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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Richard II, by Jacob Abbott
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Richard II
+       Makers of History
+
+Author: Jacob Abbott
+
+Release Date: March 29, 2009 [EBook #28433]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RICHARD II ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by D. Alexander and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ Makers of History
+
+ Richard II.
+
+ BY JACOB ABBOTT
+
+ WITH ENGRAVINGS
+
+ NEW YORK AND LONDON
+
+ HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS
+
+ 1901
+
+
+
+
+ Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight
+ hundred and fifty-eight, by
+
+ HARPER & BROTHERS,
+
+ in the Clerk's office of the District Court of the Southern District
+ of New York.
+
+ Copyright, 1886, by BENJAMIN VAUGHAN ABBOTT, AUSTIN ABBOTT, LYMAN
+ ABBOTT, and EDWARD ABBOTT.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: PARLEY WITH THE INSURGENTS.]
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+King Richard the Second lived in the days when the chivalry of feudal
+times was in all its glory. His father, the Black Prince; his uncles,
+the sons of Edward the Third, and his ancestors in a long line,
+extending back to the days of Richard the First, were among the most
+illustrious knights of Europe in those days, and their history abounds
+in the wonderful exploits, the narrow escapes, and the romantic
+adventures, for which the knights errant of the Middle Ages were so
+renowned. This volume takes up the story of English history at the
+death of Richard the First, and continues it to the time of the
+deposition and death of Richard the Second, with a view of presenting
+as complete a picture as is possible, within such limits, of the ideas
+and principles, the manners and customs, and the extraordinary
+military undertakings and exploits of that wonderful age.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+ Chapter                                                    Page
+
+    I. RICHARD'S PREDECESSORS                                13
+
+   II. QUARRELS                                              37
+
+  III. THE BLACK PRINCE                                      81
+
+   IV. THE BATTLE OF POICTIERS                              103
+
+    V. CHILDHOOD OF RICHARD                                 140
+
+   VI. ACCESSION TO THE THRONE                              166
+
+  VII. THE CORONATION                                       185
+
+ VIII. CHIVALRY                                             197
+
+   IX. WAT TYLER'S INSURRECTION                             225
+
+    X. THE END OF THE INSURRECTION                          255
+
+   XI. GOOD QUEEN ANNE                                      273
+
+  XII. INCIDENTS OF THE REIGN                               290
+
+ XIII. THE LITTLE QUEEN                                     310
+
+  XIV. RICHARD'S DEPOSITION AND DEATH                       324
+
+
+
+
+ENGRAVINGS.
+
+                                                            Page
+
+  PARLEY WITH THE INSURGENTS                     _Frontispiece._
+
+  RUINS OF AN ANCIENT CASTLE                                 15
+
+  MAP--SITUATION OF NORMANDY                                 23
+
+  KING JOHN                                                  29
+
+  CAERNARVON CASTLE                                          51
+
+  PORTRAIT OF EDWARD THE SECOND                              55
+
+  WARWICK CASTLE                                             61
+
+  KENILWORTH CASTLE                                          66
+
+  A MONK OF THOSE DAYS                                       69
+
+  BERKELEY CASTLE                                            71
+
+  CAVES IN THE HILL-SIDE AT NOTTINGHAM CASTLE                75
+
+  MORTIMER'S HOLE                                            79
+
+  MAP--CAMPAIGN OF CRECY                                     85
+
+  VIEW OF ROUEN                                              87
+
+  GENOESE ARCHER                                             94
+
+  OLD ENGLISH SHIPS                                         105
+
+  MAP--CAMPAIGN OF POICTIERS                                110
+
+  STORMING OF THE CASTLE OF ROMORANTIN                      116
+
+  RICHARD RECEIVING THE VISIT OF HIS UNCLE JOHN             152
+
+  PORTRAIT OF RICHARD'S GRANDFATHER                         165
+
+  EDWARD, THE BLACK PRINCE                                  169
+
+  THE BULL                                                  177
+
+  STORMING OF A TOWN                                        205
+
+  KNIGHTS CHARGING UPON EACH OTHER                          220
+
+  VIEW OF THE TOWER OF LONDON                               235
+
+  THE SAVOY                                                 248
+
+  RUINS OF THE SAVOY                                        252
+
+  COSTUMES                                                  282
+
+  FASHIONABLE HEAD-DRESSES                                  283
+
+  SEAL OF RICHARD II                                        300
+
+  HENRY OF BOLINGBROKE--KING HENRY IV                       340
+
+  PONTEFRACT CASTLE                                         342
+
+
+
+
+KING RICHARD II.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+RICHARD'S PREDECESSORS.
+
+Three Richards.--Richard the Crusader.--King John.--Character of the
+kings and nobles of those days.--Origin and nature of their
+power.--Natural rights of man in respect to the fruits of the
+earth.--Beneficial results of royal rule.--The power of kings and
+nobles was restricted.--Disputes about the right of succession.--Case
+of young Arthur.--The King of France becomes his ally.--Map showing
+the situation of Normandy.--Arthur is defeated and made prisoner.--John
+attempts to induce Arthur to abdicate.--Account of the assassination of
+Arthur.--Various accounts of the mode of Arthur's death.--Uncertainty
+in respect to these stories.--League formed against him by his
+barons.--Portrait of King John.--Magna Charta.--Runny Mead.--The
+agreement afterward repudiated.--New wars.--New ratifications of Magna
+Charta.--Cruelties and oppressions practiced upon the Jews.--Extract
+from the old chronicles.--Absurd accusations.--The story of the
+crucified child.--John Lexinton.--Confessions extorted by
+torture.--Injustice and cruelty of the practice.--Anecdotes of the
+nobles and the king.
+
+
+There have been three monarchs of the name of Richard upon the English
+throne.
+
+Richard I. is known and celebrated in history as Richard the Crusader.
+He was the sovereign ruler not only of England, but of all the Norman
+part of France, and from both of his dominions he raised a vast army,
+and went with it to the Holy Land, where he fought many years against
+the Saracens with a view of rescuing Jerusalem and the other holy
+places there from the dominion of unbelievers. He met with a great
+many remarkable adventures in going to the Holy Land, and with still
+more remarkable ones on his return home, all of which are fully
+related in the volume of this series entitled King Richard I.
+
+Richard II. did not succeed Richard I. immediately. Several reigns
+intervened. The monarch who immediately succeeded Richard I. was
+John. John was Richard's brother, and had been left in command, in
+England, as regent, during the king's absence in the Holy Land.
+
+After John came Henry III. and the three Edwards; and when the third
+Edward died, his son Richard II. was heir to the throne. He was,
+however, too young at that time to reign, for he was only ten years
+old.
+
+The kings in these days were wild and turbulent men, always engaged in
+wars with each other and with their nobles, while all the industrial
+classes were greatly depressed. The nobles lived in strong castles in
+various places about the country, and owned, or claimed to own, very
+large estates, which the laboring men were compelled to cultivate for
+them. Some of these castles still remain in a habitable state, but
+most of them are now in ruins--and very curious objects the ruins are
+to see.
+
+[Illustration: RUINS OF AN ANCIENT CASTLE.]
+
+The kings held their kingdoms very much as the nobles did their
+estates--they considered them theirs by right. And the people generally
+thought so too. The king had a _right_, as they imagined, to live in
+luxury and splendor, and to lord it over the country, and compel the
+mass of the people to pay him nearly all their earnings in rent and
+taxes, and to raise armies, whenever he commanded them, to go and fight
+for him in his quarrels with his neighbors, because his father had
+done these things before him. And what right had his father to do these
+things? Why, because _his_ father had done them before him. Very well;
+but to go back to the beginning. What right had the first man to assume
+this power, and how did he get possession of it? This was a question
+that nobody could answer, for nobody knew then, and nobody knows now,
+who were the original founders of these noble families, or by what
+means they first came into power. People did not know how to read and
+write in the days when kings first began to reign, and so no records
+ere made, and no accounts kept of public transactions; and when at
+length the countries of Europe in the Middle Ages began to emerge
+somewhat into the light of civilization, these royal and noble families
+were found every where established. The whole territory of Europe was
+divided into a great number of kingdoms, principalities, dukedoms, and
+other such sovereignties, over each of which some ancient family was
+established in supreme and almost despotic power. Nobody knew how they
+originally came by their power.
+
+The people generally submitted to this power very willingly. In the
+first place, they had a sort of blind veneration for it on account of
+its ancient and established character. Then they were always taught
+from infancy that kings had a right to reign, and nobles a right to
+their estates, and that to toil all their lives, and allow their kings
+and nobles to take, in rent and taxes, and in other such ways, every
+thing that they, the people, earned, except what was barely sufficient
+for their subsistence, was an obligation which the God of nature had
+imposed upon them, and that it would be a sin in them not to submit to
+it; whereas nothing can be more plain than that the God of nature
+intends the _earth_ for _man_, and that consequently society ought to
+be so organized that in each generation every man can enjoy something
+at least like his fair share of the products of it, in proportion to
+the degree of industry or skill which he brings to bear upon the work
+of developing these products.
+
+There was another consideration which made the common people more
+inclined to submit to these hereditary kings and nobles than we should
+have supposed they would have been, and that is, the government which
+they exercised was really, in many respects, of great benefit to the
+community. They preserved order as far as they could, and punished
+crimes. If bands of robbers were formed, the nobles or the king sent
+out a troop to put them down. If a thief broke into a house and stole
+what he found there, the government sent officers to pursue and arrest
+him, and then shut him up in jail. If a murder was committed, they
+would seize the murderer and hang him. It was their interest to do
+this, for if they allowed the people to be robbed and plundered, or to
+live all the time in fear of violence, then it is plain that the
+cultivation of the earth could not go on, and the rents and the taxes
+could not be paid. So these governments established courts, and made
+laws, and appointed officers to execute them, in order to protect the
+lives and property of their subjects from all common thieves and
+murderers, and the people were taught to believe that there was no
+other way by which their protection could be secured except by the
+power of the kings. We must be contented as we are, they said to
+themselves, and be willing to go and fight the king's battles, and to
+pay to him and to the nobles nearly every thing that we can earn, or
+else society will be thrown into confusion, and the whole land will be
+full of thieves and murderers.
+
+In the present age of the world, means have been devised by which, in
+any country sufficiently enlightened for this purpose, the people
+themselves can organize a government to restrain and punish robbers
+and murderers, and to make and execute all other necessary laws for
+the promotion of the general welfare; but in those ancient times this
+was seldom or never done. The art of government was not then
+understood. It is very imperfectly understood at the present day, but
+in those days it was not understood at all; and, accordingly, there
+was nothing better for the people to do than to submit to, and not
+only to submit to, but to maintain with all their power the government
+of these hereditary kings and nobles.
+
+It must not be supposed, however, that the power of these hereditary
+nobles was absolute. It was very far from being absolute. It was
+restricted and curtailed by the ancient customs and laws of the realm,
+which customs and laws the kings and nobles could not transgress
+without producing insurrections and rebellions. Their own right to the
+power which they wielded rested solely on ancient customs, and, of
+course, the restrictions on these rights, which had come down by
+custom from ancient times, were as valid as the rights themselves.
+
+Notwithstanding this, the kings were continually overstepping the
+limits of their power, and insurrections and civil wars were all the
+time breaking out, in consequence of which the realms over which they
+reigned were kept in a perpetual state of turmoil. These wars arose
+sometimes from the contests of different claimants to the crown. If a
+king died, leaving only a son too young to rule, one of his brothers,
+perhaps--an uncle of the young prince--would attempt to seize the
+throne, under one pretext or another, and then the nobles and the
+courtiers would take sides, some in favor of the nephew and some in
+favor of the uncle, and a long civil war would perhaps ensue. This was
+the case immediately after the death of Richard I. When he died he
+designated as his successor a nephew of his, who was at that time only
+twelve years old. The name of this young prince was Arthur. He was the
+son of Geoffrey, a brother of Richard's, older than John, and he was
+accordingly the rightful heir; but John, having been once installed in
+power by his brother--for his brother had made him regent when he went
+away on his crusade to the Holy Land--determined that he would seize
+the crown himself, and exclude his nephew from the succession.
+
+So he caused himself to be proclaimed king. He was in Normandy at the
+time; but he immediately put himself at the head of an armed force
+and went to England.
+
+The barons of the kingdom immediately resolved to resist him, and to
+maintain the cause of the young Arthur. They said that Arthur was the
+rightful king, and that John was only a usurper; so they withdrew,
+every man to his castle, and fortified themselves there.
+
+In cases like this, where in any kingdom there were two contested
+claims for the throne, the kings of the neighboring countries usually
+came in and took part in the quarrel. They thought that by taking
+sides with one of the claimants, and aiding him to get possession of
+the throne, they should gain an influence in the kingdom which they
+might afterward turn to account for themselves. The King of France at
+this time was named Philip. He determined to espouse the cause of
+young Arthur in this quarrel. His motive for doing this was to have a
+pretext for making war upon John, and, in the war, of conquering some
+portion of Normandy and annexing it to his own dominions.
+
+So he invited Arthur to come to his court, and when he arrived there
+he asked him if he would not like to be King of England. Arthur said
+that he should like to be a king very much indeed. "Well," said
+Philip, "I will furnish you with an army, and you shall go and make
+war upon John. I will go too, with another army; then, whatever I
+shall take away from John in Normandy shall be mine, but all of
+England shall be yours."
+
+The situation of the country of Normandy, in relation to France and to
+England, may be seen by the accompanying map.
+
+[Illustration: SITUATION OF NORMANDY.]
+
+Philip thought that he could easily seize a large part of Normandy and
+annex it to his dominions while John was engaged in defending himself
+against Arthur in England.
+
+Arthur, who was at this time only about fourteen years old, was, of
+course, too young to exercise any judgment in respect to such
+questions as these, so he readily agreed to what Philip proposed, and
+very soon afterward Philip assembled an army, and, placing Arthur
+nominally at the head of it, he sent him forth into Normandy to
+commence the war upon John. Of course, Arthur was only nominally at
+the head of the army. There were old and experienced generals who
+really had the command, though they did every thing in Arthur's name.
+
+A long war ensued, but in the end Arthur's army was defeated, and
+Arthur himself was made prisoner. John and his savage soldiery got
+possession of the town where Arthur was in the night, and they seized
+the poor boy in his bed. The soldiers took him away with a troop of
+horse, and shut him up in a dungeon in a famous castle called the
+castle of Falaise. You will see the position of Falaise on the map.
+
+After a while John determined to visit Arthur in his prison, in order
+to see if he could not make some terms with him. To accomplish his
+purpose more effectually, he waited some time, till he thought the
+poor boy's spirit must be broken down by his confinement and his
+sufferings. His design was probably to make terms with him by offering
+him his liberty, and perhaps some rich estate, if he would only give
+up his claims to the crown and acknowledge John as king; but he found
+that Arthur, young as he was, and helpless as was his condition in his
+lonely dungeon, remained in heart entirely unsubdued. All that he
+would say in answer to John's proposal was, "Give me back my kingdom."
+At length, John, finding that he could not induce the prince to give
+up his claims, went away in a rage, and determined to kill him. If
+Arthur were dead, there would then, he thought, be no farther
+difficulty, for all acknowledged that after Arthur he himself was the
+next heir.
+
+There was another way, too, by which John might become the rightful
+heir to the crown. It was a prevalent idea in those days that no
+person who was blind, or deaf, or dumb could inherit a crown. To blind
+young Arthur, then, would be as effectual a means of extinguishing his
+claims as to kill him, and John accordingly determined to destroy the
+young prince's right to the succession by putting out his eyes; so he
+sent two executioners to perform this cruel deed upon the captive in
+his dungeon.
+
+The name of the governor of the castle was Hubert. He was a kind and
+humane man, and he pitied his unhappy prisoner; and so, when the
+executioners came, and Hubert went to the cell to tell Arthur that
+they had come, and what they had come for, Arthur fell on his knees
+before him and began to beg for mercy, crying out, Save me! oh, save
+me! with such piteous cries that Hubert's heart was moved with
+compassion, and he concluded that he would put off the execution of
+the dreadful deed till he could see the king again.
+
+John was very angry when he found that his orders had not been obeyed,
+and he immediately determined to send Arthur to another prison, which
+was in the town of Rouen, the keeper of which he knew to be an
+unscrupulous and merciless man. This was done, and soon afterward it
+was given out through all the kingdom that Arthur was dead. Every body
+was convinced that John had caused him to be murdered. There were
+several different rumors in respect to the way in which the deed was
+done. One story was that John, being at Rouen, where Arthur was
+imprisoned, after having become excited with the wine which he had
+drunk at a carousal, went and killed Arthur himself with his own
+hand, and that he then ordered his body to be thrown into the Seine,
+with heavy stones tied to the feet to make it sink. The body, however,
+afterward, they said, rose to the surface and floated to the shore,
+where some monks found it, and buried it secretly in their abbey.
+
+Another story was that John pretended to be reconciled to Arthur, and
+took him out one day to ride with him, with other horsemen. Presently
+John rode on with Arthur in advance of the party, until late in the
+evening they came to a solitary place where there was a high cliff
+overhanging the sea. Here John drew his sword, and, riding up to
+Arthur, suddenly ran him through the body. Arthur cried aloud, and
+begged for mercy as he fell from his horse to the ground; but John
+dragged him to the edge of the precipice, and threw him over into the
+sea while he was yet alive and breathing.
+
+A third story was that John had determined that Arthur must die, and
+that he came himself one night to the castle where Arthur was confined
+in Rouen on the Seine. A man went up to Arthur's room, and, waking him
+from his sleep, directed him to rise.
+
+"Rise," said he, "and come with me."
+
+Arthur rose, and followed his guard with fear and trembling. They
+descended the staircase to the foot of the tower, where there was a
+portal that opened close upon the river. On going out, Arthur found
+that there was a boat there at the stairs, with his uncle and some
+other men in it. Arthur at once understood what these things meant,
+and was greatly terrified. He fell on his knees, and begged his uncle
+to spare his life; but John gave a sign, and Arthur was stabbed, and
+then taken out a little way and thrown into the river. Some say that
+John killed him and threw him into the river with his own hand.
+
+Which of these tales is true, if either of them is so, can now
+probably never be known. All that is certain is that John in some way
+or other caused Arthur to be murdered in order to remove him out of
+the way. He justified his claim to the crown by pretending that King
+Richard, his brother, on his death-bed, bequeathed the kingdom to him,
+but this nobody believes.
+
+At any rate, John obtained possession of the crown, and he reigned
+many years. His reign, however, was a very troubled one. His title,
+indeed, after Arthur's death, was no longer disputed, but he was
+greatly abhorred and hated for his cruelties and crimes, and at length
+nearly all the barons of his realm banded themselves together against
+him, with the view of reducing his power as king within more
+reasonable bounds.
+
+[Illustration: KING JOHN.]
+
+The king fought these _rebels_, as he called them, for some time, but
+he was continually beaten, and finally compelled to yield to them.
+They wrote out their demands in a full and formal manner upon
+parchment, and compelled the king to sign it. This document was called
+the MAGNA CHARTA, which means the great charter. The signing and
+delivering this deed is considered one of the most important events in
+English history. It was the first great covenant that was made between
+the kings and the people of England, and the stipulations of it have
+been considered binding to this day, so that it is, in some sense, the
+original basis and foundation of the civil rights which the British
+people now enjoy.
+
+The place of assembly where King John came out to sign this covenant
+was a broad and beautiful meadow on the banks of the Thames, not far
+from Windsor Castle. The name of the field is Runny Mead. The word
+_mead_ is a contraction for meadow.
+
+The act of once signing such a compact as this was, however, not
+sufficient, it seems, to bind the English kings. There were a great
+many disputes and contests about it afterward between the kings and
+the barons, as the kings, one after another, refused to adhere to the
+agreement made by John in their name, on the ground, perhaps, of the
+deed not being a voluntary one on his part. He was forced to sign it,
+they said, because the barons were stronger than he was. Of course,
+when the kings thought that they, in their turn, were stronger than
+the barons, they were very apt to violate the agreement. One of the
+kings on one occasion obtained a dispensation from the Pope, absolving
+him from all obligation to fulfill this compact.
+
+In consequence of this want of good faith on the part of the kings,
+there arose continually new quarrels, and sometimes new civil wars,
+between the kings and the barons. In these contests the barons were
+usually successful in the end, and then they always insisted on the
+vanquished monarch's ratifying or signing the Magna Charta anew. It is
+said that in this way it was confirmed and re-established not less
+than _thirty times_ in the course of four or five reigns, and thus it
+became at last the settled and unquestioned law of the land. The power
+of the kings of England has been restricted and controlled by its
+provisions ever since.
+
+All this took place in the reigns preceding the accession of Richard
+II.
+
+Besides these contests with the barons, the kings of those times were
+often engaged in contentions with the people; but the people, having
+no means of combining together or otherwise organizing their
+resistance, were almost always compelled to submit. They were often
+oppressed and maltreated in the most cruel manner. The great object of
+the government seems to have been to extort money from them in every
+possible way, and to this end taxes and imposts were levied upon them
+to such an extent as to leave them enough only for bare subsistence.
+The most cruel means were often resorted to to compel the payment of
+these taxes. The unhappy Jews were the special subjects of these
+extortions. The Jews in Europe were at this time generally excluded
+from almost every kind of business except buying and selling movable
+property, and lending money; but by these means many of them became
+very rich, and their property was of such a nature that it could be
+easily concealed. This led to a great many cases of cruelty in the
+treatment of them by the government. The government pretended often
+that they were richer than they really were, while they themselves
+pretended that they were poorer than they were, and the government
+resorted to the most lawless and atrocious measures sometimes to
+compel them to pay. The following extract from one of the historians
+of the time gives an example of this cruelty, and, at the same time,
+furnishes the reader with a specimen of the quaint and curious style
+of composition and orthography in which the chronicles of those days
+are written.
+
+     =Furthermore, about the same time, the King taxed the Jewes,
+     and greeuouslie tormented and emprisoned them bicause divers
+     of them would not willinglie pay the summes that they were
+     taxed at. Amongst other, there was one of them at Bristow
+     who would not consent to give any fine for his deliverance;
+     wherefore by the king's commandment he was put unto this
+     penance, namely, that eurie daie, till he would agree to
+     give to the king those ten thousand marks that he was siezed
+     at, he would have one of his teeth plucked out of his head.
+     By the space of seaun daies together he stood stedfast,
+     losing euerie of those days a tooth. But on the eighth day,
+     when he shuld come to have the eighth tooth, and the last
+     (for he had but eight in all), draun out, he paid the monie
+     to save that, who with more wisedome and less paine might
+     have done so before, and so have saved his seven teeth which
+     he lost with such torments; for those homelie toothdrauers
+     used no great cunning in plucking them forth, as may be
+     conjectured.=
+
+The poor Jews were entirely at the mercy of the king in these cases,
+for they were so much hated and despised by the Christian people of
+the land that nobody was disposed to defend them, either by word or
+deed, whatever injustice or cruelty they might suffer. The most absurd
+and injurious charges were made against them by common rumor, and were
+generally believed, for there was nobody to defend them. There was a
+story, for example, that they were accustomed every year to crucify a
+Christian child. One year a mother, having missed her child, searched
+every where for him, and at length found him dead in the bottom of a
+well. It was recollected that a short time before the child
+disappeared he had been seen playing with some Jewish children before
+the door of a house where a certain Jew lived, called John Lexinton.
+The story was immediately circulated that this child had been taken by
+the Jews and crucified. It was supposed, of course, that John Lexinton
+was intimately connected with the crime. He was immediately seized by
+the officers, and he was so terrified by their threats and
+denunciations that he promised to confess every thing if they would
+spare his life. This they engaged to do, and he accordingly made what
+he called his confession. In consequence of this confession a hundred
+and two Jews were apprehended, and carried to London and shut up in
+the Tower.
+
+But, notwithstanding the confession that John Lexinton had made and
+the promise that was given him, it was determined that he should not
+be spared, but should die. Upon hearing this he was greatly
+distressed, and he offered to make more confessions; so he revealed
+several additional particulars in regard to the crime, and implicated
+numerous other persons in the commission of it. All was, however, of
+no avail. He was executed, and eighteen other Jews with him.
+
+Judging from the evidence which we have in this case, it is highly
+probable that the alleged crime was wholly imaginary. Confessions that
+are extorted by pain or fear are never to be believed. They may be
+true, but they are far more likely to be false. It was the custom in
+ancient times, and it still remains the custom among many ignorant and
+barbarous nations, to put persons to torture in order to compel them
+to confess crimes of which they are suspected, or to reveal the names
+of their accomplices, but nothing can be more cruel or unjust than
+such a practice as this. Most men, in such cases, are so maddened with
+their agony and terror that they will say any thing whatever that they
+think will induce their tormentors to put an end to their sufferings.
+
+The common people could not often resist the acts of oppression which
+they suffered from their rulers, for they had no power, and they could
+not combine together extensively enough to create a power, and so they
+were easily kept in subjection.
+
+The nobles, however, were much less afraid of the monarchs, and often
+resisted them and bid them defiance. It was the law in those days
+that all estates to which no other person had a legal claim
+_escheated_, as they called it, to the king. Of course, if the king
+could find an estate in which there was any flaw in the title of the
+man who held it, he would claim it for his own. At one time a king
+asked a certain baron to show him the title to his estate. He was
+intending to examine it, to see if there was any flaw in it. The
+baron, instead of producing his parchment, drew his sword and held it
+out before the king.
+
+"This is my title to my estate," said he. "Your majesty will remember
+that William of Normandy did not conquer this realm for himself
+alone."
+
+At another time a king wished to send two of his earls out of the
+country on some military expedition where they did not wish to go.
+They accordingly declined the undertaking.
+
+"By the Almighty," said the king, "you shall either go or hang."
+
+"By the Almighty," replied one of the earls, "we will neither go nor
+hang."
+
+The nobles also often formed extensive and powerful combinations among
+each other against the king, and in such cases they were almost always
+successful in bringing him to submit to their demands.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+QUARRELS.
+
+A.D. 1327
+
+Classes of quarrels in which the kings and the people were engaged.--The
+Pope.--His claim of jurisdiction in England.--The Pope's legate and
+the students at Oxford.--Great riot made by the students.--The end
+of the affair.--Plan to assassinate the king.--Margaret, the
+servant-girl.--Execution of Marish.--Ideas of the sacredness of the
+person of a king.--Origin of the wars with Leolin, Prince of
+Wales.--Leolin's bride intercepted at sea.--The unhappy fate of
+Leolin.--Fate of Prince David, his brother.--Occasional acts of
+generosity.--Story of Lewin and the box of dispatches.--The fate of
+Lewin.--Origin of the modern title of Prince of Wales.--The first
+English Prince of Wales.--Piers Gaveston.--Edward II. and his
+favorite.--Their wild and reckless behavior.--The king goes away to
+be married.--Edward's indifference on the occasion of his marriage.--His
+infatuation in respect to Gaveston.--The coronation.--Bold and
+presumptuous demeanor of Gaveston.--His unpopularity.--He is
+banished.--His parting.--The Black Dog of Ardenne.--Gaveston's
+return.--Gaveston made prisoner.--Consultation respecting him.--His
+fate.--The Spencers.--The queen and Mortimer.--Edward III. proclaimed
+king.--Edward II. made prisoner.--Edward II. formally deposed at
+Kenilworth.--The delegation require the king to abdicate the
+crown.--Opinion of the monks.--Alarm of the nobles.--Berkeley
+Castle.--Plot for assassinating the king.--Dreadful death.--Great
+hatred of Mortimer.--Situation of the castle of Nottingham.--The
+caves.--Entrance of the conspirators into the castle.--Isabella's
+unhappy fate.--Mortimer's Hole.
+
+
+In the days of the predecessors of King Richard the Second,
+notwithstanding the claim made by the kings of a right on their part
+to reign on account of the influence exercised by their government in
+promoting law and order throughout the community, the country was
+really kept in a continual state of turmoil by the quarrels which the
+different parties concerned in this government were engaged in with
+each other and with surrounding nations. These quarrels were of
+various kinds.
+
+     1. The kings, as we have already seen, were perpetually
+     quarreling with the nobles.
+
+     2. The different branches of the royal family were often
+     engaged in bitter and cruel wars with each other, arising
+     from their conflicting claims to the crown.
+
+     3. The kings of different countries were continually making
+     forays into each other's territories, or waging war against
+     each other with fire and sword. These wars arose sometimes
+     from a lawless spirit of depredation, and sometimes were
+     waged to resent personal insults or injuries, real or
+     imaginary.
+
+     4. The Pope of Rome, who claimed jurisdiction over the
+     Church in England as well as elsewhere, was constantly
+     coming into collision with the civil power.
+
+From some one or other of these several causes, the kingdom of
+England, in the time of Richard's predecessors, was seldom at peace.
+Some great quarrel or other was continually going on. There was a
+great deal of difficulty during the reigns that immediately preceded
+that of Richard the Second between the kings and the Pope. The Pope,
+as has already been remarked, was considered the head of the whole
+Christian Church, and he claimed rights in respect to the appointment
+of the archbishops, and bishops, and other ecclesiastics in England,
+and in respect to the government and control of the monasteries, and
+the abbeys, and to the appropriation and expenditure of the revenues
+of the Church, which sometimes interfered very seriously with the
+views and designs of the king. Hence there arose continual disputes
+and quarrels. The Pope never came himself to England, but he often
+sent a grand embassador, called a legate, who traveled with great pomp
+and parade, and with many attendants, and assumed in all his doings a
+most lofty and superior air. In the contests in which these legates
+were engaged with the kings, the legates almost always came off
+conquerors through the immense influence which the Pope exercised over
+the consciences and religious fears of the mass of the people.
+
+Sometimes the visits of the legates and their proceedings among the
+people led to open broils. At one time, for instance, the legate was
+at Oxford, where the great University, now so renowned throughout the
+world, already existed. He was lodged at an abbey there, and some of
+the scholars of the University wishing to pay their respects to him,
+as they said, went in a body to the gates of the abbey and demanded
+admission; but the porter kept them back and refused to let them in.
+Upon this a great noise and tumult arose, the students pressing
+against the gates to get in, and the porter, assisted by the legate's
+men, whom he called to his assistance, resisting them.
+
+In the course of the fray one or two of the students succeeded in
+forcing their way in as far as to the kitchen of the abbey, and there
+one of them called upon a cook to help them. But the cook, instead of
+helping them, dipped out a ladle full of hot broth from a kettle and
+threw it into the student's face. Whereupon the other students cried
+out, as the ancient chronicler relates it, "What meane we to suffer
+this villanie," and, taking an arrow, he set it in his bow, having
+caught up these weapons in the beginning of the fray, and let it fly
+at the cook, and killed him on the spot.
+
+This, of course, greatly increased the excitement. More students came
+in, and so great was the tumult and confusion that the legate was in
+terror for his life, and he fled and concealed himself in the belfry
+of the abbey. After lying in this place of concealment for some time,
+until the tumult was in some measure appeased, he crept out secretly,
+fled across the Thames, and then, mounting a horse, made the best of
+his way to London.
+
+He made complaint to the king of the indignity which he had endured,
+and the king immediately sent a troop of armed men, with an earl at
+the head of them, to rescue the remainder of the legate's men that
+were still imprisoned in the abbey, and also to seize all the students
+that had been concerned in the riot and bring them to London. The earl
+proceeded to execute his commission. He apprehended thirty of the
+students, and, taking them to a neighboring castle, he shut them up
+there as prisoners.
+
+In the end, besides punishing the individual students who had made
+this disturbance, the regents and masters of the University were
+compelled to come to London, and there to go barefooted through the
+principal street to a church where the legate was, and humbly to
+supplicate his forgiveness for the indignity which he had suffered.
+And so, with great difficulty, they obtained their pardon.
+
+The students in those days, as students are apt to be in all countries
+and in all ages, were a very impulsive, and, in some respects, a
+lawless set. Whenever they deemed themselves injured, they pursued the
+object of their hostility in the most reckless and relentless manner.
+At one time a member of the University became so excited against the
+king on account of some injury, real or imaginary, which he had
+suffered, that he resolved to kill him. So he feigned himself mad, and
+in this guise he loitered many days about the palace of Woodstock,
+where the king was then residing, until at length he became well
+acquainted with all the localities. Then, watching his opportunity, he
+climbed by night through a window into a bedchamber where he thought
+the king was lying. He crept up to the bedside, and, throwing back the
+clothes, he stabbed several times into the bed with a dagger. He,
+however, stabbed nothing but the bed itself, and the pillow, for the
+king that night, as it happened, lay in another chamber.
+
+As the student was making his escape, he was spied by one of the
+chambermaids named Margaret Biset. Margaret immediately made a great
+outcry, and the other servants, coming up, seized the student and
+carried him off to prison. He was afterward tried, and was convicted
+of treason in having made an attempt upon the king's life, and was
+hanged. Before his death he said that he had been employed to kill the
+king by another man, a certain William de Marish, who was a noted and
+prominent man of those days. This William de Marish was afterward
+taken and brought to trial, but he solemnly denied that he had ever
+instigated the student to commit the crime. He was, however, condemned
+and executed, and, according to the custom in those days in the case
+of persons convicted of treason, his body was subjected after his
+death to extreme indignities, and then was divided into four quarters,
+one of which was sent to each of the four principal cities of the
+kingdom, and publicly exhibited in them as a warning to all men of the
+dreadful consequences of attempting such a crime.
+
+Great pains were taken in those days to instill into the minds of all
+men the idea that to kill a king was the worst crime that a human
+being could commit. One of the writers of the time said that in
+wounding and killing a prince a man was guilty of homicide, parricide,
+Christicide, and even of deicide, all in one; that is, that in the
+person of a king slain by the hand of the murderer the criminal
+strikes not only at a man, but at his own father, and at Christ his
+Savior, and God.
+
+A great many strange and superstitious notions were entertained by the
+people in respect to kings. These superstitions were encouraged, even
+by the scholars and historians of those times, who might be supposed
+to know better. But it was so much for their interest to write what
+should be agreeable to the king and to his court, that they were by no
+means scrupulous in respect to the tales which they told, provided
+they were likely to be pleasing to those in authority, and to
+strengthen the powers and prestige of the reigning families.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The neighboring countries with which the kings of England were most
+frequently at war in those days were Scotland, Wales, and France.
+These wars arose, not from any causes connected with the substantial
+interests of the people of England, but from the grasping ambition of
+the kings, who wished to increase the extent of their territories, and
+thus add to their revenues and to their power. Sometimes their wars
+arose from private and personal quarrels, and in these cases thousands
+of lives were often sacrificed, and great sums of money expended to
+revenge slights or personal injuries of comparatively little
+consequence.
+
+For instance, one of the wars with Wales broke out in this manner.
+Leolin, who was then the reigning Prince of Wales, sent to France, and
+requested the King of France that he might have in marriage a certain
+lady named Lady Eleanor, who was then residing in the French king's
+court. The motive of Leolin in making this proposal was not that he
+bore any love for the Lady Eleanor, for very likely he had never seen
+her; but she was the daughter of an English earl named Montfort, Earl
+of Leicester, who was an enemy of the King of England, and, having
+been banished from the country, had taken refuge in France. Leolin
+thought that by proposing and carrying into effect this marriage, he
+would at once gratify the King of France and spite the King of
+England.
+
+The King of France at once assented to the proposed marriage, but the
+King of England was extremely angry, and he determined to prevent the
+marriage if he could. He accordingly gave the necessary orders, and
+the little fleet which was sent from France to convey Eleanor to Wales
+was intercepted off the Scilly Islands on the way, and the whole
+bridal party were taken prisoners and sent to London.
+
+As soon as Leolin heard this, he, of course, was greatly enraged, and
+he immediately set off with an armed troop, and made a foray upon the
+English frontiers, killing all the people that lived near the border,
+plundering their property, and burning up all the towns and villages
+that came in his way. There followed a long war. The English were, on
+the whole, the victors in the war, and at the end of it a treaty was
+made by which Leolin's wife, it is true, was restored to him, but his
+kingdom was brought almost completely under the power of the English
+kings.
+
+Of course, Leolin was extremely dissatisfied with this result, and he
+became more and more uneasy in the enthralled position to which the
+English king had reduced him, and finally a new war broke out. Leolin
+was beaten in this war too, and in the end, in a desperate battle that
+was fought among the mountains, he was slain. He was slain near the
+beginning of the battle. The man who killed him did not know at the
+time who it was that he had killed, though he knew from his armor that
+he was some distinguished personage or other. When the battle was
+ended this man went back to the place to see, and, finding that it was
+the Prince Leolin whom he had slain, he was greatly pleased. He cut
+off the head from the body, and sent it as a present to the king. The
+king sent the head to London, there to be paraded through the streets
+on the end of a long pole as a token of victory. After being carried
+in this manner through Cheapside--then the principal street of
+London--in order that it might be gazed upon by all the people, it was
+set up on a high pole near the Tower, and there remained a long time,
+a trophy, as the king regarded it, of the glory and renown of a
+victory, but really an emblem of cruel injustice and wrong perpetrated
+by a strong against a weaker neighbor.
+
+Not long after this the King of England succeeded in taking Prince
+David, the brother of Leolin, and, under the pretense that he had been
+guilty of treason, he cut off his head too, and set it up on another
+pole at the Tower of London, by the side of his brother's.
+
+It must be admitted, however, that, although these ancient warriors
+were generally extremely unjust in their dealings with each other,
+and often barbarously cruel, they were still sometimes actuated by
+high and noble sentiments of honor and generosity. On one occasion,
+for instance, when this same Edward the First, who was so cruel in his
+treatment of Leolin, was at war in Scotland, and was besieging a
+castle there, he wrote one day certain dispatches to send to his
+council in London, and, having inquired for a speedy and trusty
+messenger to send them by, a certain Welshman named Lewin was sent to
+him. The king delivered the package to Lewin inclosed in a box, and
+also gave him money to bear his expenses on the way, and then sent him
+forth.
+
+Lewin, however, instead of setting out on his journey, went to a
+tavern, and there, with a party of his companions, he spent the money
+which he had received in drink, and passed the night carousing. In the
+morning he said that he must set out on his journey, but before he
+went he must go back to the castle and have one parting shot at the
+garrison. Under this pretext, he took his cross-bow and proceeded
+toward the castle wall; but when he got there, instead of shooting his
+arrows, he called out to the wardens whom he saw on guard over the
+gate, and asked them to let down a rope and draw him up into the
+castle, as he had something of great importance to communicate to the
+governor of it.
