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72-472: The jewel is a rare medieval example of the then recently developed and fashionable white opaque enamel used in en ronde bosse to almost totally encase an underlying gold form. It is invariably compared to the white hart badges worn by King Richard II and by the angels surrounding the Virgin Mary in the painted Wilton Diptych of around the same date, where the chains hang freely down. The jewel

144-536: A terminus ante quem is more difficult, but white enamel en ronde bosse became less fashionable after about the 1430s. Moreover, there was no Prince of Wales between 1413, when Henry V succeeded to the throne, and 1454. Dunstable , where the ancient roads of Watling Street and the Icknield Way cross some thirty miles north of London, was frequently visited by the medieval elite. Apart from travellers passing through, tournaments were held there at least until

216-512: A livery collar (an innovation of Gaunt's, probably the Collar of Esses ). The mob attacked him, pulling him off his horse and the badge off him, and he had to be rescued by the mayor from suffering serious harm. Over twenty years later, after Gaunt's son Henry IV had deposed Richard, one of Richard's servants was imprisoned by Henry for continuing to wear Richard's livery badge. Many of the large number of badges of various liveries recovered from

288-539: A marquessate . Katherine Swynford's son from her first marriage, Thomas, was another loyal companion. Thomas Swynford was Constable of Pontefract Castle , where Richard II is said to have died. Henry experienced a more inconsistent relationship with King Richard II than his father had. First cousins and childhood playmates, they were admitted together as knights of the Order of the Garter in 1377, but Henry participated in

360-529: A decade by then. Henry's second expedition to Lithuania in 1392 illustrates the financial benefits to the Order of these guest crusaders . His small army consisted of over 100 men, including longbow archers and six minstrels, at a total cost to the Lancastrian purse of £4,360. Despite the efforts of Henry and his English crusaders, two years of attacks on Vilnius proved fruitless. In 1392–93 Henry undertook

432-530: A failed coup. According to Holinshed , it was predicted that Henry would die in Jerusalem, and Shakespeare's play repeats this prophecy. Henry took this to mean that he would die on crusade . In reality, he died in the Jerusalem Chamber in the abbot's house of Westminster Abbey, on 20 March 1413 during a convocation of Parliament . His executor , Thomas Langley , was at his side. Despite

504-632: A grave illness in June 1405; April 1406; June 1408; during the winter of 1408–09; December 1412; and finally a fatal bout in March 1413. In 1410, Henry had provided his royal surgeon Thomas Morstede with an annuity of £40 p.a. which was confirmed by Henry V immediately after his succession. This was so that Morstede would "not be retained by anyone else". Medical historians have long debated the nature of this affliction or afflictions. The skin disease might have been leprosy (which did not necessarily mean precisely

576-519: A key for the enamel, which is applied as a paste and fired. In places the framework may only be wire. The term derives from the French term émail en ronde bosse ("enamel in the round"); however in French en ronde bosse merely means "in the round" and is used of any sculpture; in English ronde bosse or en ronde bosse , though usually treated as foreign terms and italicised, are specifically used of

648-538: A military campaign, confiscating land from those who opposed him and ordering his soldiers to destroy much of Cheshire . Henry initially announced that he intended to reclaim his rights as Duke of Lancaster , though he quickly gained enough power and support to have himself declared King Henry IV, imprison Richard (who died in prison, most probably forcibly starved to death, ) and bypass Richard's heir-presumptive , Edmund de Mortimer, 5th Earl of March . Henry's 13 October 1399 coronation at Westminster Abbey may have been

720-546: A pilgrimage to Jerusalem , where he made offerings at the Holy Sepulchre and at the Mount of Olives . Later he vowed to lead a crusade to "free Jerusalem from the infidel", but he died before this could be accomplished. The relationship between Henry and Richard had a second crisis. In 1398, a remark about Richard's rule by Thomas de Mowbray, 1st Duke of Norfolk , was interpreted as treason by Henry, who reported it to

