The MYSTERIOUS Death Of King Richard II

one of the most famous events of medieval england was the peasants revolt where a group of rebels marched into london burned down a palace executed an archbishop and forced a meeting with the king to demand more freedoms and better pay the king in question at that time in 1381 was richard ii and his reign over the country is a rather interesting one he succeeded to the throne at a very young age and would remain king until the age of 32 before he was mysteriously killed or murdered he is known by some to have been a rather tyrannous ruler and in william shakespeare's play richard ii his misroll and deposition of the crown is a major contributing factor to the later civil war the wars of the roses that broke out in england today we look at the mysterious death and murder of richard ii and remember to support our channel please make sure to subscribe richard ii was born on the 6th of january 1367 in bordeaux france and was the youngest and only surviving son of edward the black prince his father had been a prominent commander in the 100 years war and passed away in 1376 as his father passed away prematurely richard his son then succeeded his own grandfather edward the third as king becoming the monarch in june 1377. he was crowned at westminster abbey on the 16th of july 1377 being only 10 when he came onto the throne at this time there was a great fear that the king's uncle john of gaunt could be influencing the king too heavily and a regency was set up to help the young boy govern and to look after the affairs of state his council held a great deal of power during the king's younger years and there was a growing discontent in the country about a number of taxes specifically poll taxes that were being raised and spent on failed military campaigns the event that richard ii is mostly associated with though is the peasant's revolt of 1381 the peasants in society were extremely unhappy the black death and other outbreaks of the plague had happened and as a consequence there was a great deal of tension between workers and landowners in the country some of these peasants wanted to move to different areas to collect more money but were unable to and their wages were eventually capped by a statute this further angered the peasants so they rose up in may 1381 and on the 12th of june they gathered at blackheath near london the rebels were led by what tyler jack straw and john ball and they targeted john of god savoy palace which was angrily burned to the ground and then they turned their attention also to the archbishop of canterbury simon sudbury who was then decapitated by the angry mob near to the tower of london the king sheltered with his advisors as it was considered that the king did not have the military might to disperse the crowd and it was decided he should negotiate the king set out on the river thames despite being 14 to meet the rebels on the 13th of june but the amount of people on the banks forced him to turn around on the next day he met the rebels by horse and agreed to their demands but this only made the rebellion stronger with more looting and death occurring richard himself then met what tyler the leader at smithfield and reiterated the demands would be agreed but during this an altercation broke out in which the lord mayor of london pulled the rebel leader to the floor and killed him the king then in the drama acted calmly leaving the mob from the scene and this is a remarkably brave and noble thing for a young king of 14 to have done he successfully confronted the rebels and had sent them home richard after this then became closely involved in matters of the state at 15 he married anne of bohemia the daughter of the holy roman emperor charles iv the couple were close and the queen helped the king govern but their marriage would not produce a son one of his problems as a king was a favoritism he showed to certain members of his court with the earl of oxford being given a title of a duke and further issues caused a rebellion tensions within court were raised also with regards to the king's approach to war with france with a threat from invasion growing stronger in 1386 in 1388 at the merciless parliament there were strong demands for radical changes to the royal household and there was a demand to execute the king's favourites and also confiscate the earl of oxford's land the king had been forced into the tower of london following the rebellions and agreed to call a session in parliament in an attempt to prevent him being executed himself by the rebels there was much anger with regards to his negotiations and dealings with france during this many of the king's supporters were executed and there was a deep purge in the offices of the king as the parliament session continued even more people were executed including the king's knights and the negotiators with the french his wife died in 1396 of the plague and richard was distraught there was an incident at the funeral when the earl of arendelle richard fitzallen arrived late and richard was so furious that he lost control hitting arendelle over the head with a wand so hard that it made him fall to the ground dazed richard later married again with his second wife shockingly being a six-year-old girl isabella of valois with the king being 19. in 1397 richard placed his opponents and threats under arrest and his uncle thomas the duke of gloucester was murdered then he exiled his cousin henry bollingbrook and following jon of gaunt's death he disinherited henry and confiscated all of his land the treatment of his cousin would lead to his downfall henry then reacted very angrily to this and prepared an invasion force henry bollingbrook