January 24, 1954: "King Richard II" Airs On NBC

Sarah Churchill and Maurice Evans

January 24, 1954: King Richard II airs on NBC, as part of the anthology series Hallmark Hall of Fame. A version of William Shakespeare's play Richard II, first staged in 1595, this is no Christmas movie, and there is not a happy ending.

Maurice Evans played Richard II, of the House of Plantagent, who became King of England upon the death of his grandfather, Edward III. The son of Edward III, Edward of Woodstock, a great battle commander nicknamed the Black Prince, was supposed to become King, but he died of dysentery in 1376, only 45 years old. The Black Prince's eldest son, Edward of Angoulême, was supposed to become King after him, but he died of bubonic plague in 1370, only 5 years old. This left the Black Prince's 2nd son, Richard of Bordeaux, as heir apparent.

And when Edward III died on June 21, 1377, at 64 and after 50 mostly successful years on the throne, it left Richard the King at age 10. For the most part, he was guided by John of Gaunt, so named because he was born in Ghent, in present-day Belgium. A grandson of Edward III, a brother of the Black Prince, and thus an uncle of Richard II, he was the Duke of Lancaster, and proved an able advisor, but, when Richard needed him most, he was old and frail, and died on February 3, 1399.

What we now call the Hundred Years' War, a series of wars between England and France, were in progress when Richard ascended to the throne, and lasted well beyond his time on it. England, and all of Europe, was still recovering from the Black Plague of the 1340s, which may have killed one-third of the people both in the British Isles and on the Continent. This led to labor being more valuable, and workers being able to demand more money for the first time, and being more willing to revolt against high taxes. There was a Peasants' Revolt in 1381, and the 14-year-old Richard decided to have it brutally put down.

Portrait of Richard II, dated to his lifetime

The next few years were relatively peaceful, and Richard became known as a patron of the arts. But a move against him by a group called the Lords Appellant changed him. In 1397, he had many of them killed, and some of them exiled, including Henry Bolingbroke, so named because he was born at Bolingbroke Castle in Lincolnshire. The son of John of Gaunt, and thus Richard's cousin, Henry was Duke of Hereford. But Richard did not just exile him, he disinherited him, angering Gaunt.

In the movie, as Gaunt, Frederick Worlock delivered one of Shakespeare's best-remembered soliloquies. But it, too, does not have a happy ending, as he knows that the now-adult Richard isn't listening to him anymore: "Though Richard my life's counsel would not hear, My death's sad tale may yet undeaf his ear." Then he goes on:

This royal throne of kings, this scepter'd isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall,
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England,
This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings,
Fear'd by their breed and famous by their birth,
Renowned for their deeds as far from home,
For Christian service and true chivalry,
As is the sepulchre in stubborn Jewry,
Of the world's ransom, blessed Mary's Son,
This land of such dear souls, this dear dear land,
Dear for her reputation through the world,
Is now leased out, I die pronouncing it,
Like to a tenement or pelting farm:
England, bound in with the triumphant sea
Whose rocky shore beats back the envious siege
Of watery Neptune, is now bound in with shame,
With inky blots and rotten parchment bonds:
That England, that was wont to conquer others,
Hath made a shameful conquest of itself.
Ah, would the scandal vanish with my life,
How happy then were my ensuing death!

In real life, Richard had been married to Anne of Bohemia, daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV. Richard was 15 years old, and Anne was 16. But she died in 1394, at 28, having produced no children.

Sarah Churchill, actress, dancer, and daughter of Sir Winston, played Queen Isabel, a representation of Isabella of Valois, daughter of King Charles VI of France, who married Richard in 1396 -- when she was 6 years old, but is portrayed here as an adult. As part of the marriage agreement between Richard II and Charles VI, the marriage would not be consummated until Isabella was... 12.

Gaunt had been the richest man in England, and upon his death, in the play as in real life, Richard seizes his property. This angers the nobles, and when Richard leaves England to tend to his army in Ireland, the nobles contact Henry Bolingbroke, played by Kent Smith. As a grandson of Edward III, he does have a claim to the crown, though not as strong as Richard's.

Henry invades the north of England, and heads south, killing some of Richard's allies, and winning over others. Learning of this, Richard reaches Wales, but his allies there capture him, and send him to London, where he is forced to abdicate, after 22 years on the throne. On September 29, 1399, Bolingbroke became King Henry IV, the 1st monarch of the House of Lancaster.

