黑太子爱德华之子。继承祖父王位，但是实权被叔父兰开斯特公爵约翰·冈特把持。由于这个原因而记恨兰开斯特家。亲政后驱逐了堂弟兰开斯特公爵亨利，并没收其领地。1399年，亨利在国王远征爱尔兰时举兵拘捕了国王，并让国会同意将理查废黜，由亨利即位。兰开斯特王朝开始。
传说理查二世是手帕的发明者，英国王室札记这样写到：“国王用一小片衣物擦鼻子。”

A TV Dante, produced by Britain’s Channel Four during the 1980s and aired in Britain in 1990, presents the first eight cantos of the Inferno.
Co-directed by Peter Greenaway and Tom Phillips. Phillips, a composer, artist and critic, is perhaps best known for his interest in the art of the page. His 1983 translation of the Inferno is used for the production. (The rest of the Inferno has been divided among directors Raul Ruiz, Terry Gilliam, Zbig Ribzynski and Nagisa Oshima)
The title of A TV Dante was clearly studied to put in play the high cultural register now evoked by the name ‘Dante’ and the low cultural register evoked by ‘TV.
Review
Cantos 1 - 8, co-directed by Tom Phillips and Peter Greenaway, was shown on television and later released on video in UK. Ruiz’s casting of his native Chile as the inferno visited by Dante and Virgil in Cantos 9 - 14 (uploaded here) was met with criticism and never broadcast or released on VHS in Europe. Ruiz’s series later found a life in Latin America where it was eventually shown on television where this version comes from. The remaining Cantos 15-34 were never made..