Henry IV (20 page)

⁴
They visited Lincoln together in July 1390, and regularly spent Christmas and New Year together in the Lancastrian household at Hertford:
Expeditions
, 27.

⁵
DL 28/1/2, fos. 17r, 21r, 24r, 25v, 26r.

⁶
DL 28/1/2, fos. 26r–v, 29r.

⁷
T. Turville-Petre,
The Alliterative Revival
(Cambridge, 1977), 40–2; Given-Wilson,
Chronicles
, 209–11; Davies,
Lords and Lordship
, 74 (quote); J. Catto, ‘The Prayers of the Bohuns’, in
Soldiers, Nobles and Gentlemen. Essays in Honour of Maurice Keen
, ed. P. Coss and C. Tyerman (Woodbridge, 2009), 112–25, at p. 116. The ‘Bridlington Prophecies’, written by the Augustinian friar John Erghome around 1370, were dedicated to Mary's father.

⁸
DL 28/1/2 (
pro regulando unius pellis pergameni pro cantando supernotando
).

⁹
DL 28/1/2, fos. 9v, 15v; 28/1/4, fo. 4v.

¹⁰
‘No other English family of the fourteenth century seems to have taken such an active or personal interest in illuminated manuscripts’: L. Sandler,
Illuminators and Patrons in Fourteenth-Century England: The Psalter and Hours of Humphrey de Bohun and the Manuscripts of the Bohun Family
(London, 2014); L. Sandler,
Gothic Manuscripts 1285–1385
(2 vols, Oxford, 1986), i.34–6, and ii.146–65; L. Sandler, ‘The Bohun Women and Manuscript Patronage in Fourteenth-Century England’, in
Patronage, Power and Agency in Medieval Art
, ed. C. Hourihane (Princeton, 2013), 275–96; Dennison, ‘British Library, Egerton MS 3277’. My thanks to Julian Luxford for his help with this topic.

¹¹
In 1384, Teye received permission from the Augustinian prior-general ‘to summon Brother Henry Hood for one year only to instruct him in the art of illuminating books’: Dennison, ‘British Library Egerton MS 3277’, 132–3. These manuscripts are now dispersed in a variety of libraries and museums – in Vienna, Edinburgh, Copenhagen, Schloss Pommersfelden, and Lichtenthal abbey near Baden-Baden, as well as in London, Oxford and Cambridge.

¹²
Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland, MS Adv. 18.6.5, for an illuminated psalter and book of hours made for Eleanor (fo. 148v for the inscription, ‘this book belonged to Eleanor de Bohun, duchess of Gloucester, who ordered it to be written’).

¹³
Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Auctarum D.4.4, fo. 181v; L. Sandler, ‘Lancastrian Heraldry in the Bohun Manuscripts’, in
The Lancastrian Court: Harlaxton Medieval Studies XIII
, ed. J. Stratford (Donnington, 2003), 221–32; Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum MS 38–1950; Sandler,
Gothic Manuscripts
, ii.157–61; cf. also
The Cambridge Illuminations
, ed. P. Binski and S. Panayotova (London, 2005), 189–90. BL Egerton MS 3277 may also include a ‘portrait’ of Mary (Dennison, ‘British Library, Egerton MS 3277’).

¹⁴
L. F. Sandler, ‘The Lichtenthal Psalter and the Manuscript Patronage of the Bohun Family’,
Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Art History
, 38 (2004); see Plate 14 (fo. 8).

¹⁵
Copenhagen, Konigelige Bibliotek MS Thott. 547.4; Sandler,
Gothic Manuscripts
, ii.161–2.

¹⁶
Catto, ‘The Prayers of the Bohuns’, 120, 125 (from Bodleian MS Auctarum D.4.4).

¹⁷
J. Catto, ‘Religion and the English Nobility in the Later Fourteenth Century’, in
History and Imagination
, ed. H. Lloyd-Jones, V. Pearl and B. Worden (London, 1981), 43–55, at pp. 49–51.

