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Act 1: King Richard II summons into his presence his cousin Henry Bolingbroke and Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, to hear Bolingbroke's charges against the Duke of having misappropriated military funds and plotted the death of the King's uncle, the Duke of Gloucester. The King permits the adversaries to appear in the lists at Coventry for trial by combat, but before their lances have crossed, the fickle monarch forbids the contest and banishes Norfolk for life and Bolingbroke for six years, requiring both to swear that they will never plot against him. Bolingbroke's banishment is followed shortly after by the fatal illness of his father, John of Gaunt.
Act 2: From the tongue of the dying Duke of Lancaster Richard hears charges of his profligacy and misrule and prophecies that the unhappy kingdom will suffer for his sins. No sooner has that tongue become "a stringless instrument," however, than the King seizes "the plate, coin, revenues, and movables" of the dead nobleman, overriding the protests of the Duke of York in behalf of the banished heir, Henry Bolingbroke, and justifying his high-handed act by urging the need of money for his Irish wars. The King's seizure of his property gives Bolingbroke an excuse for returning from exile to claim his rights, and on his arrival he is joined immediately by Northumberland, Henry Percy, Ross, Willoughby, anhd other disaffected noblemen. Meanwhile, the King has gone to ireland leaving the kingdom in the hands of the feeble old Duke of York.
Act 3: Richard returns from Ireland to Wales only to learn that a Welsh army upon which he has depended has dispersed upon hearing rumors of his death, and that Bolingbroke has executed his favorites Busy and Green. The deserted, "plume-plucked" King takes refuge in Flint Castle, where he is soon found by Bolingbroke. Although protesting that he has returned from exile only to claim his title and rights as Duke of Lancaster, the subtle nobleman takes Richard to London as a virtual prisoner.
Act 4: At a meeting of the Parliament in Westminster hall the sentimental, vacillating Richard and the cold, politic Henry come face to face. Richard is formally charged with his high crimes against the state and forced to sign a confession of his guilt and a complete abdication. With these documents to support him and despite the Bishop of Carlisle's dire prophecy that "the blood of English shall manure the ground, and future ages groan for this foul act," Bolingbroke sends Richard to the Tower and announces "on Wednesday next . . . [his] coronation." But Aumerle, the Abbot of Westminster, and the Bishop are moved by the "woeful pageant" to counterplot against the new monarch.
Act 5: The new ruler changes his mind about the place of
Richard's imprisonment and orders him conveyed to Pomfret Castle, whither he is taken
after a sad parting from his Queen. Aumerle's plot against Henry IV is discovered by
the young nobleman's father; but in spite of York's loyal demand that his traitorous son
be executed, Henry pardons his cousin on the stubborn insistence of the Duchess of York
that her "transgressing boy" be forgiven. At Pomfret Castle the deposed
Richard is murdered by Sir Pierce of Exton on the new ruler's hint, "Have I no friend
will rid me of this living fear?" But on learning of this foul act, Henry
banishes the regicide, protesting: "my soul is full of woe, that blood should sprinle
me to make me grow," and announcing that he will do penance by making "a voyage
to the Holy Land, to wash this blood off from [his] guilty hand."
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