Richard II: The Kings with a God Complex

Added: 2026-05-28

[00:00:01]This is the Tutor's [music] Dynasty and Beyond Podcast, history with a twist.

[00:00:07]And now your host, Rebecca [music] Larson.

[00:00:11]Hello and welcome back to the show. I'm Rebecca Larson and like glitter after a craft project, Matt Lewis just keeps showing up.

[00:00:22]I'm in your socks, I'm in your shoes, >> [laughter] >> I'm everywhere you don't want me.

[00:00:27]It's ridiculous. I just can't get rid of this guy, you know? I just uh I feel like he's back by absolutely no popular demand.

[00:00:37]>> [laughter] >> That's absolutely fair.

[00:00:40]I I mean I'm just going to chuck in as well, you know, you've just spent literally 5 minutes laughing at my face, telling me to stop pulling a face. I'm not pulling a face, this is my face and you're laughing at me. I mean that's that's three insults to start this episode. I don't know why I come back. I don't know either. I keep telling you not to, but you just keep showing up.

[00:00:58]>> [laughter] >> Oh, [snorts] you guys, you can obviously see >> Next Next time I'll be Next time I'll just be to ask what the restraining order was for.

[00:01:09]You're not a good one. I'm going to have to remember that for next week.

[00:01:13]>> [laughter] >> Uh obviously I'm very happy Matt Lewis is back. He always makes me laugh, he always educates me. He looks at me and makes me laugh, so >> [laughter] >> what what If you guys aren't watching this, you're really missing out. Like you've no idea why I'm laughing. You have to watch these videos. [laughter] It's just my face, Rebecca. It's just me. It's getting mean now. I'm being bullied.

[00:01:40]Okay, okay. All right. What uh all serious, you guys, he is just cracking me up today. All right.

[00:01:47]In all In all seriousness, today we're going to talk about Richard II.

[00:01:53]Last And we need to do that in all seriousness cuz there's nothing funny about this man. No, there's not. Last Okay, so last I'm going to be professional. Okay, guys, so I'm going to pull it together here. One of us has got to.

[00:02:05]>> [laughter] >> Okay.

[00:02:07]>> [snorts] >> Last week we wrapped up with Edward III.

[00:02:10]Edward III had died and I think we discovered that John of Gaunt at that time was becoming very unpopular.

[00:02:18]And um I I guess really that's kind of where where we ended. The Black Death had happened and um the labor shortages, um unfair wages, the Hundred Years' War, taxation, really toward the end of Edward the I still having a really difficult time keeping a straight face with [laughter] you.

[00:02:40]I mean you talk about the Black Death and wage caps and and outrage amongst the the ordinary people.

[00:02:47]You're not supposed to laugh at all of that.

[00:02:48]>> [laughter] >> I know I'm not.

[00:02:50]It's not funny. It really isn't.

[00:02:52]Okay, so anyway >> please. Okay. Yes. Pull pull yourself together. Pull yourself together, Rebecca.

[00:03:01]That's where we That's where we ended last week. [laughter] Uh if you guys aren't watching this, stop right now and go to YouTube or Spotify and watch this. Honestly, you are missing out. Okay, so the end of Edward III's reign, he's not as popular as he was at the beginning of the reign and uh and then he he dies and he's got all of these sons. His eldest son, the Black Prince, died and so then here we are with Richard II. And of course, I think I think we kind of talked about this last week, too. Like, was Richard II the best choice for heir? Was it his choice?

[00:03:40]Yeah, so there was lots of as Edward III is dying, you know, he's the last few years of his reign, he's not really in control of government. His sons are beginning to take a a a a a good handle on everything but not doing a great job of all of that and there is this emerging fear that John of Gaunt is going to try to make himself king when Edward III is gone particularly after the death of the Black Prince. You know, he's he's also ill and ailing for quite some time and particularly the Commons in Parliament seem really concerned about John of Gaunt's intentions.

[00:04:15]You know, it's hard to know for certain whether he did plan to do anything or whether this is all just a little bit of fear but as the Black Prince is dying he summons um he I mean he summons his father the king who's also not very well and he summons John of Gaunt and others and and forces them to make an oath in front of him that they will recognize his son as the heir and in the immediate aftermath of the death of the Black Prince um Richard who is kind of 9 years old at this point is immediately made Prince of Wales and given all of his father's other titles as well so that there can be no kind of space into which any doubt can can seep about what's going to happen next.

[00:04:58]Everybody is really clear that what is is meant to happen what is is designed to happen and what everybody wants to happen is for Richard to succeed his grandfather Edward III when he dies.

[00:05:11]So, they wanted it. This is what they wanted and they got it, didn't they?

[00:05:15]>> [laughter] >> you asked for this guys. Just remember that. Just remember that at the end of this episode.

[00:05:20]I you know, I had quite a few people in the comments after the ever the third episode who said, "Oh, I can't wait for the Richard the second episode." And I was like, "Really?"

[00:05:28]>> [laughter] >> WHAT ARE YOU EXPECTING?

[00:05:31]>> YEAH, EXACTLY. OKAY, so at the time I think you said it what he was 10 years old when he ascended the throne?

[00:05:37]>> years old when he becomes king, yeah.

[00:05:39]Okay, so what was he like at this point?

[00:05:42]He's 10 years old. Obviously, he's a boy the Was he prepared at all? Had he been raised at all to become king at this point?

[00:05:53]I mean, how sweary are we allowed to be?

[00:05:55]You swear away. Swear away.

[00:05:59]I mean, he's he's someone who seems to have been born a douchebag and this guy will die a douchebag. He's just a career douchebag. He I think his issue is that he is raised to be king, you know, he's at least going to be heir to his father. So, he does have uh so, his father is the Black Prince. His mother is Joan of Kent, another fascinating character surrounded by all kinds of controversy. She ends up marrying about 15 different people. That's a lie. Two people at the same time.

[00:06:27]Um famous beauty um and ends up married to the Black Prince, the heir to the the throne, but she already has four children from her first marriage um when she she marries the Black Prince. So, Richard has kind of four older half-siblings.

[00:06:46]And when he's born, he does have an older brother, Edward of Angoulême.

[00:06:51]So, Richard is quite often known as Richard of Bordeaux for where he's born.

[00:06:55]There is also Edward of Angoulême, who is born in Angoulême in France as well.

[00:06:59]The Black Prince in this period in the 1360s spending lots of his time in in Aquitaine and and around France.

[00:07:07]But Edward of Angoulême dies in 1370.

[00:07:10]So, when Richard is kind of 3 years old, Richard's born in 1367.

[00:07:15]So, from the age of about 3, he is the only legitimate son of the heir to the throne. So, he's being raised to be the the king that will come after. I imagine at this point everyone is still thinking we're going to get Edward the Fourth next. The Black Prince is going to follow his father and be Edward the Fourth. We know that that won't happen, but Richard is being raised to be the next king. And I think the problem that will haunt all of his life and all of his story is that for all of this time he's the only egg in the royal basket.

[00:07:50]He's He >> [clears throat] >> All of it rests upon him. He has half siblings, but they're not in line to succeed.

[00:07:58]He doesn't have any full siblings.

[00:08:00]And so the the senior male line from Edward the III rests entirely on the shoulders of this boy. And I think that means that he gets wrapped up in cotton wool and then bubble wrap and maybe some more cotton wool and a big fleecy blanket. And everybody treats him with kid gloves. And you know, he's not allowed He's not allowed to train for for military stuff because it's it's deemed to be too dangerous.

[00:08:27]You know, just none of that. He doesn't start the kind of training that a normal nobleman's son might engage in because it's all just a little bit dangerous. So he's growing up you know, for this first 10 years of his life before he becomes king to be taught that he is is utterly precious.

[00:08:44]You know, there there can never be a replacement for him.

[00:08:47]Nothing is to be allowed to harm him.

[00:08:49]He's not to do anything that's dangerous.

[00:08:52]But that just means that you know, none of those rough edges are knocked off him. He's not having the same I think critically he's not having the same kind of upbringing that his dad had. You know, the Black Prince is out there from a really young age because he's got so many brothers.

