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diff --git a/28433-h/28433-h.htm b/28433-h/28433-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..57d5b64 --- /dev/null +++ b/28433-h/28433-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,8081 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Richard II, Makers Of History, by Jacob Abbott. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + td {vertical-align: top;} + + hr.large {width: 65%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em;} + hr.medium {width: 45%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em;} + hr.tiny {width: 10%; margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em;} + div.centered {text-align:center;} /*work around for IE centering with CSS problem part 1 */ + div.centered table {margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; text-align:left;} /* work around for IE problem part 2 */ + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + } /* page numbers */ + .n {text-indent:0%;} + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + .sidenote {width: 20%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em; margin-left: 1em; + float: right; clear: right; margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; color: black; background: #eeeeee; border: solid 1px;} + .sidenote2 {width: 20%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em; margin-left: 1em; + float: right; clear: right; margin-top: 1.8em; + font-size: smaller; color: black; background: #eeeeee; border: solid 1px;} + .sidenote3 {width: 20%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em; margin-left: 1em; + float: right; clear: right; margin-top: 1.25em; + font-size: smaller; color: black; background: #eeeeee; border: solid 1px;} + + .jpg {border-style: double} + .right {margin-left: 30em;} + .gap {margin-top: 3.5em;} + .smallgap {margin-top: 2em;} + .centerbox {width: 30em; /* heading box */ + margin: 0 auto; + text-align: center; + padding: 0.5em;} + .centerbox3 {width: 45em; /* heading box */ + margin: 0 auto; + text-align: center; + padding: 0.5em;} + .oldeng {font-size: 90%; font-weight: bold;} + .bb {border-bottom: solid 2px #C0C0C0;} + .bbox {border: none;} + .bbox2 {border: solid black 2px;} + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .caption {font-weight: bold; font-size: 95%} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +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: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RICHARD II *** + + + + +Produced by D. Alexander and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<h2> Makers of History</h2> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h1> Richard II.</h1> + +<h2> <span class="smcap">By</span> JACOB ABBOTT</h2> + +<p class="center"> WITH ENGRAVINGS</p> + +<p class="smallgap"> </p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 124px;"> +<img src="images/i001.jpg" width="124" height="150" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p class="gap"> </p> + +<p class="center">NEW YORK AND LONDON</p> + +<p class="center">HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS</p> + +<p class="center">1901</p> + +<hr class="large" /> + +<p class="center"> +Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight<br /> +hundred and fifty-eight, by<br /> +<br /> +HARPER & BROTHERS,<br /> +<br /> +in the Clerk's office of the District Court of the Southern District<br /> +of New York.<br /> +<br /> +Copyright, 1886, by <span class="smcap">Benjamin Vaughan Abbott</span>, <span class="smcap">Austin Abbott</span>, <span class="smcap">Lyman<br /> +Abbott</span>, and <span class="smcap">Edward Abbott</span>.<br /> +</p> + +<hr class="large" /> + +<p><a name="Frontispiece" id="Frontispiece"></a></p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/i003.jpg" class="smallgap" width="500" height="306" alt="PARLEY WITH THE INSURGENTS." title="" /> +<span class="caption">PARLEY WITH THE INSURGENTS.</span> +</div> + +<hr class="large" /> +<h2>PREFACE.</h2> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr class="large" /> +<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" width="70%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="1" summary="CONTENTS"> + +<tr> +<td align="right">Chapter</td> +<td align="left"> </td> +<td align="right">Page</td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="right">I.</td> +<td align="left">RICHARD'S PREDECESSORS</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#KING_RICHARD_II">13</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="right">II.</td> +<td align="left">QUARRELS</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Chapter_II">37</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="right">III.</td> +<td align="left">THE BLACK PRINCE</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Chapter_III">81</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="right">IV.</td> +<td align="left">THE BATTLE OF POICTIERS</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Chapter_IV">103</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="right">V.</td> +<td align="left">CHILDHOOD OF RICHARD</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Chapter_V">140</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="right">VI.</td> +<td align="left">ACCESSION TO THE THRONE</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Chapter_VI">166</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="right">VII.</td> +<td align="left">THE CORONATION</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Chapter_VII">185</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="right">VIII.</td> +<td align="left">CHIVALRY</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Chapter_VIII">197</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="right">IX.</td> +<td align="left">WAT TYLER'S INSURRECTION</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Chapter_IX">225</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="right">X.</td> +<td align="left">THE END OF THE INSURRECTION</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Chapter_X">255</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="right">XI.</td> +<td align="left">GOOD QUEEN ANNE</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Chapter_XI">273</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="right">XII.</td> +<td align="left">INCIDENTS OF THE REIGN</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Chapter_XII">290</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="right">XIII.</td> +<td align="left">THE LITTLE QUEEN</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Chapter_XIII">310</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="right">XIV.</td> +<td align="left">RICHARD'S DEPOSITION AND DEATH</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Chapter_XIV">324</a></td></tr> +</table></div> + +<hr class="large" /> +<h2>ENGRAVINGS.</h2> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" width="70%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="1" summary="ENGRAVINGS"> + +<tr> +<td align="left"> </td> +<td align="right">Page</td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left">PARLEY WITH THE INSURGENTS</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Frontispiece"><i>Frontispiece.</i></a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left">RUINS OF AN ANCIENT CASTLE</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_15">15</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left">MAP—SITUATION OF NORMANDY</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_23">23</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left">KING JOHN</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_29">29</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left">CAERNARVON CASTLE</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_51">51</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left">PORTRAIT OF EDWARD THE SECOND</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_55">55</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left">WARWICK CASTLE</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_61">61</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left">KENILWORTH CASTLE</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_66">66</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left">A MONK OF THOSE DAYS</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_69">69</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left">BERKELEY CASTLE</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_71">71</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left">CAVES IN THE HILL-SIDE AT NOTTINGHAM CASTLE</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_75">75</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left">MORTIMER'S HOLE</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_79">79</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left">MAP—CAMPAIGN OF CRECY</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_85">85</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left">VIEW OF ROUEN</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_87">87</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left">GENOESE ARCHER</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_94">94</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left">OLD ENGLISH SHIPS</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_105">105</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left">MAP—CAMPAIGN OF POICTIERS</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_110">110</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left">STORMING OF THE CASTLE OF ROMORANTIN</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_116">116</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left">RICHARD RECEIVING THE VISIT OF HIS UNCLE JOHN</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_152">152</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left">PORTRAIT OF RICHARD'S GRANDFATHER</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_165">165</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left">EDWARD, THE BLACK PRINCE</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_169">169</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left">THE BULL</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_177">177</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left">STORMING OF A TOWN</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_205">205</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left">KNIGHTS CHARGING UPON EACH OTHER</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_220">220</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left">VIEW OF THE TOWER OF LONDON</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_235">235</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left">THE SAVOY</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_248">248</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left">RUINS OF THE SAVOY</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_252">252</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left">COSTUMES</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_282">282</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left">FASHIONABLE HEAD-DRESSES</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_283">283</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left">SEAL OF RICHARD II</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_300">300</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left">HENRY OF BOLINGBROKE—KING HENRY IV</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_340">340</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="left">PONTEFRACT CASTLE</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_342">342</a></td></tr> + +</table></div> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="KING_RICHARD_II" id="KING_RICHARD_II"></a>KING RICHARD II.</h2> + +<h2><a name="Chapter_I" id="Chapter_I"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter I.</span></h2> + +<h2><span class="smcap">Richard's Predecessors.</span></h2> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:50px;line-height:32px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">T</span><span style="margin-left:0%;">here</span> have been three monarchs of the name of Richard upon the English +throne.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Three Richards.<br />Richard the Crusader.</div> + +<p>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 <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/26939">King Richard I</a>.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">King John.</div> + +<p>Richard II. did not succeed Richard I. immediately. Several reigns +intervened. The monarch who immediately succeeded Richard I. was +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Character of the kings and nobles of those days.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15-6]</a></span></p><div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/i010.jpg" class="smallgap" width="500" height="348" alt="RUINS OF AN ANCIENT CASTLE." title="" /> +<span class="caption">RUINS OF AN ANCIENT CASTLE.</span> +</div> + +<div class="sidenote2">Origin and nature of their power.