+
+So the wardens let down a rope and drew Lewin up, and then took him to
+the governor, who was then at breakfast. Lewin held out the box to the
+governor, saying,
+
+"Here, sir, look in this box, and you may read all the secrets of the
+King of England."
+
+He said, moreover, that he would like to have the governor give him a
+place on the wall, and see whether he could handle a cross-bow or not
+against the English army.
+
+Gunpowder and guns had not been introduced as means of warfare at this
+time; the most formidable weapon that was then employed was the
+cross-bow. With the cross-bow a sort of square-headed arrow was used
+called a _quarrel_.
+
+The governor, instead of accepting these offers on the part of Lewin,
+immediately went out to one of the turrets on the wall, and, calling
+to the English soldiers whom he saw below, he directed them to tell
+the King of England that one of his servants had turned traitor, and
+had come into the castle with a box of dispatches.
+
+"And tell him," said the governor, "that if he will send some persons
+here to receive him, I will let the man down to them over the wall,
+and also restore the box of dispatches, which I have not opened at
+all."
+
+Immediately Lord Spencer, one of the king's chief officers, came to
+the wall, and the governor of the castle let Lewin down to him by a
+rope, and also passed the box of letters down. The King of England was
+so much pleased with this generosity on the part of the governor that
+he immediately ceased his operations against the castle, though he
+caused Lewin to be hanged on a gallows of the highest kind.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+But to return to Wales. After the death of Leolin and his brother the
+kingdom of Wales was annexed to England, and has ever since remained a
+possession of the British crown. The King of England partly induced
+the people of Wales to consent to this annexation by promising that he
+would still give them a native of Wales for prince. They thought he
+meant by this that they should continue to be governed by one of their
+own royal family; but what he really meant was that he would make his
+own son Prince of Wales. This son of his was then an infant. He was
+born in Wales. This happened from the fact that the king, in the
+course of his conquests in that country, had seized upon a place
+called Caernarvon, and had built a castle there, in a beautiful
+situation on the Straits of Menai, which separate the main land from
+the isle of Anglesea.
+
+When his castle was finished the king brought the queen to Caernarvon
+to see it, and while she was there, her child, Prince Edward, who
+afterward became Edward the Second, was born.
+
+This was the origin of the title of Prince of Wales, which has been
+held ever since by the oldest sons of the English sovereigns.
+
+[Illustration: CAERNARVON CASTLE.]
+
+This first English Prince of Wales led a most unhappy life, and his
+history illustrates in a most striking manner one of the classes of
+quarrels enumerated at the head of this chapter, namely, the disputes
+and contentions that often prevailed between the sovereign of the
+country and his principal nobles. While he was a young man he formed a
+very intimate friendship with another young man named Piers Gaveston.
+This Gaveston was a remarkably handsome youth, and very prepossessing
+and agreeable in his manners, and he soon gained a complete ascendency
+over the mind of young Edward. He was, however, very wild and dissolute
+in his habits, and the influence which he exerted upon Edward was
+extremely bad. As long as the common people only were injured by the
+lawless behavior of these young men, the king seems to have borne with
+them; but at last, in a riot in which they were concerned, they broke
+into the park of a bishop, and committed damage there which the king
+could not overlook. He caused his son, the young prince, to be seized
+and put into prison, and he banished Gaveston from the country, and
+forbade his son to have any thing more to do with him. This was in 1305,
+when the prince was twenty-one years of age.
+
+In 1307, two years later, the king died, and the prince succeeded him,
+under the title of King Edward the Second. He immediately sent for
+Gaveston to return to England, where he received him with the greatest
+joy. He made him a duke, under the title of Duke of Cornwall; and as
+for the bishop whose park he and Gaveston had broken into, and on
+whose complaint Gaveston had been banished, in order to punish him for
+these offenses, the young king seized him and delivered him into
+Gaveston's hands as a prisoner, and at the same time confiscated his
+estates and gave them to Gaveston. Gaveston sent the bishop about from
+castle to castle as a prisoner, according as his caprice or fancy
+dictated.
+
+These things made the barons and nobles of England extremely
+indignant, for Gaveston, besides being a corrupt and dissipated
+character, was, in fact, a foreigner by birth, being a native of
+Gascony, in France. His character seemed to grow worse with his
+exaltation, and he and Edward spent all their time in rioting and
+excess, and in perpetrating every species of iniquity.
+
+Edward had been for some time engaged to be married to the Princess
+Isabel, the daughter of the King of France. About six months after his
+accession to the throne he set off for France to be married. It was
+his duty, according to the ancient usages of the realm, to appoint
+some member of the royal family, or some prominent person from the
+ancient nobility of the country, to govern the kingdom as regent
+during his absence; but instead of this he put Gaveston in this place,
+and clothed him with all the powers of a viceroy.
+
+[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF EDWARD THE SECOND.]
+
+Edward was married to Isabel in Paris with great pomp and parade. Isabel
+was very beautiful, and was a general favorite. It is said that there
+were four kings and three queens present at the marriage ceremony.
+Edward, however, seemed to feel very little interest either in his bride
+or in the occasion of his marriage, but manifested a great impatience
+to get through with the ceremonies, so as to return to England and to
+Gaveston. As soon as it was possible, he set out on his return. The
+bridal party were met at their landing by Gaveston, accompanied by all
+the principal nobility, who came to receive and welcome them at the
+frontier. The king was overjoyed to see Gaveston again. He fell into his
+arms, hugged and kissed him, and called him his dear brother, while, on
+the other hand, he took very little notice of the nobles and high
+officers of state. Every body was surprised and displeased at this
+behavior, but as Edward was king there was nothing to be said or done.
+
+Soon afterward the coronation took place, and on this occasion all the
+honors were allotted to Gaveston, to the utter neglect of the ancient
+and hereditary dignitaries of the realm. Gaveston carried the crown,
+and walked before the king and queen, and acted in all respects as if
+he were the principal personage in the country. The old nobles were,
+of course, extremely indignant at this. Hitherto they had expressed
+their displeasure at the king's favoritism by private murmurings and
+complaints, but now, they thought, it was time to take some concerted
+public action to remedy the evil; so they met together, and framed a
+petition to be sent to the king, in which, though under the form of a
+request, they, in fact, demanded that Gaveston should be dismissed
+from his offices, and required to leave the country.
+
+The king was alarmed. He, however, could not think of giving his
+favorite up. So he said that he would return them an answer to the
+petition by-and-by, and he immediately began to pursue a more
+conciliatory course toward the nobles. But the effect of his attempts
+at conciliation was spoiled by Gaveston's behavior. He became more and
+more proud and ostentatious every day. He appeared in all public
+places, and every where he took precedence of the highest nobles of
+the land, and prided himself on outshining them in the pomp and parade
+which he displayed. He attended all the jousts and tournaments, and,
+as he was really a very handsome and well-formed man, and well skilled
+in the warlike sports in fashion in those days, he bore away most of
+the great prizes. He thus successfully rivaled the other nobles in
+gaining the admiration of the ladies of the court and the applause of
+the multitude, and made the nobles hate him more than ever.
+
+Things went on in this way worse and worse, until at last the general
+sentiment became so strong against Gaveston that the Parliament, when
+it met, took a decided stand in opposition to him, and insisted that
+he should be expelled from the country. A struggle followed, but the
+king was obliged to yield. Gaveston was required to leave the country,
+and to take an oath never to return. It was only on these conditions
+that the Parliament would uphold the government, and thus the king saw
+that he must lose either his friend or his crown.
+
+Gaveston went away. The king accompanied him to the sea-shore, and
+took leave of him there in the most affectionate manner, promising to
+bring him back again as soon as he could possibly do it. He
+immediately began to manoeuvre for the accomplishment of this
+purpose. In the mean time, as Gaveston had only sworn to leave
+_England_, the king sent him to Ireland, and made him governor general
+of that country, and there Gaveston lived in greater power and
+splendor than ever.
+
+At length, in little more than a year, Gaveston came back. His oath
+not to return was disposed of by means of a dispensation which King
+Edward obtained for him from the Pope, absolving him from the
+obligation of it. When he was reinstated in the king's court he
+behaved more scandalously than ever. He revenged himself upon the
+nobles who had been the means of sending him away by ridiculing them
+and giving them nicknames. One of them he called Joseph the Jew,
+because his face was pale and thin, and bore, in some respects, a
+Jewish expression. Another, the Earl of Warwick, he called the Black
+Dog of Ardenne. When the earl heard of this, he said, clenching his
+fist, "Very well; I'll make him feel the Black Dog's teeth yet."
+
+In a word, the nobles were excited to the greatest pitch of rage and
+indignation against the favorite, and, after various struggles and
+contentions between them and the king, they at length broke out into
+an open revolt. The king at this time, with Gaveston and his wife,
+were at Newcastle, which is in the north of England. The barons fell
+upon him here with the intention of seizing Gaveston. Both the king
+and Gaveston, however, succeeded in making their escape. Gaveston fled
+to a castle, and shut himself up there. The king escaped by sea,
+leaving his wife behind, at the mercy of the conspirators. The barons
+treated the queen with respect, but they pressed on at once in pursuit
+of Gaveston. They laid siege to the castle where he sought refuge.
+Finding that the castle could not hold out long, Gaveston thought it
+best to surrender while it yet remained in his power to make terms
+with his enemies; so he agreed to give himself up, they stipulating
+that they would do him no bodily harm, but only confine him, and that
+the place of his confinement should be one of his own castles.
+
+When he came down into the court-yard of the castle, after signing
+this stipulation, he found there ready to receive him the Earl of
+Warwick, the man to whom he had given the nickname of the Black Dog of
+Ardenne. The earl was at the head of a large force. He immediately
+took Gaveston into custody, and galloped off with him at the head of
+his troop to his own castle. The engraving represents a view of this
+fortress as it appeared in those days.
+
+When they had got Gaveston safe into this castle, the chiefs held a
+sort of council of war to determine what should be done with their
+prisoner. While they were consulting on the subject, intending
+apparently to spare his life as they had agreed, some one called out,
+
+"It has cost you a great deal of trouble to catch the fox, and now, if
+you let him go, you will have a great deal more trouble in hunting him
+again."
+
+This consideration decided them; so they took the terrified prisoner,
+and, in spite of his piteous cries for mercy, they hurried him away to
+a solitary place a mile or two from the castle, and there, on a little
+knoll by the side of the road, they cut off his head.
+
+[Illustration: WARWICK CASTLE.]
+
+One would have supposed that by this time the king would have been cured
+of the folly of devoting himself to favorites, but he was not. He
+mourned over the death of Gaveston at first with bitter grief, and when
+this first paroxysm of his sorrow was passed, it was succeeded with a
+still more bitter spirit of revenge. He immediately took the field
+against his rebellious barons, and a furious civil war ensued. He soon,
+too, found a new favorite, or, rather, two favorites. They were
+brothers, and their names were Spencer. They are called in history the
+Spencers, or the Despensers. The quarrels and wars which took place
+between the king and these favorites on one hand, and the barons and
+nobles on the other, were continued for many years. The queen took sides
+with the nobles against her husband and the Spencers. She fled to
+France, and there formed an intimacy with a young nobleman named
+Mortimer, who joined himself to her, and thenceforth accompanied her and
+made common cause with her against her husband. With this Mortimer she
+raised an army, and, sailing from Flanders, she landed in England. On
+landing, she summoned the barons to join her, and took the field against
+her husband. The king was beaten in this war, and fled again on board a
+vessel, intending to make his escape by sea. The two Spencers, one after
+the other, were taken prisoners, and both were hung on gibbets fifty
+feet high. They were hung in their armor, and after they were dead their
+bodies were taken down and treated as it was customary to treat the
+bodies of traitors.[A]
+
+[Footnote A: In cases of treason the condemned man was first
+disemboweled; then his head was taken off; then the body was cut into
+quarters. The head and the four quarters of the body were then sent to
+various parts of the kingdom, and set up in conspicuous places in
+large cities and towns.]
+
+In the midst of these proceedings the barons held a sort of
+Parliament, and made a solemn declaration that the king, by his
+flight, had abdicated the throne, and they proclaimed his son, the
+young Prince of Wales, then about fourteen years old, king, under the
+title of Edward the Third. In the mean time, the king himself, who had
+attempted to make his escape by sea, was tossed about in a storm for
+some days, until at last he was driven on the coast in South Wales. He
+concealed himself for some days in the mountains. Here he was hunted
+about for a time, until he was reduced to despair by his destitution
+and his sufferings, when at length he came forth and delivered himself
+up to his enemies.
+
+[Illustration: KENILWORTH CASTLE.]
+
+He was made prisoner and immediately sent to Kenilworth Castle, and
+there secured. Afterward he was brought to trial. He was accused of
+shameful indolence and incapacity, and also of cowardice, cruelty, and
+oppression, and of having brought the country, by his vices and
+maladministration, to the verge of ruin. He was convicted on these
+charges, and the queen, his wife, confirmed the verdict.
+
+Not being quite sure, after all, that by these means the dethronement
+of the king was legally complete, the Parliament sent a solemn
+deputation to Kenilworth Castle to depose the monarch in form. The
+king was brought out to meet this deputation in a great hall of the
+castle. He came just as he was, dressed in a simple black gown. The
+deputation told him that he was no longer king, that all allegiance
+had been withdrawn from him on the part of the people, and that
+henceforth he must consider himself as a private man. As they said
+this, the steward of the household came forward and broke his white
+wand, the badge of his office, in token that the household was
+dissolved, and he declared that by that act all the king's servants
+were discharged and freed. This was a ceremony that was usually
+performed at the death of a king, and it was considered in this case
+as completely and finally terminating the reign of Edward.
+
+The delegation also exacted from him something which they considered
+as a resignation of the crown. His son, the young prince, it was said,
+was unwilling to ascend the throne unless the barons could induce his
+father voluntarily to abdicate his own rights to it. They were the
+more desirous in this case of completely and forever extinguishing all
+of King Edward's claims, because they were afraid that there might be
+a secret party in his favor, and that that party might gain strength,
+and finally come out openly against them in civil war, in which case,
+if they were worsted, they knew that they would all be hung as
+traitors.
+
+[Illustration: A MONK OF THOSE DAYS.]
+
+Indeed, soon after this time it began to appear that there were, in
+fact, some persons who were disposed to sympathize with the king. His
+queen, Isabel, who had been acting against him during the war, was now
+joined with Mortimer, her favorite, and they two held pretty much the
+whole control of the government, for the new king was yet too young to
+reign. Many of the monks and other ecclesiastics of the time openly
+declared that Isabel was guilty of great sin in thus abandoning her
+husband for the sake of another man. They said that she ought to leave
+Mortimer, and go and join her husband in his prison. And it was not
+long before it began to be rumored that secret plots were forming to
+attempt the king's deliverance from his enemies. This alarmed the nobles
+more than ever. The queen and some others wrote sharp letters to the
+keepers of the castle for dealing so gently with their prisoner, and
+gave them hints that they ought to kill him. In the end, the fallen
+monarch was transported from one fortress to another, until at length he
+came to Berkeley Castle. The inducement which led Mortimer and the
+queen to send the king to these different places was the hope that some
+one or other of the keepers of the castles would divine their wishes in
+regard to him, and put him to death. But no one did so. The keeper of
+Berkeley Castle, indeed, instead of putting his prisoner to death,
+seemed inclined to take compassion on him, and to treat him more kindly
+even than the others had done. Accordingly, after waiting some time,
+Mortimer seized an opportunity when Lord Berkeley, having gone away from
+home, was detained away some days by sickness, to send two fierce and
+abandoned men, named Gourney and Ogle, to the castle, with instructions
+to kill the king in some way or other, but, if possible, in such a
+manner as to make it appear that he died a natural death. These men
+tried various plans without success. They administered poisons, and
+resorted to various other diabolical contrivances. At last, one night,
+dreadful outcries and groans were heard coming from the king's
+apartment. They were accompanied from time to time with shrieks of
+terrible agony. These sounds were continued for some time, and they were
+heard in all parts of the castle, and in many of the houses of the town.
+The truth was, the executioners whom Mortimer had sent were murdering
+the king in a manner almost too horrible to be described.[B] The people
+in the castle and in the town knew very well what these dreadful
+outcries meant. They were filled with consternation and horror at the
+deed, and they spent the time in praying to God that he would receive
+the soul of the unhappy victim.
+
+[Footnote B: They came to him while he was asleep, and pressed him
+down with heavy feather beds, which they cast upon him to stifle his
+cries, and then thrust a red-hot spit up into his bowels through a
+horn, as some said, or a part of the tube of a trumpet, according to
+others, so as to kill him by the internal burning without making any
+outward mark of the fire on his person. Notwithstanding their efforts
+to stifle his cries, he struggled so desperately in his agony as
+partly to break loose from them, and thus made his shrieks and
+outcries heard.]
+
+[Illustration: BERKELEY CASTLE.]
+
+After this, Mortimer and the queen for two or three years held pretty
+nearly supreme power in the realm, though, of course, they governed in
+the name of the young king, who was yet only fourteen or fifteen years
+of age. There was, however, a great secret hatred of Mortimer among
+all the old nobility of the realm. This ill-will ripened at last into
+open hostility. A conspiracy was formed to destroy Mortimer, and to
+depose the queen-mother from her power, and to place young Edward in
+possession of the kingdom. Mortimer discovered what was going on, and
+he went for safety, with Edward and the queen, to the castle of
+Nottingham, where he shut himself up, and placed a strong guard at the
+gates and on the walls.
+
+This castle of Nottingham was situated upon a hill, on the side of
+which was a range of excavations which had been made in a chalky stone
+by some sort of quarrying. There was a subterranean passage from the
+interior of one of these caves which led to the castle. The castle
+itself was strongly guarded, and every night Isabel required the
+warden, on locking the gates, to bring the keys to her, and she kept
+them by her bedside. The governor of the castle, however, made an
+agreement with Lord Montacute, who was the leader in the conspiracy
+against Mortimer, to admit him to the castle at night through the
+subterranean passage. It seems that Mortimer and the queen did not
+know of the existence of this communication. They did not even know
+about the caves, for the mouths of them were at that time concealed by
+rubbish and brambles.
+
+[Illustration: CAVES IN THE HILL-SIDE AT NOTTINGHAM CASTLE.]
+
+It was near midnight when Montacute and the party who went with him
+entered the passage. They crowded their way through the bushes and
+brambles till they found the entrance of the cave, and then went in.
+They were all completely armed, and they carried torches to light their
+way. They crept along the gloomy passage-way until at last they reached
+the door which led up into the interior of the castle. Here the governor
+was ready to let them in. As soon as they entered, they were joined by
+young Edward at the foot of the main tower. They left their torches
+here, and Edward led them up a secret staircase to a dark chamber. They
+crept softly into this room and listened. They could hear in an
+adjoining hall the voices of Mortimer and several of his adherents, who
+were holding a consultation. They waited a few minutes, and then, making
+a rush into the passage-way which led to the hall, they killed two
+knights who were on sentry there to guard the door, and, immediately
+bursting into the apartment, made Mortimer and all his friends
+prisoners.
+
+The queen, who was in her bed in an adjoining room at this time,
+rushed frantically out when she heard the noise of the affray, and,
+with piteous entreaties and many tears, she begged and prayed Edward,
+her "sweet son," as she called him, to spare the gentle Mortimer, "her
+dearest friend, her well-beloved cousin." The conspirators did spare
+him at that time; they took him prisoner, and bore him away to a
+place of safety. He was soon afterward brought to trial on a charge of
+treason, and hanged. Isabel was deprived of all her property, and shut
+up in a castle as a prisoner of state. In this castle she afterward
+lived nearly thirty years, in lonely misery, and then died.
+
+The adjoining engraving represents a near view of the subterranean
+passage by which Lord Montacute and his party gained admission to the
+castle of Nottingham. It is known in modern times as MORTIMER'S HOLE.
+
+[Illustration: MORTIMER'S HOLE.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE BLACK PRINCE.
+
+A.D. 1336-1346
+
+Parentage of the Black Prince, Richard's father.--Reason for the
+name.--Situation of Crecy.--Nature of Edward's claim to the crown
+of France.--The Salic law.--Reason for it.--Edward's case.--Edward
+raises an army and sets out for France.--Map.--The army reaches
+Rouen.--Progress of the army.--Arrival at Amiens.--Progress of the
+two armies down the Somme.--Edward's anxiety about crossing the
+river.--Danger from the tide.--Edward posts himself at Crecy.--Plan
+of the battle.--The Black Prince in command.--Picture of the Genoese
+archer.--Philip gets out of patience.--The rain.--The battle.--More
+difficulty with the archers.--They send for help for the Prince of
+Wales.--Flight of the King of France from the field of battle.--Account
+of the old King of Bohemia.--Origin of the motto and device of the
+Prince of Wales.--Fate of Calais.--The six citizens.--Margaret of
+Calais.--John of Gaunt.
+
+
+The father of King Richard the Second was a celebrated Prince of
+Wales, known in history as the Black Prince. The Black Prince, as his
+title Prince of Wales implies, was the oldest son of the King of
+England. His father was Edward the Third. The Black Prince was, of
+course, heir to the crown, and he would have been king had it not
+happened that he died before his father. Consequently, when at last
+his father, King Edward, died, Richard, who was the oldest son of the
+prince, and, of course, the grandson of the king, succeeded to the
+throne, although he was at that time only ten years old.
+
+The Christian name of the Black Prince was Edward. He was called the
+Black Prince on account of the color of his armor. The knights and
+warriors of those days were often named in this way from some
+peculiarity in their armor.
+
+Edward, being the oldest son of the king his father, was Prince of
+Wales. He was often called the Prince of Wales, and often simply
+Prince Edward; but, inasmuch as there were several successive
+Edwards, each of whom was in his youth the Prince of Wales, neither of
+those titles alone would be a sufficiently distinctive appellation for
+the purposes of history. This Edward accordingly, as he became very
+celebrated in his day, and inasmuch as, on account of his dying before
+his father, he never became any thing more than Prince of Wales, is
+known in history almost exclusively by the title of the Black Prince.
+
+But, although he never attained to a higher title than that of prince,
+he still lived to a very mature age. He was more than forty years old
+when he died. He, however, began to acquire his great celebrity when
+he was very young: he fought at the great battle of Crecy, in France,
+as one of the principal commanders on the English side, when he was
+only about seventeen years old.
+
+Crecy, or Cressy, as it is sometimes called, is situated on the banks
+of the River Somme, in the northeast part of France. The circumstances
+under which the battle in this place was fought are as follows. The
+King of England, Edward the Third, the father of the Black Prince,
+laid claim to the throne of France. The ground of his claim was that,
+through his grandmother Isabel, who was a daughter of the French
+king, he was the nearest blood-relation to the royal line, all the
+other branches of the family nearer than his own being extinct. Now
+the people of France were, of course, very unwilling that the King of
+England should become entitled to the French crown, and they
+accordingly made a certain Prince Philip the king, who reigned under
+the title of Philip the Sixth. Philip was the nearest relative after
+Edward, and he derived his descent through males alone, while Edward,
+claiming, as he did, through his grandmother Isabel, came through a
+female line.
+
+Now there was an ancient law prevailing in certain portions of France,
+called the Salic law,[C] by which female children were excluded from
+inheriting the possessions of their fathers. This principle was at
+first applied to the inheriting of private property, but it was
+afterward extended to rights and titles of all sorts, and finally to
+the descent of the crown of France. Indeed, the right to rule over a
+province or a kingdom was considered in those days as a species of
+property, which descended from father to child by absolute right,
+over which the people governed had no control whatever.
+
+[Footnote C: The Salic law is very celebrated in history, and
+questions growing out of it gave rise, in ancient times, to
+innumerable wars. It derived its name from a tribe of people called
+_Saliens_, by whom it was first introduced.]
+
+The chief reason why the Salic law was applied to the case of the
+crown of France was not, as it might at first be supposed, because it
+was thought in those days that women were not qualified to reign, but
+because, by allowing the crown to descend to the daughters of the king
+as well as to the sons, there was danger of its passing out of the
+country. The _princes_ of the royal family usually remained in their
+own land, and, if they married at all, they married usually foreign
+princesses, whom they brought home to live with them in their native
+land. The _princesses_, on the other hand, when they grew up, were
+very apt to marry princes of other countries, who took them away to
+the places where they, the princes, respectively lived. If, now, these
+princesses were allowed to inherit the crown, and, especially, if the
+inheritance were allowed to pass through them to their children, cases
+might occur in which the kingdom of France might descend to some
+foreign-born prince, the heir, or the actual ruler, perhaps, of some
+foreign kingdom.
+
+This was precisely what happened in Edward's case. The Salic law had
+not then been fully established. Edward maintained that it was not
+law. He claimed that the crown descended through Isabel to him. The
+French, on the other hand, insisted on passing him by, and decided
+that Philip, who, next to him, was the most direct descendant, and
+whose title came through a line of males, should be king.
+
+In this state of things Edward raised a great army, and set out for
+France in order to possess himself of the French crown. The war
+continued many years, in the course of which Edward fitted out several
+different expeditions into France.
+
+It was in one of these expeditions that he took his son, the Black
+Prince, then only seventeen years of age, as one of his generals. The
+prince was a remarkably fine young man, tall and manly in form, and
+possessed of a degree of maturity of mind above his years. He was
+affable and unassuming, too, in his manners, and was a great favorite
+among all the ranks of the army.
+
+The map on the following page shows the course of the expedition, and
+the situation of Crecy. The fleet which brought the troops over landed
+there on a cape a little to the westward of the region shown upon the
+map. From the place where they landed they marched across the country,
+as seen by the track upon the map, toward the Seine. They took
+possession of the towns on the way, and plundered and wasted the
+country.
+
+[Illustration: MAP--CAMPAIGN OF CRECY.]
+
+[Illustration: VIEW OF ROUEN, FROM THE WEST SIDE OF THE RIVER.]
+
+They advanced in this manner until at length they reached the river
+opposite Rouen, which was then, as now, a very large and important town.
+It stands on the eastern bank of the river. On reaching Rouen, Edward
+found the French army ready to meet him. There was a bridge of boats
+there, and Edward had intended to cross the river by it, and get into
+the town of Rouen. He found, however, on his arrival opposite the town,
+that the bridge was gone. The French king had destroyed it. He then
+turned his course up the river, keeping, of course, on the western and
+southern side of the stream, and looking out for an opportunity to
+cross. But as fast as he ascended on one side of the river, Philip
+ascended on the other, and destroyed all the bridges before Edward's
+armies could get to them. In this way the two armies advanced, each on
+its own side of the river, until they reached the environs of Paris, the
+English burning and destroying every thing that came in their way. There
+was a good deal of manoeuvring between the two armies near Paris, in the
+course of which Edward contrived to get across the river. He crossed at
+Poissy by means of a bridge which Philip had only partially destroyed.
+While Philip was away, looking out for his capital, Paris, which Edward
+was threatening, Edward hastened back to get possession of the bridge,
+repaired it, and marched his army over before Philip could return.
+
+Both armies then struck across the country toward the River Somme.
+Philip reached the river first. He crossed at Amiens, and then went
+down on the right or eastern bank of the river, destroying all the
+bridges on the way. Edward, when he reached the river, found no place
+to cross. He tried at Pont St. Remi, at Long, and at other places, but
+failed every where. In the mean time, while his own forces had
+gradually been diminishing, Philip's had been rapidly increasing.
+Philip now divided his force. He sent down one portion on the eastern
+side of the river to prevent the English from crossing. With the other
+portion he came back to the left bank, and began to follow Edward's
+army down toward the mouth of the river. Edward went on in this way as
+far as Oisemont, and here he began to find himself in great danger of
+being hemmed in by Philip's army in a corner between the river and the
+sea.
+
+He sent scouts up and down to try to find some place where he could
+cross by a ford, as the bridges were all down; but no fording-place
+could be found. He then ordered the prisoners that he had taken to be
+all brought together, and he offered liberty and a large reward in
+money to any one of them that would show him where there was a ford by
+which he could get his army across the river. He thought that they,
+being natives of the country, would be sure to know about the
+fording-places, if any there were. One of the prisoners, a countryman
+named Gobin, told him that there was a place a little lower down the
+river, called White Spot, where people could wade across the river
+when the tide was low. The tide ebbed and flowed in the river here,
+on account of its being so near the sea.
+
+This was in the evening. King Edward was awake all night with anxiety,
+expecting every moment that Philip would come suddenly upon him. He
+rose at midnight, and ordered the trumpets to sound in order to arouse
+the men. The officers were all on the alert, the young prince among
+them. All was movement and bustle in the camp. As soon as the day
+dawned they commenced their march, Gobin leading the way. He was well
+guarded. They were all ready to cut him to pieces if he should fail to
+lead them to the ford which he had promised. But he found the ford,
+though at the time that the army reached the spot the tide was high,
+so that they could not cross. Besides this, the king saw that on the
+opposite bank there was a large body of French troops posted to guard
+the passage. Edward was obliged to wait some hours for the tide to go
+down, being in a terrible state of suspense all the time for fear that
+Philip should come down upon him in the rear, in which case his
+situation would have been perilous in the extreme.
+
+At last the tide was low enough to make the river fordable, and Edward
+ordered his troops to dash forward into the river. The men advanced,
+but they were met in the middle of the stream by the troops that had
+been posted on the bank to oppose them. There was a short and
+desperate conflict in the water, but Edward at last forced his way
+through, and drove the French away.
+
+It then required some hours for all his army to cross. They had barely
+time to accomplish the work before the tide came up again. Just at
+this time, too, Philip's army appeared, but it was too late for them
+to cross the ford, and so Edward escaped with the main body of his
+army, though a portion of those in the rear, who were not able to get
+across in time, fell into Philip's hands, and were either killed or
+taken prisoners on the margin of the water.
+
+The young prince was, of course, as much rejoiced as his father at
+this fortunate escape. The army were all greatly encouraged, too, by
+the result of the battle which they had fought on the bank of the
+river in landing; and, finally, Edward resolved that he would not
+retreat any farther. He determined to choose a good position, and draw
+up his army in array, and so give Philip battle if he chose to come
+on. The place which he selected was a hill at Crecy. Philip soon after
+came up, and the battle was fought; and thus it was that Crecy became
+the scene of the great and celebrated conflict which bears its name.
+
+King Edward arrayed his troops in successive lines on the declivity of
+the hill, while he himself took his station, with a large reserve, on
+the summit of it. He committed the general charge of the battle to his
+generals and knights, and one of the chief in command was the young
+prince, who was placed at the head of one of the most important lines,
+although he was at this time, as has already been said, only seventeen
+years old.
+
+The King of France, with an immense host, came on toward the place
+where Edward was encamped, confident that, as soon as he could come up
+with him, he should at once overwhelm and destroy him. His army was
+very large, while Edward's was comparatively small. Philip's army,
+however, was not under good control. The vast columns filled the roads
+for miles, and when the front arrived at the place where Edward's army
+was posted, the officers attempted to halt them all, but those behind
+crowded on toward those in front, and made great confusion. Then there
+was disagreement and uncertainty among Philip's counselors in respect
+to the time of making the attack. Some were in favor of advancing at
+once, but others were for waiting till the next day, as the soldiers
+were worn out and exhausted by their long march.
+
+[Illustration: GENOESE ARCHER.]
+
+There was a large body of Genoese archers who fought with cross-bows,
+a very heavy but a very efficient weapon. The officers who commanded
+these archers were in favor of waiting for the attack till the next
+day, as their men were very weary from the fatigue of carrying their
+cross-bows so far. They had marched eighteen miles that day, very
+heavily laden. Philip was angry with them for their unwillingness to
+go at once into battle.
+
+"See," he cried out, "see what we get by employing such scoundrels,
+who fail us at the very moment when we want them."
+
+This made the archers very angry, but nevertheless they formed in
+order of battle at the command of their officers, and went forward to
+the van. There went with them a large troop of horsemen under the
+French general. The horses of this troop were splendidly equipped, and
+were fierce for the fight.
+
+While these preparations were making, a very black cloud was seen
+rising in the sky, until the whole heavens were darkened by it. The
+wind blew, and immense flocks of crows flew screaming through the air,
+over the heads of the army. Presently it began to rain. The rain
+increased rapidly, until it fell in torrents, and every body was
+drenched. There was, however, no possibility of shelter or escape from
+it, and the preparations for the fight accordingly still went on.
+
+At length, about five o'clock, it cleared up, just as the battle was
+about to begin. The Genoese archers were in front with the horsemen,
+but the English, who had all this time remained calm and quiet at
+their posts, poured such a volley of arrows into their ranks that they
+were soon broken and began to be thrown into confusion. Other English
+soldiers ran out from their ranks armed with knives set into the ends
+of long poles, and they thrust these knives into the horses of the
+troop. The horses, terrified and maddened with the pain, turned round
+and ran in among the Genoese archers, and trampled many of them under
+foot. This made the whole body of archers waver and begin to fall
+back. Then Philip, who was coming on behind at the head of other
+bodies of troops, fell into a great rage, and shouted out in a
+thundering voice,
+
+"Kill me those scoundrels, for they only stop our way without doing
+any good."
+
+Of course, this made the confusion worse than ever. In the mean time,
+the English soldiers, under the command of Prince Edward and the other
+leaders, pressed slowly and steadily forward, and poured in such an
+incessant and deadly fire of darts and arrows upon the confused and
+entangled masses of their enemies, that they could not rally or get
+into order again. Some of the French generals made desperate efforts
+in other parts of the field to turn the tide, but in vain.
+
+At one time, when the battle was very hot in the part of the field
+where the young English prince was fighting, messengers went up the
+hill to the place where the king was stationed, near a wind-mill,
+whence he was watching the progress of the fight, to ask him to send
+some succor to the troops that were fighting with the prince.
+
+"Is my son killed?" asked the king.
+
+"No, sire," said the messenger.
+
+"Is he unhorsed or wounded?" asked the king.
+
+"No, sire," replied the messenger. "He is safe thus far, and is
+fighting with his troop, but he is very hard beset."
+
+"No matter for that," said the king. "Go and tell him he can not have
+any help from me. I intend that the glory of this victory shall be for
+him alone, and for those to whom I have intrusted him."
+
+Things went on in this way for some time, until at length the whole
+French army was thrown into utter confusion, and the men were flying
+in all directions. Night was coming on, and it was beginning to be
+impossible to distinguish friend from foe. A French knight rode up to
+the King of France, and, seizing his horse by the bridle, turned him
+away, saying to the king,
+
+"Sire, it is time to withdraw. By remaining here any longer you will
+only sacrifice yourself to no purpose. Reserve yourself to win the
+victory some other day."
+
+So the king turned and fled, a small party of his officers
+accompanying him. He fled to a castle in the neighborhood, called the
+Castle of La Broye, and sought refuge there. When the party arrived
+the gates were shut, for it was late and dark. They summoned the
+castellan, or keeper of the castle. He came out upon the battlements
+and demanded who was there.
+
+The king called out,
+
+"Open, castellan, open. It is the fortune of France."
+
+The castellan knew the king's voice, and ordered the gate to be
+opened, and the drawbridge to be let down. The king and his party,
+which consisted of only five persons, went in. They remained at the
+castle only a short time to take some wine and other refreshment, and
+then set out again, at midnight, with guides furnished them by the
+castellan, and rode to Amiens, which, being a large and well-fortified
+town, was at least a temporary place of safety.
+
+But, though the king himself thus made his escape, a great many of the
+knights and generals in his army would not fly, but remained fighting
+on the field until they were killed. There was one of the king's
+allies, the King of Bohemia, whose death, if the legends which have
+come down to us respecting this battle are true, occurred under very
+extraordinary circumstances. He was present with the army, not as a
+combatant, for he was old and blind, and thus completely helpless. He
+came, it would seem, to accompany his son, who was an active commander
+in Philip's army. His son was dangerously wounded, and forced to
+abandon the field, and the old king was so overwhelmed with chagrin at
+the result of the battle, and so enraged at the fate of his son, that
+he determined to charge upon the enemy himself. So he placed himself
+between two knights, who interlaced the bridle of his horse with the
+bridles of theirs, for the king himself could not see to guide the
+reins, and in this manner they rode into the thickest of the fight,
+where the Black Prince was contending. They were all almost
+immediately killed.
+
+Prince Edward was so much struck with this spectacle, that he adopted
+the motto on the old king's shield for his. This motto was the German
+phrase _Ich dien_, under three plumes. The words mean _I serve_. This
+motto and device have been borne in the coat of arms of the Prince of
+Wales from that day to this.
+
+At the close of the battle the soldiers kindled up great fires on
+account of the darkness of the night, and in the light of them King
+Edward came down from his post on the hill, his heart full of
+exultation and joy at the greatness of the victory which his army had
+achieved, and at the glory of his son. In front of the whole army, he
+took his son in his arms and kissed him, and said,
+
+"My dear son, God give you grace to persevere as you have begun. You
+are my true son, for loyally you have acquitted yourself this day, and
+well do you deserve a crown."
+
+Edward received these honors in a very modest and unassuming manner.
+He bowed reverentially before his father, and attributed to others
+rather than to himself the success of the day. His modesty and
+generosity of demeanor, connected with the undaunted bravery which he
+had really evinced in the fight, caused the whole army to feel an
+enthusiastic admiration for him, and, as fast as tidings of these
+events extended, all Europe was filled with his fame.
+
+After gaining this great battle Edward marched to Calais, a very
+important sea-port on the coast, to the northward of the mouth of the
+Somme, and laid siege to that town; and, although it was so strongly
+fortified that he could not force his way into it, he succeeded at
+length in starving the inhabitants into a surrender. He was so
+exasperated at the obstinate resistance of the people, that at last,
+when they were ready to surrender, he declared that he would only
+spare their lives on condition that six of the principal inhabitants
+should come out to his camp barefooted, bareheaded, and with halters
+about their necks, in order that they might be hung immediately. These
+cruel terms were complied with. Six of the principal inhabitants of
+the town volunteered to give themselves up as victims. They proceeded
+to Edward's camp, but their lives were saved by the interposition of
+Philippa, the queen, Prince Edward's mother. The king was exceedingly
+unwilling to spare them, but he could not resist the entreaties of
+Philippa, though he said he wished she had been somewhere else, so as
+not to have interfered with his revenge.
