for ‘King Henry’ to relate to the father and for the author to be more specific when describing the son, e.g. ‘King Henry the son of King Henry’. For these reasons, it is more likely that the composer was Henry IV than his son.

31
. DL 28/1/2 fol. 15v.

32
. DL 28/1/2 fol. 25v The entry, which follows a payment for harp strings, reads ‘Et pro 1 ferr’ empt’ pro d’na’ pro cantic’ regul’ xd’. See also Wylie, iv, p. 159.

33
. Saul, pp. 16, 249–50;
idem,
‘Kingship’, p. 45.

34
. Reitemeier, ‘Born to be a tyrant?’, p. 147.

35
. Saul, ‘Kingship’, p. 48.

36
. Saul, p. 76.

37
. Tuck, p. 88.

38
. This was on 11 July 1382. See Dunn, ‘Mortimer inheritance’, esp. pp. 160–61.

39
. Given-Wilson, ‘Richard II and his Grandfather’s Will’, p. 327; Tuck, pp. 72–3.

40
. Goodman, ‘Richard II’s councils’, p. 63. Archbishop Stratford had cited the case of Rehoboam in countering the
libellus famosas
in his argument with Edward III in 1341.