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King Henry IV 1367-1413; reigned 1400-1413 "What trust is in these times?"
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Swan | Shrewsbury Church | Great Seal | Reliquary | Wycliffite Bible | Jerusalem Chamber | Tomb |
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Henry IV's reign was punctuated with repeated challenges to his rule, first from Richard II's supporters, then from his own former allies. At the same time, his armies were involved in putting down rebellions in Wales and Scotland. The king struggled with illness during the last years of his reign, finally succumbing in 1413. Shakespeare's two plays are not really about Henry IV at all, but rather the maturation of his eldest son, Henry Prince of Wales, who would become
Henry V. Using the legends of his ribald youth, Shakespeare creates a carousing, rascalous Prince surrounded by low-life friends in the bars and brothels of London. Whether or not Prince Hal showed such high-spirited enjoyment for life in his youth, this characterization is basically imaginary, as the Prince was, from the age of 14 or 15, chiefly involved in leading armies against the Welsh and otherwise commanding his estates in the north and west of England.
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The Dunstable Swan Jewel, ca. 1400
The swan badge was associated with the House of Lancaster after Henry IV (then Bolingbroke) married Mary de Bohun in 1380. She belonged to a family who, according to legend, was descended from the Knight of the Swan, a mysterious knight who once appeared in a boat drawn by a swan to rescue a maiden and her noble mother from danger. Found at Dunstable (northwest of London), this marvelous jewel is modeled from gold covered with white and black enamel. The swan wears a crown around its neck, from which extends a gold chain. On its back is a pin, which would have been used to attach it to a hat or garment. Dating to around 1400, this object would have been given to a noble retainer of the King's family and would have served to publicly associate that individual with the royals. During the first embattled and unstable years of the Lancastrian reign, such a badge would probably have signified not merely service, but a contract of mutual support and protection. Sources
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Church of St. Mary Magdalene, 1406-9
The Battle of Shrewsbury, fought in 1403 between the armies of Henry IV and that of the northern magnates the Percies, was one of the bloodiest of the 15th century. Dramatized in the final act of Henry IV, part 1, Henry's son the Prince of Wales (Prince Hal) was wounded, and Henry Percy's oldest son, Hotspur, lost his life. After the battle, a local rector, Roger Ive, lobbied for a chapel to be built at the site to commemorate the event and the sacrifice of those who died there. Between 5,000 and 9,000 died at Shrewsbury, and it is rumored that the church itself is built over a mass grave, though some historians doubt that this is actually so. Ive convinced the local noble Hussey to donate the land for the church, which was begun in 1406 and being used by 1409. In 1410, Henry IV re-established it under a royal charter. Seven chaplains were engaged to live at the site and offer masses for the king, the Husseys, and the souls of the battle's victims. Living quarters were also built at this time. Constructed from local sandstone, most of the church's original exterior remains. The tower at the west end was probably begun in the 1440s, but not completed until 1500; a statue of Henry IV stands at the apex of the east end. Later in the 16th century, however, the church was closed and fell into disrepair. In the 1860s, Lady Brinckman, a member of the local gentry, spearheaded its restoration. Most of its interior fittings date to this period, and the building's stained glass was also replaced at this time with 14th, 15th and 16th century glass brought from other sites. The church ceased to function as a place of worship in the 1980s and is currently maintained by the Churches Conservation Trust. Sources
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The Great Seal of Henry IV, 1410
The reverse of Henry IV's Great Seal, created between 1406 and 1408, shows the king on horseback with raised sword in the tradition of seals going back to the 13th century. On the front, the king enthroned is surrounded by the Virgin and national saints, including St. George and Edward the Confessor. Important medieval documents, like town and institutional charters, were stamped with wax seals that dangled from strips of parchment attached to the document. Seals acted like signatures; surrogates for their owners, they made a document legally binding. Kings were associated with several seals - the Great Seal, the Privy Seal and the Signet. The signet was most closely associated with the king himself, and was kept in court by his secretary. The privy and great seals were kept by other officials and only used within the king's council. They were often used to authorize documents relating to finances and the law. Sources
