That year, Henry rallied a group of supporters, overthrew and imprisoned Richard II, and usurped the throne; these actions later contributed to dynastic disputes in the Wars of the Roses (1455–1487).

[4] As king, he faced a number of rebellions, most seriously those of Owain Glyndŵr, the last Welshman to claim the title of Prince of Wales, and the English knight Henry Percy (Hotspur), who was killed in the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403.

Henry also had four half-siblings born to Katherine Swynford, originally his sisters' governess, then his father's longstanding mistress and later third wife.

First cousins and childhood playmates, they were admitted together as knights of the Order of the Garter in 1377, but Henry participated in the Lords Appellants' rebellion against the king in 1387.

His small army consisted of over 100 men, including longbow archers and six minstrels, at a total cost to the Lancastrian purse of £4,360.

In 1398, a remark about Richard's rule by Thomas de Mowbray, 1st Duke of Norfolk, was interpreted as treason by Henry, who reported it to the king.

[12] The two dukes agreed to undergo a duel of honour (called by Richard) at Gosford Green near Caludon Castle, Mowbray's home in Coventry.

[14] After some hesitation, Henry met the exiled Thomas Arundel, former archbishop of Canterbury, who had lost his position because of his involvement with the Lords Appellant.

With Arundel as his advisor, Henry began a military campaign, confiscating land from those who opposed him and ordering his soldiers to destroy much of Cheshire.

Henry initially announced that he intended to reclaim his rights as Duke of Lancaster, though he quickly gained enough power and support to have himself declared King Henry IV, imprison Richard (who died in prison, most probably forcibly starved to death,[15]) and bypass Richard's heir-presumptive, Edmund de Mortimer, 5th Earl of March.

[16] Henry's 13 October 1399 coronation at Westminster Abbey[17] may have been the first time since the Norman Conquest that the monarch made an address in English.

[18] Henry dispatched a group to implore the clergy to address the heresies that were causing turmoil in England and confusion among Christians, and to impose penalties on those responsible.

[20] On this advice, Henry obtained from Parliament the enactment of De heretico comburendo in 1401, which prescribed the burning of heretics, an act done mainly to suppress the Lollard movement.

After the early assassination plot was foiled in January 1400, Richard died in prison aged 33, probably of starvation on Henry's order.

It can be positively said that he did not suffer a violent death, for his skeleton, upon examination, bore no signs of violence; whether he did indeed starve himself or whether that starvation was forced upon him are matters for lively historical speculation.

This did not stop rumours from circulating for years after that he was still alive and waiting to take back his throne, and that the body displayed was that of Richard's chaplain, a priest named Maudelain, who greatly resembled him.

The first Percy rebellion ended in the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403 with the death of the earl's son Henry, a renowned military figure known as "Hotspur" for his speed in advance and readiness to attack.

[29] In 1406, English pirates captured the future James I of Scotland, aged eleven, off the coast of Flamborough Head as he was sailing to France.

[33] Some medieval writers felt that he was struck with leprosy as a punishment for his treatment of Richard le Scrope, Archbishop of York, who was executed in June 1405 on Henry's orders after a failed coup.

Despite the example set by most of his recent predecessors, Henry and his second wife, Joan, were not buried at Westminster Abbey but at Canterbury Cathedral, on the north side of Trinity Chapel and directly adjacent to the shrine of St Thomas Becket.

Becket's cult was then still thriving, as evidenced in the monastic accounts and in literary works such as The Canterbury Tales, and Henry seemed particularly devoted to it, or at least keen to be associated with it.

Likewise, the three large coats of arms that dominate the tester painting are surrounded by collars of SS, a golden eagle enclosed in each tiret.

[41] Atop the tomb chest lie detailed alabaster effigies of Henry and Joan, crowned and dressed in their ceremonial robes.

Henry's body was evidently well embalmed, as an exhumation in 1832 established, allowing historians to state with reasonable certainty that the effigies do represent accurate portraiture.

On 7 February 1403, nine years after the death of his first wife, Henry married Joan, the daughter of Charles II of Navarre, at Winchester.

In 1403, Joan of Navarre gave birth to stillborn twins fathered by King Henry IV,[59] which was the last pregnancy of her life.