Richard II of England

Richard II was King of England from 1377 until he was deposed in 1399. He was the son of Edward the Black Prince and Joan of Kent, and succeeded to the throne at age ten on the death of his grandfather Edward III. His reign saw the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, in which the young king played a central part in its brutal suppression, and years of conflict between the king and a group of aristocrats known as the Lords Appellant, who took control of government in 1387 before Richard regained power in 1389 and later took revenge on them in 1397. In 1399, after John of Gaunt died, Richard disinherited Gaunt's son Henry Bolingbroke, who invaded England, deposed Richard and had himself crowned Henry IV; Richard is thought to have been starved to death in captivity. His posthumous reputation was shaped largely by Shakespeare's play, though modern historians view his personality and policies rather than simple insanity as the cause of his downfall.