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Shakespeare's Richard II
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Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester is dead before Shakespeare's Richard II begins, but is mentioned several timesin the play. What is his importance?
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Thomas of Woodstock was one of the seven sons of Edward III, hence an uncle of Richard II. He disapproved of Richard's behaviour while he was a minor and tried to 'correct' it, so that he was disliked by Richard. Shakespeare accepts the history that Richard had him murdered thus motivating the hostility of Thomas's widow and of Richard's other uncles. This sort of information is available in most scholarly editions like the Arden Shakespeare and the New Cambridge.
An additional thought. An important theme of Shakespeare's history plays is the Divine right of Kings. Both John of Gaunt and the Duke of York, brothers of Thomas, reject the idea that Richard's responsibility for the murder of Thomas is a justification for disloyalty. The consequences of Bolingbroke's deposition of his cousin, Richard, is the horror and carnage of the ensuing Wars of the Roses.
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