Richard still has supporters, however, and they launch a rebellion. It is quickly put down, and, perhaps in a dramatic nod to the alleged plea of Henry II, "Will no one rid me of this troublesome priest?" Shakespeare has Henry IV, great-great-great-great-grandson of the preceding, ask, "Have I no friend will rid me of this living fear?" Sir Piers Exton hears this, goes to Richard's cell at Pomfret Castle in Pontefract, West Yorkshire, and kills him.

While admitting that he "did wish him dead," Henry is appalled by the murder, dismisses Exton from his court, and vows a pilgrimage to Jerusalem to cleanse himself of his part in Richard's death.

In reality, it's not clear how, or when, Richard II died. History suggests that he was starved to death, and died on February 14, 1400, just 33. What is certain is that, 3 days after that date, his coffin was on display at St. Paul's Cathedral in London.

Henry IV never did make his pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and when he died on March 20, 1413, at the age of 45 and after 13 1/3 years on the throne, he had a disfiguring skin disease, possibly leprosy or psoriasis, and he believe that it was punishment for both his ordering of the assassination of Richard II and his failure to go to Jerusalem.

In the public mind, Henry paid for these things in another way: While Shakespeare wrote 2 plays, Henry IV Part 1 and Henry IV Part 2, he followed a standard convention of naming a play involving a king after him, even if he was not the main character. And in both halves, Henry is a secondary character, to both his son, "Prince Hal," a dissolute young man who has to grow up and become the heroic Henry V; and Sir John Falstaff, a once-great knight and friend of Henry the father, now a fat, drunken slob, who aids in the dissoluteness of Henry the son.

Also considered more important characters in the plays than the King himself are two challengers to him, Henry Percy, Lord Hotspur, whose name would be given to a soccer team, Tottenham Hotspur Football Club; and Owen Glendower, the last Welshman to actually claim the title of the Prince of Wales.

Falstaff's association with weight has led to a fat man being called "Falstaffian," and his association with drinking led to a brewing company in St. Louis being named Falstaff. 

Isabella survived Richard, and married Charles I, Duke of Orléans, but only lived to be 19. Richard fathered no children with either wife, and is not believed to have any illegitimate children. The best evidence of this is that history records none that were sought out by Henry IV, or Henry V, to be removed from the line of succession. It is suspected by some historians that Richard II was homosexual. If so, he wouldn't have been the first King of England to be so (Richard I and Edward II are believed to have been), nor the last (James I probably was).

Frederick Worlock died in 1973, Sarah Churchill in 1982, Kent Smith in 1985, and Maurice Evans in 1989.

Other actors to have played Richard II include (in productions of Shakespeare's Richard II, unless otherwise stated) Andrew Osborn in a 1938 BBC radio production of Richard of Bordeaux, Alan Wheatley in a 1950 version for the BBC, Peter Cushing in the 1955 BBC adaptation of Richard of Bordeaux, David William in the 1960 BBC series An Age of Kings (telling all the Shakespeare history plays from Richard II to Richard III), Ian McKellen for the BBC in 1976, Michael Pennington in the BBC's The Wars of the Roses in 1989 (again covering all the Shakespeare histories), Roger Allam at the beginning of the BBC's 1995 version of Henry IV, Fiona Shaw in a gender-bending performance for the BBC in 1997, Mark Rylance for the BBC in 2003, and Ben Wishaw in the BBC's 2012 series The Hollow Crown (again doing all the history plays).

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January 24, 1954 was a Sunday. Baseball and football were out of season. There were 4 games in the NBA:

* There was a doubleheader at the Boston Garden. In the 1st game, the Milwaukee Hawks beat the New York Knicks, 68-66. In the 2nd game, the Rochester Royals beat the Boston Celtics, 93-85.

* The Philadelphia Warriors beat the Syracuse Nationals, 80-78 at the Onondaga County War Memorial Auditorium (now the Upstate Medical University Arena) in Syracuse. In 1962, the Warriors moved to San Francisco. In 1963, the Nationals replaced them, becoming the Philadelphia 76ers.

* And the Fort Wayne Pistons beat the Baltimore Bullets, 79-70 at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

And the NHL's entire "Original Six" were in action:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Boston Bruins, 2-1 at the Boston Garden -- meaning "the Gahden" hosted an NHL game and 2 NBA games on the same day.

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 2-0 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.

* And the Chicago Black Hawks beat the Montreal Canadiens, 8-3 at the Chicago Stadium.