Lords Appellant

The Lords Appellant were a group of nobles in the reign of Richard II who sought to impeach some five of the King's favourites in order to restrain what was seen as tyrannical and capricious rule. There were originally three of them: Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester (1355–1397), son of Edward III and thus the king's uncle; Richard Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel and Earl of Surrey (1346–1397); and Thomas Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick (1337x9–1401). These were later joined by Henry, Earl of Derby, (later Henry IV (1367–1413)] and Thomas Mowbray, Earl of Nottingham (1366–1399). They achieved their goals, first establishing a Commission to govern England for one year from 19 November 1386. They also had their revenge on the favourites in the 'Merciless Parliament' (1388), with Robert de Vere (1362–1392), Earl of Oxford, and Michael de la Pole (c.1330–1389), Earl of Suffolk sentenced to death - although they had fled overseas; Alexander Neville, (c.1332–1392), Archbishop of York, had all his worldly goods confiscated; the Lord Chief Justice, Sir Robert Tresilian, was executed, as were Sir Nicholas Brembre, Lord Mayor of London, John Beauchamp of Holt, Sir James Berners, and Sir John Salisbury. Sir Simon Burley was found guilty of exercising undue influence over the king and was sentenced to death. Derby and Nottingham, together with the duke of York, tried to win a reprieve for him, but he was executed on 5 May. Richard never forgave the Lords Appellant. His uncle Gloucester died in captivity in Calais; it was - and remains - widely believed that he had been murdered. Arundel was executed in 1397; Warwick was found guilty, but not sentenced to death: he lost his title, and his lands were confiscated: he was imprisoned on the Isle of Man until Derby deposed Richard, ruling as Henry IV. The behaviour of the two junior Lords Appellant (Derby and Mowbray) probably influenced Richard's decision in 1399 to exile them both, and to 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.

• The word appellant simply means '[one who is] appealing [in a legal sense]'. It is the older (Norman) French form of the present participle of the verb appeller, the equivalent of the English 'to appeal'.