T

HE Lancastrian princes, who were three in number, and ruled for above sixty years, were without hereditary right to the crown, and possessed it only by virtue of a parliamentary settlement, which set aside a formal declaration of Richard II. in favour of Roger Mortimer, earl of Marcha, and which had been assented to by the lords spiritual and temporal, and commons, in the face of a claim made in the name of his son by John of Gaunt, and supported by the production of what were considered forged documents. Some years later, when the unhappy king was a prisoner in his hands, Henry of Lancaster again brought his rejected claim forward; but not choosing to trust to it alone, he mixed it up with complaints of Richard's misgovernment, and even some mention of conquest",

See vol. i. p. 409.

b See his claim, as appearing on the Rolls of Parliament, vol. i. p. 418 of this work,

and was declared king on no intelligible principle, by his triumphant faction. Some years later he obtained a parliamentary recognition, [7 Hen. IV. c. 2,] in which the unquestionable right of the Mortimers is passed over in silence; and he transmitted the crown to his son, whose warlike achievements promised to give him a second kingdom in France; but these expectations were frustrated by his premature death.

Both these princes were able men, well fitted to preserve their acquisitions; their successor was of a totally different character, and his weakness proved the ruin of his House. His ambitious uncles struggled for power during his long minority, and so neglected foreign affairs, that the French were enabled not only to recover their recent lost provinces, but also to regain others which had long been in the hands of the English, and the few that remained were alienated on the king's mar

The Lancastrian "claim by blood" is shewn in the annexed table. HENRY III.

THE PLANTAGENETS-LANCASTER.

3

riage with Margaret of Anjou. The grievous discontents thereby occasioned to a nation that had long looked on itself as rightful lord of France, added to many personal slights that he received from the new queen, and her favourite minister, Suffolk, induced Richard, duke of York, who had hitherto served the king as governor of Normandy, to bring forward his claim to the throne. as the representative of the Mortimers. The duke was killed in the struggle; his place, however, was well supplied by his son Edward, and very shortly after the sceptre passed from the feeble descendant of John of Gaunt.

An illegitimate branch of the house of Lancaster, the Beauforts, rendered themselves conspicuous for courage and ability, and were firm supporters of the throne of their relatives. Cardinal Beaufort, John, earl of Dorset and duke of Exeter, Edmund, duke of Somerset, held high offices in the state, and Margaret, the daughter of John, duke of Somerset, was the mother of Henry, earl of Richmond, the first of the Tudor kings.

Beside devices peculiar to each prince, and the well-known symbol of the red rose, the columbine and the collar of SS. belong to the House of Lancaster. The portcullis, adopted by the Tudors, was a device of the Beauforts.

d See p. 65.

e

0000

The Portcullis.

They were the descendants of John of Gaunt_by Katherine Swinford, but were legitimated by letters patent of Richard II., an act of parliament, and a papal decree. Richard's letters patent (Feb. 9, 1397) were confirmed by Henry IV., (Feb. 10, 1407,) but he of his own authority introduced a restrictive clause, "excepta dignitate regali," which now appears as an interlineation on the Patent Roll, (20 Ric. II. p. 2. m. 6.)

Henry IV.

Joan of Navarre.

From their Monument at Canterbury.

HENRY IV.

HENRY, the only son of John of Gaunt, by Blanche, daughter of Henry Grismond, duke of Lancaster, was born at Bolingbroke, in Lincolnshire, in 1366. As Sir Henry of Lancaster, he was celebrated for his skill in martial exercises; he served in Barbary against the Mohammedans, in Lithuania against the pagan tribes on the shores of the Baltic, and made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem. His bold, active, enterprising character contrasted strongly with that of Richard II., and he was a popular favourite, while regarded with jealous dislike by the king. He joined in the proceedings. against the duke of Gloucester, and was in consequence created duke of Hereford; but quarrelling soon after with the duke of Norfolk, each accusing the other of expressing treasonable doubts of the king's intention towards them, both were banished.

The duke of Hereford withdrew to France, with a promise that he should not be deprived of his inheritance in the event of his father's death; but he allied himself with his former enemies, the fugitives of the duke of Gloucester's party, and thus perhaps induced the king to revoke the promise he had made.

He returned to England, ostensibly to claim his inheritance, but being supported by powerful friends, and feebly opposed by the duke of York, the regent in the absence of the king in Ireland, he was enabled also to seize on the throne, and found a new royal house.

Henry was declared king, Sept. 30, 1399, and he held the sceptre for nearly fourteen years, amid all the difficulties and cruelties that usually attend a flagrant usurpation. His title was not recognised by foreign states, and he had little success in warf; he was repelled with scorn when attempting to form a marriage for his son Henry, with the youthful queen of his predecessor, and personally insulted by her kindred; numerous plots were formed against his life, and most barbarously punished; his parliaments remonstrated vehemently on his bad governments; his finances were throughout his reign in a deplorable condition;

Among other promises made by Henry at his accession, had been one, that he would head an army against France, and lead it farther than his grandfather, Edward III., had ever done. He never performed this promise, but in the year 1411 he sent a considerable body of troops, under the duke of Clarence, to assist the duke of Burgundy against his rival, the duke of Orleans; in the following year he joined the Orleans faction, but the parties wisely effected a temporary agreement, in order to dispense with such dangerous aid. s Beside procuring the removal of various obnoxious officers of the royal household, the Commons asserted their privileges with vigour, and succeeded in establishing their exclusive right of imposing taxes, and also of controlling the public expenditure.