Richard II AD 1377-1399 Silver Halfpenny London

Richard II AD 1377-1399 Silver Halfpenny

Crowned bust facing/Long Cross type

London

S1698; 14mm, 0.56g

 

Richard II was the son of the Black Prince and grandson of Edward III. The Black Prince died the year before his father and so Richard who was next in line succeeded to the throne, aged 10, upon the death of his grandfather in AD 1377. Until Richard came of age his uncle John of Gaunt became the effective Regent.

One of Richards first challenges was the Peasants Revolt of AD 1381. This was brought about by the high level of taxation and in particular a Poll Tax which was levied to help pay for the war with France. The Black Death thirty years earlier had decimated the population thereby leading to a severe shortage of serfs. One of the Peasants demands was that serfdom be abolished. When the revolt reached London John of Gaunt’s palace was burnt down and the Bishop of London was killed. Richard rode out to meet the leaders of the Revolt at Blackheath. Here the leader of the peasants, Wat Tyler, was pulled from his horse and killed. Richard showing presence of mind addressed the peasants directly telling them that he agreed to act upon their grievances. Although the revolt then petered out the charters to which Richard had agreed were not acted upon.

Richard was considerably less war like than his father and grandfather. Richard tried to stop the war with France. Although he failed in stopping the war there was effectively a truce. An expedition he led to Ireland was however successful in securing the support of the Irish nobles.

Richard tried to reduce the power of the aristocracy but this resulted in their revolt and the setting up of the Lords Appellant. Although Richard regained control when he took his revenge by killing or exiling the Lords who had revolted the son of John of Gaunt, Henry Bolingbroke returned with an army which landed in Wales. Rather than fight Richard agreed to abdicate and was then taken back to London as captive. Although Henry had agreed to spare Richard’s life when a plot was discovered to have Richard reinstated Henry had Richard moved to Pontefract Castle where he is believed to have been starved to death early in AD 1400.

Although Shakespeare describes Richard as being weak and vindictive he was in fact intelligent and a patron of the arts as well as of architecture. It was during Richards reign that Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales were written.