The Baronage in the Reign of Richard II, 1377-1399

This thesis is a prosopographical study of the English baronage during the reign of Richard II. It considers the role of barons within the political community and attempts to characterise them, both in terms of their engagement with institutions and by exploring private power relations. In the tradition of the political culture framework within which the study is situated, it seeks ultimately to determine the group’s motives.

The first section explores structures, defining the baronage and tracing the historical development of the class. The stresses and concepts that moulded and distinguished the political culture are also set out. Three broad themes – politics, land and lordship - are then discussed in the second section. These endeavour to quantify and qualify the power and authority that were exercised by the 66 baronial families from the reign. In the political arena barons’ engagement with the apparatus of royal government, administration and justice are investigated, along with political favour and its rewards. The size and distribution of their landholding is then assessed and the strategies they employed for putting their estates together determined. The service they performed and received is afterwards discussed and the reasons for and benefits of it analysed. These broader themes are then enriched by a demonstration of the differences on the ground. In this third section two case studies, of the Gloucestershire and Sussex barons, revisit the same themes, but look in more detail at just the handful of resident barons in those counties. Finally, the different situations in the two sample localities are reconciled by deciphering the barons’ motives.