14 February 1400

Richard II dies.

Well, maybe. Most historians agree that on this night, Richard II, who had been deposed a few months earlier as king of England, died in captivity at Pontrefact Castle in Yorkshire. Richard, whose reign began auspiciously in 1377, screwed up in 1399 when his best advisor, John of Gaunt died and the king sent John's son, Henry Bolingbroke, into exile and confiscated his lands. Richard then went to Ireland, leaving behind a bunch of angry nobles led by an angry Bolingbroke, who had a claim to the throne (he was Richard's cousin). Richard had no support, so he abdicated. He was put in prison, but Bolingbroke (now Henry IV) became convinced he was too dangerous to live. According to that completely unbiased historian Bill Shakespeare, Henry had Richard killed, but when his body was exhumed in the 17th century, there were no signs of violence. Nobody knows how Richard died, but his death brought an end to the main line of Plantagenet kings and opened up a whole can of Lancaster/York worms with the cadet branches. Henry's grandson, Henry VII, a horrible king if there ever was one, was partly to blame for the Wars of the Roses.