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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 July 2014
Richard II, one of the most puzzling kings of late medieval England, has been the subject of controversy ever since his forced abdication in 1399. He often has been portrayed as a tyrant or, at times, as a madman by historians. Recently the trend is toward a reassessment of Richard's reign free from the biased Whig interpretation of the past. R. H. Jones took a first step in that direction in 1968 with the publication of The Royal Policy of Richard II: Absolutism in the Middle Ages. Jones viewed Richard as a king inclined toward absolutism but lacking the taint of rancorousness or despotism ascribed to him by historians since Stubbs. Subsequently two books, a Festschrift, and several articles have appeared, delineating more aspects of the reign. Since May McKisack's volume in the Oxford History of England series appeared in 1959, the number of works concerning the reign has been steadily growing. The recent publication of Anthony Tuck's Richard II and the English Nobility offers an opportunity to reexamine the place of Richard II in history. The divergence of scholarship since 1959 from the traditional interpretations will be seen as the major constitutional problems of the reign are scrutinized. After first examining the influence of William Shakespeare and William Stubbs in shaping the historiography of the reign a chronological discussion of the period from 1377 to 1399 will follow.
1 I would like to thank Professor James W. Alexander for discussing certain points raised in this article with me.
2 Works on the reign since McKisack, May, The Fourteenth Century (Oxford, 1959)Google Scholar, include: Hutchison, Harold F., The Hollow Crown (New York, 1969)Google Scholar, Jones, R. H, The Royal Policy of Richard II: Absolutism in the Late Middle Ages (Oxford, 1968)Google Scholar, Mathew, Gervase, The Court of Richard II (London, 1968)Google Scholar, Fryde, E. B. and Miller, Edward, eds., Origins to 1399, Historical Studies of the English Parliament, Vol. I (Cambridge, 1970)Google Scholar, Goodman, Anthony, The Loyal Conspiracy, the Lords Appellant under Richard II (London, 1971)Google Scholar, DuBoulay, F. R. H. and Barron, Caroline M., eds. The Reign of Richard II; Essays in Honour of May McKisack (London, 1971)Google Scholar, Palmer, J. J. N., England, France and Christendom, 1377-99 (Chapel Hill, 1972)Google Scholar, Tuck, Anthony, Richard II and the English Nobility (London, 1973)Google Scholar, Rogers, Alan, “Parliamentary Appeals of Treason in the Reign of Richard II,” American Journal of Legal History, VIII (1964): 95–124CrossRefGoogle Scholar, Barron, Caroline M., “The Tyranny of Richard II,” Bull. Inst. Hist. Research, XLI (1968): 1–18CrossRefGoogle Scholar, Palmer, J. J. N., “The Impeachment of Michael de la Pole in 1386,” Bull. Inst. Hist. Research, XLII (1969): 96–101Google Scholar, Tuck, J. A., “The Cambridge Parliament, 1388,” E.H.R., LXXXIV (1969): 225–43CrossRefGoogle Scholar, Clementi, D., “Richard II's Ninth Question to the Judges,” E.H. R., LXXXVI (1971): 96–113CrossRefGoogle Scholar, Palmer, J. J. N., “The Parliament of 1385 and the Constitutional Crisis of 1386,” Speculum, XLV (1971): 477–90CrossRefGoogle Scholar, Sayles, G. O., “King Richard II of England: A Fresh Look,” Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc., CXV (1971): 28–31Google Scholar, Searle, Eleanor and Burghart, Robert, “The Defense of England and the Peasants' Revolt,” Viator, III (1972): 365–88CrossRefGoogle Scholar, Stow, George B. Jr., “The Vita Ricardi as a Source for the Reign of Richard II,” VALEE of Evesham Historical Society Research Papers, IV (1973): 63–75Google Scholar, Gillespie, J. L., “Thomas Mortimer and Thomas Molineux: Radcot Bridge and the Appeal of 1397,” Albion, VII (1975): 161–73CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Forthcoming works include: George B. Stow, Jr. ed., Vita Ricardi Secundi, J. L. Gillespie, “Richard II's Cheshire Archers,” Trans. Lancs. and Ches. Hist. Soc. and a study on Richard's return to Wales by J. W. Sherborne in the Welsh Hist. Rev.
