Richard

Richard, name of three kings of England. Richard I (1157–99), called Coeur de Lion (the Lion Heart), was the third son of Henry II, whom he succeeded in 1189. He spent all but six months of his reign out of England, mainly on the Third Crusade. After taking Cyprus and Acre in 1191 and recapturing Jaffa in 1192, he was captured while returning to England and handed over to Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI, who held him for ransom until 1194. After a brief spell in England, he spent the rest of his life fighting against Philip II in France. Richard II (1367–1400), son of Edward the Black Prince, succeeded his grandfather Edward III in 1377. In his minority the country was governed by a group of nobles dominated by his uncle John of Gaunt. Richard quarreled with them but only began to assert himself after 1397; he executed his uncle the Duke of Gloucester and banished Henry Bolingbroke, Gaunt's son, and confiscated his estates. Bolingbroke returned in 1399 to depose Richard and imprison him in Pontefract castle, where he died. Bolingbroke succeeded as Henry IV. Richard III (1452–85), third son of Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, and the younger brother of Edward IV, usurped the throne in 1483. The traditional picture of him as a hunchbacked and cruel ruler who murdered his nephews in the Tower has little historical backing. He instituted many reforms and encouraged trade but had little hope of defeating his many enemies gathering in France under Henry Tudor (later Henry VII). They defeated and killed Richard at Bosworth Field, ending the War of the Roses.

See also: England; United Kingdom.