Richard II is not often performed in the United States and is less well know by students than many of Shakespeare's plays. When it was first produced it was relatively controversial because it dramatizes a king being forced by one of his noblemen to give up his crown.  Reigning monarchs don't like to be reminded that these things have happened in the past.  Some year's after the play was first produced the Earl of Essex commissioned a performance on the eve of his rebellion against Queen Elizabeth, presumably with the hope that it would help forward his cause. Some members of the company were arrested but later released when it was ascertained that they knew nothing of the rebellion, which by the way was quickly suppressed.  In our democratic age the idea of changing rulers is commonplace and we think little about scathing attacks on our government leaders.  In Shakespeare's day to question the monarch's policies in print or even in public was to risk imprisonment and perhaps even worse.