Adam of Usk

(c. 1352 - c. 1430)

Born in Wales, Adam of Usk studied law at Oxford University before entering the service of Henry IV in 1399. He later traveled to Rome, where he was named chaplain to Boniface IX and his successor, Innocent VII. A promotion that would have brought him back to England as a bishop was stymied, he writes, referring to himself in the third person, “through the envy of the English, who resisted this and slandered him with poisonous letters to the king, from which he suffered great misfortunes by land and sea for four years.”