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This guide is for OCR A Level History A, unit Y104: England 1377–1455.

The paper joins two date ranges:

• the source enquiry covers Richard II from 1377 to 1399;
• the essay period study covers England from 1399 to 1455.

If your course starts in 1445 or 1450, check again: you may be taking OCR Y105 or AQA 2B. The topics overlap at the end, but the examinations are not interchangeable.

What the examination asks you to do

Y104 lasts 1 hour 30 minutes, carries 50 marks and contributes 25% of the A level.

• Section A: one compulsory 30-mark AO2 question. Use four contemporary sources in their historical context to assess how far they support a stated view about Richard II, 1377–1399.
• Section B: choose one of two 20-mark AO1 essays about England, 1399–1455.

You are not evaluating extracts from modern historians. In Section A, make one comparative judgement across the four sources rather than writing four isolated comments about reliability.

Your seven-topic route

1. Richard II's minority, 1377–1380
2. Personal rule and political conflict, 1380–1388
3. Recovery, retribution and overthrow, 1388–1399
4. Henry IV's reign
5. Henry V's domestic rule
6. War with France, 1399–1453
7. Henry VI's minority and the origins of the Wars of the Roses

Keep asking one question: how did rulers turn a claim to authority into workable government?

1. Richard II's minority, 1377–1380

Richard became king aged ten after Edward III's death. England faced expensive war with France, coastal insecurity, financial weakness and distrust surrounding Richard's uncle John of Gaunt. A coronation made Richard king, but councils had to govern in his name.

Conciliar government was not simply a failure. Councillors maintained administration and organised defence. Yet they could not escape the basic problem: war cost more than ordinary royal income provided. Parliament granted taxation while demanding economy and accountability.

The poll taxes of 1377, 1379 and 1380–81 attempted to spread the burden. Collection exposed households to investigation and appeared especially unfair. Financial pressure was tied to disappointing military results, so taxpayers could ask what their money had achieved.

Religion also entered politics. John Wycliffe criticised aspects of Church wealth and authority and received protection from Gaunt. The Parliament of 1378 and later controversy showed that government, noble patronage and religious debate could not be kept separate.

Check: Why could competent conciliar administration still produce political discontent?

2. Personal rule and conflict, 1380–1388

The Peasants' Revolt

Collection of the 1380–81 poll tax triggered revolt in Essex before rebellion spread across several regions and into London. Tax was vital, but not the only cause. After the Black Death, labourers sought mobility and higher wages while legislation and lordship tried to restrain them. Local courts, officials, seigneurial demands, war failure, religious ideas and urban tensions all mattered.

The label “Peasants' Revolt” is convenient but incomplete. Participants included rural tenants, artisans, townspeople and returning soldiers. Rebels attacked officials, prisons, legal records, John of Gaunt's Savoy Palace and members of particular communities, including Flemish workers. Some demanded an end to serfdom; others pursued local grievances or a reformed monarchy without corrupt advisers.

Richard met rebels at Mile End and Smithfield. His intervention helped break the immediate crisis, but promises were revoked and repression followed, alongside later pardons. Contemporary descriptions often came from hostile chroniclers, so rebel words and actions require careful source criticism.

Favourites, Parliament and the Appellants

As Richard sought greater personal control, figures such as Michael de la Pole and Robert de Vere gained prominence. Critics objected to patronage, military policy and the cost of government. Richard also quarrelled with Gaunt, although their relationship later recovered.

Campaigns involving France and Scotland did not bring decisive success. The Wonderful Parliament of 1386 impeached Chancellor de la Pole and imposed a commission on government. Richard saw this as an attack on royal authority.

The Lords Appellant then used armed force against the king's associates. Their victory led to the Merciless Parliament of 1388, which executed or punished several royal servants. Do not reduce this to Parliament defending liberty from tyranny: both sides used law, political principle, patronage and coercion.

