A well known passage in the continuation of the Eulogium Historiarum has been very influential in assessments of Richard II and his policies. In its account of events in the year 1398 the Eulogium describes a rather bizarre scene in Richard's chamber:

This celebrated passage has been consistently cited in support of the view that near the end of his reign Richard II had adopted innovative, tyrannical, and perhaps even insane policies that played a part in his deposition from the throne in 1399. Kenneth A. Vickers says that the king might well have gotten away with his tyrannical behavior ‘had not Richard himself drawn attention to his despotism [when] he emphasised his power by increasing the solemnity of Court ceremonial’. Anthony Steel interprets the Eulogium's account as attesting ‘the last stage of his illness; the regality had grown until it had swallowed the entire world and as Richard looked around him he saw nothing but the mirror of his royal personality, inhabited by flickering shades whose movements could be governed by a glance’.