</div> + +<p>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 <i>right</i>, 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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span>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 <i>his</i> 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 were 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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Natural rights of man in respect to the fruits of the +earth.</div> + +<p>The people generally submitted to this power very willingly. In the +first place, they had a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span>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 <i>earth</i> for <i>man</i>, 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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Beneficial results of royal rule.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>In the present age of the world, means have been devised by which, in +any country sufficiently <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The power of kings and nobles was restricted.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Disputes about the right of succession.</div> + +<p>Notwithstanding this, the kings were continually overstepping the +limits of their power, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>So he caused himself to be proclaimed king. He was in Normandy at the +time; but he immediately <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span>put himself at the head of an armed force +and went to England.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Case of young Arthur.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The King of France becomes his ally.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span>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."</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Map showing the situation of Normandy.</div> + +<p>The situation of the country of Normandy, in relation to France and to +England, may be seen by the accompanying map.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 284px;"> +<img src="images/i018.jpg" class="jpg smallgap" width="284" height="350" alt="SITUATION OF NORMANDY." title="" /> +<span class="caption">SITUATION OF NORMANDY.</span> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span></p><p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Arthur is defeated and made prisoner.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">John attempts to induce Arthur to abdicate.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span>he +sent two executioners to perform this cruel deed upon the captive in +his dungeon.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Account of the assassination of Arthur.<br />Various accounts of the mode of Arthur's death.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Rise," said he, "and come with me."</p> + +<p>Arthur rose, and followed his guard with fear <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Uncertainty in respect to these stories.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">League formed against him by his barons.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span>all the barons of his realm banded themselves together against +him, with the view of reducing his power as king within more +reasonable bounds.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Portrait of King John.</div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"> +<img src="images/i024.jpg" class="smallgap" width="200" height="350" alt="KING JOHN." title="" /> +<span class="caption">KING JOHN.</span> +</div> + +<div class="sidenote2">Magna Charta.</div> + +<p>The king fought these <i>rebels</i>, 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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span><span class="smcap">Magna Charta</span>, 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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Runny Mead.</div> + +<p>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 +<i>mead</i> is a contraction for meadow.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The agreement afterward repudiated.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">New wars.<br />New ratifications of Magna Charta.</div> + +<p>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 <i>thirty times</i> 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.</p> + +<p>All this took place in the reigns preceding the accession of Richard +II.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Cruelties and oppressions practiced upon the Jews.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span></p><div class="sidenote">Extract from the old chronicles.</div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="oldeng">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.</p></div> + +<div class="sidenote">Absurd accusations.<br />The story of the crucified child.<br />John Lexinton.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>avail. He was executed, and eighteen other Jews with him.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Confessions extorted by torture.<br />Injustice and cruelty of the practice.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Anecdotes of the nobles and the king.</div> + +<p>The nobles, however, were much less afraid of the monarchs, and often +resisted them and bid them defiance. It was the law in those <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>days +that all estates to which no other person had a legal claim +<i>escheated</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"By the Almighty," said the king, "you shall either go or hang."</p> + +<p>"By the Almighty," replied one of the earls, "we will neither go nor +hang."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="Chapter_II" id="Chapter_II"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter II.</span></h2> + +<h2><span class="smcap">Quarrels.</span></h2> + +<p class="center">A.D. 1327</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Classes of quarrels in which the kings and the people were +engaged.</div> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:50px;line-height:32px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">I</span><span style="margin-left:0%;">n</span> 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.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>1. The kings, as we have already seen, were perpetually +quarreling with the nobles.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>were +waged to resent personal insults or injuries, real or +imaginary.</p> + +<p>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.</p></div> + +<div class="sidenote">The Pope.<br />His claim of jurisdiction in England.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The Pope's legate and the students at Oxford.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Great riot made by the students.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span></p><div class="sidenote">The end of the affair.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Plan to assassinate the king.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span>dagger. He, +however, stabbed nothing but the bed itself, and the pillow, for the +king that night, as it happened, lay in another chamber.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Margaret, the servant-girl.<br />Execution of Marish.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Ideas of the sacredness of the person of a king.</div> + +<p>Great pains were taken in those days to instill <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr class="medium" /> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Origin of the wars with Leolin, Prince of Wales.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Leolin's bride intercepted at sea.</div> + +<p>The King of France at once assented to the proposed marriage, but the +King of England <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The unhappy fate of Leolin.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Fate of Prince David, his brother.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Occasional acts of generosity.</div> + +<p>It must be admitted, however, that, although these ancient warriors +were generally extremely <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Story of Lewin and the box of dispatches.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span>draw him up into the +castle, as he had something of great importance to communicate to the +governor of it.</p> + +<p>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,</p> + +<p>"Here, sir, look in this box, and you may read all the secrets of the +King of England."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>quarrel</i>.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"And tell him," said the governor, "that if <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span>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."</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The fate of Lewin.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr class="medium" /> + +<div class="sidenote3">Origin of the modern title of Prince of Wales.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The first English Prince of Wales.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51-2]</a></span></p><div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/i046.jpg" class="smallgap" width="500" height="358" alt="CAERNARVON CASTLE." title="" /> +<span class="caption">CAERNARVON CASTLE.</span> +</div> + +<div class="sidenote2">Piers Gaveston.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Edward II. and his favorite.<br />Their wild and reckless behavior.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p><p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The king goes away to be married.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span></p><div class="figcenter" style="width: 280px;"> +<img src="images/i050.jpg" class="smallgap" width="280" height="350" alt="PORTRAIT OF EDWARD THE SECOND." title="" /> +<span class="caption">PORTRAIT OF EDWARD THE SECOND.</span> +</div> + +<div class="sidenote2">Edward's indifference on the occasion of his marriage.<br />His infatuation in respect to Gaveston.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The coronation.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Bold and presumptuous demeanor of Gaveston.<br />His unpopularity.</div> + +<p>The king was alarmed. He, however, could <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">He is banished.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">His parting.</div> + +<p>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 manœuvre for the accomplishment of this +purpose. In the mean time, as Gaveston had only sworn to leave +<i>England</i>, 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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The Black Dog of Ardenne.<br />Gaveston's return.</div> + +<p>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, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>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."</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Gaveston made prisoner.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span></p><p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Consultation respecting him.</div> + +<p>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,</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<div class="sidenote">His fate.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61-2]</a></span></p><div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/i056.jpg" class="smallgap" width="500" height="299" alt="WARWICK CASTLE." title="" /> +<span class="caption">WARWICK CASTLE.</span> +</div> + +<div class="sidenote2">The Spencers.<br />The queen and Mortimer.</div> + +<p>One would have supposed that by this time the king would have been +cured of the folly of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> 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 name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</a></p> + +<div class="sidenote">Edward III. proclaimed king.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 65-6]</a></span></p><div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/i060.jpg" class="smallgap" width="500" height="261" alt="KENILWORTH CASTLE." title="" /> +<span class="caption">KENILWORTH CASTLE.</span> +</div> + +<div class="sidenote2">Edward II. made prisoner.</div> + +<p>He was made prisoner and immediately sent to Kenilworth Castle, and +there secured. Afterward <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Edward II. formally deposed at Kenilworth.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span></p><div class="sidenote">The delegation require the king to abdicate the crown.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span></p><div class="figcenter" style="width: 259px;"> +<img src="images/i063.jpg" class="smallgap" width="259" height="350" alt="A MONK OF THOSE DAYS." title="" /> +<span class="caption">A MONK OF THOSE DAYS.</span> +</div> + +<div class="sidenote2">Opinion of the monks.<br />Alarm of the nobles.<br />Berkeley Castle.<br />Plot for assassinating the +king.<br />Dreadful death.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span>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.