Reading Group Guide
1. The author has divided the story of Richard's reign and life into three parts. What subtitles or descriptions would you apply to each of these parts?
2. As a Plantagenet, Richard has a long heritage of courageous warriors and brave knights to follow behind—his grandfather Edward III, his father the Black Prince, and Richard I—but he chooses a different path. In what ways is Richard different from his forebears?
3. In addition to the many legendary kings in his past, Richard is haunted by the ill-fated Edward II. How does this dual tension affect him?
4. In what ways is Richard's youth in part 1 a boon to his perspective as king? In what ways is it a hindrance?
5. When the king and his young friends learn of the beginnings of the peasants' revolt in chapter 3, we clearly see the divide that existed during the Middle Ages between the nobility and the commoners. How does this seemingly innocuous conversation inform the kind of king Richard becomes?
6. In part 1, Richard thinks he is coming to London to face his friends in a tournament. Instead, he comes face to face with a mob of peasants, a truer test of his abilities as a warrior and a
king. How does his handling of the situation come to define his rule as king?
7. In chapter 8, Sudbury tells Richard that the things one does on the spur of the moment are "a true indication of character." Do you agree? Who else in the book shows his or her true character in spur-of-the moment actions?
8. When his mother dies shortly after he sentences his halfbrother, John Holland, to death, Richard blames himself. Is he in some way responsible? Which of Joan's sons should really feel responsible for her death?
9. In chapter 17, when Richard learns of the rumors being spread about his relationship with Robert de Vere, he reacts by appointing de Vere duke of Ireland. What might have been a more reasonable or effective way for Richard to try to disprove the rumors?
10. In chapter 22, we learn of Robert's surrender and abandonment of his forces when ambushed by Bolingbroke. Which of Robert's earlier actions foreshadow this unexpected cowardly side of his character?
11. In chapter 23, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, says of Richard, "I often feel he is two separate people. The gay, charming one he shows to us, and some more somber personality he keeps chained somewhere deep down below the surface." What are some moments in the story when we see the "two Richards"?
12. Even though Richard did not kill Thomas, Duke of Gloucester, directly, is he still guilty in some ways for his uncle's murder? How so?
13. In general, history has not remembered Richard II very favorably (see Author's Note). Based on the account given in Within
the Hollow Crown, how would you summarize his reign?
Reading Group Guide written by Elizabeth R. Blaufox, great-granddaughter of Margaret Campbell Barnes
About the Author
Margaret Campbell Barnes lived from 1891 to 1962. She was the youngest of ten children born into a happy, loving family in Victorian England. She grew up in the Sussex countryside and was educated at small private schools in London and Paris.
Margaret was already a published writer when she married Peter, a furniture salesman, in 1917. Over the next twenty years, a steady stream of short stories and verse appeared under her name (and several noms de plume) in leading English periodicals of the time, including Windsor, London, Quiver, and others. Later, Margaret's agents, Curtis Brown Ltd., encouraged her to try her hand at historical novels. Between 1944 and 1962, Margaret wrote ten historical novels. Many of these were bestsellers, book club selections, and translated into foreign editions.
Between World Wars I and II, Margaret and Peter brought up two sons, Michael and John. In August 1944, Michael, a lieutenant in the Royal Armoured Corps, was killed in his tank in the Allied advance from Caen to Falaise in Normandy. Margaret and Peter grieved terribly the rest of their lives. Glimpses of Michael shine through in each of Margaret's later novels.
In 1945 Margaret bought a small thatched cottage on the Isle of Wight, off England's south coast. It had at one time been a smuggler's cottage, but to Margaret it was a special place in which to recover the spirit and carry on writing. And write she did. All together, over two million copies of Margaret Campbell Barnes's historical novels have been sold worldwide.
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