ABSTRACT
It is not clear at just what moment Henry Bolingbroke decided to enlarge his bid for restoration to his Lancastrian estates into a bid for Richard II’s throne. It may have been very soon after his landing, before or about the time the Percies joined him (in which case they were privy to his intention from the first, which they were afterwards to deny). Or it may have been later, perhaps at Chester. He had clearly made up his mind by 10 September, when he ceased to use Richard’s regnal year to date his letters, and when arrangements to set the stage for his succession began to be put in train against the meeting of parliament at the end of the month.