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6 Hallam, Henry, View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages (single vol. ed., New York, 1847), p. 391Google Scholar. Hallam characterized Richard thus: “Extreme pride and violence, with an inordinate partiality for the most worthless favorites, were his predominant characteristics.” (p. 384).
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12 Richard II is not the only medieval English king whose sanity has been unjustly questioned; Sayles, G. O. (The Medieval Foundations of England [Philadelphia, 1950], p. 390)Google Scholar and Petit-Dutaillis, Charles (The Feudal Monarchy in France and England [London, 1936], pp. 215, 216)Google Scholar described King John as insane. C. Warren Hollister pointed out the questionable aspects of such theories in “King John and the Historians,” Journal of British Studies, I (1961): 1–19.Google Scholar
13 Although an explicit relationship is difficult to trace, it seems that both Steel and McKisack were influenced by Maude Clarke to some degree. Steel acknowledged his admiration in the preface to Richard II (Cambridge, 1941)Google Scholar and McKisack was Clarke's pupil.
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21 For examples of the King's largesse for Burley see: KKnighton, Henry, Chronicon Henrici Kniton, ed., Lumby, J. R. (Rolls Series, 92, 1895), II: 205Google Scholar, Cal. Patent Rolls, 1377-81, pp. 223, 257, 262; Cal. Patent Rolls, 1381-85, pp. 107, 305, 343, 447; Cal. Patent Rolls, 1385-89, pp. 37,45; for Beauchamp: Cal. Fine Rolls, 1383-91, p. 41; Cal. Patent Rolls, 1381-85, pp. 156, 318, 493; Cal. Patent Rolls, 1385-89, pp. 153, 292, 348; for de la Pole: Cal. Patent Rolls, 1381-85, pp. 156, 317; Cal. Patent Rolls, 1385-89, pp. 18, 24; Rotuli Parliamentorum (London, 1783), III: 216-17;; Holmes, G. A., The Estates of the Higher Nobility in Fourteenth-Century England (Cambridge, 1957), p. 42.Google Scholar
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24 In an interview with Richard at Eltham in October 1386 the duke of Gloucester and Bishop Arundel asserted that the kingdom had the right to depose the king in certain cases, an unmistakeable reference to the fate of Edward II. Knighton, , Chronicon, II:216–20Google Scholar, Steel, Anthony, Richard II, p. 122Google Scholar, Jones, , Royal Policy, p. 30Google ScholarPubMed, Goodman, , Loyal Conspiracy, p. 13Google Scholar, Tuck, , English Nobility, p. 103.Google Scholar
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38 Bellamy, , Law of Treason, pp. 95–96, 112–13Google Scholar. The possibility exists that the Appellants were repaying Richard in his own coin by stretching the definition of treason as the judges had done in 1387, and it can be argued that de Vere did accroach the royal power by the method of his appointment as justice of Chester. Rot. Parl., III:232.Google Scholar
39 Monk of Westminister, 168. Although the trial was conducted in parliament, it was conducted according to both common law and civil law procedures in a fashion so as to harm Brembre. Ibid., 148-49, and Rot. Parl, III:238Google Scholar. Tuck, Both (English Nobility, p. 124)Google Scholar and Steel, (Richard II, pp. 154–56)Google Scholar point out that the Appellants were determined to secure the conviction of Brembre and used whatever legal remedies they could find to do so.
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43 Ibid.
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46 Richard's attempted destruction of the palace of Sheen after the death of Queen Anne seems to lend some credence to claims of his insanity. The blow which he delivered to the Earl of Arundel in Westminister Abbey at the Queen's funeral was delivered under the stress of Anne's death and Arundel's unseemly provocation and cannot be taken as a sign of insanity. George B. Stow, Jr. was critical of attempts to psychoanalyze Richard II in a paper entitled “Richard II and Psychohistory: Clio Misguided,” delivered at the Tenth Conference on Medieval Studies at Western Michigan University.
47 Tout, , Chapters, III: 495.Google Scholar
48 Jones, , Royal Policy, p. 182Google Scholar. Tuck agrees that by 1397 Richard was bent on absolutism, but contends that his program in the early 1390s was to give England good government (English Nobility, pp. 105, 156).
