Lost In The Mists Of Time

Little is known of the Battle of Radcot Bridge, but this seemingly insignificant skirmish Little is known of the Battle of Radcot Bridge, but this seemingly insignificant skirmish decreed how England would be ruled for the next decade. decreed how England would be ruled for the next decade.

- Stephen Roberts

The Peasants’ Revolt had occurred half-a-dozen years earlier, a far more famous event than the dust-up at Radcot Bridge in December 1387. Richard II, who’d survived the uprising of the peasantry, was still only 20 when the battle was contested in today’s Oxfordshire. He wasn’t present.

The battle was fought between Richard’s favourite, Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford, and rebellious forces led by Henry Bolingbroke, Earl of Derby, and Thomas, Duke of Gloucester. There was some personal stuff involved, for Bolingbroke was a cousin to de Vere’s ‘repudiated wife’ and regarded him as a scoundrel. Poor old Richard (or young Richard) always seemed to face trouble and strife.

Richard came to the throne in 1377, as a 10-year-old. He’d courageously faced off the Peasants’ Revolt when still only 14, but showed an inability as he got older to control his leading magnates. He also had ‘favourites’ (a bit like our current leaders with their ‘advisers’), which added to his unpopularity.

Friction climaxed in 1386, the year before the battle, when the so-called Wonderful Parliament ousted the King’s chancellor. It seemed only a matter of time before the two sides came to blows, the time-honoured method for sorting out such contretemps. Armies were soon on the march.

A game of cat and mouse developed between a Royal force and Gloucester’s rebels, which shadowed it south. The former was heading towards Burford, then accelerated south, hoping to avoid Gloucester. At Radcot Bridge the two factions collided at a crossing of the Thames. Battles were often fought at strategic places. The Royal army was presumably trying to reach London to support the King, who feared deposition. Its path was blocked, but not by Gloucester.