Erik Visits a Non-American Grave, Part 2,020

This is the grave of King Richard II of England.

Born in 1367 in Bordeaux, France, Richard was the grandson of King Edward III of England. Not that these guys were that excited about England, they really were French and thought of themselves as French and spent as much time in France as they could. But then England was cold and had bad food. Anyway, Richard was of course intended to be king. But in 1376, his father, Edward, Prince of Wales, died of whatever. He was a super successful warrior and a very strong leader and would have been a strong king but he had severe dysentery issues, which was probably related to something else. So Richard became heir apparent and then Edward III died in 1377 and so Richard was now the king at the age of 10.

This meant that regents would rule until Richard came of age. John of Gaunt and Thomas of Woodstock ran the show. It wasn’t easy either. The English people were not in a good mood. There wasn’t enough food and taxes on the poor were really high due to the cost of all these wars in France and of course these scummy rich people didn’t care about that. So in 1381, the Peasants Revolt took place, probably the most serious internal threat to the monarchy they had faced since they took over the island in 1066. Now, Richard was old enough to play an active role here. And his position was to kill as many peasants as possible. How dare they rise up against his Royal Highness!!

Now, Richard might have been completely unwilling to tolerate dissent, but he was also less into fighting wars on the continent than his ancestors and he sought to end the Hundred Years War if he could. Instead, his interests were much more on fun and art and he sought to create a court that served his personal interests. But war meant a lot to a lot of English aristocrats. They didn’t like this so much.

But Richard was also a real unstable guy it seems, the type of king who really gets thrown off his bearings by everyone telling him how great he is. This is a natural response to being king–I mean, look at how unhinged someone like Elon Musk has become by sycophants serving his every need for two decades and he isn’t even an actual king. One of the innumerable problems with royalty is that there’s no incentive for a king to think any way but in his own personal interests and indulge every terrible whim because no one is going to tell him no and I imagine that has to be worse when a child reaches the throne. So it’s a more exceptional king who is able to overcome at least some of this and rule with some capability. This also brings to mind something I think should be held by all Americans but is very much not–which is thinking that all royalty is inherently evil and thus I don’t want to know about the British monarchy and I don’t want to know about ancient Roman emperors either. Why would we democrats (small D here) care about the queen and her damned undies? Or Tiberius and his damned tunic? Not me, thank you. Watching The Queen is treason to America, that’s basically what I’m saying.

In any case, Richard was pretty bad at being king. Now, to be fair here, Shakespeare has shaped so much of our modern understanding of Richard, as he has so many kings. And Richard II does not come off well in Shakespeare. But there’s some good reasons for this. Most certainly, the aristocracy had wanted to control Richard from the moment he was a child king and he rejected this as he got older. In 1387, a group of nobles called the Lords Appellant sought to eliminate Richard’s favorites in the court. Among them were Henry Bolingbroke, who would not be done fighting against Richard. For awhile, they are who really controlled England, basically ruling from 1387-89 under what became known by Richard’s defenders as the “Merciless Parliament,” executing several close allies of Richard and taking the power away from more, as well as forcing Richard to acquiesce.

However, in 1389, Richard’s old ally John of Gaunt returned from France and reasserted his and Richard’s authority. Richard’s error was not centering Bolingbroke in his revenge. He had others murdered or exiled. And since these people were all related by blood, it was very much a family activity to kill each other. Ain’t monarchy great? By 1397, Richard was really back in charge. He was an egomaniac like so many kings. Before 1397, there were some good things. One of the reason for the nobles’ revolt is that Richard didn’t go for their desire for war and he did a lot of work to repair relations with the French in the early 1390s. In 1396, a truce between the two nations was struck and it would last for nearly 30 years. It was sealed by Richard agreeing to marry the daughter of Charles VI of France, though she was only 6 years old at the time. Instead of focusing on France, he preferred to invade Ireland to protect the British elites there. He also did a lot of arts patronage. This was the age of Chaucer, who worked for both Richard and Gaunt at various times.

In 1399, Richard went too far. John of Gaunt died. Richard confiscated his estate instead of letting it pass to Bolingbroke. The latter was already in Paris. Richard didn’t consider him a threat because Charles VI and him had brokered their deal. But Charles VI had lost his mind and the Duke of Orleans gained control over the court in Paris. Now Louis I, the new king had no problem letting Bolingbroke return to England. Because Richard had so alienated major nobles, Bolingbroke was able to gather a force, which soon grew as more nobles wanted a change. Richard was forced to surrender to Bolingbroke and agreed to give up his crown if his life was spared.

Bolingbroke became Henry IV. He then threw Richard in the Tower of London. Perhaps Henry would have let Richard live, but Richard had his nobles too and there were plenty of rumors that they were ready to rise up. So Henry probably had Richard starved to death. This was in 1400. He was 33 years old.

Richard II is buried in Westminster Abbey, London, England. He was moved there in 1413, after originally being buried at King’s Langely Priory, on Plantagenet lands. 1413 is when Henry IV died and that connection isn’t coincidence.

If you would like this series to visit American Richards, you can donate to cover the required expenses here. Dick Lugar is in Arlington and Richard Stockton is in Princeton, New Jersey. Previous posts in this series are archived here and here.