Editing Lords Appellant

{{short description|Rebel lords under King Richard II}}
[[File:A Chronicle of England - Page 328 - Arundel, Gloucester, Nottingham, Derby, and Warwick, Before the King.jpg|300px|right|thumb|A Victorian depiction of the Lords Appellant throwing down their [[Gauntlet (glove)|gauntlets]] to [[Richard II of England|King Richard II]].<br>From left to right: [[w:Richard FitzAlan, 11th Earl of Arundel|Arundel]]; [[w:Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester|Gloucester]]; [[w:Thomas de Mowbray, 1st Duke of Norfolk|Mowbray]]; [[w:Henry IV of England|Bolingbroke]] (later Henry IV); and [[w:Thomas de Beauchamp, 12th Earl of Warwick|Warwick]].]]
The '''Lords Appellant''' were a group of nobles in the reign of [[Richard II of England|King Richard II]], who, in 1388,<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1386-1421/member/stafford-sir-humphrey-i-1413 | title=STAFFORD, Sir Humphrey I (d.1413), of Southwick in North Bradley, Wilts. And Hooke, Dorset. &#124; History of Parliament Online}}</ref> sought to impeach five of the King's favourites in order to restrain what was seen as tyrannical and capricious rule. The word ''appellant'' — still used in modern English by attorneys — simply means '[one who is] appealing'. It is the older (Norman) French form of the [[present participle]] of the [[verb]] ''appeler'', the equivalent of the English 'to appeal'. The group was called the "Lords Appellant" because its members invoked a legal procedure called an "appeal" to begin prosecution: the favourites were charged under an "appeal of treason", a device borrowed from English civil law, which led to some procedural complications. <ref>Anthony Tuck, ‘Lords appellant (act. 1387–1388)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Sept 2010 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/53093, accessed 12 Oct 2010]</ref>

==Members==
There were originally three Lords Appellant:
* [[Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester|Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester]], son of [[Edward III of England|Edward III]] and thus the king's uncle; 
* [[Richard FitzAlan, 4th Earl of Arundel|Richard FitzAlan, Earl of Arundel and of Surrey]]; and 
* [[Thomas de Beauchamp, 12th Earl of Warwick|Thomas de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick]]. 

These were later joined by:
* [[Henry IV of England|Henry Bolingbroke, Earl of Derby]] (the future king Henry IV) and 
* [[Thomas de Mowbray, 1st Duke of Norfolk|Thomas de Mowbray, Earl of Nottingham]] (later Duke of Norfolk).

== Success ==

Upon the successful conviction of the King's favourites at trial, the Lords Appellant formed themselves into an extralegal "Commission" starting on 19 November 1386 to check Richard II's power.<ref>Anthony Goodman, ''The Loyal Conspiracy:The Lords Appellant under Richard II'', (University of Miami Press, 1971), 13.</ref> The following year, 1387, an attempt by [[Robert de Vere, Duke of Ireland|Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford]] to overthrow the Commission and reestablish Richard as sole ruler ended in a royal defeat at the skirmish of [[Radcot Bridge (Battle)|Radcot Bridge]], outside [[Oxford]].<ref>Anthony Goodman, ''The Loyal Conspiracy:The Lords Appellant under Richard II'', 129-130.</ref> Richard was thus reduced to a [[figurehead]]; he had no real power and was forced to acknowledge the supremacy of the Commission.

The Lords Appellant proceeded to punish the King's disgraced favourites by calling the "[[Merciless Parliament]]" of 1388 to pass judgement. The nominal governor of Ireland, de Vere, and Richard's [[Lord Chancellor]], [[Michael de la Pole, 1st Earl of Suffolk|Michael de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk]], who had fled abroad, were sentenced to death ''in absentia''.<ref name="Goodman44">Anthony Goodman, ''The Loyal Conspiracy:The Lords Appellant under Richard II'', 44.</ref> [[Alexander Neville|Alexander Neville, Archbishop of York]], had his estate confiscated.<ref name="Goodman44" /> The [[Lord Chief Justice]], [[Robert Tresilian|Sir Robert Tresilian]], was executed,<ref name="Goodman44"  /> as were [[Nicholas Brembre|Sir Nicholas Brembre]], the [[Lord Mayor of London]], courtiers [[John Beauchamp, 1st Baron Beauchamp of Kidderminster|John Beauchamp of Holt]], Sir James Berners, and Sir John Salisbury. [[Simon Burley|Sir Simon Burley]] was found guilty of exercising undue influence over the king and was sentenced to death.<ref>Anthony Goodman, ''The Loyal Conspiracy:The Lords Appellant under Richard II'', 46.</ref> Derby and Nottingham, together with the [[Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York|Duke of York]], tried to win a reprieve for him, but he was executed on 5 May.

==Aftermath==
In 1389, Richard's uncle, [[John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster|John of Gaunt]], returned from campaigning in [[Spain]]. His influence enabled Richard to slowly rebuild his power until 1397, when he reasserted his authority and destroyed the principal three among the Lords Appellant, Gloucester, Arundel and Warwick.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Burt |first1=Caroline |last2=Partington |first2=Richard |title=Arise England: Six kings and the making of the English state |date=2024 |publisher=Faber |location=London |isbn=978-0-571-31198-9 |page=567}}</ref> However, in 1399 Richard was deposed by Gaunt's son, [[Henry IV of England|Henry of Bolingbroke]], partly as a result of the royal confiscation of Gaunt's estate on his death. Bolingbroke succeeded him as Henry IV.

Richard never forgave the Lords Appellant. His uncle Gloucester was murdered in captivity in Calais; he was killed on Richard's orders.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Burt |first1=Caroline |last2=Partington |first2=Richard |title=Arise England: Six kings and the making of the English state |date=2024 |publisher=Faber |location=London |isbn=978-0-571-31198-9 |pages=569-571}}</ref> The Earl of Arundel was beheaded. Warwick lost his title and his lands and was imprisoned on the Isle of Man until Richard was overthrown by Henry Bolingbroke. The behaviour of the two junior Lords Appellant, Bolingbroke and Mowbray, probably influenced Richard's decision in 1398 to exile them both, and to revoke the permission he had given them to sue for any inheritance which fell due, as it did in relation to Mowbray's grandmother and, more significantly, of Bolingbroke's father, John of Gaunt.

== References ==
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[[Category:14th century in England]]
[[Category:14th-century English people]]
[[Category:Richard II of England]]