Henry V of England take a wider share in politics. From January 1410, helped by his uncles Henry Beaufort and Thomas Beaufort, legitimised sons of John of Gaunt, he had practical control of the government. Both in foreign and domestic policy he differed from the king, who discharged the prince from the council in November 1411. The quarrel of father and son was political only, though it is probable that the Beauforts had discussed the abdication of Henry IV. Their opponents certainly endeavoured to defame the prince. It may be that the tradition of Henry's riotous youth, immortalised by Shakespeare, is partly due to
Succession of Henry IV of France November 1591, when the Sixteen executed a group of moderates from the Paris "parlement", Mayenne hanged or imprisoned the ringleaders. Mayenne, who nursed ambitions to be king himself, saw his grand alliance of Catholic nobles, French towns, and Spain crumbling from a growing disunity of purpose and the absence of an obvious claimant to the throne. It was widely believed among Catholics that the pope's blessing was essential to the legitimacy of a king of France because of the Protestant faith of Henry. At the time of his succession, Henry IV was under a papal excommunication, imposed by Pope Sixtus