Richard II of England (6 January 1367 – 14 February 1400) was the King of England from 21 June 1377 to 30 September 1399, succeeding Edward III of England and preceding Henry IV of England. A son of Edward the Black Prince, he inherited the throne through primogeniture succession when his grandfather died in 1377, and the young king crush Wat Tyler's Peasants' Revolt in 1381. However, the Lords Appellant took over the affairs of the government, and in 1397 he took his revenge on the lords by executing or exiling many of them. After John of Gaunt's death, Richard disinherited his son Henry Bolingbroke, so Bolingbroke invaded England in 1399 and deposed Richard II, seizing the throne for himself and the Lancastrian branch of the House of Plantagenet.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Richard in 1398
Richard was born on 6 January 1367 in Bordeaux, Duchy of Aquitaine, the son of Edward the Black Prince and the grandson of King Edward III of England. His five-year-old brother Edward of Angouleme's death in 1370 led to Richard becoming heir presumptive to the throne of England, and his own father's death in 1376 narrowly made Richard the heir to the throne. King Edward's death on 21 June 1377 led to the ten-year-old Richard being crowned "King Richard II", leaving control of the government to a series of councils. In 1381, the Peasants' Revolt of Wat Tyler broke out, and on 14 June 1381 he met the rebels at Mile End and agreed to abolish serfdom. However, the rebels massacred several members of his ruling council, and on 15 June he met the rebels at Smithfield and slew Wat Tyler. By November, the rebellion had been crushed.
The Parliament that met in 1386 marked the second major crisis of Richard II's reign after the Peasants' Revolt. This time it was Richard's own actions that were to blame. The assembly condemned Richard's advisors, in particular Robert de Vere, whom the King had just appointed Duke of Ireland, and demanded the dismissal of the Chancellor, Michael de la Pole. Although Richard protested, he was forced to back down, and De la Pole was removed and imprisoned. Richard's opponents established a Commission of Government, including the Duke of Gloucester, the Earl of Arundel, and the Bishop of Ely, to take over the government. In November 1387, these "Lords Appellant", as they became known, published an "appeal" against five of Richard's supporters, including De la Pole and De Vere, accusing them of treason.
Fighting back[]
De Vere tried to raise an army, while Richard played for time in Parliament. His cause was undermined by De Vere's defeat at Radcot Bridge in 1387. The army of the Appellant marched on London and it seemed for a while as though Richard might be deposed. The resulting Merciless Parliament was dominated by the Lords Appellant and most of Richard's leading loyalists were sentenced to death. Many escaped abroad, but Nicholas Brembre, the Mayor of London, was put to death on Tower Hill in March 1388. A lack of success in France and the English defeat against the Scots at Otterburn in August dened the prestige of the Lords Appellant, enabling Richard to construct an alliance opposed to them. The Cambridge Parliament of September was more sympathetic to the King and by May 1389 he felt strong enough to march into council, declare that he had attained his majority, and dismiss the Lords Appellant.
High-handed rule[]
For the next few years, Richard managed to retain control. Yet his high-handed actions, such as the removal of the Mayor of London in 1392 when the city refused to loan him money, and the imposition of a £10,000 fine on its citizens, gradually lost him friends. In 1394, Richard's expedition to Ireland revitalized the English position there. A truce with France, sealed by the King's marriage to Isabelle of Valois in 1396, offerd the hope of an ened to the expensive war with France.
Rebel army[]
In 1397, Richard decided to act against his remaining enemies. He manipulated Parliament into declaring the supporters of the 1387 rebellion as treasonous and levied fines on them. In February 1399, John of Gaunt died, and Richard, rather than permitting Gaunt's exiled son Henry Bolingbroke to succeed to the title and lands, seized them for the Crown. Bolingbroke made contact with his supporters in England, and the departure of Richard for a new expedition in Ireland in May gave him just the opportunity he had been waiting for. In early July he landed at Ravenspur at the mouth of the River Humber.
As the rebels advanced, Richard's officials scrambled to mobilize men and strengthen defenses in the south. By mid-July, Bolingbroke reached the Midlands, his support growing all the time. At the end of May, the regent, the Duke of York (who was also Bolingbroke's uncle) defected to the rebel cause. Richard hurried back from Ireland and tried to assemble a new army in South Wales, but it soon melted away and, faced with an enormous rebel army, he surrendered to Bolingbroke at Flint Castle on 19 August.
Downfall[]
Richard's death
Richard was transported to London as a prisoner and a parliamentary commission was set up to decide what to do next. Although it ruled that Richard had broken his own coronation oath and had lost the right to rule, it did not hand the throne to Bolingbroke by right of descent. Instead, Richard was induced to abdicate on 30 September, and Parliament passed the Articles of Deposition, which indicted Richard on a series of misdemeanors, accepted his abdication, and acknowledged Bolingbroke as King. King Henry IV addressed Parliament in English, not Norman French, to inaugurate the start of the new Lancastrian dynasty. After a plot to assassinate Henry at Windsor Castle in December 3199, Richard mysteriously died at Pontefract Castle where he was being held prisoner.