"Þat Ʒet þe wynd & þe weder & þe worlde stynkes": The Sins of Richard II and the Corruption of the Crown

Abstract

Many writings from late-fourteenth century England reflect a popular conception that English society had deteriorated into serious dysfunction, which included the Hundred Years’ War, recurrent outbreaks of the Black Death, and ongoing tensions between the King and Parliament, among other matters. Three literati who discussed this problem were John Gower, William Langland, and the Gawain Poet. All three agreed that somehow King Richard II bore responsibility for the kingdom’s travails. He had engaged in a quest for a Crown which served the interests of one man, not of a society. Moreover, he had tried to create a Crown in which all law flowed from the king alone, and all ecclesiastical matters ultimately flowed from the king through the Crown. Richard’s Crown allowed for no debate, and no participation. Richard wanted the status regni and the status coronæ to merge; the king and the Crown would become one. This violated the symbol of the crown as it had already existed before Richard II’s kingship. The crown symbol he had inherited was corporate, with the king and the people together negotiating the meaning of royal power and duties. In addition, the English crown was a minor with the reigning king as the crown’s guardian. No king could unilaterally redefine the symbol of the crown, much less treat it as a personal possession. King Richard II’s treatment of the crown destabilized the kingdom, and it would cost him his crown. Gower, Langland, and the Gawain Poet disagreed vis-à-vis which exact failures of the king had destabilized English society thus abusing the crown, and all three wrote about the different issues they had with the king, but all concurred that whatever the exact failures, King Richard II had damaged the construct of the Crown of England, and thereby the realm.

Keywords

• Medieval literature
• Ricardian poetry
• Richard II
• Crown of England
• Images of kingship

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