[00:09:07]He's able to engage in all of that military stuff. He's fighting at the Battle of Crécy at the age of 16. There is absolutely no way Richard is being prepared for that kind of lifestyle. Um and I think so many of the problems that we'll see with Richard later can be traced back to not just the first 10 years, but the fact that he continues being treated like this once he becomes king as well.

[00:09:30]It's kind of laying all of the foundations for for the horrors that are They're to come later. Mhm.

[00:09:37]>> [clears throat] >> I a lot of similarities to Edward the VI, Henry VIII's only son. And even age.

[00:09:44]Edward was nine when he ascended the throne and very much the same, you know, coddled throughout his entire life. And then he becomes king and of course then he has a regency council. What happened with Richard the II?

[00:09:59]So this was was part of the problem. So he becomes king on the death of his grandfather in June 1377.

[00:10:06]Edward the III's been king for 50 years.

[00:10:08]So you know, for lots of people the only monarch they've ever known in their life.

[00:10:12]He'd had all of that success in France.

[00:10:16]He didn't handle the Black Death quite so well and his government's been failing in its last years. Um but Richard becomes king, he's crowned in in July at Westminster Abbey.

[00:10:28]But I think at this point maybe we're we need to imagine you know, this 10-year-old boy who's been told how special he is for all of his life is now undergoing all of that pomp and ceremony of a a coronation. Mhm. You know, he's being made closer to God.

[00:10:43]You know, he's having holy oil put on him.

[00:10:47]And and it's almost like I he's like Joffrey in Game of Thrones who doesn't have a Tyrion to slap him around the face. Yeah.

[00:10:57]That this guy needs someone to give him a slap at some point. Maybe not when he's 10, you know, I'm not advocating slapping 10-year-olds around the face.

[00:11:03]Um but but he's undergoing all of this ceremony that again is reinforcing for him I think this idea that he is unique, that he's set apart from everybody else.

[00:11:16]You know, Edward the III throughout his reign he'd built this idea that he was almost like the first amongst equals.

[00:11:22]You know, he he he is king. It's not that anyone is questioning that, but he builds all of these friendships based on trust and loyalty and and wanting to fight side by side, and all of those kind of things.

[00:11:35]Whereas Richard is is being set apart.

[00:11:38]And I don't think he ever gets past that idea that he is superior to everybody else in any room. He's He's that much closer to God than everybody else.

[00:11:49]And before the end of that year in in that autumn in 1377, Parliament meets for the first time.

[00:11:54]Um and Richard is sat there on the throne in Parliament, again still 10 years old, while the business of government goes on around him. But the chancellor is giving a speech to open Parliament, and and Richard is sat there while Parliament is being told by the chancellor that Richard is a sacred and anointed person.

[00:12:16]And nobody's paying attention to the 10-year-old sitting there going, "Ooh, >> [laughter] >> that sounds nice." Yeah, as his head gets bigger and bigger.

[00:12:24]Yeah, you know, all of these things are kind of being driven home for him. Um and uh sacred anointed person is is kind of a quote from the the Parliament rolls, and I pulled that another one. Richard They said that Richard's ability and virtue would be the pathway by which the whole realm might be saved and preserved.

[00:12:42]Wow.

[00:12:43]>> So, here here is a guy who is is being positioned as as closer to God than everybody else by virtue of his coronation.

[00:12:51]And he's now being positioned as the savior of the realm.

[00:12:56]And I don't think it's difficult to to understand why this guy begins to get a little bit of a Christ complex, I think, Yeah. as he goes on.

[00:13:05]Um and I think for for the rest of his minority, really. So, the the fear that John of Gaunt might want to take the throne for himself means that he's the only potential candidate as the oldest surviving uncle to be regent for Richard, but also the most utterly unacceptable candidate because everybody fears what he might be up to and they don't want to give him all of that authority and all of that power.

[00:13:35]So, a regency becomes undesirable. You can't pass Gaunt over and nobody wants Gaunt to do it.

[00:13:41]So, this continual council is set up.

[00:13:43]You know, people go on and off the council, but essentially a council is ruling in in Richard's name and on Richard's behalf.

[00:13:52]And and that's that's dealing with the business of government. Meanwhile, Richard is being surrounded by people who he will become incredibly close to.

[00:14:00]And that has nothing to do with with ruling. So, there are there are some names we can pick out and try to remember for later. There's a man named Simon Burley who becomes important.

[00:14:09]Michael de la Pole, you know, the de la Pole family. He This guy is the the foundation of their move towards the nobility. Robert de Vere from the the family of the Earls of Oxford. These kind of people begin to grow in influence around the young Richard.

[00:14:25]But he's kept so far away from from government that he's never involved in the kind of policy making, the the strategy, the tricky balancing act that medieval government requires from its rulers.

[00:14:41]He's kind of kept away from all of that.

[00:14:42]And all of this is done in his name.

[00:14:45]And the only thing that he's really seeing is all the ceremonial that is making him, you know, the this the brightest star in the firmament of England. You know, everything centers on him uh and moves around him.

[00:14:58]But he's never having to make the the difficult decisions or see the longer-term policies that that people are uh perhaps developing and playing out.

[00:15:09]And I think all of this gives him a a strange disconnect from government.

[00:15:14]And the thing that he will eventually come to realize as he gets older is that while there's all this council stuff, things are being done in his name, but he actually has no power or authority at all. For all he's increasingly believing he's the most special human being in England.

[00:15:30]He actually has zero power. He's not doing anything. It's all being done by other people in his name.

[00:15:37]Um and so when we get to to something like the Peasants' Revolt in 1381, you know, he's 14 years old when this happens.

[00:15:44]And this is where the difficulties of his upbringing so far will make contact with reality and begin to cause problems that I think are are are what is going to dog Richard for the rest of his reign. I think 1381 provides him with a reality check that he never quite gets over.

[00:16:05]Mhm. Thanks to his grandfather for putting the wheel in motion with the Peasants' Revolt, right?

[00:16:14]Yeah, absolutely. Thanks, granddad.

[00:16:15]Yeah, he he didn't have much time from the beginning of his reign to the time of the the Peasants' Revolt. There there was, you know, quiet for only a few years.

[00:16:26]Yeah, so we're we're 4 years into his reign and and one thing that the rebels are clear on is that they're not complaining about Richard because Richard's not actually doing anything.

[00:16:36]They're complaining about his government. Despite being excluded from the council, um John of Gaunt still has a fair bit of influence around government, so is still seen as as a core part of the problem.

[00:16:47]He's still deeply unpopular.

[00:16:50]And the Peasants' Revolt is essentially it grows out of of taxation.

[00:16:55]Um there are repeated exactions from the the government because wars aren't going very well, and those are wars in France, but they're also increasingly John of Gaunt's efforts to make himself king of Castile.

[00:17:07]Um he's he's accused of siphoning off government money for his own private projects. He probably was doing that. No, I don't [clears throat] think John of Gaunt is guilty of a lot of the things that he's accused of doing, but he probably was, you know, diverting some of that tax money in in an attempt to make himself king of Castile.

[00:17:29]And the Peasants' Revolt really rises out of a reassessment of the third poll tax. So, the government has been for several years now playing around with how they tax people. Medieval taxation is normally done on a system in England of fractional taxes.

[00:17:45]So, if you live in a town or a city, you pay a 15th of the value of your movable goods. Movable goods just means anything but your house really. So, all of your your property apart from your house, you add up what that's worth and you pay a tax rate of 15% of that.

[00:18:02]If you live in the countryside, it's 10%. So, you pay less tax if you live in the countryside.

[00:18:07]And you can add on to that everyone pays 10% of their income as a tithe to the church as well.

[00:18:12]But, medieval taxation from the government is is only really ever meant to be for major projects, which is usually war or national defense.

[00:18:22]So, while the war in France has been going quite well, England went for 14 years without any direct taxation from government. I mean, that sounds pretty cool. Yeah, it does.

[00:18:32][laughter] I'll take that.

