THE ROYAL FAMILIES OF ENGLAND
Humphrey Plantagenet, Duke of Gloucester
HUMPHREY PLANTAGENET, fourth son of King HENRY IV., by his first wife, the Lady Mary de Bohun, daughter and co-heiress of Humphrey, Earl of Hereford, Essex, and Northampton, Constable of England, was made a Knight of the Bath, at his father’s coronation, along with his brothers, Thomas, afterwards Duke of Clarence, and John, Duke of Bedford.
In the 1st of HENRY V., he obtained with other grants, the Castle and Lordship of Pembroke; shortly after which, being made Duke of Gloucester, in the Parliament held at Leicester, he had summons by that title, as well as by the title of Earl of Pembroke, 26th Sept. 1414.
In the 3rd of the same reign, the prince assisted at the siege of Harfleur, and he received soon after a dangerous wound, in the celebrated battle of Azincourt. During the remainder of the reign of his martial brother, the Duke of Gloucester was almost wholly engaged in the wars of France; and upon the accession of HENRY VI., he was constituted, as he had been twice before, upon temporary absences of the king, Lieutenant of the realm. In this year it was, that he was involved in a serious dispute with William Duke of Brabant, by reason of marrying that prince’s wife, Jaqueline, Duchess of Hainault, who had come to England, upon some disagreement with her husband. The matter led to open hostilities, and a challenge to single combat passed between the two dukes, and was accepted; but that mode of deciding the affair was prevented by the Duke of Bedford, and the contest was finally terminated, by the Duke of Gloucester’s bowing to the decision of the Pope, and withdrawing from the lady. He then espoused his concubine, Eleanor, daughter of Reginald, Lord Cobham; and in a few years afterwards, a complaint was made to parliament, against him, by one “Mistress Stokes and other bold women,” because he suffered Jaqueline, his wife, to be prisoner to the Duke of Burgundy.
In the 14th of Henry VI., he obtained a grant for life, of the Earldom of Flanders, which was held of the king in capite, in right of his crown of France; and he had numerous and most valuable grants of manors and lordships in England; he had also, an annuity of two thousand marks, out of the exchequer, during the king’s pleasure. The duke incurring, however, the jealousy of Margaret of Anjou, fell, at length, a victim to her machinations. Attending a parliament which had been called at St. Edmundsbury, he was arrested upon the second day of the session, by the Viscount Beaumont, Constable of England, accompanied by the Duke of Buckingham, and some others, and put in ward; all his servants being taken from him, and thirty-two of the chief of them sent to different prisons. The following night, the prince was found dead in his bed, supposed to have been either strangled or smothered; and his body was exhibited to the lords, as though he had died of apoplexy.
The duke, who received from the people the title of Good, and was called” the Father of his country,” had, with his other honours, been invested with the Garter. He was a proficient in learning; wrote some tracts; laid the foundation of the Bodleian library, and built the divinity schools in the University of Oxford. The death of the prince happened in 1416, and as he left no issue, HIS HONOURS became EXTINCT.