View source for Henry Beaufort

{{Short description|English bishop (1375–1447)}}
{{Redirect|Cardinal Beaufort|the racehorse|Cardinal Beaufort (horse)}}
{{Other people}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2020}}
{{Use British English|date=July 2017}}
{{Infobox Christian leader
| type = Cardinal
| name = Henry Beaufort
| image = Joan of arc interrogation.jpg
| image_size = 220
| caption = 1856 painting by [[Paul Delaroche]] showing Beaufort interrogating [[Joan of Arc]] in prison
| title = [[Cardinal (Catholicism)#Cardinal priests|Cardinal]], [[Bishop of Winchester]]
| province = [[Province of Canterbury|Canterbury]]
| church     = [[Roman Catholic Church]]
| term_start = 1404
| diocese    = [[Diocese of Winchester|Winchester]]
| term_end = 1447
| predecessor = [[William of Wykeham]]
| successor = [[William Waynflete]]
| other_post = {{Plainlist}}
* [[List of Lord Chancellors and Lord Keepers|Lord Chancellor of England]]
* [[Cardinal (Catholicism)#Cardinal priests|Cardinal Priest]] of [[Sant'Eusebio]]
{{Endplainlist}}
| consecration= 14 July 1398
| consecrated_by = 
| cardinal    = 24 May 1426
| created_cardinal_by = [[Pope Martin V]]
| rank        = Cardinal Priest
| birth_date  = [[Wiktionary:circa|c.]] 1375
| birth_place = [[Château de Beaufort]], Anjou,<br/>[[Kingdom of France]]
| death_date  = 11 April {{death year and age|1447|1375}}
| death_place = [[Wolvesey Castle]], [[Winchester]],<br/>[[Kingdom of England]]
| buried      = [[Winchester Cathedral]]
| religion    = [[Catholic Church|Roman Catholic Church]]
| parents     = [[John of Gaunt]] and [[Katherine Swynford]]
| previous_post = {{Plainlist}}
* [[Bishop of Lincoln]] (1398–1404)
* [[List of Chancellors of the University of Oxford|Chancellor of Oxford University]] (1397–99)
* [[Dean (Christianity)|Dean]] of [[Wells Cathedral|Wells]] (1397–98)
{{endplainlist}}
| coat_of_arms = Beaufort Arms (France modern).svg
| coat_of_arms_alt = Quarterly: 1st and 4th: azure three fleur-de-lis Or; 2nd and 3rd: gules three leopards Or; overall a bordure compony argent and azure
}}
[[File:Tomb of Cardinal Beaufort.jpg|thumb|upright=1.27|Beaufort's tomb in [[Winchester Cathedral]]]]
'''Henry Beaufort''' (c. 1375 – 11 April 1447) was an English [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] prelate and statesman who held the offices of [[Bishop of Lincoln]] (1398), [[Bishop of Winchester]] (1404) and [[Cardinal (Catholic Church)|cardinal]] (1426).<ref name="HolyRoman">{{cite web|last=Miranda|first=Salvador|title=Henry Beaufort|url=https://cardinals.fiu.edu/bios1426.htm#Beaufort|work=The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church|access-date=19 April 2009|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160311014056/http://www2.fiu.edu/~mirandas/bios1426.htm|archive-date=11 March 2016}}</ref> He served three times as [[Lord Chancellor]] and played an important role in English politics. 

Beaufort was a member of the royal [[House of Plantagenet]],<ref>{{cite journal|first=Joel Thomas|last=Rosenthal|title=The Training of an Elite Group: English Bishops in the Fifteenth Century|journal=Transactions of the American Philosophical Society|edition=New Series|volume=60|issue=5|year=1970|page=7|doi=10.2307/1005966|jstor=1005966}}</ref> being the second son of the four legitimised children of [[John of Gaunt]] (third son of King [[Edward III]]) by his mistress (later wife) [[Katherine Swynford]].

==Life==
Beaufort is often claimed to have been born at Beaufort, an English domain in France, but England, John of Gaunt specifically, had already lost that land holding, which had come to him through his grandmother Blanche of Artois<!-- no reason to believe they were born at Beaufort. -->.  He was educated for a career in the Church. After his parents were married in early 1396, Henry, his two brothers and one sister were declared legitimate by [[Pope Boniface IX]] and legitimated by Act of Parliament on 9 February 1397, but they were barred from the succession to the throne<!--  Henry IV lacked the authority to unilaterally change a Parliamentary statute.  See H. A. Kelly and G. L. Harris. -->.<ref name=CPXII40>Cokayne ''Complete Peerage Volume XII'' pp. 40–41</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The English Cardinals|last1=Schofield|first1=Nicholas|last2=Skinner|first2=Gerald|year=2007|publisher=Family Publications|location=Oxford, UK|isbn=978-1-871217-65-0|page=60}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=British Royalty|last=Williams|first=David|year=1996|publisher=Cassell|location=London, UK|isbn=0-304-34933-X|pages=240–41}}</ref>

