Gender and Law in Richard II's Aumerle Scenes

What is it about?

Shakespeare's Richard II is filled with legal language, but the scenes when York wants to go to the king to declare his own son's treason are usually reduced to the father's rigid loyalty to the king and the mother's rigid loyalty to the child. By looking at the legal language in these two scenes, I complicate the gendered argument by exposing the repercussions for York and his wife in relation to charging Aumerle with treason.

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Why is it important?

This is important because it complicates the currently gendered understanding of the Duke and Duchess's response to Aumerle's treason. Instead, I argue that the Duke/political loyalty and Duchess/family loyalty formula ignores the significance of the legal repercussions of swearing fealty, removing the gendered stereotypes and instead showing the importance of these two scenes within a play preoccupied with the complexities of feudal law and landholding.