792-405: A swan badge with a gold chain, perhaps presented by one of his enemies mentioned above: "Item, a gold swan enamelled white with a little gold chain hanging around the neck, weighing 2 oz., value, 46s. 8d". He declared to Parliament that he had exchanged liveries with his uncles as a sign of amity at various moments of reconciliation. After Henry seized the throne in 1399, the use of the swan emblem

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864-468: Is formed as a standing or walking mute swan gorged (collared) by a gold royal crown with six fleur-de-lys tines. There is a gold chain terminating in a ring attached to the crown, and the swan has a pin and catch on its right side for fastening the brooch to clothes or a hat. The swan is 3.2 cm high and 2.5 cm wide, and the length of the chain is 8.2 cm. The swan's body is in white enamel, its eyes are of black enamel, which also once covered

936-523: Is highly likely that Henry deliberately associated himself with the martyr saint for reasons of political expediency, namely, the legitimisation of his dynasty after seizing the throne from Richard II . Significantly, at his coronation, he was anointed with holy oil that had reportedly been given to Becket by the Virgin Mary shortly before his death in 1170; this oil was placed inside a distinct eagle-shaped container of gold. According to one version of

1008-639: Is not clear where these were made. The technique was used on parts of a relatively large sculpture in Benvenuto Cellini 's famous Salt Cellar (1543, Vienna) and remained common through to the Baroque , usually in small works and jewellery. The Russian House of Fabergé made much use of the technique from the 19th century until the Russian Revolution . The technique can be used with both translucent and opaque enamel, but more commonly

1080-453: Is not much help in dating here. Given the royal collar of the swan, the marriage of the future Henry IV to Mary de Bohun probably provides the earliest possible date. A date after Henry IV seized the throne in 1399—when his son would have been using the badge—is perhaps more likely. The difficult technique of adding elements in further colours was not perfected until about 1400, in Paris. Fixing

1152-473: Is preserved at the National Archives . The accepted date of the ceremony is 5 February 1381, at Mary's family home of Rochford Hall , Essex. The near-contemporary chronicler Jean Froissart reports a rumour that Mary's sister Eleanor de Bohun kidnapped Mary from Pleshey Castle and held her at Arundel Castle , where she was kept as a novice nun; Eleanor's intention was to control Mary's half of

1224-569: The Crusade cycle had associated the legend with the ancestors of Godfrey of Bouillon (d. 1100), the hero of the First Crusade . Although Godfrey had no legitimate issue, his family had many descendants among the aristocracy of Europe, many of whom made use of the swan in their heraldry or as a para-heraldic emblem . In England these included the important de Bohun family, which used the so-called Bohun swan as its heraldic badge; after

1296-656: The Holy Thorn Reliquary , also in the British Museum, and the Goldenes Rössl . He has been considered as a possible commissioner of the jewel, in which case it would almost certainly have been made in Paris, and might have made its way to England after being presented. This might also have been the case if it was commissioned by an English person, especially a royal one. However, there are records of London goldsmiths producing white enamel works for

1368-755: The Lords Appellants ' rebellion against the king in 1387. After regaining power, Richard did not punish Henry, although he did execute or exile many of the other rebellious barons. In fact, Richard elevated Henry from Earl of Derby to Duke of Hereford . Henry spent all of 1390 supporting the unsuccessful siege of Vilnius (capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ) by Teutonic Knights with 70 to 80 household knights. During this campaign, he bought captured Lithuanian women and children and took them back to Königsberg to be converted, even though Lithuanians had already been baptised by Polish priests for

1440-494: The Ottoman Empire . In 1406, English pirates captured the future James I of Scotland , aged eleven, off the coast of Flamborough Head as he was sailing to France. James was delivered to Henry IV and remained a prisoner until after the death of Henry's son, Henry V. The later years of Henry's reign were marked by serious health problems. He had a disfiguring skin disease and, more seriously, suffered acute attacks of

