British Royals “After an altercation broke out, Wat Tyler was stabbed to death by the lord mayor of London, William Walworth, who feared for the safety of the king” year, some 1,500 rebels had been killed The king spoke with Wat Tyler just outside the city’s walls had passed his first test and proven himself to be a However, after an altercation broke out, Tyler was brave and intelligent ruler, but in just six years’ time stabbed to death by the lord mayor of London, he would lose control of his kingdom William Walworth, who feared for the The crown that Richard inherited safety of the king Seeing their leader Richard in 14th Century England, and killed, the rebels seemed likely to the power that came with it, storm the city again, but Richard was buried was different to that of his rode over to them and managed in a church in predecessors The Magna to defuse the situation This Hertfordshire, but his Carta of 1215, signed by King gave the city’s militia time John, had put into law the to organise themselves and bones were later moved rights of the nobles and barons ‘persuade’ the rebel forces to Westminster and by the late 1300s it was to disperse Other rebellions Abbey as a sign no longer possible for a king to occurred throughout the country of respect govern solely by himself with no – notably in East Anglia – and the consideration as to the thoughts and king mobilised around 4,000 troops feelings of his leading citizens Of course, to restore law and order The revolt’s aims, the king was still the pre-eminent figure in the which Richard had only agreed to in order to buy time, were studiously ignored and by the end of the land and had the most power, but it was necessary King Richard II of England rides over to placate the rebels after Tyler’s death 50 vk.com/englishlibrary to rule with the nobles – or at least give them the impression that the king was doing so Rather than rule with his nobles, though, Richard preferred to bestow patronage and power to a small group of men, many of whom were in his royal household To these figures, mostly knights and minor nobility, he gave land, money and positions of influence in government Michael de la Pole, the son of a merchant, rose to become chancellor of England, one of the most important and influential positions in the whole land, while the minor nobleman Robert de Vere became Duke of Ireland These were positions that the nobility of England, the great men with their own land and armies and ancient history, believed were theirs by right The king’s military failures in France and Scotland only added to the bubbling resentment felt by the barons and earls at their marginalisation from power The Hundred Years’ War was a conflict that Richard inherited, but his policy of seeking peace not only robbed the nobles of potential glory and riches but failed; France regained territory previously held by England and even threatened invasion of the island nation While Richard looked – unsuccessfully – for peace in France, closer to home he was no such pacifist and military campaigns in Scotland and Ireland brought little tangible rewards for the money and effort they cost Described as handsome, tall (when his grave was dug up he was discovered to be over six feet tall) and refined, Richard may have looked the part but his actions were leading the country steadily towards crisis Money was raised through Parliament for an army to attack Scotland to break one half of the ‘auld alliance’ between that nation and France Richard led this force of 14,000 men himself, but the Scots refused to meet in battle and the king returned having achieved little The threat of a French invasion continued to loom ominously in the background and matters weren’t helped for Richard when his uncle, John of Gaunt, left the country to pursue his claims to Castile in modernday Spain The king had an uneasy relationship with his uncle, who was one of the most powerful men in the kingdom, but John had always been loyal In his absence Richard had lost his most influential and respected supporter and when the chancellor de la Pole demanded more money from Parliament, the fragile accord between the king and the leading men of the country shattered into tiny fragments; Parliament refused and insisted on the removal of de la Pole from his position and even demanded his impeachment After initially dismissing Parliament’s request out of hand – Richard initially said he would not dismiss so much as a scullion (a servant) from his kitchen on Parliament’s command – he soon realised that he had been outmanoeuvred and he had to give into the demands of the ‘Wonderful Parliament’ of 1486 He grudgingly relieved de la Pole of his position and slinked, full of resentment, out of the capital to embark on a tour of the country While he no doubt wanted to get far away from the men who had humiliated him, the tour vk.com/bastau