3. Recovery, retribution and overthrow, 1388–1399

Richard gradually recovered authority after 1388. Gaunt's return helped stability, and the years to 1397 were not unbroken tyranny. Richard managed government, negotiated with London after a serious quarrel in 1392 and campaigned in Ireland. Queen Anne could act as a mediator and symbol of reconciliation. Her death in 1394 removed that influence, but did not automatically cause Richard's later actions.

In 1397 Richard struck against former Appellants. Warwick, Arundel and Gloucester were arrested; Parliament reversed earlier settlements; opponents were executed, imprisoned or dispossessed. Armed retainers and political intimidation surrounded these proceedings. Confiscated estates rewarded supporters but also threatened heirs and affinity networks.

Was this tyranny? The word can describe coercion, arbitrary insecurity and manipulation of justice, but it was also used by Richard's enemies. Avoid diagnosing him as mad. His desire for revenge can be understood through contemporary expectations about royal status and honour without inventing a medical explanation.

After Gaunt died in 1399, Richard took the Lancastrian inheritance from the exiled Henry Bolingbroke. While Richard was in Ireland, Bolingbroke returned claiming his lands. Support widened as royal authority collapsed. Magnates such as the Percies had their own calculations; not everyone began by planning deposition.

Richard was captured and replaced by Bolingbroke. Official records justified the change and presented charges against Richard. They helped perform the deposition, so they are evidence of both events and the victors' need for legitimacy.

How to answer the four-source enquiry

For each source:

1. identify how strongly its content supports the question's view;
2. test it with precise knowledge from 1377–1399;
3. explain how author, audience, purpose, timing and genre shape its value;
4. compare its emphasis with the other sources;
5. return to one overall judgement.

A chronicle can preserve important detail while reflecting its author's location and political sympathies. A parliamentary record may accurately record official proceedings while presenting those proceedings as legitimate. A rebel sermon or demand can reveal ideas and persuasive language even when preserved by opponents. An account close to events is not automatically neutral.

4. The reign of Henry IV

Bolingbroke became Henry IV in 1399 through a mixture of inheritance claim, conquest, parliamentary recognition and divine language. His title was usable but contested because deposition had broken normal succession and other descendants of Edward III possessed claims.

Richard remained a focus for the Epiphany Rising of 1400 and died soon afterwards. Owain Glyndŵr's revolt developed from Welsh legal, political and social grievances into a programme for Welsh rule and alliance. The Percies, once Henry's allies, rebelled over reward, policy and regional power. Henry defeated Hotspur at Shrewsbury in 1403, but opposition continued into 1408.

Foreign relations with France and Scotland interacted with domestic security. Parliament granted taxation but criticised expenditure and demanded accountability. Henry needed nobles to govern while preventing their power from becoming rebellion.

Lollardy posed a religious and political problem, especially after legislation enabled burning for heresy. Henry's illness later weakened personal leadership and encouraged struggles around Prince Henry and rival councillors. The reign is best judged as gradual survival after usurpation, not effortless consolidation.

5. The domestic rule of Henry V

Henry V restored a more confident style of kingship. The Parliament of 1413 addressed order and royal authority. Henry cultivated nobles, used council and Parliament and presented himself as defender of justice and orthodoxy.

Religious dissent remained. John Badby had been burned in 1410. Sir John Oldcastle, a former royal associate and prominent Lollard, escaped after conviction and became associated with a rising in 1414. Henry's response turned dissent into a security issue, but not every Lollard supported rebellion. The Leicester Parliament continued concern about Church wealth and orthodoxy.

The Southampton Plot of 1415 revealed that alternative royal claims could still be used. Its defeat strengthened Henry before the French campaign, but should not be forgotten beneath Agincourt.

Government developed to support war: taxation, loans, ships, recruitment and administration were as necessary as leadership in battle.

