Question 1
1 ‘The influence of de la Pole and de Vere was the main reason for the problems Richard II faced during the period from 1385 to 1387.’
Use the four sources in their historical context to assess how far they support this view.
Source A: The Lords offer the king their advice.
That it please the king that his position regarding the revenues and charges on his exchequer should be reviewed and examined by certain lords with the intention of making good arrangements about how and by what means his position can be upheld and what provision shall be taken for his household.
That it please the king to attract to himself good and honourable men of standing and to associate with them and avoid the company of others because in doing so he will attract to himself the hearts and loves of his people. In doing the contrary he will create great peril for himself and his realm.
Lords’ advice about the government of the realm c.1385
Source B: A fragment of a lost chronicle outlines views about de Vere.
Many of the more experienced nobility and senior gentry represented to the king that the new glory of Robert de Vere, created marquess of Dublin and duke of Ireland, reflected very badly on the reputation of the English and Irish nations, in that they were so abused and oppressed by a fellow subject. But king Richard sent them away without thanks, his nature being against any wholesome advice. He did not fail to acquaint the duke of Ireland not only with the advice, but also the name of the adviser which he had childishly discovered. De Vere’s ambition had grown to such heights that even moderate persons, and more so the haughty, thought it high time to reduce him in size.
Chronicle, 1386
Source C: A Chronicler describes the situation in the autumn of 1386.
At the time of the parliament the king lingered at Eltham. So the nobles and the commons came and told the king that he ought to remove the chancellor [Michael de la Pole] from his position. This angered the king; he ordered them to keep quiet about these matters and to proceed with the parliament’s business, saying he would not remove the lowest kitchen boy from his post to please them. The chancellor had asked the commons for four fifteenths, payable in a year, and the same number of tenths from the clergy, saying that the king was so much in debt and encumbered by the burdens of war and his household that he could not otherwise be relieved. But the lords and commons said that they absolutely did not wish to discuss even the smallest matter until the king showed himself in parliament.
Knighton’s Chronicle, 1337–1396
Source D: A monk gives an account of tensions between the king and the nobles in 1387.
The king sent for the duke of Gloucester and the earls of Arundel and Warwick. The king said to them, ‘How dare you rebel and take up arms against the peace of my kingdom?’ The duke of Gloucester replied, ‘We are not rebels, nor do we arm ourselves against the peace of the kingdom but to protect your life against the enemies of ourselves and of the realm. We ask and insist that you call a parliament immediately and that you take into custody our enemies, your sycophants, and cause them to be present there’. ‘You shall have a parliament’ said the king ‘but I shall not harm them. I shall treat you as less than the lowest of your kitchen-boys’. The archbishop of Canterbury begged the king to consent to reform and this the king granted. But the next day he changed his mind and went to the Tower of London.
Continuation of the Eulogium Historiarum, written c.1405
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