Humphrey of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Gloucester
15th-century English nobleman (1390-1447) · Politicians · Died at 56
Humphrey of Lancaster, Duke of Gloucester was an English prince, soldier and literary patron. He was, and styled himself as, "son, brother and uncle of kings", being the fourth and youngest son of Henry IV of England, the brother of Henry V, and the uncle of Henry VI.
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4 moreNamed Lord Warden of the Cinque PortsOffice1 January 1415 to 1 January 14471414Named Duke of GloucesterOffice16 May 1414 to 23 February 14471400Knight of the GarterAward1390Born3 October 1390People around Humphrey
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Gloucester in the frontispiece of the Talbot Shrewsbury Book, 1445
Jacqueline, Countess of Holland and Zeeland, c. 1435
Illuminated miniature of Humphrey and his second wife Eleanor from Thomas Walsingham's Book of Benefactors to St Albans, 1431. Cotton MS Nero D VII, British Library
Historiated initial from John Capgrave's Commentary on Exodus (c. 1440) showing Capgrave presenting his book to Gloucester. One of three remaining volumes of Duke Humfrey's Library
Duke Humfrey's Library in Oxford, part of the Bodleian Library
The site of Humphrey's tomb in the Abbey of St Albans
The first page of the First Folio of the plays of William Shakespeare, illustrating Henry VI, Part 2, with a subtitle emphasising Humphrey's deathAwards
About this person
Gloucester fought in the Hundred Years' War and acted as Lord Protector of England during the minority of his nephew. He was a controversial political figure whose actions and policies generated both support and opposition among his contemporaries and later historians. Assessments of his career note his involvement in political conflicts as well as his engagement with intellectual circles, including his role as an early English patron of humanist scholarship, in the context of the Renaissance.
