The Fears of Henry IV: The Life of England's Self-Made King by Mortimer Ian (2007) Hardcover

About this book

An author with a strong track record now tackles the turbulent reign of Henry IV the first Lancastrian king.By 1405 King Henry IV had already survived at least eight plots to dethrone or kill him in the first six years of his reign. Henry had not always been so unpopular. The son of John of Gaunt he was courteous confident well-educated musical and spiritually fervent. In 1399 at the age of thirty-two he was enthusiastically greeted as the saviour of the realm when he ousted from power the insecure and tyrannical King Richard II.Therein lay Henrys weakness. By making himself King he had broken Gods law and left himself starkly open to criticism. Enemies everywhere tried to take advantage of his questionable right to the crown. Such overwhelming threats transformed him from a hero into a duplicitous murderer: a king prepared to go to any lengths to save his family and his throne.But against all the odds what Henry achieved was to take a poorl