The Lords Appellant were a group of nobles in the reign of King Richard II, who, in 1388, sought to impeach some five of the King's favourites in order to restrain what was seen as tyrannical and capricious rule. The word appellant simply means '[one who is] appealing [in a legal sense]'. It is the older (Norman) French form of the present participle of the verb appeler, the equivalent of the English 'to appeal'. The group was called the Lords Appellant because its members invoked a procedure under law to start prosecution of the king's unpopular favourites known as 'an appeal': the favourites were charged in a document called an appeal of treason, a device borrowed from civil law which led to some procedural complications.
The Lords Appellant Part 1: A Great and Continual council
There were originally three Lords Appellant:
Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, son of Edward III and thus the king's uncle.
Richard FitzAlan, Earl of Arundel and of Surrey.
Thomas de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick.
These were later joined by
Henry Bolingbroke, Earl of Derby (the future king Henry IV)
Thomas de Mowbray, Earl of Nottingham.
Archbishop of York, Alexander Neville.
The favourites
Thomas de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick.
These were later joined by
Henry Bolingbroke, Earl of Derby (the future king Henry IV)
Thomas de Mowbray, Earl of Nottingham.
Archbishop of York, Alexander Neville.
The favourites
Nicholas Brembre.
John de Beauchamp, 1st Baron Beauchamp (4th creation).
Sir James Berners.
Sir John Salisbury.
John de Beauchamp, 1st Baron Beauchamp (4th creation).
Sir James Berners.
Sir John Salisbury.