+
+Edward and all his army, with the queen and Prince Edward, marched
+into Calais with great pomp and parade. Soon after their entrance into
+the town a daughter was born to Philippa, who was called, from the
+place of her nativity, Margaret of Calais.
+
+Besides this sister Margaret, Prince Edward had a brother born on the
+Continent of Europe. His name was John, and he was born in Ghent. He
+was called John of Ghent, or, as the English historians generally
+wrote it, John of Gaunt.
+
+After the taking of Calais there were other campaigns and battles, and
+more victories, some upon one side and some upon the other; and then,
+when both parties were so exhausted that their strength was gone,
+while yet their hostility and hate continued unappeased, a truce was
+made. Then after the truce came new wars, and thus years rolled on.
+During all this time the Black Prince distinguished himself greatly as
+one of the chief of his father's generals. He grew up to full manhood;
+and while, like the other warlike chieftains of those days, his life
+was devoted to deeds of rapine and murder, there was in his demeanor
+toward those with whom he was at peace, and toward enemies who were
+entirely subdued, a certain high-toned nobleness and generosity of
+character, which, combined with his undaunted courage, and his
+extraordinary strength and prowess on the field of battle, made him
+one of the greatest lights of chivalry of his age.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE BATTLE OF POICTIERS.
+
+A.D. 1356-1360
+
+The Black Prince sets out for France.--Plymouth.--The ships of those
+days.--The prince ravages the country.--Progress of the Black
+Prince.--The country laid waste.--The King of France comes to meet the
+Black Prince.--Ambuscade near Romorantin.--Reconnoitring party.--The
+English troop surprised.--The French surprised in their turn.--The
+French retreat to the castle.--The castle besieged.--Crossing the
+ditch.--Engines.--The castle taken.--King John and his four
+sons.--Attempt of the Pope's legate to make peace.--Negotiations of the
+Pope's legate.--The English camp.--The cardinal obtains a truce.--The
+king's pavilion.--King John's demands.--Prince Edward will not yield to
+them.--Story of the two knights.--Coats of arms.--Quarrel between the
+two knights.--Preparations for the battle.--English position.--The
+horses and the barbed arrows.--The English victorious.--Fate of the
+king's sons.--The victory announced to the prince.--The men called
+in.--Gathering at the prince's tent.--Two barons sent to look for the
+king.--The King of France and his son taken prisoners.--Quarrel about
+them.--The two barons take possession of the prisoners.--Denys.--His
+previous adventures.--The king's surrender to him.--Prince Edward
+makes a supper for his prisoners.--Generous demeanor of the
+prince.--Disposition of the prisoners.--English prisoners.--Douglas's
+extraordinary escape from his captors.--Prince Edward conveys the King
+of France to London.--Entrance into London.--Magnanimous treatment of
+the prisoner.--The war ended.--The king ransomed.--Prince Edward's
+renown.--Edward the heir apparent to the crown.
+
+
+In process of time, Philip, the King of France, against whom these
+wars had been waged, died, and John succeeded him. In the course of
+the reign of John, the Black Prince, when he was about twenty-five
+years of age, set out from England, at the head of a large body of
+men, to invade France on the southern and western side. His first
+destination was Gascony, a country in the southern part of France,
+between the Garonne, the Pyrenees, and the sea.[D]
+
+[Footnote D: See map on page 110.]
+
+From London he went to Plymouth, where the fleet had been assembled in
+which he was to sail. He was accompanied on his march by an immense
+number of nobles and barons, all splendidly equipped and armed, and
+full of enthusiastic expectations of the glory which they were to
+acquire in serving in such a campaign, under so famed and brilliant a
+commander.
+
+The fleet which awaited the army at Plymouth consisted of three
+hundred vessels. The expedition was detained for a long time in the
+port, waiting for a fair wind and good weather. At length the
+favorable time arrived. The army embarked, and the ships set sail in
+sight of a vast assemblage, formed by people of the surrounding
+country, who crowded the shores to witness the spectacle.
+
+The ships of those times were not large, and, judging from some of the
+pictures that have come down to us, they were of very odd
+construction. On the adjoining page is a copy of one of these
+pictures, from an ancient manuscript of about this time.
+
+These pictures, however, are evidently intended rather as _symbols_ of
+ships, as it were, than literally correct representations of them.
+Still, we can deduce from them some general idea of the form and
+structure actually employed in the naval architecture of those times.
+
+[Illustration: ANCIENT REPRESENTATION OF ENGLISH SHIPS.]
+
+Prince Edward's fleet had a prosperous voyage, and his army landed
+safely in Gascony. Soon after landing he commenced his march through the
+country to the eastward, pillaging, burning, and destroying wherever he
+went. The inhabitants of the country, whom the progress of his march
+thus overwhelmed with ruin, had nothing whatever to do with the quarrel
+between his father and the King of France. It made very little
+difference to them under whose reign they lived. It is not at all
+unlikely that far the greater portion of them had never even heard of
+the quarrel. They were quietly engaged in their various industrial
+pursuits, dreaming probably of no danger, until the advance of this
+army, coming upon them mysteriously, no one knew whither, like a plague,
+or a tornado, or a great conflagration, drove them from their homes, and
+sent them flying about the country in all directions in terror and
+despair. The prince enjoyed the credit and the fame of being a generous
+and magnanimous prince. But his generosity and magnanimity were only
+shown toward knights, and nobles, and princes like himself, for it was
+only when such as these were the objects of these virtues that he could
+gain credit and fame by the display of them.
+
+In this march of devastation and destruction the prince overran all
+the southern part of France. One of his attendants in this campaign, a
+knight who served in the prince's household, in a letter which he
+wrote back to England from Bordeaux, gave the following summary of the
+results of the expedition:
+
+     "=My lord rode thus abroad in the countrie of his enimies
+     eight whole weekes and rested not past eleven daies in all
+     those places where he came. And know it for certeine that
+     since this warre began against the French king, he had
+     never such losse or destruction as he hath had in this
+     journie; for the countries and good townes which were wasted
+     in this journie found to the King of France everie yeare
+     more to the maintainance of his warre than half his realme
+     hath doon beside, except, &c."=
+
+[Illustration: MAP--CAMPAIGN OF POICTIERS.]
+
+After having thus laid waste the southern coast, the prince turned his
+course northward, toward the heart of the country, carrying
+devastation and destruction with him wherever he came. He advanced
+through Auvergne and Berri, two provinces in the central part of
+France. His army was not very large, for it consisted of only about
+eight thousand men. It was, however, very compact and efficient, and
+the prince advanced at the head of it in a very slow and cautious
+manner. He depended for the sustenance of his soldiers on the supplies
+which he could obtain from the country itself. Accordingly, he moved
+slowly from town to town, so as not to fatigue his soldiers by too
+long marches, nor exhaust them by too frequent battles. "When he was
+entered anie towne," says the old chronicler, "that was sufficientlie
+stored of things necessarie, he would tarrie there two or three
+daies to refresh his soldiers and men of warre, and when they dislodged
+they would strike out the heads of the wine vessels, and burne the
+wheat, oats, and barlie, and all other things which they could not take
+with them, to the intent that their enimies should not therewith be
+sustained and nourished."
+
+At length, while the prince was advancing through the province of
+Berri, and approaching the River Loire, he learned that the King of
+France, John, had assembled a great army at Paris, and was coming down
+to meet him. Large detachments from this army had already advanced as
+far as the banks of the Loire, and all the important points on that
+river had been taken possession of, and were strongly guarded by them.
+The king himself, at the head of the main force, had reached Chartres,
+and was rapidly advancing. The prince heard this news at a certain
+castle which he had taken, and where he had stopped some days to
+refresh his men.
+
+A council of war was held to determine what should be done. The
+prevailing voice at this council was in favor of not attempting to
+cross the Loire in the face of such an enemy, but of turning to the
+westward toward the province of Poitou, through which a way of retreat
+to the southward would be open in case a retreat should be necessary.
+The prince determined to accept this advice, and so he put his army in
+motion toward the town of Romorantin.
+
+Now the King of France had sent a detachment of his troops, under the
+command of three famous knights, across the Loire. This detachment
+consisted of about three hundred horsemen, all armed from head to
+foot, and mounted on swift chargers. This squadron had been hovering
+in the neighborhood of the English army for some days, watching for an
+opportunity to attack them, but without success. Now, foreseeing that
+Edward would attempt to enter Romorantin, they pushed forward in a
+stealthy manner to the neighborhood of that town, and placed
+themselves in ambush at the sides of a narrow and solitary gorge in
+the mountains, through which they knew the English must necessarily
+pass.
+
+On the same day that the French knights formed this ambush, several of
+the commanders in Edward's army asked leave to take a troop of two
+hundred men from the English army, and ride forward to the gates of
+the town, in order to reconnoitre the place, and ascertain whether the
+way was clear for the main body of the army to approach. Edward gave
+them permission, and they set forward. As might have been expected,
+they fell into the snare which the French knights had laid for them.
+The Frenchmen remained quiet and still in their hiding-places, and
+allowed the English to pass on through the defile. Then, as soon as
+they had passed, the French rushed out and galloped after them, with
+their spears in their rests, all ready for a charge.
+
+The English troop, hearing the sound of the galloping of horses in the
+road behind them, turned round to see what was coming. To their
+dismay, they found that a troop of their enemies was close upon them,
+and that they were hemmed in between them and the town. A furious
+battle ensued. The English, though they were somewhat fewer in number
+than the French, seem to have been made desperate by their danger, and
+they fought like tigers. For a time it was uncertain which way the
+contest would turn, but at length, while the victory was still
+undecided, the van of the main body of the English army began to
+arrive upon the ground. The French now saw that they were in danger of
+being overpowered with numbers, and they immediately began to retreat.
+They fled in the direction of the town. The English followed them in a
+headlong pursuit, filling the air with their shouts, and with the
+clanking of their iron armor as the horses galloped furiously along.
+
+At length they reached the gates of the town, and the whole throng of
+horsemen, pursuers and pursued, pressed in together. The French
+succeeded in reaching the castle, and, as soon as they got in, they
+shut the gates and secured themselves there, but the English got
+possession of the town. As soon as Edward came in, he sent a summons
+to the people in the castle to surrender. They refused. Edward then
+ordered his men to prepare for an assault on the following day.
+
+Accordingly, on the following day the assault was made. The battle was
+continued all day, but without success on the part of the assailants,
+and when the evening came on Edward was obliged to call off his men.
+
+[Illustration: STORMING OF THE CASTLE OF ROMORANTIN.]
+
+The next morning, at a very early hour, the men were called to arms
+again. A new assaulting force was organized, and at sunrise the trumpet
+sounded the order for them to advance to the attack. Prince Edward
+himself took the command at this trial, and by his presence and his
+example incited the men to make the greatest possible efforts to batter
+down the gates and to scale the walls. Edward was excited to a high
+degree of resentment and rage against the garrison of the castle, not
+only on account of the general obstinacy of their resistance, but
+because, on the preceding day, a squire, who was attendant upon him, and
+to whom he was strongly attached, was killed at his side by a stone
+hurled from the castle wall. When he saw this man fall, he took a solemn
+oath that he would never leave the place until he had the castle and all
+that were in it in his power.
+
+But, notwithstanding all the efforts of his soldiers, the castle still
+held out. Edward's troops thronged the margin of the ditch, and shot
+arrows so incessantly at the battlements that the garrison could
+scarcely show themselves for an instant on the walls. Finally, they
+made hurdles and floats of various kinds, by means of which large
+numbers succeeded, half by swimming and half by floating, to get
+across the ditch, and then began to dig in under the wall, while the
+garrison attempted to stop their work by throwing down big stones upon
+their heads, and pots of hot lime to eat out their eyes.
+
+At another part the besiegers constructed great engines, such as were
+used in those days, in the absence of cannon, for throwing rocks and
+heavy beams of wood, to batter the walls. These machines also threw a
+certain extraordinary combustible substance called Greek fire. It was
+this Greek fire that, in the end, turned the scale of victory, for it
+caught in the lower court of the castle, where it burned so furiously
+that it baffled all the efforts of the besieged to extinguish it, and
+at length they were compelled to surrender. Edward made the principal
+commanders prisoners, but he let the others go free. The castle itself
+he utterly destroyed.
+
+Having thus finished this work, Edward resumed his march, passing on
+to the westward through Touraine, to avoid the French king, who he
+knew was coming down upon him from the direction of Chartres at the
+head of an overwhelming army. King John advanced to the Loire, and
+sending different detachments of his army to different points, with
+orders to cross at any bridges that they could find, he himself came
+to Blois, where he crossed the river to Amboise, and thence proceeded
+to Loches. Here he learned that the English were moving off to the
+westward, through Touraine, in hopes to make their escape. He set off
+after them at full speed.
+
+He had four sons with him in his army, all young men. Their names were
+Charles, Louis, John, and Philip.
+
+At length the two armies began to approach each other near the town of
+Poictiers.
+
+In the mean time, while the crisis had thus been gradually
+approaching, the Pope, who was at this time residing at Avignon in
+France, sent one of his cardinals to act as intercessor between the
+belligerents, in hopes of bringing them to a peace. At the time when
+the two armies had drawn near to each other and the battle seemed
+imminent, the cardinal was at Poictiers, and just as the King of
+France was marshaling his troops in the order of battle, and preparing
+for the onset, the cardinal, at the head of his suite of attendants,
+galloped out to the king's camp, and, riding up to him at full speed,
+he begged him to pause a moment that he might speak to him.
+
+The king gave him leave to speak, and he thus began:
+
+"Most dear sire," said he, "you have here with you a great and
+powerful army, commanded by the flower of the knighthood of your whole
+kingdom. The English, compared with you, are but a handful. They are
+wholly unable to resist you. You can make whatever terms with them you
+please, and it will be far more honorable and praiseworthy in you to
+spare their lives, and the lives of your gallant followers, by making
+peace with them on such terms as you may think right, without a
+battle, than to fight with them and destroy them. I entreat you,
+therefore, sire, that before you proceed any farther, you will allow
+me to go to the English camp to represent to the prince the great
+danger he is in, and to see what terms you can make with him."
+
+"Very well," replied the king. "We have no objection. Go, but make
+haste back again."
+
+The cardinal immediately set off, and rode with all speed into the
+English camp. The English troops had posted themselves at a spot where
+they were in a great measure concealed and protected among hedges,
+vineyards, and groves. The cardinal advanced through a narrow lane,
+and came up to the English prince at last, whom he found in a
+vineyard. The prince was on foot, and was surrounded by knights and
+armed men, with whom he was arranging the plan of the battle.
+
+The prince received the cardinal very graciously, and heard what he
+had to say. The cardinal represented to him how overwhelming was the
+force which the King of France had brought against him, and how
+imminent the danger was that he and all his forces would be totally
+destroyed in case of a conflict, and urged him, for the sake of
+humanity as well as from a proper regard for his own interest, to
+enter into negotiations for peace.
+
+Prince Edward replied that he had no objection to enter into such
+negotiations, and that he was willing to accept of terms of peace,
+provided his own honor and that of his army were saved.
+
+The cardinal then returned to the King of France, and reported to him
+what the prince had said, and he entreated the king to grant a truce
+until the next morning, in order to afford time for the negotiations.
+
+The knights and barons that were around the king were very unwilling
+that he should listen to this proposal. They were fierce for the
+battle, and could not brook the idea of delay. But the cardinal was so
+urgent, and he pleaded so strongly and so eloquently for peace, that,
+finally, the king yielded.
+
+"But we will not leave our posts," said he. "We will remain on the
+ground ready for the onset to-morrow morning, unless our terms are
+accepted before that time."
+
+So they brought the royal tent, which was a magnificent pavilion of
+red silk, and pitched it on the field for the king. The army were
+dismissed to their quarters until the following day.
+
+The time when this took place was early in the morning. The day was
+Sunday. During all the rest of the day the cardinal was employed in
+riding back and forth between the two armies, conveying proposals and
+counter-proposals, and doing all in his power to effect an
+arrangement. But all his efforts were unsuccessful. King John
+demanded that four of the principal persons in Edward's army should be
+given up unconditionally to his will, and that the whole army should
+surrender themselves as prisoners of war. This Prince Edward would not
+consent to. He was willing, he said, to give up all the French
+prisoners that he had in custody, and also to restore all the castles
+and towns which he had taken from the French. He was also willing to
+bind himself for seven years not to take up arms against the King of
+France. But all this did not satisfy John. He finally offered that, if
+the prince would surrender himself and one hundred knights as
+prisoners of war, he would let the rest of the army go free, and
+declared that that was his ultimatum. Prince Edward positively refused
+to accept any such conditions, and so the cardinal, greatly
+disappointed at the failure of his efforts, gave up the case as
+hopeless, and returned with a sad and sorrowful heart to Poictiers.
+
+An anecdote is related in this connection by one of the ancient
+chroniclers, which illustrates curiously some of the ideas and manners
+of those times. During the course of the day, while the truce was in
+force, and the cardinal was going back and forth between the two
+armies, parties of knights belonging to the two encampments rode out
+from time to time from their own quarters along the lines of the
+enemy, to see what was to be seen. In these cases they sometimes met
+each other, and held conversation together, both parties being bound
+in honor by the truce not to commit any act of hostility. There was a
+certain English knight, named Sir John Chandos, who in this way met a
+French knight named Clermont. Both these knights were mounted and
+fully armed. It was the custom in those days for each knight to have
+something peculiar in the style of his armor to distinguish him from
+the rest, and it was particularly the usage for each one to have a
+certain device and motto on his shield, or on some other conspicuous
+position of his clothing. These devices and mottoes are the origin of
+the _coats of arms_ in use at the present day.
+
+It happened that the device of these two knights was nearly the same.
+It consisted of a representation of the Virgin Mary embroidered in
+blue, and surrounded by a radiance of sunbeams. Clermont, on
+perceiving that the device of Chandos was so similar to his own,
+called out to him when he came near, demanding,
+
+"How long is it, sir, since you have taken the liberty to wear my
+arms?"
+
+"It is you yourself who are wearing mine," said Chandos.
+
+"It is false," replied Clermont; "and if it were not for the truce, I
+would soon show you to whom that device rightfully belongs."
+
+"Very well," replied Chandos. "To-morrow, when the truce is over, you
+will find me on the field ready to settle the question with you by
+force of arms."
+
+With that the angry noblemen parted, and each rode back to his own
+lines.
+
+Early on Monday morning both armies prepared for battle. The cardinal,
+however, being extremely unwilling to give up all hope of preventing
+the conflict, came out again, at a very early hour, to the French
+camp, and made an effort to renew the negotiations. But the king
+peremptorily refused to listen to him, and ordered him to be gone. He
+would not listen, he said, to any more pretended treaties or
+pacifications. So the cardinal perceived that he must go away, and
+leave the armies to their fate. He called at Prince Edward's camp and
+bade him farewell, saying that he had done all in his power to save
+him, but it was of no avail. He then returned to Poictiers.
+
+The two armies now prepared for battle. The King of France clothed
+himself in his royal armor, and nineteen of his knights were armed in
+the same manner, in order to prevent the enemy from being able to
+single out the king on the field. This was a common stratagem employed
+on such occasions. The English were strongly posted on a hill side,
+among vineyards and groves. The approach to their position was through
+a sort of lane bordered by hedges. The English archers were posted
+along these hedges, and when the French troops attempted to advance,
+the archers poured such a shower of barbed arrows into the horses'
+sides, that they soon threw them into confusion. The barbed arrows
+could not be withdrawn, and the horses, terrified with the stinging
+pain, would rear, and plunge, and turn round upon those behind them,
+until at length the lane was filled with horses and horsemen piled
+together in confusion. Now, when once a scene of confusion like this
+occurred upon a field of battle, it was almost impossible to recover
+from it, for the iron armor which these knights wore was so heavy and
+so cumbersome, that when once they were unhorsed they could not mount
+again, and sometimes could not even rise, but writhed and struggled
+helplessly on the ground until their squires came to relieve them.
+
+The battle raged for many hours, but, contrary to the universal
+expectation, the English were every where victorious. Whether this was
+owing to the superior discipline of the English troops, or to the
+reckless desperation with which their situation inspired them, or to
+the compact disposition that the prince had made of his forces, or to
+the shelter and protection afforded by the trees, and hedges, and
+vines, among which they were posted, or to the superior talents of the
+Black Prince as a commanding officer, or to all these causes combined,
+it is impossible to say. The result was, however, that the French were
+every where overcome, thrown into confusion, and put to flight. Three
+of the French king's sons were led off early from the field, their
+attendants excusing their flight by their anxiety to save the princes
+from being taken prisoners or put to death. A large squadron were
+driven off on the road to Poictiers. The inhabitants of Poictiers,
+seeing them coming, shut the gates to keep them out, and the horsemen,
+pursuers and pursued, became jammed together in a confused mass at the
+gates, and on the causeway leading to them, where they trampled upon
+and killed each other by hundreds. In every other direction, too,
+detached portions of the two armies were engaged in desperate
+conflicts, and the air was filled with the clangor of arms, the notes
+of the trumpets, the shouts of the victors, and the shrieks and groans
+of the wounded and dying.
+
+At length Sir John Chandos, who had fought in company with Prince
+Edward all the day, advanced to the prince, and announced to him that
+he thought the battle was over.
+
+"Victory!" said he, "victory! The enemy is beaten and driven wholly
+off the ground. It is time to halt and to call in our men. They are
+getting greatly scattered. I have taken a survey of the ground, and I
+do not see any where any French banners flying, or any considerable
+bodies of French troops remaining. The whole army is dispersed."
+
+So the king gave orders to halt, and the trumpets blew the signal for
+the men to cease from the pursuit of their enemies, and to gather
+again around the prince's banner. They set up the banner upon a high
+bush, near where the prince was standing, and the minstrels, gathering
+around it, began to play in honor of the victory, while the trumpets
+in the distance were sounding to recall the men.
+
+The officers of the prince's household brought the royal tent, a
+beautiful pavilion of crimson silk, and pitched it on the spot. They
+brought wine, too, and other refreshments; and as the knights, and
+barons, and other noble warriors arrived at the tent, the prince
+offered them refreshments, and received their congratulations on the
+great deliverance which they had achieved. A great many prisoners were
+brought in by the returning knights to be held for ransom.
+
+While the knights and nobles were thus rejoicing together around the
+prince's tent, the prince asked if any one knew what had become of the
+King of France. No one could answer. So the prince dispatched two
+trusty barons to ride over the field and see if they could learn any
+tidings of him. The barons mounted their horses at the door of the
+pavilion and rode away. They proceeded first to a small hillock which
+promised to afford a good view. When they reached the top of this
+hillock, they saw at some distance a crowd of men-at-arms coming along
+together at a certain part of the field. They were on foot, and were
+advancing very slowly, and there seemed to be some peculiar excitement
+among them, for they were crowding and pushing each other in a
+remarkable manner. The truth was, that the men had got the King of
+France and his youngest son Philip in their possession, and were
+attempting to bring them in to the prince's tent, but were quarreling
+among themselves as they came along, being unable to decide which of
+them was entitled to the custody of the prisoners. The barons
+immediately put spurs to their horses, and galloped down the hill to
+the spot, and demanded what was the matter. The people said that it
+was the King of France and his son who had been made prisoners, and
+that there were no less than ten knights and squires that claimed
+them. These men were wrangling and contending together with so much
+violence and noise that there was danger that the king and the young
+prince would be pulled to pieces by them. The king, in the mean time,
+was entreating them to be quiet, and begging them to deal gently with
+them, and take them at once to Prince Edward's tent.
+
+"Gentlemen, gentlemen," said he, "I pray you to desist, and conduct me
+and my son in a courteous manner to my cousin the prince, and do not
+make such a riot about us. There will be ransom enough for you all."
+
+The contending knights and barons, however, paid little heed to these
+words, but went on vociferating, "It is _I_ that took him."
+
+"I tell you he is _my_ prisoner."
+
+"No, no, _we_ took him. Let him alone. He belongs to _us_."
+
+The two barons pressed their horses forward into the midst of the
+crowd, and drove the knights back. They ordered them all, in the name
+of the prince, to let go the prisoners and retire, and they threatened
+to cut down on the spot any man who refused to obey. The barons then
+dismounted, and, making a profound reverence before the king, they
+took him and his son under their protection, and conducted them to the
+prince's tent.
+
+The prince received the royal prisoners in the kindest and most
+respectful manner. He made a very low obeisance to the king, and
+treated him in every respect with the utmost consideration. He
+provided him with every thing necessary for his comfort, and ordered
+refreshments to be brought, which refreshments he presented to the
+king himself, as if he were an honored and distinguished guest instead
+of a helpless prisoner.
+
+Although there were so many English knights and barons who claimed the
+honor of having made the King of France prisoner, the person to whom
+he really had surrendered was a French knight named Denys. Denys had
+formerly lived in France, but he had killed a man in a quarrel there,
+and for this crime his property had been confiscated, and he had been
+banished from the realm. He had then gone to England, where he had
+entered into the service of the king, and, finally, had joined the
+expedition of the Prince of Wales. This Denys happened to be in the
+part of the field where the King of France and his son Philip were
+engaged. The king was desperately beset by his foes, who were calling
+upon him all around in English to surrender. They did not wish to kill
+him, preferring to take him prisoner for the sake of the ransom. The
+king was not willing to surrender to any person of inferior rank, so
+he continued the struggle, though almost overpowered. Just then Denys
+came up, and, calling out to him in French, advised him to surrender.
+The king was much pleased to hear the sound of his own language, and
+he called out,
+
+"To whom shall I surrender? Who are you?"
+
+"I am a French knight," said Denys; "I was banished from France, and I
+now serve the English prince. Surrender to me."
+
+"Where is the prince?" said the king. "If I could see him I would
+speak to him."
+
+"He is not here," said Denys; "but you had better surrender to me, and
+I will take you immediately to the part of the field where he is."
+
+So the king drew off his gauntlet, and gave it to Denys as a token
+that he surrendered to him; but all the English knights who were
+present crowded around, and claimed the prisoner as theirs. Denys
+attempted to conduct the king to Prince Edward, all the knights
+accompanying him, and struggling to get possession of the prisoner by
+the way. It was while the contention between Denys and these his
+competitors was going on, that the two barons rode up, and rescued the
+king and his son from the danger they were in.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+That night Prince Edward made a sumptuous supper for the king and his
+son. The tables were spread in the prince's pavilion. The greater part
+of the French knights and barons who had been taken prisoners were
+invited to this banquet. The king and his son, with a few French
+nobles of high rank, were placed at an elevated table superbly
+appointed and arranged. There were side tables set for the squires and
+knights of lower degree. Prince Edward, instead of seating himself at
+the table with the king, took his place as an attendant, and served
+the king while he ate, notwithstanding all the entreaties of the king
+that he would not do so. He said that he was not worthy to sit at the
+table of so great a king and of so valiant a man as the king had
+shown himself to be that day.
+
+In a word, in all his demeanor toward the king, instead of triumphing
+over him, and boasting of the victory which he had achieved, he did
+every thing in his power to soothe and assuage the fallen monarch's
+sorrow, and to diminish his chagrin.
+
+"You must not allow yourself to be dejected, sire," said he, "because
+the fortune of war has turned against you this day. By the manner in
+which you acquitted yourself on the field, you have gained
+imperishable renown; and though, in the decision of divine Providence,
+the battle has gone against you for the moment, you have nothing
+personally to fear either for yourself or for your son. You may rely
+with perfect confidence upon receiving the most honorable treatment
+from my father. I am sure that he will show you every attention in his
+power, and that he will arrange for your ransom in so liberal and
+generous a spirit that you and he will henceforth become warm and
+constant friends."
+
+This kind and respectful treatment of his prisoners made a very strong
+impression upon the minds of all the French knights and nobles, and
+they were warm in their praises of the magnanimity of their
+victorious enemy. He treated these knights themselves, too, in the
+same generous manner. He liberated a large number of them on their
+simple promise that they would send him the sums which he named
+respectively for their ransoms.
+
+Although Edward was thus, on the whole, victorious in this battle,
+still many of the English knights were killed, and quite a number were
+taken prisoners and carried off by the French to be held for ransom.
+One of these prisoners, a Scotch knight named Douglas, made his escape
+after his capture in a very singular manner. He was standing in his
+armor among his captors late in the evening, at a place at some
+distance from the field, where the French had taken him and some other
+prisoners for safety, and the French were about to take off his armor,
+which, from its magnificence, led them to suppose that he was a person
+of high rank and importance, as he really was, and that a grand ransom
+could be obtained for him, when another Scotch knight, named Ramsay,
+suddenly fixing his eyes upon him, pretended to be in a great rage,
+and, advancing toward him, exclaimed,
+
+"You miserable wretch! How comes it that you dare to deck yourself out
+in this way in your master's armor? You have murdered and robbed him,
+I suppose. Come here and pull off my boots."
+
+Douglas understood at once Ramsay's design, and so, with pretended
+tremblings, and looks of guilt and fear, he came to Ramsay and pulled
+off one of his boots. Ramsay took up the boot and struck Douglas upon
+the head with it. The other English prisoners, wondering, asked Ramsay
+what he meant.
+
+"That is Lord Douglas," said they.
+
+"Lord Douglas?" repeated Ramsay, in a tone of contempt. "No such
+thing. It is his servant. He has killed his master, I suppose, and
+stolen his armor." Then, turning to Douglas and brandishing the boot
+over him again, he cried out,
+
+"Off with you, you villain! Go and look over the field, and find your
+master's body, and when you have found it come back and tell me, that
+I may at least give him a decent burial."
+
+So saying, he took out forty shillings, and gave the money to the
+Frenchmen as the ransom of the pretended servant, and then drove
+Douglas off, beating him with the boot and saying,
+
+"Away with you! Begone!"
+
+Douglas bore this all very patiently, and went away with the air of a
+detected impostor, and soon got back safely to the English camp.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+After the battle of Poictiers Prince Edward moved on toward the
+westward with his army, taking with him his royal prisoners, and
+stopping at all the large towns on his way to celebrate his victory
+with feastings and rejoicings. At last he reached Bordeaux on the
+coast, and from Bordeaux, in due time, he set sail with his prisoners
+for London. In the mean time, news of the victory, and of the coming
+of the King of France as prisoner to England, had reached London, and
+great preparations were made there for the reception of the prince.
+The prince took a fleet of ships and a large force of armed men with
+him on the voyage, being afraid that the French would attempt to
+intercept him and rescue the prisoners. The King of France and his
+suite had a ship to themselves. The fleet landed at a place called
+Sandwich, on the southern coast of England, and then the cortege of
+the prince proceeded by slow journeys to London.
+
+The party was received at the capital with great pomp and parade.
+Besides the cavalcades of nobles, knights, and barons which came out
+to meet them, all the different trades and companies of London
+appeared in their respective uniforms, with flags and banners, and
+with the various emblems and insignia of their several crafts. All
+London flocked into the streets to see the show.
+
+One would have supposed, however, from the arrangements which Prince
+Edward made in entering the city, that the person whom all this pomp
+and parade was intended to honor was not himself, but the king his
+captive; for, instead of riding at the head of the procession in
+triumph, with the King of France and his son following as captives in
+his train, he gave the king the place of honor, while he himself took
+the station of one of his attendants. The king was mounted on a white
+charger very splendidly caparisoned, while Prince Edward rode a small
+black horse by his side. The procession moved in this way through the
+principal streets of the city to a palace on the banks of the river at
+the West End, which had been fitted up in the most complete and
+sumptuous manner for the king's reception. Soon after this, the King
+of England, Prince Edward's father, came to pay his captive cousin a
+visit, and, though he retained him as a captive, he treated him in
+other respects with every mark of consideration and honor.
+
+The King of France and his son remained captives in England for some
+time. The king and the queen treated them with great consideration.
+They often visited King John at his palace, and they invited him to
+the most sumptuous entertainments and celebrations made expressly to
+do him honor.
+
+In the mean time, the war between England and France still went on.
+Many battles were fought, and many towns and castles were besieged and
+taken. But, after all, no great progress was made on either side, and
+at length, when both parties had become wearied and exhausted in the
+struggle, a peace was concluded, and King John, having paid a suitable
+ransom for himself and for those who were with him, was allowed to
+return home. He had been in captivity for about five years.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The conduct of Prince Edward at the battles of Crecy and of Poictiers,
+in both which contests the English fought against an immense
+superiority of numbers, and the great eclat of such an achievement as
+capturing the French king, and conducting him a prisoner to London,
+joined to the noble generosity which he displayed in his treatment of
+his prisoners, made his name celebrated throughout the world. Every
+body was sounding the praises of the Black Prince, the heir apparent
+to the English throne, and anticipating the greatness and glory to
+which England would attain when he should become king.
+
+This was an event which might occur at any time, for King Edward his
+father was drawing gradually into the later years of life, and he
+himself was now nearly forty years of age.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+CHILDHOOD OF RICHARD.
+
+A.D. 1366-1370
+
+Prince Edward becomes Prince of Aquitaine.--Various calls made
+upon him.--Don Pedro.--Edward's plans and arrangements.--Lord
+D'Albret.--Lord D'Albret offers a thousand men.--King Edward offers
+his aid.--John of Gaunt.--Why the princess wishes to have Edward's
+departure postponed.--Prince Edward's letter to Lord D'Albret.--Lord
+D'Albret is very angry.--His determination.--Lord D'Albret's letter
+to the prince.--Edward in want of money.--Don Pedro pledges his
+three daughters.--The baptism of the young Prince Richard.--Richard
+receives a visit from his uncle John.--Richard at Bordeaux.--Don
+Pedro's troubles and perplexities.--King Charles determines to call
+Prince Edward to account.--The commissioners arrive, and are received
+by the prince.--The lawyer reads the letter.--The prince is very much
+displeased.--He dismisses the commissioners.--Indignation of the
+prince.--He wishes to arrest the commissioners.--The commissioners
+seized and imprisoned.--Death of Richard's brother.--The prince
+determines to go to England.--Prince Edward's farewell speech.--He
+sails for England.--Little Richard at sea.--Pleasant and prosperous
+voyage.--Portrait of Edward III.--Richard's first entrance into
+England.
+
+
+The child of Edward the Black Prince, who afterward became Richard the
+Second, king of England, was born at Bordeaux, in the southwestern
+part of France, in the year 1367, in the midst of a scene of great
+military bustle and excitement. The circumstances were these.
+
+When peace was finally made between England and France, after the wars
+described in the last chapter were over, one of the results of the
+treaty which was made was that certain provinces in the southwestern
+part of France were ceded to England, and formed into a principality
+called Aquitaine, and this principality was placed under the dominion
+of the Black Prince. The title of the prince was thenceforth not only
+Prince of Wales, but also Prince of Aquitaine. The city of Bordeaux,
+near the mouth of the Garonne, as shown by the map,[E] was the chief
+city of Aquitaine. There the prince established his court, and
+reigned, as it were, for several years in great splendor. The fame
+which he had acquired attracted to his court a great number of knights
+and nobles from all lands, and whenever a great personage had any
+wrongs, real or imaginary, to be redressed, or any political end to
+gain which required the force of arms, he was very likely to come to
+the Prince of Aquitaine, in order, if possible, to secure his aid.
+Prince Edward was rather pleased than otherwise with these
+applications, for he loved war much better than peace, and, though he
+evinced a great deal of moderation and generosity in his conduct in
+the treatment of his vanquished enemies, he was none the less really
+excited and pleased with the glory and renown which his victories
+gained him.
+
+[Footnote E: See map on page 110.]
+
+About six months before Richard was born, while Edward was living with
+the princess, his wife, in Bordeaux, he received an application for
+aid from a certain Don Pedro, who claimed to be King of Navarre in
+Spain, but who had been expelled from his kingdom by his brother.
+There was also a certain James who claimed to be the King of Majorca,
+a large island in the Mediterranean Sea, who was in much the same
+situation in respect to _his_ kingdom. Prince Edward promised to aid
+Don Pedro in recovering his throne, and he forthwith began to make
+preparations to this end. He also promised James that, as soon as he
+had accomplished the work which he had undertaken for Don Pedro, he
+would fit out an expedition to Majorca, and so restore him too to his
+kingdom.
+
+The preparations which he made for the expedition into Spain were
+prosecuted in a very vigorous manner. Don Pedro was destitute of means
+as well as of men, and Edward was obliged to raise a large sum of
+money for the provisioning and paying of his troops. His vassals, the
+nobles and barons of his principality, were obliged to furnish the
+men, it being the custom in those times that each vassal should bring
+to his lord, in case of war, as many soldiers as could be spared from
+among his own tenants and retainers--some fifty, some one hundred, and
+some two hundred, or even more, according to the extent and
+populousness of their estates. One of the nobles in Prince Edward's
+service, named Lord D'Albret, had offered to bring a thousand men. The
+prince had asked him on some public occasion, in presence of other
+knights and noblemen, how many men he could furnish for the
+expedition.
+
+"My lord," replied Lord D'Albret, "if you really wish for all the
+strength that I can furnish, I can bring you a thousand lances, and
+still have enough at home to guard the country."
+
+The prince was surprised at this answer. He did not know, it seems,
+how powerful the barons of his principality were.
+
+"By my head!" said he, addressing Lord D'Albret and speaking in
+French, which was, of course, the language of Aquitaine, "that will be
+very handsome."
+
+He then turned to some English nobles who were near, and speaking in
+English, said it was worth while to rule in a country where one baron
+could attend his lord with a thousand lances. He was ashamed not to
+accept this offer, for, according to the ideas of these times, it
+would not be at all consistent with what was expected of a prince that
+he should not be able to maintain and pay as many troops as his barons
+could bring him. So he said hastily, turning to D'Albret, that he
+engaged them all.