¹⁸
Fowler,
King's Lieutenant
, 193–6, and above, pp. 32–4. An illuminated manuscript in the Library of Liverpool Hope University was almost certainly owned by either Henry or Mary; as in the Oxford psalter, the prayers are in Latin and were intended as an aid to meditation: Catto, ‘The Prayers of the Bohuns’, 120–1 (Liverpool Hope University, Gradwell Collection, MS Upholland College 165). For Henry's piety, see also below, pp. 377–81.

¹⁹
DL 28/3/3, m. 4; 28/1/4, fo. 3, 21r; 28/3/4, fos. 20v, 33v. In 1391–2, Joanna Waryn was nurse to young Henry, Joanna Donnesmore to Thomas and John; by 1393, Mary Hervy had become governess to ‘the young lords’ (Henry, Thomas and John), but Humphrey (born 1390) and Blanche (born 1392) still had nurses, Margaret and Isabella, respectively. Amy de Melbourne, Katherine Chamberer and Juliana Rockster (a cradle-nurse) are also mentioned in the 1387–8 account; and Juliana and Agneta in 1393–4.

²⁰
DL 28/3/4, fos. 7r, 20r, 33r; 28/3/3, m. 3.

²¹
DL 28/3/3 and 4. Henry's income of £1,740 in 1391–2 included £311 in back payments from the king for his costs in bringing an armed retinue to London in September 1386: DL 28/3/3, m.2, and see above, p. 41.

²²
Over nine months in 1391–2, Henry received £1,429; the annual totals for 1392–3 and 1394–5 were £1,802 and £1,931, respectively. In 1393–4 his landed income dropped to £1,272, mainly because Brecon only yielded £622 instead of its customary £1,100 or so: DL 28/3/4.

²³
See above, pp. 26–8.

²⁴
A. Tuck, ‘Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester’,
ODNB
, 54.277–83; Goodman,
Loyal Conspiracy
, 87–104.

²⁵
DL 28/3/3, m. 4; 28/3/4, fo. 9r. Henry did not, however, pay retaining fees to members of the royal judiciary, for after many years of campaigning by the parliamentary commons this practice was prohibited in 1388 on grounds of impropriety: Maddicott,
Law and Lordship
, 59–80.

²⁶
DL 41/240.

²⁷
DL 41/140. Henry also demanded from Gloucester a half share in certain properties in Kent, Hereford, Somerset and Oxfordshire, totalling just over six knights' fees, which had not been included in the partition.

²⁸
R. Davies,
Lordship and Society in the March of Wales 1282–1400
(Oxford, 1978), 92–7.

²⁹
CCR 1385–9
, 56–7.

³⁰
DL 28/3/4, fo. 12r.

³¹
For example, rights of presentation to the churches of Barnsley (Gloucs.) and Ystradgunlais in the March of Wales, and the division of Alexanderstown (Gloucs.): DL 41/248; 28/3/4, fos. 24v–25r, 38v.

³²
‘. . .and the claims of their heirs will be saved, just as they were before this indenture, and will in no way be prejudiced by this indenture’: DL 27/170; see also DL 28/3/4, fo. 39v;
CCR 1392
–6, 448–9;
CIM 1392–9
, no. 226, inquisition of November 1397 stating incorrectly that this had been agreed ‘about seven years ago’; Holmes,
Estates of the Higher Nobility
, 24–5;
CFR 1391–9
, 150–1. William Loveney and William Ferrour went to Wix Priory in Essex ‘to take possession and attorney concerning the exchange between the lord [Henry] and the duke of Gloucester’, in the late summer of 1395 (DL 28/1/5, fo. 31r). The lands Henry ceded were attached to the manors of Wethersfield (Essex), Nuthampstead (Herts.), Westcott (Bucks.) and Newnham (Gloucs.), along with the advowson of Llanthony by Gloucester priory.

