FITZALAN, Richard [1346-1397] -- KG, 11°/4° Earl of Arundel, Earl of Surry - English nobleman, naval and miltary commander.

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On March 24, 1387, with Nottingham, he defeated a Spanish, Flemish, and French fleet off Margate, and captured nearly 100 vessels laden with wine.

He was one of the most powerful enemies of Richard II, and conspired against him in a body known as the Lords Appellant. The three Appellant ringleaders were Arundel, Gloucester, and Warwick. With a force of three hundred horsemen, they cornered the king, who was barely twenty years old, in Westminster Hall and bullied him into submission in the tenth year of his reign. Richard endured their restrictions and bided his time, and began a course of subtle machinations culminating two years later in his resumption of full power, sweeping aside the restrictions imposed upon him by the Appellants.

For eight more years Richard governed England as a reasonable and popular King. Meanwhile he continued consolidating his power and planning retribution against those who had dared confront him.

In 1397 Richard struck. Arundell and his supporters were siezed, declared traitors and accorded only the courtesy of decapitation. Richard FitzAlan, Earl of Arundel, was beheaded 21 Sept. 1397 on Tower Hill, London.

The King now changed his spots.

The year which followed was an unveiled despotism, and Richard, so patient till his vengeance was accomplished, showed restlessness and perplexity, profusion and inconsequence, in his function.

W. Churchill

As the rights and privileges gained over the last century were one by one struck down, the people came to revere Arundell as a martyr.

Richard's excesses led to Bolingbroke's coup d'etat and Richard's imprisonment and murder -- and ultimately, to the War of the Roses.  
 

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