724Richard II (AD 1377-1399)
Born: 6 January 1367 at Bordeaux, Gascony
Murdered: 14 February 1400 at Pontefract Castle, Yorkshire
Buried: Westminster Abbey, Middlesex
Parents: Edward, Prince of Wales - "the Black Prince" - and Joan, the "Fair Maid of Kent"
Siblings: Edward of Angouleme
Crowned: 16 July 1377 at Westminster Abbey, Middlesex
Abdicated: 29 September 1399
Married: (1st) 14 January 1382 at St. Stephen's Chapel in the Palace of Westminster, Middlesex; (2nd) 4th November 1396 at Calais
Spouse: (1st) Anne daughter of Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor & King of Bohemia; (2nd) Isabella daughter of Charles VI, King of France
Offspring: None
Named Heir: His cousin, Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March
Contemporaries: Wat Tyler; Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford; Michael de la Pole; Richard FitzAlan, Earl of Arundel; Thomas Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick; John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster; Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester; Henry Bolingbroke (Henry IV), Earl of Derby; Geoffrey Chaucer

Richard II, born in 1367, was the son of Edward, the Black Prince and Joan, the Fair Maid of Kent. Edward was but ten years old when he succeeded his grandfather, Edward III ; England was ruled by a council under the leadership of John of Gaunt , and Richard was tutored by Sir Simon Burley. He married the much-beloved Anne of Bohemia in 1382, who died childless in 1394. Edward remarried in 1396, wedding the seven year old Isabella of Valois, daughter of Charles VI of France, to end a further struggle with France.

Richard asserted royal authority during an era of royal restrictions. Economic hardship followed the Black Death, as wages and prices rapidly increased. Parliament exacerbated the problem by passing legislation limiting wages but failing to also regulate prices. In 1381, Wat Tyler led the Peasants' Revolt against the oppressive government policies of John of Gaunt. Richard's unwise generosity to his favorites - Michael de la Pole, Robert de Vere and others - led Thomas, Duke of Gloucester and four other magnates to form the Lords Appellant. The five Lords Appellant tried and convicted five of Richard's closest advisors for treason. In 1397, Richard arrested three of the five Lords, coerced Parliament to sentence them to death and banished the other two. One of the exiles was Henry Bolingbroke, the future Henry IV . Richard travelled to Ireland in 1399 to quell warring chieftains, allowing Bolingboke to return to England and be elected king by Parliament. Richard lacked support and was quickly captured by Henry IV.

Deposed in 1399, Richard was murdered while in prison, the first casualty of the Wars of the Roses between the Houses of Lancaster and York.

The Peasants' Revolt of 1381 was led by Wat Tyler, who, as this image portrays, was stabbed in the presence of Richard II at Smithfield by the Mayor of London, William Walworth, and later beheaded. Tyler had demanded a series of concessions beneficial to the lower orders of society, to which the king replied that he would grant all that was within his power. But, when challenged as a robber by a royal valet, Tyler drew his sword in the king's presence, prompting Walworth's attack. At Tyler's death the revolt collapsed and the leaders were executed.

Reference: British Library Royal MS 18.E.i-ii f. 175 (date: 1385-1400)
By permission of the British Library. (Copyright belongs to the British Library and further reproduction is prohibited.)

Born: 11 MAY 1366, Prague, Bohemia
Acceded: 22 JAN 1382, Westminster Abbey, London, England
Died: BEF 3 JUN 1394, Sheen Palace, Surrey
Interred: Westminster Abbey, London, England
Notes:

Weir says she died 7 Jun 1394 of the plague.

Father: , Charles IV of Bohemia, King of Bohemia, b. 14 MAY 1316

Mother: , Elzbieta of Slupsk, Duchess of Pommerania, b. ABT 1335

Married 20 JAN 1382, St Stephen's Chapel, Westminster Palace to , Richard II, King of England

de France, Isabella

Father: de Valois, Charles VI the Beloved, King of France, b. 3 DEC 1368

Mother: Wittelsbach, Isabelle of Bavaria, b. 1369

Married 1 NOV 1396, St Nicholas' Church, Calais, France to , Richard II, King of England


Married 29 JUN 1406, Compiégne, France to de Orléans, Charles, Duke of Orleans & Milan

Child 1: de Orléans, Jeanne, b. 1409




Isabella of Valois

In 1396 Richard married again, as part of a peace treaty with France. His bride, the six year old daughter of Charles VI and Isabeau of Bavaria, came to England and lived mostly at Windsor. She was the perfect second wife for the mourning king. Still a child, it would be several years before a consummation was expected, thus giving Richard plenty of time to overcome his grief for Anne. She was also like the child he and Anne never had and he appeared fond of her, giving her gifts and visiting with her as often as he could. By all accounts she grieved for him deeply after his death, then waited two years in England while Henry IV quibbled about returning her and her dowry as per the marriage contract. (This is similar to what happened to Catherine of Aragon more than a century later.) After returning to France she married Charles of Angouleme (later Duke of Orléans), but died in childbirth in 1409, after only three years of marriage.