(1367-1413), king of England, son of John of Gaunt, by Blanche, daughter of Henry, duke of Lancaster, was born on the 3rd of April 1367, at Bolingbroke in Lincolnshire.
His grandfather was a man of ability, an enterprising merchant of London, one of the commissioners of customs under the Tory ministry during the last four years of Queen Anne, and, in the judgment of Lord Bolingbroke, as deeply versed in the " commerce and finances of England " as any man of his time.
John of Bohemia had fought by the Vistula: Henry of Bolingbroke was of the goodly company; Chaucer's perfect knight had travelled in "Pruce and Lettowe."
Queen Caroline was provoked into classing him and Bolingbroke, as "the two most worthless men of parts in the country."
The Walpoles, Bubb Dodington, Bolingbroke, Congreve, Sarah, duchess of Marlborough, Pope, were among his English friends.