Richard II – Gets his nose tweaked!

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King Richard was not prepared to meekly accept parliament’s intrusion into his affairs. The king declared:

‘I may be, but a fledging, not yet twenty-one!

But, I am the anointed king and therefore, my will, can, must and will be done!’

Almost at once the young king began sounding opinion and canvassing support from various quarters. In August of 1387, he declared that henceforth, he would rule with the assistance of his own handpicked advisers. Richard was supported by a number of judges, who ruled that those who had restricted the powers of the king could be tried as traitors and punished accordingly. This was simply too much for Gloucester and Arundel. They and their supporters, dubbed the ‘Lords Appellants’ exclaimed;

‘Do they expect us like sheep to the scaffold, quietly go!

And suffer, without complaint, not a murmur, the axeman’s blow!’

The Lords Appellants rose in revolt.

A royalist army under William de Vere, Duke of Ireland, confronted a force commanded by Lancaster’s son, Henry Bolingbroke at Radcot Bridge in Oxfordshire in December 1387. Here, Bolingbroke shattered de Vere’s army and the unfortunate duke was forced to flee the field in the most humiliating fashion. De Vere took off his armour and swam along the river until he found woodland in which he took shelter for the night.

The Battle of Radcot Bridge.

‘Oh, dear Robert de Vere at Radcot Bridge was forced to strip off his gear!

He dived into the water and swam away from  the battlefield in a frenzy of fear!’

Robert de Vere depicted in a boat departing Radcot Bridge. He did not leave in such a convenient and dignified manner, for naked, he swam the whole way.

News of de Vere’s ignominious defeat soon reached London. King Richard was asked:

‘Pray sire, what are you to do?

I’m going to cower in the Tower!’

That is exactly what he did do. Following their victory, Bolingbroke and the other ‘Lords Appellants’ marched to London and confronted King Richard as he cowered in the Tower of London. Bolingbroke, just like his father John of Gaunt, did not mince his words:

‘You said that you were the sovereign king and that your will must be done!

But King Dick, after Radcot Bridge, you are right back to square one!’

A new parliament was summoned in February 1388 to tie up the loose ends. It was aptly named the ‘Merciless Parliament’ as it ordered the executions of so many of Richard’s allies.

An example of the Merciless Parliament conducting essential business.

This could have meant the end of Richard’s reign, but his crown was saved by the intervention of his cousin, Henry Bolingbroke. Their Lord’s Apellants judged that Richard, having learnt his lesson, would now rule in accordance with their view of how things should be done. On this occasion, they had in fact, misjudged the young monarch.