[00:18:34]>> something you'd get dangerously used to as well. Yeah. So, that when the government starts needing money because things start going badly, they need more than a fractional tax is going to raise them. And so, they start playing around with poll taxes and and all kinds of things that never [clears throat] managed to raise as much money as they want them to.

[00:18:52]And so, when they get to the third poll tax, that doesn't raise as much money as they think it's going to and they order this reassessment of it. And the I mean, the reassessment shows that essentially what was happening by this point was communities were hiding some of their poorer members so that they didn't have to keep paying all of this taxation, the people that they couldn't that couldn't afford to pay it. The The worst offenders were were in the county of Norfolk, where 30,000 people were said to have disappeared between the previous tax assessment and the current one.

[00:19:22]So, the government knows something is up, and they send all of these tax assessors out to to reassess everything.

[00:19:28]And this essentially means coming into your house uh and you know, doing an inventory of everything that you own. And this isn't something that medieval people are used to. For all of the the freedoms that we don't think that of them having, we're still very much in a world where, you know, an Englishman's home is his castle kind of thing. And this intrusion from the government is really unwelcome.

[00:19:48]And it's these reassessments that that lead to people, particularly in the southeast of England in the beginning, kicking off, which turns into a big revolt that ends up in we're told in lots of the sources, tens of thousands of people. It's always difficult to believe numbers in medieval sources and to gauge how accurate they were, but they say tens of thousands of people arrive at Blackheath, to the south of London, and and begin to send, you know, their complaints to the king and the government.

[00:20:17]And they're insistent from the very beginning that they're utterly loyal to Richard. So, they, for example, they have this this password that they use on the roads. If you're traveling the roads and someone stops you and says, "With whom do you hold?" the correct answer is, "With King Richard and his good commons." So, that, you know, that shows that you're loyal to the king, loyal to the commons. Your issue is with the nobility and everybody else.

[00:20:41]So, this is a really long-winded story that isn't involving Richard very much, so I apologize, but the Peasants' Revolt is fascinating. It's important for his story, though.

[00:20:49]Yeah, I think so. Um and so, by June, you know, there's this huge gathering on Blackheath. On the 13th of June, Richard, we're told and we're told it's Richard, 14-year-old Richard, says he wants to go and meet the rebels and find out what they want. And all of his advisers are like, "Whoa, that's a really bad idea." You know all that cotton wool and bubble wrap? That's staying.

[00:21:11]You know, you still can't You can't go into a an angry mob full of people and just say, "Guys, what's up?" But I think Richard is already at the point where he's thinking, "You know what? I'm so special, and these people clearly love me. What could possibly go wrong?

[00:21:26]What could What could Nothing's going to happen to me. I'll be fine.

[00:21:29]Not maybe not everybody else, but you know, I'll be fine, and that's what really matters."

[00:21:33]>> [laughter] >> So, kind of against the the wishes of his advisors, he agrees to meet with the rebels at Rotherhithe, which is halfway between the Tower of London and Blackheath.

[00:21:43]So, on the morning of the 13th of June, 1381, his royal barge is rowed out of the Tower of London and down the Thames towards Rotherhithe.

[00:21:52]>> [clears throat and cough] >> Excuse me.

[00:21:55]And we're told that, you know, I don't know what they were expecting to find when they got there. Presumably, they were expecting half a dozen representatives of the rebels in their best suit and tie, you know, to to do yes, sir, no, sir.

[00:22:07]Um They turn a bend in the Thames and they see thousands thousands of people gathered on the South Bank of the Thames waiting to meet the king.

[00:22:17]All of Richard's advisors are immediately like, "Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. Reverse, reverse, reverse." They turn the barge around and they order it rowed back to the Thames.

[00:22:27]They They order it rowed back to the tower.

[00:22:30]And yeah, we're told Richard isn't happy about this, but the rebels are really, really unhappy.

[00:22:34]They had been promised the opportunity to put their grievances to the king as the ultimate arbiter of everything in the kingdom.

[00:22:42]And also, I think Richard is is now noticing, you know, I I said I was going to meet the rebels, and you've turned my boat around, but I'm in charge.

[00:22:51]And I think something's beginning to click with him that actually he's not making the decisions here.

[00:22:58]And so, the rebels, you know, they they erupt in anger, they cross over London Bridge.

[00:23:03]They cut the the ropes on the the drawbridge.

[00:23:07]Um and they're One of the things key things to point out about the Peasants' Revolt is what they're obsessed with doing is collecting and burning records of land ownership and things like that and court decisions that keep people in serfdom. So, the court records and the the legal documents that keep people tied to a piece of land and required to work for a nobleman on that land. They're trying to do away with this system of serfdom and so they're targeting and destroying all of the records of that. So, they break into lawyers' offices and they gather documents and burn them. They've had a bonfire of documents in um in Canterbury uh and a couple of other places as well. Um but the government will will be at great odds later on to paint them as just a you know, a mindless violent mob.

[00:23:55]And this is poss- possibly where they get closest to that. So, they they cross over London Bridge and they make straight for the Savoy Palace. And they make for that because it belongs to John of Gaunt. And he is the man that they are singling out as the representative of everything that's gone wrong.

[00:24:11]And John of Gaunt's life is probably saved by the fact that he's far north on the Scottish border negotiating a peace treaty with Scotland at the time of the Peasants' Revolt.

[00:24:21]So, the the people that get into London just set fire to the Savoy Palace.

[00:24:27]But they make a point to leave all of John of Gaunt's property inside.

[00:24:32]So, they're not they're not there to steal. They're not there to loot.

[00:24:36]All of his valuable tapestries, all of his beds, all of his furniture, everything else is left inside. Gold and silver is brought out and it's thrown into the River Thames.

[00:24:46]Yeah, the the the peasants for want of a better description of them, they're definitely not all peasants. There's There's actually a an interesting number of kind of country gentry and all sorts of people involved in this.

[00:24:56]But one of their number is killed for trying to steal some gold from the Savoy Palace because they want to be absolutely 100% clear they are not thieves.

[00:25:05]They have a very serious political point to make.

[00:25:08]Um but aside from that man as well, there is 30 other men who are reported to have got trapped in Gaunt's wine cellar.

[00:25:15]While the Savoy burns, they've obviously gone down there to see what this guy's got in his wine cellar.

[00:25:19]Um probably got some very nice barrels of wine. Um and they get trapped down there as the place burns.

[00:25:25]And you know, people say that the ruins smoldered for weeks and weeks afterwards. The Savoy Palace is never rebuilt after this. The The ruins smolder for weeks and for for up to 10 days they can hear these men shouting and banging in the cellar, but no one can get to them to get them out because the the place is still smoldering away.

[00:25:47]Um on the 14th of June, the next day, so the following day, so you know, London is literally burning at this point. 14th of June, Richard agrees to meet with the rebels at Mile End. Um and Mile End is kind of a it's exactly a mile outside one of the gates of London.

[00:26:06]And this is where he he meets with the rebels and says, you know, "What do you want?"

[00:26:12]And all of the rebels say, "We want serfdom to be abolished. You know, we don't want anybody between us and you. All of the nobility are the problem. You know, they keep us working on their land for free.

[00:26:24]That means we don't have enough time to work our own land sometimes.

[00:26:28]And they you know, they just get in the way. Wouldn't it be amazing if we could all just report directly into you. You know, if you were the manager of all of us."

[00:26:38]And what's 14-year-old Richard's reaction to this?

[00:26:42]"Me? You all love me?

[00:26:45]You're right, those people that get in the way, they are the problem. Yeah.

[00:26:50]So, they say, "Please sir, Richard sir, will you abolish serfdom?" And Richard says, "Yes, I will."

[00:26:56]And he orders a whole load of royal clerks to be brought up. They set out writing desks everywhere.

[00:27:01]And you can wait in a queue at this desk, and you can get a writ a royal writ from the king that says, "You are free.

[00:27:08]You are no longer a serf.

[00:27:10]You and your descendants are free forever."

[00:27:14]I mean, crikey, this is a bit of a result. Yeah.

[00:27:17]>> And and pretty seismic, pretty shocking for England.

