Richard II of England

hank you my friend SGT (Join to see) for making us aware that on June 22, 1377, Richard II succeeded Edward III as king of England.

The Flamboyance Of A British King | Richard II | Real Royalty
This episode considers the court of Richard II. Richard presided over the first truly sophisticated and artistic court in England. Painters, sculptors, poets, tailors, weavers and builders flocked to court to make their fortunes. But these were dangerous times. Being close to Richard brought many courtiers to a sticky end.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QR6Co_lMOe8

Images
1. A portrait of Richard II of England (r. 1377-1399 CE). The painting was the first of an English king to be painted in his lifetime and was hung in Westminster Abbey.
2. Tomb of Richard II and Ann of Bohemia at Westminster Abbey
3. The mythical coat of arms and white hart symbol of Richard II of England (r. 1377-1399 CE). From the back of the Wilton diptych, a painted panel created c. 1395-99 CE. (National Gallery, London)
4. The Peasants Revolt from a contemporary manuscript

Biographies
1. englishmonarchs.co.uk/plantagenet_8.htm]
2. ancient.eu/Richard_II_of_England/

1. Background from {[http://www.englishmonarchs.co.uk/plantagenet_8.htm]}
"The future King Richard II was born at the Archbishop's Palace, Bordeaux, Aquitaine, at epiphany, on 6th January, 1367. The product of a first cousin marriage, he was the son of Edward III's eldest son, Edward, Prince of Wales, the Black Prince and his wife, Joan, Countess of Kent. Joan, known as the 'Fair Maid of Kent', was the daughter of Edmund, Earl of Kent, the youngest of Edward I's sons by his second wife, Margaret of France. This gave Richard a double descent from Edward I, due to previous cousin marriages in his family, his grandparents had also been first cousins, Richard was therefore a highly inbred individual.

His mother, Joan of Kent, has been described as one of the most beautiful and scandalous women of her age. Unusual for the day, Richard's parent's marriage was a genuine love match and not a political alliance. Joan of Kent had previously been married to Thomas Holland and through this former marriage, Richard had half siblings.

Joan caused quite a scandal by entering into a clandestine marriage with Holland at the age of twelve. The following winter, while her husband was serving abroad, Joan married again to William Montacute, the Earl of Salisbury's heir. When Holland returned to England a few years later, he revealed his secret marriage to Joan and appealed to Pope Clement VI for his wife's return, Joan supported his appeal. Salisbury resorted to keeping her a prisoner in his home. The Pope annulled Joan's marriage to Montacute and ordered to return to Thomas Holland, with whom she lived for the next eleven years. The marriage produced four children.

Richard had an elder brother, Edward of Angouleme, who had died in infancy of bubonic plague, leaving Richard his father's sole heir. Edward, the Black Prince predeceased Edward III, dying of dysentry in June, 1376. He had obtained a promise from his father that Richard should succeed him. After his grandfather's death, the ten year old Richard was duly crowned at Westminster Abbey on 16 July, 1377.

His charismatic grandfather and martial father were a hard act to follow. Artistic and sensitive, Richard was a pacifist, not an attitude to endear him to those of his barons who looked back to an heroic past.

Richard is the first English monarch for whom a contemporary painting survives. He was built in the typical Plantagenet mould, around six feet tall, auburn haired and good-looking, with finely chiseled features and beautiful, long, tapering hands. The chronicler Adam of Usk described him as being ' as beautiful as Absalom.' Richard was also volatile and unstable, brooding and vengeful, and in him the famed Plantagenet temper boiled into a frenzy.

A description by a Monk of Elvetham relates King Richard was of the common stature, his hair yellowish, his face fair and rosy, rather round than long, and sometimes flushed; abrupt and somewhat stammering in his speech, capricious in his manners, and too apt to prefer the recommendations of the young, to the advice of the elder, nobles. He was prodigal in his gifts, extravagantly splendid in his entertainment and dress, timid as to war, very passionate toward his domestics, haughty and too much devoted to voluptuousness. So fond of late hours, that he would sometimes sit up all night drinking."

The country was governed by Richard's uncle John of Gaunt and a council during his minority. In 1381, when Richard was fourteen, the Peasants Revolt, probably the first socialist movement in English history, broke out in Kent due to simmering reentment of a highly unpopular poll tax. The rebels marched up to London, their leaders, Watt Tyler, Jack Straw and a priest, John Ball, demanded the abolition of serfdom and a pardon for all participants in the uprising. Discontented recruits to the cause were many and their army swelled to what is estimated at around ten thousand.

