geeking out on shakespeare's histories

I always found it so interesting that there's not really even a mention in the play that Richard used to be quite the little badass -- that line about how "all the treasons for these eighteen years...fetch from false Mowbray their first head and spring" is generally seen as a reference to the Revolt, although it doesn't really work because a) the scene technically takes place in 1398, and b) IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH ANYTHING. (This kind of elision of the Revolt is pretty common in Tudor-era accounts of Richard II, though; it doesn't really fit in with the narrative. Although Shakespeare's depiction of Jack Cade's rebellion is actually based directly on Holinshed's section on the 1381 revolt.)

Anyway, I'd been meaning to write fic about it for years, so I was glad to see a prompt about it! I totally love writing Richard and Henry this young -- one of the things that's fun about it is that young!Richard has that semi-unnatural sense of maturity that comes with being king. I mean, it's less eerie here because he's 14 and that's something of a turning point for medieval teenagers, but still, he is far more experienced than Henry at this point, yeah. And he definitely has a clear idea of what he can't do.