Humphrey of Lancaster, Duke of Gloucester (3 October 1390 – 23 February 1447) was an English prince, soldier and literary patron. He was, and styled himself as, "son, brother and uncle of kings", being the fourth and youngest son of Henry IV of England, the brother of Henry V, and the uncle of Henry VI. Gloucester fought in the Hundred Years' War and acted as Lord Protector of England during the minority of his nephew. He was a controversial political figure whose actions and policies generated both support and opposition among his contemporaries and later historians. Assessments of his career note his involvement in political conflicts as well as his engagement with intellectual circles, including his role as an early English patron of humanist scholarship, in the context of the Renaissance.

Unlike his brothers, Humphrey was given no major military command by his father, instead receiving an intellectual upbringing. Created Duke of Gloucester in 1414, he participated in Henry V's campaigns during the Hundred Years' War in France: he fought at Agincourt in 1415 and at the conquest of Normandy in 1417–9. Following the king's death in 1422, Gloucester, as Lord Protector, became one of the leading figures during the minority of Henry VI. He proved a rash, impulsive, unscrupulous and troublesome figure, he quarrelled constantly with his brother, John, Duke of Bedford and uncle, Cardinal Henry Beaufort and went so far as to violently prosecute a dispute with the Duke of Burgundy, a key English ally in France, over conflicting claims to lands in the Low Countries.

Humphrey was associated with contemporary ideals of chivalry and was regarded by some as embodying aspects of that tradition. His marriage to Jacqueline, Countess of Hainaut, played a significant role in his political and military activities in the Low Countries. Burne's view has more recently been challenged in His learned, widely read, scholarly approach to the early renaissance cultural expansion demonstrated the quintessential well-rounded princely character. He was a paragon for Eton College and an exemplar for the University of Oxford, accomplished, diplomatic, with political cunning. Despite the errors in his public and private life and the mischief he caused in politics, Gloucester is also at times praised as a patron of learning and a benefactor to the University of Oxford. He was popular among the literary figures of his age for his scholarly activity and with the common people for his advocacy of a spirited foreign policy. For these causes, he was known as the "good Duke Humphrey".

Gloucester never fully achieved his desired dominance in England, and his attempts to gain a foreign principality for himself were fruitless. p. 506 A staunch opponent of concessions in the French conflict and a proponent of offensive warfare, Gloucester gradually lost favour among the political community, and King Henry VI after the end of his minority, following defeats in France. The trial in 1441 of Eleanor Cobham, his second wife, under charges of witchcraft, destroyed Gloucester's political influence. In 1447, he was accused, probably falsely, of treason and died a few days later while under arrest.

Childhood and early career The place of Humphrey's birth is unknown, but he was named after his maternal grandfather, Humphrey de Bohun, 7th Earl of Hereford. He was the youngest in a powerful quadrumvirate of brothers, who were very close companions; on 20 March 1413, Henry and Humphrey had been at their dying father's bedside. Thomas, John and Humphrey had all been knighted in 1399. They joined the Order of the Garter together in 1400.

During the reign of Henry IV, Humphrey received a scholar's education, possibly at Balliol College, Oxford, while his elder brothers fought on the Welsh and Scottish borders. Following his father's death he was created Duke of Gloucester in 1414, and Chamberlain of England, and he took his seat in Parliament. He became a member of the Privy Council in 1415.

Diplomatic and military career

He joined Henry V's campaigns in France. Before embarking, the army camped at Southampton, where the Earl of Cambridge failed in the Southampton Plot, which was an assassination plot against the king. Humphrey and his brother, the Duke of Clarence, led an Inquiry of Lords to try Cambridge and Scrope for high treason on 5 August.

During the campaign, Humphrey gained a reputation as a commander. His knowledge of siege warfare, gained from his classical studies, contributed to the fall of Honfleur. During the Battle of Agincourt Humphrey was wounded; as he fell, the king sheltered him and withstood a determined assault from French knights. For his services, Humphrey was granted offices including Constable of Dover, Warden of the Cinque Ports on 27 November and King's Lieutenant. His tenure in government was peaceful and successful. This period commenced with Emperor Sigismund's peace mission, the only visit of a medieval emperor to England. According to Holinshed's Chronicles, Humphrey was the principal actor in a symbolic ceremony. He welcomed the emperor on the shoreline with a sword in his hand, "extorting" from Sigismund the renunciation of his prerogatives of dominion over the king of England before allowing him to land on the evening of 1 May 1416.Even if the story was apocryphal, it is still almost certain that there were negotiations preceding the landing, which did not happen immediately, see [N.Simms – The Visit of King Sigismund to England, 1416 http://www.epa.uz.ua/00000/00010/00022/pdf/HSR_1990_2_021-029.pdf] The Treaty of "eternal friendship" signed at Canterbury on 15 August served only to anticipate renewed hostility from France.

