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Richard the Redeless

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

S. H. D. Holton
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Extract

The reign of Richard II. is a landmark in the political and constitutional history of England, and in the history of her church and people. At home it was an era of corrupt party politics which led to the crisis of 1399; abroad, there was a lull in the great French war; and already the victories of Edward III. and the Black Prince had initiated the course of events which were to make England an insular power, and her government a limited monarchy. Social and religious discontent joined hands in Wat Tyler's revolt, when the causes of Labour and Nonconformity made their first loud claim to the right of existence in England. In the following pages, however, we are concerned less with the history of the reign as a whole, than with the interesting personality of the boy-King. King and kingdom were closely bound up with one another in the Plantagenet epoch; and the unequal and ill-regulated character of Richard II. has left no uncertain impress upon the events of his reign. And here the historical student is brought face to face with the unsatisfactory condition of the original authorities. The whole reign abounds in political mysteries, and the figure of the young King is shrouded in obscurity.

Type
Research Article
Information
Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , Volume 10 , December 1896 , pp. 121 - 154
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1896

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References

page 122 note 1 Some critical remarks upon the authorities for the reign, exhibiting their disposition as the basis of the present paper, will be found in the form of a note on page 147.

page 126 note 1 Vide SirRamsay, Jas, Lancaster and York, 2 vols. Clarendon PressGoogle Scholar. Introduction.

page 147 note 1 Thoma Wahingham, Historia Anglicana. (Riley, Rolls Series).

page 148 note 1 Chronicon Anglia, 1328–88, auctore monacho quodatn sancti Albani. (Maunde Thompson, Rolls Series).

page 149 note 1 Henrici Knighton, Canonici Leycestrensis, Chronica. (Twysden, Decent Scriptores). [This chronicle ends abruptly, but Twysden supplemented the account by the addition of a copy of Rot. Farl. i. Hen. iv. memb. 20–17 incl. This extract does not appear in either of the MSS., yet is quoted by MrRiley, (Annales, p. 252Google Scholar, &c.) and DrStubbs, (Const. Hist. ii. pp. 490Google Scholar, 503, 506) apparently as part of the chronicle”.

page 149 note 2 Annales Ricardi Secundi et Henrici Quaiii. (Riley, Rolls Series).

page 150 note 1 Historia Vitæ et Regni Ricardi II. (Hearne)

page 150 note 2 Chronicon Adæ de Usk. (E. Maunde Thompson, for the Royal Soc. of Literature).

page 152 note 1 Chronique de la Traison et Mort de Richard Deux Roy Dengleterre. (Williams, for the Eng. Historical Soc).

page 152 note 2 Histoire du Roy d'Angleterre Richard. (Webb, Archceologica xx).

page 153 note 1 Les Chroniques de Sire Jean Froissarl. (Buchon. Paris, 1838)Google Scholar .