King Edward, in the latter years of his reign, allowed the realm to be governed by unworthy ministers. The House of Commons, now grown to be a power in the State, demanded redress, and in the fiftieth year of Edward's reign, after granting a subsidy, the Commons remonstrated with the king, and said that the national revenues were wasted by his ministers, for if they had been honest there would have been no need to impose taxes and so impoverish the people. For these and other misdemeanours, the Commons accused and impeached the lords Latimer and Neville, and four merchants, Lyons, Ellis, Peachey, and Bury. This parliament was exceedingly popular; but in the next, the Duke of Lancaster, Edward's fourth son, recovered the confidence he had lost, and Peter le Mare, the speaker of the previous parliament, was thrown into prison for his boldness in censuring the court.

John Wycliffe, the parish priest of Lutterworth, had for some years been writing and preaching against the abuses of the Church, and showing the need of a reformation. He also desired that every one should be at liberty to read the Bible in his native tongue, and to effect this, translated the Scriptures into English. He was violently opposed by the monks and bishops, but found a protector in the Duke of Lancaster.

King Edward died on the 21st of June, 1377, in the sixty-fifth year of his age, and fifty-first of his reign. He was succeeded by his grandson Richard.

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CHAP. XV.

RICHARD II. 1377-1399.

RICHARD THE SECOND was but ten years old at his accession. The people were generally inclined to be loyal to the son of their favourite hero, the Black Prince. A council of twelve peers was appointed to govern the kingdom, presided over by the Duke of Lancaster, the king's uncle. When the French, taking advantage of the king's minority, plundered the southern coast of England, parliament vigorously interfered with the Government; and while they granted supplies, appointed two citizens of London, Philpot and Walworth, to see how the money raised by taxation was spent.

About this period, throughout western Europe, there was a great movement taking place among the peasantry and serfs. In France, the peasants broke out in open war, and, under the name of the Jacquerie, attacked the nobles and their soldiers, and committed many outrages. This feeling of discontent spread to England, where the villains had been gradually rising from a state of dependence, and had begun to feel their power in the State. The stout yeomen and peasants who wielded the English bow, had divided the glory of Cressy and Poictiers with the knights and barons; knowledge had begun to spread; perhaps the doctrines of Wycliffe

were working in their minds; and their oppressed condition urged them to assert their rights, and claim relief from the many burdens which pressed so heavily upon them. In 1381, the imposition of a poll-tax blew the long smouldering embers of revolt into a flame. The men of Kent found a captain in Wat the Tyler of Dartford, whom the gross insult of a tax-gatherer had driven to desperation, John Ball, a priest, proclaimed the doctrine of equality of rights and (it was said by the enemies of the peasants) of property too.

The insurgents encamped on Blackheath, and were afterwards admitted to London, where they committed many excesses. Their chief demands were, the total abolition of serfdom, the reduction of the rent of land, liberty for the peasantry to sell and buy in all fairs and markets, and a general pardon for all past offences. Most of these demands were reasonable, and Richard granted them, apparently without reluctance. This satisfied the greater part of the peasants, and they returned to their homes. But Wat Tyler, and those more immediately under his influence, rejecting the offers of the king, demanded the abolition of forests and forestlaws. King Richard met Tyler and his followers in Smithfield; and while Tyler was urging his demands with threatening gestures, Walworth, the mayor of London, struck him with a dagger, and the king's attendants thereupon despatched him. When they saw their leader fall, the people gave a great shout, bent their bows, and made ready to attack the king; but hẹ, with great intrepidity, rode up to them, and waving his hand, cried aloud, "Follow me: I am your king. Tyler was a rebel; I will be your leader." Many of

the peasants obeyed, others fled; and a large party of the king's troops attacked and dispersed those who had been induced to follow the king, and killed without mercy all they could find.

When Richard found himself at the head of a sufficient force, he revoked the charters he had granted to the peasants; and the parliament which met shortly afterwards, instead of blaming the king for what he had done, urged him to punish with still greater severity the insurgents who had laid down their arms trusting to his word. Though villenage was not abolished by any law, yet from this time we hear little more of it; and it seems very soon to have ceased entirely.

This same parliament felt that Richard's bad government had been in great measure the cause of the recent disturbances, and in an address to the Crown the Commons told the king plainly their opinion, "that unless the administration of the kingdom were speedily reformed, the kingdom itself would be utterly lost and ruined for ever, and therein their lord the king and all the peers and commons. For true it is, that there are such defects in the said administration, as well about the king's person and his household as in his courts of justice, that the commons are reduced to greater distress than they ever were before:" and they go on to say that, "if reform of government were to take place, it should begin by the chief member, which is the king himself, and so from person to person, as well churchman as others, and place to place from high to low, without sparing any degree." With such feelings they were very loth to grant subsidies to the king, who misspent them with his

courtiers. The character of Richard was now developing itself; he was not without abilities, and like all the Plantagenets he was personally courageous; but he was obstinate, imperious, and at the same time full of dissimulation, and fond of the most unworthy favourites; so that he soon lost the affections of his subjects. The name of his chief favourite was De Vere, whom he made Earl of Oxford, and Governor of Ireland. Suffolk, his Chancellor and chief minister, so misgoverned, that the Commons impeached him in 1386, and he was dismissed from office for a time. In the same year, a commission of reform was appointed in parliament; but Richard got some of the judges to declare this to be illegal, but for this advice, in the parliament of 1388, the advisers of the king were condemned and banished. The same year was fought the battle of Otterburn, between Earls Douglas and Percy, which is related in the well-known ballad of Chevy Chase.

In 1389 Richard was sitting at the council, presided over by his uncle Gloucester, when he suddenly asked what age he was. Being told that he was twenty-two, he said, "Then I must surely be able to manage my own affairs; I thank you for your past services, but I require them no longer." So he dismissed his uncle and his council. For some years Richard governed with vigour and success. In 1396 he so influenced the elections to parliament, that he received a grant of the tax on wool for his life, which in a measure superseded the necessity of again assembling parliament. Being thus freed from control, he wasted his revenues in sports and expensive shows and entertainments, to gratify a host of unworthy favourites and courtiers.