Richard II Loyalty Quotes

Mowbray shows up to the trial by combat ready to fight Henry Bolingbroke. His opening speech is actually less about what Bolingbroke charged him with than it is about affirming his honor and his loyalty to Richard. This is an interesting move: it shows that he has a grip on the real terms of the duel and knows exactly what this fight is really about – whether the king has the right to kill noble subjects and still expect loyalty, and what honor means when the king has started behaving illegally.

Mowbray is certainly interested in defending his good name here, but he's also reminding Richard of his value. Mowbray, who really does remain loyal to Richard, is a jewel. The metaphor can stretch even further, because Mowbray could also be the vault or chest keeping the jewel safe. The image of a jewel safely locked up in a chest is a clever way for Mowbray to tell Richard, albeit in code, that his secret is safe.

Mowbray, who has remained crazy-loyal to Richard and has covered up his participation in Gloucester's murder, laments the king's lack of loyalty to him. In return for his service, he is banished. Here he lets Richard know how he feels, but Richard, who has an underdeveloped sense of loyalty throughout the play, doesn't seem to pay much attention.

Reflecting on the mess the kingdom is in, York takes a moment to wish his troubles were over. It's interesting that he actually recognizes that Richard beheaded his brother (something the king never quite admits), yet remains loyal to the guy. Why is that? That York remains a loyal subject for as long as he does with this mentality shows how weird the concept of loyalty has become under Richard's rule.

York is telling Henry Bolingbroke here that he's out of line for coming back after he's been banished, and he's declaring himself the king's loyal representative. He's also making the title of king a transferable property. By suggesting that the king is "left behind" (meaning that he's left York as regent) and that Richard's power lies in his "bosom" (that is, on his person), he's implying that the king can be separated from his power.

 Even though he's gone over to Henry Bolingbroke's side, York scolds Northumberland for referring to Richard by his first name. York shows, even this late in the game, that he's deeply pained by the transfer of the title of king from one man to another.

Richard hastily describes Bushy, Bagot, and Green as three Judases, assuming they've betrayed him. (Judas is the disciple who betrays Jesus in the New Testament.) Richard is obviously thinking of himself as the betrayed Christ – a comparison he loves making. But right after saying this, he learns that his "Judases" have been executed – they died for him. Would Christ have cursed his friends and called them Judases? Just the opposite: Christ forgave Judas. But it's typical of Richard to see himself as better than he is.

Here York quickly switches from a description of Richard's suffering to a matter-of-fact announcement that he, York, is now loyal to King Henry. York might be the character most obsessed with loyalty in the play, but he's ironically also the most fickle.

When the Duke of York finds out that his son Aumerle is plotting against King Henry, he wants to turn him in for treason. But his wife, the Duchess of York, isn't having it – Aumerle is their son, and there's no way she's going to let her husband's loyalty to the king put her child's life in danger. She says that if York had given birth to Aumerle ("groan'd for him") like she did, maybe he'd feel different.

After York rats out his son to the new king, Henry declares that York is the "loyal father" of his disloyal son. York is "loyal" alright. He's loyal to the king, not his own flesh and blood.