+
+Although, in the end, Don Pedro, if he succeeded in regaining his
+kingdom, was to refund the expenses of the war, yet, in the first
+instance, it was necessary for the prince to raise the money, and he
+soon found that it would be very difficult for him to raise enough. He
+was unwilling to tax too heavily the subjects of his principality, and
+so, after collecting as much as he thought prudent in that way, he
+sent to England to his father, explaining the nature and design of
+the proposed expedition, and soliciting his father's approval of it,
+and, at the same time, asking for aid in the way of funds. King Edward
+replied, cordially approving of the enterprise. He also promised to
+send on the prince's brother John, with a body of troops to accompany
+the expedition. This John was the one who has already been mentioned
+as born in Ghent, and who was called, on that account, John of Gaunt.
+He was also Duke of Lancaster, and is often designated by that name.
+Edward was very much attached to his brother John, and was very much
+pleased to hear that he was coming to join him.
+
+The King of England also, Edward's father, made arrangements for
+sending to his son a large sum of money. This was of great assistance
+to him, but still he had not money enough. So he broke up his plate,
+both gold and silver, and caused it to be coined, in order to assist
+in filling his treasury. Still, notwithstanding all that he could do,
+he found it difficult to provide sufficient funds for the purchase of
+the provisions that he required, and for the pay of the men.
+
+It was rather late in the season when the prince first formed the plan
+of this expedition. He was very anxious to set out as soon as
+possible, for he had the Pyrenees to cross, in order to pass from
+France into Spain, and it would be impossible, he knew, to conduct an
+army over the mountains after the winter should set in; so he hastened
+his preparations as much as possible. He was kept in a continued fever
+by his impatience, and by the various delays and disappointments which
+were constantly occurring. In the mean while, time moved on, and it
+began at length to be doubtful whether he should be ready to march
+before the winter should set in.
+
+To add to his perplexity, his wife begged him to postpone his
+departure till the spring, in order that he might remain at home with
+her until after their child should be born. She was dejected in
+spirits, and seemed particularly sad and sorrowful at the thought of
+her husband's going away to leave her at such a time. She knew, too,
+the undaunted recklessness with which he was accustomed to expose
+himself to danger in his campaigns, and if he went away she could not
+but think that it was uncertain whether he would ever return.
+
+Finally, the prince concluded to put off his departure until spring.
+This determination, however, in some sense increased his perplexities,
+for now he had a large proportion of his force to maintain and pay
+through the winter. This made it necessary that he should curtail his
+plans in some degree, and, among other things, he resolved to notify
+the Baron D'Albret not to bring his whole complement of one thousand
+men. It was a great humiliation to him to do this after having
+formally agreed to engage the men, but he felt compelled, by the
+necessity of the case, to do so, and he accordingly wrote to the baron
+the following letter:
+
+     "MY LORD D'ALBRET,
+
+     "Whereas, out of our liberal bounty, we have retained you,
+     with a thousand lances, to serve under us in the expedition
+     which, through the grace of God, we intend speedily to
+     undertake and briefly to finish, having duly considered the
+     business, and the costs and expenses we are at, we have
+     resolved that several of our vassals should remain at home
+     in order to guard the territories. For these causes, it has
+     been determined in our council that you shall serve in this
+     expedition with two hundred lances only. You will choose the
+     two hundred out from the rest, and the remainder you will
+     leave at home to follow their usual occupations.
+
+     "May God have you under his holy protection.
+
+     "Given at Bordeaux, the eighth day of December.
+
+                         "EDWARD."
+
+This letter was sealed with the great seal of the prince, and sent to
+D'Albret, who was in his own country, busily engaged in assembling and
+equipping his men, and making the other necessary preparations. The
+baron was exceedingly indignant when he received the letter. In those
+days, every man that was capable of bearing arms liked much better to
+be taken into the service of some prince or potentate going to war
+than to remain at home to cultivate the ground in quiet industry.
+D'Albret knew, therefore, very well, that his vassals and retainers
+would be all greatly disappointed to learn that four fifths of their
+whole number were, after all, to remain at home, and then, besides
+this, his own importance in the campaign would be greatly diminished
+by reducing the force under his command from one thousand to two
+hundred men. He was extremely angry when he read the letter.
+
+"How is this?" he exclaimed. "My lord the Prince of Wales trifles with
+me when he orders me to disband eight hundred knights and squires
+whom, by his command, I have retained, and have diverted from other
+means of obtaining profit and honor." Then he called for a secretary,
+and said to him in a rage,
+
+"Write what I shall dictate to you."
+
+The secretary wrote as follows from his master's dictation:
+
+     "MY DEAR LORD,
+
+     "I am marvelously surprised at the contents of the letter
+     which you have sent me. I do not know and can not imagine
+     what answer I can make. Your present orders will do me a
+     great injury, and subject me to much blame. For all the
+     men-at-arms whom I have retained by your command have
+     already made their preparations for entering your service,
+     and were only waiting your orders to march. By retaining
+     them for your service I have prevented them from seeking
+     honor and profit elsewhere. Some of the knights had actually
+     made engagements to go beyond sea, to Jerusalem, to
+     Constantinople, or to Russia, in order to advance
+     themselves, and now, having relinquished these advantageous
+     prospects in order to join your enterprise, they will be
+     extremely displeased if they are left behind. I am myself
+     equally displeased, and I can not conceive what I have done
+     to deserve such treatment. And I beg you to understand, my
+     lord, that I can not be separated from my men; nor will they
+     consent to be separated from each other. I am convinced
+     that, if I dismiss any of them, they will all go."
+
+The baron added other words of the same tenor, and then, signing and
+sealing the letter, sent it to the prince. The prince was angry in his
+turn when he received this letter.
+
+"By my faith," said he, "this man D'Albret is altogether too great a
+man for my country, when he seeks thus to disobey an order from my
+council. But let him go where he pleases. We will perform this
+expedition, if it please God, without _any_ of his thousand lances."
+
+This case presents a specimen of the perplexities and troubles in
+which the prince was involved during the winter, while organizing his
+expedition and preparing to set out in the spring. The want of money
+was the great difficulty, for there was no lack of men. Don Pedro
+agreed, it is true, that when he recovered his kingdom he would pay
+back the advances which Edward had to make, but he was so unprincipled
+a man that Edward knew very well that he could not trust to his
+promises unless he gave some security. So Don Pedro agreed to leave
+his three daughters in Edward's hands as hostages to secure the
+payment of the money.
+
+The names of the three princesses thus pledged as collateral security
+for money borrowed were Beatrice, Constance, and Isabel.
+
+At length, on the third day of April, the child was born. The
+princess was in a monastery at the time, called the monastery of St.
+Andrew, whither she had retired for privacy and quiet. Immediately
+after the event, Prince Edward, having made every thing ready before,
+gave orders that the expedition should set forward on the road to
+Spain. He himself was to follow as soon as the baptism of the child
+should be performed. The day on which the child was born was
+Wednesday, and Friday was fixed for the baptism. The baptism took
+place at noon, at a stone font in the church of the monastery. The
+King of Majorca, whom the prince had promised to restore to his
+kingdom, was one of the godfathers. The child was named Richard.
+
+On the Sunday following the prince bade his wife and the little infant
+farewell, and set out from Bordeaux with great pomp, at the head of an
+immense cavalcade, and went on to join the expedition which was
+already on its way to Spain.
+
+[Illustration: RICHARD RECEIVING THE VISIT OF HIS UNCLE JOHN.]
+
+The birth of Richard was an event of great importance, for he was not
+only the son of the Prince of Aquitaine, but he was the grandson of the
+King of England, and, of course, every one knew that he might one day be
+the King of England himself. Still, the probability was not very great
+that this would happen, at least for a long period to come; for,
+though his father, Prince Edward, was the oldest son of the King of
+England, he himself was not the oldest son of his father. He had a
+brother who was some years older than himself, and, of course, there
+were three lives that must be terminated before his turn should come to
+reign in England--his grandfather's, his father's, and his brother's.
+
+It happened that all these three lives _were_ terminated in a
+comparatively brief period, so that Richard really became King of
+England before he grew up to be a man.
+
+The first important occurrence which took place at the monastery at
+Bordeaux, where little Richard remained with his mother after his
+father had gone, was the arrival of his uncle John, that is, John of
+Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster, who was on his way from England at the
+head of an army to accompany his brother into Spain. John stopped at
+Bordeaux to see the princess and the infant child. He was very
+joyfully received by the princess, and by all the ladies in attendance
+upon her. The princess was very fond of her brother, and she was much
+pleased that he was going to join her husband in the war in Spain;
+besides, he brought her late and full news from England. The duke,
+however, did not remain long at Bordeaux, but, after a brief visit to
+his sister, he put himself again at the head of his troops, and
+hurried forward to overtake the prince, who was already far on his way
+toward the Pyrenees and Spain.
+
+Little Richard remained in Bordeaux for three or four years. During
+this time he had his brother for a playmate, but he saw little of his
+father. It was some time before his father returned from Spain, and
+when he did return he came home much depressed in spirits, and
+harassed and vexed with many cares. He had succeeded, it is true, in
+conquering Don Pedro's enemies, and in placing Don Pedro himself again
+upon the throne; but he had failed in getting back the money that he
+had expended. Don Pedro could not or would not repay him. What Prince
+Edward did with the three daughters of the king that had been left
+with him as hostages I do not know. At any rate, he could not pay his
+debts with them, or raise money by means of them to silence his
+clamorous troops. He attempted to lay fresh taxes upon the people of
+Aquitaine. This awakened a great deal of discontent. The barons who
+had had disagreements of any sort with Edward before, took advantage
+of this discontent to form plots against him, and at last several of
+them, D'Albret among the rest, whom he had mortally offended by
+countermanding his orders for the thousand men, combined together and
+sent to the King of France, complaining of the oppressions which they
+suffered under Edward's rule, and inviting him to come and help them
+free themselves. The king at once determined that he would do this.
+
+This King of France was, however, not King John, whom Edward had made
+prisoner and sent to London. King John had died, and the crown had
+descended to his successor, Charles the Fifth.
+
+King Charles determined first to send two commissioners to summon the
+Prince of Aquitaine into his presence to give an account of himself.
+He did this under the pretext that Aquitaine was part of France, and
+that, consequently, Prince Edward was in some sense under his
+jurisdiction.
+
+The two commissioners, with their attendants, left Paris, and set out
+on their journey to Bordeaux. People traveled very slowly in those
+days, and the commissioners were a long time on the way. At length,
+however, they reached Bordeaux. They arrived late in the evening, and
+took up their quarters at an inn. The next day they repaired to the
+monastery where the prince was residing.
+
+They informed the attendants who received them at the monastery that
+they had been sent by the King of France with a message to the prince.
+The attendants, who were officers of the prince's court, informed the
+prince of the arrival of the strangers, and he ordered them to be
+brought into his presence.
+
+The commissioners, on being brought before the prince, bowed very low
+in token of reverence, and presented their credentials. The prince,
+after reading the credentials, and examining the seals of the King of
+France by which they were authenticated, said to the commissioners,
+
+"It is very well. These papers show that you are duly commissioned
+embassadors from the King of France. You are welcome to our court. And
+you can now proceed to communicate the message with which you have
+been charged."
+
+Of the two commissioners, one was a lawyer, and the other a knight.
+The knight bore the singular name of Caponnel de Caponnal. The lawyer,
+of course, was the principal speaker at the interview with the prince,
+and when the prince called for the communication which had been sent
+from the King of France, he drew forth a paper which he said contained
+what the King of France had to say, and which, he added, they, the
+commissioners, had promised faithfully to read in the prince's
+presence.
+
+The prince, wondering greatly what the paper could contain, ordered
+the lawyer to proceed with the reading of it.
+
+The lawyer read as follows:
+
+     "Charles, by the grace of God, King of France, to our nephew
+     the Prince of Wales and Aquitaine, health.
+
+     "Whereas several prelates, barons, knights, universities,
+     fraternities, and colleges of the country and district of
+     Gascony, residing and inhabiting upon the borders of our
+     realm, together with many others from the country and duchy
+     of Aquitaine, have come before us in our court to claim
+     justice for certain grievances and unjust oppressions which
+     you, through weak counsel and foolish advice, have been
+     induced to do them, and at which we are much astonished;
+
+     "Therefore, in order to obviate and remedy such things, we
+     do take cognizance of their cause, insomuch that we, of our
+     royal majesty and sovereignty, order and command you to
+     appear in our city of Paris in person, and that you show and
+     present yourself before us in our chamber of Paris, to hear
+     judgment pronounced upon the aforesaid complaints and
+     grievances done by you to our subjects, who claim to be
+     heard, and to have the jurisdiction of our court.
+
+     "Let there be no delay in obeying this summons, but set out
+     as speedily as possible after having heard this order read.
+
+     "In witness whereof we have affixed our seal to these
+     presents.
+
+     "Given at Paris the twenty-fifth day of January, 1369.
+
+                         "CHARLES R."
+
+On hearing this letter read, the prince was filled with astonishment
+and indignation. He paused a moment, with his eyes fixed upon the
+commissioners, as if not knowing what to reply. At length, with an
+expression of bitter irony upon his countenance, he said,
+
+"We shall willingly appear at the appointed day at Paris, since the
+King of France sends for us, but it will be with our helmet on our
+head, and accompanied by sixty thousand men."
+
+The commissioners, seeing how much the prince was displeased, began
+immediately to entreat him not to be angry with them as the bearers of
+the message.
+
+"Oh no," said the prince, "I am not in the least angry with you, but
+only with those that sent you hither. Your master, the King of
+France, has been exceedingly ill advised in thus pretending to claim
+jurisdiction over our dominion of Aquitaine, and in taking the part of
+our discontented subjects against us, their rightful sovereign. When
+he surrendered the provinces to the King of England, my father, as he
+did by solemn treaty, he relinquished forever all jurisdiction over
+them, and in the exercise of my government I acknowledge no superior
+except my father. Tell the King of France that is what I claim and
+will maintain. It shall cost a hundred thousand lives before it shall
+be otherwise."
+
+Having spoken these words in a calm and quiet, but very resolute and
+determined tone, the prince walked off out of the apartment, leaving
+the commissioners in a great state of astonishment and alarm. They
+seemed to know not what to do.
+
+Some of the courtiers came to them and advised them to withdraw. "It
+is useless," said they, "for you to attempt any thing more. You have
+delivered your message faithfully, and the prince has given his
+answer. It is the only answer that he will give, you may depend, and
+you may as well return with it to the king."
+
+So the messengers went back to the inn, and on the evening of the same
+day they set out on their return to Paris. In the mean time, Prince
+Edward continued to feel extremely indignant at the message which he
+had received. The more he reflected upon it, indeed, the more angry he
+became. He felt as if he had been insulted in having had such a
+summons from a foreign potentate served upon him by a lawyer in his
+own house. The knights and barons around him, sharing his anger,
+proposed that they should pursue and seize the commissioners, with a
+view of punishing them for their audacity in bringing such a message.
+At first the prince was unwilling to consent to this, as the persons
+of embassadors and messengers of all sorts sent from one sovereign to
+another were, in those days as now, considered sacred. At last,
+however, he said that he thought the men were hardly to be considered
+as the messengers of the King of France.
+
+"They are virtually," said he, "the messengers of D'Albret and the
+other factious and rebellious barons among our own subjects, who
+complained to the King of France and incited him to interfere in our
+affairs, and, as such, I should not be sorry to have them taken and
+punished."
+
+This was sufficient. The knights who heard it immediately sent off a
+small troop of horsemen, who overtook the commissioners before they
+reached the frontier. In order not to compromise the prince, they said
+nothing about having been sent by him, but arrested the men on a
+charge of having taken a horse which did not belong to them from the
+inn. Under pretense of investigating this charge, they took the men to
+a neighboring town and shut them up in a castle there.
+
+Some of the attendants of the commissioners, who had come with them
+from France, made their escape, and, returning to Paris, they reported
+to the King of France all that had occurred. It now came his turn to
+be angry, and both parties began to prepare for war.
+
+The King of England took sides with his son, and so was drawn at once
+into the quarrel. Various military expeditions were fitted out on both
+sides. Provinces were ravaged, and towns and castles were stormed. The
+Prince of Wales was overwhelmed with the troubles and perplexities
+which surrounded him. His people were discontented, his finances were
+low, and the fortune of war often turned against him. His health, too,
+began to fail him, and he sank into a state of great dejection and
+despondency. To complete the sum of his misfortunes, his oldest son,
+Richard's brother, fell sick and died. This was a fortunate event for
+Richard, for it advanced him to the position of the oldest surviving
+son, and made him thus his father's heir. It brought him, too, one
+step nearer to the English throne. Richard was, however, at this time
+only four years old, and thus was too young to understand these
+things, and probably, sympathizing with his father and mother, he
+mourned his brother's death. The parents, at any rate, were
+exceedingly grieved at the loss of their first-born child, and the
+despondency of the prince was greatly increased by the event.
+
+At last the physicians and counselors of Edward advised that he should
+leave his principality for a time and repair to England. They hoped
+that by the change of scene and air he might recover his spirits, and
+perhaps regain his health. The prince resolved on following this
+advice. So he made arrangements for leaving his principality under the
+government and care of his brother, John of Gaunt, and then ordered a
+vessel to be made ready at Bordeaux to convey himself, the princess,
+and Richard to England.
+
+When every thing was ready for his departure, he convened an assembly
+of all the barons and knights of his dominions in a hall of audience
+at Bordeaux, and there solemnly committed the charge of the
+principality to his brother John in the presence of them all.
+
+He said in the speech that he made to them on that occasion, that
+during all the time that he had been their prince, he had always
+maintained them in peace, prosperity, and power, so far as depended on
+him, against all their enemies, and that now, in the hope of
+recovering his health, which was greatly impaired, he intended to
+return to England. He therefore earnestly besought them to place
+confidence in, and faithfully serve and obey, his brother, the Duke of
+Lancaster, as they had hitherto served and obeyed him.
+
+The barons all solemnly promised to obey these injunctions, and they
+took the oath of fealty and homage to the duke. They then bid the
+prince farewell, and he soon afterward embarked on board the ship with
+his wife and son, and set sail for England.
+
+The fleet which accompanied the prince on the voyage, as convoy to the
+prince's ship, contained five hundred men-at-arms, and a large body of
+archers besides. This force was intended to guard against the danger
+of being intercepted by the French on the way. The prince and the
+princess must, of course, have felt some solicitude on this account,
+but Richard, being yet only four years old, was too young to concern
+himself with any such fears. So he played about the ship during the
+voyage, untroubled by the anxieties and cares which weighed upon the
+spirits of his father and mother.
+
+The voyage was a very prosperous one. The weather was pleasant and the
+wind was fair, and after a few days' sail the fleet arrived safely at
+Southampton. The king, with his family and suite, disembarked. They
+remained two days at Southampton to refresh themselves after the
+voyage, and to allow the prince, who seemed to be growing worse rather
+than better, a little time to gather strength for the journey to
+London. When the time arrived for setting out, he was found too ill to
+travel by any of the ordinary modes, and so they placed him upon a
+litter, and in this way the party set out for Windsor Castle.
+
+The party traveled by easy stages, and at length arrived at the
+castle. Here Richard for the first time saw his grandfather, Edward
+the Third, King of England. They were all very kindly received by him.
+After remaining a short time at Windsor Castle, the prince, with his
+wife and Richard, and the knights, and barons, and other attendants
+who had come with him from Aquitaine, proceeded to a place called
+Birkhamstead, about twenty miles from London, and there took up his
+abode.
+
+[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF EDWARD THE THIRD, RICHARD'S GRANDFATHER.]
+
+And thus it was that Richard for the first time entered the country
+which had been the land of his ancestors for so long a time, and over
+which he was himself so soon to reign.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+ACCESSION TO THE THRONE.
+
+A.D. 1376
+
+John of Gaunt.--His thoughts in respect to the kingdom.--Laws of
+succession.--Prince Edward grows worse.--He dies.--Grand burial
+of the prince at Canterbury.--Richard is declared heir to the
+crown.--Grand entertainment at Christmas.--Bad character of the
+king.--Alice Perrers.--Death of the king.--A council of government
+appointed.--Chivalry.--Fear of the French.--Embargo.--Some account
+of Wickliffe the reformer.--The Pope's bulls.--Meaning of the
+term.--The golden bull.--Trial of Wickliffe in London.--The
+assembly.--Violent disputes.--Rudeness of the Duke of
+Lancaster.--Indignation of the people.--Priest murdered.--Alarm of
+the mayor and aldermen.--Deputation sent to the young king.--The
+Londoners summoned.--Richard holds a court.--The whole difficulty
+amicably settled.
+
+
+Young Richard lived in comparative retirement with his mother for
+about six years after his return to England. His father's sickness
+continued. Indeed, the prince was so feeble in body, and so dejected
+and desponding in mind, that he was well-nigh incapable of taking any
+part in public affairs. His brother, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster,
+remained for some time in Aquitaine, and was engaged in continual wars
+with France, but at length he too returned to England. He was a man of
+great energy of character and of great ambition, and he began to
+revolve the question in his mind whether, in case his brother, the
+Prince of Wales, should die, the inheritance of the kingdom of England
+should fall to him, or to Richard, the son of his brother.
+
+"My brother Edward is older than I," he said to himself, "and if he
+should live till after our father the king dies, then I grant that he
+should succeed to the throne. But if he dies before the king, then it
+is better that I should succeed to the throne, for his son Richard is
+but a child, and is wholly unfit to reign. Besides, if the oldest son
+of a king is dead, it is more reasonable that the next oldest should
+succeed him, rather than that the crown should go down to the children
+of the one who has died."
+
+The laws of succession were not absolutely settled in those days, so
+that, in doubtful cases, it was not uncommon for the king himself, or
+the Parliament, or the king and Parliament together, to select from
+among different claimants, during the life-time of the king, the one
+whom they wished to succeed to the crown.
+
+All were agreed, however, in this case--the king, the Parliament, and
+the people of the country--that if Edward should survive his father,
+he was the rightful heir. He was a universal favorite, and people had
+been long anticipating a period of great prosperity and glory for the
+kingdom of England when he should be king.
+
+In the mean time, however, his health grew worse and worse, and at
+length, in 1376, he died. His death produced a great sensation.
+Provision was made for a very magnificent funeral. The prince died at
+Westminster, which was then a mile or two west from London, though now
+London has become so extended that Westminster forms the west end of
+the town. It was determined to bury the prince in the Cathedral at
+Canterbury. Canterbury is in the south-eastern part of England, and
+was then, as now, the residence of the archbishop, and the religious
+metropolis, so to speak, of the kingdom. When the day of the funeral
+arrived, an immense cavalcade and procession was formed at
+Westminster. All the nobles of the court and the members of Parliament
+joined in the train as mourners, and followed the body through the
+city. The body was placed on a magnificent hearse, which was drawn by
+twelve horses. Immense throngs of people crowded the streets and the
+windows to see the procession go by. After passing through the city,
+the hearse, attended by the proper escort, took the road to
+Canterbury, and there the body of the prince was interred. A monument
+was erected over the tomb, upon which was placed an effigy of the
+prince, dressed in the armor in which the illustrious wearer had
+gained so many victories and acquired such lasting renown.
+
+[Illustration: EDWARD, THE BLACK PRINCE.--This engraving represents the
+effigy of the Black Prince, as now seen upon his monument on the north
+side of the Cathedral at Canterbury.]
+
+The King of France, although the prince had been one of his most
+implacable enemies all his life, and had been engaged in incessant
+wars against him, caused funeral solemnities to be celebrated in Paris
+on the occasion of his death.
+
+The ceremonies were performed with great magnificence in the chapel of
+the royal palace, and all the barons, knights, and nobles of the court
+attended in grand costume, and joined in rendering honor to the memory
+of their departed foe.
+
+It was about midsummer when Richard's father died. Richard's uncle,
+John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, was in London, and he had a large
+party in his favor, though generally he was very unpopular in England.
+He had not yet openly claimed the right to inherit the crown, nor did
+any one know positively that he intended to do so. In order to
+prevent, if possible, any dispute on this question, and to anticipate
+any movements which John might otherwise make to secure the crown to
+himself, the Parliament petitioned the king to bring the young Prince
+Richard before them, that they might publicly receive him, and
+recognize him formally as heir to the crown. This the king did.
+Richard was dressed in royal robes, and conveyed in great state to the
+hall where Parliament was convened. Of course, the spectacle of a boy
+of ten years old brought in this manner before so august an assembly
+excited universal attention. The young prince was received with great
+honor. A solemn oath of allegiance was taken by all present,
+including the members of the Parliament, the great officers of state,
+and a number of nobles of high rank, including the Duke of Lancaster
+himself. In this oath, the claims of Richard to succeed his
+grandfather as King of England were recognized, and those taking the
+oath bound themselves forever to maintain his rights against all who
+should ever call them in question.
+
+At Christmas of that year the king gave a great entertainment to all
+the lords and nobles of his court. At this entertainment he gave
+Prince Richard the highest place, next to himself, putting his uncle
+John, and all his other uncles, below him. This was to signify that he
+was now the second person in the kingdom, and that his uncles must
+always henceforth yield precedence to him.
+
+The king was now sixty-five years of age. His health was very infirm.
+It was made so, in great measure, by his mode of life, which was
+scandalous. He associated with corrupt men and women, who led him into
+great excesses. As the spring of the year came on he grew worse, but
+he would not abandon his evil habits. He lived at one of his palaces
+on the Thames, a short distance above London, near Richmond. His
+government fell into great disorder, but he did nothing to restrain
+or correct the evils that occurred. In a word, he was fast relapsing
+into utter imbecility.
+
+There was a young woman, named Alice Perrers, who had for some time
+been the favorite of the king, and had openly lived with him, greatly
+to the displeasure of many of his people. She was now with him at his
+palace. The nobles and courtiers who had been in attendance upon the
+king, seeing that he was soon to die, began to withdraw from him, and
+leave him to his fate. They saw that there was nothing more to be
+obtained from him, and that, for their future prospects, they must
+depend on the favor of Prince Richard or of his uncle John. It is true
+that Richard's right to the succession had been acknowledged, but then
+he was yet a child, and it was supposed that his uncle John, being the
+next oldest son of the king, would probably be appointed regent until
+he should come of age. So the courtiers left the dying monarch to his
+fate, and went to court the favor of those who were soon to succeed to
+his power. Some went to the palace of the Duke of Lancaster; others
+proceeded to Kennington, where the prince and his mother were
+residing. The poor king found himself forsaken of all the world, and
+left to die neglected and alone. It is said that Alice Perrers was
+the last to leave him, and that she only remained after the rest for
+the sake of a valuable ring which he wore upon his finger, and which
+she wished to get away from him as soon as the dying monarch was too
+far gone to be conscious of the robbery.
+
+The counselors and nobles, though they thus forsook the king, were not
+wholly unmindful of the interests of the kingdom. They assembled
+immediately after his death, and determined that during Richard's
+minority the government should be administered by a council, and they
+selected for this council twelve men from among the highest nobles of
+the land. They determined upon this plan rather than upon a regency
+because they knew that if a regent were appointed it would be
+necessary that the Duke of Lancaster should be the man, and they were
+unwilling to put the power into his hands, for fear that he would not
+surrender it when Richard should come of age.
+
+Besides, it would be in his power, in case he had been appointed
+regent, to have caused Richard to be put to death in some secret way,
+if he chose to do so, and then, of course, the crown would, without
+dispute, pass next to him. It was not wholly unreasonable to fear
+this, for such crimes had often been committed by rival against rival
+in the English royal line. A man might be in those days a very brave
+and gallant knight, a model in the eyes of all for the unsullied
+purity of his chivalric honor, and yet be ready to poison or starve an
+uncle, or a brother, or a nephew, without compunction or remorse, if
+their rights or interests conflicted with his own. The honor of
+chivalry was not moral principle or love of justice and right; it was
+mere punctiliousness in respect to certain conventional forms.
+
+Immediately on the death of the king, orders were sent to all the
+ports in the southern part of England forbidding any ship or boat of
+any kind from going to sea. The object of this was to keep the death
+of the king a secret from the King of France, for fear that he might
+seize the opportunity for an invasion of England. Indeed, it was known
+that he was preparing an expedition for this purpose before the king
+died, and it was considered very important that he should not hear of
+the event until the government should be settled, lest he should take
+advantage of it to hasten his invasion.
+
+The making of these arrangements, and the funeral ceremonies connected
+with the interment of the king, occupied some days. There was also a
+difficulty between the Duke of Lancaster and the citizens of London
+to be settled, which for a time threatened to be quite embarrassing.
+The case was this.
+
+In all accounts of the Reformation in England, among the earliest of
+those who first called in question the supremacy of the Pope, the name
+of Wickliffe is always mentioned. Indeed, he has been called the
+morning star of the English Reformation, as he appeared before it,
+and, by the light which beamed from his writings and his deeds,
+announced and ushered its approach. He was a collegian of the great
+University of Oxford, a very learned man, and a great student of
+ecclesiastical and civil law. During the reign of Edward, Richard's
+grandfather, who had now just died, there had been some disputes
+between him and the Pope in relation to their respective rights and
+powers within the realm of England. This is not the place to explain
+the particulars of the dispute. It is enough here to say that there
+were two parties formed in England, some taking sides with the Church,
+and others with the king. The bishops and clergy, of course, belonged
+to the former class, and many of the high nobility to the latter. At
+length, after various angry discussions, the Pope issued a bull,
+addressed to the Archbishop of Canterbury and to the Bishop of London,
+two of the highest ecclesiastical dignitaries of the realm,
+commanding them to cause Wickliffe to be apprehended and brought
+before them for trial on the charge of heresy.
+
+The decrees of popes were in those days, as now, generally called
+bulls. The reason why they were called by this name was on account of
+their being authenticated by the Pope's seal, which was impressed upon
+a sort of button or boss of metal attached to the parchment by a cord
+or ribbon. The Latin name for this boss was _bulla_. Such bosses were
+sometimes made of lead, so as to be easily stamped by the seal.
+Sometimes they were made of other metals. There was one famous decree
+of the Pope in which the boss was of gold. This was called the golden
+bull.
+
+On the adjoining page we have an engraving, copied from a very ancient
+book, representing an archbishop reading a bull to the people in a
+church. You can see the boss of metal, with the seal stamped upon it,
+hanging down from the parchment.
+
+[Illustration: THE BULL.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As soon as the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London
+received the bull commanding them to bring Wickliffe to trial, they
+caused him to be seized and brought to London. On hearing of his
+arrest, a number of his friends among the nobles came at once to London
+too, in order that they might support him by their countenance and
+encouragement, and restrain the prelates from carrying their hostility
+against him too far. Among these were the Duke of Lancaster and a
+certain Lord Percy, a nobleman of very high rank and station. The trial
+took place in the Church of St. Paul's. Wickliffe was called upon to
+answer to the charges made against him before a very imposing court of
+ecclesiastics, all dressed magnificently in their sacerdotal robes. The
+knights and barons who took Wickliffe's side were present too in their
+military costume, and a great assembly besides, consisting chiefly of
+the citizens of London.
+
+The common people of London, being greatly under the influence of the
+priests, were, of course, against Wickliffe, and they looked with evil
+eyes upon the Duke of Lancaster and the other nobles who had come
+there to befriend him. In the course of the trial, which it seems was
+not conducted in a very regular manner, the prelates and the nobles
+got into a dispute. The dispute at last became so violent that the
+Duke of Lancaster had the rudeness to threaten the Bishop of London
+that if he did not behave better he would drag him out of the church
+by the hair of his head. This was certainly very rough language to
+address to a bishop, especially at a time when he was sitting, under
+authority from the Pope, as a judge in a high spiritual court, and
+clothed in all the paraphernalia of his sacred office. The Londoners
+were excessively angry. They went out and called their fellow-citizens
+to arms. The excitement spread and increased during the night, and the
+next morning a mob collected in the streets, threatening vengeance
+against the duke and Lord Percy, and declaring that they would kill
+them. The duke's arms, which were displayed in a public place in the
+city, they reversed, as was customary in the case of traitors, and
+then growing more and more excited as they went on, they directed
+their steps toward the palace of the Savoy, where they expected to
+find the duke himself. The duke was not there, but the men would have
+set fire to the palace had it not been for the interposition of the
+Bishop of London. He, hearing what was going on, repaired to the spot,
+and with great difficulty succeeded in restraining the mob and saving
+the palace. They, however, proceeded forthwith to the house of Lord
+Percy, where they burst through the doors, and, ransacking all the
+rooms, tore and broke every thing to pieces, and threw the fragments
+out at the windows. They found a man dressed as a priest, whom they
+took to be Lord Percy in disguise, and they killed him on the spot.
+
+The murdered man was not Lord Percy, however, but a priest in his own
+proper dress. Lord Percy and the duke were just preparing to sit down
+to dinner quietly together in another place, when a messenger came
+breathless and informed them what was going on. They immediately fled.
+They ran to the water-side, got into a boat, and rowed themselves over
+to Kennington, a place on the southern side of the river, nearly
+opposite to Westminster, where the young Prince Richard and his mother
+were then residing; for all this took place just before King Richard's
+grandfather died.
+
+The lord-mayor and aldermen of London were greatly alarmed when they
+heard of this riot, and of the excesses which the citizens of London
+had committed. They were afraid that the Duke of Lancaster, whose
+influence and power they knew was already very great, and which would
+probably become vastly greater on the death of the king, would hold
+them responsible for it. So they went in a body to Richmond, where the
+king was lying sick, and made very humble apologies for the
+indignities which had been offered to the duke, and they promised to
+do all in their power to punish the transgressors. The king was,
+however, too far gone to pay much attention to this embassy. The mayor
+and aldermen then sent a deputation to Prince Richard at Kennington,
+to declare their good-will to him, and their readiness to accept him
+as their sovereign upon the death of his grandfather, and to promise
+faithful allegiance to him on their own part individually, and on the
+part of the city of London. They hoped by this means to conciliate the
+good opinion of Richard and of his mother, as well as of the other
+friends around him, and prepare them to judge leniently of their case
+when it should come before them.
+
+All this, as has already been remarked, took place just before King
+Edward's death. Immediately after his death Richard and his mother
+went to Richmond, and took up their residence in the palace where
+Edward died. On the next day a deputation was sent to the mayor and
+aldermen of London in Richard's name, calling upon them to appear at
+Richmond before the king, together with the Duke of Lancaster and his
+friends, in order that both sides might be heard in respect to the
+subject-matter of the dispute, and that the question might be
+properly decided. The Duke of Lancaster, they were informed, had
+agreed to this course, and was ready to appear. They were accordingly
+summoned to appear also.
+
+The Londoners were at first rather afraid to obey this injunction.
+They did not think that a boy of eleven years of age was really
+competent to hear and decide such a case. Then they were afraid, too,
+that the Duke of Lancaster, being his uncle, would have such an
+influence over him as to lead him to decide just as he, the duke,
+should desire, and that thus, if they submitted to such a hearing of
+the case, they would place themselves wholly in the duke's power.
+After some hesitation, however, they finally concluded to go,
+stipulating only that, whatever disposal might be made of the case,
+there should, in no event, any personal harm befall the mayor or the
+aldermen.
+
+This condition was agreed to, and the parties appeared on the
+appointed day before the little king to have the case tried. Richard
+was, of course, surrounded by his officers and counselors, and the
+business was really transacted by them, though it was done in the
+young king's name. There was no difficulty in settling the dispute
+amicably, for all parties were disposed to have it settled, and in
+such cases it is always easy to find a way. In this instance, the
+advisers of Richard managed so well that the duke and his friends were
+quite reconciled to the Londoners, and they all went out from the
+presence of the king at last, when the case was concluded, as good
+friends apparently as they had ever been.
+
+The settling of this dispute was the first act of King Richard's
+reign. Considering how violent the dispute had been, and how powerful
+the parties to it were, and also considering that Richard was yet
+nothing but a small though very pretty boy, we must admit that it was
+a very good beginning.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE CORONATION.
+
+A.D. 1377
+
+Nature and design of a coronation.--Arrangements made for Richard's
+coronation.--Conduits of wine.--Golden snow.--The young
+girls.--Procession.--Crowds of people in the streets.--Ceremonies
+of the coronation.--Bewildering scene.--Oath administered to the
+people.--Ceremony of anointing.--Richard clothed in his royal
+robes.--The crown.--The globe.--The sceptre.--Richard makes his
+offerings at the altar.--Richard is entirely exhausted with
+fatigue.--Creation of earls.--Rude amusements.--Wine.--French
+invasions.--Richard's uncles.--His bright prospects.
+
+
+The coronation of a monarch is often postponed for a considerable time
+after his accession to the throne. There is no practical inconvenience
+in such a postponement, for the crowning, though usually a very august
+and imposing ceremony, is of no particular force or effect in respect
+to the powers or prerogatives of the king. He enters upon the full
+enjoyment of all these prerogatives and powers at once on the death of
+his predecessor, and can exercise them all without restraint, as the
+public good may require. The coronation is merely a pageant, which, as
+such, may be postponed for a longer or shorter period, as occasion may
+require.
+
+Richard was crowned, however, a very short time after his father's
+death. It was thought best, undoubtedly, to take prompt measures for
+sealing and securing his right to the succession, lest the Duke of
+Lancaster or some other person might be secretly forming plans to
+supplant him. King Edward, Richard's grandfather, died on the 22d of
+June. The funeral occupied several days, and immediately afterward
+arrangements began to be made for the coronation. The day was
+appointed for the 16th of July. On the 15th the king was to proceed in
+state from the palace in the environs of London where he had been
+residing, through the city of London, to Westminster, where the
+coronation was to take place; and as the people of London desired to
+make a grand parade in honor of the passage of the king through the
+city, the arrangements of the occasion comprised two celebrations on
+two successive days--the procession through London on the 15th, and
+the coronation at Westminster on the 16th.
+
+On the morning of the 15th, an imposing train of the nobility, led by
+all the great officers of state, assembled at the residence of the
+king to receive him and to escort him through the city. Richard was
+dressed in magnificent robes, and mounted upon a handsome charger. A
+nobleman led his horse by the bridle. Another nobleman of high rank
+went before him, bearing the sword of state, the emblem of the regal
+power. Other nobles and prelates in great numbers, mounted many of
+them on splendidly-caparisoned horses, and in full armor, joined in
+the train. Bands of musicians, with trumpets and other martial
+instruments in great numbers, filled the air with joyful sounds, and
+in this manner the procession commenced its march.
