Before the play begins

Thomas of Woodstock

• An anonymous play written in the early 1590s just before Shakespeare wrote Richard II.
• In a sense Richard II can be considered a sequel.
• Richard came to the throne at age ten after the deaths of his father the Black Prince (famed for his prowess in wars in France) and his grandfather Edward III.
• Because of his youth, the kingdom was run by a council; in Woodstock his uncle the Duke of Gloucester, Thomas of Woodstock is the chief counsellor and Lord Protector.
• In the play, Richard agrees to the murder of Woodstock, and actually takes part in kidnapping him.

Who's Who?

• Names and titles in the history plays can be confusing. Consider this interchange between Berkeley, a messenger from the Duke of York, and Bolingbroke, just after his arrival back in England:

  Berkeley: My Lord of Hereford, my message is to you.
  Bolingbroke: My lord, my answer is--to Lancaster;
  And I am come to seek that name in England;
  And I must find that title in your tongue
  Before I make reply to aught you say.
  (2. 3. 69-73)

  Bolingbroke, Duke of Hereford, becomes Duke of Lancaster, and later Henry IV.
• (In 1 Henry IV there are three Henrys. But we're not studying that play.)