To Measure a Ruler

Richard II seems at first to be a fair ruler. He tries to rule fairly, and exempts blood line from having an influence on his ruling, he says, "Such neighboring nearness to our sacred blood should nothing privilege him, nor partialize the unstooping firmness of my upright soul. He is our subject, Mowbray; so art thou. Free speech and fearless I to thee allow" (1.1.119-123). Perhaps the king only appears to be fair at first because he is proclaiming his own fairness. With little spoken evidence on the case of either Mowbray or Bolingbroke, Bolingbroke (his cousin) is given far softer a punishment, being a mere six years of banishment while Mowbray is banished forever. The king is by no means impartial. His uncle, John of Gaunt, gives his fair warning of his rulings in a classic deathbed foreshadowing. While Gaunt is biased because the king banished his son, he still speaks truth. He says, "Ill in myself to see, and in thee seeing ill. Thy deathbed is no lesser than thy land, wherein thou liest in reputation sick; And thou, too careless patient as thou art...a thousand flatterers sit within thy crown, who compass is no bigger than thy head" (999). Gaunt's speech here is less straight forward than his more lucid one on the king given to York, but still it serves as a warning on the state of the kingdom. When he says that he sees Richard is ill, Richard argues his health, but what Gaunt is cleverly saying is that Richard is morally ill and his kingdom is sick with poor rulings.
An aspect of the Kingdom and its current ruler are interestingly still relevant today. In act II Ross, Willoughby, and Northumberland converse on the state of things and the state of the King, noting that a lack of finance has made "reproach and dissolution hangeth over him" (2.1.259). It is also reflected on by other characters that the taxing of the people to afford a war on another nation (or part of the current nation?) will only further remove the people from their loyalties to the king.
A punishment that is too harsh for the crime, or supposed crime, committed will also bring revolt, and there seems to be some foreshadowing early in the play. Bolingbroke's banishment, as seen by many as too harsh, serves as an example where he is assumed to take revenge later in the play. Many times in history we have seen this same occurance: punish a man too harshly and it leaves him seeking revenge, a man, or a country. WWI and WWII are good examples of this, as Germany's desperation in economic failure and national embarrassment led to further destruction of a continent. Surely, King Richard will reap what he sows, as Shakespeare almost always makes sure his characters do.