[00:27:20]And the rebels also say that they want um some some key people arrested and tried for treason. They particularly identify Simon Sudbury, who is the Archbishop of Canterbury, and up until a couple of days before he had been the Chancellor, which is kind of the the medieval equivalent of a Prime Minister. He's the most senior figure in government. When the Peasants' Revolt kicks off, he kind of resigns the Chancellorship, which is a little bit naughty, isn't it? Yeah. [laughter] Yeah. Yeah, bit of a mic drop and walkout, but they the the rebels still want him.

[00:27:50]And the other man that they particularly identify is Robert Hales, who is the Treasurer. So the man responsible for all the money that they feel has been going missing, has been misused, and everything else.

[00:28:00]The rebels want them to be dealt with, and Richard says, "Well, fine, they can be arrested, and they'll be tried.

[00:28:05]They'll face due process, but they have to have a trial."

[00:28:08]So some of the rebels then appear to head off to the Tower of London.

[00:28:13]And lot lots of the sources are pretty clear that they're they're allowed into the Tower of London, that the guards kind of welcome them, and allow them in.

[00:28:21]And and so the suggestion is that they come with a writ from the king, particularly for the arrest of these couple of people.

[00:28:28]But they begin to run you know, run riot through the Tower of London. We're told, for example, that Joan of Kent, Richard's mom, is in her bedroom in the White Tower when the rebels kind of burst in, corner her in a bedroom, and they refuse to leave until she gives them all a kiss.

[00:28:44]Which I mean, it it's got to be pretty terrifying for a woman Yeah. you know, trapped on her own in a bedroom with a bunch of strange men who are demanding a kiss from you.

[00:28:52]Um but you know, they they running their way through the the White Tower.

[00:28:57]Eventually in the chapel at the top of the White Tower, which you can go and visit today and everybody should, it's an an incredible space.

[00:29:03]They find Simon Sudbury and Robert Hales kind of hiding in that chapel right at the top. And they drag them outside and they cut their heads off.

[00:29:11]Good grief.

[00:29:13]And the immediate problem is this is is in direct contravention of what they've agreed with the king.

[00:29:18]So if we've got this fragile 14-year-old who has been noticing that he's not really in control of anything.

[00:29:25]However special he believes he is, he can't get his own way.

[00:29:29]He's made this agreement with all of these peasants who who don't want these kind of middle managers around. They just want to report directly into him.

[00:29:37]And they've immediately gone away and broken that deal. They've done something that he told them they couldn't do. Right. So how can that be? This this is not computing for Richard, I don't think.

[00:29:48]And on the the following day after this, on the 15th of June, Richard agrees to meet with the rebels again at Smithfield. And this is where we get the the the man who is sort of designated as the leader of the the peasants revolt, Wat Tyler, steps forward to talk to the king. And then the the sources are kind of muddled about what happens next. Some of them say that he makes a grab for the king's horses reins. Some say that he put his hand on his knife. Some say that he spoke to the king in a a disrespectful manner.

[00:30:19]But what we know is that one of the squires >> [clears throat] >> Excuse me. One of the squires of the Lord Mayor draws his dagger and stabs Wat Tyler. And the Lord Mayor then draws his sword and runs Wat Tyler through and kills him.

[00:30:33]And I think you can imagine then the whole place kind of going quiet.

[00:30:37]Because what's going to happen now?

[00:30:38]There's tens of thousands of rebels there.

[00:30:41]There's There's some royal soldiers.

[00:30:44]And there's a 14-year-old king. And now there's a dead leader of the rebels.

[00:30:49]And this is the point where you know, we're we're quite often given this impression of Richard being incredibly brave, that he rides out to the rebels and he offers himself as their captain. And he essentially says, you know, you don't need Wat Tyler to talk to me.

[00:31:03]I'm your captain.

[00:31:05]And he essentially says that he'll grant them, you know, they they have a few more things that they want from the king as well. And he sort of says he'll grant those if they'll disperse and go home.

[00:31:14]And I think the rebels probably realized they've pushed their luck as far as they possibly can.

[00:31:19]And so they all begin to go home with these writs from the king saying they're all now free.

[00:31:27]And I'm not sure that this is Richard necessarily being brave or whether this is just Richard being utterly blind to the danger of that situation because he's he's so convinced about how special he is and so determined to give himself some kind of power and authority in that moment to be the one who's actually driving things and making things happen that I don't think he imagines a situation in where this could have gotten him killed. Yeah. I just don't think that crosses his mind for it to make him brave in that moment. Yeah.

[00:32:00]But the the tricky bit after the Peasants' Revolt really is that as soon as the rebels leave all of those writs that they've taken away with them in in joy and the ecstasy of victory and of freedom all of those writs are scrapped, undone.

[00:32:21]Wait, they never had >> those writs is made illegal.

[00:32:24]Oh, man.

[00:32:25]So the big question from Richard's point of view here is is that him doing it or is this him having something else done to him?

[00:32:36]Um and we we get kind of two different views of this. So, again, I've I've pulled out a couple of quotes to to help me kind of illustrate this.

[00:32:45]So, we get one chronicle account that says this is Richard being absolutely fuming at the rebels because they've they've broken their deal with him and they've dared to challenge the authority of his royal government.

[00:32:57]And one of the chronicles puts the the words into Richard's mouth, "You wretches, detestable on land and sea. You who seek equality with lords are unworthy to live. Give this message to your colleagues. Rustics you are, sorry, rustics you were and rustics you are still. You will remain in bondage, not as before, but incomparably harsher.

[00:33:19]For as long as we live, we will strive to suppress you and your misery will be an example in the eyes of posterity."

[00:33:26]Wow.

[00:33:27]>> It's pretty I mean, I know I've I've met some stroppy teenagers in my time, but that's giving it some.

[00:33:32]14. I was going to say, that sounds like a grown man talking, not a teenager.

[00:33:38]Yeah, I mean, and that's part of my issue with it. This This doesn't sound like a 14-year-old Yeah.

[00:33:44]who has, you know, had a an experience with this this bunch of rebels.

[00:33:49]The other side of what we get, and even this, I say it's the other side, but there again, there's a couple of different ways you can interpret this.

[00:33:56]When all of this ends up in Parliament, the there is a whole aftermath to the peasants revolt, you know, people go home and use these royal writs to say, "I'm free, you know, I don't have to work on your land." Not knowing that it's all been undone. And they end up in court for for trying to act on the basis of a a royal writ that they have in their hands.

[00:34:15]So, all of this goes through Parliament and eventually a a load of royal pardons are are offered and people are able to to take a royal pardon.

[00:34:23]And when it when it gets to Parliament, Richard orders his chancellor to say this to the the lords in particular in parliament.

[00:34:33]I said that the chancellor says this.

[00:34:35]Now the king wishes to know the will of you, my lords, prelates, lords, and commons here present. And whether it seems to you that he acted well in that repeal and pleased you or not.

[00:34:48]For he says that if you wish to enfranchise and make free the said villains by your common agreement as he has been informed some of you wish to do, he will assent to your request.

[00:34:58]So this is kind of Richard standing up in parliament via the chancellor and saying, "Do you want me to make all of those writs legal again?

[00:35:09]You know, shall shall we do away with serfdom?"

[00:35:12]And I and there's like there's one of two things going on here. Either Richard is insisting that all of the lords and commons get their hands as dirty as he is, so that nobody later can say, you know, the king undid all of this and it wasn't us. He's making them go on record as saying we support the continuation of serfdom.

[00:35:30]Or this is a genuine thing from Richard to say, you know, "I did this. I made this decision and you're undoing it."

[00:35:40]And this this is an example of what he's had to deal with for the four years of his reign so far. That real disconnect between the idea of who he is and the reality of what he's able to do.

[00:35:55]And parliament says we don't want to do away with serfdom.

[00:35:58]We don't want to enfranchise all of these people. Yeah, we want those writs to remain unlegal illegal.

[00:36:04]And I can't help wondering whether this if Richard really wanted to do away with serfdom at that moment and make all of those people connected to him not not out of some sense of altruism, not because he believes bondage is is a terrible thing, but because he wanted all of those people to be worshipping worshipping him directly without any kind of middleman.

