RICHARD IL, King of England, the second son of Edward the Black Prince and Joanna of Kent, was born at Bordeaux on April 3, 1366. He succeeded to the throne on the death of his grandfather, Edward III., June 28, 1377. He being a minor, the govern ment was vested in a council of twelve, from which were excluded the king's three uncles, John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster; the earl of Cambridge, afterward duke of York ; and the earl of Buckingham, afterward duke of Gloucester. This arrangement is, however, supposed to have been collusive, and intended to 11111 the popular suspicion of Lancaster, under whose control the council really was. The reign of Richard is inter esting to the student of English constitutional history. We find the recently established house of commons eagerly pressing forward to procure a share of political power, by means of the efficient engine of which it had then acquired the sole control—the right of taxation. Again, we find the laboring classes now beginning to aspire to be freed from the state of bondage in which they had hitherto been kept. The famous capitation tax, imposed in 1380, gave rise in,the following year to the rebellion of Wat Tyler (q.v.). In June, 1382, Richard was married to Anne of Bohemia, daughter of the emperor Charles IV. The next two years were occupied with a war with France, transferred in 13S5 to Scotland, where for a while the king conducted it in person. In the absence of John of Gaunt in Spain, the duke of Gloucester had put himself at the head of affairs; and an attempt which Richard made at this time to free himself from control having been defeated, several of his counselors were put to death, which step, on the part of the vic torious party, vas approved of by parliament, by whom further executions were ordered among the king's adherents; and the sentences were carried into effect. In 1389, however, Richard, by a sudden movement, succeeded in throwing off the yoke. Glouces ter was obliged to retire; but from indolence and want of capacity, the king soon allowed ,the reins of government to slip from his own hands into those of the duke of York, and Lancaster's son, Henry of Bolingbroke. In 1394 the queen died, and soon after a mar
riage treaty was concluded between Richard and Isabella, infant daughter of Charles VI. of France. t Gloucester reprobating this marriage, which seems to have been unpopu lar, Richard caused him to be privately arrested and conveyed to Calais, where he died, or was murdered, as lies been conjectured. On the meeting of parliament, the king had his own way; the earl of Warwick was banished, and the earl of Arundel beheaded. Having triumphed over his foes, Richard now began to quarrel with his friends. A mis understanding having taken place between Bolingbroke and Mowbray, duke of Norfolk, the king, desirous to be rid of both, sent the former into banishment for ten years, and the latter for life. But Bolingbroke had been assiduously cultivating the popularity which his cousin had been as assiduously throwing away; and the result became appar ent in 1399. Ou his return, in-that year, from a military expedition in Ireland, Richard found that Bolingbroke had, in his absence, landed in England; that he had soon found himself at the head of a formidable army, and that the duke of York had yielded and gone over to his side. The army which the king had had with him in Ireland, also, no sooner landed than it almost entirely passed :,veer to the invader. Richard found himself without force or friend, while Bolingbroke, now styling himself duke of Lancaster, was at the head of 80,000 men. Meeting the conqueror at Flint castle, Richard was carried captive in his train to London. On Sept. 29, 1399, he formally resigned his crown. On the following day the resignation was ratified by parliament, and the crown conferred on Lancaster. 11:i order of the peers, Richard was confined secretly in a castle, but where is not known. In the February following his resignation, the nation was told that be was dead, and his body. or what was supposed to be it, was brought with much pomp from Pe•tefract castle, and shown to the people. There were rumors at the time of his having been murdered, and long afterward of his alive and in Scotland. But nothing really authentic is known the end of Richard II.