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Reliquary of the Order of St.-Esprit, 1390-1410 About 17 inches tall, this richly jeweled and architecturally elaborate object was made to hold a relic (perhaps a piece of the True Cross). The central figure of God the Father and the Virgin above him both have their arms outstretched to hold objects, now missing. They are surrounded by the figures of saints and apostles with their traditional attributes. Christ the King stands in the niche above the Virgin holding an orb (here a pearl) and scepter. Pearls, singly and in clusters, uncut rubies and sapphires, and enameled ornament adorn the entire object. This reliquary could have been made in England or France during the reign of England's Richard II or Henry IV; its origin and original owner are uncertain. However, it was definitely part of the Royal Treasury during Henry IV's reign, as his wife, Joan of Navarre, presented it as a gift to her son John from a previous marriage when he visited England from Brittany in 1412. It was given to the Order of St.-Esprit in the 16th century and came to the Louvre with the gift of that organization's treasury in 1830. Sources
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Wycliffite Bible, ca. 1390
The Bible was first translated into English by John Wyclif (c. 1320-1384) in the 1380s. Wyclif was an Oxford theologian and religious reformer who scorned what he saw as the worldliness of the church and believed that spiritual belief and practice did not depend on its priests and sacraments. The late-14th and early-15th century movement called Lollardy embraced Wyclif's teachings, one of which stressed the importance of worshipping and reading the scriptures in the vulgar, or common, tongue. In the 1390s, Lollards challenged not only the spiritual authority of the church but the church's prerogative to secular authority, which rested in its wealth, property, and connections to the crown. Henry IV and secular and spiritual leaders during his reign equated Lollardy with subversive social beliefs and condemned it as a treasonous movement. Lollards were prosecuted, and the English (Wycliffite) Bible was banned (it was otherwise only available in Latin). Indeed, any possession of English texts or act of reading in the vernacular was viewed with suspicion. Rubin writes, "devotional practice, access to books, and the use of the vernacular" were "the most widespread marks of alternative religious taste" during this period. Despite this prosecution, these texts survived and continued to be produced (around 250 are still extant), and Wyclif himself came to be seen as an important forefather of Protestantism. Sources
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Westminster Abbey, London Two rooms away from the main portion of the abbey, the Jerusalem Chamber was constructed in 1386, during the reign of Richard II. Its roof timbers (shown in the etching) contain the initial "R" and also the initials of the Abbot Litlyngton, who died that year. The original stone fireplace is decorated with the arms of Abbot Litlyngton, Edward the Confessor, the medieval Abbey of Westminster, King Henry IV (or V) and Dean Foxeley Norris (1925-37). The room may have been named after its stained glass, its original tapestries (which have been replaced with some from the 16th century), or an inscription on its fireplace - the exact origin of the name is unknown. Shakespeare sets the pivotal confrontation between the Prince and his father in this room, which includes Prince Henry removing the king's crown from a pillow by his bedside, placing it on his own head, and wandering out of the room. This is certainly fiction, but Shakespeare uses it to dramatize the very real tension that occurred between the Prince and King towards the end of Henry IV's life, when the two clashed over different policies towards the war in France. Some were suggesting the King leave the throne in favor of his son. Legend has it that Henry IV died before the fireplace of the Jerusalem Chamber, fulfilling a prophecy that he would die in the Holy Land. The last lines of Act IV of Henry IV, part 2 reference this story, taken from the Tudor chronicler Holinshed: Henry IV asks the name of the room where he was taken when he fell ill, and a companion replies, "'Tis called Jerusalem, my noble lord." The King then says: "Laud be to God! Even there my life must end.
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Tomb of Henry IV, 1420s
Henry IV chose to be buried in Canterbury Cathedral rather than Westminster Abbey, the traditional burial place of kings, as early as 4 years before his death. He chose this location possibly because he perceived a lack of space by the shrine of Edward the Confessor, or perhaps because a tomb for the king he deposed, Richard II, already stood there. Christopher Wilson also suggests he chose this location to more closely associate himself with the Virgin Mary's holy oil used at his coronation, which was also located at Canterbury. Though Henry IV died in 1413, his tomb was not erected until the 1420s, probably by his second wife, Joan of Navarre, who shares the monument with him. Both of their arms, badges and mottoes appear on it, and it is carved in alabaster, a popular material for decorative and religious objects of all sizes in 15th century England. Painted panels of the Virgin and St. Thomas appear on the walls to the east and west of the tomb, and above is a tester, or canopy, also decorated with the heraldry, mottoes and badges of the pair. The swan badge is not used, possibly because of its association with Henry's first wife. Sources
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