On 27 February 1398, he was nominated [[Bishop of Lincoln]], and on 14 July 1398, he was consecrated.<ref name=Handbook256>Fryde, et al. ''Handbook of British Chronology'' p. 256</ref> After Henry of Bolingbroke deposed [[Richard II]] and took the throne as Henry IV in 1399, he made Bishop Beaufort [[Lord Chancellor]] of England in 1403,<ref name=Handbook87>Fryde, et al. ''Handbook of British Chronology'' p. 87</ref> but Beaufort resigned in 1404 when he was appointed [[Bishop of Winchester]] on 19 November.<ref name=Handbook277>Fryde, et al. ''Handbook of British Chronology'' p. 277</ref>

Between 1411 and 1413, Bishop Beaufort was in political disgrace for siding with his nephew, the [[Prince of Wales]], against the king,<ref>{{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Beaufort, Henry |volume= 3| pages = 586&ndash;587}}</ref> but when King Henry IV died and the prince became King [[Henry V of England|Henry V]], he was made Chancellor once again in 1413, but he resigned the position in 1417.<ref name=Handbook87/> [[Pope Martin V]] offered him the rank of Cardinal, but King Henry V would not permit him to accept the offer.

Henry V died in 1422, two years after he had married [[Catherine of Valois]], daughter of King [[Charles VI of France|Charles VI]], who had disowned his son [[Charles VII of France|Charles]] in favour of Henry in the [[Treaty of Troyes]]. Henry and Catherine's infant son [[Henry VI of England|Henry VI]], the Bishop's great-nephew, succeeded Henry as King of England, and, in accordance with the Treaty, succeeded Charles as King of France. Bishop Beaufort and the child king's other uncles formed the [[Regency government, 1422–1437|Regency government]],{{sfn|Griffiths|1981|p= 23}} and in 1424, Beaufort became Chancellor once more, but was forced to resign in 1426 because of disputes with the king's other uncles, in particular [[Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester]].<ref name=Handbook87/>

Pope Martin V finally appointed Beaufort as Cardinal in 1426.<ref name=Handbook87/> In 1427, he made him the [[Papal Legate]] for [[Kingdom of Germany|Germany]], [[Kingdom of Hungary|Hungary]] and [[Kingdom of Bohemia|Bohemia]], and directed him to lead the [[Hussite Wars#Campaigns of 1426 and 1427 (fourth anti-Hussite Crusade)|fourth "crusade" against the Hussites heretics in Bohemia]]. Beaufort's forces were routed by the Hussites at the [[Battle of Tachov]] on 4 August 1427.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Harriss|first=G. L.|author-link=G. L. Harriss|title=Henry Beaufort, 'Cardinal of England'|journal=Proceedings of the 1986 Harlaxton Symposium: England in the Fifteenth Century|pages=123–24|publisher=Paul Watkins Publishing|location=Woodbridge, UK|year=1987}}</ref>

After the capture of [[Joan of Arc]] in 1431, legend has it that Beaufort was present to observe some of the heresy trial sessions presided over by Bishop [[Pierre Cauchon]] of [[Beauvais]]. However, the full record of the trial, which lists all those who took part in her trial on a daily basis shows that he was not there.<ref>''The Trial of Jeanne d'Arc'' translated in full by W. P. Barrett,, George Routledge & Sons,1931</ref> His sole appearance is on the day of her abjuration (26 May 1431). The formal record does not include Beaufort's presence at her execution but legend has it that he wept as he viewed the horrible scene as she was burned at the stake. This legend derives from what is now known as the Rehabilitation Trial of Joan of Arc which culminated in an examination of numerous witnesses in 1455 and 1456 in which one of the 27 Articles of Enquiry was that Joan had died in "such a manner as to draw from all those present, and even from her English enemies, effusions of tears."<ref name="Pernoud1955">{{cite book|last=Pernoud|first= Regine|title=The Retrial of Joan of Arc|translator= J. M. Cohen|publisher= Methuen & Co|date= 1955}}</ref> A number of witnesses at this re-trial inferred or declared his presence including one of the original trial judges, one Andre Marguerie, Canon of Rouen, who asserted that Beaufort had reprimanded his chaplain for complaining that the [[Bishop of Beauvais]]'s sermon was too favourable to Joan. However, it is not clear to which sermon Marguerie was referring.<ref name="Pernoud1955"/>

In a spirit of contrition and reconciliation, in 1922 a statue of Joan of Arc (carved under the supervision of Sir [[Ninian Comper]]) was placed beside the entrance to the Lady Chapel in [[Winchester Cathedral]] diagonally facing Cardinal Beaufort's tomb and chantry chapel.<ref name="BullenCrook2010">{{cite book|last1=Bullen|first1=Michael |last2=Crook|first2=John |last3=Hubbuck|first3=Rodney |first4=Nikolaus|last4= Pevsner|title=Hampshire: Winchester and the North|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VsuERQAACAAJ|series=Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England|year=2010|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-12084-4|page=390}}</ref>

