# Richard II — Character guide

> Key figures in Richard II by William Shakespeare.

- [King Richard II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/richard_ii_se/characters/king_richard_ii.md): Richard begins the play as a king who mistakes ceremony for power, banishing his own cousin and seizing Gaunt's estates while the nobles watch in silence. His gift is language — he can turn abdication into poetry and gri
- [Henry Bolingbroke](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/richard_ii_se/characters/henry_bolingbroke.md): Bolingbroke enters the play as an appellant hurling gages at Mowbray, a man of few words and hard purpose whose banishment only sharpens his claim. Where Richard talks, Bolingbroke acts — he kneels to the fallen king in 
- [John of Gaunt](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/richard_ii_se/characters/john_of_gaunt.md): Gaunt is the old nobility incarnate: loyal, blunt, and increasingly powerless beside a nephew who will not listen. He tries to mediate between Bolingbroke and Mowbray, then watches his son exiled and his own estates seiz
- [Thomas Mowbray](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/richard_ii_se/characters/thomas_mowbray.md): Mowbray stands opposite Bolingbroke in the play's opening quarrel, denying the charges of misused funds and Gloucester's death while admitting a single ambush he has already confessed. He is a soldier who would rather fi
- [Duke of Aumerle](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/richard_ii_se/characters/aumerle.md): Aumerle moves through the early court as one of Richard's close attendants, present at the lists and the abdication, his allegiance personal rather than political. When Bolingbroke takes the throne, Aumerle's grief turns
- [Earl of Northumberland](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/richard_ii_se/characters/northumberland.md): Northumberland is the practical engine of the usurpation, carrying messages between Bolingbroke and the fallen king and arranging the base-court meeting where Richard comes down to traitors' calls. He is courteous, effic
- [Henry Percy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/richard_ii_se/characters/henry_percy.md): Percy arrives at Ravenspurgh as a young man with no memory of ever having looked on Bolingbroke, offering service he calls tender, raw, and young. That very inexperience is his currency: he can bind himself to the rising
- [Duchess of Gloucester](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/richard_ii_se/characters/duchess_of_gloucester.md): Widow of Thomas of Gloucester, who urges Gaunt to avenge her husband's murder.
- [Duke of York](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/richard_ii_se/characters/duke_of_york.md): Left as regent while Richard campaigns in Ireland, York commands the realm's defense and sends Berkeley to demand what pricks Bolingbroke to take up arms. He greets his nephew not with a blessing but with a rebuke, refus
- [Duchess of York](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/richard_ii_se/characters/duchess_of_york.md): York's wife, who pleads for her son Aumerle's life before Bolingbroke.
- [Queen Isabel](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/richard_ii_se/characters/queen_richard.md): Isabel meets Richard on the road already stripped of pomp, and where he counsels her to think their former state a happy dream and cloister herself in France, she recoils at a king who would kiss the rod. She names him a
- [Sir John Bushy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/richard_ii_se/characters/bushy.md): A favorite of Richard, executed by Bolingbroke for treason.
- [Sir Henry Green](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/richard_ii_se/characters/green.md): A favorite of Richard, executed alongside Bushy by Bolingbroke.
- [Sir William Bagot](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/richard_ii_se/characters/bagot.md): A favorite of Richard who later testifies against Aumerle.
- [Earl of Salisbury](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/richard_ii_se/characters/earl_of_salisbury.md): A nobleman loyal to Richard, who brings news of Welsh defection.
- [Earl of Berkeley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/richard_ii_se/characters/earl_of_berkeley.md): Nobleman who meets Bolingbroke at Berkeley Castle.
- [Lord Ross](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/richard_ii_se/characters/lord_ross.md): Nobleman who joins Bolingbroke's rebellion against Richard.
- [Lord Willoughby](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/richard_ii_se/characters/lord_willoughby.md): Nobleman who joins Bolingbroke's rebellion against Richard.
- [Bishop of Carlisle](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/richard_ii_se/characters/bishop_of_carlisle.md): A loyal bishop who prophesies civil war after Richard's deposition.
- [Lord Fitzwater](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/richard_ii_se/characters/lord_fitzwater.md): Nobleman who accuses Aumerle of Gloucester's murder.
- [Sir Pierce of Exton](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/richard_ii_se/characters/sir_pierce_of_exton.md): Knight who murders Richard II in prison, believing it pleases Bolingbroke.
- [Gardener](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/richard_ii_se/characters/gardener.md): Royal gardener who compares the kingdom to an untended garden.
- [Keeper](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/richard_ii_se/characters/keeper.md): Prison keeper who brings Richard his food and is attacked by him.
- [Duke of Gloucester](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/richard_ii_se/characters/duke_of_gloucester.md): Murdered uncle of Richard, whose death drives the Duchess's plea for vengeance.
- [Edward](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/richard_ii_se/characters/edward.md): Likely a reference to Edward III, Richard's grandfather, mentioned in lineage.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/richard_ii_se/characters