Henry IV - the First Lancastrian King Quiz

Answer: Bolingbroke Castle in Lincolnshire

Henry IV is often referred to as Henry Bolingbroke because of the place where he was born. Thus his cousin (Richard II) was sometimes known as Richard of Bordeaux. Henry IV's father was John of Gaunt (Ghent) and his son,Henry V, was born in Monmouth.

Answer: Blanche of Lancaster

Both Henry's mother and Henry's father were descended from Henry III and thus were distant cousins. Blanche died from the Black Death when she was still quite young and Henry was brought up by other Lancastrian supporters.

Answer: Mary de Bohun

By 1377 Henry had become Earl of Derby and his marriage eventually brought to him the Earldom of Hereford, for Mary de Bohun was one of the co-heiresses of the previous Earl of Hereford. Mary died in 1394 and Henry remarried. Henry became Duke of Hereford in 1397.

Answer: To separate Richard II from his foolish friends and advisors

Henry followed the leadership of Thomas of Woodstock, his uncle and the Duke of Gloucester, in arranging the the trial and execution of those men who had become the King's favourites and who had alienated the rest of the nobility.

Answer: Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk

This quarrel is used by Shakespeare as the starting point for his play "Richard II". Later the King used the banishment as an opportunity to seize the lands and money that had belonged to John of Gaunt, Henry's father.

Answer: Lithuania

In fact during the 1390s Henry was a much travelled man. He also visited Cyprus and Jerusalem. The latter destination was ironic in the light of the later wishes he made known as he drew towards his death.

Answer: His inheritance as Duke of Lancaster had been seized by the King

John of Gaunt, Henry's father, died and so, by right of inheritance, Henry should have become the next Duke of Lancaster and thus the second richest man in the country after the King. However,Henry had been exiled and so Richard seized the inheritance for his own use.

Answer: The Earl of Cambridge

Westmorland was Henry's brother-in-law by his marriage to Henry's half-sister Joan. Northumberland and his son Henry Percy (Hotspur)and Worcester (Northumberland's brother) all had good reason to dislike Richard. Later they claimed that they all had good reason to dislike Henry.

Answer: Owen Glendower (Owain Glyndwr)

With the aid of the French and later of the Percy family Owen Glendower began his long campaign against the English King. Glendower never won but he was also never captured. Henry of Monmouth was in fact Henry V, the king's son.

Answer: The Scots

Henry's men in the north were the Percy family. Their battles against the Douglas clan were of epic proportions. Therefore an alliance between Henry Percy (Hotspur) and the Douglas chieftain spelled trouble for the new English king.

Answer: Shrewsbury

The battle took place in 1403 and the combined forces of Hotspur, the Douglas, the Earl of March were overcome. Northumberland (Hotspur's father) did not arrive for the battle nor did Owen Glendower who was also in rebellion against the King.

Answer: Archbishop of York

Many of Henry's contemporaries regarded the execution of Scrope as a bad political move. When in his later years Henry suffered from a terrible skin disease (possibly leprosy) some superstitious people attributed it to his killing of a churchman.

Answer: Lollardy

In fact in 1401 the secular and clerical landowners became frightened and this caused the first anti-heresy law called "De Heritico Comburendo" to be passed.

Answer: She was suspected of necromancy.

Joan was actually convicted of witchcraft in 1419. However, she survived this charge and did not die until 1437.

Answer: Canterbury Cathedral

Henry IV died in the Jerusalem Chamber of Westminster Abbey on the 20th March, 1413 but he is the only king of England to be buried in Canterbury Cathedral. His widow was eventually buried alongside him. The burial plot near to that of St Thomas Becket was regarded as amongst the most hallowed ground in Europe.