[00:36:24]I can't help wondering whether this is laying the groundwork for for all of the problems that are going to come later in Richard's reign because here is a really, really clear demonstration to him that for all of the the false kind of facade that he's given that he is special and he has all of this power and authority when he actually tries to do something, he can't. If he's tried to meet the rebels at Rotherhithe and his advisers have turned the barge around and taken him back. He's tried to to give the rebels what they want and the government has taken the power to do that away from him. It's kind of a really stark demonstration for him of of how little power he really has. Right. I can just imagine the resentment building up in him toward the men around him.

[00:37:10]Like they won't let me do anything, you know? It's like >> chuck in some teenage hormones as well and we're in trouble.

[00:37:17]>> [laughter] >> I was like at some point he's going to push back, right?

[00:37:21]Absolutely. And I mean, it's it's amazing in these situations and we have it with several, you know, young kings, that people don't see this stuff coming.

[00:37:31]That they simply can't see the monster that they're creating.

[00:37:36]Um everybody is is so busy trying to work out who should have the power and authority to govern that they forgot to teach the the king how to be a king. It becomes kind of a a little sideline that nobody ever gets involved in.

[00:37:50]Um and so Richard, you know, the the kind of the the next few years are are fairly fairly peaceful. Uh he gets married in 1382. He marries Anne of Bohemia, who is a daughter of Charles IV, the Holy Roman Emperor.

[00:38:05]Um Richard is 15 and Anne is five at the time that they get married.

[00:38:12]And there's a a chronicle at the Westminster Chronicle who describes Anne's arrival in England and he calls her this tiny scrap of humanity. Um because there is also when she arrives in London, there is an awful lot of hate for her, which is bizarre. Oh. The the terms of the marriage are criticized. Uh it all has to do with the papal schism and and alliances being made around there. So, it's not a a the England isn't getting rich out of this. There isn't a huge political benefit. It's more to do with papal politics.

[00:38:42]And she seems to be, you know, unpopular in London on the basis of that, which seems pretty mean to a 5-year-old girl.

[00:38:50]Yeah. Yeah. She you know, left her her home on the other side of Europe and traveled all the way over here to find out that nobody likes her. And none of it was her choice, either.

[00:39:00]>> [laughter] >> Exactly. She hasn't made this marriage arrangement. She's 5 years old. Um Charles IV, though, he holds his court in in Prague largely, and that's become a big center for for Gothic style architecture and things like that. And it seems like that begins to arrive in England particularly with with Anne's arrival.

[00:39:21]So, she does have a, you know, a bigger, longer-term influence on the arrival of of Gothic architecture in England during this period.

[00:39:29]Um but Richard, you know, seems to begin to build um an affinity around himself. And I wonder whether this is him, you know, trying to to insulate himself from all of these people who he feels like are taking his powers away from him.

[00:39:46]Uh and and 1480, sorry, in 1383, so the year after his marriage, he makes Michael de la Pole the chancellor. So, Michael de la Pole is essentially a wool merchant. Uh he's been doing very well for himself.

[00:39:57]Um but he's made chancellor by Richard. And a couple of years after that, he's made Earl of Suffolk. So, he's promoted to the nobility. So, Richard is is promoting people into the nobility who he knows are are close to him and loyal to him.

[00:40:11]In the the the year after that, 1386, so Robert de Vere, who is Earl of Oxford, is promoted to be Duke of Ireland. It's the only time anyone's ever been made Duke of Ireland. Slightly bizarre appointment. No one's really sure what Richard is up to here, but I but I think he's just trying to, you know, buttress all of these people around him because one day he's going to want to strike out on his own. Yeah. But the response to this in 1386 is a session of Parliament. So we we go through this period of sessions of Parliament being named during Richard's reign. And the 1386 one is called the Wonderful Parliament.

[00:40:47]Sounds great. Sounds wonderful.

[00:40:49]>> [laughter] >> Um it's not wonderful for Richard.

[00:40:52]Uh-oh.

[00:40:53]It's wonderful for everybody else, they think. Mhm. Uh essentially Parliament refuses to grant taxation to Richard unless and until Michael de la Pole is sacked as Chancellor.

[00:41:04]Richard sends this this kind of angry response. So he's he's 19 by this point.

[00:41:11]So feeling like he's he's, you know, a grown man moving towards controlling his own things.

[00:41:17]He sends this angry response back to Parliament that he wouldn't even dismiss the lowliest scullion from his kitchen on the instructions of Parliament.

[00:41:24]Mhm. So this is no discussion. You know, this is Richard saying, "Not talking about it.

[00:41:30]I'm the king. Everybody knows how special I am. We're doing what I say."

[00:41:33]Yeah, he's like, "Oh, hell no."

[00:41:36]Exactly. You know, his stroppy teenage years are not over yet.

[00:41:40]>> [laughter] >> He then bizarrely, and slightly frighteningly I think, from Parliament's point of view, threatens to look for support from France against his own subjects.

[00:41:51]You know, the the King of France had become king at a similar age to Richard.

[00:41:55]I think he's a year or two younger than Richard at this point. Um so maybe Richard is thinking, you know, here's a guy who probably understands how I feel.

[00:42:02]You know, he's might be imagining the King of France has been through the same sorts of things.

[00:42:07]Um but can you imagine a king of England standing up in Parliament and saying, "If you don't do what I say, I'm going to get a French army over here to sort you out."

[00:42:14]Oh, wow.

[00:42:14]>> [laughter] >> Absolutely bizarre behavior. Yes, it is.

[00:42:18]It definitely is.

[00:42:20]And in response to this, his his youngest uncle, Thomas of Woodstock, um who will later become Duke of Gloucester, Thomas of Woodstock and a couple of others essentially threaten Richard with the example of his great-grandfather, Edward II. Mhm.

[00:42:37]They maybe don't quite in so many words say, "We are going to kick you off the throne," but it's a really thinly veiled allusion. You know, well, "I wonder what happened to your great-grandfather when he didn't do what the people thought he should do. I wonder how that turned out for him." Yeah. Yeah. I'm glad you brought that up because I saw so many similarities when I was looking into Richard II with his great-grandfather.

[00:43:00]Yeah. Yeah.

[00:43:02]Except that Edward II seems like a nice guy and Richard doesn't. That's true.

[00:43:05]>> [laughter] >> Um And so the upshot of all of this is that Richard is forced to dismiss Michael de la Pole as Chancellor and accept a committee to be put in place to review all of his royal finances.

[00:43:17]So, he's gone into this you know, he's doubled down.

[00:43:21]"I'm not dismissing anyone because Parliament tells me to and I might just get the French over here to sort you out."

[00:43:26]And it now he's been forced to back down.

[00:43:29]This is pretty humiliating again.

[00:43:32]You know, things are really, really not going Richard's way at any point on this road.

[00:43:37]>> Yeah, he's not >> must be wondering, you know, yeah, you know, I I thought I was special. Guys, am I not as special as you told me I was?

[00:43:45]>> [laughter] >> Um But he a long way from giving up. In the the years that follow this, from 1387 onwards, Richard begins to build a kind of personal power base around Cheshire.

[00:43:58]So, he's Earl of Chester.

[00:43:59]Um And he he hires Welsh archers, um Cheshire archers to form this kind of private militia and they owe allegiance to him personally rather than to the crown.

[00:44:13]So, he's he's essentially building his own private army in the belief that he's probably going to need them one day.

[00:44:21]And he also manages to get this ruling from the Lord Chief Justice, um, a man named Trevelyan that Parliament in 1386 had acted beyond its powers and that effectively Parliament had committed treason against the king.

[00:44:36]You know, he's all but instructing a judge to find that Parliament has committed treason against him.

[00:44:43]So, he you know, he's he's moving all of his pieces on the chessboard. He's preparing for what's going to happen next.

[00:44:51]And what happens next in in 1388, so kind of 2 years after the wonderful Parliament, we get the Merciless Parliament.

[00:44:57]Sounds much more interesting, doesn't it? Yeah, it does.

[00:45:00]Not much mercy going on in here.

