The Reign Of Richard Ii

An edited history of key aspects of the reign of Richard II, last Plantagenet king, who at fourteen faced down the ringleaders of the Peasants’ Revolt and was murdered by Henry IV – an illegal usurpation that launched the Lancastrian royal dynasty. Contributors include Anne Curry, Mark Ormrod, Simon Walker and Alison McHardy.

Chronicles of the Revolution covers one of the most controversial and shocking episodes in medieval English history, the 'tyranny' and deposition of Richard II and the usurpation of the throne by his cousin, Henry Bolingbroke, who became King Henry IV. Contemporaries were sharply divided about the rights and wrongs of both Richard and Henry, and this division is reflected in the texts which form the major part of the book. All the principal contemporary chronicles are represented in this volume, from the violently partisan Thomas Walsingham, chronicler of St Alban's Abbey who saw Richard as a tyrant and murderer, to the indignant Dieulacres chronicler, who claimed that the 'innocent king' was tricked into surrender by his perjured barons. This range of material is also prefaced by a substantial and stimulating introduction offering new insights into Richard's later years and the events which precipitated his downfall. Additionally, the documents are accompanied by expert commentary and analysis which guides readers while leaving them free to make the ultimate conclusions about these dramatic years. This book will be invaluable for medieval historians as well as undergraduate and postgraduate students of later medieval English history.

Aspects of the turbulent rule of Richard II freshly examined. The reign of Richard II is well known for its political turmoil as well as its literary and artistic innovations, all areas explored by Professor Nigel Saul during his distinguished career. The present volume interrogates many familiar literary and narrative sources, including works by Froissart, Gower, Chaucer, Clanvow, and the Continuation of the Eulogium Historiarum, along with those less well-known, such as coroner's inquests and gaol delivery proceedings. The reign is also notorious for its larger than life personalities - not least Richard himself. But how was he shaped by other personalities? A prosopographical study of Richard's bishops, a comparison of the literary biographies of his father the Black Prince, and Bertrand du Guesclin, and a reconsideration of Plantagenet family politics, all shed light on this question. Meanwhile, Richard II's tomb reflects his desire to shape a new vision of kingship. Commemoration more broadly was changing in the late fourteenth century, and this volume includes several studies of both individual and communal memorials of various types that illustrate this trend: again, appropriately for an area Professor Saul has made his own. Contributors: Mark Arvanigian, Caroline Barron, Michael Bennett, Jerome Bertram, David Carpenter, Chris Given-Wilson, Jill Havens, Claire Kennan, Hannes Kleineke, John Leland, Joel Rosenthal, Christian Steer, George Stow, Jenny Stratford, Kelcey Wilson-Lee.

Richard II is one of the most enigmatic of English kings. Shakespeare depicted him as a tragic figure, an irresponsible, cruel monarch who nevertheless rose in stature as the substance of power slipped from him. By later writers he has been variously portrayed as a half-crazed autocrat or a conventional ruler whose principal errors were the mismanagement of his nobility and disregard for the political conventions of his age. This book—the first full-length biography of Richard in more than fifty years—offers a radical reinterpretation of the king. Nigel Saul paints a picture of Richard as a highly assertive and determined ruler, one whose key aim was to exalt and dignify the crown. In Richard's view, the crown was threatened by the factiousness of the nobility and the assertiveness of the common people. The king met these challenges by exacting obedience, encouraging lofty new forms of address, and constructing an elaborate system of rule by bonds and oaths. Saul traces the sources of Richard's political ideas and finds that he was influenced by a deeply felt orthodox piety and by the ideas of the civil lawyers. He shows that, although Richard's kingship resembled that of other rulers of the period, unlike theirs, his reign ended in failure because of tactical errors and contradictions in his policies. For all that he promoted the image of a distant, all-powerful monarch, Richard II's rule was in practice characterized by faction and feud. The king was obsessed by the search for personal security: in his subjects, however, he bred only insecurity and fear. A revealing portrait of a complex and fascinating figure, the book is essential reading for anyone with an interest in the politics and culture of the English middle ages.

This is a full-length study of the last years of Richard II's reign and the circumstances of his overthrow by Henry of Bolinbroke in 1399. This title is suitable for anyone interested in history and the monarchy.

The remarkable treasure of gold and silver from England and France which Richard II had amassed by the end of his reign in 1399 is fully revealed for the first time in this richly illustrated book. The author explores the nature of the objects themselves, their provenance and later fate, and examines the crucial role the treasure played in diplomacy and in financing the Hundred Years War, especially at the time of Agincourt. --

A new biography re-examining the complex and fascinating king, whose very humanity saw him deposed from his divine role.