1512-582: The 1340s, and Lancastrian armies used it as a base in 1459 and 1461. The jewel was found in an excavation of the friary, in what seemed to be a deposit of rubble dating from the destruction of the buildings after the Dissolution of the Monasteries . It would appear to have been above ground until that point. However, it must have been overlooked—the scrap value of the gold itself would have prevented it from being merely discarded. After its excavation,

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1584-590: The Bohun inheritance (or to allow her husband, Thomas, Duke of Gloucester , to control it). There Mary was persuaded to marry Henry. They had six children: Henry had four sons from his first marriage, which was undoubtedly a clinching factor in his acceptability for the throne. By contrast, Richard II had no children and Richard's heir-presumptive Edmund Mortimer was only seven years old. The only two of Henry's six children who produced legitimate children to survive to adulthood were Henry V and Blanche, whose son, Rupert,

1656-581: The Lollards. On this advice, Henry obtained from Parliament the enactment of De heretico comburendo in 1401, which prescribed the burning of heretics , an act done mainly to suppress the Lollard movement. In 1404 and 1410, Parliament suggested confiscating church land, in which both attempts failed to gain support. Henry spent much of his reign defending himself against plots, rebellions, and assassination attempts. Henry's first major problem as monarch

1728-458: The Parliament of 1384, and in 1388 they made the startling request that "all liveries called badges [ signes ], as well of our lord the king as of other lords ... shall be abolished", because "those who wear them are flown with such insolent arrogance that they do not shrink from practising with reckless effrontery various kinds of extortion in the surrounding countryside ... and it is certainly

1800-540: The Thames in London were perhaps discarded hurriedly by retainers who found themselves impoliticly dressed at various times. Apparently beginning relatively harmlessly under Edward III in a context of tournaments and courtly celebrations, by the reign of his grandson, Richard II, the badges had become seen as a social menace, and were "one of the most protracted controversies of Richard's reign", as they were used to denote

1872-548: The age of " bastard feudalism " from the mid-fourteenth century until about the end of the fifteenth century, a period of intense factional conflict which saw the deposition of Richard II and the Wars of the Roses . A lavish badge like the jewel would only have been worn by the person whose device was represented, members of his family or important supporters, and possibly servants who were in regular very close contact with him. However

1944-619: The badge on the Treasury Roll, which the painted one may have copied, had pearls and sat on a grass bed made of emeralds, and a hart badge of Richard's inventoried in the possession of Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy in 1435 was set with 22 pearls, two spinels , two sapphires , a ruby and a huge diamond. Cheaper forms of badge were more widely distributed, sometimes very freely indeed, rather as modern political campaign buttons and tee-shirts are, though as in some modern countries wearing

2016-598: The body discreetly buried in the Dominican Priory at Kings Langley , Hertfordshire, where he remained until King Henry V brought the body back to London and buried it in the tomb that Richard had commissioned for himself in Westminster Abbey . Rebellions continued throughout the first 10 years of Henry's reign, including the revolt of Owain Glyndŵr , who declared himself Prince of Wales in 1400, and

2088-457: The boldness inspired by these badges that makes them unafraid to do these things". Richard offered to give up his own badges, to the delight of the House of Commons of England , but the House of Lords refused to give up theirs, and the matter was put off. In 1390 it was ordered that no-one below the rank of banneret should issue badges, and no one below the rank of esquire wear them. The issue

2160-523: The court, and a reliquary with many figures in white ronde bosse enamel and now in the Louvre may have been made in London. Other small jewels have survived in England which may have been made in London, either by native goldsmiths or the foreign ones known to have worked there. No more precise date for the jewel than "around 1400" is given by experts; this might have a wider range than many works as style

2232-434: The death of his first wife, Henry married Joan, the daughter of Charles II of Navarre , at Winchester . She was the widow of John IV, Duke of Brittany (known in traditional English sources as John V), with whom she had 9 children; however, her marriage to King Henry produced no surviving children. In 1403, Joan of Navarre gave birth to stillborn twins fathered by King Henry IV, which was the last pregnancy of her life. Joan

