Richard II

Richard II (born January 6, 1367, Bordeaux [France]—died February 1400, Pontefract, Yorkshire [now in West Yorkshire], England) was the king of England from 1377 to 1399. An ambitious ruler with a lofty conception of the royal office, he was deposed by his cousin Henry Bolingbroke (Henry IV) because of his arbitrary and factional rule.

Early years

Richard was the younger and only surviving son of Edward, the Black Prince, and his wife, Joan of Kent. Because his father died prematurely in 1376, Richard succeeded his grandfather Edward III as king in June 1377.

The king’s early years were overshadowed by the Hundred Years’ War, a prolonged struggle with France. The heavy cost of the war led to the introduction in 1377 of a novel, and highly regressive, tax, the poll tax. In November 1380 Parliament granted permission to impose the tax for the third time at a flat rate much higher than before. The tactless attempts the government made in the following year to enforce collection of the tax led to the outbreak of the Peasants’ Revolt. Richard’s role in ending the revolt was rightly acclaimed, but it should not be supposed that he was influential in making policy. Almost certainly, the confrontation with the rebels at Smithfield was engineered by a hard-line group of his counselors.

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In the years after the revolt, Richard’s interest in the affairs of state intermittently increased. According to the chronicler Thomas Walsingham, a contemporary of Richard’s, the choice of Anne of Bohemia, the daughter of the Holy Roman emperor Charles IV, as his bride in 1381 was very much Richard’s own. By 1383 his personal initiative showed in the choice of his friends and counselors, including two figures of particular importance—Sir Simon Burley, his former tutor, and Burley’s ally, Sir Michael de la Pole, chancellor from 1383. Richard was also on close terms with some ambitious younger men, notably Robert de Vere, earl of Oxford, and the knights Ralph Stafford and James Berners. These younger men were deeply jealous of the power and prestige of John of Gaunt, the duke of Lancaster. Their repeated criticism of the duke and their involvement in an attempt on his life led to an atmosphere of rancor and suspicion at court. By 1385 Richard’s relations with the higher nobility were quickly deteriorating.

In October 1386 there was a major crisis in Parliament. In the wake of Lancaster’s departure for Spain in July with a large fleet to pursue his claim to the Castilian throne, the French planned an invasion of England. De la Pole, hastily organizing the coastal defences, sought an unprecedentedly large grant of taxation from Parliament. The massive scale of his demand provoked resistance, and the House of Commons clamored for his resignation. Richard, stung by the Commons’ effrontery, retorted that he would not remove one scullion from his kitchen at their behest. Eventually, however, he had to give way. De la Pole was replaced as chancellor and put on trial, and a commission of government was appointed to hold office for a year.

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Richard reacted to the Commons’ assault by retreating to the Midlands to rally his supporters. At Shrewsbury and Nottingham in August he received vigorous reaffirmation of his rights from the royal courts. News of the judges’ opinions frightened the king’s critics, who reacted by bringing an accusatio, or formal appeal, against his allies of treason. The Lords Appellant, as they were now called—the duke of Gloucester and the earls of Warwick, Arundel, Nottingham, and Derby—mobilized their retinues in self-defense. Richard dispatched his friend Robert de Vere southward with an armed force, but de Vere was defeated at Radcot Bridge on December 20, 1387. A few days later London was occupied by the Appellants. Richard returned to his capital humiliated.

In the aptly named “Merciless Parliament” that followed, the Appellants purged the court. Two of Richard’s main allies were executed, and others were dismissed from office. By the following spring, however, the Appellant tide had subsided. At a council meeting at Westminster on May 3, 1389, Richard formally resumed responsibility for government. He dismissed the Appellants’ ministers and appointed new officers of his own. At the same time, he published a manifesto promising better governance and an easing of the burden of taxation.

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Richard’s mature kingship

In a five-year period beginning in 1389, Richard went some way toward honoring his promises. Taxes fell sharply following a truce with the French in 1389, and from 1389 to 1391 no demands for a tax on “moveable” property were made. Richard also showed greater circumspection in his patronage. Previously he had concentrated favor on just a few, but he now rewarded a wider circle, though each in smaller measure.

Yet the seeming moderation of Richard’s rule was matched by a strong emphasis on the reassertion of royal authority. Richard was determined never again to suffer a humiliation of the kind inflicted upon him by the Appellants. Accordingly, in the 1390s he developed a program to strengthen the material foundations of his rule. In a novel initiative he built up a large baronial-style affinity, whose members wore the king’s badge of the white hart. At the same time, he attracted to the central offices of government a corps of hard-working ministers deeply committed to his cause, notably John Waltham, the treasurer (1391–95), and Edmund Stafford, the chancellor (1396–99). Richard also sought to enhance the dignity and mystique of his monarchy. He encouraged lofty new forms of address—for example, “your highness” or “your majesty,” instead of “my lord.” He also elaborated the ceremony and protocol of his court, making the rebuilt Westminster Hall the focus of a grand monarchical cult. He stressed the quasi-religious dimension to his kingship, and solemn crown-wearings in Westminster Abbey formed an increasingly important part of his kingly ritual.

The highly assertive nature of his kingship revealed itself in his first expedition to Ireland. In 1394–95 he led a substantial force there to buttress the position of the English administration. The native Irish were overawed by the presence of an English king, and the local chieftains, or “High Kings,” all attended the court in Dublin to submit to his authority. In letters of submission made for the penitent chieftains, Richard articulated his political vision. Rebellion and disobedience were to be rewarded with appropriate punishment, the rebel Irish were to enter into the king’s obedience, and all Irish, of whatever status, were to perform their accustomed obligations to him.