[00:45:03]So, Thomas of Woodstock um, he's Richard's youngest uncle, um, the Earl of Arundel and the Earl of Warwick bring an appeal of treason against several of the king's favorites.

[00:45:16]So, they become known as the Lords Appellant because they make this appeal of treason.

[00:45:22]And that they will become a a real focus for Richard for the rest of his reign.

[00:45:28]And those three individuals are joined partway through the process by people who are then kind of referred to as junior appellants. And those are Henry Bolingbroke, who is the Earl of Derby, who is John of Gaunt's son, so Richard's first cousin, and Thomas Mowbray, who is Earl of Nottingham at this point, too.

[00:45:46]And so, the the previous year, 1387, towards the end of the year in December, they'd managed to to intercept Robert de Vere, who was trying to bring some heavies for Richard down from from the north. They intercept him at the Battle of Radcot Bridge, defeat his army, and and de Vere has to flee. Mhm.

[00:46:04]So, he's in exile by this point, but Parliament tries and oversees the the convictions and executions of several of Richard's favorites. So, there's a man named Brembre, who is at the mayor of London, Tresilian, that that Lord Chief Justice who had found in Richard's favor, and Simon Burley, who is a man who I mentioned at the start, who was He's kind of been a bit of a tutor to to Richard. He's really close to Richard, and and he's generally a very well-liked man. You know, he's not someone that people hate because he's close to Richard. He's quite close to a lot of other people as well.

[00:46:40]And there seems there seems to be this kind of genuine shock for Richard and for Queen Anne at this point as well, that Burley was included in all of this.

[00:46:51]Um Edmund of Langley, who will later become the Duke of York, so he's a a son of Edward III, who's between John of Gaunt and Thomas of Woodstock in age.

[00:47:01]Edmund you know, comes to blows with his his younger brother Thomas over the inclusion of of Burley, Simon Burley.

[00:47:07]They don't think he should be involved.

[00:47:09]Both of the junior appellants also plead Burley's case.

[00:47:14]So, Henry Bolingbroke and Thomas Mowbray don't believe that Simon Burley should be involved in this either. He like I say, he seems to be this generally respected and well-liked guy, and no one's quite sure why he's being included with all of these other people.

[00:47:28]But the senior Lords Appellant aren't having it.

[00:47:31]They are all executed.

[00:47:34]Um De Vere and Michael de la Pole are convicted in their absence, so Michael de la Pole has managed to get away into exile as well.

[00:47:40]They're convicted in their absence and and stuck in exile now with a death sentence hanging over them.

[00:47:46]>> [clears throat] >> And then from from this point onwards, from 1389 onwards, I think you can see the next decade of Richard's reign being all about him desperately trying to rebuild his royal authority.

[00:48:01]And I think he you know, he kind of goes right back to ground level and tries to work out how he's going to build himself a platform from which he can impose himself on all of these people who keep subverting what he sees as his right to rule.

[00:48:17]And if nobody should be able to do these things except for Richard.

[00:48:21]Um and during this period kind of John of Gaunt returns from his his adventures in Iberia that haven't gone very well. He's not king of Castile.

[00:48:29]Uh-uh.

[00:48:31]Yeah. [laughter] Um and he sort of he he ends up reconciled with his nephew. They seem to start getting on quite well at this point and John of Gaunt seems to return uh um be able to be viewed as a bit more of an elder statesman now. He's not a threat to his grown-up nephew he might have been before. And things seem like they might calm down. In in May 1389, Richard kind of declares himself of age and assumes full control of the government. He immediately blames all of the issues of the previous years on bad advice and people who had been ruling in his name and not doing what he wanted them to do.

[00:49:09]He undid lots of the things that the Lords Appellant had done.

[00:49:13]Um particularly they had been putting in place a a new aggressive foreign policy against France. Richard switches back to trying to make peace with France.

[00:49:23]Um and it's kind of you know, not too much happens over the years that follow that.

[00:49:28]It's it's a time of relative peace and relative quiet.

[00:49:32]But I think it's years in which we should probably think of Richard as arranging the chessboard ready for his next move, building his power base. Kind of he he's tried to assert himself and it's failed and I think he's he's uh slightly self-aware enough to realize that he's going to have to do some some serious maneuvering. He's going to have to build something from which he's going to be able to get what he ultimately wants out of this.

[00:49:59]So, it kind of goes quiet for a little while. Yeah. But not for very long. This seems almost like an impossible feat for him this far into his reign now to kind of shift gears and make it what he wants. Like, uh how were people responding to him?

[00:50:16]I think probably, you know, the Lords Appellant might feel like they've got away with with what they've done, that they have, you know, done something similar to what happened in Edward II's reign. They'd got rid of the favorites, but they hadn't gone as far as deposing the king this time.

[00:50:33]But, you know, I I I don't know whether they will have seen, but I I think I see Richard here biding his time. And like I say, you know, he he's never forgotten and he's definitely never forgiven the people that he's going to come after.

[00:50:47]Um and it it begins to kick off in the the late 1390s. So, you know, we can jump ahead a few years. 1394, his wife Anne dies, probably of the plague.

[00:50:59]Richard is is believed to be devastated.

[00:51:02]Um for someone who comes across as a bit of a narcissist, he does seem to have been quite attached to his wife.

[00:51:09]She dies at Sheen Palace and he has Sheen Palace torn down and destroyed.

[00:51:14]Wow.

[00:51:15]>> he'll never go there again because it's the place that she died.

[00:51:18]And it's interesting to wonder whether she might have been this kind of calming influence on him because as as soon as she's gone, things turn.

[00:51:28]Now, was Anne keeping a lid on it, or is this just a question of timing? Has Richard, you know, managed to get things to the place that he wanted them to be?

[00:51:35]But either way, almost as soon as Anne is gone, things begin to change quite significantly. In the autumn of 1394, Richard heads off to Ireland, which is a place, you know, nominally the king of England is is in control of Ireland, but they've always struggled to to maintain any kind of control there.

[00:51:56]And he stays there for for six or seven months.

[00:51:59]He takes about 8,000 men, which is supposed to be the the biggest army a king of England has ever taken to Ireland, and he has he has huge success in Ireland.

[00:52:08]Loads of the Irish lords submit to him, order is restored, and I think he feels like it you know, maybe this was a testing ground, and he's feeling like I can do this.

[00:52:18]You know, given control and command, I do know what I'm doing. I can restore order to Ireland, which is something that kings of England have struggled to do for ages.

[00:52:28]Maybe I'm ready to try this in England.

[00:52:32]I was going to say, maybe save that for a while and slow down, buddy.

[00:52:36]>> [laughter] >> Yeah, yeah, you know, just just enjoy your success. No, no, no, none of that.

[00:52:41]Um is it as an interesting aside in the midst of all of this in in 1396, he gets married again. Um at the age of 29, he marries Isabella of Valois, who is a daughter of Charles VI, the king of France.

[00:52:55]Who is also 6 years old.

[00:52:58]So, he's he's a 29-year-old man marrying a 6-year-old girl.

[00:53:01]She's I mean, interestingly and slightly weirdly, she's the older sister of Catherine of Valois, who, you know, kind of quarter of a century later will marry Henry V and become the mother of Henry VI and the Tudor dynasty as well.

[00:53:14]And this is all part of his his negotiations for peace with France.

[00:53:19]He tried to to extend the territories that he held in Aquitaine, and Charles kind of agrees to it in return for Richard doing homage for those lands, and that's that's kind of unacceptable. If you remember when we talked about Edward III, he got to a point where the English king had sovereign control of of the lands that he still held in France when he agreed peace.

[00:53:41]And Charles says you can have more land, but then we need to go back to you swearing fealty to me. And Richard's like Does Does Richard seem like the kind of guy who's going to get on his knees in front of anybody? No. Absolutely not.

[00:53:51]Not having that.

[00:53:52]So, instead the marriage is kind of negotiated to seal a 28-year truce.

[00:53:59]But, I think it says something really, really interesting cuz Richard is 29. He doesn't have any children. He has no heir.

[00:54:04]And he's marrying himself to a 6-year-old girl.

