RICHARD II, King of England, younger son of Edward the Black Prince by Joan "the Fair Maid of Kent," was born at Bordeaux on the 6th of January 1367. He was brought to England in 1371, and after his father's death was, on the petition of the Commons in parliament, created Prince of Wales on the 10th of November 1376. When Edward III died, on the 21st of June 1377, Richard became king. Popular opinion had credited John of Gaunt with designs on the throne. This was not justified; nevertheless, the rivalry of the boyking's uncles added another to the troubles due to the war, the Black Death and the prospect of a long minority.

At first the government was conducted by a council appointed by parliament. The council was honest, but the difficulties of the situation were too great. The ill-considered poll-tax of 1381 was the occasion, though not the real cause, of the Peasants' Revolt in that year. The ministers were quite unequal to the crisis, and when Wat Tyler and his followers got possession of London, it was Richard who showed a precocious tact and confidence in handling it. It was the boyking who met and temporized with the rebels on the 13th of June at Mile End, and again next day at Smithfield; and he who, with courageous presence of mind, saved the situation when Tyler was killed, by calling on them to take him for their leader.

From this time Richard began to assert himself. His chief ministers, appointed by parliament in 1382, were the Earl of Arundel and Michael de la Pole. Arundel Richard disliked, and dismissed next year, when he began his personal government. Pole, whom he retained as Chancellor and made Earl of Suffolk, was a well-chosen adviser. But others, and especially his youthful favourite Robert de Vere, promoted by unheard-of honour to be Marquess of Dublin and Duke of Ireland, were less worthy. Further, Richard made his own position difficult by lavish extravagance and unseemly outbursts of temper. He chafed under the restraint of his relatives, and therefore encouraged John of Gaunt in his Spanish enterprise. This gave the less scrupulous Thomas of Gloucester his opportunity. Gloucester, supported by Arundel, attacked his nephew's ministers in the parliament of 1386, and by open hints at deposition forced Richard to submit to a council of control.

When Richard, with the aid of his friends and by the advice of subservient judges, planned a reversal of the parliament, Gloucester, at the head of the so-called Lords Appellant, anticipated him. Richard had been premature and ill-advised. Gloucester had the advantage of posing as the head of the constitutional party. The king's friends were driven into exile or executed, and he himself forced to submit to the loss of all real power (May 1388). Richard changed his methods, and when the lords appellant had lost credit, asserted himself constitutionally by dismissing Gloucester's supporters from office, and appointing in their place well-approved men like William of Wykeham. In the next parliament of 1390 the king showed himself ready to meet and conciliate his subjects. The simultaneous return of John of Gaunt from Spain put a check on Gloucester's ambition. For seven years Richard ruled constitutionally and on the whole well. The opposition was quiescent except for two outbreaks by Arundel: the first was a violent attack on John of Gaunt, which rather strengthened Richard's position; the second was a wanton insult to the king at the funeral of his queen.

In January 1383 Richard had married Anne of Bohemia (1366-1394), daughter of the emperor Charles IV. The marriage, though childless, was happy; had Anne lived or borne a son the course of events might have been different. Her death on the 7th of June 1394 was a great shock to Richard, and incidentally had important consequences. Richard sought distraction by an expedition to Ireland, the first visit of an English king for more than two centuries. In his policy there he showed a wise statesmanship. At the same time he was negotiating for a permanent peace with France, which was finally arranged in October 1396 to include his own marriage with Isabella, daughter of Charles VI, a child of seven. Gloucester criticized the peace openly, and there was some show of opposition in the parliament of February 1397.

But there was nothing to foreshadow the sudden stroke by which, in July 1397, Richard arrested Gloucester and his chief supporters, the Earls of Arundel and Warwick. The others of the five Lords Appellant, Henry of Bolingbroke afterwards King Henry IV, and the Earl of Nottingham, now supported the king. Richard's action was apparently in deliberate revenge for the events of 1387-88. Gloucester, after a forced confession, died in prison at Calais, smothered by his nephew's orders. Arundel in a packed parliament was condemned and executed; his brother Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury was exiled. The king's friends, including Nottingham and Bolingbroke, made Dukes of Norfolk and Hereford, were all promoted in title and estate. Richard himself was rewarded for ten years' patience by the possession of absolute power. He might perhaps have established it if he could have exercised it with moderation. But he declared that the laws of England were in his mouth, and supported his court in wanton luxury by arbitrary methods of taxation.

By the exile of Norfolk and Hereford in September 1398 he seemed to have removed the last persons he need fear. He was so confident that in May 1399 he paid a second visit to Ireland, taking with him all his most trusted adherents. Thus when Henry landed at Ravenspur in July he found only half-hearted opposition, and when Richard himself returned it was too late. Ultimately Richard surrendered to Henry at Flint on the 19th of August, promising to abdicate if his life was spared. He was taken to London riding behind his rival with indignity.


On the 30th of September he signed in the Tower a deed of abdication, wherein he owned himself insufficient and useless, reading it first aloud with a cheerful mien and ending with a request that his cousin would be good lord to him. The parliament ordered that Richard should be kept close prisoner, and he was sent secretly to Pontefract. There in February 1400 he died: no doubt of the rigour of his winter imprisonment, rather than by actual murder as alleged in the story adopted by Shakespeare. The mystery of Richard's death led to rumours that he had escaped, and an impostor pretending to be Richard lived during many years under the protection of the Scottish government. But no doubt it was the real Richard who was buried without state in 1400 at King's Langley, and honourably reinterred by Henry V at Westminster in 1413.

