Richard II

Richard II is a figure famous in England's national myths--the king who went insane, the narcissist, the tyrant of Shakespeare's play. History regards his rule either as that of a superhuman monarch or a crazed and vicious ruler. But Richard II was a complex and conflicted man--a person with faults and shortcomings thrust into a role that demanded greatness. Here, Kathryn Warner offers the first modern biography of Richard II. An aesthete and patron of the arts as well as a person troubled by a much-maligned "personality disorder," Richard II here emerges from behind the mask of a theatrical character.