14. England’s Greatest Family Feud
The House of Plantagenet, which held the English throne from 1154 to 1485, was prone to infighting ever since the dynasty was founded. Indeed, the dynasty’s first king, Henry II, spent much of his reign locked into a feud with and at war against his wife and sons. The Plantagenets survived those earlier travails, but they failed to survive another bout of intra-dynastic bloodletting, that began in the late fourteenth century. It was triggered by the tyrannical rule of King Richard II (1367 – 1400). Crowned at age ten, Richard had shown some promise early in his reign while still a teenager, when he suppressed England’s Peasants’ Revolt in 1381.
He did so with no small dose of nastiness, but a bit of nastiness was often a job requirement for medieval rulers. Richard became too nasty, however, and from a nasty teenager, he grew up to become a nasty customer as an adult. He proceeded to surround himself with corrupt officials and ruled in an arbitrary and capricious manner. That triggered a rebellion led by many lords, including some of the king’s own Plantagenet relatives, who seized power. It was the start of England’s greatest family feud.