House of Lancaster

Country	Kingdom of England, Kingdom of France
Ancestral house	House of Plantagenet
Titles	Duke of Lancaster, King of England, King of France (disputed)
Founder	John of Gaunt
Final sovereign	Henry VI of England
Current head	Extinct in the male line
Founding	1362
Dissolution	1471

English Royalty
House of Lancaster
Armorial of Plantagenet
Henry IV
Henry V John, Duke of Bedford Thomas, Duke of Clarence Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester Blanche, Princess Louis of Germany Philippa, Queen of Denmark, Norway and Sweden
Henry V
Henry VI
Henry VI
Edward, Prince of Wales
v t e

The House of Lancaster was a cadet branch of the royal House of Plantagenet. It was one of the opposing factions involved in the Wars of the Roses, an intermittent dynastic struggle which affected England and Wales during the 15th century. The family provided England with three kings: Henry IV of England, who ruled 1399–1413; Henry V of England, who ruled 1413–1422; and Henry VI of England and (II of) France, who ruled 1422–1461 and 1470–1471. The term "Lancastrian" refers to members of the family as well as their supporters.

Origins [edit]

The House descended from Edward III's third surviving son, John of Gaunt. Gaunt did not receive a large inheritance, so he made his fortune through marriage to the heiress Blanche of Lancaster, who brought with her the considerable lands of the Earls of Leicester and Lancaster, which made Gaunt the wealthiest landowner in England after the King. He was conferred the second creation of the title of "Duke of Lancaster" by his father Edward III in 1362, a year following the death of John of Gaunt's father-in-law Henry of Grosmont, 1st Duke of Lancaster. Gaunt enjoyed great political influence during his lifetime, but upon his death in 1399, his lands were confiscated by Richard II.

Gaunt's exiled son and heir Henry of Bolingbroke returned home the same year with an army to reclaim the Lancaster estates, but ended up riding a tide of popular opposition to Richard II that saw him take control of the Kingdom. Richard II was deposed and died in captivity, and Bolingbroke was declared King Henry IV of England. In doing so he bypassed the descendants of Edward III's second surviving son, Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence. A senior heiress from the line of Lionel would marry a member of the House of York (another cadet branch of the House of Plantagenet), which gave the Yorkists a strong claim to the throne.

Henry IV was succeeded by his son Henry V, and eventually by his grandson Henry VI in 1422.

Claim to France [edit]

Henry V restated Edward III's earlier claim to the throne of France and resumed the Hundred Years War. He defeated the French in several battles, most notably in the Battle of Agincourt in 1415 and later allied himself with Burgundy, a cadet line of the Royal House of Valois. In 1420, the Duke of Burgundy negotiated the Treaty of Troyes between Henry and Charles VI of France, under which Henry married Charles' daughter Catherine, assumed the regency of France and would succeed to the throne on Charles' death. The treaty also effectively disinherited Charles' son, the Dauphin Charles.

However, Henry V predeceased Charles VI, on whose death the French crown passed to his grandson, Henry VI, the infant son of Henry V and Catherine of France, in whose name regents reigned in England and France.

Henry's claim according to the Treaty of Troyes was only recognised in those parts of France controlled by the English and their allies, while the territory south of the river Loire recognised the Dauphin Charles as King Charles VII. Charles at first did little to extend his rule beyond this territory. The intervention of Joan of Arc, culminating in Charles' royal consecration at Reims in 1429, reinvigorated the Valois' will to assert their rule to the whole of France. The English regents in Paris reacted by having Henry VI formally crowned King of France in 1431. However, the Valois' renewed efforts, including their military reforms, together with the increasing weakness of the English monarchy, which was beset by internal strife among the nobles, resulted in the House of Lancaster losing all French possessions (except Calais) in 1453, effectively putting an end to the Lancastrian Kingdom of France. However, English monarchs retained their claim to France until 1801.

Wars of the Roses [edit]

Henry VI was a weak monarch who suffered from periods of mental illness. In 1461, he was usurped and imprisoned by his cousin Edward of York, who proclaimed himself Edward IV of England.

Henry VI was eventually able to fight back and reestablished his rule in 1470, but a little under six months later was forced from the throne once again by Edward IV. He died in captivity in 1471, 17 days after his son and heir, Edward of Westminster, died at the Battle of Tewkesbury, leaving no legitimate heir of John of Gaunt.

None of the houses used a rose emblem,even though many think so. Lancaster had a lion and York had a Boar, even though people say Lancaster had a red rose and York a white, so the conflict between the two houses was dubbed the "Wars of the Roses" by historians. However this is a mistake, since both houses used many emblems - one very popular Yorkist emblem was "the sun in spendour". It is far more likely that Henry VIII usurped the minor badges of both houses, because his own badge was a red and white rose - the Tudor rose - and he wished to bask in the reflected glories of both York and Lancaster - each a cadet branch of the royal Plantagenet House.^[1] Also, the conflict was not known at the time as the Wars of the Roses, but the Wars of the Cousins, since Henry and Edward were both Plantagenets, and first cousins.^{[citation needed]}

Tudor Inheritance [edit]

Amongst the most ardent supporters of the House of Lancaster were the Beaufort family, descended from John of Gaunt and his mistress Katherine Swynford. When Gaunt and Swynford married in 1396 (some 25 years after the birth of their first child), the church rewarded them by legitimising their offspring through a papal bull. This was enshrined in an act of parliament the following year, but were barred from inheriting the English throne.

