King Richard reasserts royal authority with a flourish!
‘Well, ain’t life just really swell!
All’s well that ends well!’
King Richard II
On the surface, the king and their lords Appellant maintained a veneer of friendliness. But inside, Richard was seething with resentment. Nevertheless, there was a certain chumminess in the air when John of Gaunt returned from Castile in November 1189. The old warrior had managed to extract a large fortune during his time in Spain, and had left his daughter Catherine there as Queen consort. King Richard welcomed his uncle warmly and they embraced:
‘Oh welcome back from Spain, dear uncle Jack!
It is so good to have you back, running around on your old familiar track!
John of Gaunt
In fact, John of Gaunt became a loyal supporter of Richard’s policy of making peace with France.
But in 1394, tragedy struck when Queen Anne died of the plague at Sheen Palace, leaving Richard devastated. Queen Anne was truly the great love of his life. Richard was engulfed by an all-consuming grief, which occupied his mind to the exclusion of any other consideration. In his sorrow, the king ordered that the palace be destroyed, because it reminded him of his terrible loss. A huge funeral for which no expense had been spared was held at Westminster Abbey. The Earl of Arundel interrupted the solemnities by arriving late, and then telling the king that he had to leave early. An infuriated Richard struck the unfortunate noble with a staff and then had him carried off to the Tower of London.
‘From you, ungracious earl, with this staff, I have drawn a little blood!
Were it for the fact that we are in church, it would not have been a mere trickle, but an almighty flood!
However, despite his sense of loss, Richard’s status as a widower was short lived. In 1396 he married Isabella, the daughter of King Charles VI of France. Richard, who considered the Hundred Years War to have been a terrible waste of lives and money, wished for better relations with France.
King Charles VI of France.
There was a considerable age difference between bride and groom. King Richard was twenty seven and Isabella was six years old.
However, Richard was becoming almost imperial in his style of kingship. His sense of majesty was so great that it had to focussed upon and acknowledged with the utmost deference by all.
‘Oh King Richard of England, superstar!
All will applaud your majestic Highness, whether they be near or from afar!’
Richard’s haughtiness recognised no limits amongst these temporary, worldly confines. He deferred only to God Almighty and did so with great piety. Richard endowed religious abbeys and churches with large amounts of gold and silver, so they might provide for a greater reflection of God’s glory against the backdrop of this dreary, temporal existence.
In the summer of 1397, Richard moved against those whom he considered to be his enemies.
‘Oh vengeance is mine!
Oh, how sweet, indeed almost divine!’
Arundel, Gloucester, the king’s uncle and Warwick were arrested. Gloucester had made himself particularly unpopular by complaining about Richard’s extravagances and the level of taxation levied to pay for them. Richard had Gloucester sent to Calais and it is claimed that he was smothered or strangled whilst preparing for dinner.
The murder of Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester.
Gloucester’s murderers then placed his body in bed and maintained that that was how they had discovered him dead. The official explanation for Gloucester’s death was that he had died of natural causes. Arundel’s demise was effected by a more familiar, traditional method of despatch. On September 20th 1397, he vociferous duke had his head severed from his body on Tower Hill in front of a large crowd. Warwick was stripped of his lands and exiled to the Isle of Man.
‘Justice has been done to ye three!
If you cross me, then this is how it will be!’
Richard, constantly surrounded for protection by a large body of archers, watched the events with great satisfaction. He then pondered his next move and thereby his own downfall.