[00:54:07]So, there is going to be no heir for a decade at least. Yeah. Probably.

[00:54:13]What do What What does this say about Richard's image of himself or his failure to provide an heir, one of the key roles for a medieval king? He's just not going to do it, and he's not interested in doing it.

[00:54:25]Um And Richard, you know, I think this is interesting because we he's he's the first king of England that we have a a lifelike portrait for. So, the coronation portrait that is is in Westminster Abbey that you can see today. It's the first kind of lifelike portrait of a a king of England that we have.

[00:54:42]And he's very much painted there as this angelic almost childlike figure.

[00:54:48]And I think Richard is is trying to propagate this idea, whether he believes it or not, I don't know, that he is somehow like immortal, eternal. You don't need to worry about what's coming next cuz I'm going to be here forever. You know, I'm going to be young forever. And you know, you shouldn't be talking about who might succeed me because that that's implying that I'm going to die. And And we all know, yeah, that's not going to happen.

[00:55:12]>> Yeah. So, I think it's it's interesting and weird that Richard has has no interest in providing an heir because it it also leaves open the question of who might come next. You know, whether he wants people to talk about it or not, people are probably going to talk about it.

[00:55:28]Um And then it's really from 1397 that we begin to see Richard's tyranny full-blown, out in the open, exposed.

[00:55:37]And he makes the move that I think he's been planning for years.

[00:55:41]In July 1397, the Lords Appellant, Gloucester, Arundel, and Warwick are arrested.

[00:55:46]Um And so, I think Richard feels like he's he's strong enough now. He's got to the point where he wants He's got peace with France. He's shown he can do what he He's succeeded at doing in Ireland.

[00:55:57]All of his pieces are arranged. The Earl of Arundel, who is is kind of one of the richest men in England. He's like ridiculously wealthy and well-connected.

[00:56:05]He's tried in Parliament in 1397 and executed for treason.

[00:56:09]The Earl of Warwick is also tried for treason and condemned to death, but his life is spared and he's he's given life imprisonment instead because he essentially begs Richard for his life.

[00:56:19]And I imagine Richard's narcissism is absolutely lapping this up. Um but it But Warwick manages to save his life by begging. He's like, "Once a week, you need to come and kneel before me and beg for your life, and then I'll let you live."

[00:56:32]>> [laughter] >> Yeah, absolutely. And this is also a point where in Richard's reign when the chroniclers talk about, you know, he sits in state in Westminster Hall on the dais on the throne.

[00:56:41]And he looks around the room, and if his if he if his eyes fall on you, if you meet eyes with the king, you're required to drop to your knees and bow your head until he stops looking at you.

[00:56:50]How do you know?

[00:56:51]>> well, that's the difficulty bit, isn't it? You know, you Are you sneaking looks up? Are you Are you waiting for someone next to you to say he's not looking anymore?

[00:56:58]But it's that kind of authoritarian, slightly unusual atmosphere at his court that's going on. Mhm. Um so, Arundel and Warwick are ex- Well, Arundel is executed. Warwick is spared because he begs well.

[00:57:13]And his uncle, Thomas the Duke of Gloucester, is sent over to Calais, nominally to await trial in the care of Thomas Mowbray, the Earl of Nottingham, one of the junior appellants. But then, Gloucester is reportedly killed. And And chronicles allege that he's strangled to death. And that Thomas Mowbray, you you organizes it and and has this done on Richard's orders. Thomas Mowbray will claim that Richard ordered him to do it.

[00:57:39]And then lots of the nobles that support Richard in these moves, you know, he's This isn't unpopular. Lots of people support him. Um and he rewards all of them with new promotions and titles.

[00:57:51]Um and they become known as his ducati cuz he makes a whole bunch of dukes. So, his cousin Henry Bolingbroke, who was the one of the junior appellants, is made Duke of Hereford. Thomas Mowbray becomes Duke of Norfolk. Uh we get a John Holland, Duke of Exeter. Thomas Holland is Duke of Surrey. These are some of his half brothers.

[00:58:09]Um Edward of Norwich, who's the son of the Duke of York, becomes the Duke of Aumale.

[00:58:14]John Beaufort is made both Marquess of Somerset and Marquess of Dorset.

[00:58:18]Um John Montagu becomes Earl of Salisbury. Thomas Despenser becomes Earl of Gloucester. So, there's all of this rash of promotions of people he believes are going to support him.

[00:58:26]Um but before the end of that year, before the end of 1397, we're told that that Henry Bolingbroke and Thomas Mowbray kind of quarrel.

[00:58:35]And and they go to the king, and essentially they both accuse each other of saying that Richard is going to come after them.

[00:58:41]You know, Bolingbroke says, "Mowbray says you're going to come after us, and I'm just reporting the treason." And Mowbray's like, "Hang on, that's what you said. I'm reporting the treason."

[00:58:49]Um and so Richard agrees to let them settle this in a trial by combat.

[00:58:54]Oh. The date for it is set.

[00:58:56]Um people are are coming from all over Europe, never mind England, to watch this. This is a heck of a thing. Two English dukes are going to fight each other to the death to try and prove their innocence.

[00:59:05]They ride out on the appointed date.

[00:59:07]They ride out in the list in front of the king. And as as they're about to start the trial by combat, Richard kind of stands up and goes, "Hang on.

[00:59:14]I've changed my mind.

[00:59:16]Let's not do this. What I'm going to do instead is exile both of you. So, you know, no fighting, everybody. Uh everybody that traveled all this way to see a fight, tough luck. Show was cancelled.

[00:59:26]>> Both of you Yeah. Both of you get out of my country.

[00:59:30]Um and I and I think I wonder whether part of the issue here is for Richard that if whoever wins this jewel one of them dies, one of them survives, whoever wins is necessarily being shown in the medieval mind God's favor.

[00:59:43]Yeah. And what does that mean for Richard? Because he may well want to go after the other one of those people, but also does he want someone other than him being shown God's favor?

[00:59:52]He's the one who's close to God.

[00:59:54]So I think in you know at the last moment he almost feels like this is becoming a threat and he can't have it.

[01:00:01]And and he's probably also got a a bit of an eye for for the theater and the drama of the moment.

[01:00:06]Um So Bolingbroke and Mowbray out of the country.

[01:00:10]1398 we get the revenge parliament.

[01:00:13]Ooh, the revenge parliament.

[01:00:15]>> I like this one.

[01:00:17]Sit in Shrewsbury, you know, not too far from where I am at the moment and it declares that all of the acts of the merciless parliament are null and void.

[01:00:24]So when the lords had attempted Richard, all of that is undone.

[01:00:29]Richard also manages to get parliament to declare that there is no legal restraint on the powers of the king.

[01:00:34]I mean, that's a pretty big thing. Yeah, that's true.

[01:00:36]>> Anyone remember Magna Carta? Yeah. Oh, this isn't going to be good.

[01:00:40]And he's continuing to develop this private militia from Cheshire who are wearing his personal badge of the white heart and you know, they are hanging around whenever Richard is having a chat with someone about the way things are going to go. There's all of this militia hanging around who's and looking really, really threatening. So he's he's clearly using some heavies to get what he wants done.

[01:01:01]Um during this period he begins to also insist on being called your majesty. You know, he's the first to introduce your majesty as a a royal title. He's obviously trying to elevate himself again from from your highness. He wants something better. So we get majesty. Um I mean, he he he's accused well, he's credited with a couple of weird interesting things. He's credited with inventing the handkerchief.

[01:01:25]Which is bizarre. Doesn't really make up for all this nonsense that he's up to.

[01:01:28]That's very random.

[01:01:30]If you pull a handkerchief out your pocket, don't forget to thank Richard the Second for that.

[01:01:35]And the the earliest recipe book that survives in English is also from his reign, from his royal Um and perhaps the the best indication of what Richard thinks of himself is the Wilton Diptych. You know, if you if you Google it and look at it, it's essentially Richard and and the saint kings of England who he's obviously crediting, you know, equating himself with, being presented to to Jesus and Mary and the saints and angels of heaven. And all of the angels are wearing Richard's white heart badge.

[01:02:03]I mean, this is like narcissism plus.

