Death of Richard II

By what authority has the belief that Richard II. died in Pontefract Castle, in Yorkshire, arisen? Every history that I have consulted (with the exception, indeed, of Lord Lyttleton's) coolly assumes it as a fact, in the teeth of the contemporary Froissart, who says plainly enough— "Thus they left the *Tower of London where he had died*, and paraded the streets at a foot's pace till they came to Cheapside."—*Froissart's Chronicles*, translated by Johnes, vol. vii. p. 708. It is barely possible that our modern historians may have been misled by Shakspeare, who makes Pontefract the scene of his…