Upon the death of his brother in 1422, Humphrey became Lord Protector to his young nephew Henry VI, then a baby. He also claimed the right to the regency of England following the death of his elder brother, John, Duke of Bedford, in 1435. Humphrey's claims were strongly contested by the lords of the king's council and in particular his half-uncle, Cardinal Henry Beaufort. Henry V's will, rediscovered at Eton College in 1978, actually supported Humphrey's claims. In 1436 Philip, Duke of Burgundy, attacked Calais. Duke Humphrey was appointed garrison commander. The Flemings assaulted from the landward but the English resistance was stubborn. Humphrey marched the army to Baillieul, taking the English to safety; he threatened St. Omer before sailing home.

Humphrey was consistently popular with the citizens of London and the Commons. He also had a widespread reputation as a patron of learning and the arts. His popularity with the people and his ability to keep the peace earned him the appointment of Chief Justice of South Wales. His unpopular marriage to Eleanor Cobham became ammunition for his enemies. Eleanor was arrested and tried for sorcery and heresy in 1441 and Humphrey retired from public life. He was arrested on a charge of treason on 20 February 1447 and died at Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk three days later. He was buried at St Albans Abbey, adjacent to St Alban's shrine. Some suspected that he had been poisoned, though it is more probable that he died of a stroke.

According to Jonathan Sumption, Gloucester's death "was never explained". A contemporary London chronicler wrote: "How he died God knoweth, to whom nothing is hid". "The Duke's health had not been good", and the "shock of arrest might well have provoked a heart attack which killed him." But his death was highly "convenient for the governing clique. It avoided a state trial at which Gloucester, an eloquent man with many friends, would have defended himself with vigour. In the eyes of the public, Gloucester was murdered. The council put his body, apparently uninjured, on public display, but the rumours persisted." Sixty of the Duke's retainers, dependents and household staff were also arrested, with eight of his closest associates being convicted of treason and sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered. Although he had been his erstwhile political opponent, the Duke of Suffolk had qualms about what amounted to an "act of judicial murder", and "produced charters of pardon in the middle of the barbarous ceremony just as the executioner was about to eviscerate" five of the eight who had been condemned.

In each subsequent year, a petition was made to Parliament to rehabilitate 'Good Duke Humphrey', and by the end of the century his reputation had been restored.

Marriages

He married twice but left no surviving legitimate progeny.

First marriage: Jacqueline, Countess of Hainaut and Holland In about 1423 he married Jacqueline, Countess of Hainaut and Holland (died 1436), daughter of William VI, Count of Hainaut. Through this marriage Gloucester assumed the title "Count of Holland, Zeeland and Hainault", and briefly fought to retain these titles when they were contested by Jacqueline's cousin Philip the Good (see: War of Succession in Holland). They had a stillborn child in 1424. p. [ 128] The marriage was annulled in 1428, and Jacqueline died (disinherited) in 1436.

Second marriage: Eleanor Cobham In 1428 Humphrey married, secondly, Eleanor Cobham, his mistress, who in 1441 was tried and convicted of practising witchcraft against the king in an attempt to retain power for her husband. She was condemned to public penance followed by exile and life imprisonment. The marriage was without progeny.

Children By mistresses unknown Humphrey had two illegitimate children. pp. [ 492]–3 p. [ 250] Eleanor Cobham was possibly the mother of one or both, p. 125 before their marriage. Due to their illegitimacy, they were unable to succeed to their father's titles. The illegitimate children were: Arthur Plantagenet (died after 1447) Antigone Plantagenet, who was born before 1424; married firstly Henry Grey, 2nd Earl of Tankerville, Lord of Powys (–1450) and secondly John d'Amancier.

Legacy

After inheriting the manor of Greenwich, Gloucester enclosed Greenwich Park and from 1428 had a palace built there on the banks of the Thames, known as Bella Court and later as the Palace of Placentia or La Pleasaunce. The Duke Humphrey Tower surmounting Greenwich Park was demolished in the 1660s and the site was chosen for building the Royal Observatory. pp. 8–9, 171 His name lives on in Duke Humfrey's Library, part of the Bodleian Library in Oxford University, and in Duke Humphrey Road on Blackheath, south of Greenwich. Duke Humphrey was a patron and protector of Oxford, donating more than 280 manuscripts to the university. The possession of such a library did much to stimulate new learning.

Duke Humphrey was also a patron of literature, notably of the poet John Lydgate and of John Capgrave. He corresponded with many leading Italian humanists and commissioned translations of Greek classics into Latin. His friendship with Zano Castiglione, Bishop of Bayeux, led to many further connections on the Continent, including Leonardo Bruni, Pietro Candido Decembrio and Tito Livio Frulovisi. Duke Humphrey also patronised the Abbey of St Albans.

Together with his second wife, Eleanor, he commissioned a hanap, a drinking goblet, possibly as their wedding cup. This hanap, known as the Wreathen Cup, was used when they hosted dinners at La Pleasance and their London residence, Baynard's Castle. It found its way into the possession of his kinswoman, Lady Margaret Beaufort, who bequeathed it to her confessor, Dr Edmund Wilford, of Oriel College, Oxford. He exchanged it for another piece of silver left by Lady Margaret to her foundation at Christ's College, Cambridge, where it remains. How it reached Lady Margaret is unclear, but a fellow of the college has conjectured that it came through her husband, Thomas Stanley, who had custody of Eleanor during her imprisonment and was involved in liquidating Humphrey's estate.