England is a “teeming womb of royal kings, fear’d by their breed, and famous by their birth” in Shakespeare’s Richard II, which features a philosopher-sovereign with a taste for the finer things in life whose arrogance, capriciousness, and cruelty is either a sign of disinterest, dictatorship, or insanity depending on one's interpretation. Following a botched trial by combat to settle a dispute between two nobles, Richard’s disinheritance of one of his chief rivals leads to predictable chaos and epic poetry that pits the divine right of kings against patriotism, legitimacy against practical politics, and high-handed arrogance against duplicitous skullduggery in the prelude to the epics of "Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2" and "Henry V." // CREDITS // Intro Music: Jon Sayles, "The Witches' Dance" (composed by anonymous); Outro Music: Jon Sayles, “Saltarello” (composed by anonymous); illustrative excerpts from "The Hollow Crown: Richard II," dir. Rupert Goold (2012) and from "Game of Thrones," Season 3, Episode 10, "Mhysa," dir. David Nutter (2013)