All those connected with the hated poll tax were summarily executed on the peasants progress to London. John Ball chose as his text :- "When Adam delved (dug) and Eve span, who was then the gentleman?" The rebels were welcomed by the majority of Londoners and the army camped at Blackheath on 14th June, threatening London.

Watt Tyler met Richard and his terrified retinue at Mile End. The young King's position was precarious and having little choice, he ordered charters drawn up granting all of Tyler's requests. A further meeting was arranged at Smithfield. Tyler attended alone and repeated further demands. Richard wearily conceded to grant them all. Washing out his mouth with water, Tyler proceeded to spit it out in the king's presence, at which Walworth, the Mayor of London, incensed at what he saw as impertinence, stabbed Tyler to death. The rebel army were unclear at what was happening in the distance, seizing the initiative, Richard advanced alone, calling out loudly "I am your King follow me." and led the rebel army away. The revolt was put down with severity, the young king, in a characteristic outburst of venom, wreaked a terrible vengeance and the heads of it's leaders were displayed on pikes at London Bridge.

At fifteen, Richard married Anne of Bohemia in St. Stephen's Chapel at Westminster Abbey. Anne was the daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles IV, and the sister of King Wenceslas of Bohemia. The couple were to become devoted to each other and the queen exercised a moderating influence on her husband but their union produced no issue.

King Richard II, like Edward II before him, was unfortunately reckless in his generosity to favorites, Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford was raised to a Duke. Anger smouldered and came to a head in 1387 when Richard failed to bring certain of his favourites to trial, he was subjected to force. He was defeated by a rebel army led by his uncle, Thomas, Duke of Gloucester at Radcot Bridge in Oxfordshire, Gloucester had been joined by John of Gaunt's son, Henry of Bolingbroke. At the 'Merciless Parliament' of 1388, the Lords Appellant demanded radical changes in the royal household, the execution of the king's principal supporters and de Vere's estates confiscated. The House of Commons feared the King's attempts to undermine the authority of parliament and he was placed under the control of a council. Their intransigence fueled a smouldering desire for revenge in the unstable Richard.

Richard delighted in lavish dress and extravagant jewels. He is popularly credited with introducing the use of the pocket handkerchief. In common with his ancestor Henry III, he venerated the memory of the Saxon King, Edward the Confessor and adopted his coat of arms, which were quartered with his own.

Tragically, his beloved Queen, Anne, died of the plague in 1394, aged but twenty-eight. Richard's grief was terrible, distraught and emotionally unstabilized, he had Sheen Palace, where Anne had died, razed to the ground. The Queen was buried at Westminster near to St. Edward's shrine. An embarrassing incident marred the funeral service, Richard was angered by Richard Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel, who had the audacity to arrive late. When he tactlessly asked the King to excuse his attendance, Richard completely lost control. In his passionate grief and fury he seized a wand from one of the vergers and struck Arundel so violently about the head with it that he fell to the ground dazed.

Richard's mental state has long been an issue of historical debate the Victorian historian Bishop Stubbs has stated that towards the end of his reign, Richard's mind "was losing its balance altogether". Historian Anthony Steel, who wrote a full-scale biography of the king in 1941, took a psychiatric approach to the issue, and concluded that the king suffered from schizophrenia. This opinion was challenged by V.H. Galbraith, who argued that there was no historical basis for such a diagnosis, a line that has also been followed by later historians of the period, like Anthony Goodman and Anthony Tuck. Nigel Saul, who wrote the most recent academic biography on Richard II, concedes that - even though there is no basis for assuming the king had a mental illness - he showed clear signs of a narcissistic personality, and towards the end of his reign "Richard's grasp on reality was becoming weaker".

Two years ater Anne's death, Richard married again, taking Isabella of Valois, the six year old daughter of Charles VI of France, as his second wife. Richard treated her with great kindness and they were to become extremely fond of each other.

Richard's brooding on past slights culminated with his taking action with ruthless suddeness in 1397. His old opponents were placed under arrest and his uncle, Thomas Duke of Gloucester, was murdered. He exiled his cousin, Henry Bolingbroke, who was one of the five Lords Appellant, in 1399. On John of Gaunt's death, the following year, Richard disinherited Henry and confiscated the vast Lancastrian estates.

Henry reacted by invading England, landing at Ravenspur in Yorkshire, on the pretext of recovering his estates, but in reality he intended to seize his cousin's throne. Richard, in Ireland at the time, sailed to Wales. The King met Henry's representatives at Conway Castle and was informed that if he restored Henry's estates and surrendered certain councillors for trial, he could remain in power. He agreed but was betrayed and instead of being returned to power found himself the inhabitant of a dungeon in the Tower.

