Death of Humphrey Duke of Gloucester

Death of Humphrey Duke of Gloucester

Humphrey Duke of Gloucester was the youngest son of Henry of Bolingbroke, later Henry IV, and his first wife, Mary de Bohun.
Born on 3rd October 1390, he was the youngest in a powerful quad of brothers, who were very close companions.
During the reign of his father Henry IV, Humphrey received a scholar’s education, while his elder brothers fought on the Welsh and Scottish borders.
Following his father’s death he was created Duke of Gloucester in 1414.
He was ~ as he styled himself ~ “son, brother and uncle of kings”.

During King Henry V’s campaigns in France, Humphrey gained a reputation as a successful commander.
During the Battle of Agincourt Humphrey was wounded.
As he fell, his brother the king sheltered him, and withstood a determined assault from French knights.

On the death of King Henry V in 1422, Humphrey was appointed Lord Protector, during the minority of his nephew King Henry VI.
When Humphrey claimed the regency, it was strongly contested by his half-uncle, the wealthy and powerful Cardinal Henry Beaufort.
Humphrey’s quarrel with Beaufort would continue on and off, for the duration of his lifetime.

Following the death of his brother, John Duke of Bedford, Humphrey then became heir presumptive to the throne.
In 1423, Humphrey was married his cousin to Jacqueline, Countess of Hainaut and Holland.
The couple were married at Hadleigh in Essex, however, the marriage was annulled in 1428.

Humphrey was extremely popular with the Londoners and the Commons, who referred to him as ‘Good Duke Humphrey’
He also had a reputation as a patron of learning and the arts, and was a benefactor to the University of Oxford.
His popularity with the people and his ability to keep the peace earned him the appointment of Chief Justice of South Wales.

His unpopular second marriage to his former mistress Eleanor Cobham provided ammunition for his rivals, the Beauforts who were determined to remove him from a position of power.
Eleanor was reported to be beautiful, intelligent, and ambitious, and had been a lady-in-waiting to Humphrey’s first wife,Jacqueline of Hainault.
On the annulment of his marriage to Jacqueline, Humphrey married Eleanor.
Humphrey had two known illegitimate children, Arthur and John.
It is uncertain if they were Eleanor’s children born before the marriage or were the offspring of a previous mistress.

Eleanor consulted astrologers in an attempt to predict the future.
These astrologers, Thomas Southwell and Roger Bolingbroke predicted that Henry VI would suffer a life-threatening illness in July or August 1441.
When rumours of the prediction reached the King, he was troubled by the rumours.
When Eleanor was named, she fled into sanctuary at Westminster Abbey but was removed from the Abbey and arrested and tried.

Eleanor was accused of practising witchcraft against the King in an attempt to retain power for her husband.
She denied most of the charges but confessed to obtaining a potion from one Margery Jourdemayne, “the Witch of Eye”.
She explained that the potion was to help her conceive.
Eleanor and her fellow conspirators were found guilty and Margery Jourdemayne was burned at the stake…….

In November 1441, Eleanor, dressed in a white robe, hatless and barefoot and carrying a lighted taper, was forced to walk through the streets of London to St Paul’s Cathedral.
There she was forced to beg forgiveness for her sins.
She was further obliged to divorce her husband and was condemned to life imprisonment.
On 7th July 1452, Eleanor died, still imprisoned, at Beaumaris Castle in Anglesey, Wales.

Humphrey, now in disgrace, retired from public life.
He was arrested on a charge of treason on 20th February 1447, but died at Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk three days later, aged 56.
At the time, some suspected that he had been poisoned.
A popular legend asserted his death had been caused by the orders of the Duke of Suffolk ~ though it is more probable that he died of a stroke.
He was buried at St Albans Abbey, adjacent to St Alban’s shrine.

The tomb of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester was rediscovered in 1703, when workmen uncovered a flight of stone steps leading down to an underground vault.
This was where the Duke’s leaden coffin was found.
His body was reported to be in a remarkable state of preservation. The skeleton is now incomplete, after over a century of being open to tourists, several of the bones having been taken.
The remaining bones reveal him to have been a tall, robust man, measuring around six feet.