[01:02:06]Um but it's it gives you a really clear idea of the image he wants of himself.

[01:02:10]So, Google the Wilton Diptych and have a look at it. Yeah. And but everything everything really comes to a head in 1399 when John of Gaunt dies.

[01:02:19]So, he's incredibly wealthy, the richest man and the the biggest landowner in England apart from the king.

[01:02:26]And Richard decides that he's going to seize this Lancastrian inheritance to make himself even more powerful.

[01:02:31]And this is in spite of a promise to to Henry Bolingbroke and to Thomas Mowbray >> [clears throat] >> that despite their exile, they would be able to inherit their lands when the time came.

[01:02:42]But Richard decides to take it into his own hands.

[01:02:46]And then weirdly decides to go to Ireland again.

[01:02:48]Not quite sure why, you know, let's just cause some chaos and head off to Ireland where I've had some success in the past. Yeah, reliving reliving is success.

[01:02:58]Um and perhaps unsurprisingly, Henry Bolingbroke chooses this time to to land in England insisting that he's coming back to press his claims to to his inheritance, to be Duke of Lancaster and to inherit what he'd been promised.

[01:03:10]While Richard is out of the country, his uncle Edmund, the Duke of York, is protector of the kingdom, but he does very little to stop Henry Bolingbroke.

[01:03:19]And as Henry moves through England, it becomes increasingly clear that people want him to do something about Richard being on the throne at all.

[01:03:29]They're kind of saying, you know, we don't want this guy anymore.

[01:03:32]And I think the real problem that that Richard has, the real mistake that he's made here, is that he's messing with the laws of inheritance.

[01:03:40]And that makes people really nervous and really jumpy. Because if he'll take the Duke of Lancaster's inheritance, who else would he do it to? Right.

[01:03:49]And he's he's kind of fostering this environment in which nobody now feels safe. And that's really dangerous for him. That This is a real misstep from him.

[01:03:58]So, eventually Richard hears in Ireland that Henry Bolingbroke's arrived and he's he's kind of looking really threatening in England.

[01:04:04]He he heads back to to England, lands in Wales in July.

[01:04:10]Uh on the 12th of August, he meets the Earl of Northumberland at Conwy Castle.

[01:04:14]They have a bit of a discussion. A week later, he surrenders himself to Henry Bolingbroke at Flint Castle. By the 1st of September, he's in London, a prisoner in the Tower of London.

[01:04:24]And we're then told, you know, Parliament opens, Parliament sits, is presented with 33 articles of for the deposition of Richard the Second.

[01:04:34]There's There's one chronicle that tells us that Richard kind of willingly gave up his crown in a very much like an Edward the Second kind of way and went, "Turns out I'm a rubbish king. Someone else had better have a go."

[01:04:43]Not sure I believe that.

[01:04:45]There is another chronicle that says that Richard has a blazing row with Henry, like throws his cap on the ground, and demands that he's released and reinstated as king. And Henry's like, "Let's see what Parliament says, shall we?" Um So, these articles of deposition are presented. 1st of October, Richard is formally deposed as king. And on the 13th of October, Henry is crowned as King Henry the Fourth, the first of the Lancastrian kings.

[01:05:11]And And Richard is king no longer. And I think, you know, I think he'd worked so hard to get himself to the point where he felt like he could make his move.

[01:05:20]He appeared to have been successful, and then he just overreaches and doesn't understand that messing with the laws of inheritance is just a step too far. It's too much of a threat to everybody in his kingdom. Yeah.

[01:05:33]Yeah, and I was thinking, too, that the scene where the chronicler sitting threw his hat down, basically and threw with it. That sounded more like Richard than the first one, but also, we I keep coming back to Edward II and how at the end Edward II basically says, you know, I screwed up, but I am who I am. There's no way Richard II would say anything like that.

[01:05:59]No. I'm not buying Richard, you know, willingly saying, "Oh, well." You know, he I think he had he'd been so full of resentment all of his life, and he'd spent so many years building to the point where he was ready to make his move. He'd made his move. He got rid of his enemies, those he perceived to be his enemies, and he he had won. And And I think it's one of those classic cases of him snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. You know, he's he's not doing good things.

[01:06:28]He is assuming all of the powers to himself, and he is, you know, going after and killing those who've opposed him.

[01:06:36]But he appears to have won until he take he makes this big misstep, I think, with the Lancastrian inheritance. Yeah, I was just going to say, is there anything positive that came out of Richard II's reign? Is there anything we look back on and go, "That changed things forever"?

[01:06:51]In a positive way.

[01:06:52]>> Handkerchiefs?

[01:06:53]>> [laughter] >> If If you want to sneeze and not get snot everywhere, thanks to Richard II.

[01:07:00]Um And we don't even really use them anymore, so haha, Richard.

[01:07:03]>> No. Haha.

[01:07:05]Uh there there's lots of stories as well that early handkerchiefs were made with asbestos.

[01:07:09]So, it's not not even that's not all good. Yikes.

[01:07:12]>> Um, yeah.

[01:07:13]Um, I mean, I think his his involvement in the Peasants' Revolt, whether he meant this or not, really sounds a death knell for or feudalism and serfdom in England because I think it does cause the nobility of England to to pause and wonder how much longer they can maintain this system of the the throughout the 14th century, you know, we've had these crises that we've talked about, the Great Famine and the Black Death and and all of those kinds of things.

[01:07:44]And the solutions to none of those things has been the church or the nobility.

[01:07:48]And the contract that that people have in a feudal society is yes yes, I'll work your flipping land for you for nothing. I'll, you know, I'll chop your firewood, don't you worry about it.

[01:07:57]>> Mhm. Um, and then I'll go and look after myself. But, the point is you do that so that when there's trouble, your lord looks after you.

[01:08:04]They'll protect you if someone attacks your lands and in times of of want and need, they should be there to care for you.

[01:08:13]And throughout the 14th century, the nobility have demonstrated that they absolutely will not do that.

[01:08:19]And so, they they've kind of broken this social contract. And in 1381, I think the people demonstrate that if they if they organize themselves, they could actually be a really really serious threat. And I do think I find it hard to believe that any any member of the nobility looking at the events of that year doesn't think to themselves, "We might be approaching the end of all of this. You know, we can't keep taking and not giving."

[01:08:45]And that's what we've done for this this entire century, really. We've taken and we've given absolutely nothing.

[01:08:52]And that contract is broken. And Richard's kind of willingness to abolish serfdom and all of that kind of thing sows the seed that that that this could be done.

[01:09:00]You know, it's not the case that people never had this. The king gives it to them and then it's taken away from them again.

[01:09:06]And that's a really, really difficult thing to to turn the clock back on, I think. Yeah.

[01:09:11]Well, I I I feel like when we're done with this king series, we have to just do one episode comparing them all because I do see so many similarities and I think I'd be curious to see, you know, be like who who was worse, this person or this person? I think uh I think we'd have some fun with an episode like that.

[01:09:31]Yeah, [laughter] absolutely. I mean, you're inventing excuses to get me back just so you can hurl abuse at me now.

[01:09:35]Well, maybe.

[01:09:37]>> complaining about me coming back.

[01:09:39]>> [laughter] >> I'm going to edit this part out. I don't want anybody to hear me.

[01:09:44]I'm just kidding. I have been thoroughly enjoying this series. I say every time I learn something new every single time you come on and talk and I tease you, but I know you can take it, so that's why I tease you and uh I'm looking forward to next week, too, to to to kind of talk about the end of Richard the Second as a person and the reign of his cousin Henry the Fourth because again, this is Henry the Fourth is one that I feel like I don't really know very much about. We go from Richard the Second to Henry the Fifth and it was like Henry the Fourth to me was the quiet one in the middle, so I'm looking forward to see what you're going to have to tell me about him.

[01:10:23]Yeah, yeah. I'm looking forward to it.

[01:10:24]Yes. Okay, well, Matt, thank you so much and I'll see you again next week.

[01:10:29]Thank you. I'll see you soon.

[01:10:31]And that concludes another episode of The Tudors Dynasty and Beyond Podcast.

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