British Royal Burial Sites: House of Lancaster

by An Ard Rí and Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2012

House of Lancaster

The House of Lancaster descends from King Edward III‘s fourth, but third surviving son, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster.  In 1399, John of Gaunt’s son Henry Bolingbroke (King Henry IV) deposed his first cousin King Richard II, who was the son of King Edward III’s eldest son Edward (Prince of Wales) the Black Prince.  This bypassed the descendants of King Edward III’s second son Lionel of Antwerp, Duke of Clarence, whose grandson Roger de Mortimer, 4th Earl of March was King Richard II’s heir presumptive, and eventually, this caused a little family squabble known as the Wars of the Roses.

  • Henry IV (Henry of Bolingbroke) – reigned 1399-1412
  • Henry V – reigned 1413-1422
  • Henry VI – reigned 1422-1461 and 1470-1471

Burial articles for all the British royal houses can be found at Unofficial Royalty: British Royal Burial Sites

Unless otherwise noted, portraits and photos are from Wikipedia.

*********************

Henry IV, King of England (reigned 30 September 1399 – 20 March 1413)

The eldest surviving son of John of Gaunt and Blanche of Lancaster, Henry became King of England, the first of the House of Lancaster, following the deposition of his first cousin Richard II in 1399.  In his last years, Henry suffered from a disfiguring disease (possibly leprosy, syphilis, or psoriasis) and had severe attacks (possibly from epilepsy or cardiovascular disease).   On March 20, 1413, while in prayer at the shrine of Edward the Confessor at Westminster Abbey, Henry suffered a fatal attack, possibly a stroke.  He was carried to the Jerusalem Chamber, a room in the house of the Abbey’s abbot, where he died at age 45.  Henry was not buried at Westminster Abbey but instead requested that he be buried at Canterbury Cathedral, presumably because of an affinity towards St. Thomas Becket whose shrine was there.

Tomb of Henry IV and his second wife Joan of Navarre at Canterbury Cathedral – photo by Susan Flantzer

Mary de Bohun, Countess of Northampton, Countess of Derby

Mary was the first wife of Henry IV and mother of Henry V but she died, age 25-26, in 1394 at Peterborough Castle, giving birth to her sixth child, a daughter Philippa, before her husband became King. She was buried at the Church of St Mary of the Annunciation in the Newarke, Leicester which was destroyed under the Dissolution of the Chantries Act of Edward VI.

There is much confusion about the date of Mary’s death and the place of her burial. Many sources say she was buried at St Mary de Castro in Leicester. Susan Flantzer emailed Virginia Wright the Historical and Heritage Adviser at St Mary de Castro and here is what Ms. Wright said:

Mary de Bohun was buried at St Mary of the Annunciation in The Newarke, not at St Mary de Castro. St Mary of the Annunciation was a Collegiate church, built as part of the religious enclave of The Newarke by the Earls and Dukes of Lancaster and was destroyed in the mid 16th century under the Dissolution of the Chantries Act of Edward VI. Parish registers were not compulsory until the late 16th century and no ‘day books’ or similar survive. St Mary de Castro was built as the chapel for Leicester Castle and later a parish church was added as a south aisle; today it is one combined church. There is a lot of confusion about the two churches. There is also a lot of confusion about what happened to the tomb of Mary de Bohun.

Joan of Navarre, Queen of England

The daughter of King Charles II of Navarre and Jeanne de France, Joan of Navarre married Henry IV of England in 1403. The couple had no children but Joan got along well with her stepchildren especially Henry of Monmouth, Prince of Wales, the future King Henry V of England.  When he became king, Henry V held his stepmother in the highest regard as shown by his appointing “his dearest mother” as regent in 1415 when he went to France and gained his great victory at the Battle of Agincourt.

Joan survived Henry IV by 24 years, dying on July 9, 1437, at her favorite residence, Havering Palace in the village of Havering-atte-Bower in what is now the London Borough of Havering, at the age of about 67. She was buried with King Henry IV at Canterbury Cathedral.

********************

Henry V, King of England (reigned: 21 March 1413 – 31 August 1422)

The last great warrior king of the Middle Ages, King Henry V of England, was the eldest son of King Henry IV of England and his first wife Mary de Bohun, who died before her husband became king.  On June 2, 1420, King Henry V married Catherine of Valois, daughter of King Charles VI of France. Catherine went to England with Henry and was crowned queen in Westminster Abbey on February 23, 1421. In June 1421, Henry returned to France to continue his military campaigns. Catherine was already several months pregnant and gave birth to a son named Henry on December 6, 1421, at Windsor Castle.

