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This work reexamines the political and military aspects of the Revolution of 1399 that removed Richard II and placed Henry of Lancaster on the English throne. It argues that Henry of Lancaster was not the "all conquering" hero of 1399 but was rather the leader of a coalition of disaffected noblemen who had old scores to settle with Richard II. It also proposes that Richard II was not an incompetent king whose personality disorder(s) and/or tyrannical behavior brought about his fall. Rather, it argues that the king was in no worse a political position in 1399 than in 1387 or even 1381. As on the previous two great crises of the reign, the king forwent a military option of dealing with his opponents and decided to let the issues of 1399 play themselves out on the field of politics. Both in 1381 and 1387 this tactic had proven effective and there was nothing to suggest in 1399 that it would not be so again.
Price: $194.00
Pages: 300
Publisher: Brill
Imprint: Brill
Series: History of Warfare
Publication Date:
29 August 2006
ISBN: 9789004152151
Format: Hardcover
“The construction of the book is skillful. Biggs gives ample space to the recruitment and personnel of the armies, drawing extensively on unpublished royal financial records in the National Archives. This results in useful lists of those involved in military service as well as providing “hard data” on army sizes and composition as correctives to chronicle narratives. Biggs also maintains a robust chronological narrative and gives full attention to historiography. He takes us through the movements of each of the armies and their leaders, up to the denouement of Henry’s seizure of the crown. He sets these military considerations against a succinct yet well-elucidated political background. ........ Biggs’s book is an important contribution to the study of 1399”
Anne Curry in American Historical Review 113/1,February 2008
“Dependent as it is on a close and considered analysis of a wide range of primary and secondary sources, this judgement will remain one that scholars must reckon with for some time to come….An authoritative revision of the traditional view of Richard [II]’s deposition. …Biggs has thrown down a gauntlet that anyone working on the Lancastrian revolution will have to pick up…..”
Jonathan Good in Speculum 83/1, Jan 2008
“Three Armies in Britain is a welcome addition to scholarship on the period and will undoubtedly go far in enlivening the debates surrounding the actions and motivations of the key figures involved in events between 1397- Biggs provides meticulous and carefully researched detail on the formation and deployment of the armies raised in the last year of Richard’s reign, and his conclusions will have a valuable bearing on military history well beyond the immediate circumstances of the deposition of 1399.”
Gwilym Dodd in Journal of Military History 72/1, Jan 2008
Anne Curry in American Historical Review 113/1,February 2008
“Dependent as it is on a close and considered analysis of a wide range of primary and secondary sources, this judgement will remain one that scholars must reckon with for some time to come….An authoritative revision of the traditional view of Richard [II]’s deposition. …Biggs has thrown down a gauntlet that anyone working on the Lancastrian revolution will have to pick up…..”
Jonathan Good in Speculum 83/1, Jan 2008
“Three Armies in Britain is a welcome addition to scholarship on the period and will undoubtedly go far in enlivening the debates surrounding the actions and motivations of the key figures involved in events between 1397- Biggs provides meticulous and carefully researched detail on the formation and deployment of the armies raised in the last year of Richard’s reign, and his conclusions will have a valuable bearing on military history well beyond the immediate circumstances of the deposition of 1399.”
Gwilym Dodd in Journal of Military History 72/1, Jan 2008
Douglas L Biggs, Ph.D. (1996) in History, University of Minnesota, is Associate Professor of History at University of Nebraska – Kearney. He has published extensively on late medieval English political and military history including co-editing, Henry IV: The Establishment of the Regime, 1399-1406 (Woodbridge, 2003).