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Henry of Bolingbroke would have known about King Edward III’s Act of Entail and that he was third in line for the throne after his cousin Richard and his father John of Gaunt. Since Richard was only three months older than him, Henry could hardly have hoped to outlive Richard to wear the crown himself one day. Richard would surely marry and have children who would inherit the throne. If Edward III would have named John of Gaunt as his heir instead of Richard, Henry most certainly could have expected to inherit the throne one day from his father. Even so, being third in line to the throne wasn’t so bad for Henry. He lived a very comfortable life as a royal prince and spent his youth preparing to be a successful ruler, whether by kingship or as an elite nobleman to his cousin Richard.
Born in 1366 at Bolingbroke Castle in Lincolnshire, Henry was raised around the royal court alongside Richard.1 As royal princes, they would have both been taught the rules of chivalry, the art of the joust, and how to behave at court. Unlike Richard, Henry fully embraced his martial education and became one of the most respected knights in all of Europe. Not only did he travel abroad on crusades, he also befriended many foreign rulers and made magnificent trips to be entertained at their courts.2 It was with those foreign rulers that he learned the valuable lesson of working together with nobles and to forge alliances with them rather than trying to control them, which would be one of Richard’s downfalls. Unlike Henry, Richard had none of the skills required for a strong medieval warrior king. He had no aptitude towards physical feats, such as jousting, and found no joy in combat training or weaponry.3
Richard was only 9 years old in 1376 when his father, the Black Prince, died. Then the very next year, old King Edward died. Suddenly young Richard was thrust into the spotlight and would have to deal with the pressure of being a child king under the enormous shadow of his grandfather. Edward’s reign had started with great promise but ended in huge disappointments, especially over the losses in the Hundred Years’ War. The people of England hailed Richard II as the saviour of the kingdom, the answer to all England’s woes.4 It gave him a big head and perpetual case of paranoia. He was quite distrustful of those around him who held power and grew suspicious that someone in the group would eventually try to challenge his authority as the king of England.
Although Henry and Richard grew up together as young boys, they were not good friends, in fact, quite the opposite. Richard absolutely hated Henry. Richard was none of the things that Henry was. Richard was not strong and athletic, he did not joust, and he was not an experienced military leader. He was basically the antithesis of his once mighty grandfather Edward III. Richard was terribly jealous of Henry and felt threatened that Henry or his father might one day try to wrestle the crown from his head.5
Richard II was crowned king of England on 16 July 1377 at Westminster Abbey. His cousin, Henry of Bolingbroke, participated in the coronation ceremony as did Henry’s father and Richard’s uncle, John of Gaunt. They had every intention of supporting Richard as king and assisting him in good governance, but Richard didn’t exactly make it easy. In the early years of his reign, government was essentially run by Gaunt and the other prominent nobles and churchmen. But in January 1380, Richard II declared his minority to be over as he thought himself old enough to rule. That’s when all the trouble started.
To be fair, England had been in tumult for many years as a result of King Edward III’s decline in health and ambition. The commoners were tired of being pinched for more and more money every year to fund fruitless expeditions to France but Richard and his councillors didn’t really care that they were making life extremely difficult on their subjects. They mercilessly passed additional poll taxes to pay for the war repeatedly in the first few years of Richard’s reign. Not only were their expeditions to France a failure, the French had gained an upper hand and went on the offensive. England now faced the serious threat of invasion on their own land. It was one thing to fight a war in another country, it was quite another for the war to come to you.
The breaking point between the commoners and the king came in early 1381 when the king’s commissioners travelled to the shires to collect the newest round of taxes instituted by the Northampton Parliament. When the commoners resisted, Richard sent his biggest thugs to intimidate them into submission.6 The people were appalled at the rough treatment by their king and it only fueled their desire to mount a resistance. So widespread was the discontent that many counties rose up together and challenged the king in what would become known as the Peasants’ Revolt.
The first to revolt against the king’s authority came from Essex in late May 1381. As news spread that the villagers had taken up arms and murdered the royal sheriff, other towns began to rise up as well. Within days, the rebels, led by Wat Tyler and John Ball, organised themselves into one cohesive group and designed a strategy to keep their momentum going. They went from town to town throughout England stirring up the discontented and recruiting more commoners for their mighty mob which would soon march on London. From the very beginning the rebels pledged their allegiance to King Richard II and swore that their aim was to set government right by expelling corrupt leaders and reforming the treatment of all England’s peasants.7
For the next ten days, the rebels built up their armies and started dispensing justice in small little towns across southeastern England. They found the corrupt royal appointees who had been complicit in Richard’s excessive taxation policy and in many cases murdered them.8 Once they had spilled enough blood in the shires, it was now time to take their complaints to the king in London. Richard had been well informed of the peasants’ activities in those first two weeks of June and he was prepared to negotiate.
On 11 June 1481, Richard sent his royal messengers to Canterbury, inviting the rebels to meet with him in person the following day at Blackheath, just east of London. The peasants eagerly agreed and immediately set off west towards Blackheath but they didn’t travel peacefully. All along the way the mob hunted down whom they considered to be traitorous and burned down building after building inciting terror all along their path. Meanwhile, Richard spent the day moving the royal court from Windsor Castle to the Tower of London, the safest fortress in the city. Included in Richard’s group was his cousin Henry Bolingbroke and hundreds of royal guards and courtiers.
