nuingiliath:Today (20 March) is the 607th anniversary of Henry IV’s death. His death was no surprise
nuingiliath:Today (20 March) is the 607th anniversary of Henry IV’s death. His death was no surprise - he had been in ill-health since 1405 which only worsened over time. It’s difficult to diagnose him accurately but he seems to have suffered a severe skin complaint which was sometimes called leprosy but was more likely psoriasis, as well as bouts of acute illness and seizures, including one where it was uncertain whether he was alive or dead. It has been suggested that this was epilepsy, stroke, psychosomatic, valvular disease of the heart or coronary heart disease.Various accounts of deathbed confessions and conversations with his heir, the future Henry V, exist but perhaps the most memorable is that, having been carried unconscious to a bed after his collapse, he asked where he was and when he was was told he was in the Jerusalem Chamber at Westminster Abbey, recounted that it had once been prophesied that he would die in Jerusalem. His body was embalmed and entombed in the Trinity Chapel at Canterbury Cathedral, close to the tomb of Edward of Woodstock, the Black Prince, whose son he usurped and had murdered. Henry’s second wife and queen, Joanna (or Juana) of Navarre, was buried beside him in 1437. In 1832, the tomb was opened to check the veracity of the story that Henry’s body was had been thrown into the Thames en route to Canterbury and his face was seen in “complete preservation”.Pictured (from top left): an illumination of Henry, the effigy of Henry and Joanna of Navarre, the ruins of Bolingbroke Castle and the ceiling of the Jerusalem Chamber which was decorated with the initial R, for Richard II. Keep reading -- source link