Chris Given-Wilson. Henry IV

This extensively researched and well-written political biography narrates the life of Henry IV from his birth in 1367, as son and heir to John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, to his death, as king of England, some forty-six years later. It is, above all, the tale of a usurper: a man who seized the throne amid the crisis of Richard II’s final years, fought on all fronts to retain it, and then—having more or less secured himself by 1406—succumbed to ever-worsening illness. This personal story, ironic and yet moving, is at the center of the book; politics, government, religion, international affairs, the culture of the court, the social networks of the powerful—these are present too, but in the service of a life story. The first full-length monographic treatment since 1970, Chris Given-Wilson’s Henry IV is based on a very extensive bibliography, judiciously synthesized. For readers familiar with the work of recent generations of historians of the fifteenth century—K. B. McFarlane, A. L. Brown, G. L. Harriss, Simon Walker, Helen Castor, Gwilym Dodd, Douglas Biggs (and, of course, Given-Wilson himself)—the storyline thus holds few surprises. Where the house of Lancaster had been created and maintained by English kings to provide regional support to the crown—notably in Wales and the North—it proved a lightning conductor for opposition, loyal and otherwise, in the reigns of unsuccessful kings. As heir of Lancaster, Henry, then Earl of Derby, emerged as one of five Appellants, critical of the men around Richard II, in 1387–1388. He tried to take a moderate path, attempting to protect his own interests and those of the crown with a balance of correction and restraint; but in the rapidly polarizing politics of the later 1390s, this policy lost credibility. When Richard II sent him into exile and seized his inheritance, Henry was cast in the role of national redeemer, a role that led rapidly to the seizure of the throne in a military and political coup in 1399. As the key protagonist of 1399, the most powerful man in the kingdom and first grandson in the male line of Edward III, Henry IV had a perfectly tenable claim to the throne, but his authority was provisional and conditional: deposition left a taint of illegitimacy, and others besides the usurper had titles to the throne. Opposed in France and Wales, overextended in Scotland, and soon short of money, Henry ran rapidly into problems with his new subjects. While Lancastrian loyalists in Parliament subjected the king to criticism and restraint, less committed figures raised rebellion on behalf of alternative claimants. Henry’s great victory in battle at Shrewsbury in 1403 (here “Hateley Field”) set him on the road to recovery, but it was not until 1405–1406 that he got the upper hand over the rebels in England and Wales, and from that point onward ill health meant that he was unable to enjoy the fruits of success. The second half of the reign thus had an ambivalent quality: on the one hand, there was a measure of financial security, peace with Scotland and a strengthened position in France; on the other, there was a high degree of local disorder and quite worrying tension between the king, his heir, Prince Henry, and his second son, Thomas. But the upshot was positive: in these years, a new political establishment bedded down, France subsided into civil war, and the foundations were laid for the triumphant reign of Henry V and its long aftermath in the 1420s and 1430s

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