GLOUCESTER, HUMPHREY, DUKE OF the fourth son of Henry IV. by Mary de Bohun, was born in 1391. He was created duke of Gloucester by Henry V. at Leicester on May 16, 1414. He served in the war next year, and was wounded at Agincourt, where he owed his life to his brother's valour. In the second invasion of France Humphrey commanded the force which during 1418 reduced the Cotentin and captured Cherbourg. Afterwards he joined the main army before Rouen, and took part in subsequent campaigns till January 142o. He then went home to replace Bedford as regent in England, and held office till Henry's own return in February 1421. He was again regent for his brother from May to September 1422.
Henry V. measured Humphrey's capacity, and by his will named him merely deputy for Bedford in England. Humphrey at once claimed the full position of regent, but the parliament and council allowed him only the title of protector during Bedford's absence, with limited powers. He married (1422) Jacqueline of Bavaria, heiress of Holland, to whose lands Philip of Burgundy had claims. In October 1424 Humphrey took up arms in his wife's behalf, but after a short campaign in Hainault went home, and left Jacqueline to be overwhelmed by Burgundy. His marriage was annulled in 1428. Returning to England in April 1425 he entangled himself in a quarrel with the council and his uncle Henry Beaufort, and stirred up a tumult in London. Open war was averted only by Beaufort's prudence, and Bedford's hurried return. With some difficulty Bedford effected a formal reconciliation at Leicester in March 1426. To check his indiscretion the council, in Novem ber 1429, had the king crowned, and so put an end to Humphrey's protectorate, but during Henry VI.'s absence in France he acted as warden in England. The defection of Burgundy roused English feeling, and Humphrey won popularity as leader of the war party. In 1436 he commanded in a short invasion of Flanders. In 1441 Eleanor Cobham, his former mistress, whom he bad married (about 143o), was charged with practising sorcery against the king, and Humphrey had to submit to see her condemned, and her accomplices executed. Nevertheless, he continued to thwart Suffolk, who was now taking Beaufort's place in the council, by opposing the king's marriage to Margaret of Anjou. Under Suf folk's influence Henry VI. grew to distrust his uncle altogether. The crisis came in the parliament of Bury St. Edmunds in Febru ary 1447. Immediately on his arrival there Humphrey was arrested, and four days later, on Feb. 23, he died.
Humphrey was buried at St. Albans Abbey, in a fine tomb, which still exists. He was long remembered, in spite of his bad political record, as the good Duke Humphrey, on account of his liberal patronage of scholars and of learning. He had been a great col lector of books, many of which he presented to the university of Oxford. He contributed also to the building of the Divinity School, and of the room still called Duke Humphrey's library. His books were dispersed at the Reformation and only three vol umes of his donation now remain in the Bodleian library. Titus Livius, an Italian in Humphrey's service, wrote a life of Henry V. at his patron's bidding. Other Italian scholars, as Leonardo Aretino, benefited by his patronage. Amongst English men of letters he befriended Reginald Pecock, Wbctbamstead of St.
Albans, Capgrave the historian, Lydgate and Gilbert Kymer, who was his physician and chancellor of Oxford university. A popular error found Humphrey a fictitious tomb in St. Paul's Cathedral. The adjoining aisle, called Duke Humphrey's Walk, was fre quented by beggars and needy adventurers. Hence the i6th-cen tury proverb "to dine with Duke Humphrey," used of those who loitered there dinnerless.