1-627-892 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The betrothal of Isabella of Valois (1389-1409) to King Richard II (1367-1400), 1396. Richard was King of England from 1377 to 1399, having succeeding his grandfather Edward III to the throne. Upon his return from a second military expedition to Ireland in 1399, Richard found that Henry Bolingbroke, whom Richard had previously banished, had returned from exile and placed himself at the head of a formidable army. Richard was captured by Bolingbroke in Wales and brought captive to London, where he formally resigned his crown. On the following day his abdication was ratified by Parliament, which then confirmed Bolingbroke as King Henry IV. Richard was secretly confined in Pontefract Castle, where he either died of starvation or was murdered in February 1400. From Cassell's Illustrated History of England.