Event Details

The Lancaster History Lecture is a collaboration between History and Litfest, designed to make historical scholarship accessible to a wide audience. This year's lecturer is acclaimed medieval historian Dr Helen Castor.

Helen Castor's talk will be on her latest book, The Eagle and the Hart: The Tragedy of Richard II and Henry IV. This has been hailed as 'A dazzling tour de force of epic royal history' (Simon Sebag-Montefiore), 'A brilliant achievement...not just a glorious work of history but a gripping and haunting tragedy' (Tom Holland).

Richard of Bordeaux and Henry Bolingbroke were first cousins, born just three months apart. Their lives were entwined from the beginning. When they were still children, Richard was crowned King Richard II with Henry at his side, carrying the sword of state: a ten-year-old lord in the service of his ten-year-old king.

Yet, as the animals on their heraldic badges showed, they grew up to be opposites: Richard was the white hart, a thin-skinned narcissist, and Henry the eagle, a chivalric hero, a leader who inspired loyalty where Richard inspired only fear. Henry had all the qualities Richard lacked, all the qualities a sovereign needed, bar one: birth right. Increasingly threatened by his charismatic cousin, Richard became consumed by the need for total power, in a time of constant conflict, rebellions and reprisals. When he banished Henry, the stage was set for a final confrontation, as the hart became the tyrant and the eagle his usurper.

Theirs is a story of power, legitimacy, and the limits of rule and resistance. In her 2025 Lancaster History Lecture, Helen Castor shows how, in Richard’s hands, kingship became tyranny, and explores the costs – personal, political and constitutional – of opposing the threat he came to represent.

After the lecture, Helen will be in conversation with Dr Sophie Thérèse Ambler.