<a name="FNanchor_B_2" id="FNanchor_B_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_B_2" class="fnanchor">[B]</a> 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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71-2]</a></span></p><div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/i065.jpg" class="smallgap" width="500" height="331" alt="BERKELEY CASTLE." title="" /> +<span class="caption">BERKELEY CASTLE.</span> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span></p> +<div class="sidenote">Great hatred of Mortimer.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Situation of the castle of Nottingham.<br />The caves.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75-6]</a></span></p><div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/i069.jpg" class="smallgap" width="500" height="339" alt="CAVES IN THE HILL-SIDE AT NOTTINGHAM CASTLE." title="" /> +<span class="caption">CAVES IN THE HILL-SIDE AT NOTTINGHAM CASTLE.</span> +</div> + +<div class="sidenote2">Entrance of the conspirators into the castle.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Isabella's unhappy fate.</div> + +<p>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; <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Mortimer's Hole.</div> + +<p>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 <span class="smcap">Mortimer's Hole</span>.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79-80]</a></span></p><div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/i073.jpg" class="smallgap" width="500" height="383" alt="MORTIMER'S HOLE." title="" /> +<span class="caption">MORTIMER'S HOLE.</span> +</div> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="Chapter_III" id="Chapter_III"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter III.</span></h2> + +<h2><span class="smcap">The Black Prince.</span></h2> + +<p class="center">A.D. 1336-1346</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Parentage of the Black Prince, Richard's father.</div> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:50px;line-height:32px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">T</span><span style="margin-left:0%;">he</span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Reason for the name.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Situation of Crecy.<br />Nature of Edward's claim to the crown of France.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The Salic law.</div> + +<p>Now there was an ancient law prevailing in certain portions of France, +called the Salic law,<a name="FNanchor_C_3" id="FNanchor_C_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_C_3" class="fnanchor">[C]</a> 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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>right, +over which the people governed had no control whatever.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Reason for it.</div> + +<p>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 <i>princes</i> 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 <i>princesses</i>, 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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Edward's case.</div> + +<p>This was precisely what happened in Edward's case. The Salic law had +not then been fully established. Edward maintained that it <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Edward raises an army and sets out for France.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Map.</div> + +<p>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, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span>toward the Seine. They took +possession of the towns on the way, and plundered and wasted the +country.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"> +<img src="images/i080.jpg" class="jpg" width="350" height="252" alt="CAMPAIGN OF CRECY" title="" /> +<span class="caption">CAMPAIGN OF CRECY</span></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87-8]</a></span></p><div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/i081.jpg" class="smallgap" width="500" height="344" alt="VIEW OF ROUEN, FROM THE WEST SIDE OF THE RIVER." title="" /> +<span class="caption">VIEW OF ROUEN, FROM THE WEST SIDE OF THE RIVER.</span> +</div> + +<div class="sidenote2">The army reaches Rouen.<br />Progress of the army.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span>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 manœuvring 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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Arrival at Amiens.<br />Progress of the two armies down the Somme.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span>flowed in the river here, +on account of its being so near the sea.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Edward's anxiety about crossing the river.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Danger from the tide.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Edward posts himself at Crecy.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span>scene of the great and celebrated conflict which bears its name.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Plan of the battle.<br />The Black Prince in command.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span>were for waiting till the next day, as the soldiers +were worn out and exhausted by their long march.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Picture of the Genoese archer.</div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 195px;"> +<img src="images/i088.jpg" class="smallgap" width="195" height="350" alt="GENOESE ARCHER." title="" /> +<span class="caption">GENOESE ARCHER.</span> +</div> + +<div class="sidenote2">Philip gets out of patience.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>"See," he cried out, "see what we get by employing such scoundrels, +who fail us at the very moment when we want them."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The rain.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The battle.<br />More difficulty with the archers.</div> + +<p>At length, about five o'clock, it cleared up, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span>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,</p> + +<p>"Kill me those scoundrels, for they only stop our way without doing +any good."</p> + +<p>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 +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>in other parts of the field to turn the tide, but in vain.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">They send for help for the Prince of Wales.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Is my son killed?" asked the king.</p> + +<p>"No, sire," said the messenger.</p> + +<p>"Is he unhorsed or wounded?" asked the king.</p> + +<p>"No, sire," replied the messenger. "He is safe thus far, and is +fighting with his troop, but he is very hard beset."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>up to +the King of France, and, seizing his horse by the bridle, turned him +away, saying to the king,</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Flight of the King of France from the field of battle.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The king called out,</p> + +<p>"Open, castellan, open. It is the fortune of France."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span></p><div class="sidenote">Account of the old King of Bohemia.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Origin of the motto and device of the Prince of Wales.</div> + +<p>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 +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span>phrase <i>Ich dien</i>, under three plumes. The words mean <i>I serve</i>. This +motto and device have been borne in the coat of arms of the Prince of +Wales from that day to this.</p> + +<p>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,</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Fate of Calais.<br />The six citizens.</div> + +<p>After gaining this great battle Edward marched <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Margaret of Calais.</div> + +<p>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, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span>who was called, from the +place of her nativity, Margaret of Calais.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">John of Gaunt.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="Chapter_IV" id="Chapter_IV"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter IV.</span></h2> + +<h2><span class="smcap">The Battle of Poictiers.</span></h2> + +<p class="center">A.D. 1356-1360</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The Black Prince sets out for France.</div> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:50px;line-height:32px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">I</span><span style="margin-left:0%;">n</span> 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.<a name="FNanchor_D_4" id="FNanchor_D_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_D_4" class="fnanchor">[D]</a></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Plymouth.</div> + +<p>The fleet which awaited the army at Plymouth consisted of three +hundred vessels. The expedition was detained for a long time in the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The ships of those days.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>These pictures, however, are evidently intended rather as <i>symbols</i> 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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105-6]</a></span></p><div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/i099.jpg" class="smallgap" width="500" height="334" alt="ANCIENT REPRESENTATION OF ENGLISH SHIPS." title="" /> +<span class="caption">ANCIENT REPRESENTATION OF ENGLISH SHIPS.</span> +</div> + +<div class="sidenote2">The prince ravages the country.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span></p> +<div class="blockquot"><p class="oldeng">"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."</p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 109-10]</a></span></p><div class="figcenter" style="width: 358px;"> +<img src="images/i104.jpg" class="smallgap jpg" width="358" height="500" alt="CAMPAIGN OF POICTIERS." title="" /> +<span class="caption">CAMPAIGN OF POICTIERS.</span> +</div> + +<div class="sidenote2">Progress of the Black Prince.<br />The country laid +waste.</div> + +<p>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, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>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."</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The King of France comes to meet the Black Prince.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span></p><div class="sidenote">Ambuscade near Romorantin.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Reconnoitring party.<br />The English troop +surprised.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The French surprised in their turn.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The French retreat to the castle.</div> + +<p>At length they reached the gates of the town, and the whole throng of +horsemen, pursuers <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 115-6]</a></span></p><div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/i110.jpg" class="smallgap" width="500" height="315" alt="STORMING OF THE CASTLE OF ROMORANTIN." title="" /> +<span class="caption">STORMING OF THE CASTLE OF ROMORANTIN.</span> +</div> + +<div class="sidenote2">The castle besieged.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Crossing the ditch.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Engines.<br />The castle taken.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">King John and his four sons.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>He had four sons with him in his army, all young men. Their names were +Charles, Louis, John, and Philip.</p> + +<p>At length the two armies began to approach each other near the town of +Poictiers.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Attempt of the Pope's legate to make peace.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>The king gave him leave to speak, and he thus began:</p> + +<p>"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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span>great +danger he is in, and to see what terms you can make with him."</p> + +<p>"Very well," replied the king. "We have no objection. Go, but make +haste back again."</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Negotiations of the Pope's legate.<br />The English +camp.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span>his own honor and that of his army were saved.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The cardinal obtains a truce.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The king's pavilion.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">King John's demands.<br />Prince Edward will not +yield to them.</div> + +<p>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. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Story of the two knights.<br />Coats of arms.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span>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 <i>coats of arms</i> in use at the present day.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Quarrel between the two knights.</div> + +<p>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,</p> + +<p>"How long is it, sir, since you have taken the liberty to wear my +arms?