Richard’s other uncles were also excluded from the council, for similar reasons. Appointed by Parliament, the council represented the interests of the English nobles, which often conflicted with those of the monarch. Control of England now depended on control of its young king, and thus from the beginning of his reign Richard found himself caught between his ambitious uncles and Parliament’s wary nobles.
The Lords Appellant As he grew older Richard sought greater independence in exercising power. He began to select his own advisors, and starting in 1383 Parliament objected repeatedly to what it regarded as the mismanagement of Richard’s government. Richard, in turn, struggled to build up his own following. By 1386 the opposition centered on one of Richard’s uncles, Thomas Woodstock, duke of Gloucester, a younger brother of John of Gaunt. (John himself, who had mediated between the king and his critics in the past, was away attempting to enforce a hereditary claim to territory in Spain.) Gloucester found allies in Gaunt’s son Henry Bolingbroke (also spelled Bullingbrook), earl of Derby; Thomas Mowbray, earl of Nottingham; and two other earls, Warwick and Arundel.
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