England

Island kingdom bounded to the west by the Marcher lordships and the (still contested) principality of Wales conquered by Edward I; English lordships included parts of modern south Wales (from southern Pembrokeshire through Swansea, Cardiff and on towards Gloucester in England); bounded to the north by the kingdom of Scotland, to the east by the North Sea and to the south by the Channel; included Somerset, Devon and Cornwall to the south-west. Population up to the Black Death of 1348-9 approximately 4 million souls.

John Newton

Sir John Newton, constable of Rochester.

King Richard II of England (d. 1400)

Richard was born on 6 January 1367 in Bordeaux. Froissart called him Richard of Bordeaux after his place of birth. He was the second son of Edward, the Black Prince, prince of Wales and Aquitaine, and Joan of Kent. After the death of his elder brother Edward in 1372, and of his father, in 1376, Richard was created prince of Wales, duke of Cornwall and earl of Chester on 20 November 1376. He succeeded to his grandfather, King Edward III the following year, and became king on 22 June 1377. He reigned as king of England until 1399, when he was forced to abdicate by his cousin Henry Bolingbroke. Richard married his first wife, Anne of Bohemia, on 14 January 1382. In 1396, two years after the death of his first wife, he married Isabella, daughter of the French king, Charles VI.