+
+In the mean time, the Londoners had made great preparations for the
+reception of the _cortege_. Conduits were opened in various parts of
+the city, to run with wine instead of water, in token of the general
+joy. In the heart of the city an edifice in the form of a castle was
+erected in honor of the occasion. This castle had four towers. In each
+of the towers were four beautiful young girls, all about Richard's
+age. They were dressed in white, and their duty was, as the king went
+by, to throw out a quantity of little leaves of gold, which, falling
+upon and all around the king, produced the effect of a shower of
+golden flakes of snow.
+
+The procession stopped before the castle. There were conduits flowing
+with wine upon two sides of it. The young girls descended from the
+towers, bringing golden cups in their hands. These cups they filled
+with wine at the fountains, and offered them to the king and to the
+nobles who accompanied him. On the top of the castle, between the four
+towers, there stood a golden angel with a crown in his hand. By some
+ingenious mechanism, this angel was made to extend his arm to the
+king, as if in the act of offering him the crown. This was a symbol
+representing the idea often inculcated in those days, that the right
+of the king to reign was a divine right, as if the crown were placed
+upon his head by an angel from heaven.
+
+After pausing thus a short time at the castle, the procession moved
+on. The streets were filled with vast crowds of people, who drowned
+the music of the trumpets and drums by their continual acclamations.
+
+In this way the royal procession passed on through London, and at
+length arrived at the gate of the palace in Westminster. Here Richard
+was assisted to dismount from his horse, and was conducted into the
+palace between two long lines of knights and soldiers that were
+stationed at the entrance and upon the staircase to honor his arrival.
+He was glad that the ceremony was over, for he was beginning to be
+very tired of riding on horseback so many hours, and of being so long
+in the midst of scenes of so much noise, excitement, and confusion.
+
+The next day was the day appointed for the coronation itself. Richard
+was dressed in his royal robes, and shortly before noon he was
+conducted in great state from the palace to the church. He was
+received by a procession of bishops and monks, and conducted by them
+to the grand altar. The pavement before the altar was covered with
+rich tapestry. Here Richard kneeled while prayers were said and the
+Litany was sung by the priests. His barons and nobles, and the great
+officers of state, kneeled around him. After the prayers were over, he
+was conducted to an elevated seat, which was richly decorated with
+carvings and gold.
+
+A bishop then ascended to a pulpit built against one of the vast
+Gothic columns of the church, and preached a sermon. The sermon was on
+the subject of the duty of a king; explaining how a king ought to
+conduct himself in the government of his people, and enjoining upon
+the people, too, the duty of being faithful and obedient to their
+king.
+
+Richard paid little attention to this sermon, being already tired of
+the scene. He was, moreover, bewildered by the multitude of people
+crowded into the church, and all gazing intently and continually upon
+him. There were bishops and priests in their sacerdotal robes of
+crimson and gold, and knights and nobles brilliant with nodding plumes
+and glittering armor of steel. When the sermon was finished, the oath
+was administered to Richard. It was read by the archbishop, Richard
+assenting to it when it was read. As soon as the oath had thus been
+administered, the archbishop, turning in succession to each quarter of
+the church, repeated the oath in a loud voice to the people, four
+times in all, and called upon those whom he successively addressed to
+ask whether they would submit to Richard as their king. The people on
+each side, as he thus addressed them in turn, answered, with a loud
+voice, that they would obey him. This ceremony being ended, the
+archbishop turned again toward Richard, pronounced certain additional
+prayers, and then gave him his benediction.
+
+The ceremony of anointing came next. The archbishop advanced to
+Richard and began to take off the robes in which he was attired. At
+the same time, four earls held over and around him, as a sort of
+screen, a coverture, as it was called, of cloth of gold. Richard
+remained under this coverture while he was anointed. The archbishop
+took off nearly all his clothes, and then anointed him with the holy
+oil. He applied the oil to his head, his breast, his shoulders, and
+the joints of his arms, repeating, as he did so, certain prayers. The
+choir, in the mean time, chanted a portion of the Scriptures relating
+to the anointing of King Solomon. When the oil had been applied, the
+archbishop put upon the king a long robe, and directed him to kneel.
+Richard accordingly kneeled again upon the tapestry which covered the
+floor, the archbishop and the bishops kneeling around him. While in
+this position the archbishop offered more prayers, and more hymns were
+sung, and then he assisted Richard to rise from his kneeling posture,
+and proceeded to dress and equip him with the various garments, and
+arms, and emblems appropriate to the kingly power. In putting on each
+separate article the archbishop made a speech in Latin, according to a
+form provided for such occasions, beginning with, Receive this cloak,
+receive this stole, receive this sword, and the like.[F]
+
+[Footnote F: The stole was a long narrow scarf, fringed at the ends.
+It was wound about the neck and crossed over the breast, and was worn
+as a badge.]
+
+In this manner and with these ceremonies Richard was invested with a
+splendidly-embroidered coat and cloak, a stole, a sword, a pair of
+spurs, a pair of bracelets, and, finally, with a garment over all
+called the pallium. All these things, of course, had been made
+expressly for the occasion, and were adapted to the size and shape of
+a boy like Richard. The archbishop was assisted in putting these
+things on by certain nobles of the court, who had been designated for
+this purpose, and who considered themselves highly honored by the part
+that was assigned them in the ceremony.
+
+When the dressing had been completed, the archbishop took the crown,
+and after having invoked a blessing upon it by his prayers and
+benedictions, all in the Latin tongue, he placed it upon Richard's
+head, repeating, at the same time, a Latin form, the meaning of which
+was that he received the crown from God Almighty, and that to God
+alone he was responsible for the exercise of his royal power.
+
+Then came a certain grand officer of the court with a red globe, an
+emblem of royalty which has long been used in England. This globe the
+archbishop blessed, and then the officer put it into Richard's hands.
+In the same manner the sceptre was brought, and, after being blessed
+by means of the same ceremonies and prayers, was also put into
+Richard's hands.
+
+Richard was now completely invested with the badges and insignia of
+his office. The archbishop then, raising his hands, pronounced upon
+him his apostolic benediction, and the ceremony, so far, was ended.
+The bishops and nobles then came up to congratulate and salute Richard
+on having thus received his crown, after which they conducted him to
+his seat again.
+
+Richard now began to be very tired and to wish to go home, but there
+was a great deal more yet to come before he could be set at liberty.
+There was an anthem to be sung by the choir, and more prayers to be
+said, after which there came what was called the offertory. This was a
+ceremony in which a person was led to the altar, to lay down upon it
+whatever offering he chose to make for the service of the Church. The
+king rose from his seat and was led forward to the altar, having, of
+course, been previously told what he was to do. He had in his hand a
+sum of money which had been provided for the occasion. He laid down
+this money first upon the altar, and then his sword. It was the custom
+in these coronations for the king thus to offer his sword, in token of
+the subordination of his royal power to the law and will of God, and
+then the sword was afterward to be redeemed with money by the
+sword-bearer, the officer whose duty it was, on leaving the church, to
+bear the sword in procession before the king.
+
+Accordingly, after Richard had returned from the altar, the earl whose
+office it was to bear the sword went to the altar and redeemed it with
+a sum of money, and carried it back to the place where Richard was
+sitting.
+
+Then came the service of the mass, which occupied a long time, so that
+Richard became very tired indeed before it was ended. After the mass
+came the communion, which it was necessary for Richard to partake. The
+communion was, of course, accompanied with more prayers and more
+chantings, until the poor boy thought that the ceremonies would never
+be ended. When at last, however, all was over, and the procession was
+ready to form again to leave the church, Richard was so worn out and
+exhausted with the fatigue that he had endured that he could not ride
+home; so they brought a sort of litter and placed him upon it, and
+four of the knights bore him home on their shoulders. His uncle the
+Duke of Lancaster and the Earl Percy went before him, and a long train
+of bishops, nobles, and grand officers of state followed behind. In
+this way he was brought back to the palace. As soon as the party
+reached the palace, they carried Richard directly up to a chamber,
+took off all his grand paraphernalia, and put him to bed.
+
+He rested a little while, and then they brought him something to eat.
+His troubles were, however, not yet over, for there was to be a great
+banquet that afternoon and evening in the hall of the palace, and it
+was necessary that he should be there. Accordingly, after a short
+time, he was arrayed again in his royal robes and insignia, and
+conducted down to the hall. Here he had a ceremony to perform of
+creating certain persons earls. Of course it was his counselors that
+decided who the persons were that were to be thus raised to the
+peerage, and they told him also exactly what he was to do and say in
+the programme of the ceremony. He sat upon his throne, surrounded by
+his nobles and officers of state, and did what they told him to do.
+When this ceremony had been performed, the whole company sat down to
+the tables which had been prepared for a banquet.
+
+They continued their feasting and carousing to a late hour, and then
+amused themselves with various boisterous games common in those days.
+In the court-yard of the palace a pillar was set up, with pipes at the
+sides of it, from which there were flowing continually streams of wine
+of different kinds, and every body who pleased was permitted to come
+and drink. A part of the amusement consisted in the pushings and
+strugglings of the people to get to the faucets, and the spilling of
+the wine all over their faces and clothes. The top of the pillar was
+adorned with a large gilt image of an eagle.
+
+The next day there were more processions and more celebrations, but
+Richard himself was, fortunately for him, excused from taking any part
+in them. In the mean time, the people who managed the government in
+Richard's name heard the news that the French had learned, in some
+way, the tidings of King Edward's death, and had landed in the
+southern part of England, and were burning and destroying all before
+them. So they made all haste to raise an army to go and repel the
+invaders.
+
+It was finally concluded, also, to appoint Richard's two uncles,
+namely, John, Duke of Lancaster, and Edmund, Earl of Cambridge, as his
+guardians until he should become of age. Some persons thought it was
+not safe to trust Richard to the Duke of Lancaster at all, but others
+thought it would be better to conciliate him by treating him with
+respect, than to make him an open enemy by passing over him entirely.
+
+Richard was considered, at this time, a very amiable and good boy, and
+it was generally believed by the people of England that, with a right
+and proper training, he would grow up to be a virtuous and honest man,
+and they anticipated for him a long and happy reign. And yet, in a
+little more than ten years after he became of age, he was disgraced
+and dethroned on account of his vices and crimes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+CHIVALRY.
+
+A.D. 1378-1380
+
+Edmund, Earl of Cambridge.--Thomas of Woodstock.--Richard's young
+cousin, Henry of Bolingbroke.--A boy king in France.--Richard and
+Henry Bolingbroke.--French incursions into the Isle of Wight.--Curious
+story of the Scotch borderers.--Their strange ideas of the grace of
+God.--Nature of the royal government.--The House of Commons.--Luxury
+and extravagance of the nobility.--Wars.--Modes of
+warfare.--Mining.--Besieging engines.--The Duke of Lancaster's
+sow.--Gunpowder.--Story of the Welsh knight, Evan.--Siege of
+Mortain.--Situation of the castle.--Evan's hostility to the
+English.--Hatred of the English against Evan.--John Lamb.--John Lamb
+arrives at Mortain.--His reception by Evan.--State of the
+siege.--Curious manners and customs.--John Lamb accomplishes his
+purpose.--Death of Evan.--Interview between John Lamb and the
+governor of the castle.--The knights loved fighting for its own
+sake.--Their love of glory.--Story of De Langurant.--His men.--He
+challenges the governor of the castle to single combat.--Encounter
+of the knights.--Use of lances.--Manner in which such combats were
+fought.--Result of the combat between De Langurant and Bernard.--De
+Langurant refuses to surrender.--His fate.--Intolerable tyranny of
+the nobles in those days.--Oppression of the tax-gatherers.--Richard's
+helplessness.
+
+
+Besides his uncle John, Duke of Lancaster, Richard had two other
+uncles, who each acted an important part in public affairs at the
+commencement of his reign. They were,
+
+     1. His uncle Edmund, who was the Earl of Cambridge, and
+     afterward Duke of York. Of course he is sometimes called, in
+     the histories of those times, by one of these names, and
+     sometimes by the other.
+
+     2. His uncle Thomas. Thomas was born in the palace of
+     Woodstock, and so was often called Thomas of Woodstock. He
+     was the Earl of Buckingham, and afterward the Duke of
+     Gloucester.
+
+Besides these uncles, Richard had a cousin just about his own age, who
+afterward, as we shall see, played a very important part indeed in
+Richard's history. This cousin was named Henry Bolingbroke. He was the
+son of Richard's uncle John, the Duke of Lancaster. He and Richard
+were now both about eleven years of age; or rather, Richard was
+eleven, and his cousin Henry was about ten.
+
+Of course, Richard was altogether too young to exercise any real
+control in respect to the government of the country. Every thing was,
+consequently, left to the Parliament and the nobles. His uncles
+endeavored to assume the general direction of affairs, but there was
+nevertheless a strong party against them. There were no means of
+deciding these disputes except by the votes in Parliament, and these
+votes went one way and the other, as one party or the other, for the
+time being, gained the ascendency. Every one watched very closely the
+conduct of Richard's uncle John. He was the next oldest son of Edward
+the Third, after Edward, the Prince of Wales, Richard's father. Of
+course, if Richard were to die, he would become king; and if he
+himself were to die before Richard did, and then Richard were to die
+before he grew up and had children of his own, then his son, Richard's
+cousin, Henry Bolingbroke, would be entitled to claim the kingdom.
+Thus, while Richard remained unmarried and without heirs, this Henry
+Bolingbroke was in the direct line of succession, and, of course, next
+to Richard himself, he was, perhaps, the most important personage in
+the kingdom. There was, it is true, another child, the grandchild of
+an older uncle of Richard's, named Lionel; but he was very young at
+this time, and he died not long afterward, leaving Henry Bolingbroke
+the only heir.
+
+It is curious enough that, a year or two after this, the French king
+died, and was succeeded by his son, a boy of about twelve years of
+age. This boy was Charles the Sixth. He was crowned in France with
+ceremonies still more splendid and imposing in some respects than
+those which had been observed in London on the occasion of Richard's
+coronation. Thus the hopes and fears of all the millions of people
+inhabiting France and England respectively, in regard to the
+succession of the crown and the government of the country, were
+concentrated in three boys not yet in their teens.
+
+Of course, Richard and his cousin Henry Bolingbroke were rivals from
+the beginning. Richard and his friends were jealous and suspicious of
+Henry and of his father, and were always imagining that they were
+wishing that Richard might die, in order that they might come into his
+place. Thus there was no cordial friendship in the family, nor could
+there be any. Of the other nobles and barons, some took sides in one
+way and some in the other. The boys themselves, both Richard and
+Henry, were too young to know much about these things; but the leading
+barons and courtiers formed themselves into parties, ranging
+themselves some on one side and some on the other, so as to keep up a
+continual feeling of jealousy and ill-will.
+
+In the mean time, the French began to retaliate for the invasions of
+their country which the English had made, by planning invasions of
+England in return. One expedition landed on the Isle of Wight, and
+after burning and destroying the villages and small towns, they laid
+some of the large towns under a heavy contribution; that is, they made
+them pay a large sum of money under a threat that, if the money was
+not paid, they would burn down their town too. So the citizens
+collected the money and paid it, and the French expedition set sail
+and went away before the government had time to send troops from
+London to intercept them.
+
+The French, too, besides invading England themselves on the south,
+incited the Scotch to make incursions into the northern provinces, for
+Scotland was then entirely independent of England. A curious story is
+related illustrating the religious ignorance which prevailed among the
+common people of Scotland in those days. It seems that some
+remarkable epidemic prevailed in 1379 in the northern part of England,
+which was extremely fatal. Great numbers of people died. The Scotch
+sent messengers across the border to ascertain what the cause of the
+sickness was. The English people told them that they did not know what
+the cause was. It was a judgment from God, the nature and operation of
+which was hidden from them. They added, however, this pious sentiment,
+that they submitted themselves patiently to the dispensation, for they
+knew "that every calamity that could befall men in this world came
+from the grace of God, to the end that, being punished for their sins,
+they might be led to repent and reform their wicked lives."
+
+The messengers went home, and reported to the Scottish borderers that
+the English people said that the plague came from the grace of God,
+not being able, it would seem, to remember the rest of the message. So
+the priests arranged a form of prayer, addressed to certain saints,
+which was to be said by the people every morning. This prayer implored
+the saints to deliver the people from the grace of God, and the
+dreadful plagues which were sent by it upon men. The form was this:[G]
+
+[Footnote G: The form was in Latin. We give here the English of it.]
+
+The head of the family would first say, "Blessed be," and the others
+would respond, "The Lord."
+
+Then the head of the family would say,
+
+     "God and Saint Mango,
+     Saint Romane and Saint Andro,
+     Shield us this day from God's grace, and
+     the foul death that Englishmen die of."
+
+And all the others would say "Amen."
+
+Thus they considered the grace of God as an evil which they were to
+pray to be delivered from.
+
+Indeed, the common people at this time, not only in Scotland, but
+throughout England, were in a state of great ignorance and
+degradation. The barons, and knights, and soldiers generally looked
+down with great contempt upon all who were engaged in any industrial
+pursuits. In the country, the great mass of those who were employed in
+tilling the ground were serfs or slaves, bought and sold with the
+land, and at the disposal, in almost all respects, of their haughty
+masters. The inhabitants of the towns, who lived by the manufacturing
+arts or by commerce, were more independent, but the nobles, and
+knights, and all who considered themselves gentlemen looked down with
+something like contempt upon these too, as, in fact, their
+successors, the present aristocracy of England, do at the present
+day, regarding them as persons in a very mean condition, and engaged
+in low and ignoble pursuits. Still, the industrial classes had
+increased greatly in wealth and numbers, and they began to have and to
+express some opinion in respect to public affairs. They had
+considerable influence in the House of Commons; and the government
+was, in a great measure, dependent upon the House of Commons, and was
+becoming more and more so every year. It is true, the king, or rather
+the great lords who managed the government in his name, could make war
+where they pleased, and appoint whom they pleased to carry it on.
+Still, they could not assess any tax except by the consent of the
+Commons, and thus, in carrying on any great operations, they were
+becoming every year more and more dependent on the public sentiment of
+the country.
+
+The country began to be very much dissatisfied with the management of
+public affairs within two or three years after the commencement of
+Richard's reign. Large sums of money were raised, and put into the
+hands of Richard's uncles, who spent it in organizing great
+expeditions by land and sea to fight the French; but almost all of
+these expeditions were unsuccessful. The people thought that they
+were mismanaged, and that the money was squandered. Some of the nobles
+expended immense sums upon themselves. In the case of one expedition
+that put to sea from the southern coast of England, the nobleman who
+commanded it had twenty-five vessels loaded with his own personal
+property and baggage, and that of his servants and attendants. This
+man had fifty-two new suits of apparel, made of cloth of gold,
+immensely expensive. The fleet was wrecked, and all this property was
+lost in the sea.
+
+A great many of the expeditions that were fitted out in England were
+for the purpose of carrying on wars in Brittany and Aquitaine, in
+France, for the benefit exclusively of the nobles and knights who
+claimed possessions in those countries; the mass of the people of
+England, at whose expense the operations were carried on, having no
+interest whatever in the result. The worst of it was, that in these
+wars no real progress was made. Towns were taken and castles were
+stormed, first by one party and then by the other. The engraving
+represents the storming of one of these towns, and, being copied from
+an ancient picture, it shows truthfully the kind of armor and the mode
+of fighting employed in those days.
+
+[Illustration: STORMING OF A TOWN.]
+
+Almost the only way of forcing a passage into a castle or fortified
+town was by climbing over the walls by means of ladders, and
+overpowering the garrison upon the top of them by main force, as
+represented in the engraving. Sometimes, it is true, the besiegers of
+a castle undermined the walls, so as to make them fall in and thus
+open a breach. At the present day, mines dug in this way are blown up
+by gunpowder. But people were little acquainted with the use of
+gunpowder then, and so they were obliged to shore up the walls while
+they were digging them by means of posts and beams, and these, after
+the miners had withdrawn, were pulled out by ropes, and thus the walls
+were made to fall down.
+
+Great engines were sometimes used, too, to batter down the walls of
+castles and towns. There was one kind of engine, used by the Duke of
+Lancaster in one of his campaigns in France in the early part of
+Richard's reign, which was called a _sow_. The sow was made in many
+parts, at a distance from the place besieged, wherever a suitable
+supply of beams and timber could be obtained, and then was brought on
+carts to the spot. When it was framed together and put in operation,
+it would hurl immense stones, which, striking the walls, made breaches
+in them, or, going over them, came down into the interior of the
+place, crushing through the roofs of the houses, and killing sometimes
+multitudes of men. The sow was made, too, so as to afford shelter and
+protection to a great number of persons, who could ride upon it while
+it was drawn or pushed up near the walls, and thus reach a point where
+they could begin to undermine the walls, or plant their ladders for
+scaling them. The Duke of Lancaster caused one sow to be made which
+would carry, in this way, one hundred men.
+
+Gunpowder, however, began to be used about this time, though in a very
+imperfect and inefficient manner. At one siege, namely, that of St.
+Malo, a town on the northwestern coast of France, it is said that the
+Duke of Lancaster had four hundred cannon. They were all, however, of
+very little avail in taking the town.
+
+The wars waged between the English and the French in these chivalrous
+times were much more personal in their character than wars are at the
+present day. In that period of the world, every great duke, or baron,
+or knight was in some sense an independent personage, having his own
+separate interests to look out for, and his own individual rights and
+honor to maintain, to a degree far greater than now. The consequence
+of this was, that the narratives of wars of those times contain
+accounts of a great many personal incidents and adventures which make
+the history of them much more entertaining than the histories of
+modern campaigns. I will give one or two examples of these personal
+incidents.
+
+At one time, while the Duke of Lancaster was besieging St. Malo with
+his four hundred cannon, there was a famous Welsh knight, named Evan,
+known in history as Evan of Wales, who was besieging a castle
+belonging to the English. The name of the castle was Mortain. It was
+on the River Garonne, in the country of Aquitaine. The castle was so
+strong that Evan had no hope of taking it by force, and so he invested
+it closely on all sides, and sat down quietly waiting for the garrison
+to be starved into a surrender.
+
+The castle was near the river. Evan built three block-houses on the
+three sides of it. One of these block-houses was on the edge of a rock
+before the castle, on the river side. The second was opposite a
+postern gate, and was intended particularly to watch the gate, in
+order to prevent any one from coming out or going in. The third
+block-house was below the castle, between the lower part of it and the
+water. To guard the fourth side of the castle, Evan had taken
+possession of a church which stood at some little distance from it,
+and had converted the church into a fort. Thus the castle was
+completely invested, being watched and guarded on every side. The
+garrison, however, would not surrender, hoping that they might receive
+succor before their provisions were entirely exhausted. They remained
+in this condition for a year and a half, and were at length reduced to
+great distress and suffering. Still, the governor of the castle would
+not surrender.
+
+It may seem strange that Evan, a knight from Wales, should be fighting
+against the English, since Wales had some years before been annexed to
+the realm of England. The reason was, that Evan's family had been
+driven out of Wales by the cruelties and oppressions of the English.
+His father, who had formerly been Prince of Wales, had been beheaded,
+and Evan, in his infancy, had been saved by his attendants, who fled
+with him to France. There he had been received into the family of the
+French king, John, and, after he had grown up, he had fought under
+John many years. The older he grew, the more his heart was filled with
+resentment against the English, and now he was engaged, heart and
+hand, in the attempt to drive them out of France. Of course, the
+English considered him a traitor, and they hated him much more than
+they did any of the French commanders, of whom nothing else was to be
+expected than that they should be enemies to the English, and fight
+them always and every where. Evan they considered as in some sense one
+of their own countrymen who had turned against them.
+
+There was another circumstance which increased the hatred of the
+English against Evan, and that was, that he had taken one of their
+knights prisoner, and then refused to ransom him on any terms. The
+English offered any sum of money that Evan would demand, or they
+offered to exchange for him a French knight of the same rank; but Evan
+was inexorable. He would not give up his prisoner on any terms, but
+sent him to Paris, and shut him up in a dungeon, where he pined away,
+and at length died of misery and despair.
+
+In consequence of these things, a plot was formed in England for
+assassinating Evan. A Welshman, by the name of John Lamb, was
+appointed to execute it.
+
+John Lamb set out from England, and crossed the Channel to France. He
+was a well-educated man, speaking French fluently, and he was well
+received every where by the French, for he told them that he was a
+countryman of Evan's, and that he was going to Mortain to join him.
+The French, accordingly, treated him well, and helped him forward on
+his journey.
+
+When he reached Mortain, he came into the presence of Evan, and,
+falling on his knees before him, he said that he was his countryman,
+and that he had come all the way from Wales to enter into his service.
+Evan did not suspect any treachery. He received the man kindly, and
+made many inquiries of him in respect to the news which he brought
+from Wales.
+
+John gave him very favorable accounts of the country, and spoke
+particularly of the interest and affection which was every where felt
+for him.
+
+"The whole country," said he, "are thinking and talking continually
+about you, and are anxiously desiring your return. They wish to have
+you for their lord."
+
+These and other flatteries quite won the heart of Evan, and he took
+Lamb into his service, and appointed him to a confidential post about
+his person.
+
+For a time after this there were occasional skirmishes between the
+garrison of Mortain and the besiegers, but, as the strength of the
+garrison gradually failed, these contests became less and less
+frequent, until at last they ceased entirely. The soldiers of Evan
+then had nothing to do but to watch and wait until the progress of
+starvation and misery should compel the garrison to surrender. There
+was no longer any danger of sorties from the walls, and the besiegers
+ceased to be at all on their guard, but went and came at their ease
+about the castle, just as if there were no enemy near.
+
+Evan himself used to go out in the morning, when the weather was fine,
+into the fields in front of the castle before he was dressed, and
+there have his hair combed and plaited a long time; for, like most of
+the knights and gentlemen soldiers of those days, he was very
+particular about his dress and his personal appearance. On these
+occasions he often had nobody to attend him but John Lamb. There was a
+place where there was a fallen tree, which formed a good seat, at a
+spot which afforded a commanding view of the castle and of the
+surrounding country. He used often to go and sit upon this tree while
+his hair was combed, amusing himself the while in watching to see what
+was going on in the castle, and to observe if there were any signs
+that the garrison were going to surrender.
+
+One morning, after a very warm night, during which Evan had not been
+able to sleep, he went out to this place very early. He was not
+dressed, but wore only a jacket and shirt, with a cloak thrown over
+his shoulders. The soldiers generally were asleep, and there was
+nobody with Evan but John Lamb. Evan sat down upon the log, and
+presently sent John Lamb to the block-house for his comb.
+
+"Go and get my comb," said he, "and comb my hair. That will refresh me
+a little."
+
+So John went for the comb. As he went, however, it seemed to him that
+the time for the execution of his plan had come. So he brought with
+him from the block-house a Spanish dagger, which he found there in
+Evan's apartment. As soon as he reached Evan, who had thrown off his
+cloak, and was thus almost naked and entirely off his guard, he
+plunged the dagger into him up to the hilt at a single blow. Evan sank
+down upon the ground a lifeless corpse. Lamb left the dagger in the
+wound, and walked directly to the gate of the castle.
+
+The guards at the gate hailed him and demanded what he wanted. He said
+he wished to see the governor of the castle. So the guards took him
+in, and conducted him into the presence of the governor.
+
+"My lord," said Lamb, "I have delivered you from one of the greatest
+enemies you ever had."
+
+"From whom?" asked the governor.
+
+"From Evan of Wales," said Lamb.
+
+The governor was very much astonished at hearing this, and demanded of
+Lamb by what means he had delivered them from Evan. Lamb then related
+to the governor what he had done.
+
+The first impression produced upon the governor's mind by the
+statement which Lamb made was a feeling of displeasure. He looked at
+the assassin with a scowl of anger upon his face, and said sternly,
+
+"Wretch! you have murdered your master. You deserve to have your head
+cut off for such a deed; and, were it not that we are in such great
+straits, and that we gain such very great advantage by his death, I
+would have your head cut off on the spot. However, what is done can
+not be undone. Let it pass."
+
+The garrison did not derive any immediate advantage, after all, from
+the death of Evan, for the French were so incensed by the deed which
+John Lamb had perpetrated that they sent more troops to the spot, and
+pressed the siege more closely than ever. The garrison was, however,
+not long afterward relieved by an English fleet, which came up the
+river and drove the French away.
+
+The knights and barons of those days were not accustomed to consider
+it any hardship to go to war against each other, but rather a
+pleasure. They enjoyed fighting each other just as men at the present
+day enjoy hunting wild beasts in the forest; and that chieftain was
+regarded as the greatest and most glorious who could procure for his
+retainers the greatest amount of this sort of pleasure, provided
+always that his abilities as a leader were such that they could have
+their full share of victory in the contests that ensued. It was only
+the quiet and industrial population at home, the merchants of London,
+the manufacturers of the country towns, and the tillers of the land,
+who were impoverished and oppressed by the taxes necessary for raising
+the money which was required, that were disposed to complain. The
+knights and soldiers who went forth on these campaigns liked to go.
+They not only liked the excitements and the freedom of the wild life
+they led in camp, and of the marches which they made across the
+country, but they liked the fighting itself. Their hearts were filled
+with animosity and hatred against their foes, and they were at any
+time perfectly willing to risk their lives for the opportunity of
+gratifying these passions. They were also greatly influenced by a love
+for the praise and glory which they acquired by the performance of any
+great or brilliant feat of arms.
+
+This led them often to engage in single personal combats, such, for
+example, as this. There was a certain French knight, named De
+Langurant: he was making an incursion into the English territories in
+the neighborhood of Bordeaux. One day he was scouring the country at
+the head of about forty troopers, armed with lances. At the head of
+this troop he came into the neighborhood of a village which was in the
+hands of the English, and was defended by an English garrison. When he
+approached the village he halted his men, and posted them in ambush in
+a wood.
+
+"You are to remain here a while," said he. "I am going on alone before
+the town, to see if I can not find some body to come out to fight me
+in single combat."
+
+The object of De Langurant in this plan was to show his daring, and to
+perform a brave exploit which he might have to boast of, and glory
+over afterward among his brother soldiers.
+
+The men did as he had commanded them, and concealed themselves in the
+wood. De Langurant then rode on alone, his lance fixed in its rest,
+and his helmet glittering in the sun, until he reached the gate of the
+town. Then he halted and challenged the sentinel.
+
+The sentinel demanded what he wanted.
+
+"Where is the captain of this garrison?" said the trooper. "I wish you
+to go and find him, and tell him that Lord De Langurant is at the
+gates of the town, and wishes to have a tilt with him. I dare him to
+come and fight with me, since he pretends that he is such a valiant
+man. Tell him that if he does not come, I will proclaim him every
+where as a coward that did not dare to come out and meet me."
+
+The name of the captain whom De Langurant thus challenged was Bernard
+Courant. It happened that one of Bernard's servants was upon the gate,
+near the sentinel, at the time this challenge was given. He
+immediately called out to De Langurant, saying,
+
+"I have heard what you have said, Sir Knight, and I will go
+immediately and inform my master. You may rely upon seeing him in a
+few minutes, if you will wait, for he is no coward."
+
+Bernard was greatly incensed when he heard the impertinent and
+boasting message which De Langurant had sent him. He started up
+immediately and called for his arms, commanding, at the same time,
+that his horse should be saddled. He was very soon equipped and
+ready. The gate was opened, the drawbridge let down, and he sallied
+forth. De Langurant was waiting for him on the plain.
+
+[Illustration: KNIGHTS CHARGING UPON EACH OTHER.--This engraving
+represents the manner in which knights rode to the encounter of each
+other in single combat. They are each well protected with a helmet, a
+shield or buckler, and other armor of iron, and are provided with lances
+and other weapons. These lances were very long, and were made of the
+toughest wood that could be obtained. The object of each combatant in
+such an encounter is to strike his antagonist with the point of his
+weapon so as either to pierce his armor and kill him, or else to throw
+him off his horse by the shock and force of the blow. If a knight were
+unhorsed, he lay generally helpless on the ground, being unable to rise
+on account of the weight of his armor. Of course, in this situation he
+was easily vanquished by his adversary.]
+
+The knights were both mounted on furious chargers; and, after a moment's
+pause, during which they eyed each other with looks of fierce defiance,
+they put spurs to their horses, and the horses began to gallop toward
+each other at the top of their speed. Each of the knights, as he
+advanced, had one end of his lance supported in its rest, while he
+pointed the other directly toward his antagonist, with a view of
+striking him with it as he rode by, watching, at the same time, the
+terrible point which was coming toward him, in hopes to avoid it if
+possible, and, if not, to bear up against the blow so firmly as not to
+be unhorsed. The lances were very long, and were made of very solid
+wood, but the chief momentum of the blow which they were intended to
+give came from the end of them being supported in a rest, which was
+connected with the saddle in such a manner that the whole impetus of the
+horse, as it were, was communicated to the lance, and this impetus was
+so great, that if a lance struck in such a manner that it could not
+glance off, and did not overthrow the man, but met with a solid
+resistance, it was often shivered to atoms by the shock. This happened
+in the present case. The lances of both combatants were shivered at the
+first encounter. The riders were, however, uninjured. The horses
+wheeled, made a short circuit, and rushed toward each other again. At
+the second encounter, Bernard brought down so heavy a blow with a
+battle-axe upon the iron armor that covered De Langurant's shoulder,
+that the unfortunate trooper was hurled out of his saddle and thrown to
+the ground.
+
+As soon as Bernard could rein in his horse again and bring him round,
+he galloped up to the spot where De Langurant had fallen, and found
+him attempting to raise himself up from the ground. At the same time,
+the horsemen whom De Langurant had left in the wood, and who had been
+watching the combat from their place of ambush, seeing their master
+unhorsed, began to put themselves in motion to come to his rescue.
+Bernard, who was a man of prodigious strength, reached down from his
+horse as he rode over his fallen enemy, and seized hold of his helmet.
+His horse, in the mean time, going on, and Bernard holding to the
+helmet with all his force, it was torn off from its fastenings, and De
+Langurant's head was left unprotected and bare.
+
+Bernard threw the helmet down upon the ground under his horse's feet.
+Then drawing his dagger, he raised it over De Langurant's head, and
+called upon him to surrender.
+
+"Surrender!" said he. "Surrender this instant, or you are a dead man."
+
+The men in ambush were coming on, and De Langurant hoped they would be
+able to rescue him, so he did not reply. Bernard, knowing that he had
+not a moment to spare, drove the dagger into De Langurant's head, and
+then galloped away back through the gates into the town, just in time
+to avoid the troop of horsemen from the ambush, who were bearing down
+at full speed toward the spot, and were now just at hand.
+
+The gates of the town were closed, and the drawbridge was taken up the
+moment that Bernard had entered, so that he could not be pursued. The
+horsemen, therefore, had nothing to do but to bear away their wounded
+commander to the nearest castle which was in their possession. The
+next day he died.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+While the barons and knights were thus amusing themselves at the
+beginning of Richard's reign with fighting for castles and provinces,
+either for the pleasure of fighting, or for the sake of the renown or
+the plunder which they acquired when they were fortunate enough to
+gain the victory, the great mass of the people of England were taxed
+and oppressed by their haughty masters to an extent almost incredible.
+The higher nobles were absolutely above all law. One of them, who was
+going to set off on a naval expedition into France, seized, in the
+English sea-port which he was leaving, a number of women, the wives
+and daughters of the citizens, and took them on board his ship, to be
+at the disposal there of himself and his fellow grandees. For this
+intolerable injury the husbands and fathers had absolutely no remedy.
+To crown the wickedness of this deed, when, soon after the fleet had
+left the port, a storm arose, and the women were terrified at the
+danger they were in, and their fright, added to the distress they felt
+at being thus torn away from their families and homes, made them
+completely and uncontrollably wretched, the merciless nobles threw
+them overboard to stop their cries.
+
+Taxes were assessed, too, at this time, upon all the people of the
+kingdom, that were of an extremely onerous character. These taxes were
+_farmed_, as the phrase is; that is, the right to collect them was
+sold to contractors, called farmers of the revenue, who paid a certain
+sum outright to the government, and then were entitled to all that
+they could collect of the tax. Thus there was no supervision over them
+in their exactions, for the government, being already paid, cared for
+nothing more. The consequence was, that the tax-gatherers, who were
+employed by the contractors, treated the people in the most oppressive
+and extortionate manner. If the people made complaints, the government
+would not listen to them, for fear that if they interfered with the
+tax-gatherers in collecting the taxes, the farmers would not pay so
+much the next time.
+
+Richard himself, of course, knew nothing about all these things, or,
+if he did know of them, he was wholly unable to do any thing to
+prevent them. He was completely in the power of his uncles, and of the
+other great nobles of the time. The public discontent, however, grew
+at last so great that there was nothing wanted but a spark to cause it
+to break out into a flame. There was such a spark furnished at length
+by an atrocious insult and injury offered to a young girl, the
+daughter of a tiler, by one of the tax-gatherers. This led to a
+formidable insurrection, known in history as Wat Tyler's insurrection.
+I shall relate the story of this insurrection in the next chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+WAT TYLER'S INSURRECTION.
+
+A.D. 1381
+
+Real name of Wat Tyler.--State of the country.--Names of Walter's
+confederates.--Character of these men.--Condition of the lower
+classes at this time.--Ball's proposal.--Other orators.--Their
+discourses.--Mixture of truth and error in their
+complaints.--Necessary inequality among men.--The true doctrine of
+equality.--Origin of Wat Tyler's insurrection.--The tax-gatherer in
+Walter's family.--Intolerable outrage.--The tax-gatherer killed.--Plan
+of the insurgents to march to London.--Re-enforcements by the
+way.--Oaths administered.--The Archbishop of Canterbury.--Case of
+Sir John Newton.--Sir John Newton is sent as an embassador to the
+king.--Interview between Sir John and the king at the Tower.--Sir
+John returns to the insurgents.--The king goes down to meet the
+insurgents.--Scene on the bank of the river.--Parley with the
+insurgents.--The king retires.--The insurgents resolve to go into
+London.--The bridge.--Excitement in the city.--The gates opened.--The
+insurgents occupy the streets of London.--Destruction of the Duke of
+Lancaster's palace.--Destruction of the Temple.--Assassination of
+Richard Lyon.--Excesses of the mob.--They bivouac near the Tower.
