The Lords Appellant were a group of nobles in the reign of King Richard II, who, in 1388,[1] sought to impeach five of the King's favourites in order to restrain what was seen as tyrannical and capricious rule. The word appellant — still used in a legal context in modern English — simply means '[one who is] appealing'. It is the older (Norman) French form of the present participle of the verbappeler, the equivalent of the English 'to appeal'. The group was called the "Lords Appellant" because its members invoked a legal procedure called an "appeal" to begin prosecution: the favourites were charged under an "appeal of treason", a device borrowed from English civil law, which led to some procedural complications.[2]
Upon the successful conviction of the King's favourites at trial, the Lords Appellant formed themselves into an extralegal "Commission" starting on 19 November 1386 to check Richard II's power.[3] The following year, 1387, an attempt by Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford to overthrow the Commission and reestablish Richard as sole ruler ended in a royal defeat at the skirmish of Radcot Bridge, outside Oxford.[4] Richard was thus reduced to a figurehead; he had no real power and was forced to acknowledge the supremacy of the Commission. Towards the end of the Lords Appellant's term Richard attempted to raise forces against them, with the Lord Mayor of LondonSir Nicholas Brembre unsuccessfully attempting to raise forces in London.[5]
The Cambridge Parliament followed in the same year due to a lack of government funds, and more dissatisfaction was heard from the Commons.[7] In 1389, Richard's uncle, John of Gaunt, returned from campaigning in Spain. His influence enabled Richard to slowly rebuild his power until 1397, when he reasserted his authority and destroyed the principal three among the Lords Appellant, Gloucester, Arundel and Warwick.[8]
Richard never forgave the Lords Appellant. His uncle Gloucester was murdered in captivity in Calais; he was killed on Richard's orders.[9] The Earl of Arundel was beheaded. Warwick lost his title and his lands and was imprisoned on the Isle of Man until Richard was overthrown by Henry Bolingbroke.
Henry Bolingbroke (later King Henry IV) was set to duel Thomas Mowbray (Duke of Norfolk) in Coventry in 1398 over treason charges (including plotting the death of Gloucester), but King Richard II dramatically stopped the trial by combat just before it began, exiling Bolingbroke for ten years (reduced to six) and Mowbray for life, a pivotal event leading to Bolingbroke's eventual return and seizure of the throne. The behaviour of the two junior Lords Appellant probably influenced Richard's decision in 1398 not only to exile them both but to also revoke the permission he had given them to sue for any inheritance which fell due, as it did in relation to Mowbray's grandmother and, more significantly, of Bolingbroke's father, John of Gaunt.
However, in 1399 Richard was deposed by Gaunt's son, Henry of Bolingbroke, partly as a result of the royal confiscation of Gaunt's estate on his death. Bolingbroke succeeded him as Henry IV.
Goodman, Anthony (1971). The Loyal Conspiracy: The Lords Appellant under Richard II. University of Miami Press.
Roskell, J. S.; Clark, Linda; Rawcliffe, Carole (1993). "Stafford, Sir Humphrey I (d. 1413)". In Roskell, J. S.; Clark, Linda; Rawcliffe, Carole (eds.). The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1386–1421. London: History of Parliament Trust. Retrieved 31 December 2025.