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51 Rot. Parl., III: 285, 301Google Scholar. Richard also made several requests to London to lend him money but was turned down each time. Walsingham, , Historia, II: 207–08Google Scholar; Monk of Westminister, 270. Caroline M. Barron discusses the ensuing quarrel between Richard and the city in 1392 in “The Quarrel of Richard II with London 1392-7,” in DuBoulay, and Barron, , eds., Reign of Richard II, pp. 173–201.Google Scholar
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65 Ross, C. D., “Forfeiture for Treason in the Reign of Richard II,” E.H.R., LXX (1956): 575Google Scholar. Clarke, M. V. also stated this opinion in Fourteenth Century Studies, eds., Sutherland, L. S. and McKisack, May (Oxford, 1937; Freeport, N. Y., 1967), pp. 103, 111Google Scholar. An example of the severity of the sentences is that estates in fee tail and use were forfeited in addition to those in fee simple.
66 Barron, , “Tyranny of Richard II,” pp. 10–12.Google Scholar
67 Stubbs, , Constitutional History, II:525Google Scholar. See Rot. Parl., III:357, 358, 360, 368Google Scholar, for details of this parliament.
68 Wilkinson, Bertie, The Later Middle Ages in England, 1216-1485 (New York, 1969), p. 178.Google Scholar
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72 Tout, , Chapters, IV:38, 40Google Scholar. Tuck, (English Nobility, p. 198)Google Scholar is more accurate in locating the center of government in the council whose power the King had been building since the early 1390s.
73 Richard had given Henry leave to take up his father's property should Gaunt die while Henry was still in exile. Cal. Patent Rolls, 1396-99, p. 417. But in 1399 the letters patent were revoked and the term of the Duke of Hereford's banishment was made life. Rot. Parl., III:372.Google Scholar
74 Tuck, (English Nobility, p. 209)Google Scholar discusses Richard's dilemma and concludes that “Gaunt's death placed Richard in an impossible position.”
75 Jones, , Royal Policy, p. 182.Google Scholar
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77 Tuck, , English Nobility, p. 225.Google Scholar
78 See, for example, Walsingham, , Historia, II: 229Google Scholar, or the anonymous song “On King Richard's Ministers,” in Wright, Thomas, ed., Political Poems and Songs Relating to English History (Rolls Series, 14, 1859), 1:363–66Google Scholar. V. J. Scattergood makes this same point in his analysis of the contemporary poem “Mum and the Sothsegger” in Politics and Poetry in the Fifteenth Century (London, 1971), p. 108.Google Scholar
79 H. G. Richardson and G. O. Sayles pointed out, perhaps unfairly at times, what they considered as the unfortunate influence of Stubbs on the historiography of medieval England. The Governance of Medieval England from the Conquest to Magna Carta (Edinburgh, 1963), pp. 1–21, and passim.Google Scholar
80 Other exceptions are some of the essays in DuBoulay and Barron, eds., Reign of Richard II. See Palmer, J. J. N., “English Foreign Policy 1388-99,” pp. 75–107Google Scholar, or Harvey, Barbara F., “The Monks of Westminister and the University of Oxford,” pp. 108–30Google Scholar. The Peasants' Revolt of 1381 still attracts interest, the latest work is Hilton, R. H., Bond Men Made Free (New York, 1973)Google Scholar. Hilton's book is a treatment of the revolt as an example of peasant revolts, hence Richard's role receives scant treatment. Church history of the reign has been examined by Aston, Margaret in Thomas Arundel (Oxford, 1967)Google Scholar; her interpretation of political events is in the accepted tradition.
81 Sayles, , “King Richard II, p. 30Google Scholar. In a paper entitled “Richard II's Irish Problems,” delivered at the Tenth Conference on Medieval Studies at Western Michigan University, Dennis W. Cashman concluded that Richard proved to be a good diplomat and soldier in achieveing somewhat of a settlement in Ireland in 1394.
82 Unlike the foreign policy of Henry VI: see Ferguson, John, English Diplomacy 1422-1461 (Oxford, 1972)Google Scholar. Palmer is beginning to fill this void with the essay cited in note 79 and the discussion of Anglo-French and Anglo-Italian foreign policy during the reign in England, France and Christendom, 1377-99.
83 Jones, , Royal Policy, p. 124Google ScholarPubMed. When it is completed, J. W. Sherborne's biography should fill this lacuna.
