The Tragedy of King Richard II

Theatre 250/376 Seminar Fall 2008
History

Historical Background to Shakespeare’s Kings from King Richard II to Richard III

Shakespeare wrote two history cycles, the first tetralogy (King Henry VI, parts 1, 2, and 3, and King Richard III) and the Henriad that followed, later in his career (King Richard II, King Henry IV parts 1 and 2, and King Henry V). The relationships and quarrels among the royal family became the basis for the Wars of the Roses (1455-1487). Shakespeare is reasonably accurate in his genealogy, though often the chronology and character ages are often altered.

The Wars of the Roses
The Wars of the Roses was a series of civil wars among the factions of the Plantagenets who had already ruled England for over two hundred years (beginning with King Henry II in 1154).

The conflict actually begins with the fight between King Richard II and his cousin, Henry Bolingbroke over the throne. Richard was ultimately deposed and killed and Bolingbroke ascended to the throne to become King Henry IV. After a brief respite during the reign of Henry’s son, King Henry V, The Wars of the Roses continued throughout the reigns of Kings Henry VI, Edward IV, Edward V, and Richard III and ended with King Henry VII, the first Tudor king, who defeated Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485.

King Henry VI was the leader of the Lancaster branch of the family (symbolized by the Red Rose). The York branch (symbolized by the White Rose) challenged his throne. Eventually the Yorkists won and Edward IV became king, followed by Richard III, another Yorkist. Henry VII was a supporter of the Lancasters.

Succession and Family Relationships
The basic principle of royal succession was that of primogeniture – the throne was passed to the eldest surviving male heir. If that heir was no longer living, it passed to his eldest surviving male heir. When there were no male heirs left in that branch of the family, the succession went to the male survivors of the next branch of the family. It is also true that the eldest surviving heir of a female ancestor also had a claim.

King Edward I, or Longshanks, was a respected and successful king who conquered Wales and nearly conquered Scotland. He was a popular king who reformed government. His son, King Edward II had a rather stormy reign characterized by political unrest. He was eventually the first British king to be deposed and was ultimately murdered.

Edward III, like his grandfather, was a powerful, and successful king. He had a total of seven sons. The eldest was Edward, Prince of Wales (The Black Prince), an exceptional military leader who was killed in battle before he could ascend to the throne. His son, Richard, was therefore legitimately next in line for the throne.

Edward III's second son, William of Hatfield, died without a male heir. The third was Lionel, Duke of Clarence. He had a daughter named Philippa who married Edmund Mortimer, the Earl of March. This meant that upon Richard II’s death, the Mortimers have a claim to the throne. Since William had no heir, the Mortimers are the male descendants of the next oldest child of Edward III. In Part 1 of King Henry IV the challenge Henry IV’s legitimacy to the crown

John of Gaunt was Edward III’s fourth son and it is in him that the House of Lancaster originates. His son, Henry Bolingbroke, usurps the throne from Richard II and becomes King Henry IV. The entire basis of the Lancaster’s claim to the throne is their belief in the legitimacy of Henry IV.

Edmund of Langley, Duke of York, is Edward III’s fifth son and it is he who begins the House of York. Eventually, the Yorks unite with the Mortimer branch through marriage. Thus strengthening their claim to the throne through Philippa, the daughter of Lionel. In both parts of Henry IV the King is challenged by armed rebellions by those opposed to the Lancastrians. When Prince Hal, Henry IV’s son, ascends to the throne the civil wars are put on hold because of the wars with France. King Henry V is triumphant in battle and takes Katherine of France (daughter to the King) as his wife. This is the same Katherine who, after Henry V dies, marries Owen Tudor from whom springs the next line of monarchs after Richard III beginning with Henry VII (with a successful, but rather tenuous claim to the throne)

When King Henry V dies, his son, Henry VI accedes to the throne. His claim to the throne is disputed by the Yorkist family, led by Richard Plantagenet, reviving the old dispute about the legitimacy of the Lancastrian claim to the throne. Richard’s father was Richard, Earl of Cambridge, son of Edmund Langley, the fifth son of Edward III. This Richard married Anne Mortimer, the daughter of Philippa, and granddaughter of Lionel, third son of Edward III. Richard, Duke of York is the son of Anne Mortimer and Richard, Earl of Cambridge. The argument is that Once Richard II dies, the throne goes either to the eldest heir or the surviving family of that heir. Since Black Prince and Richard II, are both dead and William of Hatfield (Edward III's second son) dies without children, the Yorkists claim that the legitimate candidates are the successors of Lionel, Duke of Clarence, the third son of Edward III (these are the Mortimers). Since the mother of Richard, Duke of York, was a member of the Mortimer family, they declare that his claim to the throne is stronger than Henry VI’s, whose ancestry dates back to John of Gaunt, the fourth son of Edward III (this is the passage we looked at in part 2 of King Henry VI).

During the Wars of the Roses, both Henry VI and his son, Edward, Prince of Wales are killed (part 3 of King Henry VI). The eldest surviving son in the York family, Richard, Duke of York, becomes King Edward IV. This is where Shakespeare’s King Richard III begins.

Edward IV has three brothers: Edmund, Earl of Rutland, George, Duke of Clarence, and Richard Gloucester, Duke of York. Edward was killed in battle. Richard arranges the murder of his older brother Clarence as well as the murder of his nephews, the two young sons of Edward IV (the two princes in the Tower of London) This eliminates any rivals to Edward IV’s throne. When Edward dies, Richard becomes King Richard III, the last of the Plantagenet line of kings. Although he marries Anne Neville (widow of Edward, Prince of Wales) it in no way strengthens his claim to the throne and they have no issue.

Although Henry Tudor’s claim to the throne is weak, when he defeats Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field he becomes King Henry VII. He marries Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV, who is the last surviving member of the Yorkist royal family. Henry VII therefore finally unites the York and Lancaster houses.

Shakespeare is always seeking a return to order. The opposite of political order is the resultant anarchy that comes from the usurping of legitimate royal authority through deposition, violence or murder. Throughout Shakespeare’s histories we see the relative absurdity of the competing claims to the throne. The result of all this is chaos.

As much as Shakespeare wrote about earlier generations and kings, he was clearly concerned with his own world. Queen Elizabeth I had her own challenges to the throne and she was very sensitive about such issues. After all, although her father was King Henry VIII, his marriage to Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth’s mother, was never accepted and Elizabeth was illegitimate. Everyone in Elizabethan England was concerned about the issues surrounding succession since Elizabeth never married and had no children.

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