Abstract
The life of King Richard II of England offers an interesting challenge to anyone who desires to read and interpret history in a period of civil war which often clouds and at times even obscures fact by propaganda. | It is necessary for the winning faction in most civil wars to justify its actions; it is the nature of man to desire to identify his stand with that which he deems right and just, propaganda may be a deliberate distortion of fact, or it may assume the position of an opinion or opinions held by a particular party or faction. The motives which serve as inspirational points for writers of the present age were not lacking in fourteenth century England. | The throne of England and the orderly continuance of rule by a king was dependent upon certain pre-established laws and codes which defined the manner of succession as well as the inherent rights both of the legal ruler and his council, such laws were firmly established in England at the time that Richard II ascended the throne in 1377; the regency passed from the reigning monarch to his eldest surviving son. parliament established the fact that the throne of England should pass to Richard of Bordeaux after the death of Edward III. Edward the Black prince, heir apparent to the throne, died before his father, Edward III, so it was necessary for parliament to safeguard the throne by establishing the legal heir. Lancastrian historians were later to claim that Richard II was the illegitimate son of the Fair Maid of Kent, or, like Henry Bolingbroke, that Edward III did not have a clear title to the English throne.