Lincolnshire's Catholic King - Henry IV

HENRY IV OF ENGLAND

LINCOLNSHIRE'S CATHOLIC KING

(BORN AT BOLINGBROKE CASTLE, LINCOLNSHIRE)

In reality all Kings were Catholic up until the Reformation, but as Henry Bolingbroke is Lincolnshire's only Catholic King the story is worth revisiting for it's Catholic content. 

Henry IV (15 April 1367 – 20 March 1413) was King of England. He was the tenth King of England of the House of Plantagenet and also asserted his grandfather's claim to the title King of France. He was born at BolingbrokeCastle in Lincolnshire, hence his other name, Henry (of) Bolingbroke. His father was John of Gaunt. Henry's mother was Blanche, heiress to the considerable Lancaster estates, and thus he became the first King ofEngland from the Lancaster branch of the Plantagenets.

Catholicism

Henry consulted with Parliament frequently, but was sometimes at odds with the members, especially over ecclesiastical matters. On Arundel's advice, Henry obtained from Parliament the enactment of De heretico comburendo in 1401, which prescribed the burning of heretics. In 1410, parliament suggested confiscating church land. Henry refused to attack the Church that had helped him to power, and the House of Commons had to beg for the bill to be struck off the record.

Shakespeare

Henry IV at the Globe Theater, London

Coronation

Significantly, at his coronation, he was anointed with holy oil that had reportedly been given to Becket by the Virgin Mary shortly before his death in 1170; this oil was placed inside a distinct eagle-shaped container of gold. According to one version of the tale, the oil had then passed to Henry's maternal grandfather, Henry of Grosmont, 1st Duke of Lancaster. 

Death

According to Holinshed, it was predicted that Henry would die inJerusalem, and Shakespeare's play repeats this prophecy. Henry took this to mean that he would die on crusade. 

In reality, he died in the Jerusalem Chamber in the abbot's house of Westminster Abbey, on 20 March 1413 during a convocation of Parliament.

Burial & St. Thomas Becket

Despite the example set by most of his recent predecessors, Henry and his second wife, Joan of Navarre, Queen of England, were buried not 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 Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales', and Henry seemed particularly devoted to it, or at least keen to be associated with it.

Martyrdom of Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Beckett

Proof of Henry's deliberate connexion to St Thomas lies partially in the structure of the tomb itself. The wooden panel at the western end of his tomb bears a painting of the martyrdom of Becket, and the tester, or wooden canopy, above the tomb is painted with Henry's personal motto, 'Soverayne', alternated by crowned golden eagles. 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. The presence of such eagle motifs points directly to Henry's coronation oil and his ideological association with St Thomas. Sometime after the King's death, an imposing tomb was built for him and his queen. A top the tomb chest lie detailed alabaster effigies of the King and Queen, crowned and dressed in their ceremonial robes.