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span></p><p>"It is you yourself who are wearing mine," said Chandos.</p> + +<p>"It is false," replied Clermont; "and if it were not for the truce, I +would soon show you to whom that device rightfully belongs."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>With that the angry noblemen parted, and each rode back to his own +lines.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Preparations for the battle.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">English position.<br />The horses and the barbed +arrows.</div> + +<p>The two armies now prepared for battle. The King of France clothed +himself in his royal armor, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The English victorious.<br />Fate of the king's +sons.</div> + +<p>The battle raged for many hours, but, contrary <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span>the clangor of arms, the notes +of the trumpets, the shouts of the victors, and the shrieks and groans +of the wounded and dying.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The victory announced to the prince.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The men called in.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Gathering at the prince's tent.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Two barons sent to look for the king.<br />The King +of France and his son taken prisoners.<br />Quarrel about +them.</div> + +<p>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 +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>The contending knights and barons, however, paid little heed to these +words, but went on vociferating, "It is <i>I</i> that took him."</p> + +<p>"I tell you he is <i>my</i> prisoner."</p> + +<p>"No, no, <i>we</i> took him. Let him alone. He belongs to <i>us</i>."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span></p><div class="sidenote">The two barons take possession of the prisoners.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Denys.<br />His previous adventures.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span>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,</p> + +<p>"To whom shall I surrender? Who are you?"</p> + +<p>"I am a French knight," said Denys; "I was banished from France, and I +now serve the English prince. Surrender to me."</p> + +<p>"Where is the prince?" said the king. "If I could see him I would +speak to him."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The king's surrender to him.</div> + +<p>So the king drew off his gauntlet, and gave <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span>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.</p> + +<hr class="medium" /> + +<div class="sidenote3">Prince Edward makes a supper for his prisoners.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span>a man as the king had +shown himself to be that day.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Generous demeanor of the prince.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Disposition of the prisoners.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">English prisoners.<br />Douglas's extraordinary escape from his captors.</div> + +<p>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,</p> + +<p>"You miserable wretch! How comes it that you dare to deck yourself out +in this way in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span>your master's armor? You have murdered and robbed him, +I suppose. Come here and pull off my boots."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"That is Lord Douglas," said they.</p> + +<p>"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,</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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,</p> + +<p>"Away with you! Begone!"</p> + +<p>Douglas bore this all very patiently, and went <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span>away with the air of a +detected impostor, and soon got back safely to the English camp.</p> + +<hr class="medium" /> + +<div class="sidenote3">Prince Edward conveys the King of France to London.</div> + +<p>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 cortége of +the prince proceeded by slow journeys to London.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Entrance into London.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Magnanimous treatment of the prisoner.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The King of France and his son remained captives in England for some +time. The king <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The war ended.<br />The king ransomed.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr class="medium" /> + +<div class="sidenote3">Prince Edward's renown.<br />Edward the heir +apparent to the crown.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span>anticipating the greatness and glory to +which England would attain when he should become king.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="Chapter_V" id="Chapter_V"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter V.</span></h2> + +<h2><span class="smcap">Childhood of Richard.</span></h2> + +<p class="center">A.D. 1366-1370</p> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:50px;line-height:32px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">T</span><span style="margin-left:0%;">he</span> 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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Prince Edward becomes Prince of Aquitaine.<br />Various calls made upon him.</div> + +<p>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,<a name="FNanchor_E_5" id="FNanchor_E_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_E_5" class="fnanchor">[E]</a> was the chief +city of Aquitaine. There the prince established his court, and +reigned, as it were, for several years in great splendor. The <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Don Pedro.</div> + +<p>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 <i>his</i> 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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Edward's plans and arrangements.<br />Lord +D'Albret.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Lord D'Albret offers a thousand men.</div> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span></p><p>The prince was surprised at this answer. He did not know, it seems, +how powerful the barons of his principality were.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">King Edward offers his aid.<br />John of Gaunt.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Why the princess wishes to have Edward's departure +postponed.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span>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:</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Prince Edward's letter to Lord D'Albret.</div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"<span class="smcap">My Lord D'Albret</span>,</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"May God have you under his holy protection.</p> + +<p>"Given at Bordeaux, the eighth day of December.</p></div> + +<p class="right">"<span class="smcap">Edward.</span>"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span></p><div class="sidenote">Lord D'Albret is very angry.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">His determination.</div> + +<p>"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,</p> + +<p>"Write what I shall dictate to you."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span></p><p>The secretary wrote as follows from his master's dictation:</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Lord D'Albret's letter to the prince.</div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"<span class="smcap">My dear Lord</span>,</p> + +<p>"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."</p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span></p><p>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.</p> + +<p>"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 <i>any</i> of his thousand lances."</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Edward in want of money.<br />Don Pedro pledges his +three daughters.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The names of the three princesses thus pledged as collateral security +for money borrowed were Beatrice, Constance, and Isabel.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The baptism of the young Prince Richard.</div> + +<p>At length, on the third day of April, the child <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 151-2]</a></span></p><div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/i146.jpg" class="smallgap" width="500" height="312" alt="RICHARD RECEIVING THE VISIT OF HIS UNCLE JOHN." title="" /> +<span class="caption">RICHARD RECEIVING THE VISIT OF HIS UNCLE JOHN.</span> +</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>It happened that all these three lives <i>were</i> terminated in a +comparatively brief period, so that Richard really became King of +England before he grew up to be a man.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Richard receives a visit from his uncle John.</div> + +<p>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, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Richard at Bordeaux.<br />Don Pedro's troubles and +perplexities.</div> + +<p>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 +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">King Charles determines to call Prince Edward to account.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span></p><div class="sidenote">The commissioners arrive, and are received by the prince.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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,</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span>King of France had to say, and which, he added, they, the +commissioners, had promised faithfully to read in the prince's +presence.</p> + +<p>The prince, wondering greatly what the paper could contain, ordered +the lawyer to proceed with the reading of it.</p> + +<p>The lawyer read as follows:</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The lawyer reads the letter.</div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Charles, by the grace of God, King of France, to our nephew +the Prince of Wales and Aquitaine, health.</p> + +<p>"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;</p> + +<p>"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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>"Let there be no delay in obeying this summons, but set out +as speedily as possible after having heard this order read.</p> + +<p>"In witness whereof we have affixed our seal to these +presents.</p> + +<p>"Given at Paris the twenty-fifth day of January, 1369.</p></div> + +<p class="right">"<span class="smcap">Charles R.</span>"</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The prince is very much displeased.</div> + +<p>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,</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">He dismisses the commissioners.</div> + +<p>"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 +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Indignation of the prince.<br />He wishes to arrest +the commissioners.</div> + +<p>So the messengers went back to the inn, and on the evening of the same +day they set out on <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The commissioners seized and imprisoned.</div> + +<p>This was sufficient. The knights who heard it immediately sent off a +small troop of horsemen, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Death of Richard's brother.</div> + +<p>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. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The prince determines to go to England.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span>the charge of the +principality to his brother John in the presence of them all.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Prince Edward's farewell speech.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">He sails for England.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Little Richard at sea.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Pleasant and prosperous voyage.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span>Birkhamstead, about twenty miles from London, and there took up his +abode.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Portrait of Edward III.</div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 286px;"> +<img src="images/i159.jpg" class="smallgap" width="286" height="350" alt="PORTRAIT OF EDWARD THE THIRD, RICHARD'S GRANDFATHER." title="" /> +<span class="caption">PORTRAIT OF EDWARD THE THIRD, RICHARD'S GRANDFATHER.</span> +</div> + +<div class="sidenote">Richard's first entrance into England.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="Chapter_VI" id="Chapter_VI"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter VI.</span></h2> + +<h2><span class="smcap">Accession to the Throne.</span></h2> + +<p class="center">A.D. 1376</p> + +<div class="sidenote">John of Gaunt.</div> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:50px;line-height:32px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">Y</span><span style="margin-left:0%;">oung</span> 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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">His thoughts in respect to the kingdom.