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2304-439: The deposed king's body as early as 17 February, there is no reason to believe that he did not die on 14 February, as several chronicles stated. It can be positively said that he did not suffer a violent death, for his skeleton, upon examination, bore no signs of violence; whether he did indeed starve himself or whether that starvation was forced upon him are matters for lively historical speculation. After his death, Richard's body

2376-437: The difference changed to a label of five points per pale ermine and France . Dukes (except Aquitaine ) and Princes of Wales are noted, as are the monarchs' reigns.   † =Killed in action;   [REDACTED] =Executed See also Family tree of English monarchs Henry married Mary de Bohun (died 1394) at an unknown date, but her marriage licence, purchased by Henry's father John of Gaunt in June 1380,

2448-534: The enamel technique, and in recent decades have largely replaced the older English term "encrusted enamel". The technique rapidly reached maturity and produced a group of "exceptionally grand French and Burgundian court commissions, chiefly made c. 1400 but apparently continuing into the second quarter of the fifteenth century". These include the Goldenes Rössl ("Golden Pony") in Altötting , Bavaria ,

2520-468: The end it took a determined campaign by Henry VII to largely stamp out the use of livery badges by others than the king, and reduce them to things normally worn only by household servants. The widespread use of the swan as a badge largely derives from the legend of the Swan Knight , today most familiar from Richard Wagner 's opera Lohengrin . A group of Old French chansons de geste called

2592-597: The example set by most of his recent predecessors, Henry and his second wife, Joan , were not buried at Westminster Abbey but at Canterbury Cathedral , on the north side of Trinity Chapel and directly adjacent to the shrine of St Thomas Becket . Becket's cult was then still thriving, as evidenced in the monastic accounts and in literary works such as The Canterbury Tales , and Henry seemed particularly devoted to it, or at least keen to be associated with it. The reasons for his interment in Canterbury are debatable, but it

2664-549: The first time since the Norman Conquest that the monarch made an address in English. In January 1400, Henry quashed the Epiphany Rising , a rebellion by Richard's supporters who plotted to assassinate him. Henry was forewarned and raised an army in London, at which the conspirators fled. They were apprehended and executed without trial. Henry consulted with Parliament frequently, but was sometimes at odds with

2736-481: The insurrection. Ultimately, the rebellion came to nought. Lyvet was released and Clark thrown into the Tower of London . Early in his reign, Henry hosted the visit of Manuel II Palaiologos , the only Byzantine emperor ever to visit England, from December 1400 to February 1401 at Eltham Palace , with a joust being given in his honour. Henry also sent monetary support with Manuel upon his departure to aid him against

2808-556: The jewel lacks the ultimate luxury of being set with gems, for example ruby eyes, like the gems on the lion pendants worn by Sir John Donne and his wife in their portraits by Hans Memling , now in the National Gallery, London , and several examples listed on the 1397 treasure roll of Richard II. In the Wilton Diptych , Richard's own badge has pearls on the antler tips, which the angels' badges lack. The white hart in

2880-824: The jewel was bought by the British Museum in 1966 for £5,000, of which £666 was a grant from the Art Fund (then NACF); other contributions were made by the Pilgrim Trust and the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths . It is on display in Room 40. Ronde bosse Ronde-bosse , en ronde bosse or encrusted enamel is an enamelling technique developed in France in the late 14th century that produces small three-dimensional figures, or reliefs , largely or entirely covered in enamel. The new method involved

2952-589: The king. The two dukes agreed to undergo a duel of honour (called by Richard) at Gosford Green near Caludon Castle , Mowbray's home in Coventry . Yet before the duel could take place, Richard decided to banish Henry from the kingdom (with the approval of Henry's father, John of Gaunt), although it is unknown where he spent his exile, to avoid further bloodshed. Mowbray was exiled for life. John of Gaunt died in February 1399. Without explanation, Richard cancelled

