York and Lancaster

Justin McCarthy

Ireland and Her Story

1903

Chapter III | Start of Chapter

Richard II., King of England, was in Ireland with a large force, endeavouring to reduce the whole island to submission, when the tidings came to him that Bolingbroke had landed "upon the naked shore at Ravenspurgh." Richard hurried back to England with the hope of putting down his cousin's enterprise, but he utterly failed, and had to resign the crown. Bolingbroke became Henry IV. Richard was imprisoned for a while in the Tower, and is believed to have been murdered afterwards at Pontefract Castle. The long struggles between the rival houses of York and Lancaster were carried on in Ireland as well as in England. The Norman families settled on Irish soil were divided, as their kinsmen were in England, and for a time the Irish national question was put in the background. Civil war went on in both islands until after the defeat and death of Richard III. on Bosworth Field.

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