Richard became king at the age of ten, taking over for his father, Edward the Black Prince, Edward III's oldest son, who predeceased his father. This elevation gave the boy authority over all nobles, including his uncles. Once crowned, Richard's right to rule and to have his commands obeyed was supported by the order of God, since it was believed that the king's power was issued directly from God. The king served as the representative of God on Earth, and to resist the will of the king was to onset oneself against the order of the universe and the will of God. Therefore, the king ruled by divine right, and it was this belief that served as Richard's primary weapon.
             Richard is a king and not simply a man and this play is about the claim of a king. Most of Richard's actions have to do with the act of kingly power or the failure to act. Richard is not just; the matter of Gloucester's death proves just that. As long as Richard is king he is just the landlord of England. Richard is unjust towards Gaunt and replies with rage and threat "A lunatic lean-witted fool." His coldness at the passing of a great man is shocking but with his next lines he moves from the insensitive to the illegal. When he seizes Gaunt's possessions he breaks the law and deprives Bolingbroke of his inheritance he strikes at the foundations of his own power but still believes that he is right in everything that he does. If Bolingbroke, Duke of Hereford and the son of the Duke of Lancaster, does not inherit his father's lands and titles, Richard is challenging the same rule that gave him the right to govern England, by inheritance from his father the Black Prince and his grandfather Edward III.
             When King Richard lands on the coast of Wales, he is aware of the existence of the rebellion but convinced that the nature of the kingship will protect him.
             Not all the water in the rough rude sea
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