Abdication of Richard II

On 24th July 1399 King Richard II of England (age 32) landed at Milford Haven having travelled from Ireland.

On 12th August 1399 King Richard II of England (age 32) negotiated with Henry Percy 1st Earl of Northumberland (age 57) at Conwy Castle [Map].

On 19th August 1399 King Richard II of England (age 32) surrendered to Henry Bolingbroke Earl of Derby (age 32) at Flint Castle [Map]. William Ros 6th Baron Ros Helmsley (age 29) was present [Note. Wikipedia states Berkeley Castle?]

On 29th September 1399 King Richard II of England (age 32) Abdicated King of England at the Tower of London [Map]. William Ros 6th Baron Ros Helmsley (age 29), Thomas Grey (age 40), William Willoughby 5th Baron Willoughby (age 29), Hugh Burnell 2nd Baron Burnell (age 52) and Thomas Rempston were present.

On 30th September 1399 King Henry IV of England (age 32) became King of England usurping his cousin Richard II (age 32) and Richard's heir, the seven year old Edmund Mortimer 5th Earl of March (age 7) who was descended from Edward III's second son Lionel of Antwerp Duke of Clarence. This second usurption was to have far reaching consequences since it subsequently became the descent by which the House of York claimed precedence over the House of Lancaster being one of the causes of the Wars of the Roses.

Ralph Neville 1st Earl of Westmoreland (age 35) was appointed Earl Marshal.

The Deposition of King Richard II. I. Translation of a French Metrical History of the Deposition of King Richard the Second, written by a Contemporary, and comprising the Period from his last Expedition into Ireland to his Death; from a MS. formerly belonging to Charles of Anjou, Earl of Maine and Mortain; but now preserved in the British Museum; accompanied by Prefatory Observations, Notes, and an Appendix; with a Copy of the Original. By the Rev. JOHN WEBB, M. A. F. A. S. Rector of Tretire in Herefordshire, and Minor-Canon of the Cathedral of Gloucester. Read 14th Jan 1819.

The Deposition of King Richard II. 12th August 1399. Then the earl went on board a vessel and crossed the water. He found King Richard, and the Earl of Salisbury (age 49) with him, as well as the Bishop of Carlisle. He said to the king,^p "Sire, Duke Henry hath sent me hither to the end that an agreement should be made between you, and that you should be good friends for the time to come, — If it be your pleasure, Sire, and I may be heard, I will deliver to you his message, and conceal nothing of the truth; — If you will be a good judge and true, and will bring up all those whom I shall here name to you, by a certain day, for the ends of justice; listen to the parliament which you shall lawfully cause to be held between you at Westminster, and restore him to be chief judge of England, as the duke his father^q and all his ancestors had been for more than an hundred years. I will tell you the names of those who shall await the trial. May it please you, Sire, it is time they should."

Note p. We are here supplied with some additional matter from the MS. Ambassades. Huntingdon, by command of the duke, sent one of his retinue after Northumberland with two letters, one for Northumberland, the other for the king. When he appeared before the king with seven attendants, he was asked by him, if he had not met his brother on the road? "Yes, Sire," he answered," and here is a letter he gave me for you." The king looked at the letter and the seal, and saw that it was the seal of his brother; then he opened the letter and read it. All that it contained was this, "My very dear Lord, I commend me to you: and you will believe the earl in every thing that he shall say to you. For I found the duke at my city of Chester, who has a great desire to have a good peace and agreement with you, and has kept me to attend upon him till he shall know your pleasure."² When the king had read this letter, he turned to Northumberland, and said, "Now tell me what message you bring." To which the earl replied, "My very dear Lord, the Duke of Lancaster hath sent me to you, to tell you that what he most wishes for in this world is to have peace and agreement with you; and he greatly repents with all his heart of the displeasure that he hath caused you now and at other times; and asks nothing of you in this living world, save that it may please you to account him your cousin and friend; and that it may please you only to let him have his land; and that he may be chief judge of England, as his father and his predecessors have been, and that all other things of time past may be put in oblivion between you two; for which purpose he hath chosen umpires (juges) for yourself and for him, that is to say, the Bishop of Carlisle, the Earl of Salisbury, Maudelain, and the Earl of Westmorland; and charges them with the agreement that is between you and him. Give me an answer, if you please; for all the greatest lords of England and the commons are of this opinion." On which the king desired him to withdraw a little, and he should have an answer soon.¹

The latter part of this speech contains an important variation from the metrical history, worthy of the artifice of the earl; but the opposite account of our eye-witness, confirmed in Richard's subsequent address to his friends, is doubtless the true representation. The writer of MS. Ambassades might be at this time at Chester; but admitting that he had been in the train of Northumberland on the journey, he could not have been present at the conference.

