35 Facts About Richard II

1. Richard II was a strong warrior and managed to unhorse a jousting champion in his final fight.

2. Richard II is then firmly persuaded by advisors to agree to a peaceful abdication.

3. Richard II discovers that he is but a mortal—that he is neither sun-god nor Christ.

4. Richard II has disturbed the old order of possession by insisting that possession of the crown means possession of Gaunt's estate.

5. Richard II is not such an innocent as he makes himself out to be.

6. Richard II loses the crown because he denies the principle and laws upon which his right to the crown rests.

7. Richard II is mocking his own poetical style in the manner of Touchstone in As You Like It, who lays it down as gospel that "the truest poetry is the most feigning".

8. Richard II was a legitimate king, but his rule was ruining England.

9. Richard II is the title character and the ruler of England.

10. Richard II orders a trial by combat between Bolingbroke and Mowbray, but calls it off and banishes both of them instead.

11. Richard II is lamenting the wasting away of his life with no companions but his thoughts, which he mournfully personifies, in Pomfret Castle.

12. Richard II responds that the agreement is reasonable—then turns to ask Aumerle if he is not being too weak in accepting their demands.

13. Richard II indeed takes heart at this thought—but Scroop destroys his hopes in relating that even York had sided with Bolingbroke, such that all of Richard's "northern castles" and "southern gentlemen" were allied against him.

14. Richard II arrives on the coast of Wales with Aumerle and the Bishop of Carlisle by his side.

15. Richard II grows angry and refrains from lashing out at Gaunt only because the dying man is his uncle, but Gaunt continues his tirade, telling Richard that he should be utterly ashamed of himself.

16. Richard II is believed to be the legal, rightful ruler of England, as ordained by God; yet he is shown to be a weak and ineffective king.

17. Richard II reveals his plans to "farm our royal realm" in order to finance a planned war in Ireland and—upon hearing that John of Gaunt is ill—to appropriate his uncle's huge fortune.

18. Richard II ordered the trial to take place, but stopped it at the last minute, instead banishing the two disputants—for ten years in Bolingbroke's case and for life in Mowbray's.

19. Richard II balances Richard's tyrannical behavior with his unquestionable title to the throne, and Bolingbroke's effective leadership with his lawless usurpation.

20. Richard II refused, raising a small army to defend his right to rule as he saw fit.

21. Richard II was king of England from 1377 to 1399.

22. Richard II was determined never again to suffer a humiliation of the kind inflicted upon him by the Appellants.

23. Richard II sought to enhance the dignity and mystique of his monarchy.

24. Richard II was on close terms with some ambitious younger men, notably Robert de Vere, earl of Oxford, and the knights Ralph Stafford and James Berners.

25. Richard II was granted revenues for life and the powers of parliament were delegated to a committee.

26. Richard II inherited the throne from his grandfather at the age of ten in 1377 and reigned for 22 years as king.

27. Richard II was made Marquess of Dorset; marquess being a relatively new title in England up until this point.

28. Richard II was particularly devoted to the cult of Edward the Confessor, and around 1395 he had his own coat of arms impaled with the mythical arms of the Confessor.

29. Richard II was athletic and tall; when his tomb was opened in 1871 he was found to be six feet tall.

30. Richard II was intelligent and well read, and when agitated he had a tendency to stammer.

31. Richard II gradually re-established royal authority in the months after the deliberations of the Merciless Parliament.

32. Richard II stalled the negotiations to gain time, as he was expecting de Vere to arrive from Cheshire with military reinforcements.

33. Richard II met Wat Tyler again the next day at Smithfield and reiterated that the demands would be met, but the rebel leader was not convinced of the king's sincerity.

34. Richard II never fully recovered and had to return to England the next year.

35. Richard II was said to have been tall, good-looking and intelligent.