Richard II Dies at Pontefract

February 9, 1400

The deposed English king, locked in Pontefract Castle's damp stone, starved or was murdered at Henry Bolingbroke's convenience. His ghost would haunt the Lancastrian throne for three generations, and Shakespeare would later turn his downfall into the founding trauma of English kingship. Whether he starved himself or was starved by others remains one of medieval England's enduring mysteries.