King Richard II  -  The King of England when the play begins, Richard is a young man who has not matured much since his adolescence. Stately and poetic, he enjoys the trappings of kingship and has an extraordinary flair for poetic language. However, he is disconnected from his land and its people. He is overthrown by his cousin, Henry Bolingbroke, and eventually assassinated in the remote castle of Pomfret.
Henry Bolingbroke Duke of Herford  -  In some texts, thanks to the vagaries of Renaissance spelling, Bolingbroke is called "Bullingbrook," and Herford is "Hereford." He is also occasionally referred to by his nickname, "Harry." Bolingbroke is King Richard's cousin and the son of Richard's uncle, John of Gaunt. He is less poetic but far more pragmatic and capable than his cousin. He returns from his banishment abroad, sways the loyalties of both the English nobility and the common people to his side, and stages a revolution against Richard II. He is eventually crowned King Henry IV.
John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster  -  Called either "Gaunt" or "Lancaster." An important nobleman, John of Gaunt is Richard's uncle and the father of Richard's banished cousin Bolingbroke, who eventually usurps the throne. Gaunt is very old when this play begins, and he dies in Act II, scene i, after his son's banishment--but not before delivering a withering curse on Richard.
Edmund of Langley Duke of York  -  Called "York." Richard's uncle, and a brother of John of Gaunt and of the late Thomas of Gloucester. He is made Lord Governor of England by King Richard while he is away at war, but is eventually convinced by Bolingbroke to defect and join his rebel army. A traditionalist who is loyally devoted to the crown, he is deeply upset by any kind of treason against the crown.
The Duke of Aumerle  -  Also called "Rutland" late in the play, since he is the Earl of Rutland. He is the son of Edmund, Duke of York, and thus a cousin to both King Richard II and Henry Bolingbroke. He remains loyal to Richard throughout the war and, after Richard's deposition, is involved in a failed scheme against the life of the newly crowned King Henry IV.
Thomas Mowbray Duke of Norfolk  -  Mowbray, sometimes called "Norfolk," is a nobleman whom Henry Bolingbroke accuses, early in the play, of treason against the state and of complicity in the earlier death of Thomas, Duke of Gloucester (the uncle of the current King). Mowbray is banished at the same time as Bolingbroke and dies in exile.
Bushy, Bagot, and Green (also called Greene) -  Richard's friends and loyal backers in the court. Bushy and Greene are trapped by Bolingbroke and executed in Act II, scene ii; Bagot, also captured, turns informer in Act IV, scene i and apparently survives the play. (These three names are sometimes mentioned alongside that of the mysterious Earl of Wiltshire, a character whom Shakespeare apparently meant to be another of Richard's friends but failed to write into any actual scenes.)
Henry Percy Earl of Northumberland; Lord Ross; and Lord Willoughby  -  Noblemen who join Bolingbroke's rebel army early to fight against King Richard. Northumberland (occasionally called "Percy") is the father of young Harry Percy (also called "Percy").
Duchess of York  -  The wife of the Duke of York and mother of the Duke of Aumerle. She goes before King Henry to plead for her son's life.
Duchess of Gloucester -  The aged widow of the late Thomas of Gloucester, and the sister-in-law of John of Gaunt and the Duke of York. She resides in a house at Plashy. We learn of her death in Act II, scene ii.
Queen Isabel -  King Richard's wife. She was born into the French royal family and flees to France when Richard is deposed.
Thomas Percy, Earl of Worcester  -  Called "Worcester." He does not appear in the play, but is a powerful figure to whom other characters frequently refer. The Lord Steward of the king's household, he is also the brother of Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, and thus the uncle of young Harry Percy. When Northumberland is declared a traitor for having joined Bolingbroke's army, Worcester also resigns his stewardship and defects to Bolingbroke, taking the servants of the king's house with him.
Lord Berkeley -  The ruler of Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire, where York's army meets Bolingbroke's army in Act II, scene iii. He is loyal to King Richard.
Lord Salisbury -  A lord loyal to King Richard. After trying unsuccessfully to manage Richard's troops in Wales, he joins Richard in Wales after Richard returns from Ireland. He is later beheaded for his part in the conspiracy against the life of the newly crowned King Henry IV.
Bishop of Carlisle -  A clergyman loyal to Richard. He speaks out against Bolingbroke's usurpation of the throne in Act IV, scene i, for which he is arrested. He is later indicted in the conspiracy against King Henry's life, but the King pardons him and sends him away from the court.
Sir Stephen Scroope -  A nobleman loyal to Richard. He brings Richard the bad news of Bolingbroke's invasion when Richard returns from Ireland.
Abbot of Westminster -  A clergyman loyal to Richard. He is beheaded for his participation in the conspiracy against King Henry's life.
Sir Piers Exton -  A nobleman who assassinates the former King Richard in Pomfret Castle in Act V, scene v, believing he is acting under King Henry's orders
Lord Fitzwater -  A minor lord who throws down a gage sometime during Act IV, scene i, and also throws his weight around in Act V, scene vi 

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Richard II, written around 1595, is the first play in Shakespeare's second "history tetralogy," a series of four plays that chronicles the rise of the house of Lancaster to the British throne. (Its sequel plays are Henry IV, Parts 1 & 2, and Henry V.) Richard II, set around the year 1398, traces the fall from power of the last king of the house of Plantagenet, Richard II, and his replacement by the first Lancaster king, Henry IV (Henry Bolingbroke). Richard II, who ascended to the throne as a young man, is a regal and stately figure, but he is wasteful in his spending habits, unwise in his choice of counselors, and detached from his country and its common people. He spends too much of his time pursuing the latest Italian fashions, spending money on his close friends, and raising taxes to fund his pet wars in Ireland and elsewhere. When he begins to "rent out" parcels of English land to certain wealthy noblemen in order to raise funds for one of his wars, and seizes the lands and money of a recently deceased and much respected uncle to help fill his coffers, both the commoners and the king's noblemen decide that Richard has gone too far.

Richard has a cousin, named Henry Bolingbroke, who is a great favorite among the English commoners. Early in the play, Richard exiles him from England for six years due to an unresolved dispute over an earlier political murder. The dead uncle whose lands Richard seizes was the father of Bolingbroke; when Bolingbroke learns that Richard has stolen what should have been his inheritance, it is the straw that breaks the camel's back. When Richard unwisely departs to pursue a war in Ireland, Bolingbroke assembles an army and invades the north coast of England in his absence. The commoners, fond of Bolingbroke and angry at Richard's mismanagement of the country, welcome his invasion and join his forces. One by one, Richard's allies in the nobility desert him and defect to Bolingbroke's side as Bolingbroke marches through England. By the time Richard returns from Ireland, he has already lost his grasp on his country.

There is never an actual battle; instead, Bolingbroke peacefully takes Richard prisoner in Wales and brings him back to London, where Bolingbroke is crowned King Henry IV. Richard is imprisoned in the remote castle of Pomfret in the north of England, where he is left to ruminate upon his downfall. There, an assassin, who both is and is not acting upon King Henry's ambivalent wishes for Richard's expedient death, murders the former king. King Henry hypocritically repudiates the murderer and vows to journey to Jerusalem to cleanse himself of his part in Richard's death. As the play concludes, we see that the reign of the new King Henry IV has started off inauspiciously.

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