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3024-566: The latter; translucent enamel is mostly found on reliefs using ronde bosse , such as a plaque with the Entombment of Christ in the Metropolitan Museum of Art , New York. In the works from around 1400, the recently developed white enamel usually predominates. Henry IV of England Henry IV ( c.  April 1367 – 20 March 1413), also known as Henry Bolingbroke , was King of England from 1399 to 1413. Henry

3096-584: The legal documents that would have allowed Henry to inherit Gaunt's land automatically. Instead, Henry would be required to ask Richard for the lands. After some hesitation, Henry met the exiled Thomas Arundel , former archbishop of Canterbury , who had lost his position because of his involvement with the Lords Appellant . Henry and Arundel returned to England while Richard was on a military campaign in Ireland. With Arundel as his advisor, Henry began

3168-527: The legs and feet, where only traces now remain. Tiny fragments of pink or red enamel remain on the beak. The jewel is a unique survival of the most expensive form of livery badge , otherwise only known from inventories and representations in paintings. These were badges in various forms made for a leading figure bearing his personal device , and given to others who would demonstrate by wearing them that they were in some way his employees, retainers , allies or supporters. They were especially common in England in

3240-474: The marriage in 1380 of Mary de Bohun (d. 1394) to the future King Henry IV of England , the swan became adopted by the House of Lancaster , who continued to use it for over a century. The swan with the crown and chain is especially associated with Lancastrian use; it echoes the crown and chain of Richard II's white hart, which he began to use as a livery badge from 1390. As well as several of his own white hart badges, Richard's treasure roll of 1397 also includes

3312-496: The members, especially over ecclesiastical matters. In January 1401, Arundel convened a convocation at St. Paul's cathedral to address Lollardy . Henry dispatched a group to implore the clergy to address the heresies that were causing turmoil in England and confusion among Christians, and to impose penalties on those responsible. A short time later the convocation along with the House of Commons petitioned Henry to take action against

3384-601: The most famous of the group, the Holy Thorn Reliquary in the British Museum , the "Tableau of the Trinity" in the Louvre (possibly made in London), and a handful of other religious works, but the great majority of pieces recorded in princely inventories have been destroyed to recover their gold. After this period smaller works continued to be produced, and there was a revival of larger works c. 1500-1520, although it

3456-455: The partial concealment of the underlying gold, or sometimes silver, from which the figure was formed. It differs from older techniques which all produced only enamel on a flat or curved surface, and mostly, like champlevé , normally used non-precious metals, such as copper , which were gilded to look like gold. In the technique of enamel en ronde-bosse small figures are created in gold or silver and their surfaces lightly roughened to provide

3528-460: The rebellions led by Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland , from 1403. The first Percy rebellion ended in the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403 with the death of the earl's son Henry , a renowned military figure known as "Hotspur" for his speed in advance and readiness to attack. Also in this battle, Henry IV's eldest son, Henry of Monmouth , later King Henry V, was wounded by an arrow in his face. He

3600-422: The same thing in the 15th century as it does to modern medicine), perhaps psoriasis , or a different disease. The acute attacks have been given a wide range of explanations, from epilepsy to a form of cardiovascular disease. Some medieval writers felt that he was struck with leprosy as a punishment for his treatment of Richard le Scrope , Archbishop of York , who was executed in June 1405 on Henry's orders after

3672-403: The small private armies of retainers kept by lords, largely for the purpose of enforcing their lord's will on the less powerful in his area. Though they were surely a symptom rather than a cause of both local baronial bullying and the disputes between the king and his uncles and other lords, Parliament repeatedly tried to curb the use of livery badges. The issuing of badges by lords was attacked in

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3744-585: The swan badge was used by his Stafford descendants. Mary and Eleanor were co-heiresses to huge Bohun estates, and disputes over the settlement of these continued until late into the next century, when most of their descendants had been killed in the Wars of the Roses, perhaps encouraging the continued assertion of Bohun ancestry. Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham , a descendant of the Beauchamps, Eleanor de Bohun and Thomas of Woodstock, and John of Gaunt, used

