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CHAPTER IV.

RICHARD II., 1377-1399 (22 years).

1381, Anne of Bohemia.

Born 1366; married, {1395, Isabella of France.

Chief Characters of the Reign.-John of Gaunt and Henry Bolingbroke; Thomas, Duke of Gloucester; Edmund, Duke of York: De Vere, Earl of Oxford; Neville, Archbishop of York; the Earl of Arundel; Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury; Sir Simon Burley; Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk; John Wycliffe; and Wat Tyler.

ON Edward's death, his grandson Richard, the son of the Black Prince, was made king. He was only eleven years old, which was a very unfortunate thing for the kingdom, as his lot had fallen in troublous times. Not only was the war with France still going on, but also there was reason to expect difficulties in England.

Difficulties of the reign.

Besides the Black Prince, Edward III. had had four grownup sons, and he had provided for them by marrying them to rich heiresses. Thus Lionel, Duke of Clarence, married Wealth of the the heiress of the De Burghs, who had great estates royal family. in Ireland; John of Gaunt married the heiress of Henry, Duke of Lancaster; Edmund, Earl of Cambridge, and afterwards Duke of York, married a daughter of Pedro the Cruel; and Thomas of Woodstock, afterwards Duke of Gloucester, married the co-heiress of the Bohuns of Hereford. The daughter of Lionel, Duke of Clarence, married the Earl of Mortimer; while John of Gaunt's eldest son, the Earl of Derby, was married to the sister of Gloucester's wife. The result of these marriages, which took place in Edward's lifetime or soon after, was to collect very large estates in the hands of the royal family-an arrangement which was likely enough to cause trouble. Besides this, the commons were discontented, and the whole country had been much oppressed by taxation.

a council.

To carry on the government a council was appointed, from which the king's uncles were excluded, and the care of the king's Formation of person was entrusted to his mother, Joan of Kent. The first duty of the council was to provide for the carrying-on of the war. The French were ravaging the southern coasts, and, to provide for their defence, the Commons voted a large sum; but they stipulated that it should be paid into the hands of two London merchants, Walworth and Philipot, whom the king named as treasurers. This was a very important step, and shortly afterwards the Commons demanded to see the accounts of the treasury; this they had never done before, but the government were so pressed for money that it was quite impossible to refuse.

Control over the expenditure:

Poll-taxes.

Unfortunately, the tax granted by Parliament did not amount to as much as was expected, and in 1381 an additional tax had to be levied. The first tax had been graduated according to wealth, John of Gaunt having paid £6 13s. 4d., while the poorest only paid 4d. each; but the new tax was a shilling each on all over fifteen.

peasants.

This caused great discontent, and the commons all over the east and south of England rose in insurrection. The chief risings were Rising of the in Essex, under a leader who called himself Jack Straw, and in Kent, under one who took the name of Wat Tyler. Everywhere the rebels burnt the manor-houses in order to destroy the rolls on which the services due by the villeins were recorded, and they killed every lawyer on whom they could lay their hands. The rebels from Essex and Kent reached London; but the men of Essex were pacified by promises, and Richard himself won the goodwill of the Kentish-men after their leader, Wat Tyler, had been killed by Walworth, the Lord Mayor. The rebels demanded that customary services should be Demands of the abolished, that the rent paid for the land, instead of

serfs. the services, should be fourpence an acre, and that all should have liberty to buy and sell in fairs and markets. These demands were granted by the king; but when Parliament met, the landowners refused to confirm the grant, on the ground that no one had a right to deprive them of the services of their villeins. In practice, however, individual landlords were unable to enforce

the services, and the peasants' revolt marks the beginning of a century of great prosperity for the labouring classes.

John of Gaunt.

During the insurrection the rebels had shown great hostility to John of Gaunt, who continued, however, to have much influence till 1385; but in that year Roger Mortimer,1 Earl of March, the grandson of Lionel, Duke of Clarence, was declared heir to the throne, which destroyed his hopes of the succession, and the next year he made an expedition to Spain, to prosecute his right to the crown of Castile, which he claimed through his second wife, the elder daughter of Pedro the Cruel, and remained there till 1389.

Rise of a peace party and a war

party.

During the absence of John of Gaunt, the government lay in the hands of the council, in which Michael de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, had the chief power, and his principal colleagues were De Vere, Earl of Oxford (afterwards created Duke of Ireland), Neville, Archbishop of York, and Sir Simon Burley. The council advised peace, but the nobles, headed by Thomas of Gloucester, opposed this policy, and naturally had the support of those who had made money by the war, and of the soldiers who would lose their occupation if it was concluded.

