42 quotes
The most important element of Henry’s kingship was his intention to end his cousin’s experiment in autocratic rule.
The Fears of Henry IV: The Life of England's Self-made King (2007)
For men of his day, the beauties of nature were not a great attraction. Surrounded by unspoilt countryside and greenery all the time, it was great buildings which especially excited the fourteenth-century traveller.
The Fears of Henry IV: The Life of England's Self-made King (2007)
History is not just about the analysis of evidence, unrolling vellum documents or answering exam papers. It is not about judging the dead. It is about understanding the meaning of the past—to realize the whole evolving human story over centuries, not just our own lifetimes.
The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England (2008)
This brings us to an important point about Henry. He was probably the nearest to an intellectual among all the medieval kings of England.
The Fears of Henry IV: The Life of England's Self-made King (2007)
By 1382 it was already becoming apparent that Richard was very far from the glorious youthful leader that parliament and the rest of the country had hoped for at his coronation.
The Fears of Henry IV: The Life of England's Self-made King (2007)
The question of whether or not Henry was a great king in the fifteenth century, or subsequently, is a distraction. A man’s character may be obscured as much by the acclamation of greatness as by neglect.
The Fears of Henry IV: The Life of England's Self-made King (2007)
Thus there were good political reasons why Henry should not have killed Richard. This is not to say that he did not give the order, only to remind us that one cannot judge innocence or guilt on the strength of motive alone.
The Fears of Henry IV: The Life of England's Self-made King (2007)
It has to be said: the prime reason to avoid medieval England is not the violence, the bad humor, the poor roads, the inequality of the class system, the approach to religion and heresy, or the extreme sexism. It is the sickness.
The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England (2008)
Most historians rely on timing and motive in deciding whether Henry was guilty of murder or not. This is unfortunate, for motive is not the same as evidence, and to pretend it is is to risk introducing modern prejudices into a historical argument.
The Fears of Henry IV: The Life of England's Self-made King (2007)
‘Necessitas non habet legem’ (‘necessity has no law’) he wrote in his own hand on the letter. The phrase sums up Henry’s kingship: neither legally correct, nor wholly lawful, but done anyway, because the safety of the nation is more important than the law.
The Fears of Henry IV: The Life of England's Self-made King (2007)
Few men confront the basic tenets of the society in which they live and try to change them. Very few of those are successful. And even fewer survive to reflect on their success. Henry IV was one of these very few.
The Fears of Henry IV: The Life of England's Self-made King (2007)
To what extent is character a result of education? In the Middle Ages it is arguable that the answer is not very much. Alternatively, you could turn the question around and say the opposite. The shortcomings of medieval education have a profound effect on the people.
The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England (2008)
This was the most damaging aspect of Richard’s rule. With a mercurial, unstable and sometimes vicious king, the entire top rank of society was made to feel insecure. It was difficult to know whom to trust.
The Fears of Henry IV: The Life of England's Self-made King (2007)
By 1390 the Teutonic Knights were hardly crusaders at all; they were more like a militant Christian state in their own right, making alliances with their neighbors and fighting enemies of various faiths, including fellow Christians.
The Fears of Henry IV: The Life of England's Self-made King (2007)
The bureaucracy which had stopped functioning since 9 August [1399] started slowly to regain its usual efficiency. The civil servants knew who and where their king was, and they knew in whom sovereign power lay. That these two facts were not embodied in the same man was not essential for them to do their work.
The Fears of Henry IV: The Life of England's Self-made King (2007)
Historians have argued for many years over whether Richard went mad in 1397. In the mid-twentieth century it was thought that he had indeed lost his mind, and the death of Queen Anne was identified as one of the catalysts. But really this is a modern myth: there is no evidence of madness in the king, just an ever-increasing tendency to rule his subjects through the medium of terror.
The Fears of Henry IV: The Life of England's Self-made King (2007)
Modern scholars now see Richard as essentially narcissistic, convinced of his own perfection, and yet deeply insecure. We might elaborate on this slightly and see that he was exceptionally self-conscious: so much so that his own identity, royal percentage, ideas, rivalries and feelings formed not only the core but the limit of his entire world.
The Fears of Henry IV: The Life of England's Self-made King (2007)
So, as long as you can get enough to eat, and can avoid all the various lethal infections, the dangers of childbirth, lead poisoning, and the extreme violence, you should live a long time.
All you have to worry about are the doctors.
The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England (2008)
It is not surprising that Lucia Visconti fell for him [Henry IV]. Considering his crusading, his pilgrimage and his jousting, it is not going too far to say that he had made himself into an exemplary knight, combining the spiritual and chivalric values of his age more completely perhaps than any other Englishman of the late fourteenth century.
The Fears of Henry IV: The Life of England's Self-made King (2007)
The original reasons to doubt Richard’s fitness to rule – his unwise grants of lordships and lucrative offices, his lack of military leadership in the face of encroaching enemies and his lack of judgement in political and diplomatic affairs – all remained valid. He continued to advance his favourites and friends without regard for lordly or public opinion.
The Fears of Henry IV: The Life of England's Self-made King (2007)