I . Henry IV
(1366–1413)
king of England (1399–1413) after his cousin Richard II . He was born Henry Bolingbroke, the son of John of Gaunt , and was a leading opponent of Richard’s. In 1398 Richard sent him into exile, but in 1399 he returned to England, defeated Richard and was accepted as king by Parliament. While he was king there were rebellions against him in Wales and the north of England. He was forced to accept the principle that the king should govern through Parliament, and in 1407 Parliament took control of the country’s financial affairs.
II . Henry IV , Parts 1 and 2
two plays ( c. 1597–8) by Shakespeare based on the period when Henry IV was king of England. The play’s main characters are Prince Hal (Henry IV’s son and later Henry V ) and his friend Falstaff . In Part 1 Hal drinks and jokes with Falstaff and others in the Boar’s Head, a London tavern (= old pub), and his father worries that he is not serious enough to become a king. However, at the end he accepts his responsibilities and fights in a battle to defeat a rebellion against his father. In Part 2 , Hal is still friendly with Falstaff, but when Henry IV dies and Hal becomes king, he rejects him with the famous line: ‘I know thee not, old man’.