Beaufort continued to be active in English politics for years, fighting with the other powerful advisors to the king.{{citation needed |date=April 2016}} He died on 11 April 1447.<ref name=Handbook277/>

==Affair and daughter==
When Henry was Bishop of Lincoln, he had an illegitimate daughter, Jane Beaufort, with an unknown woman, sometimes thought to be the daughter of [[Alice Cherleton, Baroness Cherleton]]: "Henry fathered an illegitimate daughter, Jane Beaufort, in 1402, who some make Alice's daughter. Both Jane and her husband, Sir Edward Stradling, were named in Cardinal Beaufort's will. Their marriage about 1423 brought Sir Edward into the political orbit of his shrewd and assertive father-in-law, to whom he may have owed his appointment as chamberlain of [[South Wales]] in December 1423, a position he held until March 1437".<ref name="Griffiths1994">{{cite book|last=Griffiths|first=Ralph Alan |title=Conquerors and Conquered in Medieval Wales|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7g35AQAACAAJ|year=1994|publisher=Alan Sutton|isbn=978-0-7509-0515-2}}</ref>

==Citations==
{{reflist|2}}

==References==
* {{cite book|last=Cokayne |first=George E. |title=The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct, or Dormant|publisher=A. Sutton|volume=XII|location=Gloucester, UK|year=1982|isbn=0-904387-82-8|edition=Microprint|author-link=George Cokayne}}
* {{cite book|last=Fryde |first=E.&nbsp;B.|last2=Greenway |first2= D.&nbsp;E.|last3=Porter |first3=S.|last4=Roy |first4=I.|title=Handbook of British Chronology|edition=Third revised|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge, UK|year=1996|isbn=0-521-56350-X}}
*{{cite book |last=Griffiths|first=Ralph A.|author-link=Ralph A. Griffiths|title=The Reign of King Henry VI: The Exercise of Royal Authority, 1422–1461|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=frWDmbf_mXEC|year=1981|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-04372-5}}

==Further reading==
{{commons category|Henry Beaufort}}
*{{cite ODNB|first=G. L.|last=Harriss|title=Beaufort, Henry (1375?–1447)|id=1859}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-off}}
{{s-bef | before = [[Edmund Stafford]]}}
{{s-ttl | title = [[Lord Chancellor]]| years = 1403–1405}}
{{s-aft | after = [[Thomas Langley]] | rows=2}}
{{s-bef | before = [[Thomas Arundel]]}}
{{s-ttl | title = [[Lord Chancellor]]| years =1413–1417}}
{{s-bef | before = [[Thomas Langley]]}}

{{s-ttl | title = [[Lord Chancellor]]| years =1424–1426}}
{{s-aft | after = [[John Kemp]]}}
{{s-rel| ca}}
{{s-bef | before = [[Thomas Thebaud]]}}
{{s-ttl | title = [[Dean of Wells]] | years = 1397–1398}}
{{s-aft | after = [[Nicholas Slake]]}}
{{s-break}}
{{s-bef | before = [[John Bokyngham]]}}
{{s-ttl | title = [[Bishop of Lincoln]] | years = 1398–1404}}
{{s-aft | after = [[Philip Repyngdon]]}}
{{s-break}}
{{s-bef | before = [[William of Wykeham]]}}
{{s-ttl | title = [[Bishop of Winchester]] | years = 1404–1447}}
{{s-aft | after = [[William Waynflete]]}}
{{s-break}}
{{s-bef | before = [[Alemanno Adimari]]}}
{{s-ttl | title = [[Cardinal (Catholicism)#Cardinal priests|Cardinal Priest]] of [[Sant'Eusebio|S. Eusebio]] | years = 1426–1447}}
{{s-aft | after = [[Richard Olivier de Longueil]]}}
{{s-aca}}
{{s-bef | before = [[Philip Repyngdon]]}}
{{s-ttl | title = [[List of Chancellors of the University of Oxford|Chancellor of the University of Oxford]] | years = 1397–1399}}
{{s-aft | after = [[Thomas Hyndeman]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{House of Lancaster Lord Chancellors}}
{{Deans of Wells}}
{{Bishops of Winchester}}
{{Bishops of Lincoln}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beaufort, Henry}}

[[Category:1370s births]]
[[Category:1447 deaths]]
[[Category:Year of birth uncertain]]
[[Category:Lord chancellors of England]]

[[Category:Bishops of Lincoln]]
[[Category:Bishops of Winchester]]
[[Category:Bishops appointed by Pope Boniface IX]]
[[Category:Bishops appointed by Pope Innocent VII]]
[[Category:15th-century English cardinals]]
[[Category:15th-century regents]]
[[Category:Chancellors of the University of Oxford]]
[[Category:Beaufort family|Henry Beaufort]]
[[Category:Burials at Winchester Cathedral]]
[[Category:Deans of Wells]]
[[Category:Male Shakespearean characters]]
[[Category:People of the Hussite Wars]]
[[Category:Illegitimate children of English royalty]]