</div> + +<p>"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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span>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."</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Laws of succession.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Prince Edward grows worse.<br />He dies.<br />Grand burial of the prince at Canterbury.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span></p><div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/i163.jpg" class="smallgap bb" width="500" height="132" alt="EDWARD, THE BLACK PRINCE." title="" /> +<span class="caption">EDWARD, THE BLACK PRINCE.</span></div> + +<div class="centerbox bbox"><p>This engraving represents the effigy of the Black Prince, as now seen +upon his monument on the north side of the Cathedral at Canterbury.</p></div> + +<p>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. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Richard is declared heir to the crown.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Grand entertainment at Christmas.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Bad character of the king.</div> + +<p>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, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span>but he did nothing to restrain +or correct the evils that occurred. In a word, he was fast relapsing +into utter imbecility.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Alice Perrers.<br />Death of the king.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">A council of government appointed.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Chivalry.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Fear of the French.<br />Embargo.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span>and the citizens of London +to be settled, which for a time threatened to be quite embarrassing. +The case was this.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Some account of Wickliffe the reformer.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The Pope's bulls.<br />Meaning of the term.<br />The golden bull.</div> + +<p>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 <i>bulla</i>. 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177-8]</a></span></p><div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/i171.jpg" class="smallgap" width="500" height="311" alt="THE BULL." title="" /> +<span class="caption">THE BULL.</span> +</div> + +<hr class="medium" /> + +<div class="sidenote3">Trial of Wickliffe in London.<br />The assembly.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Violent disputes.<br />Rudeness of the Duke of +Lancaster.<br />Indignation of the people.<br />Priest murdered.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Alarm of the mayor and aldermen.<br />Deputation +sent to the young king.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The Londoners summoned.</div> + +<p>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 +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Richard holds a court.<br />The whole difficulty +amicably settled.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="Chapter_VII" id="Chapter_VII"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter VII.</span></h2> + +<h2><span class="smcap">The Coronation.</span></h2> + +<p class="center">A.D. 1377</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Nature and design of a coronation.</div> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:50px;line-height:32px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">T</span><span style="margin-left:0%;">he</span> 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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Arrangements made for Richard's coronation.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span>and other martial +instruments in great numbers, filled the air with joyful sounds, and +in this manner the procession commenced its march.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Conduits of wine.<br />Golden snow.<br />The young girls.</div> + +<p>In the mean time, the Londoners had made great preparations for the +reception of the <i>cortége</i>. 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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Procession.<br />Crowds of people in the streets.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Ceremonies of the coronation.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Bewildering scene.<br />Oath administered to the +people.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Ceremony of anointing.<br />Richard clothed in his +royal robes.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span>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.<a name="FNanchor_F_6" id="FNanchor_F_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_F_6" class="fnanchor">[F]</a></p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span>for +this purpose, and who considered themselves highly honored by the part +that was assigned them in the ceremony.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The crown.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The globe.<br />The sceptre.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span></p><div class="sidenote">Richard makes his offerings at the altar.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span></p><div class="sidenote">Richard is entirely exhausted with fatigue.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Creation of earls.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Rude amusements.<br />Wine.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">French invasions.</div> + +<p>The next day there were more processions <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Richard's uncles.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">His bright prospects.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="Chapter_VIII" id="Chapter_VIII"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter VIII.</span></h2> + +<h2><span class="smcap">Chivalry</span>.</h2> + +<p class="center">A.D. 1378-1380</p> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:50px;line-height:32px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">B</span><span style="margin-left:0%;">esides</span> 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,</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Edmund, Earl of Cambridge.</div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>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.</p></div> + +<div class="sidenote">Thomas of Woodstock.</div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>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.</p></div> + +<div class="sidenote">Richard's young cousin, Henry of Bolingbroke.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span>of age; or rather, Richard was +eleven, and his cousin Henry was about ten.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">A boy king in France.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Richard and Henry Bolingbroke.</div> + +<p>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. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">French incursions into the Isle of Wight.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Curious story of the Scotch borderers.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span>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."</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Their strange ideas of the grace of God.</div> + +<p>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:<a name="FNanchor_G_7" id="FNanchor_G_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_G_7" class="fnanchor">[G]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span></p><p>The head of the family would first say, "Blessed be," and the others +would respond, "The Lord."</p> + +<p>Then the head of the family would say,</p> + +<div class="centerbox bbox"> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"God and Saint Mango,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Saint Romane and Saint Andro,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shield us this day from God's grace, and<br /></span> +<span class="i0">the foul death that Englishmen die of."<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>And all the others would say "Amen."</p> + +<p>Thus they considered the grace of God as an evil which they were to +pray to be delivered from.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Nature of the royal government.<br />The House of +Commons.</div> + +<p>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 +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Luxury and extravagance of the nobility.</div> + +<p>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. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Wars.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205-6]</a></span></p><div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/i199.jpg" class="smallgap" width="500" height="310" alt="STORMING OF A TOWN." title="" /> +<span class="caption">STORMING OF A TOWN.</span> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span></p><div class="sidenote">Modes of warfare.<br />Mining.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Besieging engines.<br />The Duke of Lancaster's +sow.</div> + +<p>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 <i>sow</i>. 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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Gunpowder.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Story of the Welsh knight, Evan.<br />Siege of +Mortain.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Situation of the castle.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Evan's hostility to the English.<br />Hatred of the +English against Evan.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">John Lamb.</div> + +<p>John Lamb set out from England, and crossed the Channel to France. He +was a well-educated man, speaking French fluently, and he <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">John Lamb arrives at Mortain.<br />His reception by +Evan.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>John gave him very favorable accounts of the country, and spoke +particularly of the interest and affection which was every where felt +for him.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">State of the siege.</div> + +<p>For a time after this there were occasional skirmishes between the +garrison of Mortain and the besiegers, but, as the strength of the +garrison <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Curious manners and customs.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span></p><p>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.</p> + +<p>"Go and get my comb," said he, "and comb my hair. That will refresh me +a little."</p> + +<div class="sidenote">John Lamb accomplishes his purpose.<br />Death of +Evan.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span></p><div class="sidenote">Interview between John Lamb and the governor of the +castle.</div> + +<p>"My lord," said Lamb, "I have delivered you from one of the greatest +enemies you ever had."</p> + +<p>"From whom?" asked the governor.</p> + +<p>"From Evan of Wales," said Lamb.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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,</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span>which came up the +river and drove the French away.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The knights loved fighting for its own sake.<br />Their love of glory.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Story of De Langurant.<br />His men.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The men did as he had commanded them, and concealed themselves in the +wood. De Langurant then rode on alone, his lance fixed <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>The sentinel demanded what he wanted.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">He challenges the governor of the castle to single combat.</div> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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,</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span></p><div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/i214.jpg" class="smallgap" width="500" height="127" alt="KNIGHTS CHARGING UPON EACH OTHER." title="" /> +<span class="caption">KNIGHTS CHARGING UPON EACH OTHER.</span></div> + +<div class="centerbox3 bbox"><p>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.</p></div> + +<div class="sidenote2">Encounter of the knights.<br />Use of lances.<br />Manner in which such combats were fought.<br /> +Result of the combat between De Langurant and Bernard.</div> + +<p>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, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span></p><p>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.</p> + +<p>"Surrender!" said he. "Surrender this instant, or you are a dead man."</p> + +<div class="sidenote">De Langurant refuses to surrender.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">His fate.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr class="medium" /> + +<div class="sidenote3">Intolerable tyranny of the nobles in those days.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Oppression of the tax-gatherers.