King Henry IV (1367-1413), Reigned 1399-1413

Sitter associated with 28 portraits
The son of John of Gaunt, Henry Bolingbroke deposed his cousin Richard II in 1399 to claim the throne as Henry IV, becoming the first king of the House of Lancaster, a junior branch of the House of Plantagenet. He was compelled by Parliament (1406) to nominate a constitutional council, to submit to an audit of accounts, and to reform his household. He married firstly Mary de Bohun (Mother of Henry V) and later Joanna of Navarre. He was the patron of the poets Chaucer and Gower.