Richard II (1367–1400)

King of England from 1377 (effectively from 1389), son of Edward the Black Prince. He reigned in conflict with Parliament; they executed some of his associates in 1388, and he executed a number of the opposing barons in 1397, whereupon he made himself absolute. Two years later, forced to abdicate in favour of Henry IV, he was jailed and probably assassinated.

In 1381 Richard was faced with the Peasants' Revolt, a result of the imposition of a poll tax in 1380. The leader of the revolt, Wat Tyler, was stabbed and killed at Smithfield by the lord mayor of London, fearing for the safety of the king. Richard's apparent courage in facing the mobs gathered at Mile End and Smithfield also contributed to the failure of the uprising.

Richard was born in Bordeaux. He succeeded his grandfather Edward III when only ten, the government being in the hands of a council of regency. His fondness for favourites resulted in conflicts with Parliament, and in 1388 the baronial party, headed by the Duke of Gloucester, had many of his friends executed. Richard recovered control in 1389, and ruled moderately until 1397, when he had Gloucester murdered and his other leading opponents executed or banished, and assumed absolute power. In 1399 his cousin Henry Bolingbroke, Duke of Hereford (later Henry IV), returned from exile to lead a revolt; Richard II was deposed by Parliament and imprisoned in Pontefract Castle, where he died mysteriously.