What You’ll Love about… Richard II by William Shakespeare

Richard II shows Shakespeare working masterfully in the mode of historical fantasy that he developed in his earlier English history plays.

Frank Howard, “Richard the 2nd №6.” Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

Richard II is a fascinating study of two different styles of wielding power. King Richard II does whatever he wants under the aegis of divine right, and he is openly vicious about it. He’s a petulant crybaby, but he has a surprising authenticity and integrity. Henry Bolingbroke, who will become Henry IV, is just as nasty as Richard is, but he cloaks his viciousness in reason and respectability to establish the legitimacy of his rule.

I have so far avoided writing about Shakespeare’s English history plays for a few reasons. I’m not confident writing about certain periods of English history. I know a good deal about the late sixteenth and seventeenth century, but I know less about medieval and early Renaissance English history, and those are the periods during which Shakespeare sets his English history plays. In addition, since I’m an American, I don’t have as great a stake in it as others, and I worry that I won’t get it right or do it justice.

Shakespeare’s history plays are essentially historical fantasy, and the liberties that they take with historical fact have been…