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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Richard II
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(1367–1400) King of England from 1377 (to 1399), succeeding Edward III; son of Edward the Black Prince and Joan of Kent; married Anne of Bohemia in 1382. At the age of ten he succeeded his grandfather on the throne because his father, the *Black Prince, had died the previous year. While still a minor he reacted with courage to the *Peasants' Revolt of 1381, but his unwisely chosen favourites provoked increasing hostility as he acquired more power. The civilized life of his court (the context in which *Chaucer flourished) was at odds with the more robust and military interests of his most powerful subjects.
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A plot against him in 1387 involved his cousin Bolingbroke. Richard banished Bolingbroke in 1398 and confiscated his lands in 1399, provoking the invasion which led to his own surrender at *Conwy in August of that year (his capture was the outcome of a trick rather than a battle). Deposed and imprisoned in *Pontefract Castle, he died in February 1400. There is no evidence that he was murdered (as he is in Shakespeare's Richard II), but his death was certainly convenient to Bolingbroke who had taken the throne in 1399 as *Henry IV (see the *royal house).
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