Henry IV (15 April 1367 – 20 March 1413) was
King of England and
Lord of Ireland from 1399 to 1413 and asserted the claim of his grandfather,
Edward III, to the
Kingdom of France. He was born at
Bolingbroke Castle in Lincolnshire, hence his other name,
Henry of Bolingbroke . His father,
John of Gaunt, was the third son of
Edward III, and enjoyed a position of considerable influence during much of the reign of Henry's cousin
Richard II, whom Henry eventually deposed. Henry's mother was
Blanche, heiress to the considerable Lancaster estates, and thus he became the first King of England from the Lancaster branch of the Plantagenets.