The Vengeance and Downfall of Richard II

 

In 1397, England was a hopeful place after years and, indeed, decades of trouble and strife. After the death of his first wife in 1394, which left him devastated, King Richard II had married again. This time to a young girl, Isabella, the 6 year old daughter of the French king, Charles VI. Richard, to his credit, treated the little girl well and acted as a father figure to her. Isabella, staying at Windsor Castle, would greatly anticipate visits from Richard. Another youngster who took to Richard was Henry Of Monmouth, the son of Richard’s cousin, Henry Bolingbroke. After Bolingbroke had been dramatically sent into exile by the king, Richard took the younger Henry, aged then 11 or 12, into his care. Like Isabella, Richard showed great kindness to the young boy and Henry wouldn’t forget it. After he became King Henry V in 1413, he moved Richard’s body from Kings Langley in Hertfordshire to the far more regal surroundings of Westminster Abbey. This capability for kindness shows Richard was not all bad but there was another, more petulant, side to him.

The hope that the country felt after the king’s second marriage was aided by the fact that Richard had secured a peace with the French that would put a halt, temporarily at least, to the decades long conflict with France. During the last years of the reign of Richard’s grandfather Edward III and into the early years of Richard’s own reign, the war had turned on England to the point where the French were threatening a full blown invasion of England. Benefits to continuing the war seemed few and far between for Richard and he was a man more inclined to peace and so the truce reached with the French would have pleased him even if more warlike men in England didn’t necessarily agree. England had also benefited financially from Richard’s marriage to Isabella and with expensive military expeditions in France now, seemingly, not necessary, a period of calm and prosperity appeared to be on the horizon. Unfortunately, Richard’s inability to forgive and forget would put paid to that.

In 1388, the Merciless Parliament, led by a group of nobles known as the Lords Appellant, had sought to remove members of Richard’s government that they had come to hate. Some were executed, others, who had fled, were sentenced to death in absentia whilst a number were exiled to Ireland. At this point, Richard was at the mercy of his enemies and it took the return of Richard’s Uncle, John of Gaunt, from his failed attempts to win the crown of Castile, to restore some manner of order for the king in England. But, no question, Richard was pent up with frustration and anger at his nobles’ attempts to control him. In 1394, that anger, coupled with the grief of the death of his beloved wife Anne of Bohemia, blew up. Whilst attending Anne’s funeral, Richard was left incensed at the late arrival of one of the nobles. Seeing this as another insult to his royal dignity, the king flew into a rage and beat the nobleman viciously. Richard’s marriage to Isabella in 1396 presented an opportunity to steer his reign in a different direction and also to establish a positive lasting legacy for himself. As well as securing peace in his kingdom and improving the country’s finances, Richard still had to think about the succession. He had no children from his marriage to Anne and an heir could not be secured for some time yet as his new Queen was just a child and could not realistically be expected to produce offspring for perhaps another decade. This left Richard open to a potential deposition.

But, rather than thinking about his legacy, it was revenge that was first and foremost on the king’s mind. As England seemed to be on the brink of peace, the storm broke. Richard had his uncle, Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, arrested at the historic castle of Pleshey in Essex before having him transferred to Calais where he was tortured and secretly executed. The Earl of Warwick, Thomas De Beauchamp was invited to a banquet by the king where the unsuspecting Earl was arrested and sentenced to life in prison. On 21st September 1397, Richard Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel, was sentenced to a traitor’s death but the king, enjoying the power he now held over the enemies that had embarrassed him a decade before, commuted it to a mere beheading. But the king’s nerves were clearly ill at ease and, at this time, it’s said that he suffered from nightmares, as the ghost of the dead earl of Arundel danced in front of him. Restless, the king knew other members of the Lords Appellant were still awaiting his retribution.

Then, in 1398, another chance presented itself to Richard to have two of his enemies banished from his kingdom. A dispute arose between Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, and the kings’ cousin, Henry Bolingbroke, with the latter accusing Mowbray of speaking words of treason against the king. The two were ordered to fight a trial by combat. However, just before this would take place, at Coventry, the king rose to his feet and instead sentenced the pair to exile, Henry for 10 years, Mowbray for life. The king surely must have relished this piece of theatre. Mowbray would die soon after, in 1399, which permanently removed any threat to Richard of him making a return. But another death in 1399 would have damaging consequences for the king. This was the death of John of Gaunt. John’s Duchy of Lancaster should now have passed to his son, Bolingbroke, now in exile. Richard seized the incredibly wealthy duchy for himself and must have felt in a position of immense strength.

Richard was a man of ego. Richard’s first wife, Anne of Bohemia, had been the daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV and there had been talk, earlier in his reign, that Richard was a contender to become the new Emperor and rumours even circulated that he had been elected so. Those rumours were false but they delighted the king and fanned the burning flames for vengeance against the Lords Appellant. After all, who were they to try and dictate to a king such as he? By 1399, with many of his enemies dealt with, Richard, in an act of sheer stupidity, decided now was the time to campaign in Ireland. This shows you where Richard was mentally. In his mind, he was untouchable. But Richard should have known that exile was not the same as execution. An exile did not necessarily have to be permanent if the convicted person so wished. Henry, with the burning injustice of having his inheritance seized, determined that he would return to England and now, with the king not even in the country, was the perfect time. And Henry would find that support would be sufficient not only for taking his inheritance of Lancaster but also the crown of England.