Henry and Richard

Henry Bolingbroke and his cousin, Richard, were childhood friends, but when they were older Henry became one of the Lords Appellant in 1387 who took it upon themselves to curtail what they saw as excesses and corruption in the administration of Richard when he became king.Not only had they been friends, but Henry's father and Richard's uncle, the powerful (and sometimes feared) John of Gaunt, was a steadfast supporter of Richard personally and of royal authority generally.After all that business (revisited recently in this blog), Richard could not find it in him to punish Henry. Richard awarded him the title Duke of Hereford, from Henry's deceased father-in-law. (Henry's and Richard's uncle Thomas of Woodstock tried to get the title for himself, having married another daughter of the deceased duke, but Thomas had been an enemy of Richard and had been killed—perhaps due to an order from Richard—while in Calais.)In 1398, the 1st Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray, "many dishonest and…