Carole M. Cusack, Rethinking Richard II: Religiously Tolerant, Politically Revolutionary, Renaissance Prince? By Carole Cusack

https://www.academia.edu/165250339/Carole_M_Cusack_Rethinking_Richard_II_Religiously_Tolerant_Politically_Revolutionary_Renaissance_Prince?email_work_card=title Richard II’s life and reign ended in brutal deposition and murder engineered by his first cousin Henry Bolingbroke, who became Henry IV after him. As a medieval king, he was a failure: childless, he left no heir; intransigent, he had few allies and fewer friends; and deeply absorbed in crafting a personal mythology, he neglected the needs of his subjects. Well aware of his royal power, he razed Shene Palace in 1394 after the death of his wife and soulmate Anne of Bohemia. Alien though his life necessarily is, in the twenty-first century Richard II has become more attractive to researchers. It has been proposed that he was an English Renaissance prince, a Cosimo di Medici type creating a culturally advanced court, characterised by magnificent art, literature and architecture. This lecture evaluates his life and afterlife with particular attention paid to the material cultural legacy of his reign, such as the tradition of royal portraiture his inaugurated, his refurbishment of Westminster Hall and Westminster Abbey, and his role in the rich culture of poets and literary artists (like Geoffrey Chaucer and John Gower) that flourished during his reign. ...