HE TOOK THE CROWN FROM AN ANOINTED KING. NOW HE MUST SURVIVE THE CONSEQUENCES.
In 1399, Henry Bolingbroke returned from exile claiming only the vast Lancastrian inheritance seized by Richard II. Within weeks, Richard was a prisoner and Henry had taken the throne as Henry IV.
The new king promised to restore lawful government, protect inheritance and end the abuses of Richard's reign. Instead, he inherited a kingdom divided by rebellion, financial weakness and doubt over whether his crown had ever been lawfully won.
In Wales, Owain Glyndŵr launched a national revolt against English rule. In the north, the powerful Percy family turned against the king they had helped create. At Shrewsbury, Henry faced the celebrated warrior Hotspur in a battle that would decide whether the Lancastrian dynasty survived its violent birth.
Even after victory, the struggle continued. Parliament demanded financial accountability, Lollardy challenged religious authority, Archbishop Scrope rose in rebellion, and the king's declining health intensified rivalry between Henry and his increasingly powerful son.
THE USURPER KING follows Henry IV from princely heir and crusading knight to exile, conqueror and embattled monarch. It examines the deposition of Richard II, the Glyndŵr revolt, the Percy rebellions, the Battle of Shrewsbury, parliamentary government, religious persecution and the difficult transfer of power to the future Henry V.
Drawing upon medieval chronicles, parliamentary records, legal documents and modern scholarship, Gordon J. MacKenzie explores how a king born from revolution defended a disputed crown long enough to create a dynasty.
This is Book Three of THE LAST PLANTAGENETS, a ten-volume history of England from the Peasants' Revolt to Bosworth and the end of Plantagenet rule.