With the House of Lancaster extinct, the relatively unknown Henry Tudor proclaimed himself the Lancastrian heir from his exile in Brittany; he claimed descent from John of Gaunt through his mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort. In 1485, Tudor was able to use the unpopularity of the final Yorkist Richard III to take the crown as Henry VII of England. This was not to be a revival of the House of Lancaster, since Henry was not an agnatic descendant of John of Gaunt. To strengthen the claim of his future descendants to the throne, Henry married the Yorkist heiress Elizabeth of York, who was officially the senior living heir of Edward III by cognatic primogeniture. Thus, a dynasty of dual Lancastrian and Yorkist descent, the House of Tudor, was founded.

Legacy [edit]

The Lancastrian inheritance, known as the Duchy of Lancaster, has remained in English and then British Royal ownership, with monarchs bearing the title Duke of Lancaster. Since the Wars of the Roses, the title has never been borne by any individual other than the monarch. In 2007, the Duchy was valued at £397 million pounds, and the profits are the primary source of the Monarch's income.^[2]

The Red Rose of Lancaster (a rose gules) is the county flower of Lancashire. The city of Lancaster in the county of Lancashire is known as the Red Rose City and its seal features the Lancastrian rose.

The rivalry between Lancaster and York, in the form of the counties of Lancashire and Yorkshire, has continued into the present day, on a friendlier basis. For example, the annual sporting competition between Lancaster University and the University of York is called the Roses Tournament.This is also carried over into cricket with the cricket matches between Lancashire and Yorkshire cricket clubs which are called 'The War of The Roses' .

Dukes of Lancaster [edit]

Duke	Portrait	Birth	Marriages	Death
John of Gaunt (House of Lancaster founder) 1362–1399		6 March 1340 Ghent son of Edward III of England and Philippa of Hainault	Blanche of Lancaster 1359 7 children Constance of Castile 21 September 1371 2 children Katherine Swynford 13 January 1396 4 children	3 February 1399 Leicester Castle age 58
Henry (of) Bolingbroke 1399		3 April 1366 Bolingbroke Castle son of John of Gaunt and Blanche of Lancaster	Mary de Bohun 27 July 1380 7 children Joan of Navarre 7 February 1403 no children	20 March 1413 Westminster age 46

Henry (of) Bolingbroke became Henry IV on 30 September 1399, thus merging the title of Duke of Lancaster into the crown. Henry IV then created his eldest son Henry of Monmouth, the Prince of Wales, Duke of Lancaster on 10 November 1399; Henry of Monmouth was the third person to hold the title that year.

Duke	Portrait	Birth	Marriages	Death
Henry of Monmouth 1399–1413		16 September 1386 Monmouth son of Henry (of) Bolingbroke and Mary de Bohun	Catherine of Valois 2 June 1420 1 son	31 August 1422 Château de Vincennes age 35-36

Henry of Monmouth acceded to the throne as Henry V in 1413, at which point all of his peerages merged in the crown.

Lancastrian Kings of England [edit]

Name	Portrait	Birth	Marriages	Death	Claim
Henry IV Bolingbroke 30 September 1399–1413[3]		3 April 1366 Bolingbroke Castle son of John of Gaunt and Blanche of Lancaster[3]	(1) Mary de Bohun Arundel Castle 27 July 1380 seven children (2) Joanna of Navarre Winchester Cathedral 7 February 1403 no children[3]	20 March 1413 Westminster Abbey aged 46[4]	grandson and heir male of Edward III (usurpation/agnatic primogeniture)
Henry V 20 March 1413–1422[3]		16 September 1386 or [5] Monmouth Castle son of Henry IV and Mary de Bohun[3]	Catherine of Valois Troyes Cathedral 2 June 1420 one son[3]	31 August 1422 Château de Vincennes aged 35[3]	son of Henry IV (agnatic primogeniture)
Henry VI (first reign) 31 August 1422 – 4 March 1461[6] (second reign) 30 October 1470 – 11 April 1471[6]		6 December 1421 Windsor Castle son of Henry V and Catherine of Valois[6]	Margaret of Anjou Titchfield Abbey 22 April 1445 one son[6]	21 May 1471 Tower of London aged 49 (executed)[6]	son of Henry V (agnatic primogeniture)

See also [edit]

• Knighton's Chronicon
• Quia Emptores
• Lancashire

References [edit]

Further reading [edit]

• Nuttall, Jenni, The Creation of Lancastrian England: Literature, Language and Politics in Late Medieval England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007) (Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature, 67).

External links [edit]

• House of Lancaster on the official website of the British monarchy

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: House of Lancaster

v t e Wars of the Roses Red Rose of Lancaster White Rose of York Tudor Rose Key figures Monarchs of England Henry VI Edward IV Edward V Richard III Henry VII Lancastrian Margaret of Anjou, Queen of England Henry Percy, 2nd Earl of Northumberland Henry Percy, 3rd Earl of Northumberland Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset Henry Beaufort, 3rd Duke of Somerset Edmund Beaufort, 4th Duke of Somerset George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence Yorkist Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury John Neville, 1st Marquess of Montagu William Neville, 1st Earl of Kent Thomas Neville, Viscount Fauconberg Battles Lancastrian victories Battle of Ludford Bridge Battle of Wakefield Second Battle of St Albans Battle of Ferrybridge (Indecisive) Battle of Edgecote Moor Battle of Bosworth Field Battle of Stoke Field Yorkist victories First Battle of St Albans Battle of Blore Heath Battle of Sandwich Battle of Northampton Battle of Mortimer's Cross Battle of Ferrybridge (Indecisive) Battle of Towton Battle of Hedgeley Moor Battle of Hexham Battle of Lose-coat Field Battle of Barnet Battle of Tewkesbury See also Act of Accord Percy–Neville feud Issue of Edward III of England Book:Wars of the Roses Category:Wars of the Roses Portal:England / Monarchy