Richard II of England
:
There is also a play entitled Richard II by Shakespeare.Richard II (
January 6 1367 –
February 14,
1400) was the son of
Edward the Black Prince,
Prince of Wales, and
Joan "The Fair Maid of Kent". He was born in
Bordeaux and became his father's heir when his elder brother died in infancy.
Out of the fact that Richard was born at
Epiphany and that three kings were present at his birth came a legend that, despite being a second son, he was destined for great things. He became heir to the throne of
England, and was created
Prince of Wales, when the Black Prince died suddenly in
1376. The following year his grandfather King
Edward III of England also died, leaving Richard as king at the age of only ten.
|
Richard II watches Wat Tyler's death and addresses the peasants in the background |
John of Gaunt, his uncle, ruled on Richard's behalf for the first years of his reign. During that time, the
Peasants' Revolt of
1381 brought Richard into the limelight. It fell to him personally to negotiate with
Wat Tyler and the other rebel leaders and their massed armed ranks of several thousand, which must have required some personal courage at the age of fourteen. He offered pardon to the leaders of the rebellion, an offer that was rescinded as the ringleaders were eventually arrested and executed. It remains a matter of doubt as to whether Richard always intended this to happen, or whether he was eventually forced to go against his word by militant sections of the English nobility. Either way, his tactics certainly had the desired effect of dispersing the rebel forces from the streets of London back to their shires and bringing the disorder to an end. The young king had shown great promise; but as he matured into adulthood he revealed an inability to make the deals and compromises essential to fourteenth-century politics and diplomacy, leading eventually to his downfall.
On
22 January,
1383, he married
Anne of Bohemia, daughter of
Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor and Elizabeth of
Pomerania; but they had no children, and she died on
7 June,
1394. Richard is said to have been devoted to her. On
31 October,
1396, he married Princess
Isabella of Valois, daughter of
Charles VI of France and
Isabeau de Bavière, but that marriage too was without issue.
As Richard began to take over the business of government himself, he sidelined many of the established nobles, such as
Thomas de Beauchamp, 12th Earl of Warwick,
Richard Fitzalan, 11th Earl of Arundel, and
Thomas of Woodstock, 1st
Duke of Gloucester. Instead he turned to his inner circle of favourites for his council, men such as his beloved
Robert de Vere, 9th Earl of Oxford and
Michael de la Pole, whom Richard created
Earl of Suffolk and made chancellor of England. It is possible that Richard had a homosexual relationship with de Vere;
Thomas Walsingham called it 'obscene', 'not without a degree of improper intimacy'
[Alison Weir (1998), Lancaster & York - The War of the Roses. Pimlico, ISBN 0712666745 p. 30] &
[Historia Anglicana by Thomas Walsingham, fl. 1360-1420 and edited by Henry Thomas Riley. Vol I , Parts 1 & 2 in 1863-1864.]. The nobles he had snubbed formed the head of a group of the disaffected who called themselves the
Lords Appellant. The central tenet of their appeal was continued war with
France against Richard's policy of peace, an aim that many of them pursued in the interests of personal gain rather than the interests of the nation.
In
1387, the
English Parliament, under pressure from the
Lords Appellant, demanded that Richard remove his unpopular councillors. When he refused, he was told that since he was still a minor, a Council of Government would rule in his place. Richard had the
Earl of Arundel, leader of the
Lords Appellant, arrested; but Richard's small army led by de Vere was overpowered by the forces of the Lords Appellant outside Oxford, and Richard was imprisoned in the
Tower of London. Richard's unpopular councillors were disposed of (eight were executed for treason in
1388 and others exiled), and he was forced to accept new ones. He was stripped of almost all his authority.
In the years which followed, Richard appeared to have heeded the lessons of
1387, and he became more cautious in his dealings with the barons. In
1390, a
tournament was held to celebrate Richard's coming of age and the apparent new-found harmony since Richard's uncle
John of Gaunt's return from
Spain to lead the
Lords Appellant. Richard's team of knights, The Harts, all wore the identical symbol â€" a white
hart â€" which Richard had chosen. Richard himself favoured genteel interests like fine food, insisting spoons be used at his court and inventing the
handkerchief. He beautified
Westminster Hall with a new ceiling and was a keen and cultured patron of the arts, architecture and literature. In this sense, he can be seen as an early example of what was later held up as a model
Renaissance prince. But many began to see him as another
Edward II, somehow unworthy of his military
Plantagenet heritage, given his delicate 'unkingly' tastes. Richard also lacked the thirst for battle of his grandfather: his Scottish campaign in
1385 was not decisive, and he signed a 28-year truce with France in
1396 which was hugely unpopular at home in spite of the dividends that peace brought to the kingdom.