left france with a small group of followers and landed in yorkshire at the end of june 1399 he then gathered much support from men all over the country who backed him bollingbroke said that his only intention was to regain his lands but the king had taken most of his knights and his loyal allies to ireland with him and bollingbroke had very little resistance as he moved south throughout the country the keeper of the realm the duke of york was forced to side with him richard who had been in ireland delayed his return and landed in wales on the 24th of july he then entered negotiations with the earl of northumberland henry percy on the 19th of august richard surrendered to henry bollingbrook at flink castle with the promise of him abdicating the throne if he spared him his life this would have given henry the crown and this is what happened both of the men returned to london with henry riding ahead and when richard arrived he was thrown into the tower of london henry was now focused on seizing the throne but he was not the next in line henry's family history was looked into and he did have a direct link to the throne through his grandmother philippa of clarence richard ii gave up the crown of his own accord but he did grow frustrated inside the tower he ordered his release called his cousin a traitor and demanded to see his wife during a meeting with henry but henry refused to do anything without consulting parliament first parliament met and accepted the deposition of richard and on the 1st of october 1399 he was officially deposed with henry bollingbrook being crowned king on the 12th of october 1399. now the death of richard ii is a bit of a mystery and today it's still up to some historical debate it was clear that there was an agreement to keep the king alive and that henry did agree to spare richard his life for him abdicating from the throne but you have to remember that during the medieval period threats to the throne were very real and this could have forced henry's hand to avoid the execution of richard ii the decision to let the former king live changed when it was found out that revolt was forming the elves of kent salisbury and huntingdon along with the lord dispenser and other members of the nobility were plotting to murder the new king crowned henry iv these men previously had been demoted from their ranks given to them by richard ii and they were planning to execute henry and restore richard to the throne this rebellion was known as the epiphany rising and ultimately failed the conspirators did begin to rebel in the western counties but much of the events resulted in the execution of the rebel leaders the importance of the uprising though is the fact that it convinced henry iv that keeping richard ii alive was far too dangerous and action was needed to have been taken now we don't really know with a hundred percent certainty what happened to richard and how he was killed it is thought that he was starved to death whilst being held in captivity in pontefrac castle passing away on or around the 14th of february 1400 we still as mentioned don't know for sure how the king was killed and it's possible that he could have been murdered there is much mystery surrounding his death and his alleged body was taken and displayed in saint paul's cathedral on the 17th of february before he was buried in king's langley priory there were rumors around england at the time that the king was still alive they never had huge amounts of support in england but in scotland a man claiming to be richard was made aware to the regent albany and he became a figurehead of anti-lancastrian and anti-henry ideas henry iv himself declared this man an impostor suggesting that the imposter was in fact mentally ill and that it was just a beggar later henry's son henry v did make an effort to make up for his father's act of violence with the murder of an anointed king richard ii he decided to quash the rumors of his survival once and for all by having richard's body moved into westminster abbey which it remains today and the remains were entombed in an elaborate shrine where his first wife anne had already been placed interestingly in 1871 the remains of richard ii were examined and studied and his body showed no mocks of violence and there were no noticeable signs of being murdered by stabbing or so on his skeletal remains were intact which does suggest that a cause of death such as starvation is very possible his remains were found to show that richard was a tall man around six feet tall and it was an athletic and strong the skull showed no mark of violence and also many of the king's teeth were well preserved inside the tomb were a staff scepter two pairs of royal gloves and fragments of the peak shoes he was buried in a number of the relics were then taken from the tomb so the murder of richard ii today remains an event in english history which has been mostly forgotten however it is still rather captivating and is shrouded in intrigue and suspicion as we still don't have conclusive proof as to how the king died we can still speculate but what is shocking is that richard was in theory defroned in a rebellious act by a man who some couldn't consider a usurpo henry iv wasn't really ever meant to be king but through the abdication of richard and the deal to spare his life which he later went back on the course of english history was changed forever once again thanks for watching to support our channel please make sure to subscribe and once again thank you so much for watching

Channel: TheUntoldPast

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Id: Tl5Am9LP8-Y

Length: 11min 38sec (698 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 21 2021