Book
Richard II
First published 1597
Richard II intervenes in a quarrel between Henry Bolingbroke and Thomas Mowbray, banishing both men and later seizing Bolingbroke’s inheritance after John of Gaunt dies. When Richard campaigns in Ireland, Bolingbroke returns to England and gathers support from nobles alienated by the king’s rule.
The challenge becomes a transfer of sovereignty. Richard is forced to surrender the crown and Bolingbroke becomes Henry IV, while resistance to the new regime leads to Richard’s imprisonment and death. Shakespeare makes the deposition a political and psychological crisis, balancing arguments about hereditary kingship with the practical reality that authority depends on land, loyalty and force.
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