Page "Henry IV of England" Paragraph 37

When Richard II was forced to abdicate the throne in 1399, Henry was not next in line to the throne ; the heir presumptive was Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March, who descended from Edward III's second son, Lionel of Antwerp.

Bolingbroke's father, John of Gaunt, was Edward's third son.

The problem was solved by emphasising Henry's descent in a direct male line, whereas March's descent was through his grandmother.

The official account of events claims that Richard voluntarily agreed to resign his crown to Henry on 29 September.

The country had rallied behind Henry and supported his claim in parliament.

However, the question of the succession never went away.

The problem lay in the fact that Henry was only the most prominent male heir, the most senior in terms of agnatic descent from Edward III.

This made him heir to the throne according to Edward III's entail to the crown of 1376, but, as Dr. Ian Mortimer has recently pointed out in his biography of Henry IV, this had probably been supplanted by an entail of Richard II made in 1399 ( see Ian Mortimer, The Fears of Henry IV, appendix two, pp. 366 – 9 ).

Henry thus had to overcome the superior claim of the Mortimers in order to maintain his inheritance.

This difficulty compounded when the Mortimer claim was merged with the Yorkist claim in the person of Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York.

The Duke of York was the heir-general of Edward III, and the heir presumptive ( due to agnatic descent ) of Henry's grandson Henry VI ( since Henry IV's other sons did not have male heirs, and the legitimated Beauforts were excluded from the throne ).

The House of Lancaster was finally deposed by Edward IV, son of Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, during the Wars of the Roses.