Saul, Nigel, 'Richard II and the Vocabulary of Kingship', The English Historical Review 110 (1995), 854-877

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Quick Summary

Richard II encouraged his subjects to address him as ‘your magnificence’ and ‘your serene highness’ to strengthen the power and authority of the crown

  • Richard’s interest in the language of address illustrates the distinctiveness of his kingship
  • In the summer of 1397 Richard became ‘tyrannical’
  • Henry IV reversed Richard’s policy of a ‘kingship of distance’
Key Conclusion

Saul explores how Richard II’s approach to kingship changed after 1397. Richard aimed to create a new perception of his rule by encouraging his subjects to use ‘high-flown’ forms of address such as ‘your magnificence’ or ‘your serene highness’. Saul concludes that Richard’s special interest in the ‘language of address’ as a way of raising himself to a ‘higher supra-mortal plane’ illustrates the ‘distinctiveness’ of his kingship (p. 875). The object of Richard’s policy was to ‘strengthen the power and authority of the crown’ by fashioning a ‘lofty, almost God-like, image of himself’ (p.867). Henry IV reversed this trend in 1399, and adopted a more ‘intimate’ style of kingship.

Content Overview

Saul argues that the character of Richard’s kingship changed in the summer of 1397 and the king’s behaviour became more ‘tyrannical’. This development was accompanied by the arrest and trial of the three former Appellants who had rebelled against Richard in 1386-88. Meanwhile, the chronicler Thomas Walsingham noticed the introduction of ‘strange and flattering words’ in the Ricardian court, an observation also made by the chronicler Adam of Usk. Saul argues that it was not merely the form of address that was changing, but the relationship between ruler and subject (p. 855). However, there were paradoxes and inconsistencies in his programme – while he was distancing himself from his subjects more generally, Richard developed intimacy with his retinue of Cheshire archers.

Further Findings

Upon his accession to the throne in 1399, Henry IV reversed Richard’s attempts to cultivate ‘kingship of distance’ (p. 876). He discouraged the high-flown forms of address used by Richard in his last years. However, Henry found that ‘he could not altogether dispense with the ‘strange and flattering’ forms that Richard had introduced’ (p. 877). Conscious of the weakness of his title to the throne, Henry emphasized his possession of sovereign power with the address ‘prince’ and ‘your majesty’. He even encouraged a new form of address – ‘sovereign lord’. Saul concludes that ‘a permanent change had been effected in the vocabulary of address to kings. The language of princeliness and majesty had come to stay.’ (p. 877).

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