The Children of Adam and Eve

Richard II (1367-1400), king of England (1377-99), whose reign was Marked
by national disunity and civil strife.

A Younger son of Edward, prince of Wales (the Black Prince), and Joan,
called the Fair Maid of Kent (1328-85), Richard was born January 6, 1367,
in Bordeaux, France. He was created prince of Wales in 1376, the year of
his father's Death, and was placed in the care of his uncle John of Gaunt,
duke of Lancaster. In 1377, on the Death of his grandfather, King Edward
III, Richard became ruler of England, then a country devastated by plague
and oppressed by heavy taxes, the result of a war with France. Parliament,
which had obtained greater power in the last years of Edward III's reign,
now sought to secure control of the government, but was opposed by John of
Gaunt and his followers. The speedy suppression of Tyler's Rebellion in
1381 was largely the result of Richard's courage and daring. A year later,
at the age of 15, Richard married Anne of Bohemia (1366-94), daughter of
the Holy Roman emperor Charles IV, and began to seek the Downfall of the
great nobles who controlled Parliament and prevented him from acting
independently. Led by Richard's uncle Thomas of Woodstock, duke of
Gloucester (1355-97), in 1388 a coterie of noblemen known in history as
the Lords appellant appealed or accused Richard's adherents of treason,
banishing some and having others executed. The following year Richard,
with the help of John of Gaunt, succeeded in asserting his authority.

Trying to reestablish English authority in Ireland, Richard led an
expedition to the country in 1394; that same year his queen died. In 1396
a marriage treaty was concluded between Richard and a French princess,
Isabella (1389-1409). In 1397 Richard had Gloucester arrested and
imprisoned at Calais, where he died, perhaps murdered. He also exiled John
of Gaunt's son, Henry BolingBroke, duke of HereFord, who later became
Richard's successor as Henry IV, and executed or banished others of the
Lords appellant. On his return from a second military expedition to
Ireland in 1399 Richard found that BolingBroke had returned from exile and
placed himself at the head of a formidable army. Richard was captured by
BolingBroke in Wales and Brought captive to London, where on September 30,
1399, he formally resigned his crown. On the following day his abdication
was ratified by Parliament, which then confirmed BolingBroke as King Henry
IV. Richard was secretly confined in Pontefract Castle, where he either
died of starvation or was murdered in February 1400.