+
+
+The insurrection to which a large portion of the people of England
+were driven by the cruel tyranny and oppression which they suffered in
+the early part of King Richard's reign is commonly called Wat Tyler's
+insurrection, as if the affair with Wat Tyler were the cause and
+moving spring of it, whereas it was, in fact, only an incident of it.
+
+The real name of this unhappy man was John Walter. He was a tiler by
+trade--that is, his business was to lay tiles for the roofs of houses,
+according to the custom of roofing prevailing in those days. So he was
+called John Walter, the Tiler, or simply Walter the Tiler; and from
+this his name was abridged to Wat Tyler.
+
+The whole country was in a state of great discontent and excitement on
+account of the oppressions which the people suffered before Walter
+appeared upon the stage at all. When at length the outbreak occurred,
+he came forward as one of the chief leaders of it; there were however,
+several other leaders. The names by which the principal of them were
+known were Jack Straw, William Wraw, Jack Shepherd, John Milner, Hob
+Carter, and John Ball. It is supposed that many of these names were
+fictitious, and that the men adopted them partly to conceal their real
+names, and partly because they supposed that they should ingratiate
+themselves more fully with the lower classes of the people by assuming
+these familiar and humble appellations.
+
+The historians of the times say that these leaders were all very bad
+men. They may have been so, though the testimony of the historians is
+not conclusive on this point, for they belonged to, and wrote in the
+interest of the upper classes, their enemies. The poor insurgents
+themselves never had the opportunity to tell their own story, either
+in respect to themselves or their commanders.
+
+Still, it is highly probable that they were bad men. It is not
+generally the amiable, the gentle, and the good that are first to
+rise, and foremost to take the lead in revolts against tyrants and
+oppressors. It is, on the other hand, far more commonly the violent,
+the desperate, and the bad that are first goaded on to assume this
+terrible responsibility. It is, indeed, one of the darkest features of
+tyranny that it tends, by the reaction which follows it, to invest
+this class of men with great power, and to commit the best interests
+of society, and the lives of great numbers of men, for a time at
+least, entirely to the disposal of the most reckless and desperate
+characters.
+
+The lower classes of the people of England had been held substantially
+as slaves by the nobles and gentry for many generations. They had long
+submitted to this, hopeless of any change. But they had gradually
+become enlightened in respect to their natural rights; and now, when
+the class immediately above them were so grievously oppressed and
+harassed by the taxes which were assessed upon them, and still more by
+the vexatious and extortionate mode in which the money was collected,
+they all began to make common cause, and, when the rebellion broke
+out, they rose in one mass, freemen and bondmen together.
+
+There was a certain priest named John Ball, who, before the rebellion
+broke out, had done much to enlighten the people as to their rights,
+and had attempted to induce them to seek redress at first in a
+peaceable manner. He used to make speeches to the people in the
+market-place, representing to them the hardships which they endured by
+the oppressions of the nobility, and urging them to combine together
+to petition the king for a redress of their grievances. "The king will
+listen to us, I am sure," said he, "if we go to him together in a body
+and make our request; but if he will not hear us, then we must redress
+our grievances ourselves the best way we can."
+
+The example of Ball was followed by many other persons; and, as always
+happens in such cases, the excitement among the people, and their
+eagerness to hear, brought out a great many spectators, whose only
+object was to see who could awaken the resentment and anger of their
+audiences in the highest degree, and produce the greatest possible
+excitement. These orators, having begun with condemning the
+extravagant wealth, the haughty pretensions, and the cruel oppressions
+of the nobles, and contrasting them with the extreme misery and want
+of the common people, whom they held as slaves, proceeded at length to
+denounce all inequalities in human condition, and to demand that all
+things should be held in common.
+
+"Things will never go on well in England," said they, "until all these
+distinctions shall be leveled, and the time shall come when there
+shall be neither vassal nor lord, and these proud nobles shall be no
+more masters than ourselves. How ill have they used us! And what
+right have they to hold us in this miserable bondage? Are we not all
+descended from the same parents, Adam and Eve? What right have one set
+of men to make another set their slaves? What right have they to
+compel us to toil all our lives to earn money, that they may live at
+ease and spend it? They are clothed in velvets and rich stuffs,
+ornamented with ermine and furs, while we are half naked, or clothed
+only in rags. They have wines, and spices, and fine bread, while we
+have nothing but rye, and the refuse of the straw. They have manors
+and handsome seats, while we live in miserable cabins, and have to
+brave the wind and rain at our labor in the fields, in order that,
+with the proceeds of our toil, they may support their pomp and luxury.
+And if we do not perform our services, or if they unjustly think that
+we do not, we are beaten, and there is no one to whom we can complain
+or look for justice."
+
+There is obviously some truth and some extravagance in these
+complaints. Men deprived of their rights, as these poor English serfs
+were, and goaded by the oppressions which they suffered almost to
+despair, will, of course, be extravagant in their complaints. None but
+those totally ignorant of human nature would expect men to be
+moderate and reasonable when in such a condition, and in such a state
+of mind.
+
+The truth is, that there always has been, and there always will
+necessarily be, a great inequality in the conditions, and a great
+difference in the employments of men; but this fact awakens no
+dissatisfaction or discontent when those who have the lower stations
+of life to fill are treated as they ought to be treated. If they enjoy
+personal liberty, and are paid the fair wages which they earn by their
+labor, and are treated with kindness and consideration by those whose
+duties are of a higher and more intellectual character, and whose
+position in life is superior to theirs, they are, almost without
+exception, satisfied and happy. It is only when they are urged and
+driven hard and long by unfeeling oppression that they are ever
+aroused to rebellion against the order of the social state; and then,
+as might be expected, they go to extremes, and, if they get the power
+into their hands, they sweep every thing away, and overwhelm
+themselves and their superiors in one common destruction.
+
+Young persons sometimes imagine that the American doctrine of the
+equality of man refers to equality of condition; and even grown
+persons, who ought to think more clearly and be more reasonable,
+sometimes refer to the distinctions of rich and poor in this country
+as falsifying our political theories. But the truth is, that, in our
+political theory of equality, it is not at all equality of condition,
+but equality of _rights_, that is claimed for man. All men--the
+doctrine is simply--have an equal right to life, liberty, and the
+pursuit of happiness. Even when all are in the full enjoyment of their
+rights, different men will, of course, attain to very different
+degrees of advancement in the objects of their desire. Some will be
+rich and some will be poor; some will be servants and some masters;
+some will be the employers and some the employed; but, so long as all
+are equal _in respect to their rights_, none will complain--or, at
+least, no _classes_ will complain. There will, of course, be here and
+there disappointed and discontented individuals, but their discontent
+will not spread. It is only by the long-continued and oppressive
+infringement of the natural rights of large masses of men that the way
+is prepared for revolts and insurrections.
+
+It was by this process that the way was prepared for the insurrection
+which I am now to describe. The whole country for fifty miles about
+London was in a very sullen and angry mood, ready for an outbreak the
+moment that any incident should occur to put the excitement in
+motion. This incident was furnished by an occurrence which took place
+in the family of Walter the Tiler.
+
+It seems that a personal tax had been levied by the government, the
+amount of which varied with the age of the individual assessed.
+Children paid so much. Young men and young women paid more. The line
+between these classes was not clearly defined, or, rather, the
+tax-gatherers had no means of determining the ages of the young people
+in a family, if they suspected the parents reported them wrong. In
+such cases they were often very insolent and rude, and a great many
+quarrels took place, by which the people were often very much
+incensed. The tax-gatherer came one day into Walter's house to collect
+the tax. Walter himself was away, engaged at work tiling a house
+nearby. The only persons that were at home were his wife and a young
+daughter just growing to womanhood. The tax-gatherer said that the
+girl was full-grown, and that they must pay the higher tax for her.
+Her mother said, "No, she is not full-grown yet; she is only a child."
+The tax-gatherer then said he would soon find out whether she was a
+woman or not, and went to her to take hold of her, offering her
+rudeness and violence of the worst possible character. The poor girl
+screamed and struggled to get away from him. Her mother ran to the
+door, and made a great outcry, calling for help. Walter, hearing the
+cries, seized for a club a heavy implement which he used in tiling,
+and ran home. As soon as he entered the house, he demanded of the
+officer, who had now left his daughter and came forward to meet him,
+what he meant by conducting in so outrageous a manner in his house.
+The officer replied defiantly, and advanced toward Walter to strike
+him. Walter parried the stroke, and then, being roused to perfect
+phrensy by the insult which his daughter had received and the
+insolence of the tax-gatherer, he brought his club down upon the
+tax-gatherer's head with such a blow as to break his skull and kill
+him on the spot. The blow was so violent that the man's brains were
+scattered all about the floor.
+
+The news of this occurrence spread like wildfire through the town. The
+people all took Walter's part, and they began to assemble. It seems
+that a great many of them had had their daughters maltreated in the
+same way by the tax-gatherers, but had not dared to resist or to
+complain. They now, however, flocked around the house of Walter, and
+promised to stand by him to the end. The plan was proposed that they
+should march to London, and in a body appeal to the king, and call
+upon him to redress their wrongs.
+
+"He is young," said they, "and he will have pity upon us, and be just
+to us. Let us go in a body and petition him."
+
+The news of the movement spread to all the neighboring towns, and very
+soon afterward a vast concourse collected, and commenced their march
+toward London. They were joined on the road by large companies that
+came from the villages and towns on the way, until at length Walter
+and his fellow-leaders found themselves at the head of from sixty to
+one hundred thousand men.
+
+[Illustration: VIEW OF THE TOWER OF LONDON, AS SEEN FROM THE RIVER.]
+
+The whole country was, of course, thrown into a state of great alarm.
+The Duke of Lancaster, who was particularly obnoxious to the people, was
+absent at this time. He was on the frontiers of Scotland. The king was
+in his palace; but, on hearing tidings of the insurrection, he went to
+the Tower, which is a strong castle built on the banks of the river, in
+the lower part of London. A number of the nobles who had most cause to
+fear the mob went with him, and shut themselves up there. The Princess
+of Wales, Richard's mother, happened to be at Canterbury at the time,
+having gone there on a pilgrimage. She immediately set out on her return
+to London, but she was intercepted on the way by Tyler and his crowd of
+followers. The crowd gathered around the carriage, and frightened the
+princess very much indeed, but they did her no harm. After detaining her
+for some time, they let her pass on. She immediately made the best of
+her way to the Tower, where she joined her son.
+
+As fast as companies of men came from the villages and towns along the
+road to join the insurgents, the leaders administered to them an oath.
+The oath bound them,
+
+     1. Always to be faithful and true to King Richard.
+
+     2. Never to submit to the reign of any king named John. This
+     was aimed at the Duke of Lancaster, whose name was John, and
+     whom they all specially hated.
+
+     3. Always to follow and defend their leaders whenever called
+     upon to do so, and always to be ready to march themselves,
+     and to bring their neighbors with them, at a moment's
+     warning.
+
+     4. To demand the abrogation of all the obnoxious taxes, and
+     never to submit again to the collection of them.
+
+In this manner the throngs moved on along the roads leading to London.
+They became gradually more and more excited and violent as they
+proceeded. Soon they began to attack the houses of knights, and
+nobles, and officers of the government which they passed on the way;
+and many persons, whom they supposed to be their enemies, they killed.
+At Canterbury they pillaged the palace of the archbishop. The
+Archbishop of Canterbury, then as now, drew an immense revenue from
+the state, and lived in great splendor, and they justly conceived that
+the luxury and ostentation in which he indulged was in some degree the
+cause of the oppressive taxation that they endured.
+
+They assaulted a castle on the way, and made prisoner of a certain
+knight named Sir John Newton, whom they found in it, and compelled him
+to go with them to London. The knight was very unwilling to go with
+them, and at first seemed determined not to do so; but they disposed
+of his objections in a very summary manner.
+
+"Sir John," said they, "unless you go with us at once, and in every
+thing do exactly as we order you, you are a dead man."
+
+So Sir John was compelled to go. They took two of his children with
+them also, to hold as security, they said, for their father's good
+behavior.
+
+There were other parties of the insurgents who made prisoners in this
+way of men of rank and family, and compelled them to ride at the head
+of their respective columns, as if they were leaders in the
+insurrection.
+
+In this manner the throngs moved on, until at length, approaching the
+Thames, they arrived at Blackheath and Greenwich, two villages below
+London, farther down than the Tower, and near the bank of the river.
+Here they halted, and determined to send an embassage to the king to
+demand an audience. The embassador that they were to send was the
+knight, Sir John Newton.
+
+Sir John did not dare to do otherwise than as the insurgents directed.
+He went to the river, and, taking a boat, he crossed over to the
+Tower. The guards received him at the gate, and he was conducted into
+the presence of the king.
+
+He found the king in an apartment with the princess his mother, and
+with a number of the nobles and officers of his court. They were all
+in a state of great suspense and anxiety, awaiting tidings. They knew
+that the whole country was in commotion, but in respect to what they
+were themselves to do in the emergency they seem to have had no idea.
+
+Sir John was himself one of the officers of the government, and so he
+was well known to all the courtiers. He fell on his knees as soon as
+he entered the king's presence, and begged his majesty not to be
+displeased with him for the message that he was about to deliver.
+
+"I assure your majesty," said he, "that I come not voluntarily, but on
+compulsion."
+
+The king said to him that he had nothing to fear, and directed him to
+proceed at once and deliver his message.
+
+The knight then said that the people who had assembled wished to see
+the king, and he urgently requested that his majesty would come and
+meet them at Blackheath.
+
+"They wish you to come by yourself alone," said he. "And your majesty
+need have no fear for your person, for they will not do you the least
+harm. They have always respected you, and they will continue to
+respect and honor you as their king. They only wish to tell you some
+things which they say it is very necessary that your majesty should
+hear. They have not informed me what it is that they wish to say,
+since they desire to communicate it themselves directly to your
+majesty."
+
+The knight concluded by imploring the king to grant his subjects a
+favorable answer if he could, or at least to allow him to return to
+them with such a reply as would convince them that he, their
+messenger, had fairly delivered his message.
+
+"Because," said he, "they hold my children as hostages, and unless I
+return they will surely put them to death."
+
+The king replied that the knight should have an answer very soon, and
+he immediately called a council of his courtiers to consider what
+should be done. There was much difference of opinion, but it was
+finally concluded to send word to the men that the king would come
+down the river on the following day to speak with them, and that, if
+the leaders would come to the bank of the river opposite Blackheath,
+he would meet them there.
+
+So Sir John Newton left the Tower, and, recrossing the river in his
+boat, went back to the camp of the insurgents, and reported to the
+leaders the answer of the king.
+
+They were very much pleased to hear that the king was coming to meet
+them. The news was soon communicated to all the host, and it gave
+universal satisfaction. There were sixty thousand men on the ground,
+it is said, and, of course, they were very insufficiently provided
+with food, and not at all with shelter. They, however, began to make
+arrangements to spend the night as well as they could where they were,
+in anticipation of the interview with the king on the following day.
+
+On the following morning the king attended mass in solemn state in the
+chapel of the Tower, and then immediately afterward entered his barge,
+accompanied by a grand train of officers, knights, and barons. The
+barge, leaving the Tower stairs, was rowed down the river to the place
+appointed for the interview. About ten thousand of the insurgents had
+come to the spot, and when they saw the barge coming in sight with the
+royal party on board, they burst out into such a terrific uproar, with
+yells, screams, shouts, outcries, and frantic gesticulations, that
+they seemed to the king and his party like a company of demons. They
+had Sir John Newton with them. They had brought him down to the bank
+of the river, because, as they said, if the king were not to come,
+they should believe that he had imposed upon them in the message which
+he had brought, and in that case they were going to cut him to pieces
+on the spot.
+
+The assembly seemed so noisy and furious that the nobles in
+attendance on the king were afraid to allow him to land. They advised
+him to remain in the barge, at a little distance from the shore, and
+to address the people from the deck. The king resolved to do so. So
+the barge lay floating on the river, the oarsmen taking a few strokes
+from time to time to recover the ground lost by the drift of the
+current. The king stood upon the deck of the barge, with his officers
+around him, and asked the men on the shore what they wished for.
+
+"I have come at your request," said he, "to hear what you have to
+say."[H]
+
+[Footnote H: See Frontispiece.]
+
+Such an arrangement as this for communicating with a mass of desperate
+and furious men would not have been safe under circumstances similar
+to those of the present day. A man standing in this way on the deck of
+a boat, within speaking distance of the shore, might, with a rifle, or
+even with a musket, have been killed in a moment by any one of the
+thousands on the shore. In those days, however, when the only missiles
+were spears, javelins, and arrows, a man might stand at his ease
+within speaking distance of his enemies, entirely out of reach of
+their weapons.
+
+When the crowd upon the shore saw that the king was waving his hand
+to them in order to silence them, and that he was trying to speak,
+they became in some measure calm; and when he asked again what they
+wished for, the leaders replied by saying that they wished him to come
+on shore. They desired him to land, they said, so that he could better
+hear what they had to say.
+
+One of the officers about the king replied that that could not be.
+
+"The king can not land among you," he said. "You are not properly
+dressed, nor in a fit condition, in any respect, to come into his
+majesty's presence."
+
+Hereupon the noise and clamor was renewed, and became more violent
+than ever, the men insisting that the king should land, and filling
+the air with screams, yells, and vociferations of all sorts, which
+made the scene truly terrific. The counselors of the king insisted
+that it was not safe for the king to remain any longer on the river,
+so the oarsmen were ordered to pull their oars, and the barge
+immediately began to recede from the shore, and to move back up the
+river. It happened that the tide was now coming in, and this assisted
+them very much in their progress, and the barge was swept back rapidly
+toward the Tower.
+
+The insurgents were now in a great rage. Those who had come down to
+the bank of the river to meet the king went back in a throng to the
+place where the great body of the rebels were encamped on the plain.
+The news that the king had refused to come and hear their complaints
+was soon spread among the whole multitude, and the cry was raised, To
+London! To London! So the whole mighty mass began to put itself in
+motion, and in a few hours all the roads that led toward the
+metropolis were thronged with vast crowds of ragged and
+wretched-looking men, barefooted, bareheaded; some bearing rudely-made
+flags and banners, some armed with clubs and poles, and such other
+substitutes for weapons as they had been able to seize for the
+occasion, and all in a state of wild and phrensied excitement.
+
+The people of London were greatly alarmed when they heard that they
+were coming. There was then but one bridge leading into London from
+the southern side of the river. This bridge was on the site of the
+present London Bridge, about half a mile above the Tower. There was a
+gate at the end of the bridge next the town, and a drawbridge outside
+of it. The Londoners shut the gate and took up the drawbridge, to
+prevent the insurgents from coming in.
+
+When the rioters reached the bridge, and found that they were shut
+out, they, of course, became more violent than before, and they began
+to burn and destroy the houses outside. Now it happened that many of
+these houses were handsome villas which belonged to the rich citizens
+of the town. These citizens became alarmed for their property, and
+they began to say that it would be better, after all, to open the
+gates and let the people come in.
+
+"If we let them come in," said they, "they will wander about the
+streets a while, but they will soon get tired and go away; whereas, by
+opposing and thwarting them, we only make them the more violent and
+mischievous."
+
+Then, besides, there were a great many of the common people of London
+that sympathized with the rioters, and wished to join them.
+
+"They are our friends," said they. "They are striving to obtain
+redress for grievances which we suffer as well as they. Their cause is
+our cause. So let us open the gates and let them come in."
+
+[Illustration: THE SAVOY.]
+
+In the mean time, the whole population of the city were becoming more
+and more alarmed every hour, for the rioters were burning and destroying
+the suburbs, and they declared that if the Londoners did not open the
+gates, they would, after ravaging every thing without the walls, take
+the city by storm, and burn and destroy every thing in it. So it was
+finally concluded to open the gates and let the insurgents in.
+
+They came in in an immense throng, which continued for many hours to
+pour over the bridge into the city, like a river of men above, flowing
+athwart the river of water below. As they entered the city, they
+divided and spread into all the diverging streets. A portion of them
+stormed a jail, and set all the prisoners free. Others marched through
+the streets, filling the air with dreadful shouts and outcries, and
+brandishing their pikes with great fury. The citizens, in hopes to
+conciliate them, brought out food for them, and some gave them wine.
+On receiving these provisions, the insurgents built fires in the
+streets, and encamped around them, to partake of the food and
+refreshments which the citizens had bestowed. They were rendered more
+good-natured, perhaps, by this kind treatment received from the
+citizens, but they soon became excited by the wine which they drank,
+and grew more wild and noisy than ever. At length a large party of
+them began to move toward the palace of the Duke of Lancaster. This
+palace was called the Savoy. It stood on the bank of the river,
+between London and Westminster, and was a grand and imposing mansion.
+
+The Duke of Lancaster was an especial object of their hatred. He was
+absent at this time, as has been said, being engaged in military
+operations on the frontiers of Scotland. The mob, however, were
+determined to destroy his palace, and every thing that belonged to it.
+
+So they broke into the house, murdering all who made any resistance,
+and then proceeded to break and destroy every thing the palace
+contained. They built fires in the court-yard and in the street, and
+piled upon them every thing movable that would burn. The plate, and
+other such valuables as would not burn, they broke up and threw into
+the Thames. They strictly forbade that any of the property should be
+taken away. One man hid a silver cup in his bosom, intending to
+purloin it; but he was detected in the act, and his comrades threw
+him, cup and all, as some say, upon the fire; others say they threw
+him into the Thames; at any rate, they destroyed him and his booty
+together.
+
+"We are here," said they, "in the cause of truth and righteousness, to
+execute judgment upon a criminal, and not to become thieves and
+robbers ourselves."
+
+[Illustration: RUINS OF THE SAVOY.]
+
+When they had destroyed every thing that the palace contained, they
+set fire to the building, and burned it to the ground. A portion of
+the walls remained standing afterward for a long time, a desolate and
+melancholy ruin.
+
+The insurgents felt a special animosity against lawyers, whom they
+considered mercenary instruments in the hands of the nobles for
+oppressing them. They hung all the lawyers that they could get into
+their hands, and after burning the Savoy they went to the Temple,
+which was a spacious edifice containing the courts, the chambers of
+the barristers, and a vast store of ancient legal records. They burned
+and destroyed the whole.
+
+It is said, too, that there was a certain man in London, a rich
+citizen, named Richard Lyon, who had formerly been Walter the Tiler's
+master, and had beaten him and otherwise treated him in a cruel and
+oppressive manner. At the time that he received these injuries Walter
+had no redress, but now the opportunity had come, he thought, for
+revenge. So he led a gang of the most desperate and reckless of the
+insurgents to Lyon's house, and, seizing their terrified victim, they
+dragged him out without mercy, and cut off his head. The head they
+stuck upon the top of a pike, and paraded it through the streets, a
+warning, as they said, to all cruel and oppressive masters.
+
+A great many other heads, principally those of men who had made
+themselves particularly obnoxious to the insurgents, were paraded
+through the streets in the same manner.
+
+After spending the day in these excesses, keeping all London in a
+state of dreadful confusion and alarm, the various bands began to move
+toward night in the direction of the Tower, where the king and his
+court had shut themselves up in great terror, not knowing what to do
+to escape from the dreadful inundation of poverty and misery which had
+so suddenly poured in upon them. The rioters, when they reached the
+Tower, took possession of a large open square before it, and, kindling
+up great bonfires, they began to make arrangements for bivouacking
+there for the night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+THE END OF THE INSURRECTION.
+
+A.D. 1381
+
+Anxiety and embarrassment of the king.--Consultations in the
+Tower.--Various counsels.--Mile-End.--A meeting appointed with
+the rioters at Mile-End.--The king meets the insurgents at
+Mile-End.--Parley with them.--The king accedes to their
+demands.--Effect of the concessions.--Preparation of the
+decrees.--Scenes in the night in and around London.--The next
+morning.--The king meets the insurgents at Smithfield.--Another
+parley.--Walter advances.--His orders to his men.--Doubt about
+the fairness of the accounts.--Conversation between Walter and
+the king.--Walter gets into a quarrel with the king's squire.--Walter
+is at last assaulted and killed.--Excitement among his men.--Courage
+and coolness of the king.--Alarm conveyed to London.--Troops brought
+to the ground.--The insurgents surrender their banners and
+disperse.--The king's interview with his mother.--Final results of
+the rebellion.
+
+
+In the mean time, within the Tower, where the king and his courtiers
+now found themselves almost in a state of siege, there were continual
+consultations held, and much perplexity and alarm prevailed. Some of
+Richard's advisers recommended that the most decisive measures should
+be adopted at once. The king had in the Tower with him a considerable
+body of armed men. There were also in other parts of London and
+vicinity many more, amounting in all to about four thousand. It was
+recommended by some of the king's counselors that these men should all
+be ordered to attack the insurgents the next morning, and kill them
+without mercy. It is true that there were between fifty and one
+hundred thousand of the insurgents; but they had no arms, and no
+organization, and it was not to be expected, therefore, that they
+could stand a moment, numerous as they were, against the king's
+regular troops. They would be slaughtered, it was said, like sheep,
+and the insurrection would be at once put down.
+
+Others thought that this would be a very hazardous mode of proceeding,
+and very uncertain as to its results.
+
+"It is much better," said they, "that your majesty should appease
+them, if possible, by fair words, and by a show of granting what they
+ask; for if we once attempt to put them down by force, and should not
+be able to go through with it, we shall only make matters a great deal
+worse. The commonalty of London and of all England would then join
+them, and the nobles and the government will be swept away entirely
+from the land."
+
+These counsels prevailed. It was decided not to attack the rioters
+immediately, but to wait a little, and see what turn things would
+take.
+
+The next morning, as soon as the insurgents were in motion in the
+great square, they began to be very turbulent and noisy, and to
+threaten that they would attack the Tower itself if the king did not
+open the gates to them. It was finally determined to yield in part to
+their requests.
+
+There was a certain place in the suburbs of London known by the name
+of Mile-End--so called, perhaps, because it was at the end of a mile
+from some place or other. At this place was an extended meadow, to
+which the people of London were accustomed to resort on gala days for
+parades and public amusements. The king sent out a messenger from the
+Tower to the leaders of the insurgents with directions to say to them
+that if they would all go to Mile-End, he would come out and meet them
+there.
+
+They took him at his word, and the whole immense mass began to set
+itself in motion toward Mile-End.
+
+They did not all go there, however. Those who really desired to have
+an interview with the king, with a view to a redress of their
+grievances, repaired to the appointed place of rendezvous. But of the
+rest, a large party turned toward London, in hopes of pillage and
+plunder. Others remained near the Tower. This last party, as soon as
+the king and his attendants had gone to Mile-End, succeeded in forcing
+their way in through the gates, which, it seems, had not been left
+properly guarded, and thus gained possession of the Tower. They
+ransacked the various apartments, and destroyed every thing which came
+in their way that was at all obnoxious to them. They broke into the
+chamber of the Princess of Wales, Richard's mother, and, though they
+did not do the princess any personal injury, they terrified her so
+much by their violence and noise that she fainted, and was borne away
+apparently lifeless. Her attendants carried her down the
+landing-stairs on the river side, and there put her into a covered
+boat, and rowed her away to a place of safety.
+
+The people in the Tower did not all get off so easily. The Archbishop
+of Canterbury was there, and three other prelates of high rank. These
+men were particularly obnoxious to the rioters, so they seized them,
+and without any mercy dragged them into the court and cut off their
+heads. The heads they put upon the ends of poles, and paraded them in
+this way through the streets of London.
+
+In the mean time, the king, followed by a numerous train of
+attendants, had proceeded to Mile-End, and there met the insurgents,
+who had assembled in a vast concourse to receive him. Several of the
+attendants of the king were afraid to follow him into the danger to
+which they thought he was exposing himself by going among such an
+immense number of lawless and desperate men. Some of them deserted him
+on the way to the place of meeting, and rode off in different
+directions to places of safety. The king himself, however, though so
+young--for he was now only about sixteen years of age--had no fear. As
+soon as he came to the meadow at Mile-End, where the insurgents had
+now assembled to the number of sixteen thousand, he rode forward
+boldly into the midst of them, and opened the conference at once by
+asking them what they desired.
+
+The spokesman whom they had appointed for the occasion stated their
+demands, which were that they should be made free. They had hitherto
+been held as serfs, in a bondage which exposed them to all sorts of
+cruelties and oppressions, since they were amenable, not to law, but
+wholly to the caprice and arbitrary will of individual masters. They
+demanded, therefore, that Richard should emancipate them from this
+bondage, and make them free.
+
+It was determined by Richard and his counselors that this demand
+should be complied with, or, at least, that they should pretend to
+comply with it, and that decrees of emancipation for the different
+counties and districts which the various parties of insurgents had
+come from should be immediately issued. This decision seemed to
+satisfy them. The leaders, or at least a large portion of them, said
+that it was all they wanted, and several parties immediately began to
+set out on their return to their several homes.
+
+But there were a great many who were not satisfied. An insurrection
+like this, whatever may be the object and design of the original
+movers in it, always brings out into prominence, and invests with
+temporary power, vast numbers of desperate and violent men, whose
+passions become inflamed by the excitement of movement and action, and
+by sympathy with each other, and who are never satisfied to stop with
+the attainment of the objects originally desired. Thus, in the present
+instance, although a great number of the rebels were satisfied with
+the promises made by the king at Mile-End, and so went home,
+multitudes still remained. Large parties went to London to join those
+who had already gone there in hopes of opportunities for pillage.
+Others remained at their encampments, doubting whether the king would
+really keep the promises which he had made them, and send the decrees.
+Then, besides, fresh parties of insurgents were continually arriving
+at London and its neighborhood, so that the danger seemed by no means
+to have passed away.
+
+The king immediately caused the decree to be prepared. Thirty
+secretaries were employed at once to write the several copies
+required. They were all of the same form. They were written, as was
+customary with royal decrees in those times, in the Latin language,
+were engrossed carefully upon parchment, signed by the king, and
+sealed by his seal. The announcement that the secretaries were
+preparing these decrees, when the work had been commenced, tended
+greatly to satisfy the insurgents, and many more of them went home.
+Still, vast numbers remained, and the excitement among them, and their
+disposition for mischief, was evidently on the increase.
+
+Such was the state of things during the night of Friday. The various
+parties of the insurgents were encamped in and around London, the
+glare of their fires flashing on the buildings and lighting up the
+sky, and their shouts, sometimes of merriment and sometimes of anger,
+filling the air. The peaceable inhabitants passed the night in great
+alarm. Some of them endeavored to conciliate the good-will of the
+insurgents by offering them food and wine. The wine, of course,
+excited them, and made them more noisy than ever. Their numbers, too,
+were all the time increasing, and no one could foresee how or when the
+trouble would end.
+
+The next morning, a grand consultation among the rebels was determined
+upon. It was to be held in a great open space called Smithfield--a
+space set apart as a cattle-market, at the outskirts of London, toward
+the north. All the leaders who had not returned to their homes were
+present at the consultation. Among them, and at the head of them,
+indeed, was Wat Tyler.
+
+The king that morning, it happened, having spent the night at the
+private house down the river where his mother had sought refuge after
+making her escape from the Tower, concluded to go to Westminster to
+attend mass. His real motive for making this excursion was probably to
+show the insurgents that he did not fear them, and also, perhaps, to
+make observations in respect to their condition and movements, without
+appearing to watch them.
+
+He accordingly went to Westminster, accompanied and escorted by a
+suitable cortege and guard. The mayor of the city of London was with
+the party. After hearing mass at Westminster, the king set out on his
+return home; but, instead of going back through the heart of London,
+as he had come, he took a circuit to the northward by a road which, as
+it happened, led through Smithfield, where a great body of the
+insurgents had assembled, as has already been said. Thus the king came
+upon them quite unexpectedly both to himself and to them. When he saw
+them, he halted, and the horsemen who were with him halted too. There
+were about sixty horsemen in his train.
+
+Some of his officers thought it would be better to avoid a
+re-encounter with so large a body of the insurgents--for there were
+about twenty thousand on the field--and recommended that the king's
+party should turn aside, and go home another way; but the king said
+"No; he preferred to speak to them."
+
+He would go, he said, and ascertain what it was that they wanted more.
+He thought that by a friendly colloquy with them he could appease
+them.
+
+While the king and his party thus halted to consider what to do, the
+attention of the leaders of the insurgents had been directed toward
+them. They knew at once that it was the king.
+
+"It is the king," said Walter. "I am going to meet him and speak with
+him. All the rest of you are to remain here. You must not move from
+this spot until I come back, unless you see me make this signal."
+
+So saying, Walter made a certain gesture with his hand, which was to
+be the signal for his men.
+
+"When you see me make this signal," said he, "do you all rush forward
+and kill every man in the troop except the king. You must not hurt the
+king. We will take him and keep him. He is young, and we can make him
+do whatever we say. We will put him at the head of our company, as if
+he were our commander, and we were obeying his orders, and we will do
+every thing in his name. In this way we can go wherever we please, all
+over England, and do what we think best, and there will be no
+opposition to us."
+
+When I say that Walter gave these orders to his men, I mean that these
+words were attributed to him by one of the historians of the time. As,
+however, all the accounts which we have of these transactions were
+written by persons who hated the insurgents, and wished to present
+their case in the most unfavorable light possible, we can not depend
+absolutely on the truth of their accounts, especially in cases like
+this, when they could not have been present to hear or see.
+
+At any rate, Walter rode up alone to meet the king. He advanced so
+near to him that his horse's head touched the king's horse. While in
+this position, a conversation ensued between him and the king. Walter
+pointed to the vast concourse of men who were assembled in the field,
+and told the king that they were all under his orders, and that what
+he commanded them to do they would do. The king told him that if that
+were the case, he would do well to recommend them all to go to their
+respective homes. He had granted the petition, he said, which they had
+offered the day before, and had ordered decrees to be prepared
+emancipating them from their bondage. He asked Walter what more they
+required.
+
+Walter replied that they wanted the decrees to be delivered to _them_.
+
+"We are not willing to depart till we get all the decrees," said he.
+"There are all these men, and as many more besides in the city, and we
+wish you to give us all the decrees, that we may take them home
+ourselves to our several villages and towns."
+
+The king said that the secretaries were preparing the decrees as fast
+as they could, and the men might depend that those which had not yet
+been delivered would be sent as soon as they were ready to the
+villages and towns.
+
+"Go back to your men," he added, "and tell them that they had better
+return peaceably to their homes. The decrees will all arrive there in
+due time."
+
+But Walter did not seem at all inclined to go. He looked around upon
+the king's attendants, and seeing one that he had known before, a
+squire, who was in immediate attendance on the king's person, he said
+to him,
+
+"What! You here?"
+
+This squire was the king's sword-bearer. In addition to the king's
+sword, which it was his duty to carry, he was armed with a dagger of
+his own.
+
+Walter turned his horse toward the squire and said,
+
+"Let me see that dagger that you have got."
+
+"No," said the squire, drawing back.
+
+"Yes," said the king, "let him take the dagger."
+
+The king was not at all afraid of the rebel, and wished to let him see
+that he was not afraid of him.
+
+So the squire gave Walter the dagger. Walter took it and examined it
+in all its parts very carefully, turning it over and over in his hands
+as he sat upon his horse. It was very richly ornamented, and Walter
+had probably never had the opportunity to examine closely any thing so
+beautifully finished before.
+
+After having satisfied himself with examining the dagger, he turned
+again to the squire:
+
+"And now," said he, "let me see your sword."
+
+"No," said the squire, "this is the king's sword, and it is not going
+into the hands of such a lowborn fellow as you. And, moreover," he
+added, after pausing a moment and looking at Walter with an
+expression of defiance, "if you and I had met somewhere alone, you
+would not have dared to talk as you have done, not for a heap of gold
+as high as this church."
+
+There was a famous church, called the Church of St. Bartholomew, near
+the place where the king and his party had halted.
+
+"By the powers," said Walter, "I will not eat this day before I have
+your head."
+
+Seeing that a quarrel was impending, the mayor of London and a dozen
+horsemen rode up and surrounded Walter and the squire.
+
+"Scoundrel!" said the mayor, "how dare you utter such threats as
+those?"
+
+"What business is that of yours?" said Walter, turning fiercely toward
+the mayor. "What have you to do with it?"
+
+"Seize him!" said the king; for the king himself was now beginning to
+lose his patience.
+
+The mayor, encouraged by these words, and being already in a state of
+boiling indignation and rage, immediately struck a tremendous blow
+upon Walter's head with a cimeter which he had in his hand. The blow
+stunned him, and he fell heavily from his horse to the ground. One of
+the horsemen who had come up with the mayor--a man named John
+Standwich--immediately dismounted, and thrust the body of Walter
+through with his sword, killing him on the spot.
+
+In the mean time, the crowd of the insurgents had remained where
+Walter had left them, watching the proceedings. They had received
+orders not to move from their position until Walter should make the
+signal; but when they saw Walter struck down from his horse, and
+stabbed as he lay on the ground, they cried out, "They have killed our
+captain. Form the lines! form the lines! We will go and kill every one
+of them."
+
+So they hastily formed in array, and got their weapons ready, prepared
+to charge upon the king's party; but Richard, who in all these
+transactions evinced a degree of bravery and coolness very remarkable
+for a young man of sixteen, rode forward alone, and boldly, to meet
+them.
+
+"Gentlemen," said he, "you have no leader but me. I am your king.
+Remain quiet and peaceable."
+
+The insurgents seemed not to know what to do on hearing these words.
+Some began to move away, but the more violent and determined kept
+their ground, and seemed still bent on mischief. The king went back to
+his party, and asked them what they should do next. Some advised that
+they should make for the open fields, and try to escape; but the mayor
+of London advised that they should remain quietly where they were.
+
+"It will be of no use," said he, "for us to try to make our escape,
+but if we remain here we shall soon have help."
+
+The mayor had already sent horsemen into London to summon help. These
+messengers spread the cry in the city, "TO SMITHFIELD! TO SMITHFIELD!
+THEY ARE KILLING THE KING!" This cry produced universal excitement and
+alarm. The bands of armed men quartered in London were immediately
+turned out, and great numbers of volunteers too, seizing such weapons
+as they could find, made haste to march to Smithfield; and thus, in a
+short time, the king found himself supported by a body of seven or
+eight thousand men.