</div> + +<p>Taxes were assessed, too, at this time, upon all the people of the +kingdom, that were of an extremely onerous character. These taxes were +<i>farmed</i>, 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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Richard's helplessness.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="Chapter_IX" id="Chapter_IX"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter IX.</span></h2> + +<h2><span class="smcap">Wat Tyler's Insurrection.</span></h2> + +<p class="center">A.D. 1381</p> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:50px;line-height:32px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">T</span><span style="margin-left:0%;">he</span> 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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Real name of Wat Tyler.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">State of the country.<br />Names of Walter's +confederates.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Character of these men.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Condition of the lower classes at this time.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Ball's proposal.</div> + +<p>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, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span>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."</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Other orators.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Their discourses.</div> + +<p>"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. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span>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."</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Mixture of truth and error in their complaints.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span>men to be +moderate and reasonable when in such a condition, and in such a state +of mind.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Necessary inequality among men.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The true doctrine of equality.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span>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 <i>rights</i>, 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 <i>in respect to their rights</i>, none will complain—or, at +least, no <i>classes</i> 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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Origin of Wat Tyler's insurrection.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The tax-gatherer in Walter's family.<br />Intolerable outrage.<br />The tax-gatherer killed.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Plan of the insurgents to march to London.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235-6]</a></span></p><div class="figcenter" style="width: 401px;"> +<img src="images/i229.jpg" class="smallgap" width="401" height="500" alt="VIEW OF THE TOWER OF LONDON, AS SEEN FROM THE RIVER." title="" /> +<span class="caption">VIEW OF THE TOWER OF LONDON, AS SEEN FROM THE RIVER.</span> +</div> + +<p>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 +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Re-enforcements by the way.<br />Oaths +administered.</div> + +<p>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,</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>1. Always to be faithful and true to King Richard.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>4. To demand the abrogation of all the obnoxious taxes, and +never to submit again to the collection of them.</p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span></p><div class="sidenote">The Archbishop of Canterbury.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Case of Sir John Newton.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>So Sir John was compelled to go. They took two of his children with +them also, to hold as <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span>security, they said, for their father's good +behavior.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Sir John Newton is sent as an embassador to the king.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span>they +were themselves to do in the emergency they seem to have had no idea.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Interview between Sir John and the king at the Tower.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"I assure your majesty," said he, "that I come not voluntarily, but on +compulsion."</p> + +<p>The king said to him that he had nothing to fear, and directed him to +proceed at once and deliver his message.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span></p><p>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.</p> + +<p>"Because," said he, "they hold my children as hostages, and unless I +return they will surely put them to death."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Sir John returns to the insurgents.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The king goes down to meet the insurgents.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Scene on the bank of the river.</div> + +<p>The assembly seemed so noisy and furious <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>"I have come at your request," said he, "to hear what you have to +say."<a name="FNanchor_H_8" id="FNanchor_H_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_H_8" class="fnanchor">[H]</a></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Parley with the insurgents.</div> + +<p>When the crowd upon the shore saw that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>One of the officers about the king replied that that could not be.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The king retires.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span></p><div class="sidenote">The insurgents resolve to go into London.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The bridge.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span></p><p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>Then, besides, there were a great many of the common people of London +that sympathized with the rioters, and wished to join them.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 247-8]</a></span></p><div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/i242.jpg" class="smallgap" width="500" height="308" alt="THE SAVOY." title="" /> +<span class="caption">THE SAVOY.</span> +</div> + +<div class="sidenote2">Excitement in the city.<br />The gates opened.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The insurgents occupy the streets of London.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span>and Westminster, and was a grand and imposing mansion.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Destruction of the Duke of Lancaster's palace.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 251-2]</a></span></p><div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/i246.jpg" class="smallgap" width="500" height="342" alt="RUINS OF THE SAVOY." title="" /> +<span class="caption">RUINS OF THE SAVOY.</span> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span></p><p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Destruction of the Temple.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Assassination of Richard Lyon.<br />Excesses of the mob.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span>the streets, a +warning, as they said, to all cruel and oppressive masters.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">They bivouac near the Tower.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="Chapter_X" id="Chapter_X"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter X.</span></h2> + +<h2><span class="smcap">The End of the Insurrection.</span></h2> + +<p class="center">A.D. 1381</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Anxiety and embarrassment of the king.<br />Consultations in the Tower.<br />Various counsels.</div> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:50px;line-height:32px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">I</span><span style="margin-left:0%;">n</span> 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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span></p><p>Others thought that this would be a very hazardous mode of proceeding, +and very uncertain as to its results.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>These counsels prevailed. It was decided not to attack the rioters +immediately, but to wait a little, and see what turn things would +take.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Mile-End.<br />A meeting appointed with the rioters +at Mile-End.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>They took him at his word, and the whole immense mass began to set +itself in motion toward Mile-End.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The king meets the insurgents at Mile-End.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Parley with them.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The king accedes to their demands.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Effect of the concessions.</div> + +<p>But there were a great many who were not satisfied. An insurrection +like this, whatever <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Preparation of the decrees.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Scenes in the night in and around London.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The next morning.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span>to their homes were +present at the consultation. Among them, and at the head of them, +indeed, was Wat Tyler.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The king meets the insurgents at Smithfield.</div> + +<p>He accordingly went to Westminster, accompanied and escorted by a +suitable cortége 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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span></p><div class="sidenote">Another parley.</div> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Walter advances.</div> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>So saying, Walter made a certain gesture with his hand, which was to +be the signal for his men.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">His orders to his men.</div> + +<p>"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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span>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."</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Doubt about the fairness of the accounts.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Conversation between Walter and the king.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>Walter replied that they wanted the decrees to be delivered to <i>them</i>.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Walter gets into a quarrel with the king's squire.</div> + +<p>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,</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span></p><p>"What! You here?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Walter turned his horse toward the squire and said,</p> + +<p>"Let me see that dagger that you have got."</p> + +<p>"No," said the squire, drawing back.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said the king, "let him take the dagger."</p> + +<p>The king was not at all afraid of the rebel, and wished to let him see +that he was not afraid of him.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>After having satisfied himself with examining the dagger, he turned +again to the squire:</p> + +<p>"And now," said he, "let me see your sword."</p> + +<p>"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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span>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."</p> + +<p>There was a famous church, called the Church of St. Bartholomew, near +the place where the king and his party had halted.</p> + +<p>"By the powers," said Walter, "I will not eat this day before I have +your head."</p> + +<p>Seeing that a quarrel was impending, the mayor of London and a dozen +horsemen rode up and surrounded Walter and the squire.</p> + +<p>"Scoundrel!" said the mayor, "how dare you utter such threats as +those?"</p> + +<p>"What business is that of yours?" said Walter, turning fiercely toward +the mayor. "What have you to do with it?"</p> + +<p>"Seize him!" said the king; for the king himself was now beginning to +lose his patience.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Walter is at last assaulted and killed.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span>Walter +through with his sword, killing him on the spot.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Excitement among his men.</div> + +<p>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."</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Courage and coolness of the king.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Gentlemen," said he, "you have no leader but me. I am your king. +Remain quiet and peaceable."</p> + +<p>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. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Alarm conveyed to London.<br />Troops brought to the +ground.</div> + +<p>The mayor had already sent horsemen into London to summon help. These +messengers spread the cry in the city, <span class="smcap">"To Smithfield! To Smithfield! +They are killing the King!"