Henry IV of England

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Henry IV (April 3 1367 – March 20 1413) was a king of England. He was born at Bolingbroke Castle in Lincolnshire, the other name by which he was known, "Henry (of) Bolingbroke". His father, John of Gaunt, was the third and oldest surviving son of King Edward III of England, and enjoyed a position where people would listen to him and he had a lot of power during much of the reign of Richard II. The relationship between Henry and the King reached a second crisis in 1398, when Richard banished Henry from the kingdom for ten years (with the approval of Henry's father, John of Gaunt) to avoid a blood feud between Henry and Thomas de Mowbray, 1st Duke of Norfolk, who was kicked out of England for life. The following year, however, John of Gaunt died, and without explanation, Richard cancelled the legal documents that would have allowed Henry to inherit Gaunt's land right away instead, Henry would have to ask for the lands from Richard. After some hesitation, Henry met with the exiled Thomas Arundel, former (and future) Archbishop of Canterbury, who had lost his position because of his involvement with the Lords Appellant, and Henry and Arundel returned to England while Richard was on a military campaign in Ireland. With Arundel as his advisor, Henry Bolingbroke began a military campaign, confiscating land from those who opposed him and ordering his soldiers to destroy much of Cheshire. Quickly, Henry gained enough power and support to have himself declared King Henry IV, imprisoning King Richard (who died in prison under mysterious circumstances) and by-passing Richard’s seven-year-old heir-presumptive Edmund de Mortimer. Henry's coronation, on 13 October 1399, is notable as the first time following the Norman Conquest that the monarch made an address in English. Henry consulted with Parliament frequently, but was sometimes at odds with them, especially over ecclesiastical matters. On Arundel's advice, Henry was the first English king to allow the burning of heretics, mainly to suppress the Lollard movement.