FREE ESSAY ON LEGITIMACY IN RICHARD II

LEGITIMACY IN RICHARD II

Legitimacy
Richard became king at the age of ten, taking over for his father, Edward the Black
Prince, Edward III's oldest son, who predeceased his father. This elevation gave the boy
authority over all nobles, including his uncles. Once crowned, Richard's right to rule
and to have his commands obeyed was supported by the order of God, since it was believed
that the king's power was issued directly from God. The king served as the representative
of God on Earth, and to resist the will of the king was to onset oneself against the
order of the universe and the will of God. Therefore, the king ruled by divine right, and
it was this belief that served as Richard's primary weapon.
Richard is a king and not simply a man and this play is about the claim of a king. Most
of Richard's actions have to do with the act of kingly power or the failure to act.
Richard is not just; the matter of Gloucester's death proves just that. As long as
Richard is king he is just the landlord of England. Richard is unjust towards Gaunt and
replies with rage and threat "A lunatic lean-witted fool." His coldness at the passing of
a great man is shocking but with his next lines he moves from the insensitive to the
illegal. When he seizes Gaunt's possessions he breaks the law and deprives Bolingbroke of
his inheritance he strikes at the foundations of his own power but still believes that he
is right in everything that he does. If Bolingbroke, Duke of Hereford and the son of the
Duke of Lancaster, does not inherit his father's lands and titles, Richard is challenging
the same rule that gave him the right to govern England, by inheritance from his father
the Black Prince and his grandfather Edward III.
When King Richard lands on the coast of Wales, he is aware of the existence of the
rebellion but convinced that the nature of the kingship will protect him. 
Not all the water in the rough rude sea
Can wash the balm from an anointed king...
For every man that Bolingbroke hath pressed
To lift shrewd steel against our golden crown,
God for his Richard hath in heavenly pay
A glorious angel...
Richard's elaborate comparison here of the king to the sun, leads into his belief of
divine right. Many qualities of this quotation reflect the character of Richard; he sees
himself as the glorious fire, which is parallel to the traditional image of the King as
the sun.
When Richard actually removes the crown, he does so with a poetic flair that intimates
that he, a divinely ordained king, will always possess a majesty that Bolingbroke,
forever a usurper, can only dream of: 
With mine own tears I wash away my balm,
With mine own hands I give away my crown...
The implication is that only a lawful king can follow this ceremony, and Bolingbroke will
never have such status, he will forever be smaller then Richard, who concludes his
performance with a line of forgiveness.
Though I did wish him dead, I hate the murderer... Henry banishes the knight from his
presence and decides on a voyage to the Holy Land to compensate his guilt. For he has
killed a king, the Lord's ordained, and it is a crime that will cast a dark shadow over
England for a long time to come.
I believe that Shakespeare was writing this play with the belief in divine right.
Shakespeare is writing this play for the Queen's pleasure and his views cannot be so
drastic or he could be beheaded. There are many references to God in relation to Richard
and divine right. When Richard gives up his crown he also loses his identity, we should
hate Richard for being a weak ruler and love Bolingbroke for being strong and able to
take a stand on the many issues Richard could not, but the reverse happens at the end of
this play.