A Parliament was called at the end of September, at which Henry claimed the throne. Richard was declared a tyrant and deposed. He was taken up to Pontefract Castle, in Yorkshire and there it is certain, he met his end around the second week in February, 1400. Although Henry of Lancaster may have been prepared to let Richard live, the situation changed when it was discovered that the earls of Huntingdon, Kent and Salisbury and Lord Despenser, and possibly also the Earl of Rutland, were planning to murder the new king and restore Richard in the Epiphany Rising. Although averted, the plot highlighted the danger to Henry of allowing Richard to live. His body was taken south from Pontefract and displayed in the old St Paul's Cathedral on 17 February before burial in Kings Langley Church on 6 March.His skeleton was examined in 1871 by Dean Stanley of Westminster but showed no marks of violence. Starvation was the most likely cause, although this has never been proven.

After being displayed at St. Paul's, Richard's body was buried in King's Langley Church, Hertfordshire. His child queen, Isabelle of France, mourned him deeply and sincerely. Henry IV wished to make an alliance between herself and his eldest son, Henry, now Prince of Wales, but loyal to the memory of her husband, she was inflexible in refusing to even contemplate it. Isabelle was eventually returned to her father in France. She was married to Charles of Angouleme and tragically died in childbirth.

Richard II's body was later moved to Westminster Abbey by Bolingbroke's successor, Henry V, who had been close to him in his boyhood, there it was reburied beside his beloved first wife, Anne of Bohemia. The tomb was opened in 1871 during restoration work to the abbey. There were no marks of violence on Richard's skull and even some of the teeth were preserved. A staff, sceptre, part of the ball, two pairs of royal gloves, and fragments of their peaked shoes still remained. A number of relics which seem to have taken from the tomb opening in 1871, were recently discovered in a cigarette box in the basement of the National Portrait Gallery. The contents of the box, dated 31 August 1871, included fragments of wood, some fabric, and a piece of leather from one of the gloves."

2. Background from {[https://www.ancient.eu/Richard_II_of_England/]}
Richard II of England

by Mark Cartwright published on 22 January 2020


Richard II of England reigned as king from 1377 to 1399 CE. The son of the late Edward the Black Prince (1330-1376 CE), Richard would succeed his grandfather Edward III of England (r. 1327-1377 CE), but as he was only 10 years of age, he initially had to co-rule with his most powerful barons. The Peasants' Revolt of June 1381 CE was successfully put down but a failed campaign in Scotland, misguided favouritism at court, and the ambition of certain rival nobles all conspired to limit the power of a king who had, unwisely, considered himself divinely chosen to rule any way he wished. In August 1399 CE Richard was imprisoned, and the following February he was murdered and succeeded by his cousin and rival Henry Bolingbroke, Duke of Lancaster, who became Henry IV of England (r. 1399-1413 CE)
Family & Succession
Edward of Woodstock, better known as the Black Prince after his distinctive armour or martial reputation, was the eldest son of Edward III of England. Made the Prince of Wales in 1343 CE and one of the greatest of all medieval knights, Edward would not, however, become king. The Black Prince died, probably of dysentery, on 8 June 1376 CE and so Parliament selected as the official heir to Edward III the prince’s surviving son Richard of Bordeaux (b. 6 January 1367 CE). The young king-to-be’s mother was Joan, the countess of Kent (1328-1385 CE), and he had had one brother, Edward, who had died in 1371 CE. Richard was favoured over another of Edward III’s sons, John of Gaunt (1340-1399 CE), the Duke of Lancaster, largely because the latter had supported a number of officials and nobles identified by Parliament as guilty of corruption and misrule. As planned then, when Edward III died on 21 June 1377 CE, Richard became king.
THE SO-CALLED PEASANTS' REVOLT OF JUNE 1381 CE WAS THE MOST INFAMOUS POPULAR UPRISING OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
Richard was crowned on 16 July 1377 CE at Westminster Abbey, but he was a mere 10 years old and so his troubled kingdom was governed by a revolving council of nobles. The Hundred Years’ War between England and France (1337-1453 CE) had started remarkably well for England with great victories at Crécy (1346 CE) and Poitiers (1356 CE) but by 1375 CE Charles V of France, aka Charles the Wise (r. 1364-1380 CE), had ensured that the only lands left in France belonging to the English Crown were Calais and a thin slice of Gascony. The war with France and its ally Scotland had also taken a heavy financial toll on the kingdom with an incessant round of taxes inflicted on the people, a situation only worsened by the arrival of the Black Death in 1348 CE which brought death and economic ruin. The failure to take the military initiative against France, high taxes and lasting economic disruption would all come back to haunt Richard later in his reign.

