The wonder of the world
IN the early afternoon of June 15, 1381, the 14-year-old Richard II arrived at Westminster Abbey with a large retinue at the height of the Peasants’ Revolt. London had been at the mercy of the mob for two days and the King came to prepare himself to confront the rebels. Having made offerings and prayers, he rode on to the horse market at Smithfield, just outside the city walls. There, after an angry exchange, the rebel leader, Wat Tyler, was cut down by the Lord Mayor of London and the boy king spurred his horse into the hostile crowd declaring himself the captain of his people and calling for peace. Incredibly, his gamble paid off and the crisis of the uprising passed.
It’s tempting to see in this extraordinary episode some explanation for the intensity of Richard II’s devotion to his ancestor Edward the Confessor, whose shrine commanded the interior of Westminster Abbey. It’s not impossible that the Wilton Diptych, now at the National Gallery, London, was commissioned to ornament the tiny chapel of Our Lady at Pew that opens off the north choir aisle; it was here—according to the account of Jean Froissart—that the boy king offered prayers in 1381. Whatever the case, his devotion was expressed later by such
