The concept of kingship was a major preoccupation for the Ricardian poets, as this full treatment shows.

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 towiden 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, University College London.