he entered Italy, deposed the three competing popes,
Gregory VI, Benedict DC, and Sylvester III, at synods in
Sutri and Rome, and appointed a succession of German
bishops as popes: Clement II and Damasus II, both of
whom died soon after their elections. Although his bold
action at Sutri was criticized by some as an inappropriate
invasion of the ecclesiastical sphere by a secular ruler,
Henry was nonetheless widely recognized for his efforts
to rid the papacy of corruption. His selection in 1048 of
Bishop Bruno of Toul, who would become Pope Leo IX
(1049–1054), ushered in a new era of the papacy and of
ecclesiastical reform.
See also Conrad II; Henry IV, Emperor;
Leo IX, Pope
Further Reading
Boshof, Egon, Die Salier, 3rd ed. Stuttgart and Cologne: Kohl-
hammer, 1995, pp. 143–166.
Henry III. Monumenta Germaniae Historica Diplomata Hein-
richs III, ed. H. Breßlau and P. Kehr. Berlin 1926–1931; rpt.
Munich: Monumenta Germaniae Historica, 1993.
Prinz, Friedrich. “Kaiser Heinrich III. Seine widersprüchliche
Beurteilung und deren Gründe.” Historische Zeitschrift 246
(1988): 529–548.
Schnith, K. “Recht und Friede. Zum Königsgedanken im Umkreis
Heinrichs III.” Historisches Jahrbuch 81 (1962): 22–57.
Weinfurter, Stefan, et al., ed. Die Salier und das Reich. 3 vols.
Sigmaringen: Thorbecke, 1992, passim.
Wipo. The Deeds of Conrad II, trans. K. F. Morrison and T. Mom-
msen, in Imperial Lives and Letters. New York: Columbia
University Press, 1962.
William North
HENRY IV (1366–1413; r. 1399–1413)
The only legitimate son of John of Gaunt, duke of Lan-
caster, a younger son of Edward III. Henry was born
at Bolingbroke, Lincolnshire, probably in April 1366.
Although a king’s grandson, he could never have had
any real expectations of be coming king and received no
training for kingship.
England was overrun without a fi ght. Richard was
captured and induced to abdicate by the guile of Arun-
del and Northumberland. The oath that Henry swore at
Doncaster—that he had come to claim his own inheri-
tance, not the crown—was conveniently forgotten. On
30 September 1399 in the parlia ment at Westminster,
without specifying the exact nature of his title, Henry
claimed the throne. Twelve days later he was crowned
king. Holding the crown was to prove more diffi cult
than winning it.
Among the nobility and gentry Henry found little
sup port, and he was afraid to offend them by asking his
parlia ments for the taxes he needed. In the early part of
the reign the great offi cers of state, the chancellor and
treasurer and other counselors, were drawn from the
humbler ranks of clerks and squires. Lack of money
and fi nancial inexperience were his greatest handicaps.
Lavish grants from the royal revenues were made in the
hope of winning friends and loyal support; they only
added to the problem. Plots to depose Henry and restore
Richard helped ensure the latter’s death but did not end
opposition to the new king.
Moreover in 1403 he married, as his second wife,
Joan of Navarre, widowed duchess of Brittany, whom
he may have met while in exile. A foreign queen, gener-
ously endowed with estates and a household that was,
like Henry’s, regarded by the Commons as extravagant,
provided a further target for crit ics. Though earlier rebel-
lions had been easily suppressed, the Welsh rising led
by Owen Glendower proved a serious harass ment for
most of the reign. The Percys, entrusted to defend the
northern border and to govern north Wales, defeated the
Scots at Homildon Hill in 1402 but soon became discon-
tented with the role Henry permitted them and with the
payments he was able to afford them.
The Percys’ fi rst rebellion was defeated at Shrews-
bury in 1403, owing to Henry’s swift reaction. Hotspur
was killed in battle and his uncle Worcester captured
and beheaded, but the old earl of Northumberland lived
to rebel again and fi nally to menace Henry from exile
in Scotland. With his parliaments Henry had a constant
struggle to secure money and to prevent them taking
control of his council, from which his humbler friends
were slowly excluded. After the Long Parliament of
1406 Arundel, his ablest counselor, became chancellor
and controlled the government for several years but had
to face new rivals: the emerging Beaufort family, the
children of Gaunt’s mistress and then wife, Katherine
Swynford, and thus the king’s half-brothers.
Meanwhile Henry had been stricken with the mysteri-
ous illness that disfi gured, disabled, and eventually
killed him. After several years of campaigning in Wales
the king’s eldest son, Henry, succeeded in defeating
the rebels and now joined the Beauforts to control the
council. Thomas Beaufort re placed Arundel as chancel-
lor. At some point the Beauforts tried to force Henry
to abdicate in favor of the prince, but as the plot failed
evidence is almost entirely lacking. After some disputes,
mainly over the question of war with France, a for mal
reconciliation between father and son was effected, and
Henry the usurper was able to leave his son an undis-
puted succession when he died in 1413.
See also Edward III; Henry V; Richard IIFurther Reading
Brown, Alfred L. “The Commons and the Council in the Reign
of Henry IV.” EHR 79 (1964): 125–56.
Davies, Richard G. “Thomas Arundel as Archbishop of Can-
terbury, 1396–1414.” Journal of Ecclesiastical History 19
(1973): 9–21.HENRY III