Peasants' Revolt
The so-called Peasants' Revolt of June 1381 CE was the most infamous popular uprising of the Middle Ages. The trouble started when a group of yeomen from Kent and Essex, fed up with the problem caused by the Black Death plague and, above all, the never-ending taxes which, since 1377 CE, included poll taxes of three groats (one shilling) aimed at everyone irrespective of resources, marched to protest in London. The group, numbering several thousand, caused havoc on the way as they looted, pillaged, and murdered. When the mob got to London, they burnt down the Savoy palace of the Duke of Lancaster and murdered anyone they pleased - the Chancellor, Archbishop Simon of Sudbury would be one victim, decapitated on Tower Hill. The mob's demands for change included the abolition of serfdom, a repeal of the laws limiting wage increases brought in after the Black Death, more peasant participation on local government, and the redistribution of the Church’s riches (the latter being an idea championed by the theologian John Wycliffe, c. 1325-1384 CE). Although only 14, King Richard bravely met the protestors at Smithfield outside London on 15 June and persuaded them to stand down. This was quite a feat considering William Walworth, the Mayor of London stepped forward and killed Wat Tyler, one of the rebel leaders, amongst the confusion, perhaps thinking Tyler was about to do the king harm. Richard had, nevertheless, stepped forward and boldly declared:
Sirs, would you kill your king? I am your rightful captain, and I will be your leader. Let all those who love me, follow me.
(Quoted in Jones, N., 75)
Richard then employed the much-used tactic of making a load of extravagant promises he had no intention of keeping, but it was enough to stave off more rioting and the mob disbanded. Utterly ruthless, Richard ensured that around 150 of the rebels were hanged. There were other minor outbreaks of rebellion thereafter, but these were mercilessly quashed and their ringleaders executed as traitors.

