There is a great deal of mystery concerning the death of Richard II.
Richard's cousin, Henry Bolingbroke, Duke of Hereford – the son of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster – had already taken part in a rebellion against the King in 1390, when in 1398 he became embroiled in an argument with Thomas de Mowbray, 1st Duke of Norfolk – one of Richard's supporters. Bolingbroke and Mowbray planned to fight a duel, but in order to avoid any bloodshed Richard decided to banish them both.
Following Gaunt's death in 1399, Richard disinherited Bolingbroke and began distributing the patrimony among his favourites. This roused Bolingbroke to return to England to claim his rights to the Duchy of Lancaster and the properties of his father, which included the castle at Pontefract (a.k.a. Pomfret). Richard was in Ireland at this time, and in no position to oppose Bolingbroke, who was rapidly gaining support.
According to the Luminarium (Encyclopedia Project), Richard surrendered to Bolingbroke at Flint Castle on 19 August 1399, promising to abdicate if his life was spared. He was imprisoned first in the Tower of London, then at Knaresborough, and some time before Christmas that year he was moved to Pontefract Castle, where he remained under guard until his death.
Was he murdered?
According to Wikipedia, "A contemporary French chronicler suggested that Richard II had been hacked to death". Shakespeare appears to have been aware of this theory; in Richard III, Earl Rivers (the brother of Elizabeth Woodville, Queen to Henry VI) wails, "O Pomfret, Pomfret! O thou bloody prison ... Richard the second here was hack'd to death ... "
Wikipedia however quotes the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, which dismisses this idea as "almost certainly fictitious." "Various chroniclers", according to Wikipedia, "suggest that Richard was starved to death by his captors, and others suggest he starved himself."
On its Henry IV page, Wikipedia says: "Henry's first major problem as monarch was what to do with the deposed Richard. After an early assassination plot was foiled in January 1400, Richard died in prison aged 33, probably of starvation. Though Henry is often suspected of having his predecessor murdered, there is no substantial evidence to prove that claim. Some chroniclers claimed that the despondent Richard had starved himself, which would not have been out of place with what is known of Richard's character. Though council records indicate that provisions were made for the transportation of the deposed king's body as early as 17 February, there is no reason to believe that he did not die on 14 February, as several chronicles stated. It can be positively said that he did not suffer a violent death, for his skeleton, upon examination, bore no signs of violence; whether he did indeed starve himself or whether that starvation was forced upon him are matters for lively historical speculation."
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