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RICHARD II . (1367-1400), 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 20th of November 1376. When Edward III. died, on the 2ISt 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 boy-king'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 boy-king 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
earl
exile or executed, and he himself forced to submit to the loss of all real power (May 1388). Richard changed hismethods, and when the lords appellant had lost credit, asserted the apparent indifference which he showed in his fall was the himself constitutionally by dismissing Gloucester's supporters mere acting of a part. His violent outbursts of passion perhaps from office, and appointing in their place well-approved men give the best clue to a mercurial and impulsive nature, easily like William of Wykeham. In the next parliament of 1390 elated and depressed. He had real ability, and in his Irish the king showed himself ready to meet and conciliate his policy, and in the preference which he gave to it over continental subjects. The simultaneous return of John of Gaunt from adventure, showed a statesmanship in advance of his time. Spain put a check on Gloucester's ambition. For seven years But this, in spite of his lofty theory of kingship, makes it all Richard ruled constitutionally and on the whole well. The the more difficult to explain his extravagant bearing in his opposition was quiescent except for two outbreaks by Arundel: prosperity. His fall was due to the triumph of national right the first was a violent attack on John of Gaunt, which rather over absolute government, but it was his personal conduct strengthened Richard's position; the second was a wanton which made it inevitable. In appearance Richard was tall insult to the king at the funeral of his queen. and handsome, if effeminate. He had some literary tastes, In January 1383 Richard had married Anne of Bohemia which were shown in fitful patronage of Chaucer, Gower and (13661394), daughter of the emperor Charles IV. The marriage, Froissart. His fancy for splendid dress may have been due though childless, was happy; had Anne lived or borne a son to an artistic sense, which found better expression in his great the course of events might have been different. Her death buildings of Westminster Hall
there was nothing to foreshadow the sudden stroke by which BIBLIOGRAPHY.The best contemporary authorities are the in July Richard arrested Gloucester and his chief supporters, Chronscon Anglsae down to 1388, Walsingham's Hisforia Anglicana, the earls of Arundel and Warwick. The others of the five the Annales Ricardi II., Knighton's Chronicle (all these in the Rolls lords appellant, Henry of Bolingbroke afterwards Kin Series), the Vita Ricardi II. by a Monk of Evesham (ed. T. Hearne), g and the Chronique de la traison et mort (English Hist. Soc.). Henry IV., and the earl of Nottingham, now supported the Froissart wrote from some personal knowledge. A metrical account king. Richard's action was apparently in deliberate revenge of Richard's fall, probably written by a French knight called Creton, for the events of 138788. Gloucester, after a forced con- is printed in Archeologia, xx. The chief collections of documents fession, died in prison at Calais smothered b his nephew's are the Rolls of Parliament and the Calendar of Patent Rolls. H. A. P , Y Wallon's Richard II. (Paris, 1864) is the fullest life, though now orders. Arundel in a packed parliament was condemned and somewhat out of date. For other modern accounts see W. Stubbs, executed; his brother Thomas archbishop of Canterbury was Constitutional History, and C. W. C. Oman, The Political History of exiled. The king's friends, including Nottingham and Boling- England, vol. iv., and The Great Revolt of 1381. (C. L. K.) broke, made dukes of Norfolk and Hereford
York
exile of Norfolk of Gloucester. As a mere child he had no importance till 1469-and Hereford
honourably reinterred by Henry V. at Westminster in 1413. Middleham in Yorkshire.. In May 1480 he was made the king's Richard II. is a character of strange contradictions. It is lieutenant-general in the north, and in 1482 commanded a difficult to reconcile the precocious boy of 1381 with the way- successful invasion of Scotland. His administration was good, ward and passionate youth of the next few years. Even if it and brought him well-deserved popularity. On Edward's be supposed that he dissembled his real opinions during the death he was kept informed of events in London by William, period of his constitutional rule, it is impossible to believe that Lord Hastings, who shared his dislike of the Woodville influence. On the 29th of April 1483, supported by the duke of Bucking-ham, he intercepted his nephew at Stony Stratford and arrested Lord Rivers and Richard Grey, the little king's half-brother. It was in Richard's charge that Edward was brought to London on the 4th of May. Richard was recognized as protector, the Woodville faction was overthrown, and the queen with her younger children took sanctuary at Westminster. For the time the government was carried on in Edward's name, and the 22nd of June was appointed for his coronation. Richard was nevertheless gathering forces and concerting with his friends. In the council there was a party, of whom Hastings and Bishop Morton were the chief, which was loyal to the boy-king. On the 13th of June came the famous scene when Richard appeared suddenly in the council baring his withered arm and accusing Jane Shore and the queen of sorcery; Hastings, Morton and Stanley were arrested and the first-named at once beheaded. A few days later, probably on the 25th of June, Rivers and Grey were executed at Pontefract. On the 22nd of June Dr Shaw was put up to preach at Paul's Cross against the legitimacy of the children of Edward IV. On the 25th a sort of parliament was convened at which Edward's marriage was declared invalid on the ground of his precontract with Eleanor Talbot, and Richard rightful king. Richard, who was not present, accepted the crown with feigned reluctance, and from the following day began his formal reign. On the 6th of July Richard was crowned at Westminster, and immediately afterwards made a royal progress through the Midlands, on which he was well received. But in spite of its apparent success the usurpation was not popular. Richard's position could not be secure whilst his nephews lived. There seems to be no reasonable doubt that early in August Edward V. and his brother Richard (whom Elizabeth Woodville had been forced to surrender) were murdered by their uncle's orders in the Tower. Attempts have been made to clear Richard's memory. But the report of the princes' death was believed in England at the time, " for which cause king Richard lost the hearts of the people " (Chronicles of London, 191), and it was referred to as a definite fact before the French states-general in January 1484. The general, if vague, dissatisfaction found its expression in Buckingham's rebellion. Richard, however, was fortunate, and the movement
intent of its legislation. He could not, however, stay the undercurrent of disaffection, and his ministers, Lovell and Catesby, were unpopular. His position was weakened by the death of his only legitimate son in April 1484. His queen died also a year later (March 16, 1485), and public opinion was scandalized by the rumour that Richard intended to marry his own niece, Elizabeth of York
Richard was not the villain that his enemies depicted. He had good qualities, both as a man and a ruler, and showed a sound judgment of political needs. Still it is impossible to acquit him of the crime, the popular belief in which was the chief cause of his ruin. He was not a monster
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