Henry IV of England - Seniority in Line From Edward III

Seniority in Line From Edward III

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, not 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.

The following are the senior descendants of Edward III. The descendants that were alive at the death of Richard II are in bold.

• Edward III of England (1312–1377)

• Edward, the Black Prince (1330–1376)

• Edward (1365–1372)
• Richard II of England (1367–1400)

• Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence (1338–1368)

• Philippa of Clarence, 5th Countess of Ulster (1355–1382)

• Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March (1374–1398)

• Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March (1391–1425)
• Roger Mortimer (died young c. 1411)
• Anne de Mortimer (1390–1411) (Anne was King Edward IV's grandmother.)
• Eleanor (d. 1418)

• Edmund Mortimer (1376–1409?)
• Lady Elizabeth de Mortimer (1370/1371-1417)
• Lady Philippa de Mortimer (1375–1401)

• John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster (1340–1399)

• Henry IV of England (1367–1413)

• Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York (1341–1402)

• Edward, Duke of Aumerle, later declined to Earl of Rutland
• Richard of Conisburgh, 3rd Earl of Cambridge (c.1375–1415. He married Anne de Mortimer, see above.)

• Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester