Richard II and the Fiction of Majority Rule

Dodd, Gwilym

Abstract

For Thomas Walsingham, one of the first occasions when Richard II revealed the true nature of his rule came in the Summer of 1383 when, accompanied by his new queen, he went on a “shrine-crawl” of the eastern counties, imposing himself and his household on the hospitality of the region’s abbeys, apparently showing little consideration for the expense and inconvenience that his visits caused. It was not simply that the king had received “an abundance of gifts from both religious and seculars,” but that these gifts had been “bestowed in great abundance upon the foreign countrymen of the queen, her Bohemians.” Moreover, when he had stayed at the abbey of Bury (St Edmunds) Richard had peremptorily confirmed Abbot John Timworth in office even though the latter had not yet received papal confirmation. “After such action,” Walsingham commented, “the king’s unreliability, and that of his council, became known far and wide.” All in all, if Walsingham’s account represented broader opinion, Richard’s progress through the shires had been a public relations disaster. It had exposed some deep-seated flaws in the exercise of his kingship—the unnecessary extravagance of his household, the misappropriation of money and the injudicious exercise of the royal prerogative.

Citation

Dodd, G. (2008). Richard II and the Fiction of Majority Rule. In C. Beem (Ed.), The Royal Minorities of Medieval and Early Modern England, 103-159. Palgrave Macmillan. doi:10.1057/9780230616189_4

• Publication Date: 2008
• Deposit Date: Sep 2, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 2, 2019
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Pages: 103-159
• Book Title: The Royal Minorities of Medieval and Early Modern England
• ISBN: 9781349375615
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230616189_4
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2547426
• Publisher URL: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9780230616189_4