</span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span></p><div class="sidenote">The insurgents surrender their banners and disperse.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span></p><div class="sidenote">The king's interview with his mother.</div> + +<p>The king then went home to his mother. She was overjoyed to see him +safely returning.</p> + +<p>"My dear son," said she, "you can not conceive what pain and anguish I +have suffered for you this day."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<hr class="medium" /> + +<div class="sidenote3">Final results of the rebellion.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="Chapter_XI" id="Chapter_XI"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter XI.</span></h2> + +<h2><span class="smcap">Good Queen Anne.</span></h2> + +<p class="center">A.D. 1382-1394</p> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:50px;line-height:32px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">K</span><span style="margin-left:0%;">ing</span> 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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The planning of Richard's first marriage.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Journey of the bridal party toward England.</div> + +<p>In due time, when every thing had been made ready, the princess set +out on her journey, accompanied <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Their way is cut off by sea.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span></p><p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The bride enters Calais.<br />Great display.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span></p><div class="sidenote">The bride arrives in England.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Great excitement in London.</div> + +<p>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 cortége in London.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">A contrast.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The bride enters London.<br />Parades and +rejoicings.</div> + +<p>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, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Character of the queen.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Why she was called Good Queen Anne.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Ancient drawings.</div> + +<p>The arrival of the young queen produced a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>The engravings on the following page are copied from one of these +ancient manuscripts.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Curious fashions of those times.<br />Costumes of Richard's time.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span></p><div class="figcenter" style="width: 351px;"> +<img src="images/i276a.jpg" class="smallgap" width="351" height="300" alt="MALE COSTUME IN THE TIME OF RICHARD II." title="" /> +<span class="caption">MALE COSTUME IN THE TIME OF RICHARD II.</span> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 357px;"> +<img src="images/i276b.jpg" class="smallgap" width="357" height="300" alt="FEMALE COSTUME IN THE TIME OF RICHARD II." title="" /> +<span class="caption">FEMALE COSTUME IN THE TIME OF RICHARD II.</span> +</div> + +<div class="sidenote2">The Cracows.<br />Origin of the name.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span></p><div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"> +<img src="images/i277.jpg" class="smallgap" width="350" height="350" alt="FASHIONABLE HEAD-DRESSES." title="" /> +<span class="caption">FASHIONABLE HEAD-DRESSES.</span> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span></p> +<div class="sidenote">The horned caps.<br />Description of the horns.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Pins.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Side-saddles.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span></p><div class="sidenote">Queen Anne's useful and busy life.<br />Shene.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Grand celebration.</div> + +<p>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 +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The tournament.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Knights.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span>minstrels and bands of instrumental music, and the streets were +thronged with spectators.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr class="medium" /> + +<div class="sidenote3">Magnificence of the king's mode of life.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Death of Queen Anne.<br />The king inconsolable.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The funeral.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Inscription on Queen Anne's tomb.</div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span></p><p>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:</p> + +<div class="centerbox bbox"> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Under this stone lies Anne, here entombed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wedded in this world's life to the second Richard.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To Christ were her meek virtues devoted:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His poor she freely fed from her treasures;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Strife she assuaged, and swelling feuds appeased;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beauteous her form, her face surpassing fair.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On July's seventh day, thirteen hundred ninety-four,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All comfort was bereft, for through irremediable sickness<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She passed away into interminable joys."</span></div></div></div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Richard was afterward married again, to his "little wife," as we shall +see in a future chapter.</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="Chapter_XII" id="Chapter_XII"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter XII.</span></h2> + +<h2><span class="smcap">Incidents of the Reign.</span></h2> + +<p class="center">A.D. 1382-1396</p> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:50px;line-height:32px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">I</span><span style="margin-left:0%;">n</span> 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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Jealousy of Richard and his mother against the uncles.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span>last of deposing Richard from his throne +in order to take possession of it himself, as we shall see in the +sequel.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Plots and manœuvres.</div> + +<p>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 manœuvres, 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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Thomas, Duke of Gloucester.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span>government would never +be on a good footing until they themselves appointed a council to +manage in the king's name.</p> + +<p>When Richard heard of this plan, he declared that he would never +submit to it.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Province of Parliament.<br />Prerogative of the +king.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The people of England, as represented by Parliament, have never +consented to this view of the subject. They have always maintained +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The Commons threaten the king.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">He is compelled to yield.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Council appointed.<br />Richard's discontent.</div> + +<p>The council that was appointed consisted of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The court at Nottingham.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Preparations for war.<br />Richard and his party +overcome.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Execution of Burley.<br />Queen Anne's fruitless +intercession.</div> + +<p>One of Richard's favorites who was executed <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The king determines to resume his power.</div> + +<p>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, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span>that Richard was not yet of +age. But now he became of age, and he resolved on what might be called +a <i>coup d'état</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">His interview with his council.</div> + +<p>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,</p> + +<p>"My lord, what is my age at the present time?"</p> + +<p>The nobleman answered that his majesty was now over twenty years of +age.</p> + +<p>"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. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span>And that which is permitted by law to every other person, of however +mean degree, why is it denied to me?"</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Surprise of the barons.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>The barons were extremely surprised to hear these determinations thus +resolutely announced by the king, but had nothing to say in reply.</p> + +<p>"And in the first place," continued Richard, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span>"I wish the chancellor +to give me up the great seal."</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The great seal.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"I wish the chancellor," said the king, "to deliver me up the great +seal."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span></p><div class="figcenter" style="width: 303px;"> +<img src="images/i294.jpg" class="smallgap" width="303" height="300" alt="SEAL OF RICHARD II." title="" /> +<span class="caption">SEAL OF RICHARD II.</span> +</div> + +<div class="sidenote2">Richard appoints a new chancellor.<br />Richard +appoints new officers of government.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span></p><p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The wars in which Richard was engaged.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Story of Sir Miles, the Bohemian knight.</div> + +<p>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 +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The archers and the squires.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<div class="sidenote">A squire killed.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span></p><div class="sidenote">Sir Ralph Stafford is displeased and alarmed.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>The Earl of Stafford, Lord Ralph Stafford's father, was a nobleman of +the very highest rank, and of great influence.</p> + +<p>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, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span>that the slaughter of a man in an affray of this kind was +a matter to be <i>arranged</i> between the masters respectively of the men +engaged in it.</p> + +<p>The archers went away to hide themselves until Lord Ralph could +arrange the matter.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Lord Holland is enraged.<br />He meets Lord Stafford +in a narrow lane.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Who comes here?" said Lord Holland, when he saw Sir Ralph +approaching.</p> + +<p>"I am Stafford," replied Sir Ralph.</p> + +<p>"You are the very man I want to see," said <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span>Lord Holland. "One of your +servants has killed my squire—the one that I loved so much."</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Stafford is killed.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>As soon as this fact was ascertained, one of the men rode on after +Lord Holland, and, coming up to him, said,</p> + +<p>"My lord, you have killed Lord Stafford."</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Lord Holland's unconcern.</div> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Richard's perplexity and distress.<br />His mother's +anguish.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Extraordinary marriage of the Duke of Lancaster.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Indignation and rage of the ladies of the court.</div> + +<p>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 +<i>her</i>, for that, it is said, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>This the other duchesses could not endure. They could not bear it, +they said, and they <i>would</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="Chapter_XIII" id="Chapter_XIII"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter XIII.</span></h2> + +<h2><span class="smcap">The Little Queen.</span></h2> + +<p class="center">A.D. 1395-1396</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Some account of Isabella of France, the little queen.</div> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:50px;line-height:32px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">K</span><span style="margin-left:0%;">ing</span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>At last he took it into his head that he should <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>"But she is altogether too young for your majesty," said Richard's +counselors. "She is a mere child."