Richard's commitment to peace rather than war can also be seen in his first expedition to
Ireland in
1394. He put forward a sensible policy based on the understanding that the Irish rebels were motivated largely by the grievances they had against absentee English landowners and that they were perhaps entitled to some redress in this regard. Those whom he labelled the "wild Irish" - native Irish who had not joined the rebel cause - he treated with kindness and respect.
In spite of his forward-thinking attitude toward culture and the arts, Richard seems to have developed a passionate devotion to the old ideal of the
Divine Right of Kings, feeling that he should be unquestioned and unfettered in the way he ran the kingdom. He became a stickler for tradition, insisting on being addressed as ‘majesty' and ‘highness' and sitting alone for hours wearing his crown; those addressing him were required to direct their eyes downwards in deference. In
The Wilton Diptych he was portrayed alongside the
Anglo-Saxon saint-kings St Edmund and
Edward the Confessor, which reflected not only his attitude toward his own kingship but his genuine religious devotion.
In
1397 Richard decided to rid himself of the
Lords Appellant who were confining his power, on the pretext of an aristocratic plot. Richard had the Earl of Arundel executed and Warwick exiled, while Gloucester died in captivity. Finally able to exert his autocratic authority over the kingdom, he purged all those he saw as not totally committed to him, fulfilling his own idea of becoming God's chosen prince.
Richard was still childless. The heir to the throne was
Roger Mortimer the Earl of March, grandson of
Lionel of Antwerp, and after his death in
1398, his seven-year-old son
Edmund Mortimer. However, Richard was more concerned with Gaunt's son and heir
Henry Bolingbroke, whom he banished for ten years on a spurious pretext in
1399. After Gaunt's death, Richard also confiscated Bolingbroke's lands. Some historians have seen this as an act designed to bring greater harmony to England. Bolingbroke's inheritance was huge, large enough to be seen as a small state within the greater state of England and thus an obvious obstacle on the path of a unified and peaceful England. In any event, Richard was only following the policy of his forebears
Henry II and
Edward I in seizing the lands of a powerful noble to centralize power in the crown.
 |
Arms of Richard II |
At this point Richard left for a campaign in
Ireland, allowing Bolingbroke the opportunity to land in
Yorkshire with an army provided by the King of
France to reclaim his father's lands. Richard's autocratic ways, deeply unpopular with many nobles, facilitated Bolingbroke's gaining control quickly of most of southern and eastern
England. Bolingbroke had originally just wanted his inheritance and a reimposition of the power of the
Lords Appellant, accepting Richard's right to be king and March's right to succeed him. But by the time Richard finally arrived back on the mainland in
Wales, a tide of discontent had swept England. In the King's absence, Bolingbroke, who was generally well-liked, was being urged to take the crown himself.
Richard was captured at
Flint Castle in Wales and taken to London, where crowds pelted him with rubbish. He was held in the
Tower of London and eventually forced to abdicate. He was brought, on his request, before parliament, where he officially renounced his crown and thirty-three official charges (including ‘vengeful sentences given against lords') were made against him. He was not permitted to answer the charges. Parliament then accepted Henry Bolingbroke (
Henry IV) as the new king.
Richard was placed in
Pontefract Castle, and probably murdered (or starved to death) there in
1400. He was dead by
February 17.
Richard's body was displayed in the old St Paul's Cathedral for all to see that he was really dead, and he was then buried in
Kings Langley Church. His
coffin was badly designed, however, and it proved easy for disrespectful visitors to place their hands through several openings in the coffin and interfere with what was inside. It is said that a schoolboy walked off with Richard's
jawbone. Rumours that Richard was still alive persisted well into the reign of
Henry V, who decided to have his body moved to its final resting place in
Westminster Abbey with much ceremony in
1413.
Geoffery Chaucer served as a diplomat and Clerk of The King's Works for Richard II. Their relationship encompassed all of Richard's reign, and was apparently fruitful. In the decade before Chaucer's death, Richard granted him several gifts and annuities, including: twenty pounds a year for life in 1394, and 252 gallons (or, one "tun") of wine per year in 1397. Chaucer died on
October 25, 1400.
*Harvey, John (1948), (Revised Edition 1959), London: Collins Clear Type Press.
*Saul, Nigel.
Richard II (Yale University Press, 1997)
*Schama, Simon, A History of Britain 1 3000BC-ad1603 At the Edge of the World?, London: BBC Worldwide Ltd, ISBN 0563487143
*Alison Weir (1998), Lancaster & York - The Wars of the Roses. Pimlico, ISBN 0712666745
*
Historia Anglicana by
Thomas Walsingham, fl. 1360-1420 and edited by Henry Thomas Riley. Vol I , Parts 1 & 2 in 1863-1864. In Latin with English marginal comments and footnotes - scanned from originals.
The Wilton DiptychJohn of GauntRobert de VereLords AppellantJohn Waltham
