RICHARD 



RICHARD 



RICH'ARD, the Christian name of three 

 English kings who ruled between 1189 and 1485. 



Richard I (1157-1199), who reigned from 

 1189 to 1199, has come down in history as 

 RICHARD THE LION-HEARTED (Richard Coeur de 

 Lion) . He was one of the five sons of Henry II, 

 first king of the Plantagenet dynasty. Shortly 



RICHARD THE LION-HEARTED 



after Richard ascended the throne he joined 

 Ph. lip Augustus of France in an expedition to 

 the Holy Land. In 1192, while on his journey 

 home, he was seized by Leopold, Duke of Aus- 

 tria, and confined in a castle on the Danube as 

 a prisoner of Emperor Henry VI. There he re- 

 mained until a heavy ransom was secured for 

 his release. It is said that while he lay in prison 

 his favorite minstrel sought him out and made 

 himself known by singing to his master outside 

 the castle. This romantic tale, given more 

 fully in these volumes in the article BLONDEL, 

 is one of the many associated with the adven- 

 turous king. He also appears prominently in 

 Scott's Talisman. Richard returned to Eng- 

 land in 1194, but did not take up the active 

 administration of state affairs. Instead, he left 

 government to the care of a trusted minis- 

 ter and himself engaged in a war with Philip 

 Augustus of France. In 1199 he was killed dur- 

 ing the siege of a French castle, and was suc- 

 ceeded by his brother John. During his entire 

 reign Richard spent less than one year in Kim- 

 land. Though a brave and accomplished man, 

 he performed not one service for the good <>: 



TV. 



Richard H (1367-1400) was ten years old 

 i he succeeded his grandfather. Edward III 

 ml was the second son of the Black Pr 

 and the nephew of John of Gaunt. The latter 



became the real ruler, and so heavily did he 

 tax the people that a rebellion under Wat Tyler 

 broke out in 1381. In quelling this insurrec- 

 tion the boy king showed considerable spirit 

 and courage. Wars and intrigues disturbed the 

 rest of Richard's reign, and in 1399 he abdi- 

 cated. The immediate cause of this event was 

 his confiscation of the estates of his cousin, the 

 Duke of Hereford, eldest son of John of Gaunt. 

 Hereford raised an army against Richard and 

 forced him to resign the crown, and it is sup- 

 posed that he later had him put to death. Dur- 

 ing the reign of Richard, Chaucer wrote his 

 Canterbury Talcs (which see) and Wycliffe 

 made a translation of the Bible. Important 

 political movements were the development of 

 the Privy Council and an increase in the ac- 

 tivity of Parliament. The Duke of Hereford 

 succeeded to the throne as Henry IV (see 

 HENRY, subhead Henry IV, page 2770). 



Richard III (1452-1485), the youngest son of 

 Richard, Duke of York, succeeded to the throne 

 in 1483. His reign was brief and troubled, for 

 he represented one of the two rival houses 

 Lancaster and York whose struggles for the 

 crown made up the annals of the Wars of the 

 Roses. When, in 1483, Edward IV died, his lit- 

 tle son became king as Edward V. This child 

 was left to the care of his uncle, Richard, Duke 

 of Gloucester, who became Protector of the 

 kingdom. Soon after this, Richard began plot- 

 ting for the kingship. He had the most po 

 ful relatives of the queen mother arrested and 

 beheaded, the boy king and his young brother 

 were placed in the Tower, and an ignoble Par- 

 liament declared the Protector the rightful king. 

 A crown so gained could not be securely held, 

 and the king was soon threatened by plots for 

 the rescue of the imprisoned children. Richard 

 probably tried to offset these plots by having 

 the young princes murdered ; at least the evi- 

 dence points to his guilt, in this cruel scheme. 

 At all events the people looked upon him as 

 the murderer of his nephews, and a general 

 uprising in favor of the House of Lancaster 

 quickly took form. On Bosworth Field, in 1485, 

 Richard's forces were defeated by an army un- 

 <1< T tho Earl of Richmond, who became king 

 as Henry VII. Richard himself was slain in 

 1 >:itt!c. For a striking though exaggerated 

 view of Richard's character the reader should 

 Miuly Shakespeare's great historical play, King 

 Richard 111. 



Consult Archer'8 Crusade of Richard I; Vlck- 

 rrs' England in the Later Middle A get; Mark- 

 ham's Richard III: Hi* Life and Character. 