3816-452: The swan with crown and chain as his own badge. He was certainly active in trying to get the Bohun lands, and may well have also plotted to seize the throne, for which he was executed in 1483 by Richard III. Another user of swan insignia around 1400 was John, Duke of Berry , the Valois prince who commissioned two of the most spectacular medieval works featuring white enamel en ronde bosse ,

3888-450: The tale, the oil had then passed to Henry's maternal grandfather, Henry of Grosmont, Duke of Lancaster. Proof of Henry's deliberate connection to Becket lies partially in the structure of the tomb itself. The wooden panel at the western end of his tomb bears a painting of the martyrdom of Becket, and the tester, or wooden canopy, above the tomb is painted with Henry's personal motto, 'Soverayne', alternated by crowned golden eagles. Likewise,

3960-401: The three large coats of arms that dominate the tester painting are surrounded by collars of SS, a golden eagle enclosed in each tiret. The presence of such eagle motifs points directly to Henry's coronation oil and his ideological association with Becket. Sometime after Henry's death, an imposing tomb was built for him and his queen, probably commissioned and paid for by Queen Joan herself. Atop

4032-424: The throne; these actions later contributed to dynastic disputes in the Wars of the Roses (1455–1487). Henry was the first English ruler whose mother tongue was English (rather than French) since the Norman Conquest , over three hundred years before. As king, he faced a number of rebellions, most seriously those of Owain Glyndŵr , the last Welsh Prince of Wales, and the English knight Henry Percy (Hotspur) , who

4104-451: The tomb chest lie detailed alabaster effigies of Henry and Joan, crowned and dressed in their ceremonial robes. Henry's body was evidently well embalmed, as an exhumation in 1832 established, allowing historians to state with reasonable certainty that the effigies do represent accurate portraiture. Before his father's death in 1399, Henry bore the arms of the kingdom, differenced by a label of five points ermine . After his father's death,

4176-623: The type and number are unknown. It was also used by other families; the swan was the crest of the Beauchamp Earls of Warwick , leading supporters of the Lancastrian faction under Thomas de Beauchamp, 12th Earl of Warwick (d. 1401). Eleanor de Bohun , Mary's sister, had in 1376 also married into the Plantagenet royal family, in the person of King Edward III of England 's youngest son, Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester (d. 1397), another prominent Lancastrian supporter, and

4248-603: The villages of England, in the last year of Henry's reign, declaring that Richard was residing at the Scottish Court, awaiting only a signal from his friends to repair to London and recover his throne." A suitable-looking impostor was found and King Richard's old groom circulated word in the city that his master was alive in Scotland. "Southwark was incited to insurrection" by Sir Elias Lyvet ( Levett ) and his associate Thomas Clark, who promised Scottish aid in carrying out

4320-548: The wrong badge in the wrong place could lead to personal danger. In 1483 King Richard III ordered 13,000 fustian (cloth) badges with his emblem of a boar for the investiture of his son Edward as Prince of Wales, a huge number given the population at the time. Other grades of boar badges that have survived are in lead, silver, and gilded copper high relief, the last found at Richard's home of Middleham Castle in Yorkshire, and very likely worn by one of his household when he

4392-408: Was Duke of Gloucester . The British Museum also has a flat lead swan badge with low relief, typical of the cheap metal badges which were similar to the pilgrim badges that were also common in the period. In 1377, when the young Richard II's highly unpopular uncle, John of Gaunt , was Regent, one of his more than 200 retainers, Sir John Swinton, unwisely rode through London wearing Gaunt's badge on

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4464-594: Was Gaunt's daughter with his second wife, Constance of Castile . Henry also had four half-siblings born of Katherine Swynford , originally his sisters' governess, then his father's longstanding mistress and later third wife. These illegitimate (although later legitimized) children were given the surname Beaufort from their birthplace at the Château de Beaufort in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes , France. Henry's relationship with his stepmother Katherine Swynford

