1367 Richard is born at Bordeaux, son of Edward, Prince of Wales (“the Black Prince”) and grandson of Edward III (still reigning). England is involved in a series of wars and skirmishes with France, in which the Black Prince, now seriously ill, had been a notable warrior.

1371 Richard is taken to England; his father is by now an invalid.

1376 Death of Edward, Prince of Wales.

1377 Death of Edward III; Richard becomes King. The regular business of running the country is carried on by a series of “continual councils.”

1381 Peasant revolt of 1381 in reaction to taxation. The rebels attack London, where they break into Fleet and Newgate prisons and release the prisoners, attack the lawyers’ quarters at the Temple, beat and kill foreigners and unpopular merchants, and burn John of Gaunt’s palace at the Savoy. During a public conference between Richard and Wat Tyler, the rebel leader, Tyler is killed by one of Richard’s attendants. Richard, proclaiming himself the only appropriate captain of the rebels, succeeds in dispersing them.

1382 Richard marries Anne of Bohemia (daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV).

1386 Beginning of the “Wonderful Parliament,” which impeaches several of Richard’s close advisors and replaces them with an independent council.

1387 A panel of judges, in response to questions put to them by Richard, strongly reaffirms the royal prerogatives. Five “Appellant”: lords, the Duke of Gloucester (Richard’s uncle) and the Earls of Arundel, Warwick, Derby (Bolingbroke), and Nottingham (Mowbray), bring accusations of treason against five of Richard’s major courtiers, defeat forces loyal to Richard at the Battle of Radcot Bridge, and meet with Richard at the Tower of London. (Richard may have been briefly deposed, but the appellants could not decide on a successor.)

1388 The five accused traitors are tried in Parliament and convicted, but only one appears to defend himself and is executed. The Appellant lords accuse a further group of Richard’s closest advisors, including his childhood tutor Sir Simon Burley. These too are executed. But the Appellants’ efforts to rule the country and to carry on wars against the Scots (who defeated the English at the Battle of Otterburn) and against the French result in their loss of power.

1389 Richard makes allies of Nottingham and Derby, dismisses the ministers imposed on him by the Appellants, and announces his assumption of personal responsibility for the government. Truce with France (lasting until the end of Richard’s reign) initiates the first substantial break in hostilities since 1369. Richard begins a campaign of cultural innovation and personal patronage designed to heighten the status and authority of the monarchy. He relies particularly on the support of Gaunt.

1394 Death of Queen Anne, to Richard’s intense grief. (He has the castle in which she died destroyed.) Richard personally leads a campaign against the Irish that is largely (if only temporarily) successful in winning pledges of allegiance from the major Irish chiefs and lords.

1396 After an elaborate meeting of the two kings, Richard marries Isabel, the seven-year-old daughter of King Charles of France.

1397 Richard demands “forced loans” from rich subjects. He has the three senior Appellants (Gloucester, Arundel, and Warwick) arrested and charged with treason. Arundel is executed. Warwick, after a pathetic confession, is sentenced to life imprisonment. Gloucester dies before the trial. Imprisoned in Calais, he had almost certainly been murdered, probably on Richard’s orders. Richard’s behavior, as monarch, becomes harsher and more fearful.

1398 Henry Bolingboke, newly created Duke of Hereford, accuses Thomas Mowbray, newly created Duke on Norfolk, of treasonous talk. Essentially, according to Hereford, Mowbray had warned him that the King was conspiring against him, but an alternative historical report argues that Hereford warned Mowbray. The background of the accusation may have been anger at the apparent murder of Gloucester, it may have been conspiracy against Gaunt (Bolingbroke’s father), or it may have been dispute at court about the direction of Richard’s policy. It may have been a combination of all three. Mowbray, at any rate, denies the charges, and since it is one man’s word against the other’s, the dispute is to be resolved at battle. Despite the combatant’s elaborate preparations, Richard stops the joust before it starts, holds a two-hour conference, and announces that Norfolk will be exiled for life, Hereford for a period of ten years (later changed to six). Norfolk goes to Italy (wehre he dies soon after), Hereford goes to France.

1399 John of Gaunt dies unexpectedly. Richard revokes Hereford’s right to succeed and seizes Gaunt’s extensive estates. Concerned that the settlements reached in Ireland as a result of his 1394 campaign were falling apart, Richard returns to Ireland with a large force. In his absence, Henry Bolingbroke returns to England, gathers supporters, and moves quickly to the west of England to cut off Richard as he returns from Ireland. For Richard, everything goes wrong: he loses his army, and is talked out of his secure castle at Conway. He is brought to London by Henry and lodged in the tower. Henry has considerable popular and aristocratic support, but his problem is how to justify the deposition of the anointed king. Moreover, Henry is not next in line to the throne. But, after considerable pressure, Richard resigns the crown, and Parliament endorses the succession. Henry is crowned as king, and Richard is sent to the Lancastrian stronghold at Pontefract. A group of courtiers loyal to Richard launches a “secret” plot to kill Henry and his sons, but Henry soon learns of the plot.

1400 The plot to assassinate Henry unravels, and the plotters are quickly captured and killed. But the plot on Richard’s behalf ironically seals his fate. Richard dies at Pontefract in February, under circumstances that remain uncertain. (He may have been starved to death; he may have starved himself to death; he may have been smothered; he may have been attacked; he may have died of disease.) His body is brought to London and put on display, to prevent pretenders from claiming he is still alive. He is buried in a friary at King’s Langley, but at the accession of Henry V, he is reburied in Westminster Abbey.

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