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Historical person

Henry IV of England

1367–1413

Henry IV seized the English throne in 1399 after returning from exile and forcing his cousin Richard II to abdicate. Although he claimed hereditary and parliamentary justification, doubts about legitimacy persisted throughout his reign.

He faced the revolt of Owain Glyndŵr, rebellion by the Percy family and repeated plots, while illness weakened him in later years. His survival established the Lancastrian dynasty but left unresolved claims that later fed the Wars of the Roses. Henry IV of England was born in Bolingbroke Castle and died in Westminster.

Anne O’Brien’s The Queen’s Choice shows Henry IV through his marriage to Joan of Navarre, whose arrival in England ties personal sacrifice to the insecure politics of the Lancastrian regime. Simon Fairfax’s A Knight and a Spy 1410 uses Henry’s illness and worsening relationship with Prince Hal to create a court where intelligence work is inseparable from the succession. Candace Robb’s A Twisted Vengeance begins with Henry Bolingbroke’s 1399 return to reclaim his inheritance, allowing the upheaval that will make him king to destabilise York. Mette Holm’s Legacy of Kings takes his usurpation as the political danger that drives Argyle Mowbray away from England. Dan Jones’ Henry V then treats Henry IV as the father whose seizure of the crown, rebellions and contested legitimacy formed the political apprenticeship of his heir.

Periods

Periods linked to Henry IV of England

Glyndŵr Rising1400–1415 CE Lancastrian England1399–1461 CE

Series

Historical novels and book series featuring Henry IV of England (7 series)

Struggle for a Crown in Order

by Griff Hosker 10 books 4.5(19,374)

Struggle for a Crown follows soldiers and retainers through the crises of late medieval England and France. The series moves from Richard II and Henry IV to Henry V, Agincourt, the later Hundred Years’ War and the struggle to hold English power in France. It is a dynastic…

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The Road to Agincourt- King’s Spy in Order

by Simon Fairfax 6 books 4.4(5,800)

The Road to Agincourt: King’s Spy follows Sir James de Grispere through the final years before Henry V’s French campaign. Beginning under the failing rule of Henry IV and ending at Agincourt, the sequence combines court espionage, diplomatic missions, Channel piracy, Lollard conspiracy, the Western Schism and the…

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Crispin Guest Medieval Noir in Order

by Jeri Westerson 15 books 4.2(13,395)

The Crispin Guest Medieval Noir mysteries follow a disgraced former knight who survives in late-fourteenth-century London as the Tracker, an investigator hired to recover lost objects, expose secrets and untangle crimes that official justice cannot or will not solve. Crispin’s fall for treason gives him unusual access to…

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Kate Clifford in Order

by Candace Robb 3 books 4.1(1,850)

The Kate Clifford mysteries are set in York during the crisis that ended the reign of Richard II and brought Henry Bolingbroke to the throne. Young widow Kate Clifford, trained to survive on the violent northern marches, supports herself by managing a guesthouse and discreet chambers near York…

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The Mowbray Chronicles in Order

by Mette Holm 7 books 4.2(2,089)

The Mowbray Chronicles follow a fictional branch of the English Mowbray family from the later Hundred Years’ War through the reigns of Richard II, Henry IV and Henry V. Argyle Mowbray’s murder inquiry begins the numbered sequence at Richard’s divided court, but the dynasty’s concealed origins are established…

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Historical Romances in Order

by Georgette Heyer 9 books 4.3(16,123)

This collection brings together Georgette Heyer’s historical novels set outside her main Regency-romance sequence. The settings range from medieval England and France to the Norman Conquest, Elizabethan maritime conflict, the escape of Charles II and the Peninsular War. The list follows the ordering supplied by the Fantastic Fiction…

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Plantagenet Saga in Order

by Jean Plaidy 14 books 4.1(16,124)

The Plantagenet Saga spans the dynasty from Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine to Richard III. Across fourteen novels, family rebellion, disputed succession, royal marriage and war connect the Angevin Empire, the conquest of Wales, conflict with Scotland, the Hundred Years’ War and the Wars of the Roses.

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Standalone books

Standalone books featuring Henry IV of England (10 books)

Non Fiction

Non Fiction featuring Henry IV of England (6 books)

Biographies, histories and other non-fiction are listed separately from the historical novels above.