³³
CCR 1392–6
, 448–9;
CPR 1396–9
, 13.

³⁴
VCH Bedfordshire
, ii.247–8;
CPR 1391–6
, 32–3.

³⁵
Leventhorpe claimed £40 in expenses during the year because he had been so heavily engaged (
maxime occupatus
) in the lawsuit. Gaunt's apprentice was William Hornby: DL 28/3/3, m. 2, 3, 5, 6; 28/3/4, fo. 11r. The reason why it was Henry rather than Gaunt who pursued these lawsuits is because Gaunt had only a life estate (tenancy by courtesy) in the lands formerly possessed by Duchess Blanche, whereas Henry was Blanche's heir and it was thus up to him to sue for lands to which she had a claim but had not actually possessed. My thanks to Linda Clark and Simon Payling for clarifying this point.

³⁶
‘
ne mutarentur
’: this may be the same William Tyryngton from whom one of Henry's servants bought nine quarters of corn on 19 July, six days before the assize:
Expeditions
, 152.

³⁷
DL 28/3/4, fo. 9r.

³⁸
Ralph was John Nevill's son by his first wife, Maud Percy.

³⁹
Somerville,
Duchy of Lancaster
, i.33, 338;
VCH Buckinghamshire
, iv.435–6. Long Buckby adjoined Henry's large and valuable manor of Daventry, which must have made it doubly tempting.

⁴⁰
Inquisitions following Basset's death identified Thomas earl of Stafford as his heir, but also named Warwick as having a title by remainder under a deed executed in 1339:
CIPM
xvi (1384–92), nos. 963–75.

⁴¹
DL 28/3/3, m. 5. He also paid ‘a certain clerk’ for copying out charters relating to the de Lacy inheritance ‘in order to have evidence about the same manor’ (ibid.).

⁴²
Henry received income from the manor on 8 December 1392: DL 28/3/3, m. 2;
CIM 1392–9
, no. 298;
VCH Buckinghamshire
, iv.435–6. Warwick's unhappiness explains why Henry's clerks were still gathering evidence about Warrington in the autumn of 1392: DL 28/3/4, fo. 11v. Even after he became king, others were still claiming Warrington (
CAD
, v.A11358; my thanks to Simon Payling for references relating to the Warrington and Long Buckby disputes).

⁴³
DL 28/3/4, fos. 38v–39v;
CCR 1392–6
, 325–6.

⁴⁴
CPR 1396–9
, 197, 211; Somerville,
Duchy of Lancaster
, i.68, 565. Goodman,
Loyal Conspiracy
, 141, says Henry failed to win Long Buckby, but see
CCR 1409–13
, 129. However, the Beauchamps still claimed it in 1439 (
CIPM
, xv, no. 271; and see
CPR 1396–9
, 197, 211).

⁴⁵
DL 28/3/4, fo. 39v. Long Buckby alone cost £116 in 1394.

⁴⁶
Several of Henry's legal counsel were also retained by Gaunt, who also put his own lawyers at his son's disposal (for example, Hugh Huls): DL 28/3/2, fos. 13r–v.

⁴⁷
In March 1394, Gaunt and Henry even petitioned the king to renounce his right to the advowson of the church of Owston (Yorkshire) as they wished to grant it to Welbeck abbey (SC 8/252/12557).

⁴⁸
Westminster Chronicle
, 520–1; Mary died in late June, but the exact date is not recorded.

⁴⁹
DL 28/3/4, fos 33r–v: Henry was at Peterborough on 28 and 31 March 1394; by 20 April he was at Pontefract.

⁵⁰
DL 28/32/21 (two sums of £544 and £64);
SAC I
, 960. John Strecche said Mary was buried decently (
honeste
): BL Add. MS 35,295, fo. 262v.

⁵¹
For the Bohun psalters, see above, pp. 78–80.

