The night before the rebellion Essex's followers commissioned a special performance of Richard II, probably Shakespeare's version of the play. This playing of the story of the usurpation of Richard II by the popular hero Henry Boling-broke has been interpreted by some historians as being intended to boost the Essexians’ morale before the next day's action. In the investigations carried out immediately after the rebellion, much attention was paid to the staging of Richard II and its deposition scene. The historian Sir John Hayward was arrested and questioned over his The First Part of the Life and Raigne of King Henrie the IIII, published in 1599 and dedicated to Essex, which had ‘seemed to condone the deposition of Richard II’. Famously, in August 1601 Elizabeth is reported to have told the antiquarian William Lambarde ‘I am Richard II, know ye not that?’ The story of a monarch who had allowed himself to be led astray by evil counsellors and the consequently justified usurpation of his throne by one of his noblemen might be said to have held many parallels to the situation of 1601.