King Henry V never saw his child.  The warrior king, the victor against the French at the Battle of Agincourt, determined to conquer France once and for all, succumbed to dysentery, a disease that killed more soldiers than battle, on August 31, 1422, at the age of 35, leaving a nine-month-old son to inherit his throne.  King Henry V’s body was dismembered, boiled, and then brought back to England for burial in Westminster Abbey. His tomb was damaged during the Reformation and at some time the head of the effigy disappeared but it was restored in 1971.

Restored head on Henry V’s effigy; Photo Credit – http://westminster-abbey.org/ 

Embed from Getty Images 
Tomb of King Henry V

Catherine of Valois, Queen of England

Catherine was the daughter of Charles VI of France and Isabelle of Bavaria. She married Henry V in June 1420 and was the mother of King Henry VI.  After Henry V’s death, Catherine married Sir Owen Tudor and among their children was Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond, the father of King Henry VII, the first Tudor monarch.  Catherine died at Bermondsey Abbey in  Southwark, London, England on January 3, 1437, following the birth of her last child who also died.

Catherine was originally buried in the Lady Chapel of Westminster Abbey. During renovations of Westminster Abbey in the reign of King Henry VII, Catherine’s tomb was destroyed – some say to distance her grandson Henry VII from his illegitimate ancestry – and her remains were placed in a wooden coffin which was placed alongside the tomb of her first husband King Henry V.

Abbey vergers charged a shilling to take off the coffin’s lid so curious visitors could view Catherine’s corpse. Samuel Pepys, an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament who is most famous for the diary he kept during the years 1660-1669, wrote this in his diary on his 36th birthday, “On Shrove Tuesday 1669, I to the Abbey went, and by favour did see the body of Queen Catherine of Valois, and had the upper part of the body in my hands, and I did kiss her mouth, reflecting upon it I did kiss a Queen: and this my birthday and I thirty-six years old and I did kiss a Queen.”

Catherine’s coffin remained a public spectacle for over 200 years until it was buried in the Villiers Vault in the St. Nicholas Chapel of the Abbey in 1778.  In 1878, Catherine’s remains were re-buried in a new altar tomb in Henry V’s Chantry in Westminster Abbey.

Catherine of Valois’ tomb at Westminster Abbey; Photo Credit – http://www.westminster-abbey.org 

********************

Henry VI, King of England (reigned 31 August 1422 – 4 March 1461 and 30 October 1470 – 11 April 1471)

The only child of King Henry V, Henry VI became king when he was nine-months-old.  Henry was shy, peaceful and pious, hated bloodshed and deceit, and definitely was not a warrior like his father.  He also suffered from periods of mental instability. Henry V married Margaret of Anjou who proved to be as strong as Henry was weak. The couple had one child, Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales.

Even before the birth of Henry’s son, factions were forming and the seeds of the Wars of the Roses between the Lancasters and the Yorks were being planted.  Henry VI was the head of the Lancasters in name and Edward IV was the leader of the Yorkists.   The final decisive Yorkist victory was at the Battle of Tewkesbury on May 4, 1471, where Henry’s son 17-year-old Edward was killed. Henry was taken to the Tower of London and died on May 21, 1471, probably murdered on orders from Edward IV.

The site in the Tower of London (the Wakefield Tower) where Henry VI died

King Henry VI was first buried at Chertsey Abbey in Surrey, England but was moved in 1484 by King Richard III, brother of King Edward IV, to St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle. Ironically, Henry VI lies opposite his rival Edward IV in eternal peace.

Henry VI tomb

Tomb of Henry VI at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor; Photo Credit – findagrave.com 

Margaret of Anjou, Queen of England

Margaret of Anjou was the daughter of René I of Naples, Duke of Anjou and Bar. In 1445, she married King Henry VI of England and was one of the principal players in the Wars of the Roses.  Henry was shy, peaceful and pious, and hated bloodshed and deceit. He lacked any kind of administrative skills which left him open to the machinations of his advisers and he suffered from mental instability.

Margaret was an intelligent, energetic woman and realized that she would have to take on most of her husband’s duties including leading military forces. The final decisive Yorkist victory in the Wars of the Roses was at the Battle of Tewkesbury on May 4, 1471, where Margaret led the Lancastrian forces and her 17-year-old son Edward, Prince of Wales was killed. Henry VI was sent to the Tower of London and died on May 21, 1471, probably murdered on orders from the Yorkist King Edward IV.  Margaret was imprisoned until 1475 when King Louis XI agreed to pay Margaret’s ransom provided that her father would cede to France his territories of Anjou, Bar, Lorraine, and Provence.

Margaret of Anjou died in exile in France on August 25, 1482, at Anjou. She was buried beside her parents at Saint-Maurice Cathedral in Angers, France. Her tomb survived until the French Revolution when it was destroyed in 1794 and her remains were scattered.

********************

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.