The idea of kingship forms a recurrent theme in the poems of the so-called `Ricardians', John Gower, William Langland, the Gawain-poet and Chaucer - unsurprisingly, during a period of considerable turmoil. This book aims to widen understanding of these poets through an examination of the theme in Confessio Amantis, Piers Plowman and the works of the Gawain-poet and then setting these against the works of Geoffrey Chaucer, the most well-known and studied of the Ricardians. It brings the other poets' work into sharper focus, showing that despite a diversity in style and approach, common concerns and attitudes underpin all of the poets under consideration.

SAMANTHA RAYNER gained her PhD from Bangor University; she is currently Senior Lecturer in Publishing, Anglia Ruskin University.