III had seven sons , namely , Edward ( the Black Prince ), William of Hatfield , Lionel of Antwerp ( Duke of Clarence ), John of Gaunt ( Duke of Lancaster ), Edmund of Langley ( Duke of York ), Thomas of Windsor , and Thomas of Woodstock ( Duke of Gloucester ). His heir-to-the-throne was Edward , the Black Prince . When the Black Prince died of disease before his father , his firstborn son , Richard , inherited the kingdom .
After his grandfather ’ s death , Richard became King of England . As a youth who had ascended the throne rather early in his life , King Richard II demonstrated signs of incompetence , profligacy and rashness as well as an inclination to discrimination , as Shakespeare attempts to partly show to his audience in King Richard II . Over a rather minor dispute between his cousin Bolingbroke , the firstborn son of John of Gaunt , and Thomas Mowbray , Richard banishes both , later confiscating the dying John ’ s property – that was supposed by law to be handed down to Bolingbroke – in order to fund a war in Ireland . And that , as Shakespeare shows us , was the cause of Bolingbroke ’ s return , rebellion against and overthrowing of Richard .
That Richard was an incompetent king is masterfully and memorably laid out by Shakespeare in Act 3 , Scene 4 of Richard II , where he has a gardener and his servant , through the use of a set of botanical metaphors and plant imagery , prove that Richard has been a poor gardener for the garden in his care , namely , England . As the Gardener instructs the Servant how to weed out the Duke of York ’ s garden , he reveals the political moral of his botanical metaphorizations as such :
[ Bolingbroke ] Hath seized the wasteful king . O , what pity is it
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