Son of John of Gaunt and cousin to Richard II, Henry was known as 'Bolingbroke', after his birthplace in Lincolnshire. He was one of the Appellants, a group of nobles opposed to the high-handed treatment of those who questioned the king's right to rule as he chose meted out by Richard and his friends. In 1387, Henry and the other Appellants defeated the king's favourite Robert de Vere at the battle of Radcot Bridge in Oxfordshire.
After a period on crusade with the Teutonic knights, Bolingbroke was banished by the king in 1398 following a quarrel with the duke of Norfolk. When John of Gaunt died, Richard saw a chance to enrich himself further by seizing his late uncle's estates, depriving Henry of his inheritance.
While Richard was away in Ireland in 1399, Bolingbroke returned to England with a small army to reclaim his property, eventually forcing the king to abdicate in his favour – Henry IV thus became the first king of the House of Lancaster.
While Richard was alive, he remained a focus of opposition, so Henry had him killed, possibly by having him starved to death in Pontefract Castle. Despite the backing of Parliament, Henry's dubious right to rule left him with deep insecurities.
He clashed with the Commons over money and fell out with his former friends, the influential Percy family, who felt that they were being less well treated than they deserved. In an attempt to put Edmund Mortimer, earl of March, on the throne, they sided with the Welsh rebel leader Owain Glyndwr against Henry. The latter defeated the younger Henry Percy ('Hotspur') at the battle of Shrewsbury in 1403, but it was a further five years before the Welsh were finally crushed.
In 1405, after a rebellion, Henry had the archbishop of York executed. Contemporary chroniclers blame this act for the ill health that plagued Henry during the last years of his life, including a disfiguring skin disease. This also led to several attempts to get him to abdicate in favour of his son, the future Henry V, which Henry managed to thwart. However, he died at the age of only 46, and was buried near Thomas Becket's shrine at Canterbury.
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 Henry IV
www.the-orb.net/textbooks/muhlberger
/henryiv.html
Comprehensive biography of this unpopular king.
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The Usurper King: Henry of Bolingbroke 1366-99 by Marie Louise Bruce (Rubicon, 1998)
This is an assessment of the dramatic events of 1399, when Bolingbroke invaded England, deposed Richard II, was crowned as Henry IV and, later, instigated Richard's murder. The book traces the relationship between the two princes back to their early boyhood, and shows how early rivalry led to envy, jealousy and suspicion, until the very existence of the one of them became a threat that had to be ended.
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