# Henry IV, Part I — Character guide

> Key figures in Henry IV, Part I by William Shakespeare.

- [Prince Hal](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/henry_iv_part_i_se/characters/prince_hal.md): Hal spends his days in Eastcheap with Falstaff and his crew, drinking sack and staging mock interrogations of the fat knight, yet his soliloquies reveal a prince who plans to redeem himself when the moment suits. He mock
- [Hotspur](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/henry_iv_part_i_se/characters/hotspur.md): Hotspur is the North's blazing star, a man who kills Scots by the dozen before breakfast and treats diplomacy as an interruption to fighting. He clashes with Glendower over the Welshman's mystical pretensions and with Wo
- [Falstaff](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/henry_iv_part_i_se/characters/falstaff.md): Falstaff is Hal's tavern companion, a self-proclaimed soldier who leads a raggedy troop of conscripts and delivers some of the play's funniest and most subversive speeches. He lies about his exploits at Gadshill, drinks 
- [King Henry IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/henry_iv_part_i_se/characters/king_henry_iv.md): Henry IV opens the play weary and guilt-ridden, hoping a crusade to the Holy Land will wash away the blood of the civil war that put him on the throne. Instead he receives news of Mortimer's capture by Glendower and Hots
- [Douglas](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/henry_iv_part_i_se/characters/douglas.md): Douglas is the rebel army's most feared fighter, a Scot whose valor at Holmedon was so notable that King Henry lists his defeat among Hotspur's greatest prizes. He pushes for immediate battle at Shrewsbury, accusing Vern
- [Worcester](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/henry_iv_part_i_se/characters/worcester.md): Worcester is the strategic mind of the Percy family, the one who articulates grievances and negotiates with Mortimer and Glendower while Hotspur rages about maps. He counsels caution at Shrewsbury against Hotspur's impul
- [Northumberland](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/henry_iv_part_i_se/characters/northumberland.md): Northumberland stands at the head of the Percy family, a great northern lord whose loyalty to the crown has soured into conspiracy. Where his son Hotspur burns for glory, Northumberland counsels delay and calculation, a 
- [Owen Glendower](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/henry_iv_part_i_se/characters/glendower.md): Glendower rules Wales and brings its wild power to the rebel alliance, boasting of spirits he can summon and battles he has won against King Henry. His mystical self-regard collides hilariously with Hotspur's blunt mocke
- [Edmund Mortimer](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/henry_iv_part_i_se/characters/mortimer.md): Mortimer is the Earl of March, taken prisoner by Glendower and now bound to him by marriage to his daughter. His claim to the throne gives the rebels a rival title to Henry's, though Hotspur dismisses him as 'the foolish
- [Lady Percy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/henry_iv_part_i_se/characters/lady_percy.md): Kate Percy is the wife Hotspur teases and adores, a woman whose wit matches his own. When he grows distant and sleepless with rebellion, she presses him to confide, refusing to be shut out of the life that consumes him. 
- [Poins](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/henry_iv_part_i_se/characters/poins.md): Poins moves through the tavern world as Hal's closest confidant, quick-witted and fond of practical jokes. He engineers the highway robbery that lets Hal mock Falstaff's cowardice, showing a mind that sees through every 
- [Bardolph](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/henry_iv_part_i_se/characters/bardolph.md): Bardolph follows Falstaff through the taverns and back alleys of Eastcheap, a small-time thief whose glowing nose draws more attention than his conscience. He is loyal, cowardly, and utterly at home in the low company Ha
- [Mistress Quickly](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/henry_iv_part_i_se/characters/hostess.md): The Boar's Head's bustling hostess, Mistress Quickly keeps the ale flowing and her accounts muddled, forever sparring with Falstaff over unpaid debts and broken promises.
- [Prince John of Lancaster](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/henry_iv_part_i_se/characters/prince_john.md): King Henry's younger son, Prince John of Lancaster stands quietly at court, a sober foil to his wayward brother Hal and a future commander in his father's wars.
- [Sir Walter Blunt](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/henry_iv_part_i_se/characters/sir_walter_blunt.md): A loyal knight and tireless messenger, Sir Walter Blunt rides hard between king and rebel, his stained boots proof of service in a kingdom tearing itself apart.
- [Sir Richard Vernon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/henry_iv_part_i_se/characters/vernon.md): Sir Richard Vernon, a rebel gentleman in Hotspur's orbit, carries news and numbers between the conspirators, measuring the odds of their uprising against the king.
- [Francis](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/henry_iv_part_i_se/characters/francis.md): A drawer (tavern servant) at the Boar's Head Tavern.
- [Gadshill](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/henry_iv_part_i_se/characters/gadshill.md): A highwayman and accomplice in the robbery plot.
- [Peto](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/henry_iv_part_i_se/characters/peto.md): A follower of Falstaff and companion of Prince Hal.
- [Dame Mortimer](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/henry_iv_part_i_se/characters/dame_mortimer.md): Glendower's daughter and wife of Edmund Mortimer.
- [Earl of Westmoreland](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/henry_iv_part_i_se/characters/westmoreland.md): A loyalist nobleman and military commander for King Henry.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/henry_iv_part_i_se/characters