4536-491: Was amicable, but his relationship with the Beauforts varied. In his youth, he seems to have been close to all of them, but rivalries with Henry and Thomas Beaufort caused trouble after 1406. Ralph Neville, 4th Baron Neville , married Henry's half-sister Joan Beaufort . Neville remained one of his strongest supporters, and so did his eldest half-brother John Beaufort , even though Henry revoked Richard II's grant to John of

4608-503: Was apparently quiet for a few years, but from 1397 Richard issued increasingly large numbers of badges to retainers who misbehaved (his " Cheshire archers " being especially notorious), and in the Parliament of 1399, after his deposition, several of his leading supporters were forbidden from issuing "badges of signs" again, and a statute was passed allowing only the king (now Henry IV) to issue badges, and only to those ranking as esquires and above, who were only to wear them in his presence. In

4680-475: Was cared for by royal physician John Bradmore . Despite this, the Battle of Shrewsbury was a royalist victory. Monmouth's military ability contributed to the king's victory (though Monmouth seized much effective power from his father in 1410). In the last year of Henry's reign, the rebellions picked up speed. "The old fable of a living Richard was revived", notes one account, "and emissaries from Scotland traversed

4752-439: Was derived from his birthplace. Gaunt was the third son of King Edward III . Blanche was the daughter of the wealthy royal politician and nobleman Henry, Duke of Lancaster . Gaunt enjoyed a position of considerable influence during much of the reign of his own nephew, King Richard II . Henry's elder sisters were Philippa, Queen of Portugal , and Elizabeth, Duchess of Exeter . His younger half-sister Katherine, Queen of Castile ,

4824-577: Was killed in the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403. Henry IV had six children from his first marriage to Mary de Bohun , while his second marriage to Joan of Navarre produced no surviving children. Henry and Mary's eldest son, Henry of Monmouth , assumed the reins of government in 1410 as the king's health worsened. Henry IV died in 1413, and his son succeeded him as Henry V . Henry was born at Bolingbroke Castle , in Lincolnshire , to John of Gaunt and Blanche of Lancaster . His epithet "Bolingbroke"

4896-477: Was put on public display in the Old St Paul's Cathedral , both to prove to his supporters that he was truly dead and also to prove that he had not suffered a violent death. This did not stop rumours from circulating for years after that he was still alive and waiting to take back his throne, and that the body displayed was that of Richard's chaplain, a priest named Maudelain, who greatly resembled him. Henry had

4968-726: Was the heir to the Electorate of the Palatinate until his death at 20. All three of his other sons produced illegitimate children. Henry IV's male Lancaster line ended in 1471 during the War of the Roses , between the Lancastrians and the Yorkists, with the deaths of his grandson Henry VI and Henry VI's son Edward, Prince of Wales . Mary de Bohun died giving birth to her daughter Philippa in 1394. On 7 February 1403, nine years after

5040-470: Was the son of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster (a son of King Edward III ), and Blanche of Lancaster . Henry was involved in the 1388 revolt of Lords Appellant against Richard II , his first cousin, but he was not punished. However, he was exiled from court in 1398. After Henry's father died in 1399, Richard blocked Henry's inheritance of his father's lands. That year, Henry rallied a group of supporters, overthrew and imprisoned Richard II, and usurped

5112-413: Was transferred to his son, the future Henry V, who was made Prince of Wales at his father's coronation, and whose tomb in Westminster Abbey includes swans. It was also used by his grandson Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales before his death in the Battle of Tewkesbury in 1471. In 1459 Edward's mother Margaret of Anjou insisted that he give swan livery badges to "all the gentlemen of Cheshire ";

5184-475: Was what to do with the deposed Richard. After the early assassination plot was foiled in January 1400, Richard died in prison aged 33, probably of starvation on Henry's order. Some chroniclers claimed that the despondent Richard had starved himself, which would not have been out of place with what is known of Richard's character. Though council records indicate that provisions were made for the transportation of

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