Richard II of England reigned as king from 1377 to 1399 CE. The son of the late Edward the Black Prince (1330-1376 CE), Richard would succeed his grandfather Edward III of England (r. 1327-1377 CE), but as he was only 10 years of age, he initially had to co-rule with his most powerful barons. The Peasants' Revolt of June 1381 CE was successfully put down but a failed campaign in Scotland, misguided favouritism at court, and the ambition of certain rival nobles all conspired to limit the power of a king who had, unwisely, considered himself divinely chosen to rule any way he wished. In August 1399 CE Richard was imprisoned, and the following February he was murdered and succeeded by his cousin and rival Henry Bolingbroke, Duke of Lancaster, who became Henry IV of England (r. 1399-1413 CE)
Edward of Woodstock, better known as the Black Prince after his distinctive armour or martial reputation, was the eldest son of Edward III of England. Made the Prince of Wales in 1343 CE and one of the greatest of all medieval knights, Edward would not, however, become king. The Black Prince died, probably of dysentery, on 8 June 1376 CE and so Parliament selected as the official heir to Edward III the prince's surviving son Richard of Bordeaux (b. 6 January 1367 CE). The young king-to-be's mother was Joan, the countess of Kent (1328-1385 CE), and he had had one brother, Edward, who had died in 1371 CE. Richard was favoured over another of Edward III's sons, John of Gaunt (1340-1399 CE), the Duke of Lancaster, largely because the latter had supported a number of officials and nobles identified by Parliament as guilty of corruption and misrule. As planned then, when Edward III died on 21 June 1377 CE, Richard became king.
Richard was crowned on 16 July 1377 CE at Westminster Abbey, but he was a mere 10 years old and so his troubled kingdom was governed by a revolving council of nobles. The Hundred Years' War between England and France (1337-1453 CE) had started remarkably well for England with great victories at Crécy (1346 CE) and Poitiers (1356 CE) but by 1375 CE Charles V of France, aka Charles the Wise (r. 1364-1380 CE), had ensured that the only lands left in France belonging to the English Crown were Calais and a thin slice of Gascony. The war with France and its ally Scotland had also taken a heavy financial toll on the kingdom with an incessant round of taxes inflicted on the people, a situation only worsened by the arrival of the Black Death in 1348 CE which brought death and economic ruin. The failure to take the military initiative against France, high taxes and lasting economic disruption would all come back to haunt Richard later in his reign.
