Humphrey of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Gloucester

Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester ( * October 3, 1390, † February 23, 1447 in Bury St. Edmunds ) was the fifth son of King Henry IV and his first wife, Mary de Bohun.

Humphrey was Humphrey de Bohun after his grandfather, 7th Earl of Hereford, named. In 1414, Humphrey was appointed Duke of Gloucester. 1415 he went to the office of Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports. When his brother, King Henry V, 1422 died, he became regent of the kingdom and protector of his young nephew Henry VI.

Marriages and descendants

About 1422 he married Jacqueline, Duchess of Straubing -Holland, daughter of Duke William II of Straubing- Holland. By this marriage Humphrey gained the title of Count of Holland, Zeeland and Hainaut, which was, however, by the Duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good claimed.

The marriage was annulled in 1428, Jacqueline died disinherited 1436th Gloucester married his former mistress Eleanor Cobham. Children Humphreys and probably Eleanor Cobham were Antigone Plantagenet, Henry Grey, 2nd Earl of Tancarville, married, and John Plantagenet, who died young.

Loss of influence and death

1441 Eleanor was taken for witchcraft against the King of the process, you shot her before, she had tried to secure by magic the reign of her husband. This was an attempt by the court party to Bishop Henry Beaufort and William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk, the influence which her husband to Henry VI. had to weaken. She was sentenced to three barefooted Bußgängen through London and subsequent life imprisonment. She died in prison.

Through the process against his wife his position was weakened at the court. In 1444 he was no longer involved in the peace negotiations in Tours, where the marriage between Henry VI. and Margaret of Anjou was agreed. Furthermore, the king declared his resignation to the county Maine. As Gloucester learned from this undisclosed clause, he wanted to discuss this in front of the Parliament.

The Duke of Suffolk acted quickly and had him arrested for treason in 1447. He died under mysterious circumstances a few days later in Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk.

Afterlife

Others

With the gift of more than 250 books, he founded a library in Oxford. He promised to obtain money for a new building. In the 16th century it is destroyed. His name lives on in "Duke Humfrey 's Library " section, part of the Bodleian Library in Oxford.

As a figure he appeared in the play " Henry V " by William Shakespeare on.