King Richard II
1367 – 1400 · Generation XVIII · King of England (r. 1377–1399) · House of Plantagenet
Richard II of Bordeaux (1367–1400). King of England (r. 1377–1399). Faced down the Peasants’ Revolt at fourteen; deposed by his cousin Bolingbroke and dead at Pontefract within months. The Black Prince’s son, he began under regency councils influenced by his uncles and grew into a king with an exalted view of the royal prerogative, cultivating a refined court of art and culture rather than war. The Lords Appellant wrested control of government from him in 1387; he regained it, ruled for eight years in apparent harmony, then took his revenge in 1397 with executions and exiles that historians have called his tyranny. Disinheriting the exiled Bolingbroke after John of Gaunt’s death proved fatal — the invasion that followed met little resistance. He is thought to have been starved to death in captivity, and Shakespeare’s play fixed his image for posterity.
One of 23 people of House of Plantagenet (1126–1485) in this archive. The longest-reigning English house, counting its Angevin beginning and the rival Lancaster and York branches that fought the Wars of the Roses.
Line of descent: King William I The Conqueror → King Henry I → Matilda the Empress → King Henry II → King John → King Henry III → King Edward I Longshanks → King Edward II → King Edward III → Edward the Black Prince → King Richard II.
Parents
- Edward the Black Prince (1330 – 1376)
- Joan of Kent (1328 – 1385)
Life
- 1367 — Born
- 1377 — Ten year old Richard II succeeds his grandfather, Edward III; the kingdom is ruled at first by the King’s uncles, John of Gaunt and Thomas of Gloucester.
- 1382 — Richard promises that the taxes will be repealed, but as the rebels return they are hunted and executed.
- 1389 — Richard takes control of the government; William of Wykeham is Lord Chancellor
- 1394 — Richard leads English army to reconquer west of Ireland.
- 1396 — Richard marries Isabella daughter of the King of France and signs a 28 year truce with France.
- 1397 — Richard takes revenge against Lords Appellant and exiles Henry Bolingbroke
- 1398 — Richard (Dick) Whittington becomes Lord Mayor of London
- 1399 — Bolingbroke becomes Duke of Lancaster on the death of John of Gaunt, but Richard seizes his possessions. Bolingbroke returns from exile to claim his inheritance and seizes the throne.
- 1399 — Richard, who is away fighting at Leinster in Ireland, returns, but is deposed and imprisoned in Pontefract Castle, where he dies in 1400
- 1400 — Died