Note 2. Accounts and Extracts, II. p. 219.

Note 1. MS. Ambassades, pp. 134, 135. Mr. Allen's Extracts.

Note q. The style of the duke his father was, John, the son of the King of England, Duke of Guienne and Lancaster, Earl of Derby, Lincoln, and Leicester, Steward of England.² " The word seneshal," says Rastall, "was borrowed by the French of the Germans; and signifies one that hath the dispensing of justice in some particular cases, as the High Steward of England;"^1a the jurisdiction of his court, by the statute,^2a" shall not pass the space of twelve miles to be counted from the lodgings of our Lord the King."

These "particular cases" would, however, have secured to him a power of exercising his vengeance upon the parties who are immediately afterwards named. But the request urged with such apparent humility was only a part of the varnish of the plot. He had not waited for Richard's consent, having already, within two days after his arrival at Chester, assumed the title upon his own authority. In Madox, Formulare Anglicanum, p. 327, is a letter of safe conduct from Henry to the prior of Beauval, dated from that place, August 10, 23 Richard II. in which he styles himself" Henry, Due de Lancastre,Conte de Derby, de Leycestre, de Herford, et de Northampton, Seneschal d'Angleterre."

He conferred the office upon Thomas, his second son, by patent dated October 8, 1399; constituting at the same time Thomas Percy Deputy High Steward during the minority of the prince.^3a

Note 2. Cotton's Abridgement, p. 343.

Note 1a. Termes de la Ley. v. Sene

Note 2a. 13 Ric. II. St. 1. c. 3.

Note 3a. Rymer, Fœdera, VIII. p. 90.

Illustration 11. King Richard II of England (age 32), standing in black and red, meeting with Henry Percy 1st Earl of Northumberland (age 57) at Conwy Castle [Map].

Thomas Walsingham [-1422]. 19th August 1399. These terms being agreed upon and confirmed, he [King Richard II (age 32)] came to Flint Castle [Map], where, after a brief conversation with the Duke of Lancaster [Henry Bolingbroke], they mounted their horses and came to Chester Castle that night with the army that had followed the Duke, which was exceedingly numerous. The King, however, surrendered himself to the Duke on the twentieth day of August, on the forty-seventh day after the Duke's entry into England. The King's treasury, along with his horses, other ornaments, and all the furnishings of his household, fell into the hands of the Duke. However, the King's household members, both magnates, lords, and lesser men, were despoiled by the Welsh and the Northumbrians. The King himself was led to London, to be kept in the Tower until the next Parliament.

Quibus concessis et firmatis venit ad castrum de Flynt; ubi habito brevi collogquio cum Duce Lancastrize, mox ascensis equis venerunt ad castellum Cestriæ ea nocte, cum exercitu, qui Ducem secutus fuerat, Inumeroso valde. Reddidit autem se Rex Dueci vicesimo die mensis Augusti, et quadragesimo septimo die ab ingressu Ducis in Angliam: thesaurus Regis, cum equis et aliis ornamentis, et universa domus supellectili, venit ad manus Ducis; sed familiares Regis, magnates, domini, et mediocres, per Wallicos et Northumbrenses despoliati sunt. Rex vero perductus est Londonias, conservandus in Turri usque ad Parliamentum proximo celebrandum.

Chronicle of John Benet. 19th August 1399. Afterward, he advanced to Flint Castle, where he captured King Richard and led him first to Chester, then to Coventry, Northampton, and finally to London, where he imprisoned him in the Tower. The Duke Henry then held a parliament in London and was crowned King Henry on the feast of Saint Edward, King and Confessor. Before Christmas, King Richard was placed in Pontefract Castle [Map].

