Soon after putting down the Peasants’ Revolt, Richard began to build up a court party, partly in opposition to Gaunt. A crisis was precipitated in 1386 when the king asked Parliament for a grant to meet the French treat. Parliament responded by demanding the dismissal of the king’s favorites, but Richard insisted that he would not dismiss so much as a scullion in the kitchen at the request of Parliament. In the end he was forced by the impeachment of the chancellor, Michel de la Pole, to agree to the appointment of a reforming commission. Richard withdrew from London and went on a “gyration” of the country. He called his judges before him at Shrewsbury and asked them to pronounce the actions of Parliament illegal. An engagement at Radcot Bridge, at which Richard’s favorite, Robert de Vere, 9th Earl of Oxford was defeated settled the matter of ascendancy. In the Merciless Parliament of 1388 five lords accused the king’s friends of treason under an expansive definition of the crime.
“Richard was chastened, but he began to recover his authority as early as the autumn of 1388 at the Cambridge Parliament. Declaring himself to be of age in 1389, Richard anounced that he was taking over the government. He pardoned the Lords Appellant and ruled with some moderation until 1394, when his queen Ann of Bohemia, died.”(31) After putting down a rebellion in Ireland, he was, for a time, almost popular. He began to implement his personal policy once more and rebuilt a royal party with the help of a group of young nobles. He made a 28- years truce with France and married the French king’s seven-year-old daughter. He built up a household of faithful servants, including the notorious Sir John Bushy, Sir William Bagot, and Sir Henry Green. “He enlisted household troops and built a wide network of “king’s knight” in the counties, distributing to them his personal budge, the White Hart.”(32)
The first sign of renewed crisis emerged in January 1397, when complaints were put forward in Parliament and their author, Thomas Haxey, was adjudged a traitor. “Richard’s rule, based on fear rather then consent, became increasingly tyrannical.”(33) Three of the Lords Appellant of 1388 were arrested in July and tried in Parliament. The Earl of Arundel was executed and Warwick exiled. Gloucester, whose death was reported to Parliament, had probably been murdered. The act of the 1388 Parliament was repealed. Richard was granted the customs of revenues for life, and the power of parliament was delegated to a committee after the assembly was dissolved. Richard also built up a power base in Cheshire.
Events leading to Richard’s downfall followed quickly. The Duke of Norfolk and Henry Bolingbroke, John of Gaunt’s son, accused each other of treason and were banished, the former for life, the latter for 10 years. Hen Gaunt himself died early in 1399, Richard confiscated his estates instead of allowing his son to claim them. Richard seemingly secure, went off to Ireland. Henry, however landed at Ravenspur in Yorkshire to claim, as he said, his father’s estate and the hereditary stewardship. The Percys, the chief lord of the north, welcomed him. Popular support was widespread, and when Richard returned from Ireland his cause was lost.
“The precise course of events is hard to reconstruct., in view of subsequent alteration to the records. A Parliament was called in Richard’s name, but before it was fully assembled at the end of September, its members were presented with Richard’s alleged abdication and Henry’s claim to the throne as legitimate descendant of Henry III as well as by right of conquest.”(34) Thirty-tree articles of deposition were set forth against Richard, and his abdication and deposition were duly accepted. Richard died at Pontefract Castle, either of self-starvation or by smothering. Thus ended the last attempt of a medieval king to exercise arbitrary power. “Whether or not Richard had been motivated by new theories about the nature of monarchy, as some have claimed, he had failed in the practical measures necessary to sustain his power. He had tried to rule through fear and mistrust in his final years, but he had neither gained sufficient support among the magnates by means of patronage nor created a popular basis of support in the shires and in 1399 Richard was disposed and he abdicated to theу favour of Henry Lancaster and so the dynasty of Plantagenets ended.”(35)
CONCLUSION.
Summing up the events of Plantagenets rule and their role in the history of England, we should mark the following.
11th - 12th centuries (the first Plantagenets) were the years of constitutional progress and territorial expansion.
“The 13th century is described as a “Plantagenet spring after a grim Norman winter”. The symbol of this spring is the century of new Gothic Style. One of the best example of Gothic architecture is Salisbury Cathedral. Also it is a century of growing literacy which is closely connected with 12th century cultural movement, which is called Renaissance. In England Renaissance was a revolution in thoughts, ideas and learning, foundation of universities, the development of the Common Law and the Parliament, and emergence of English as the language of the nation.”(36)
The 14th century brought the disasters of the Hundred Years' War (1337 -–1453), the Peasants’ revolt (1381), the extermination of the population by the Black Death (1348 – 1349). Although the outbreak of the Black Death in 1348 dominated the economy of the 14th century, a member of adversities had already occurred in the preceding decades. Severe rains in 1315 and 1316 caused famine, which lead to the spread of disease. Animal epidemic in succeeding of currency in the 1330s. Economic expansion, which had been characteristic of the 13th century, had slowed to a halt. The Black Death, possibly a combination of bubonic and pneumonic plagues, carried off from one-third to one half of the population. In some respects it took time for its effects to become detrimental to the economy, but with subsequent outbreaks, as in 1361 and 1369, the population declined further, causing a severe labor shortage. By the 1370 wages had risen dramatically and prices of foodstuffs fallen. Hired laborers, being fewer, asked for higher wages and better food, and peasant tenants, also fewer, asked for better conditions of tenure when they took up land. Some landlords responded by trying to reassert labor services where they had been commuted. “ The Ordinance(1349) and Statute (1351) of Laborers tried to set maximum wages at the levels of the pre-Black Death years, but strict enforcement proved impossible. The Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 was one result of the social tension caused by the adjustment needed after the epidemic. Great landlords saw their revenues fall as a result of the Black Death, although probably by only about 10 percent, whereas for the lower orders of society real wages rose sharply by the last quarter of the 14th century because of low grain prices and high wages.”(37)
Edward III ruined the major Italian banking companies in England by failing to repay loans early in the Hundred Years’ War. This provided opening for English Merchants, who were given monopolies of wool exports by the crown in return for their support. The most notable was William de la Pole of Hull, whose family rose to noble status. Heavy taxation of wool exports was one reason for the growth of the cloth industry and cloth exports in the 14th century. The wine trade from Gascony was also important. In contrast to the 13th century, no new towns were founded, but London is particular continued to prosper despite the ravage of plague.
“In cultural terms, a striking change in the 14th century was the increasing use of English. Although an attempt to make the use of English mandatory in the law courts failed because lawyers claimed that they could not plead accurately in the language, the vernacular began to creep into public documents and records. Henry of Lancaster even used English when he claimed the throne in 1399. Chaucer wrote in both French and English, but his important poetry is in the latter. The early 14th century was an impressive age for manuscript illumination in England, with the so-called East Anglian school, of which the celebrated Luttrell Psalter represents a late example. In ecclesiastical architecture the development of the Perpendicular style, largely in the second half of the 14th century, was particularly notable.”(38)
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