To defeat the plans of the council, Gloucester and his friends in 1386 demanded the dismissal of Suffolk. For some time Richard resisted, but the opposition threatened him with the fate of Edward II., and he was compelled to yield. A council of eleven was then appointed as a commission, and the lords to sit for a year, and to regulate the royal household

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Struggle between the peace party

appellant.

Richard II.,

1377-1399.

Philippa = Edmund Mortimer, Earl of

March (great-grandson

of Roger Mortimer, who
was executed 1330).

Roger,
Earl of March,
d. 1398.

K

and the kingdom. Richard disliked this, and got the judges to declare the council illegal. Upon this, the Duke of Gloucester, Henry, Earl of Derby, son of John of Gaunt, and the Earls of Arundel, Nottingham, and Warwick, defeated the king's friends, under De Vere, at Radcot Bridge, in 1387. A Parliament, called the Merciless, was then summoned to meet in 1388, and the confederated lords appealed1 of treason the king's favourites, De Vere, Suffolk, Neville Archbishop of York, Sir Simon Burley, and others. Some were executed and some banished, and the chief power fell into the hands of Gloucester. The next year, 1389, Richard declared himself of age, and took the government into his own hands.

The Lollards.

Richard's reign was a time of great activity with the Lollards. Wycliffe died in 1384, but Richard's wife, Anne of Bohemia, was their friend, and under their influence Parliament renewed the Statutes of Provisors, Mortmain, and Praemunire. Some even wished to go further, and deprive the Church of its property, and this naturally made the clergy angry with the court, and favourable to the party of the nobles.

In 1389 John of Gaunt returned to England, and afterwards gave his support to the king, who obliged him by making his children by Katharine Swynford legitimate, and The Beauforts. having the deed confirmed by Parliament. These

children were called the Beauforts.

Fall of

In 1394 Anne of Bohemia died, and in 1396 Richard married Isabella, the sister of the French king, and made a truce with France for twenty-five years. This truce was distasteful to Gloucester and his friends, who thwarted Richard by every means in their power, and he, on the other hand, determined Gloucester and to crush them once for all, and to rule as he thought his friends. fit. To do this he laid his plans with great skill, won over the Earls of Derby and Nottingham to his side, and then, in 1397, suddenly arrested the others and accused them of treason. Arundel was executed, and his brother, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was banished. Warwick was imprisoned; but when Gloucester should have been tried, it was announced that he had died at Calais. Every one believed that he had been murdered by order of his nephew. Having thus got rid of his opponents, Richard called a Parliament To appeal is to deliberately charge.

at Westminster. On previous occasions the Commons had been strong because they had been supported by the Parliament of military power of the nobles; but now that this was Shrewsbury. broken, they were overawed by the king's body-guard of Cheshire archers, and were compelled to annul the acts of the Merciless Parliament. At a second meeting held at Shrewsbury they granted the king customs for life, which deprived them of control over the purse, and delegated their authority to eighteen of their members, who of course belonged to the king's party.

Quarrel of

Norfolk.

It now seemed as if Richard were absolute, and the next year he found an opportunity of getting rid of his only formidable opponents. A quarrel occurred between the Duke of Hereford, formerly Earl of Derby, and the Duke of Norfolk, Hereford and formerly Earl of Nottingham. They accused each other of treason, and as there was no evidence except their own word, the case was decided by single combat. However, when the fight was to begin, Richard stopped it, and gave sentence that Norfolk should be banished for life, and Hereford for ten years, which were afterwards reduced to seven. This was unjust, for both could not be guilty, and impolitic, for Hereford was by far the more dangerous of the two. In banishing them Richard stipulated that they should not communicate with Archbishop Arundel; but he promised Hereford that he should not be deprived of any land or goods which came to him by inheritance during his exile.

However, within a short time news was brought that Roger Mortimer, the heir-apparent, had been killed in Ire- Confiscation of land, and Richard, whose extravagance made him John of Gaunt's poor, was foolish enough to seize the property of John of Gaunt, who had died shortly after his son's

property.

Expedition to

Ireland.

Lancaster's revolt.

exile, to provide funds for an expedition to that country. While he was in Ireland, the new Duke of Lancaster came back to England and demanded the estates of his father. All those who had favoured Gloucester, or who were aggrieved by Richard's arbitrary government, flocked to his standard; and the Duke of York, who had been left as regent, offering no resistance, the whole country passed into the power of Lancaster. Meanwhile Richard was detained in Ireland by contrary winds, and when he at last landed in Wales, he found that the army

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