... et postea transivit ad castellum de Flynt et in eo cepit regem Ricardum et duxit illum in Cestriam et ad Coventriam et Norhamptonam et sic Londonias et posuit illum in Turri, et tenuit Dux Henricus parliamentum apud Lundon' et coronatus fuit Henricus in regem in die sancti Edwardi regis et confessoris, et ante Natale positus est rex Ricardus in castro de Pontefracto;

The Deposition of King Richard II. This reply was a most joyful hearing for us. After this the duke entered the castle, armed at all points, except his basinet, as you may see in this history. Then they made the king, who had dined in the donjon, come down to meet Duke Henry, who, as soon as he perceived him at a distance, bowed very low to the ground; and as they approached each other he bowed a second time, with his cap in his hand; and then the king took off his bonnet, and spake first in this manner: "Fair cousin of Lancaster, you be right welcome." Then Duke Henry replied, bowing very low to the ground, "My Lord, I am come sooner than you sent for me: the reason wherefore I will tell you. The common report of your people is such, that you have, for the space of twenty or two and twenty years, governed them very badly and very rigorously, and in so much that they are not well contented therewith. But if it please our Lord, I will help you to govern them better than they have been governed in time past."^y

Note y. Language of the same kind Richard was made to employ in two orders speedily issued for the purpose of keeping the peace and repressing any attempt of his own friends; one dated at Chester August 20th; and another at Lichfield August 24th. They both speak of the duke in these words; "qui jam idem regnum nostrum pro regimine et gubernatione ejusdem, ac diversis defectibus, in eodem regno existentibus, emendandis, aliisque de causis est ingressus."

Ilustration 14. King Richard II of England (age 32) (standing in black and red) surrendering to King Henry IV of England (age 32) (holding the white staff) at Flint Castle [Map].

If the date laid down by our historian in page 151 be correct, and those of the writs given in Rymer equally so, it would follow that the former of these instruments would seem to have been framed by anticipation upon Henry's authority, and set forth in the king's name before his arrival; since, according to the text, Richard was not brought into the city of Chester till Tuesday, the twenty-second of August. But there appears strong reason to suspect that the writer may not have been accurate as to the day of the month on which the king was taken from Flint castle, though there may be no doubt that he is right as to the day of the week. I am inclined, with Carte, to place this event on August 19 [1399]; which I find by calculation to have fallen on Tuesday in that year, and then the dates of the documents in Rymer will follow in their right course. The king would be on Wednesday, August 20, at Chester, where the first writ was issued; and after remaining there three days, and setting out on the fourth from his leaving Flint, inclusive, might be at Lichfield on his way to London, on Sunday, the twenty-fourth of the same month; where the second writ was issued. Indeed the Monk of Evesham asserts that they halted at Lichfield the whole of Sunday, being the festival of Saint Bartholomew the apostle, which by the calendar corresponds to August 21, and accords with the indisputable authority in Rymer.

Froissart Book 4 Chapter 116. 30th September 1399. On a Wednesday, the last day of September 1399, Henry duke of Lancaster (age 32) held a parliament at Westminster; at which were assembled the greater part of the clergy and nobility of England, and a sufficient number of deputies from the different towns, according to their extent and wealth. In this parliament, the duke of Lancaster challenged the crown of England, and claimed it as his own, for three reasons: first, by conquest; secondly, from being the right heir to it; and, thirdly, from the pure and free resignation of it to him, by king Richard (age 32), in the presence of the prelates, dukes and earls in the hall of the Tower of London. These three claims being made, he required the parliament to declare their opinion and will. Upon this, they unanimously replied, that it was their will he should be king, for they would have no other. He again asked, if they were positive in this declaration; and, when they said they were, he seated himself on the royal throne. This throne was elevated some feet from the floor, with a rich canopy of cloth of gold, so that he could be seen by all present. On the king's taking his seat, the people clapped their hands for joy. and held them up, promising him fealty and homage. The parliament was then dissolved, and the day of coronation appointed for the feast of Saint Edward, which fell on a Monday, the 13th of October.

Around 1401. Jean Creton Chronicler. The Capture and Death of King Richard. King Richard II of England delivered to the citizens of London.

Richard II Act 3 Scene 3. Synopsis: Bolingbroke, approaching Flint Castle [Map], learns that Richard is within. In answer to Bolingbroke's trumpets, Richard and Aumerle appear on the battlements. Northumberland presents Bolingbroke's demand that Richard yield Bolingbroke's "lineal royalties" and lift the sentence of banishment. Richard agrees. Northumberland returns and asks that Richard descend to Bolingbroke, who awaits him in the outer court. The cousins meet and Richard expresses willingness to yield to Bolingbroke and accompany him to London.