+
+Some of his advisers then urged that the whole of this force should
+fall at once upon the insurgents, and slaughter them without mercy.
+This it was thought that they could easily do, although the insurgents
+were far more numerous than they; for the king's party consisted, in
+great measure, of well-armed and well-disciplined soldiers, while the
+insurgents were comparatively a helpless and defenseless rabble.
+
+The king, however, would not consent to this. Perhaps somebody advised
+him what to do, or perhaps it was his own prudence and moderation
+which suggested his course. He sent messengers forward to remonstrate
+calmly with the men, and demand of them that they should give up their
+banners. If they would do so, the messengers said that the king would
+pardon them. So they gave up their banners. This seemed to be the
+signal of disbanding, and large parties of the men began to separate
+from the mass, and move away toward their homes.
+
+Next, the king sent to demand that those who had received decrees of
+emancipation should return them. They did so; and in this way a
+considerable number of the decrees were given up. The king tore them
+to pieces on the field, upon the plea that they were forfeited by the
+men's having continued in rebellion after the decrees were granted.
+
+The whole mass of the insurgents began now rapidly to get into
+disorder. They had no head, no banners, and the army which was
+gathering against them was increasing in strength and resolution every
+moment. The dispersal went on faster and faster, until at last those
+that remained threw down their weapons and fled to London.
+
+The king then went home to his mother. She was overjoyed to see him
+safely returning.
+
+"My dear son," said she, "you can not conceive what pain and anguish I
+have suffered for you this day."
+
+"Yes, mother," said Richard, "I have no doubt you have suffered a
+great deal. But it is all over now. Now you can rejoice and thank God,
+for I have regained my inheritance, the kingdom of England, which I
+had lost."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+After this there was no farther serious trouble. The insurgents were
+disheartened, and most of them were glad to make the best of their way
+home. After the danger was past, Richard revoked all the decrees of
+emancipation which he had issued, on the ground that they had been
+extorted from him by violence and intimidation, and also that the
+condition on which they had been granted, namely, that the men should
+retire at once quietly to their homes, had not been complied with on
+their part. He found it somewhat difficult to recover them all, but he
+finally succeeded. He also sent commissions to all the towns and
+villages which had been implicated in the rebellion, and caused great
+numbers of persons to be tried and condemned to death. Many thousands
+were thus executed. Indeed, the rebellion had extended far and wide;
+for, besides the disturbances in and near London, there had been
+risings in all parts of the kingdom, and great excesses committed
+every where.
+
+When the rebellion was thus quelled, things returned for a time into
+substantially the same condition as before, and yet the bondage of the
+people was never afterward so abject and hopeless as it had been. A
+considerable general improvement was the result. Indeed, such
+outbreaks as this against oppression are like the earthquakes of South
+America, which, though they cause for the time great terror, and often
+much destruction, still have the effect to raise the general level of
+the land, and leave it forever afterward in a better condition than
+before.
+
+The cause of these rebels, moreover, badly as they managed it, was in
+the main a just cause; and it is to precisely such convulsive
+struggles as these, that have been made from time to time by the
+common people of England in the course of their history, that their
+descendants, the present commons of England and the people of America,
+are indebted for the personal rights and liberties which they now
+enjoy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+GOOD QUEEN ANNE.
+
+A.D. 1382-1394
+
+The planning of Richard's first marriage.--Journey of the bridal party
+toward England.--Their way is cut off by sea.--The bride enters
+Calais.--Great display.--The bride arrives in England.--Great
+excitement in London.--A contrast.--The bride enters London.--Parades
+and rejoicings.--Character of the queen.--Why she was called Good Queen
+Anne.--Ancient drawings.--Curious fashions of those times.--Costumes
+of Richard's time.--The Cracows.--Origin of the name.--The horned
+caps.--Description of the horns.--Pins.--Side-saddles.--Queen
+Anne's useful and busy life.--Shene.--Grand celebration.--The
+tournament.--Knights.--Magnificence of the king's mode of life.--Death
+of Queen Anne.--The king inconsolable.--The funeral.--Inscription on
+Queen Anne's tomb.
+
+
+King Richard was married twice. His first queen was named Anne. She
+was a Bohemian princess, and so is sometimes called in history Anne of
+Bohemia. She was, however, more commonly called Good Queen Anne.
+
+The marriage was planned by Richard's courtiers and counselors when
+Richard himself was about fifteen years old. The negotiations were
+interrupted by the troubles connected with the insurrection described
+in the two last chapters; but immediately after the insurrection was
+quelled they were renewed. The proposals were sent to Bohemia by
+Richard's government. After suitable inquiries had been made by Anne's
+parents and friends, the proposals were accepted, and preparations
+were made for sending Anne to England to be married. Richard was now
+about sixteen years of age. Anne was fifteen. Neither of them had ever
+seen the other.
+
+In due time, when every thing had been made ready, the princess set
+out on her journey, accompanied by a large train of attendants. She
+was under the charge of a nobleman named the Duke of Saxony, and of
+his wife the duchess. The duchess was Anne's aunt. Besides the duke,
+there were in the party a number of knights, and other persons of
+distinction, and also several young ladies of the court, who went to
+accompany and wait upon the princess. There were also many other
+attendants of lower degree.
+
+The party traveled slowly, as was the custom in those days, until at
+length they reached Flanders. Here, at Brussels, the capital, the
+princess was received by the Duke and Duchess of Brabant, who were her
+relatives, and was entertained by them in a very sumptuous manner.
+She, however, heard alarming news at Brussels. The intention of the
+party had been to take ship on the coast of Flanders, and proceed to
+Calais by water. Calais was then in the hands of the English, and an
+embassador with a grand suite had been sent from Richard's court to
+receive the princess on her arrival there, and conduct her across the
+Channel to Dover, and thence to London.
+
+The reason why the princess and her party did not propose to go by
+land all the way to Calais was that, by so doing, they would
+necessarily pass through the territories of the King of France, and
+they were afraid that the French government would intercept them. It
+was known that the government of France had been opposed to the match,
+as tending to give Richard too much influence on the Continent.
+
+But now, on their arrival at Brussels, the bridal party learned that
+there was a fleet of Norman vessels, ten or twelve in number, that
+were cruising to and fro on the coast, between Brussels and Calais,
+with a view of blocking up the princess's way by sea as well as by
+land. Both she herself and the Duke of Saxony were much chagrined at
+receiving this information, and for a time they did not know what to
+do. At length they sent an embassage to Paris, and after some
+difficulties and delay they succeeded in obtaining the consent of the
+French government that the princess should pass through the French
+territories by land. The embassadors brought back a passport for her
+and for her party.
+
+Although the King of France thus granted the desired permission, he
+did it in a very ungracious manner, for he took care to say that he
+yielded to the Duke of Saxony's request solely out of kindness to his
+good cousin Anne, and a desire to do her a favor, and not at all out
+of regard to the King of England.
+
+The princess was detained a month in Brussels while they were
+arranging this affair, and when at last it was settled she resumed her
+journey, taking the road from Brussels to Calais. The Duke of Brabant
+accompanied her, with an escort of one hundred spearmen. This,
+however, was an escort of honor rather than of protection, as the duke
+relied mainly upon the French passport for the safety of the party.
+
+As the party were approaching Calais, they were received at the town
+of Gravelines by the English embassador and his suite, who had come
+out from Calais to meet them. This embassador was the Earl of
+Salisbury. He was attended by a force of one thousand men, namely,
+five hundred spearmen and five hundred archers. Conducted by this
+grand escort, and accompanied by a large cavalcade of knights and
+nobles, all clad in full armor, and splendidly mounted, the princess
+and the ladies in her train made a magnificent entry into Calais,
+through the midst of a vast concourse of spectators, with trumpets
+sounding and banners waving, and their hearts beating high with
+ecstasy and delight. In passing over the drawbridge and through the
+gates of Calais, Anne felt an emotion of exultation and pride in
+thinking that she was here entering the dominions of her future
+husband.
+
+The princess did not remain long in Calais. She set out on the
+following day for Dover. The distance across is about twenty miles.
+They were dependent wholly on the wind in those days for crossing the
+Channel; but the princess had a prosperous passage, and arrived safely
+at Dover that night. News then spread rapidly all over the country,
+and ran up to London, that the queen had come.
+
+The news, of course, produced universal excitement. No certain tidings
+of the movements of the bride had been heard for some weeks before,
+and no one could tell when to expect her. Her arrival awakened
+universal joy. Parliament was in session at the time. They voted a
+large sum of money to be expended in arrangements for receiving the
+young queen in a proper manner, and in public rejoicings on the
+occasion. They then immediately adjourned, and all the world began to
+prepare for the arrival of the royal cortege in London.
+
+The princess, after resting a day in Dover, moved on to Canterbury,
+admiring, as she journeyed, the beautiful scenery of the country over
+which she was henceforth to be queen. Richard's uncle Thomas, the Duke
+of Gloucester, with a large retinue, was ready there to receive her.
+He conducted her to London. As they approached the city, the
+lord-mayor of London and all the great civic functionaries, with a
+long train of attendants, came out in great state to receive her and
+escort her into town. The place of their meeting with her was
+Blackheath, the same place which a year before had been the bivouac of
+the immense horde of ragged and miserable men that Wat Tyler and his
+fellow-insurgents had brought to London. But how changed now was the
+scene! Then the country was excited by the deepest anxiety and alarm,
+and the spectacle on the field was that of one immense mass of squalid
+poverty and wretchedness, of misery reduced by hopeless suffering to
+recklessness and despair. Now all was gayety and splendor in the
+spectacle, and the whole country was excited to the highest pitch of
+exultation and joy.
+
+At Blackheath the grand cavalcade was formed for passing through
+London. Splendid preparations had been made in London to receive the
+bride, and to do honor to her passage through the city. Many of these
+preparations were similar to those which had been made on the occasion
+of the king's coronation. There was a castle and tower, with young
+girls at the top throwing down a shower of golden snow, and fountains
+at the sides flowing with wine, with fancifully-dressed pages
+attending to offer the princess drink from golden cups. In a word, the
+young and beautiful bride was received by the civic authorities of
+London with the same tokens of honor and the same public rejoicings
+that had been accorded to the king.
+
+In a few days the marriage took place. The ceremony was performed in
+the chapel royal of the king's palace at Westminster. The king
+appeared to be very much pleased with his bride, and paid her great
+attention. After a week spent with her and the court in festivities
+and rejoicings in Westminster, he took her up the river to the royal
+castle at Windsor. His mother, the Princess of Wales, and other ladies
+of rank, went with them, and formed part of their household. They
+lived here very happily together for some time.
+
+The young queen soon began to evince those kind and gracious qualities
+of heart which afterward made her so beloved among the people of
+England. Instead of occupying herself solely with her own greatness
+and grandeur, and with the uninterrupted round of pleasures to which
+her husband invited her, she began very soon to think of the
+sufferings which she found that a great many of the common people of
+England were enduring, and to consider what she could do to relieve
+them. The condition of the people was particularly unhappy at this
+time, for the king and the nobles were greatly exasperated against
+them on account of the rebellion, and were hunting out all who could
+be proved, or were even suspected to have been engaged in it, and
+persecuting them in the most severe and oppressive manner, and they
+were bloody and barbarous beyond precedent. The young queen, hearing
+of these things, was greatly distressed, and she begged the king, for
+her sake, to grant a general pardon to all his subjects, on the
+occasion of her coronation, which ceremony was now soon to be
+performed. The king granted this request, and thus peace and
+tranquillity were once more fully restored to the land.
+
+After this, during all her life, Anne watched for every opportunity to
+do good, and she was continually engaged in gentle but effective
+efforts to heal dissensions, to assuage angry feelings, and to
+alleviate suffering. She was a general peace-maker; and her lofty
+position, and the great influence which she exercised over the king,
+gave her great power to accomplish the benevolent purposes which the
+kindness of her heart led her to form.
+
+The arrival of the young queen produced a great sensation among the
+ladies of Richard's court, in consequence of the new fashions which
+she introduced into England. The fashions of dress in those days were
+very peculiar. We learn what they were from the pictures, drawn with
+the pen or painted in water-colors, in the manuscripts of those days
+that still remain in the old English libraries. There are a great many
+of these drawings, and, as they agree together in the style and
+fashion of the costumes represented, there is no doubt that they give
+us correct ideas of the dresses really worn. Besides, there are many
+allusions in the chronicles of those times, and in poems and books of
+accounts, which correspond precisely with the drawings, and thus
+confirm their correctness and accuracy.
+
+The engravings on the following page are copied from one of these
+ancient manuscripts.
+
+Observe the singular forms of the caps, both those of the men and of
+the women. The men wore sometimes jackets, and sometimes long gowns
+which came down to the ground. The most singular feature of the
+dresses of the men, however, is the long-pointed shoes. Were it not
+that fashions are often equally absurd at the present day, we should
+think it impossible that such shoes as these could ever have been
+made.
+
+[Illustration: MALE COSTUME IN THE TIME OF RICHARD II.]
+
+[Illustration: FEMALE COSTUME IN THE TIME OF RICHARD II.]
+
+These shoes were called Cracows. Cracow was a town in Poland which was
+at that time within the dominions of Anne's father, and it is supposed
+that the fashion of wearing these shoes may have been brought into
+England by some of the gentlemen in Anne's train, when she came to
+England to be married. It is known that the queen did introduce a
+great many foreign fashions to the court, and, among the rest, a
+fashion of head-dress for ladies, which was quite as strange as peaked
+shoes for the gentlemen. It consisted of what was called the horned
+cap.
+
+[Illustration: FASHIONABLE HEAD-DRESSES.]
+
+These horns were often two feet high, and sometimes two feet wide from
+one side to the other. The frame of this head-dress was made of wire
+and pasteboard, and the covering was of some glittering tissue or
+gauze. There were other head-dresses scarcely less monstrous than
+these. Some of them are represented in the engraving. These fashions,
+when introduced by the queen, spread with great rapidity among all the
+court ladies, and thence to all fashionable circles in England.
+
+It is said, too, that it was this young queen who first introduced
+pins into England. Dresses had been fastened before by little skewers
+made of wood or ivory. Queen Anne brought pins, which had been made
+for some time in Germany, and the use of them soon extended all over
+England.
+
+Side-saddles for ladies on horseback were a third fashion which Queen
+Anne is said to have introduced. The side-saddle which she brought
+was, however, of a very simple construction. It consisted of a seat
+placed upon the horse's back, with a sort of step depending from it on
+one side for the feet to rest upon. Both feet were placed upon this
+step together.
+
+Queen Anne, after her marriage, lived very happily with her husband
+for twelve years. She was devotedly attached to him, and he seems
+sincerely to have loved her. He was naturally kind and affectionate in
+his disposition, and, while Anne lived, he yielded himself to the good
+influences which she exerted over him. She journeyed with him wherever
+he went, and aided him in the accomplishment of all his plans.
+Whenever he became involved in any difficulty, either with his nobles
+or with his subjects, she acted the part of mediator, and almost
+always succeeded in allaying the animosity and healing the feud before
+it proceeded to extremes. She resided with her husband sometimes at
+one palace and sometimes at another, but her favorite residence was at
+the palace of Shene, near the present town of Richmond.
+
+Although the king was crowned at the time of his accession to the
+throne, he did not fully assume the government at that time on account
+of his youth, for you will remember that he was then only about eleven
+years old; nor did he, in fact, come fully into possession of power at
+the time of his marriage, for he was then under sixteen. At that time,
+and for several years afterward, his uncles and the other influential
+nobles managed the government in his name. At length, however, when
+he was about twenty-one years old, he thought it was time for him to
+assume the direction of affairs himself, and he accordingly did so. At
+this time there was another grand celebration, one scarcely inferior
+in pomp and splendor to the coronation itself.
+
+Among other performances on this occasion there was a tournament, in
+which knights mounted on horseback, and armed from head to foot with
+iron armor, fought in the lists, endeavoring to unhorse each other by
+means of their spears. The tournament was held at Smithfield. Raised
+platforms were set up by the side of the lists for the lords and
+ladies of the court, and a beautiful canopy for the queen, who was to
+act as judge of the combat, and was to award the prizes. The prizes
+consisted of a rich jeweled clasp and a splendid crown of gold.
+
+The queen went first to the ground, and took her place with her
+attendants under her canopy. The knights who were to enter the lists
+then came in a grand cavalcade through the streets of London to the
+palace. There were sixty ladies mounted on beautiful palfreys,
+accoutred with the new-fashioned side-saddles. Each of these ladies
+conducted a knight, whom she led by a silver chain. They were preceded
+by minstrels and bands of instrumental music, and the streets were
+thronged with spectators.
+
+After the tournament there was a grand banquet at the palace of the
+Bishop of London, with music and dancing, and other such amusements,
+which continued to a late hour of the night.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+For some years after this the king and queen lived together in great
+prosperity. Outwardly things went pretty well with the king's affairs,
+and, as he was fond of pomp and display, he gradually acquired habits
+of very profuse and lavish expenditure. Indeed, he is said to have
+made it an object of his ambition to surpass, in the magnificence of
+his style of living, all the sovereigns of Europe. He kept many
+separate establishments in his different palaces, and at all of them
+gave entertainments and banquets of immense magnificence and of the
+most luxurious character. It is said that three hundred persons were
+employed in his kitchens.
+
+At length, in the year 1394, when Richard was preparing for an
+expedition into Ireland to quell a rebellion which had broken out
+there, the queen was seized with a fatal epidemic which was then
+prevailing in England, and after a short illness she died. She was at
+her palace of Shene at this time. The king hastened to attend her the
+moment that he heard the tidings of her illness, and was with her when
+she died. He was inconsolable at the loss of his wife, for he had
+loved her sincerely, and she had been a singularly faithful and
+devoted wife to him. He was made almost crazy by her death. He
+imprecated bitter curses on the palace where she died, and he ordered
+it to be destroyed. It was, in fact, partially dismantled, in
+obedience to these orders, and Richard himself never occupied it
+again. It was, however, repaired under a subsequent reign.
+
+Richard gave up, for the time being, his expedition into Ireland,
+being wholly absorbed in his sorrow for the irreparable loss he had
+suffered. He wrote letters to all the great nobles and barons of
+England to come to the funeral, and the obsequies were celebrated with
+the greatest possible pomp and parade. Two months were expended in
+making preparations for the funeral. When the day arrived, a very long
+procession was formed to escort the body from Shene to Westminster.
+This procession was accompanied by an immense number of torch-bearers,
+all carrying lighted torches in their hands. So great was the number
+of these torches, that a large quantity of wax was imported from
+Flanders expressly for the purpose.
+
+The tomb of Anne was not made until a year after her death. Richard
+himself attended to all the details connected with the construction of
+it. The inscription was in Latin. The following is an exact
+translation of it:
+
+     "Under this stone lies Anne, here entombed,
+     Wedded in this world's life to the second Richard.
+     To Christ were her meek virtues devoted:
+     His poor she freely fed from her treasures;
+     Strife she assuaged, and swelling feuds appeased;
+     Beauteous her form, her face surpassing fair.
+     On July's seventh day, thirteen hundred ninety-four,
+     All comfort was bereft, for through irremediable sickness
+     She passed away into interminable joys."
+
+By the death of his wife, Richard was left, as it were, almost alone
+in the world. His mother, the Princess of Wales, had died some time
+before, and Anne had had no children. There were his uncles and his
+cousins, it is true, but they were his rivals and competitors rather
+than his friends. Indeed, they were destined soon to become his open
+enemies.
+
+Richard was afterward married again, to his "little wife," as we shall
+see in a future chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+INCIDENTS OF THE REIGN.
+
+A.D. 1382-1396
+
+Jealousy of Richard and his mother against the uncles.--Plots
+and manoeuvres.--Thomas, Duke of Gloucester.--Province of
+Parliament.--Prerogative of the king.--The Commons threaten the
+king.--He is compelled to yield.--Council appointed.--Richard's
+discontent.--The court at Nottingham.--Preparations for war.--Richard
+and his party overcome.--Execution of Burley.--Queen Anne's fruitless
+intercession.--The king determines to resume his power.--His interview
+with his council.--Surprise of the barons.--The great seal.--Richard
+appoints a new chancellor.--Richard appoints new officers of
+government.--The wars in which Richard was engaged.--Story of Sir
+Miles, the Bohemian knight.--The archers and the squires.--A squire
+killed.--Sir Ralph Stafford is displeased and alarmed.--Lord Holland
+is enraged.--He meets Lord Stafford in a narrow lane.--Stafford
+is killed.--Lord Holland's unconcern.--Richard's perplexity and
+distress.--His mother's anguish.--Extraordinary marriage of the Duke
+of Lancaster.--Indignation and rage of the ladies of the court.
+
+
+In giving some general account of the character of Richard's reign,
+and of the incidents that occurred during the course of it, we now go
+back a little again, so as to begin at the beginning of it.
+
+When Richard was married, he was, as has already been said, only about
+fifteen or sixteen years of age. As he grew older, after this time,
+and began to feel that sense of strength and independence which
+pertains to manhood, he became more and more jealous of the power and
+influence of his uncles in the government of the country. His mother,
+too, who was still living, and who adhered closely to him, was very
+suspicious of the uncles. She was continually imagining that they were
+forming plots and conspiracies against her son in favor of themselves
+or of their own children. She was particularly suspicious of the Duke
+of Lancaster, and of his son Henry Bolingbroke. It proved in the end
+that there was some reason for this suspicion, for this Henry
+Bolingbroke was the means at last of deposing Richard from his throne
+in order to take possession of it himself, as we shall see in the
+sequel.
+
+In order to prevent, as far as possible, these uncles from finding
+opportunity to accomplish any of their supposed designs, Richard and
+his mother excluded them, as much as they could, from power, and
+appointed other persons, who had no such claims to the crown, to all
+the important places about the court. This, of course, made the uncles
+very angry. They called the men whom Richard thus brought forward his
+favorites, and they hated them exceedingly. This state of things led
+to a great many intrigues, and manoeuvres, and plots, and
+counterplots, the favorites against the uncles, and the uncles against
+the favorites. These difficulties were continued for many years.
+Parties were formed in Parliament, of which sometimes one was in the
+ascendency and sometimes the other, and all was turmoil and confusion.
+
+When Richard was about twenty years old, one of his uncles--his uncle
+Thomas, at that time Duke of Gloucester--gained such an influence in
+Parliament that some of Richard's favorites were deposed from office
+and imprisoned. The duke was imboldened by this success to take a
+farther step. He told the Parliament that the government would never
+be on a good footing until they themselves appointed a council to
+manage in the king's name.
+
+When Richard heard of this plan, he declared that he would never
+submit to it.
+
+"I am the King of England," said he, "and I will govern my realm by
+means of such officers as I choose to appoint myself. I will not have
+others to appoint them for me."
+
+The ideas which the kings of those days entertained in respect to the
+province of Parliament was that it was to vote the necessary taxes to
+supply the king's necessities, and also to mature the details of all
+laws for the regulation of the ordinary business and the social
+relations of life, but that the government, strictly so called--that
+is, all that relates to the appointment and payment of executive
+officers, the making of peace or war, the building and equipment of
+fleets, and the command of armies, was exclusively the king's
+prerogative, and that for the exercise of his prerogative in these
+particulars the sovereign was responsible, not to his subjects, but to
+God alone, from whom he claimed to have received his crown.
+
+The people of England, as represented by Parliament, have never
+consented to this view of the subject. They have always maintained
+that their kings are, in some sense, responsible to the people of the
+realm, and they have often deposed kings, and punished them in other
+ways.
+
+Accordingly, when Richard declared that he would not submit to the
+appointment of a council by Parliament, the Commons reminded him of
+the fact that his great-grandfather, Edward the Second, had been
+deposed in consequence of having unreasonably and obstinately resisted
+the will of his people, and they hinted to him that it would be well
+for him to beware lest he should incur the same fate. Some of the
+lords, too, told him that the excitement was so great in the country
+on account of the mismanagement of public affairs, and the corruptions
+and malpractice of the favorites, that if he refused to allow the
+council to be appointed, there was danger that he would lose his head.
+
+So Richard was obliged to submit, and the council was appointed.
+Richard was in a great rage, and he secretly determined to lay his
+plans for recovering the power into his own hands as soon as possible,
+and punishing the council, and all who were concerned in appointing
+them, for their audacity in presuming to encroach in such a manner
+upon his sovereign rights as king.
+
+The council that was appointed consisted of eleven bishops and
+nobles. Richard's uncle Thomas, the Duke of Gloucester, was at the
+head of it. This council governed the country for more than a year.
+Every thing was done in Richard's name, it is true, but the real power
+was in the hands of the Duke of Gloucester. Richard was very angry and
+indignant, but he did not see what he could do.
+
+He was, however, all the time forming plans and schemes to recover his
+power. At last, after about a year had passed away, he called together
+a number of judges secretly at Nottingham, toward the northern part of
+the kingdom, and submitted to them the question whether such a council
+as the Parliament had appointed was legal. It was, of course,
+understood beforehand how the judges would decide. They decreed that
+the council was illegal; that for Parliament to give a council such
+powers was a violation of the king's prerogative, and was consequently
+treason, and that, of course, all who had been concerned in the
+transaction had made themselves liable to the penalty of death.
+
+It was Richard's plan, after having obtained this decree, to cause the
+prominent members of the council to be arrested, and he came to London
+and began to make his preparations for accomplishing this purpose. But
+as soon as his uncle Thomas, the Duke of Gloucester, heard of these
+plans, he, and some great nobles who were ready to join with him
+against the king, collected all their forces, and began to march to
+London at the head of forty thousand men. Richard's cousin Henry, the
+Duke of Lancaster's son, joined them on the way. Richard's friends and
+favorites, on hearing of this, immediately took arms, and preparations
+began to be made for civil war. In a word, after having successfully
+met and quelled the great insurrection of the serfs and laborers under
+Wat Tyler, Richard was now to encounter a still more formidable
+resistance of his authority on the part of his uncles and the great
+barons of the realm. These last, indeed, were far more to be feared
+than the others, for they had arms and organization, and they enjoyed
+every possible facility for carrying on a vigorous and determined war.
+Richard and his party soon found that it was useless to attempt to
+resist them. Accordingly, after a very brief struggle, the royal party
+was entirely put down. Richard's favorites were arrested. Some of them
+were beheaded, others were banished from the realm, and the government
+of the country fell again into the hands of the uncles.
+
+One of Richard's favorites who was executed on this occasion was a
+man whose untimely death grieved and afflicted both Richard and the
+queen very much indeed. His name was Sir Simon Burley. He had been
+Richard's friend and companion all his life. Richard's father, Edward,
+the Black Prince, had appointed Sir Simon Richard's tutor while
+Richard himself was a mere child, and he had been with him ever since
+that time. Queen Anne was much attached to him, and she was
+particularly grateful to him on account of his having been the
+commissioner who negotiated and arranged her marriage with Richard.
+Richard made every possible exertion to save his tutor's life, but his
+uncle Gloucester was inexorable. He told Richard that his keeping the
+crown depended on the immediate execution of the traitor. Queen Anne
+fell on her knees before him, and begged and entreated that Sir Simon
+might be spared, but all was of no avail.
+
+So Richard was compelled to submit; but he did not do so without
+secret muttering, and resolutions of revenge. He allowed the
+government to remain in his uncle's hands for some time, but at
+length, about a year afterward, he found himself strong enough to
+seize it again. The plea which his uncles had hitherto made for
+managing the government themselves was, that Richard was not yet of
+age. But now he became of age, and he resolved on what might be called
+a _coup d'etat_, to get possession of the government. He planned this
+measure in concert with a number of his own friends and favorites, who
+hoped, by this means, that they themselves should rise to power.
+
+He called a grand council of all the nobles and great officers of
+state. The assembly convened in the great council-chamber, and waited
+there for the king to come in.
+
+At length the king arrived, and, walking into the chamber, he took his
+seat upon the throne. A moment afterward he turned to one of the chief
+officers present and addressed him, saying,
+
+"My lord, what is my age at the present time?"
+
+The nobleman answered that his majesty was now over twenty years of
+age.
+
+"Then," said the king, speaking in a very firm and determined manner,
+"I am of years sufficient to govern mine own house and family, and
+also my kingdom; for it seemeth against reason that the state of the
+meanest person in my kingdom should be better than mine. Every heir
+throughout the land that has once come to the age of twenty years is
+permitted, if his father be not living, to order his business himself.
+And that which is permitted by law to every other person, of however
+mean degree, why is it denied to me?"
+
+The king spoke these words with an air of such courage and
+determination that the barons were astonished. The foremost of them,
+after a brief pause, seemed ready to accede to his proposals. They
+said that there should henceforth be no right abridged from him, but
+that he might take upon himself the government if he chose, as it was
+now manifestly his duty to do.
+
+"Very well," said the king. "You know that I have been a long time
+ruled by tutors and governors, so that it has not been lawful for me
+to do any thing, no matter of how small importance, without their
+consent. Now, therefore, I desire that henceforth they meddle no more
+with matters pertaining to my government, for I will attend to them
+myself, and after the manner of an heir arrived at full age. I will
+call whom I please to be my counsel, and thus manage my own affairs
+according to my own will and pleasure."
+
+The barons were extremely surprised to hear these determinations thus
+resolutely announced by the king, but had nothing to say in reply.
+
+"And in the first place," continued Richard, "I wish the chancellor
+to give me up the great seal."
+
+The great seal was a very important badge and emblem of the royal
+prerogative. No decree was of legal authority until an impress from
+this seal was attached to it. The officer who had charge of it was
+called the chancellor. A new seal was prepared for each sovereign on
+his accession to the throne. The devices were much the same in all.
+They consisted of a representation of the king seated on his throne
+upon one side of the seal, and on the other mounted on horseback and
+going into battle, armed from head to foot. The legends or
+inscriptions around the border were changed, of course, for each
+reign.
+
+The engraving on the following page represents one side of king
+Richard's seal. The other side contained an image of the king seated
+on his throne, and surrounded by various insignia of royalty.
+
+"I wish the chancellor," said the king, "to deliver me up the great
+seal."
+
+[Illustration: SEAL OF RICHARD II.]
+
+So the nobleman who had been chancellor up to that time delivered the
+seal into the hands of the king. The seal was kept in a beautiful box,
+richly ornamented. It was always brought to the council by the lord
+chancellor, who had it in charge. The king proceeded immediately
+afterward to appoint a new chancellor, and to place the box in his
+hands. In the same summary manner the king displaced almost all the
+other high officers of state, and appointed new ones of his own instead
+of them. The former officers were obliged to submit, though sorely
+against their will. They were powerless, for the king had now attained
+such an age that there was no longer any excuse for withholding from him
+the complete possession of his kingdom.
+
+From this time, accordingly, Richard was actually as well as nominally
+king of England; but still he was often engaged in contentions and
+quarrels with his uncles, and with the other great nobles who took his
+uncle's part.
+
+The queen--for good Queen Anne was at this time still living--was so
+gentle and kind, and she acted her part as peace-maker so well, that
+she greatly softened and soothed these asperities; but Richard led,
+nevertheless, a wild and turbulent life, and was continually getting
+involved in the most serious difficulties. Then there were wars to be
+carried on, sometimes with France, sometimes with Scotland, and
+sometimes with Ireland. Richard's uncles, the Dukes of Lancaster and
+Gloucester, generally went away in command of the armies to carry on
+these wars. Sometimes Richard himself accompanied the expeditions; but
+even on these occasions, when he and his knights and nobles were
+engaged together in a common cause, and apparently at peace with each
+other, there were so many jealousies and angry heartburnings among
+them, that deadly quarrels and feuds were continually breaking out.
+
+As an example of these quarrels, I will give an account of one which
+took place not very long after Richard was married. He was engaged
+with his uncles in an expedition to Scotland. There was a knight in
+attendance upon him named Sir Miles. This knight was a friend of the
+queen. He was a Bohemian, and had come from Bohemia to pay Anne a
+visit, and to bring the news to her from her native land. The king,
+out of affection to Anne, paid him great attention. This made the
+English knights and nobles jealous, and they amused themselves with
+mimicking and laughing at Sir Miles's foreign peculiarities. The
+particular friends of the queen, however, took his part, one
+especially, named the Earl of Stafford, and his son, the young Lord
+Ralph Stafford. Lord Ralph Stafford was one of the most courteous and
+popular knights in England.
+
+In the course of the expedition to Scotland the party came to a town
+called Beverley, which is situated in the northern part of England,
+near the frontier. One day, two archers belonging to the service of
+Lord Ralph Stafford, in riding across the fields near Beverley, found
+two squires engaged in a sort of quarrel with Sir Miles. The cause of
+the quarrel was something about his lodgings in the town. The squires,
+it seems, knowing that the knights and nobles generally disliked Sir
+Miles, were encouraged to be very bold and insolent to him in
+expressing their ill-will, and when the archers came up they were
+following him with taunts, and ridicule, and abuse, while Sir Miles
+was making the best of his way toward the town.
+
+The archers took the Bohemian's part. They remonstrated with the
+squires for thus abusing and teasing a stranger and a foreigner, a
+personal friend, too, and guest of the queen.
+
+"What business is it of yours, villainous knave, whether we laugh at
+him or not?" said the squires. "What right have you to intermeddle?
+What is it to you?"
+
+"What is it to us?" repeated one of the archers. "It is a great deal
+to us. This man is the friend of our master, and we will not stand by
+and see him abused."
+
+Upon hearing this, one of the squires uttered some words of defiance,
+and advanced as if to strike the archer; but the archer, having his
+bow and arrow all ready, suddenly let the arrow fly, and the squire
+was killed on the spot.
+
+Sir Miles had already gone on toward the town. The other squire,
+seeing his companion dead, immediately made his escape. The two
+archers, leaving the man whom they had killed on the ground where he
+had fallen, made the best of their way home, and told their master,
+Sir Ralph Stafford, what they had done.
+
+Sir Ralph was extremely concerned to hear of the occurrence, and he
+told the archer who killed the squire that he had done very wrong.
+
+"But, my lord," said the archer, "I could not have done otherwise; for
+the man was coming up to us with his sword drawn in his hand, and we
+were obliged either to kill him or to be killed ourselves."
+
+The archers, moreover, told Sir Ralph that the squires were in the
+service of Sir John Holland. Now Sir John Holland was a half brother
+of the king, being the child of his mother, the Princess of Wales, by
+a former husband. When Sir Ralph heard this, he was still more alarmed
+than before. He told the archers who killed the squire that they must
+go and hide themselves somewhere until the affair could be arranged.
+
+"I will negotiate with Lord Holland for your pardon," said he, "either
+through my father or in some other way. But, in the mean time, you
+must keep yourselves closely concealed."
+
+The Earl of Stafford, Lord Ralph Stafford's father, was a nobleman of
+the very highest rank, and of great influence.
+
+It is a curious indication of the ideas that prevailed in those days,
+and of the relations that subsisted between the nobles and their
+dependants, that the slaughter of a man in an affray of this kind was
+a matter to be _arranged_ between the masters respectively of the men
+engaged in it.
+
+The archers went away to hide themselves until Lord Ralph could
+arrange the matter.
+
+In the mean time, the squire who had escaped in the fray hurried home
+and related the matter to Lord Holland. Lord Holland was greatly
+enraged. He uttered dreadful imprecations against Lord Ralph Stafford
+and against Sir Miles, whom he seemed to consider responsible for the
+death of his squire, and declared that he would not sleep until he had
+had his revenge. So he mounted his horse, and, taking some trusty
+attendants with him, rode into Beverley, and asked where Sir Miles's
+lodgings were. While he was going toward the place, breathing fury and
+death, suddenly, in a narrow lane, he came upon Lord Ralph, who was
+then going to find him, in order to arrange about the murder. It was
+now, however, late in the evening, and so dark that the parties did
+not at first know each other.
+
+"Who comes here?" said Lord Holland, when he saw Sir Ralph
+approaching.
+
+"I am Stafford," replied Sir Ralph.
+
+"You are the very man I want to see," said Lord Holland. "One of your
+servants has killed my squire--the one that I loved so much."
+
+As he said this, he brought down so heavy a blow upon Sir Ralph's head
+as to fell him from his horse to the ground. He then rode on. The
+attendants hurried to the spot and raised Sir Ralph up. They found him
+faint and bleeding, and in a few moments he died.
+
+As soon as this fact was ascertained, one of the men rode on after
+Lord Holland, and, coming up to him, said,
+
+"My lord, you have killed Lord Stafford."
+
+"Very well," said Lord Holland; "I am glad of it. I would rather it
+would be a man of his rank than any body else, for so I am the more
+completely revenged for the death of my squire."
+
+As fast as the tidings of these events spread, they produced universal
+excitement. The Earl of Stafford, the father of Sir Ralph, was plunged
+into the most inconsolable grief at the death of his son. The earl was
+one of the most powerful nobles in the army, and, if he had undertaken
+to avenge himself on Lord Holland, the whole expedition would perhaps
+have been broken up into confusion. On the king's solemn assurance
+that Holland would be punished, he was appeased for the time; but then
+the Princess of Wales, Richard's mother, who was Lord Holland's
+mother too, was thrown into the greatest state of anxiety and
+distress. She implored Richard to save his brother's life. All the
+other nobles and knights took sides too in the quarrel, and for a time
+it seemed that the dissension would never be healed. Lord Holland, in
+the mean while, fled to the church at Beverley, and took sanctuary
+there. By the laws and customs of the time, they could not touch him
+until he came voluntarily out.
+
+Richard resisted all the entreaties of his mother to spare the
+murderer's life until he found that her anxiety and distress were
+preying upon her health so much that he feared that she would die. At
+last, to save his mother's life, he promised that Holland should be
+spared. But it was too late. His mother fell into a decline, and at
+length died, as it was said, of a broken heart. What a dreadful death!
+that of a mother worn out by the agony of long-continued and
+apparently fruitless efforts to prevent one of her children from being
+the executioner of another for the crime of murder.