Richard II is a character of strange contradictions. It is difficult to reconcile the precocious boy of 1381 with the wayward and passionate youth of the next few years. Even if it be supposed that he dissembled his real opinions during the period of his constitutional rule, it is impossible to believe that the apparent indifference which he showed in his fall was the mere acting of a part. His violent outbursts of passion perhaps give the best clue to a mercurial and impulsive nature, easily elated and depressed. He had real ability, and in his Irish policy, and in the preference which he gave to it over continental adventure, showed a statesmanship in advance of his time. But this, in spite of his lofty theory of kingship, makes it all the more difficult to explain his extravagant bearing in his prosperity.

His fall was due to the triumph of national right over absolute government, but it was his personal conduct which made it inevitable. In appearance Richard was tall and handsome, if effeminate. He had some literary tastes, which were shown in fitful patronage of Chaucer, Gower and Froissart. His fancy for splendid dress may have been due to an artistic sense, which found better expression in his great buildings of Westminster Hall and Abbey. Richard's second queen, Isabella (1389-1409), was born in Paris on the 9th of November 1389, and was married to the English king at Calais in October, or November, 1396, but on account of the bride's youth the marriage was never consummated. When Richard lost his crown in 1399 Isabella was captured by Henry IV's partisans and sent to Sonning, near Reading, while her father, Charles VI, asked in vain for the restoration of his daughter and of her dowry. In 1401 she was allowed to return to France; in 1406 she became the wife of the poet, Charles, Duke of Orleans, and she died on the 13th of September 1409.

      Excerpted from:

      Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Ed. Vol XXIII.
      Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1910. 297.

---

Other Local Resources:

• Richard II painting at Westminster Palace
  
• Richard II after the painting at Westminster Palace
  
• Richard II creating Mowbray Earl Marshall, 1386
  
• Coronation of Richard II, historiated initial, 1390
  
• Philippe de Mézières presenting his epistle to Richard II, 1395
  
• Froissart presenting his Chronicles to Richard II, early 15th-c MS
  
• Illuminated Manuscript Portrait of Richard II, c1436
  
• Illuminated Manuscript Portrait of Richard II, c1445-1450
  
• Illuminated Manuscript Portrait of Richard II, 1451-1480
  
• Richard II Portrait at National Portrait Gallery, late 16th-c?
  
• Another Richard II Portrait at National Portrait Gallery, late 16th-c?
  
• Richard II Portrait in the Royal Collection, 16th-c?
  
• The Great Seal of King Richard II
  
• The Great Seal of Richard II, Nat. Archives
  
• The Coronation of Richard II, late 15th-c MS
  
• The Coronation of Richard II, c1470-80
  
• The Coronation of Richard II, c1470-80
  
• Richard II after his Coronation
  
• Richard II and the Kentish Rebels
  
• Richard II sets out for Ireland
  
• Richard II leaves for Ireland
  
• Richard II and the Irish Chiefs
  
• The Engagement of Richard II and Isabella of France
  
• The Betrothal of Richard II and Isabella of France
  
• Richard II Meeting Isabella of France
  
• The Meeting of Richard II and Isabella of France
  
• Richard II Receives Isabella of France
  
• Richard II arriving to see Gloucester at Pleshy Castle, Essex
  
• Froissart presenting his Chronicles to Richard II; BnF
  
• Froissart presenting his Chronicles to Richard II; BL
  
• Froissart presenting his Chronicles to Richard II; PML
  
• Richard II Granting Aquitaine to the Duke of Lancaster
  
• The Challenge of Derby and Mowbray
  
• Mowbray Challenges Derby
  
• Mowbray Throws the Gauntlet at Derby
  
• Mowbray, the Earl Marshal, Challenges Henry, Earl of Derby
  
• Richard II banishes Derby and Mowbray
  
• Richard II banishes Derby and Mowbray
  
• Richard II Rides to Flint Castle
  
• Richard I Receiving a Message Delivered by Henry Percy
  
• Meeting of Richard and Bolingbroke at Flint Castle
  
• Richard II Surrenders to the Earl of Derby
  
• The Arrest of Richard II
  
• Richard II being taken to the Tower of London
  
• Parliament assembled for the Deposition of Richard II
  
• Abdication of Richard II
  
• Richard II resigns his crown
  
• Crowning of Henry IV & Death of Richard II
  
• Coronation of Henry IV & Murder of Richard II
  
• The Funeral of Richard II; BnF
  
• The Funeral of Richard II; BL
  
• The Funeral of Richard II; BL 2
  
  
• Hundred Years' War
  
• King Edward III
• Edward, the Black Prince of Wales
  
• John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster
  
• Edmund of Langley, Duke of York
  
• King Henry IV, Bolingbroke
  
• House of Lancaster
  
• Wars of the Roses
  

---

Books for further study:

Bennett, Michael. Richard II, and the Revolution of 1399.
            Sutton Publishing, 2006.

Bevan, Bryan. King Richard II.
            Rubicon Press, 1996.

Biggs, Douglas. Three Armies in Britain: The Irish Campaign of Richard II
           and the Usurpation of Henry IV, 1397-1399.
            Brill Academic Publishers, 2006.

Saul, Nigel. Richard II.
            Yale University Press, 1999.

Seward, Desmond. The Hundred Years War: The English in France 1337-1453.
           Penguin, 1999.

Shakespeare, William. Richard II.
            Folger Shakespeare Library, 2005.

Strohm, Paul. England's Empty Throne: Usurpation and
           the Language of Legitimation, 1399-1422. (New Ed)
            University of Notre Dame Press, 2006.

---

Richard II on the Web:

• Genealogy - ThePeerage.com
  
• William Shakespeare, Richard II - Renascence Editions
  
  

---

	to Hundred Years' War
	to Luminarium Encyclopedia

Site ©1996-2022 Anniina Jokinen. All rights reserved.
This page was created on April 23, 2007. Last updated August 25, 2022.