⁵²
John commissioned the magnificent Bedford Hours and purchased 843 books from the French Royal Library following Charles VI's death in 1422; Humphrey's reputation as a patron of humanism has been challenged, but he was certainly a great collector of books and corresponded with Italian humanists: Wylie,
Henry the Fourth
, iv.135; G. Harriss, ‘Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester’,
ODNB
, 28.787–93; McFarlane,
Lancastrian Kings
, 244; C. Allmand, ‘Henry V, King of England’,
ODNB
, 26.487–97.

⁵³
E 403/612, 20 May, 17 July 1413. The coppersmith, William Godezer, received £60. This is not the effigy in the Trinity Hospital at Leicester, sometimes claimed to be Mary's, for it is of alabaster, not copper (A. Gardner,
Alabaster Tombs of the Pre-Reformation Period in England
(Cambridge, 1940), 93 and illustration 248. Cf.
John Leland's Itinerary
, ed. J. Chandler (Stroud, 1993), 277–8).

Chapter 7

THE TWO DUCHIES AND THE CROWN (1394–1396)

In English domestic politics, the early 1390s were characterized by the steady reassertion of Richard II's personal control of government. With the war in abeyance, the crown's financial situation eased, and following his return from Spain, Gaunt's relations with the king improved markedly, at any rate on the surface. In the January 1390 parliament, Richard bestowed two striking favours on his uncle: he converted his life tenure of palatinate powers in the duchy of Lancaster into a hereditary grant, and he endowed him with the duchy of Guyenne for life. Yet Gaunt was not satisfied with this.
¹
Despite relinquishing his claim to the Castilian crown in 1387, he still clung to his dream of a great continental
apanage
, not just for the term of his life but one which he could pass on to his heir. In order to realize it, however, he knew he must also win the support of the French, for only if Guyenne were held as a fief of the French crown might such an arrangement be incorporated into a durable peace treaty, and it was this that became his main aim during the series of Anglo-French peace conferences which punctuated the early 1390s, at which he acted as principal English negotiator. Richard, who was eager for peace, initially supported the proposal, even though it meant that the direct link between Guyenne and the English crown which had endured for nearly 250 years would be broken. So, naturally, did Henry, for it meant that after Gaunt's death he would become duke of Guyenne as well as of Lancaster, holding them from the kings of France and England, respectively.

The French were not averse to Gaunt's proposal, reckoning that with time the new duke of Guyenne would become absorbed into the French polity and the troublesome Anglo-Gascon link thus be severed; even Gloucester, normally so resistant to concessions to the French, was prepared to go along with it, albeit reluctantly.
²
To many, however, it was anathema.
The Gascon lords and townsmen, who treasured their freedom from the direct rule of a resident duke and saw their link to the English crown as the best defence against the encroachment of the French monarchy, sent delegations to protest to the king and only agreed to admit Gaunt's deputies to Bordeaux if they came ‘not as the deputy of the duke of Lancaster, but as the deputy of the king of England’.
³
Gaunt was a persistent man, however, and in June 1393 he negotiated a draft Anglo-French treaty which included the grant of Guyenne to himself, to be held of the French crown, as a condition of lasting peace. To what extent Richard supported this is not clear; there was by now growing tension between the king and his uncle over the peace talks, with suspicion on Richard's part that Gaunt was negotiating more for his own benefit than for that of England.
⁴
Opposition to the draft treaty also surfaced in Cheshire and Lancashire, led by professional soldiers such as Sir Thomas Talbot and Sir Nicholas Clifton who accused Gaunt, Gloucester and Henry of scheming to deprive the king of his lordship in France and threatened to kill them if they set foot in the north-west.
⁵
Cheshire contributed a disproportionately high number of men to English armies during the fourteenth century, and the ringleaders of the revolt were men who feared that peace would deprive them of their livelihoods. Gaunt and Henry accordingly went north in the summer of 1393 and managed to pacify the rebels with a mixture of firmness (though very little violence) and promises of future military employment.
⁶