Henry IV was King of England from 1399 to 1413. He was born in 1367 and died in 1413. Henry IV was the eldest son of John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, third son of Henry III. by the heiress of Edmund, earl of Lancaster, second son of Henry III and the first king of the house of Lancaster.
He was made Earl of Derby and Duke of Hereford, but having in 1398 preferred a charge of treason against Mowbray, duke of Norfolk, he was banished with his adversary. On the death of John of Gaunt in 1399 Richard withheld Henry's inheritance, and Henry, landing in England, gained possession of Richard's person. The deposition of Richard by parliament, and the election of Henry, was followed by the murder of the late king. A plot against the king in 1400 was discovered in time to prevent its success, and many executions of men of rank followed; but an insurrection in Wales under Owen Glendower proved more formidable.
The Scots were decisively defeated by the Percies at Homildon, and their leader, the Earl of Douglas, was captured in 1402. An order from Henry not to permit the ransom of that nobleman and other Scottish prisoners was regarded as an indignity by the Percies, who set Douglas free, made an alliance with him, and joined Glendower. The king met the insurgents at Shrewsbury in 1403, the battle ending in the defeat and death of Percy. The Earl of Northumberland was pardoned, and but few victims were executed.
A new insurrection, headed by the Earl of Nottingham and Scrope or Scroop, archbishop of York, broke out in 1405, but was suppressed by the king's third son, Prince John. The rest of this king's reign was comparatively untroubled. In 1405 James, son and heir to King Robert of Scotland, was captured at sea on his way to France, and was detained a prisoner in England. Henry died in 1413, and was succeeded by Henry V. Research Henry IV
Sir William Gascoigne was an English judge of the Court of King's Bench. He was born about 1350 and died in 1419. He is chiefly famous for directing the imprisonment of the Prince of Wales (afterwards Henry V), who had struck him in open court for condemning one of his dissolute friends. He also declined to obey the king and sentence Archbishop Scroop to death, alleging that the law gave him no power over the life of an ecclesiastic. In each case the king ultimately approved his action. Research William Gascoigne
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