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Richard opens negotiations with the King of France.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span>Paris +to propose to the King of France that he should give his little +daughter Isabella in marriage to Richard, King of England.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">A grand embassage sent to France.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Their reception.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"How can we," said the French counselors, "give a Princess of France +in marriage to our worst and bitterest enemy?"</p> + +<p>To this the embassadors replied that the marriage would establish and +confirm a permanent peace between the two countries.</p> + +<p>Then there was another objection. Isabella was already engaged. She +had been betrothed <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Interview of the embassadors with little Isabella.</div> + +<p>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,</p> + +<p>"Madam, if it please God, you shall be our lady and queen."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>She replied to the embassador of her own accord in a clear, childish +voice,</p> + +<p>"Sir, if it please God and my lord and father that I be Queen of +England, I should be <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span>well pleased, for I have been told that there I +shall be a great lady."</p> + +<p>Isabella then took the kneeling embassador by the hand and lifted him +up. She then led him to her mother.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The negotiations go on satisfactorily.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span></p><div class="sidenote">The marriage ceremony is performed by proxy.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Richard makes arrangements to go and receive his bride.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Grand preparations for the expedition.</div> + +<p>Among the ladies of the court on both sides there was universal +emulation and excitement <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>At length every thing was ready, and the expedition, leaving London, +journeyed to Dover, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The meeting on the French frontier.<br />The +pavilions.<br />Precautions to guard against violence or treachery.</div> + +<p>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. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_I_9" id="FNanchor_I_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_I_9" class="fnanchor">[I]</a> 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.</p> + +<p>Things being thus arranged, at the appointed hour the two kings set +out together from their own pavilions, and walked, accompanied each +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Ceremonious interviews.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Grand entertainment.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span></p><div class="sidenote">Richard receives his bride.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The palanquin.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>A few days after this the marriage ceremony was performed anew between +Richard and Isabella, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Excitement in London.<br />Reception of the little +queen.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The little queen's mode of life in England.</div> + +<p>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, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="Chapter_XIV" id="Chapter_XIV"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter XIV.</span></h2> + +<h2><span class="smcap">Richard's Deposition and Death.</span></h2> + +<p class="center">A.D. 1397-1399</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Difficulties of Richard's position.<br />His +rivals.</div> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:50px;line-height:32px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">I</span><span style="margin-left:0%;">t</span> 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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Plot discovered.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Richard arrests his uncle Gloucester.<br />Extraordinary circumstances of the arrest.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Richard becomes extremely unpopular.<br />His +excesses.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Remorse.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">His fear of Henry Bolingbroke.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span>the question which of +them was the true man.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Coventry.<br />Preparation for the combat.<br />The combat arrested.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span></p><div class="sidenote">Henry is banished from England.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Case of Lady De Courcy.<br />Her dismissal from +office.</div> + +<p>Another circumstance occurred to alienate the King of France still +more from Richard. There was a certain French lady, named De <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Richard seizes his cousin Henry's estates.</div> + +<p>About three months after Henry of Bolingbroke was banished from the +realm, his father, the Duke of Lancaster, died. He left immense +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Ireland.<br />Richard's farewell to the little +queen.</div> + +<p>Before setting out for Ireland, the king went to Windsor to bid the +little queen good-by. He <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span>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,</p> + +<p>"Adieu, madame. Adieu till we meet again."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[Pg 334]</a></span></p><div class="sidenote">A rebellion.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Misfortunes of the king.<br />Conway Castle.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[Pg 335]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The king is made prisoner.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[Pg 336]</a></span></p><p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">His interview with Henry at the castle in Wales.</div> + +<p>On his arrival at Flint Castle,<a name="FNanchor_J_10" id="FNanchor_J_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_J_10" class="fnanchor">[J]</a> 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,</p> + +<p>"Dear cousin, you are welcome."</p> + +<p>Henry replied,</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>The king replied,</p> + +<p>"Dear cousin, I am ready to accomplish your will, so that you may +enjoy all that is yours without exception."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[Pg 337]</a></span></p><p>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.</p> + +<p>"And what do they want?" asked Richard.</p> + +<p>"They want me to take <i>you</i>," said Henry, "and carry you prisoner to +the Tower; and there will be no pacifying them unless you go with me."</p> + +<div class="sidenote">The king is conveyed a prisoner to London.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[Pg 338]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Parliament convened.<br />Charges preferred against +the king.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[Pg 339]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Interview between Richard and Henry in the Tower.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Rage of Richard.</div> + +<p>"Am I your servant," he demanded, "or am I your king? And what do you +intend to do with me?"</p> + +<p>"You are my king and lord," replied Henry, calmly, "but the Parliament +have determined <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[Pg 340]</a></span>that you are to be kept in confinement for the +present, until they can decide in respect to the charges laid against +you."</p> + +<p>Here the king uttered a dreadful imprecation, expressive of rage and +despair.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Portrait of Henry.</div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 276px;"> +<img src="images/i334.jpg" class="smallgap" width="276" height="350" alt="HENRY OF BOLINGBROKE—KING HENRY IV." title="" /> +<span class="caption">HENRY OF BOLINGBROKE—KING HENRY IV.</span> +</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[Pg 341-2]</a></span></p><div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/i336.jpg" class="smallgap" width="500" height="296" alt="PONTEFRACT CASTLE, KING RICHARD'S PRISON." title="" /> +<span class="caption">PONTEFRACT CASTLE, KING RICHARD'S PRISON.</span> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[Pg 343]</a></span></p> +<div class="sidenote">The king is compelled to abdicate the crown.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Henry desires that Richard should be killed.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[Pg 344]</a></span>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,</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Assassination of Richard.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[Pg 345]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Disposal of the body.</div> + +<p>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 <i>twenty thousand</i> persons that availed themselves of the +opportunity of satisfying themselves, by the evidence of their senses, +that the hated Richard was no more.</p> + +<hr class="medium" /> + +<div class="sidenote3">The little queen.</div> + +<p>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, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[Pg 346]</a></span>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Her return to France.</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Sequel of the story of the little queen.</div> + +<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[Pg 347]</a></span>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.</p> + +<h3><span class="smcap">The End.</span></h3> + +<hr class="large" /> +<h3><span class="smcap">Footnotes.</span></h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_1" id="Footnote_A_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_1"><span class="label">[A]</span></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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_B_2" id="Footnote_B_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_B_2"><span class="label">[B]</span></a> 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_C_3" id="Footnote_C_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_C_3"><span class="label">[C]</span></a> 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 +<i>Saliens</i>, by whom it was first introduced.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_D_4" id="Footnote_D_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_D_4"><span class="label">[D]</span></a> See map on page <a href="#Page_110">110</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_E_5" id="Footnote_E_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_E_5"><span class="label">[E]</span></a> See map on page <a href="#Page_110">110</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_F_6" id="Footnote_F_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_F_6"><span class="label">[F]</span></a> 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_G_7" id="Footnote_G_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_G_7"><span class="label">[G]</span></a> The form was in Latin. We give here the English of it.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_H_8" id="Footnote_H_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_H_8"><span class="label">[H]</span></a> See <a href="#Frontispiece">Frontispiece</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I_9" id="Footnote_I_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I_9"><span class="label">[I]</span></a> 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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_J_10" id="Footnote_J_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_J_10"><span class="label">[J]</span></a>There is some discrepancy +in the accounts in respect to the castle where this interview was had, but this is not material.</p></div> + +<hr class="large" /> +<h3><span class="smcap">Transcriber's Notes</span></h3> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>2. The sidenotes used in this text were originally published as banners in the page headers, and have been moved to the relevant paragraph +for the reader's convenience.</p> + +<p>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. Additionally, other minor changes have been made in positioning of page numbers to accommodate positioning of page numbers.</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Richard II, by Jacob Abbott + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RICHARD II *** + +***** This file should be named 28433-h.htm or 28433-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/8/4/3/28433/ + +Produced by D. Alexander and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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