Richard II – second lecture Ideologies of kingship in the late 16 th century.

The king as the image of God “Rex imago Dei” The king’s “two bodies”: a natural body and a political body that represents the state and survives the death of the natural body: “the king is dead, long live the king.” Not necessarily the older understanding of monarchy. Monarchs sacramentally anointed at their coronation. Richard’s reference to “our sacred blood” (I, 1, 119).

King as image of God (cont.) Gaunt’s refusal to avenge Gloucester: “God’s is the quarrel, for God’s substitute,/ His deputy anointed in his sight,/ Hath caused his death.” Richard’s sense of a mystic relation with England and its earth: III, 2, 6-22; Bishop of Carlyle’s response: 27ff. And Richard’s response: king as a godlike figure whose presence will magically dispel his enemies. “Not all the water in the rough rude sea/ Can wash the balm off from an anointed king./ The breath of worldly men cannot depose/ The deputy elected by the Lord.”

A Constitutional understanding of monarchy Not perceived as being in conflict with the “divine right” understanding But emphasizing kingship as a contract with the commonwealth. King as head of a corporate body consisting of clergy, peers, commons embodied in Parliament. King is king “under law”; he is not identical with law. Medieval theorists like John Fortescue and Henry de Bracton argued that England was a “limited monarchy.”

Constitutional monarchy (cont.) Bracton’s formulation: A king, though not under man, was nevertheless “under God and under the law because law maketh a king.” Fortescue: “the king exists for the sake of the kingdom, not the kingdom for the sake of the king.” Gaunt: by leasing out the kingdom, Richard now “Landlord of England art thou now, not king” (II, 1, 113). In so doing, Richard has deposed himself, Gaunt says

Constitutional monarchy (cont.) York on Richard’s seizure of Bolingbroke’s land and titles: II, 1,

Clip of John Gielgud as Gaunt in BBC video from 1983.

Prophetic Gaunt: his tongue the opposite of Mowbray’s. His poetic construction of England: ll is cancelled by the lines that follow, The pattern repeated in ll His mockery of his name. His final truth-speaking to Richard, 93ff. And his tongue, now “a stringless instrument,” like Mowbray’s.