The remarkable treasure of gold and silver from England and France which Richard II had amassed by the end of his reign in 1399 is fully revealed for the first time in this richly illustrated book. The author explores the nature of the objects themselves, their provenance and later fate, and examines the crucial role the treasure played in diplomacy and in financing the Hundred Years War, especially at the time of Agincourt.

This fresh analysis is based on the discovery in the National Archives at Kew of a roll over 28 metres long, compiled around the time of Richard’s deposition. English courtiers and Valois princes are named as the donors of many gifts. Concealed among the treasure are valuables Richard seized from the magnates he executed or exiled in 1397. Publication in full of this exceptional inventory leads to completely new perspectives on Richard II’s court and on its splendour in the last years of the fourteenth century.

Jenny Stratford began her career in the Department of Manuscripts, the British Library. Her books include The Bedford Inventories (1993). She is a Senior Research Fellow of the Institute of Historical Research, University of London.

Informations pratiques :
Jenny Stratford, Richard II and the English Royal Treasure, Woddbridge, Boydell and Brewer, 2013. 29,7 x 21 cm, 528 pages. ISBN : 9781843833789. Prix : £ 125.

Note :
À ce sujet, les historiens de la France et de l’Angleterre lors de la guerre de Cent ans tireront aussi un grand profit de la lecture de : Jenny Stratford, The Bedford Inventories, the worldly goods of John, duke of Bedford, regent of France, 1389-1435, London, Society of Antiquaries, 1993, 436 p. + LXVIII pl. h.-t.

Source de l’information : Boydell and Brewer