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- BIOGRAPHY
In 1377 at only ten years of age, he became King of England. During his minority, England was ruled by a council under guidance of his uncle, John of Gaunt. For his education he was in charge of Sir Simon Burley. He developed aesthetic tastes and interests which later gave rise to exquisite portraits such as the Wilton Diptych.
In 1381 the Peasant Revolt, which was directed against John of Gaunt's unpopular government, broke out. Although Richard II was only fourteen, he faced Wat Tyler's followers, negotiated with Tyler and then quelled the mob when the peasant leader was killed. Richard II retracted the concessions he made to the mob, but after December 1381 declared a general pardon.
In 1382 he married Anne of Bohemia who became a moderating influence on him, yet was unable to curb his generosity to his favourites, such as Michael de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, and the widely detested Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford.
However, in 1386, as a result of Richard II's determination to govern through Pole and de Vere, a group of nobles led by his uncle, Thomas, 1st Duke of Gloucester, imposed a council of eleven magnates to oversee royal government, forcing Richard to dismiss Pole.
In August 1387 Richard II obtained a statement from the royal judges to the effect that Parliament had acted illegally by imposing a council on him and raised an army in the north. In response, Thomas, 1st Duke of Gloucester, together with four other magnates, the 'lords appellant', issued 'appeals' in November 1387 accusing de Vere and Richard's other advisers of treason.
In February 1388 the lords appellant tried and convicted five of Richard's principal advisors for treason in the so-called Merciless Parliament. They also executed the king's much-loved tutor, Sir Simon Burley. Richard II was again placed under a council of control but, in May 1389, he dismissed the councillors and ruled with the support of John of Gaunt.
In June 1394 his wife died and, in November 1396, he married the seven-year-old Isabella de Valois, daughter of Charles VI, King of France. In 1397 he arrested three lords appellant, Gloucester, Arundel and Warwick, and, in September, assembled a parliament which was coerced into sentencing them to death. Arundel was executed, Gloucester was murdered (perhaps smothered) but Warwick obtained a pardon.
The king now ruling unchallenged, strengthened his personal army and raised heavy taxes. In 1399 Richard II went to Ireland in an attempt to pacify the warring chieftains; however, his cousin, Henry Bolingbroke, invaded England to claim his Lancastrian inheritance as the latter's father, John of Gaunt, had died.
The invasion met with little resistance and, when Richard II returned from Ireland, he was unable to raise a force against Henry. He was captured outside Conway Castle in August 1399 and, in September 1399, abdicated on condition that his life be spared. Henry was crowned as Henry IV, while Richard was sent to Pontefract Ccastle where he died in February 1400, probably starved to death. His ten-year-old widow returned to France.
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1367 - 1400 (33 years)
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