Richard 2 Divine Right Of King Analysis

A key aspect to understanding Acts III and IV in Richard II is the divine right of kings and how God deeply impacts these characters decisions and actions. The king is supposedly chosen by God himself and is ideally a figure of a natural born leader and warrior. Naturally, since England was predominately Catholic at the time, going against God in any way was unacceptable. The people were to trust the King and not question his decisions, for they were God's will and decisions as well. There is also a deep sense of content by the characters that God will sort out all of their disputes by choosing sides and the righteous will reign.

In Act I Gaunt says, "God's is the quarrel/for God's substitute/ His deputy anointed in His sight/ Hath caused his death." (37-39) referring to the fact that God gave Richard the power and Richard plotted with Mowbray in
Gloucester's death, thus God had a hand in Gloucester's death for whatever reason. Gaunt continues to say "the which if wrongfully,/Let heaven revenge; for I may never lift/An angry arm against his minister." (39-41), further instilling the faith that God will handle what's right and that it's not his place to intervene.

We've witnessed throughout the play King Richard's pompous attitude about his kingship.
In Act II Scene II the ideals of God are furthered as we continue to see Richard's downfall (and humbling) and Bolingbrook's up rise as the new king. Carlisle compounds the ideal of God and His choice to give and take the divine right by stating, in lines 27-30, "Fear not, my lord. That power that made you king/Hath power to keep you king in spite of it all,/The means that heavens yield must be embraced/And not neglected...". Richard continues this ideal by stating in lines 59-61, "To lift shrewd steel against our golden crown,/God for his Richard hath in heavenly pay/A glorious angel. Then, if angels fight,/Weak men must fall; for heaven still guards the right." The main ideals in this excerpt is "his Richard", Richard here is emphasizing the fact that God chose him to begin with but that "heaven still guards the right" so whomever God wants to have the crown will be the one who rules. Richard himself even realizes that he does not have the divine right when he foreshadows the "death of kings" (Act III Scene II lines155-
162).

Essentially this whole play has a deep underlying scheme for religion and God's power over man. Throughout the play, we observe Richard's obvious flaws and serious crimes, but no one takes any real initiative to go against him because they would be going against God. Its rather radical that Bolingbroke continually challenges the King from Act I at the trial to the eventual taking of his crown. This continues the theme of characters going outside of the social norm and questions whether Bolingbroke is right to take the crown or if his sins will be punished by God in heaven.