HENRY IV., surnamed Bolingbroke, was the eldest son of John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, the fourth son of king Edward III. His mother was the Lady Blanch, younger daughter and eventually heiress of Henry Plantagenet, Duke of Lancaster, who was grandson of Edmund, second son of King Henry III. He was born at Boling broke in Lincolnshire in 1366, and as early as 1380 is styled Earl of Derby, which was one of his father's titles. In 1397 he was created Duke of Hereford, having married Mary, daughter and coheir of Humphrey de Bohun, the last earl of Hereford. He became Duke of Lancaster on the death of bia father, February 3, 1399.
The first occasion on which the earl of Derby appears in English history is as one of the lords associated with Thomas, duke of Gloucester, the uncle of Richard II., in the insurrection of 1387. It appears however that whatever may have been the designs of the duke, the earl contemplated nothing more than the temporary control of the royal authority. Accordingly, in May 1389, when the king recovered his authority, his cousin Derby was one of the persons whom he immediately took into his coufidence. Some of the years Immediately following these event*, the earl is supposed to have spent on the Contineut. We find him again in England in 1397 at the time of the seizure of Gloucester, which act, Richard, in a procla mation which he issued on the occasion, stated to have been done with his approbation. Within a few months, after being raised to the rank of Duke of Hereford, he and the Duke of Norfolk, formerly the Earl of Nottingham, who bad also participated in Gloucester'e rebellion ten years before, were involved in tho same ruin with their former associates, in circumstances leading to a strong suspicion that, notwithstanding the forgiveness and even favour which he had apparently shown them, the insidious king had never forgotten their oTence, but had still cherished a secret determination of revenge. It appears that while Hereford was riding from Brentford to London be was overtaken by Norfolk, who, entering into conversation with him, expressed his conviction, on grounds which he stated, that the king was preparing to destroy them. In some way or other, but bow Is doubtful, a report of this conversation reached the eats of tho king. The consequence was that Hereford in obedience to n royal order appeared before Richard and the parliament nt Shrewsbury, January 30,1393, and there formally accused Norfolk of having spoken to him in the terms that have been mentioned. Apparently he had
been induced to take this course as afferdiug his only chance of escape from destruction ; but it did not save him, although it perfectly answered the end the king probably had In view. The charge against Norfolk was iu the first instance referred to a committee of twelve peers and six commoners., and eventually it was determined that it should be brought before a high court of chivalry. That court assem bled at Windsor on the 29th of April, and awarded that wager of battle should be joined between the two dukes at Coventry on the 16th of September. When the day arrived and the combatants had entered the lists, and were on the point of advancing to the encounter, the king, who presided, suddenly threw down his warder, and so arrested Loth where they stood. Norfolk was ordered to go on a pilgrimage to the Holy Laud, and banished from England for life; Hereford was also sentenced to quit the kingdom withiu four months, and to remaiu abroad for the next ten years. He retired to Pads, and while he was resident in that city his father the Duke of Lancaster died, February 3, 1399, on which Richard immediately seized his estates, on the pretence that the banishment of the son disqualified him from inheriting. This injury, and the advice of Arundel, arch bishop of Canterbury, who had also been banished from England, determined Hereford, now Duke of Lancaster, immediately to return home, with the avowed object of maintaining his rights as Duke of Lancaster, but doubtless with a real design of a higher pitch. He landed with a few attendants at Ravenspurn in Yorkshire on the 4th of July, while Richard was in Ireland. The events that followed belong to the hiatery of the reign of that king; it is sufficient to state here that llenry, who was immediately joined by the two powerful earls cf Northumberland and Westmorland, carried everything before him, and, the deposition of Richard having been pronounced by the parliament, was on the 30th of September solemnly acknowledged as king by the estates of the realm assembled in Westminster Held The commencement of his reign is reckoned from that day.