Humphrey of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Gloucester

Humphrey of Lancaster, Duke of Gloucester, was the youngest son of Henry IV and served as protector of England during the minority of Henry VI. An energetic patron of learning, he also pursued a costly and unsuccessful claim in the Low Countries through his marriage to Jacqueline of Hainault. Humphrey quarrelled with Cardinal Beaufort and other councillors over the conduct of government and war. Arrested in 1447, he died suddenly before trial, prompting rumours of murder.

Humphrey appears in Conn Iggulden’s Wars of the Roses novels and in fiction about the young Henry VI. He is often remembered as the “Good Duke,” a patriotic opponent of corrupt peace policies, but that image was partly created by later political tradition. His patronage and popularity coexist with personal ambition and strategically damaging continental adventures.

In Joanna Hickson’s The Tudor Bride, Mette, still serving as her companion, watches Humphrey of Gloucester and other magnates struggle for control of the infant king and the widowed queen’s household. In Mette Holm’s Deeds of Deceit, Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, instead brings the former spymaster back into service near the end of Henry V’s reign. Other novels featuring Humphrey of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Gloucester include Georgette Heyer’s My Lord John.