6. War with France, 1399–1453

Henry IV inherited war and diplomatic insecurity but lacked the resources for sustained conquest. Henry V renewed the claim more aggressively. In 1415 he captured Harfleur after a costly siege and won at Agincourt. Naval action and the relief of Harfleur helped secure further campaigning.

From 1417 Henry conquered Normandy systematically. French civil conflict and Burgundian alliance created opportunities. The Treaty of Troyes in 1420 made Henry heir to Charles VI and joined the settlement to marriage with Catherine of Valois. Yet the Dauphin and much of France rejected it. Henry's 1421 campaign showed that victory still required force and money.

Henry died in 1422, leaving an infant king and an unfinished dual monarchy. English rule depended on garrisons, taxation, towns, administrators and Burgundy—not modern national loyalty.

Joan of Arc helped transform the conflict in 1429 through leadership, morale, religious meaning and support for Charles VII's coronation. She did not defeat England alone. The English retained Normandy and Paris for years, and Henry VI's French coronation tried to answer the Valois claim.

Burgundy's reconciliation with Charles VII at Arras in 1435 weakened English power. French recovery also depended on improved resources, organisation, artillery and local choices. Normandy fell in 1449–50. Gascony fell in 1451, supported an English return in 1452 and was finally lost after Castillon in 1453. Calais remained English.

Defeat damaged prestige, displaced soldiers and landholders and intensified arguments about taxation and advisers. It contributed to political crisis but did not mechanically cause the Wars of the Roses.

7. Henry VI's minority and the origins of civil conflict

Henry VI became king as a baby. Government rested on a council rather than giving Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, unrestricted regency. John, Duke of Bedford led the French effort; Gloucester, Cardinal Beaufort and other councillors supplied authority, experience and resources.

Gloucester and Beaufort quarrelled over power, patronage, finance and policy, but government did not collapse. Bedford and council mediated. Administration continued, noble disputes were often managed and authority transferred peacefully when Henry's minority ended.

War placed constant pressure on finance. Gloucester's ambitions could conflict with Burgundian strategy, while Beaufort's wealth, loans and preference for negotiation made him both indispensable and controversial. Neither hostile image—Gloucester as perfect patriot or Beaufort as selfish usurer—is adequate.

During Henry's personal rule, household advisers and Suffolk became more influential. Peace policy and Margaret of Anjou's marriage belonged to this transition. The loss of Normandy, Suffolk's fall, the Act of Resumption and Cade's rebellion made 1450 a crisis. Richard of York returned demanding reform.

Henry's mental collapse in 1453 created a further problem. York became protector, but Prince Edward's birth protected the Lancastrian succession. Henry's recovery restored the old balance without resolving fear between York, Somerset and Margaret's allies. The first Battle of St Albans in 1455 marks the endpoint: violence arose from accumulated failures and failed settlements, not from a minority government destined to produce war.

How to write the 20-mark essay

Define a test for the wording. Organise paragraphs around competing explanations, not a chronological list. Each paragraph should make a claim, use precise evidence, explain its relevance, compare importance and sustain judgement across the dates.

For a question on Henry VI's minority, criteria might include continuity of administration, control of disorder, noble cooperation, finance, war and the smooth transfer to personal rule. A convincing answer can judge domestic government relatively effective while recognising serious continental and financial strain.

Final retrieval check

Without looking back, explain:

1. why minority councils could govern but not solve war finance;
2. why the revolt of 1381 had more than one cause;
3. why the Appellants were not simply parliamentary democrats;
4. why Richard recovered after 1388 and collapsed in 1399;
5. why Henry IV survived repeated rebellion;
6. how Henry V connected domestic authority to war;
7. why Lancastrian France endured after 1429 but fell by 1453;
8. why Henry VI's minority was more successful than the later crisis suggests.

If this feels heavy, begin with four anchors: 1381 revolt, 1399 deposition, 1415 Agincourt, 1450 Cade. Add one cause and one consequence to each. That gives you a workable first map.