page_title: Jean Creton
section_title: Travels with the King and deposition
hierarchical_section_title: Jean Creton / Travels with the King and deposition
caption_attribution_description: w:Henry Bolingbroke and w:Richard II at w:Flint Castle; page from illuminated manuscript of Jean Creton's La Prinse et Mort du roy Richart ("The Capture and Death of King Richard"), w:Harleian Collection, w:British Library, once in the collection of Jean de Valois, Duc de Berry
context_page_description: Jean Creton was a medieval French historian and poet who served as valet de chambre to King Charles VI of France in the late fourteenth century. He is most notable, however, for his chronicle that he wrote of his travels to England in 1399, where he was an eyewitness to the deposition of the King, Richard II. Although he seems to have visited for the purposes of "amusement and to see the country," with a now unknown companion, he witnessed at first hand the events leading up to the deposition of King Richard II of England by his cousin Henry Bolingbroke. It has been described as the "fullest and most circumstantial" of the various contemporary narratives.
context_section_description: Creton travelled to Ireland with the King on his expeditionary force in May 1399, but was sent back to Wales with the Earl of Salisbury two months later.  
  Creton had deliberately joined Salisbury's retinue because of the earl's mighty chivalric reputation. The following month, August, saw the hurried return of the King from Ireland, alarmed at the news of Bolingbroke's landing at Ravenspur, Yorkshire, when he should have been in exile. Creton waited with the King at Conway Castle, and here he witnessed the Earl of Northumberland arrival and then that of Bolingbroke. Along with the other minor members of the royal entourage, Creton was required by the earl to leave the castle with Bolingbroke's herald. The chronicler was later open about the fact that, as a recent scholar has put it, Creton "was more frightened than he had ever been in his life." However, on hearing that Creton and his companions were French, Bolingbroke addressed them in their own language and assured them of their personal safety.
  One modern English historian of the period has noted how, although Creton was clearly biased towards Richard- who had, after all, personally ensured that he was well looked after during his stay- Creton was still both willing and able to "give credit to Bolingbroke, for... his considerate treatment of the capture King" (and indeed towards himself). Creton noted that when Bolingbroke met Richard at Conway, it was an emotional encounter, with both being tearful and distressed." The king surrendered himself to Lancaster. Following Bolingbroke's capture of the King, Creton secured an interview with him, at which, explaining their position as foreign visitors, he and his associate "pleaded for their lives." Henry granted them their safety, but Creton tells how, being "sad and sick at heart," it was then that they chose to return to France. He may however have witnessed Henry's coronation as King Henry IV, as he later described how- to his dissatisfaction- the crowds of London greeted the new King with as much rapture as if it had been Jesus entering the City.
caption: Henry Bolingbroke and Richard II at Flint Castle; page from the illuminated manuscript of Creton's La Prinse et Mort du roy Richart ("The Capture and Death of King Richard"), Harleian Collection, in the British Library, once in the collection of Jean de Valois, Duc de Berry.
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