The following day the peasants gathered at Blackheath in the tens of thousands. Clearly their numbers intimidated the king’s party who had travelled down the Thames to the meeting place. Richard decided not to go ashore just yet. Instead, he sent a messenger to get the rebels petition so he could learn their demands. Richard and his party were shocked at what they read. The rebels outright demanded the execution of a long list of Richard’s closest advisors, including John of Gaunt, Simon Sudbury, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Treasurer Hales.9 Clearly Richard was not going to allow that to happen, so he sent a message back saying they should discuss the matter further next week.
The rebels felt betrayed and humiliated by the royal snub. On 13 June they began a march of vengeance, their target being the capital city of London. If Richard would not administer justice, the rebels would take matters into their own hands. King Richard did nothing to protect the city against the invading mob. Instead, he locked himself up in the Tower with his closest adherents. Richard left the citizens of London to fend for themselves when the rebel mob was literally at their gates. Londoners feared the mobs’ destruction but they did not have the numbers to hold them back from London Bridge, so they opened the gates to the city.10
The rebels ran through the city hunting down their political targets and setting free all the prisoners in the city jails. Since John of Gaunt was at the top of their hit list, they headed towards his luxurious Savoy Palace, the grandest residence in all of England next to the king’s. Luckily John was north on the Scottish borders and not home at Savoy when the rebels invaded his property. They piled up all his belongings, including his clothing, furniture, and tapestry, and set it all on fire. They threw all of his coins, plate, and jewels into the Thames and then set the palace itself on fire. So complete was the destruction that the entire building collapsed.11 There was literally nothing left.
Richard and his councillors looked out from the Tower to see a city on fire and the rebel army heading their way. When the rebels arrived, they encircled the Tower, effectively imprisoning Richard and his companions. Richard sent a messenger down who announced that the king was prepared to pardon them all if they would promptly leave London. It was a ludicrous offer, one with no advantage for the rebels. They laughed it off. Richard tried again, this time proposing that they meet the following day at Mile End, not far from the safety of the Tower. This time, Richard did show up.
On 14 June 1381, Richard and a large group of adherents arrived at Mile End to an enormous group of rebels, again numbering in the tens of thousands. Richard asked them what they wanted and this time they put forth a more reasonable set of demands like a reform of the justice system, maximums for rent, minimums for pay, and freedom from serfdom. They did not call for the heads of Richard’s closest advisors like they had done at Blackheath. Richard was prepared to accept almost any terms they put forth so it was lucky for him that he didn’t have to agree to the deaths of his closest advisors. But for some unexplained reason, after agreeing to the rebels’ demands Richard then proclaimed that they were also free to capture those they considered traitorous and should bring them before the king for lawful judgement.12 He essentially gave them free licence to roam his kingdom and dole out their own law and order.
Their first targets were the noblemen hiding in the Tower. By giving the peasants free reign to round up those they deemed traitorous, Richard had inadvertently unleashed the rebel mob on those he was trying to protect most. The rebels easily overtook what little guards were left at the Tower and the destruction began. Several of Richard’s councillors were killed, including Simon Sudbury, the archbishop of Canterbury. They dragged Simon to Tower Hill and had him beheaded, then they staked his head on a spike and nailed his archbishop’s hat to his skull. Fifteen-year-old Henry Bolingbroke only survived the attack because of the intervention of one of the guards, John Ferrour, who dissuaded the mob from taking the young boy’s life. No doubt the terror of the event left a lasting impression on Henry, in more than one way.13
Even though the king and the rebels had come to an agreement on 14 June 1381, the unrest in London had not settled down one bit. The rebels were still inhabiting the city and wreaking havoc on their targets. They performed their own trials and levied executions without the approval of Richard. On 15 June, the rebels burst into Westminster Abbey and dragged out prison warden Richard Imworth, then took him to Cheapside for a public beheading. This was the straw that broke Richard’s back. He accepted that his Mile End agreement was already failing and sent yet another royal messenger to the rebel army demanding that they meet him again for more negotiations, this time at Smithfield.
For Richard’s third meeting with the rebels, he did not send a messenger but appeared himself face-to-face with their leader Wat Tyler and asked for his demands. Tyler demanded not only an end to serfdom but also an end to lordship as a whole. Richard told him he could have anything he wanted as long as he left the city immediately. As Tyler considered the king’s offer, a scuffle broke out in which Tyler pulled out a dagger and the mayor of London responded by sticking his own dagger in Tyler’s neck.14 Chaos and confusion broke out among the rebels. The royal army surrounded the rebels and presented to the king Wat Tyler’s head on a spike. With their leader now gone and executed as a traitor, the rebels lost their will to fight. They begged the king’s forgiveness and meekly marched out of London to return to their homelands. King Richard II had narrowly survived the first serious threat to his reign. Although it was the first, it certainly wouldn’t be the last. Richard had succeeded in subduing the commoners but next he would face an even bigger threat from his own noblemen.