The Merciless Parliament
Richard II may have won accolades for his success in putting down the Peasants' Revolt but any hopes that England had found itself a fine king, true and just, were soon dashed. The young monarch was wilful and hot-tempered, and he turned out to be rather too confident in his divine right to rule, making him intolerant of any views that conflicted with his own. Ignoring his barons, Parliament and commoners alike, Richard largely preferred to spend his time with favourites like Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford and his circle of sycophants.
THE ‘MERCILESS PARLIAMENT’ OF 1388 CE ESSENTIALLY INSTALLED THE LORDS APPELLANTS AS THE RULERS OF ENGLAND.
Medieval kings were often expected to perform great deeds on the battlefield but Richard’s single campaign in Scotland in 1385 CE was a damp squib with no contact being made with the enemy. In 1388 CE, one of the great medieval knights, Sir Henry ‘Hotspur’ Percy (1364-1403 CE) led an army against the Scots but was soundly defeated at the Battle of Otterburn. Sir Henry even suffered the ignominy of capture and being set up for ransom, which Parliament and King Richard did meet.
Richard had a much bigger crisis to deal with at home when, in 1386 CE, he made the hugely unpopular de Vere the Duke of Ireland and it looked like France was preparing to invade England. In December 1387 CE the dissatisfied barons made their move by defeating de Vere and his supporters at the Battle of Radcot Bridge near Oxford. Led by such high figures as Thomas Woodstock, the Duke of Gloucester (the king’s uncle) and Henry Bolingbroke (b. c. 1366 CE, the king’s cousin and son of John of Gaunt), a group of five barons next formed a council known as the Lords Appellants to better manage the king, still then considered a minor. This council called a Parliament in 1388 CE, which became known as the ‘Merciless Parliament’ and which essentially installed the Lords Appellants as the rulers of England who insisted Richard retake his coronation oath and who purged the royal court of anyone they considered undesirable.
Patron of the Arts
Richard, who reached maturity in 1389 CE, wisely opted for a low political profile and retreated into the arts by appointing his own circle of similarly-minded friends at court. The king may have resisted the temptation to persecute those who had earlier been against him but one thing which he could not desist from was his continuing love of pomp and ceremony. Glorifying his own image, it seemed Richard was in love with himself as king and now even insisted he be addressed as ‘Your Majesty’ or ‘Your Highness’ rather than the traditional ‘My lord’. Perhaps significantly, Richard was the first English king to have his portrait painted while still alive; the artist chosen for this honour may have been Andre Beauneveu of Valenciennes (1335-1400 CE). The finished painting was hung in Westminster Abbey and shows the king in full regalia.
Richard’s tournament device was a white hart or stag which became an emblem for his supporters to wear as a mark of identification and as part of his servants’ livery. Richard revamped Westminster Palace in 1393 CE at vast expense, making the interior much more colourful. Westminster Hall received a new roof, statues of various kings were added, and Richard's white harts appeared at the bases of the windows. Meanwhile, the Tower of London was refurbished, too, and expensive stained glass added. The king also supported medieval literature, especially the poet Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400 CE) who was made Clerk of the King’s Works in 1389 CE, a position which saw him in charge of royal properties.
Ireland & France
In 1394 CE Richard led an army to Ireland, a very rare deed for an English king, but the campaign was inconclusive. 80 Irish chiefs did pay homage to the king, and English claims to lands there were recognised. Relations improved with France on 12 March 1396 CE, though, when the king married Isabella of France, the daughter of Charles VI of France (r. 1380-1422 CE). Isabella was only seven, but it was a union which cemented a three-decade truce between the two countries. Richard had been previously married to Anne of Bohemia, the daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV (r. 1346-1378 CE) from 1382 CE, but she died in June 1394 CE, probably of plague. Neither of these marriages produced any children, something which would be exploited by Richard's enemies. The arrangement with Charles VI did not include Richard giving up his claim to the French throne (a claim which began with Edward III) and so the Hundred Years' War was, for now, merely put on pause.
The Return of Bolingbroke
In 1397 CE, perhaps feeling more secure on his throne and giving vent to the taste for vengeance so many medieval monarchs enjoyed, Richard, at last, began to plot against those who had betrayed him ten years before. The king had the Lords Appellants, including Bolingbroke, arrested and either exiled or executed; their estates becoming useful gifts for others at court or the Crown itself. Many barons now realised the king was tyrannical and that nobody was safe from his whims.
In 1399 CE, Richard then made his fatal mistake. The king had a hankering to continue his unfinished business in Ireland but while there, Bolingbroke, seen by some as the legitimate heir to Edward III now that his father John of Gaunt was dead (3 February 1399 CE), returned from his exile in France. In June-July 1399 CE Bolingbroke only had a small invading army, perhaps 300 fighting men, which landed at Spurn Head in Yorkshire. Fortunately for Bolingbroke, the English barons, who included such figures as Sir Henry ‘Hotspur’ Percy, were only too pleased to switch their allegiance to the usurper, and the rebel army swelled as it moved south, and the king's support evaporated.
Richard returned from Ireland but wisely went into hiding in Conwy Castle in Wales. The king was then tricked into giving himself up on 20 August and was imprisoned in the Tower of London, the first English monarch to be confined there. On 29 September 1399 CE, Bolingbroke next forced Richard to sign a formal document of abdication, another dubious first in English history. The wording of this document was as follows:
I Richard by the grace of God king of England and of France and lord of Ireland…resign all my kingly majesty, dignity and crown…And with deed and word I leave off and resign them and go from them for evermore, for I know, acknowledge and deem myself to be, and have been, insufficient, unable and unprofitable, and for my deserts not unworthily to be put down.
(quoted in Jones, N., 80-81)
William Shakespeare (1564-1616 CE) in his play Richard II has the king utter the rather more realistic sentiments regarding his demise:
My God! A wonderful land is this, and a fickle; which hath exiled, slain, destroyed or ruined so many kings, rulers, and great men, and is ever tainted and toileth with strife, and variance and envy.
(ibid, 81)

Death & Successor
On 30 September Parliament officially nominated Henry Bolingbroke as Richard’s successor. Richard was moved to his final place of confinement, Pontefract Castle in Yorkshire, in September 1399 CE, and there he died on 14 February 1400 CE. A failed uprising by Richard’s supporters only sealed the ex-king’s fate; he could not be allowed to live. Richard perhaps died of starvation or he was perhaps poisoned or he was even hacked to death by a squad of assassins, such are the varying theories on the king’s quick demise. Richard was just 33 years of age, and his body was put on public display in the Tower of London in case any would-be rebels thought he might still be alive and ready to launch a coup. Eventually, Richard was interred in Westminster Abbey where his effigy can still be seen.
Meanwhile, Henry Bolingbroke was crowned Henry IV of England in Westminster Abbey on 13 October 1399 CE and he would reign until 1413 CE, although his time as king was beset with rebellions in both England and Wales. Henry was succeeded and outshone by his son Henry V of England (1413-1422 CE) who became one of the great fighting monarchs of European history but the ousting of the legitimate King Richard would come to haunt the Lancaster descendants as the two houses of Lancaster and York battled for the throne in what became known as the Wars of the Roses (1455-1487 CE)."

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Great ancient history.

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