Richard the Second essays

Richard the Second essays Richard the second was born January 6, 1367. He was king of England from 1377-1399. He was son of Edward the black prince and grandson of king Edward the third. Richard took his grandfathers throne in June of 1377, he was not yet mature of old enough to run things so things continued to be run by the same nobles. John of gaunt(duke of Lancaster) ran things while Richard was young and for the last few years of Edwards reign. Gaunts misrule made the economy go down and the long conflict with France kept on going. This was king Richards first crisis even though he was not yet old enough to do much about it. The rebels against king Richard were pacified not long after they started and Richard got married in June of 1382. John of gaunt was able to keep peace with the French until he decided to flee to Spain in 1386 to persue personal things. Soon after he left Richards enemies started to take over. They created an 11-man team that would oversee all the kings activities for a ye ar. When Richard tried to stop them the retaliated by having the parliament outlaw his closest friends and some were executed. In May of 1389 he announced he would rule as an independent monarch. Gaunts return in 1389 stabilized the situation for a little while. During this time Richard was really looking at getting back at his enemies, and he did. He had Arundel convicted of treason and sentenced to death, Warwick was banished and Gloucester was put in jail and murdered. In September of 1398 he had a chance to banish Bolingbrook(Henry) and Thomas Mowbray, but he did not. Instead he made a disastrous mistake by leaving for Ireland. While he was gone Henry invaded England and got all the nobility to support him. When Richard returned he surrendered to Henry without a fight. King Henry then took the throne and imprisoned Richard. Four months later he died believed to be of starvation. Shakespears story of his murder has no reliable sources accordi...