+
+Besides these fierce, deadly contests among the knights and nobles,
+the ladies of the court had their feuds and quarrels too. They were
+often divided into cliques and parties, and were full of envyings,
+jealousies, and resentments against each other. One of the most
+serious of these difficulties was occasioned by a marriage of the Duke
+of Lancaster, which took place toward the close of his life. This was
+his third marriage, he having been successively married to two ladies
+of high rank before. The lady whom he now married was of a
+comparatively humble station in life. She was the daughter of a
+foreign knight. Her name, originally, was Catharine de Rouet. She had
+been, in her early life, a maiden in attendance on the Duchess of
+Lancaster, the duke's second wife. While she was in his family the
+duke formed a guilty intimacy with her, which was continued for a long
+time. They had three children. The duke provided well for these
+children, and gave them a good education. After a time, the duke,
+becoming tired of her, arranged for her to be married to a certain
+knight named Swinton, and she lived with this knight for some time,
+until at length he died, and Catharine became a widow.
+
+The Duchess of Lancaster died also, and then the duke became for the
+second time a widower, and he now conceived the idea of making
+Catharine Swinton his wife. His motive for this was not his love for
+_her_, for that, it is said, had passed away, but his regard for the
+children, who, on the marriage of their mother to the father of the
+children, would be legitimatized, and would thus become entitled to
+many legal rights and privileges from which they would otherwise be
+debarred. The other ladies of the court, however, particularly the
+wives of the other dukes--the Duke of Lancaster's brothers--were
+greatly incensed when they heard of this proposed marriage, and they
+did all they possibly could do to prevent it. All was, however, of no
+avail, for the Duke of Lancaster was not a man to be easily thwarted
+in any determination that he might take into his head. So he was
+married, and the poor despised Catharine was made the first duchess in
+the realm, and became entitled to take precedence of all the other
+duchesses.
+
+This the other duchesses could not endure. They could not bear it,
+they said, and they _would_ not bear it. They declared that they would
+not go into any place where this woman, as they called her, was to be.
+As might have been expected, an interminable amount of quarreling and
+ill-will grew out of this affair.
+
+About the time of this marriage of the duke, the king himself was
+married a second time, as will be related in the next chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+THE LITTLE QUEEN.
+
+A.D. 1395-1396
+
+Some account of Isabella of France, the little queen.--Richard opens
+negotiations with the King of France.--A grand embassage sent to
+France.--Their reception.--Interview of the embassadors with little
+Isabella.--The negotiations go on satisfactorily.--The marriage
+ceremony is performed by proxy.--Richard makes arrangements to go
+and receive his bride.--Grand preparations for the expedition.--The
+meeting on the French frontier.--The pavilions.--Precautions to guard
+against violence or treachery.--Ceremonious interviews.--Grand
+entertainment.--Richard receives his bride.--The palanquin.--Excitement
+in London.--Reception of the little queen.--The little queen's mode of
+life in England.
+
+
+King Richard's second wife was called the little queen, because she
+was so young and small when she was married. She was only about nine
+years old at that time. The story of this case will show a little how
+the marriages of kings and princesses in those days were managed.
+
+It was not long after the death of good Queen Anne before some of
+Richard's courtiers and counselors began to advise him to be married
+again. He replied, as men always do in such cases, that he did not
+know where to find a wife. The choice was indeed not very large, being
+restricted by etiquette to the royal families of England and of the
+neighboring countries. Several princesses were proposed one after
+another, but Richard did not seem to like any of them. Among other
+ladies, one of his cousins was proposed to him, a daughter of the Duke
+of Gloucester. But Richard said no; she was too nearly related to him.
+
+At last he took it into his head that he should like to marry little
+Isabella, the Princess of France, then about nine years old. The idea
+of his being married to Isabella was calculated to surprise people for
+two reasons: first, because Isabella was so small, and, secondly,
+because the King of France, her father, was Richard's greatest and
+most implacable enemy. France and England had been on bad terms with
+each other not only during the whole of Richard's reign, but through a
+great number of reigns preceding; and now, just before the period when
+this marriage was proposed, the two nations had been engaged in a long
+and sanguinary war. But Richard said that he was going to make peace,
+and that this marriage was to be the means of confirming it.
+
+"But she is altogether too young for your majesty," said Richard's
+counselors. "She is a mere child."
+
+"True," said the king; "but that is an objection which will grow less
+and less every year. Besides, I am in no haste. I am young enough
+myself to wait till she grows up, and, in the mean time, I can have
+her trained and educated to suit me exactly."
+
+So, after a great deal of debate among the king's counselors and in
+Parliament, it was finally decided to send a grand embassage to Paris
+to propose to the King of France that he should give his little
+daughter Isabella in marriage to Richard, King of England.
+
+This embassage consisted of an archbishop, two earls, and twenty
+knights, attended each by two squires, making forty squires in all,
+and five hundred horsemen. The party proceeded from London to Dover,
+then crossed to Calais, which was at this time an English possession,
+and thence proceeded to Paris.
+
+When they arrived at Paris they entered the city with great pomp and
+parade, being received with great honor by the French king, and they
+were lodged sumptuously in quarters provided for them.
+
+The embassadors were also very honorably received at court. The king
+invited them to dine with him, and entertained them handsomely, but
+many objections were made to the proposed marriage.
+
+"How can we," said the French counselors, "give a Princess of France
+in marriage to our worst and bitterest enemy?"
+
+To this the embassadors replied that the marriage would establish and
+confirm a permanent peace between the two countries.
+
+Then there was another objection. Isabella was already engaged. She
+had been betrothed some time before to the son of a duke of one of
+the neighboring countries. But the embassadors said that they thought
+this could be arranged.
+
+While these negotiations were going on, the embassadors asked
+permission to see the princess. This at first the king and queen,
+Isabella's father and mother, declined. They said that she was only
+eight or nine years old, and that such a child would not know at all
+how to conduct at such an interview.
+
+However, the interview was granted at last. The embassadors were
+conducted to an apartment in the palace of the Louvre, where the
+princess and her parents were ready to receive them. On coming into
+the presence of the child, the chief embassador advanced to her, and,
+kneeling down before her, he said,
+
+"Madam, if it please God, you shall be our lady and queen."
+
+The princess looked at him attentively while he said this. She was a
+very beautiful child, with a gentle and thoughtful expression of
+countenance, and large dark eyes, full of meaning.
+
+She replied to the embassador of her own accord in a clear, childish
+voice,
+
+"Sir, if it please God and my lord and father that I be Queen of
+England, I should be well pleased, for I have been told that there I
+shall be a great lady."
+
+Isabella then took the kneeling embassador by the hand and lifted him
+up. She then led him to her mother.
+
+The embassadors were extremely pleased with the appearance and
+behavior of the princess, and were more than ever desirous of
+succeeding in their mission. But, after some farther negotiations,
+they received for their answer that the French court were disposed to
+entertain favorably the proposal which Richard made, but that nothing
+could be determined upon the subject at that time.
+
+"We must wait," said the king, "until we can see what arrangement can
+be made in regard to the princess's present engagement, and then, if
+King Richard will send to us again, next spring we will give a final
+answer."
+
+So slow are the movements and operations in such a case as this among
+the great, that the embassadors were occupied three weeks in Paris in
+advancing the business to this point. They were, however, well
+satisfied with what they had done, and at length took their leave, and
+returned to London in high spirits with their success, and reported
+the result to King Richard. He himself was well satisfied too.
+
+The negotiations went on prosperously during the winter, and in the
+spring another embassage was sent, larger than the preceding. The
+attendants of this embassage were several thousand in number, and they
+occupied a whole street in Paris when they arrived there. By this
+embassage the arrangement of the marriage was finally concluded. The
+ceremony was in fact performed, for Isabella was actually married to
+Richard, by proxy as it is called, a customary mode of conducting
+marriages between a princess and a king. One of the embassadors, a
+grand officer of state, personated King Richard on this occasion, and
+the marriage was celebrated with the greatest possible pomp and
+splendor.
+
+Besides the marriage contracts, there were various other treaties and
+covenants to be drawn up, and signed and sealed. All this business
+required so much time, that this embassage, like the other, remained
+three weeks in Paris, and then they returned home to London, and
+reported to Richard what they had done.
+
+Still the affair was not yet fully settled. A great many of the nobles
+and the people of England very strenuously opposed the match, for they
+wished the war with France to be continued. This was particularly the
+case with Richard's uncle, the Duke of Gloucester. He had greatly
+distinguished himself in the war thus far, and he wished it to be
+continued; so he did all he could to oppose the consummation of the
+marriage, and the negotiations and delays were long protracted.
+Richard, however, persevered, and at length the obstacles were so far
+removed, that in the fall of 1396 he began to organize a grand
+expedition to go with him to the frontiers of France to receive his
+bride.
+
+Immense preparations were made on both sides for the ceremonial of
+this visit. The meeting was to take place on the frontier, since
+neither sovereign dared to trust himself within the dominions of the
+other, for fear of treachery. For the same reason, each one deemed it
+necessary to take with him a very large armed force. Great stores of
+provisions for the expedition were accordingly prepared, and sent on
+beforehand; portions being sent down the Thames from London, and the
+rest being purchased in Flanders and other countries on the Continent,
+and forwarded to Calais by water. The King of France also, for the use
+of his party, sent stores from Paris to all the towns in the
+neighborhood of the frontier.
+
+Among the ladies of the court on both sides there was universal
+emulation and excitement in respect to plans and preparations which
+they had to make for the wedding. Great numbers of them were to
+accompany the expedition, and nothing was talked of but the dresses
+and decorations which they should wear, and the parts that they should
+respectively perform in the grand parade. Hundreds of armorers, and
+smiths, and other artisans were employed in repairing and embellishing
+the armor of the knights and barons, and in designing and executing
+new banners, and new caparisons for the horses, richer and more
+splendid than were ever known before.
+
+There was a great deal of heartburning and ill-will in respect to the
+Duke of Lancaster's new wife, with whom the other ladies of the court
+had declared they would not associate on any terms. The king was
+determined that she should go on the expedition, and the other ladies
+consequently found themselves obliged either to submit to her
+presence, or forego the grandest display which they would ever have
+the opportunity to witness as long as they should live. They concluded
+to submit, though they did it with great reluctance and with a very
+ill grace.
+
+At length every thing was ready, and the expedition, leaving London,
+journeyed to Dover, and then crossed the Straits to Calais. A long
+time was then consumed in negotiations in respect to the peace; for,
+although Richard himself was willing to make peace on almost any
+terms, so that he might obtain his little bride, his uncles and the
+other leading nobles made great difficulties, and it was a long time
+before the treaties could be arranged. At length, however, every thing
+was settled, and the preparations were made for delivering to Richard
+his bride.
+
+Two magnificent pavilions were erected near the frontier, one on the
+French and the other on the English side. These pavilions were for the
+use of the two monarchs respectively, and of their lords and nobles.
+Then, in the centre, between these, and, of course, exactly upon the
+frontier, a third and more open pavilion was set up. In this central
+pavilion the two kings were to have their first meeting. For either of
+the kings to have entered first into the dominions of the other would
+have been, in some sense, an acknowledgment of inferiority on his
+part. So it was contrived that neither should first visit the other,
+but that they should advance together, each from his own pavilion, and
+meet in the central one, after which they could visit each other as it
+might be convenient. The first interview therefore took place in the
+centre pavilion. It was necessary, however, to take some strong
+precautions against treachery. Accordingly, before the meeting, an
+oath was administered to both monarchs, by which each one solemnly
+asseverated that he was acting in good faith in this transaction, and
+that he had no secret reservation or treachery in his heart, and
+pledged his sacred honor that the other should suffer no violence,
+damage, molestation, arrest, constraint, or any other inconvenience
+whatever during the interview.
+
+As an additional precaution, a strong force, consisting of four
+hundred knights on each side, all fully armed, were drawn up on
+opposite sides of the central pavilion, the English troops on the
+English side, and the French on the French side.[I] These troops were
+arranged in such a manner that the King of England should pass between
+the ranks of the English knights in going to the pavilion, and the
+French king between the French knights.
+
+[Footnote I: Besides these knights, each of the kings had a strong
+force stationed in reserve, at a little distance from their respective
+pavilions, to be ready in case of any difficulty.]
+
+Things being thus arranged, at the appointed hour the two kings set
+out together from their own pavilions, and walked, accompanied each
+by a number of dukes and nobles of high rank, to the central
+pavilion. Here the kings, both being uncovered, approached each other.
+They saluted each other in a very friendly manner, and held a brief
+conversation together. Some of the accounts say that the French king,
+then taking the English king by the hand, led him to the French tent,
+the French dukes who had accompanied him following with the English
+dukes who had accompanied Richard, and that there the whole party
+partook of refreshment.
+
+However this may be, the first interview was one mainly of ceremony.
+Afterward there were other interviews in the different pavilions.
+These alternating visits were continued for several days, until at
+length the time was appointed for a final meeting, at which the little
+queen was to be delivered into her husband's hands.
+
+This final grand ceremony took place in the French pavilion. The order
+of proceeding was as follows. First there was a grand entertainment.
+The table was splendidly laid out, and there was a sideboard loaded
+with costly plate. At the table the kings were waited upon by dukes.
+During the dinner, Richard talked with the King of France about his
+wife, and about the peace which was now so happily confirmed and
+established between the two countries.
+
+After dinner the cloth was removed and the tables were taken away.
+When the pavilion was cleared a door was opened, and a party of ladies
+of the French court, headed by the queen, came in, conducting the
+little princess. As soon as she had entered, the King of France took
+her by the hand and led her to Richard. Richard received her with a
+warm welcome, and, lifting her up in his arms, kissed her. He told the
+King of France that he was fully sensible of the value of such a gift,
+and that he received it as a pledge of perpetual amity and peace
+between the two countries. He also, as had been previously agreed
+upon, solemnly renounced all claim to the throne of France on account
+of Isabella or her descendants, forever.
+
+He then immediately committed the princess to the hands of the Duchess
+of Lancaster, and the other ladies, and they at once conveyed her to
+the door of the tent. Here there was a sort of palanquin,
+magnificently made and adorned, waiting to receive her. The princess
+was put into this palanquin, and immediately set out for Calais.
+Richard and the immense train of knights and nobles followed, and
+thus, at a very rapid pace, the whole party returned to Calais.
+
+A few days after this the marriage ceremony was performed anew between
+Richard and Isabella, Richard himself being personally present this
+time. Great was the parade and great the rejoicing on this occasion.
+After the marriage, the little queen was again put under the charge of
+the Duchess of Lancaster and the other English ladies who had been
+appointed to receive her.
+
+In the mean time, all London was becoming every day more and more
+excited in expectation of the arrival of the bridal party there. Great
+preparations were made for receiving them. At length, about a
+fortnight after taking leave of her father, Isabella arrived in
+London. She spent the first night at the Tower, and on the following
+day passed through London to Westminster in a grand procession. An
+immense concourse of people assembled on the occasion. Indeed, such
+was the eagerness of the people to see the queen on her arrival in
+London, that there were nine persons crushed to death by the crowd on
+London Bridge when she was passing over it.
+
+The queen took up her residence at Windsor Castle, where she was under
+the charge of the Duchess of Lancaster and other ladies, who were to
+superintend her education. King Richard used to come and visit her
+very often, and on such occasions she was excused from her studies,
+and so she was always glad to see him; besides, he used to talk with
+her and play with her in a very friendly and affectionate manner. He
+was now about thirty years old, and she was ten. He, however, liked
+her very much, for she was very beautiful, and very amiable and
+affectionate in her manners. She liked to have Richard come and see
+her too, for his visits not only released her for the time from her
+studies, but he was very gentle and kind to her, and he used to play
+to her on musical instruments, and sing to her, and amuse her in
+various other ways. She admired, moreover, the splendor of his dress,
+for he always came in very magnificent apparel.
+
+In a word, Richard and his little queen, notwithstanding the disparity
+of their years, were both very well pleased with the match which they
+had made. Richard was proud of the youth and beauty of his wife, and
+Isabella was proud of the greatness, power, and glory of her husband.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+RICHARD'S DEPOSITION AND DEATH.
+
+A.D. 1397-1399
+
+Difficulties of Richard's position.--His rivals.--Plot
+discovered.--Richard arrests his uncle Gloucester.--Extraordinary
+circumstances of the arrest.--Richard becomes extremely
+unpopular.--His excesses.--Remorse.--His fear of Henry
+Bolingbroke.--Coventry.--Preparation for the combat.--The combat
+arrested.--Henry is banished from England.--Case of Lady De
+Courcy.--Her dismissal from office.--Richard seizes his cousin
+Henry's estates.--Ireland.--Richard's farewell to the little
+queen.--A rebellion.--Misfortunes of the king.--Conway
+Castle.--The king is made prisoner.--His interview with Henry
+at the castle in Wales.--The king is conveyed a prisoner to
+London.--Parliament convened.--Charges preferred against the
+king.--Interview between Richard and Henry in the Tower.--Rage
+of Richard.--Portrait of Henry.--The king is compelled to abdicate
+the crown.--Henry desires that Richard should be killed.--Assassination
+of Richard.--Disposal of the body.--The little queen.--Her return to
+France.--Sequel of the story of the little queen.
+
+
+It was not long after Richard's marriage to the little queen before
+the troubles and difficulties in which his government was involved
+increased in a very alarming degree. The feuds among his uncles, and
+between his uncles and himself, increased in frequency and bitterness,
+and many plots and counterplots were formed in respect to the
+succession; for Isabella being so young, it was very doubtful whether
+she would grow up and have children, and, unless she did so, some one
+or other of Richard's cousins would be heir to the crown. I have
+spoken of his cousin Henry of Bolingbroke as the principal of these
+claimants. There was, however, another one, Roger, the Earl of March.
+Roger was the grandson of Richard's uncle Lionel, who had died long
+before. The Duke of Gloucester, who had been so bitterly opposed to
+Richard's marriage with Isabella, and had, as it seemed, now become
+his implacable enemy, conceived the plan of deposing Richard and
+making Roger king. Isabella, if this plan had been carried into
+effect, was to have been shut up in a prison for all the rest of her
+days. There were several great nobles joined with the Duke of
+Gloucester in this conspiracy.
+
+The plot was betrayed to Richard by some of the confederates. Richard
+immediately determined to arrest his uncle and bring him to trial. It
+was necessary, however, to do this secretly, before any of the
+conspirators should be put upon their guard. So he set off one night
+from his palace in Westminster, with a considerable company of armed
+men, to go to the duke's palace, which was at some distance from
+London, planning his journey so as to arrive there very early in the
+morning. The people of London, when they saw the king passing at that
+late hour, wondered where he was going.
+
+He arrived very early the next morning at the duke's castle. He sent
+some of his men forward into the court of the castle to ask if the
+duke were at home. The servants said that he was at home, but he was
+not yet up. So the messengers sent up to him in his bedchamber to
+inform him that the king was below, and to ask him to come down and
+receive him. Gloucester accordingly came down. He was much surprised,
+but he knew that it would be very unwise for him to show any
+suspicion, and so, after welcoming the king, he asked what was the
+object of so early a visit. The king assumed a gay and unconcerned
+air, as if he were out upon some party of pleasure, and said he wished
+the duke to go away with him a short distance. So the duke dressed
+himself and mounted his horse, the king, in the mean time, talking in
+a merry way with the ladies of the castle who had come down into the
+court to receive him. When they were ready the whole party rode out of
+the court, and then the king, suddenly changing his tone, ordered his
+men to arrest the duke and take him away.
+
+The duke was never again seen or heard of in England, and for a long
+time it was not known what had become of him. It was, however, at last
+said, and generally believed, that he was put on board a ship, and
+sent secretly to Calais, and shut up in a castle there, and was, after
+a time, strangled by means of feather beds, or, as others say, by wet
+towels put over his face, in obedience to orders sent to the castle by
+Richard. Several other great noblemen, whom Richard supposed to be
+confederates with Gloucester, were arrested by similar stratagems. Two
+or three of the most powerful of them were brought to a trial before
+judges in Richard's interest, and, being condemned, were beheaded. It
+is supposed that Richard did not dare to bring Gloucester himself to
+trial, on account of the great popularity and vast influence which he
+enjoyed among the people of England.
+
+Richard was very much pleased with the success of his measures for
+thus putting the most formidable of his enemies out of the way, and
+not long after this his cousin Roger died, so that Richard was
+henceforth relieved of all special apprehension on his account. But
+the country was extremely dissatisfied. The Duke of Gloucester had
+been very much respected and beloved by the nation. Richard was hated.
+His government was tyrannical. His style of living was so extravagant
+that his expenses were enormous, and the people were taxed beyond
+endurance to raise the money required. While, however, he thus spared
+no expense to secure his own personal aggrandizement and glory, it was
+generally believed that he cared little for the substantial interests
+of the country, but was ready to sacrifice them at any time to promote
+his own selfish ends.
+
+In the mean time, having killed the principal leaders opposed to him,
+for a time he had every thing his own way. He obtained the control of
+Parliament, and caused the most unjust and iniquitous laws to be
+passed, the object of which was to supply him more and more fully
+with money, and to increase still more his own personal power. He went
+on in this way until the country was almost ripe for rebellion.
+
+Still, with all his wealth and splendor, Richard was not happy. He was
+harassed by perpetual suspicions and anxieties, and his conscience
+tortured him with reproaches for the executions which he had procured
+of his uncle Gloucester and the other noblemen, particularly the Earl
+of Arundel, one of the most powerful and wealthy nobles of England. He
+used to awake from his sleep at night in horror, crying out that the
+blood of the earl was all over his bed.
+
+He was afraid continually of his cousin Henry, who was now in the
+direct line of succession to the crown, and whom he imagined to be
+conspiring against him. He wished very much to find some means of
+removing him out of the way. An opportunity at length presented
+itself. There was a quarrel between Henry and a certain nobleman named
+Norfolk. Each accused the other of treasonable designs. There was a
+long difficulty about it, and several plans were formed for a trial of
+the case. At last it was determined that there should be a trial by
+single combat between the parties, to determine the question which of
+them was the true man.
+
+The town of Coventry, which is in the central part of England, was
+appointed for this combat. The lists were prepared, a pavilion for the
+use of the king and those who were to act as judges was erected, and
+an immense concourse of spectators assembled to witness the contest.
+All the preliminary ceremonies were performed, as usual in those days
+in personal combats of this character, except that in this case the
+combatants were to fight on horseback. They came into the lists with
+horses magnificently caparisoned. Norfolk's horse was covered with
+crimson velvet, and the trappings of Henry's were equally splendid.
+When all was ready, the signal was given, and the battle commenced.
+After the combatants had made a few passes at each other without
+effect, the king made a signal, and the heralds cried out, Ho! Ho!
+which was an order for them to stop. The king then directed that their
+arms should be taken from them, and that they should dismount, and
+take their places in certain chairs which had been provided for them
+within the lists. These chairs were very gorgeous in style and
+workmanship, being covered with velvet, and elegantly embroidered.
+
+The assembly waited a long time while the king and those with him held
+a consultation. At length the king announced that the combat was to
+proceed no farther, but that both parties were deemed guilty, and that
+they were both to be banished from the realm. The term of Henry's
+banishment was ten years; Norfolk's was for life.
+
+The country was greatly incensed at this decision. There was no proof
+whatever that Henry had done any thing wrong. Henry, however,
+submitted to the king's decree, apparently without murmuring, and took
+his departure. As he journeyed toward Dover, where he was to embark,
+the people flocked around him at all the towns and villages that he
+passed through, and mourned his departure; and when finally he
+embarked at Dover and went away, they said that the only shield,
+defense, and comfort of the commonwealth was gone.
+
+Henry went to Paris, and there told his story to the King of France.
+The king took his part very decidedly. He received him in a very
+cordial and friendly manner, and condemned the course which Richard
+had pursued.
+
+Another circumstance occurred to alienate the King of France still
+more from Richard. There was a certain French lady, named De Courcy,
+who had come from France with the little queen, and had since occupied
+a high position in the queen's household. She was Isabella's governess
+and principal lady of honor. This lady, it seemed, lived in quite an
+expensive style, and by her influence and management greatly increased
+the expense of the queen's establishment, which was, of course,
+entirely independent of that of the king. This Lady De Courcy kept
+eighteen horses for her own personal use, and maintained a large train
+of attendants to accompany her in state whenever she appeared in
+public. She had two or three goldsmiths and jewelers, and two or three
+furriers, and a proportionate number of other artisans all the time at
+work, making her dresses and decorations. Richard, under pretense that
+he could not afford all this, dismissed the Lady De Courcy from her
+office, and sent her home to France. Of course she was very indignant
+at this treatment, and she set out on her return home, prepared to
+give the King of France a very unfavorable account of his son-in-law.
+It was some time after this, however, before she arrived at Paris.
+
+About three months after Henry of Bolingbroke was banished from the
+realm, his father, the Duke of Lancaster, died. He left immense
+estates, which of right should have descended to his son. Richard had
+given Henry leave to appoint an attorney to act as his agent during
+his banishment, and take care of his property; but, instead of
+allowing this attorney to take possession of these estates, and hold
+them for Henry until he should return, the king confiscated them, and
+seized them himself. He also, at the same time, revoked the powers
+which he had granted to the attorney. This transaction awakened one
+general burst of indignation from one end of England to the other, and
+greatly increased the hatred which the people bore to the king, and
+the favor with which they were disposed to regard Henry.
+
+It must be admitted, in justice to Richard, that his mind was greatly
+harassed at this time with the troubles and difficulties that
+surrounded him, and with his want of money. To complete his
+misfortunes, a rebellion broke out in Ireland. He felt compelled to go
+himself and quell it. So he collected all the money that he could
+obtain, and raised an army and equipped a fleet to go across the Irish
+Sea. He left his uncle, the Duke of York, regent during his absence.
+
+Before setting out for Ireland, the king went to Windsor to bid the
+little queen good-by. He took his leave of her in a church at
+Windsor, where she accompanied him to mass. On leaving the church
+after service, he partook of wine and refreshments with her at the
+door, and then lifting her up in his arms, he kissed her many times,
+saying,
+
+"Adieu, madame. Adieu till we meet again."
+
+As soon as Richard was gone, a great number of the leading and
+influential people began to form plans to keep him from coming back
+again, or at least to prevent his ever again ruling over the realm.
+Henry, who was now in Paris, and who, since his father was dead, was
+now himself the Duke of Lancaster, began to receive letters from many
+persons urging him to come to England, and promising him their support
+in dispossessing Richard of the throne.
+
+Henry determined at length to comply with these proposals. He found
+many persons in France to encourage him, and some to join him. With
+these persons, not more, it is said, than sixty in all, he set sail
+from the coast of France, and, passing across the Channel, approached
+the coast of England. He touched at several places, to ascertain what
+was the feeling of the country toward him. At length he was encouraged
+to land. The people received him joyfully, and every body flocked to
+his standard.
+
+The Duke of York, whom Richard had left as regent, immediately called
+a council of Richard's friends to consider what it was best to do. On
+consultation and inquiry, they found that the country would not
+support them in any plan for resisting Henry. So they abandoned
+Richard's cause at once in despair, and fled in various directions,
+intent only on saving their own lives.
+
+The Duke of York went to Windsor Castle, took the queen and her
+attendants, and conveyed them up the river to the Castle of
+Wallingford, where he thought they would be more safe.
+
+In the mean time, the king's expedition to Ireland resulted
+disastrously, and he returned to England. To his utter dismay, he
+learned, on his arrival, that Henry had landed in England, and was
+advancing toward London in a triumphant manner. He had no sufficient
+force under his command to enable him to go and meet his cousin with
+any hope of success. The only question was how he could save himself
+from Henry's vengeance. He dismissed the troops that remained with
+him, and then, with a very few attendants to accompany him, he sought
+refuge for a while among the castles in Wales, where he was reduced to
+great destitution and distress, being forced sometimes to sleep on
+straw. At length he went to Conway, which is a town near the northern
+confines of Wales, and shut himself up in the castle there--that
+famous Conway Castle, the ruins of which are so much visited and
+admired by the tourists of the present day.
+
+In the mean time, Henry, although he had marched triumphantly through
+England at the head of a large, though irregular force, had not
+proclaimed himself king, or taken any other open step inconsistent
+with his allegiance to Richard. But now, when he heard that Richard
+was in Wales, he went thither himself at the head of quite a large
+army which he had raised in London. He stopped at a town in North
+Wales called Flint, and, taking his lodgings there, he sent forward an
+earl as his messenger to Conway Castle to treat with Richard. The
+earl, on being introduced into Richard's presence, said that his
+cousin was at Flint Castle, and wished that he would come there to
+confer with him on matters of great moment. Richard did not know what
+to do. He soon reflected, however, that he was completely in Henry's
+power, and that he might as well make a virtue of necessity, and
+submit with a good grace; so he said he would accompany the earl to
+Flint Castle.
+
+They had not gone far on the road before a large number of armed men
+appeared at the road side, in a narrow place between the mountains and
+the sea, where they had been lying in ambush. These men were under the
+earl's command. Little was said, but Richard saw that he was a
+prisoner.
+
+On his arrival at Flint Castle,[J] Richard had an interview with
+Henry. Henry, when he came into the king's presence, treated him with
+all due reverence, as if he still acknowledged him as his sovereign.
+He kneeled repeatedly as he advanced, until at length the king took
+him by the hand and raised him up, saying, at the same time,
+
+[Footnote J: There is some discrepancy in the accounts in respect to
+the castle where this interview was had, but this is not material.]
+
+"Dear cousin, you are welcome."
+
+Henry replied,
+
+"My sovereign lord and king, the cause of my coming at this time is to
+have again the restitution of my person, my lands, and my heritage,
+through your majesty's gracious permission."
+
+The king replied,
+
+"Dear cousin, I am ready to accomplish your will, so that you may
+enjoy all that is yours without exception."
+
+After some farther insincere and hypocritical conversation of this
+sort, breakfast was served. After breakfast, Henry conducted the king
+to a window on the wall, from which, on looking over the plain, a vast
+number of armed men, who had come from London with Henry, were to be
+seen. Richard asked who those men were. Henry replied that they were
+people of London.
+
+"And what do they want?" asked Richard.
+
+"They want me to take _you_," said Henry, "and carry you prisoner to
+the Tower; and there will be no pacifying them unless you go with me."
+
+Richard saw at once that it was useless to make any resistance, so he
+submitted himself entirely to such arrangements as Henry might make.
+Henry accordingly set out with him on the journey to London,
+ostensibly escorting him as a king, but really conveying him as a
+prisoner. On the journey, the fallen monarch suffered many marks of
+neglect and indignity, but he knew that he was wholly in the power of
+his enemies, and that it was useless to complain; indeed, his spirit
+was completely broken, and he had no heart to make even a struggle. On
+reaching London, he was conducted to the Tower. He was lodged there as
+he had often been lodged before, only now the guards which surrounded
+him were under the command of his enemies, and were placed there to
+prevent his escape, instead of to protect him from danger.
+
+Henry immediately convened a Parliament, issuing the writs, however,
+in the king's name. This was necessary, to make the Parliament
+technically legal. When the Parliament met, articles of accusation
+were formally brought against Richard. These articles were
+thirty-three in number. They recapitulated all the political crimes
+and offenses which Richard had committed during his life, his
+cruelties and oppressions, his wastefulness, his maladministration of
+public affairs, the illegal and unjust sentences of banishment or of
+death which he had pronounced upon peers of the realm, and various
+other high crimes and misdemeanors.
+
+While these measures were pending, Richard's mind was in a state of
+dreadful suspense and agitation. Sometimes he sank into the greatest
+depths of despondency and gloom, and sometimes he raved like a madman,
+walking to and fro in his apartment in his phrensy, vowing vengeance
+on his enemies.
+
+He had interviews from time to time with Henry and the other nobles.
+At one time Henry went with the Duke of York and others to the Tower,
+and sent a messenger to the king, requesting him to come to the
+apartment where they were, as they wished to see him.
+
+"Tell Henry of Lancaster," said the king, "that I shall do no such
+thing. If he wishes to see me, let him come to me."
+
+So they came to the king's apartment. Henry took off his cap as he
+came in, and saluted the king respectfully. The Duke of York was with
+Henry at this time. Richard was very angry with the Duke of York, whom
+he had left regent of England when he went away, but who had made no
+resistance to Henry's invasion. So, as soon as he saw him, he broke
+forth in a perfect phrensy of vituperation and rage against him, and
+against his son, who was also present. This produced a violent
+altercation between them and the king, in which one of them told the
+king that he lied, and threw down his bonnet before him in token of
+defiance. Richard then turned to Henry, and demanded, in a voice of
+fury, why he was placed thus in confinement, under a guard of armed
+men.
+
+"Am I your servant," he demanded, "or am I your king? And what do you
+intend to do with me?"
+
+"You are my king and lord," replied Henry, calmly, "but the Parliament
+have determined that you are to be kept in confinement for the
+present, until they can decide in respect to the charges laid against
+you."
+
+Here the king uttered a dreadful imprecation, expressive of rage and
+despair.
+
+[Illustration: HENRY OF BOLINGBROKE--KING HENRY IV.]
+
+He then demanded that they should let him have his wife. But Henry
+replied that the council had forbidden that he should see the queen.
+This exasperated the king more than ever. He walked to and fro across
+the apartment, wringing his hands, and uttering wild and incoherent
+expressions of helpless rage.
+
+[Illustration: PONTEFRACT CASTLE, KING RICHARD'S PRISON.]
+
+The end of it was that Richard was forced to abdicate the crown. He
+soon saw that it was only by so doing that he could hope to save his
+life. An assembly was convened, and he formally delivered up his
+crown, and renounced all claim to it forever. He also gave up the
+globe and sceptre, the emblems of sovereignty, with which he had been
+invested at his coronation. In addition to this ceremony, a written
+deed of abdication had been drawn up, and this deed was now signed by
+the king with all the necessary formalities. Proclamation having been
+made of Richard's abdication, Henry came forward and claimed the crown
+as Richard's rightful successor, and he was at once proclaimed king,
+and conducted to the throne. Richard was conducted back to the Tower,
+and soon afterward was conveyed, by Henry's order, to a more sure
+place of confinement--Pontefract Castle, and here was shut up a close
+prisoner.
+
+Things remained in this state a short time, and then a rumor arose
+that a conspiracy was formed by Richard's friends to murder Henry, and
+restore Richard to the throne. A spiked instrument was said to have
+been found in Henry's bed, put there by some of the conspirators, with
+a view of destroying him when he lay down. Whether this story of the
+conspiracy was false or true, one thing is certain, that the existence
+of Richard endangered greatly the continuance and security of Henry's
+power. Henry and his counselors were well aware of this; and one day,
+when they had been conversing on the subject of this danger, Henry
+said,
+
+"Have I no faithful friend who will deliver me from this man, whose
+life is death to me, and whose death would be my life?"
+
+Very soon after this, it was known that Richard was dead. The
+universal belief was that he was murdered. There were various rumors
+in respect to the manner in which the deed was perpetrated. The
+account most precise and positive states that a man named Exton, who
+had heard the remark of the king, repaired at once to the castle of
+Pontefract, accompanied by eight desperate men, all well armed, and
+gained admission to Richard's room while he was at table. Richard,
+seeing his danger, sprang up, and attempted to defend himself. He
+wrenched a weapon out of the hands of one of his assailants, and
+fought with it so furiously that he cut down four of the ruffians
+before he was overpowered. He was felled to the floor at last by a
+blow which Exton struck him upon his head, Exton having sprung up upon
+the chair which Richard had sat in, and thus obtained an advantage by
+his high position.
+
+It was necessary to make the fact of Richard's death very certain, and
+so, soon afterward, the body was placed upon a hearse, and drawn by
+four black horses to London. Here it was left in a public place for
+some time, to be viewed by all who desired to view it. There were no
+less than _twenty thousand_ persons that availed themselves of the
+opportunity of satisfying themselves, by the evidence of their senses,
+that the hated Richard was no more.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The little queen all this time had been confined in another castle.
+She was now about twelve years old. Her father, when he heard of the
+misfortunes which had befallen her husband, and of the forlorn and
+helpless condition in which she was placed, was so distressed that he
+became insane. The other members of the family sent to England to
+demand that she should be restored to them, but Henry refused this
+request. He wished to make her the wife of his son, who was now the
+Prince of Wales, but Isabella would not listen to any such proposals.
+Then Henry wished that she should remain in England as the
+queen-dowager, and he promised that she should be treated with the
+greatest respect and consideration as long as she lived; but neither
+she herself nor her friends in France would consent to this. At
+length, after long delay, and many protracted negotiations, it was
+decided that she should return home.
+
+The little queen, on her return to France, embarked from Dover. There
+were five vessels appointed to receive her and her suite. There were
+in attendance upon her two ladies of the royal family, who had the
+charge of her person, her governess, several maids of honor, and two
+French chambermaids, whose names were Semonette and Marianne. There
+were many other persons besides.
+
+Isabella reached the French frontier at a town between Calais and
+Boulogne, and there was delivered, with much form and ceremony, to a
+deputation of French authorities sent forward to receive her.
+
+She lived in France after this for several years, mourning her husband
+all the time with faithful and unchanging affection. At length a
+marriage was arranged for her with her cousin, a French prince. She
+was married when she was nineteen years old. She was very averse to
+this marriage when it was first proposed to her, and could only speak
+of it with tears; but, under all the circumstances of the case, she
+thought that she was not at liberty to decline it, and after she was
+married she loved her husband very sincerely, and made a very devoted
+and faithful wife. Three years after her marriage she had a son, and a
+few hours after the birth of the child she suddenly died. Her husband
+was almost distracted when he heard that his beloved wife was dead.
+His grief seemed, for a time, perfectly uncontrollable; but when they
+brought to him his infant child, it seemed in some measure to comfort
+him.
+
+                         THE END.
+
+
+
+
+TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES:
+
+1. Minor changes have been made to correct typesetters' errors, and to
+ensure consistent spelling and punctuation in this etext; otherwise,
+every effort has been made to remain true to the original book.
+
+2. The sidenotes used in this text were originally published as
+banners in the page headers, and have been collected at the beginning
+of each chapter for the reader's convenience.
+
+3. The original Table of Contents mistakenly referred to Chapter V. as
+beginning on page 146; this has been corrected to show that that chapter
+begins on page 140.
+
+4. Text in two places, in the original book, were typeset in an old
+style font; these two paragraphs have been rendered in this extext with
+a = at the beginning and end of the paragraph.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Richard II, by Jacob Abbott
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