In October, 1396, he married Isabella, daughter of Charles the Sixth of France. This marriage was not popular with his subjects, and was much opposed by his uncle, the Duke of Gloucester, and other nobles. Richard procured the condemnation and execution of some of his opponents; and his uncle Gloucester was imprisoned in Calais, and there died, not without some suspicious circumstances attending his death.

In 1398, the Dukes of Norfolk and Hereford accused each other of treason to the king. The accusation was to be decided by wager of battle; but when the lists were set, and the combatants ready to engage, Richard interfered, and banished both,-Norfolk for life, and Hereford for ten years.

Richard adopted the most illegal means to extort money for his pleasures, from the merchants of London and other cities; and his government became so tyrannical and oppressive, that universal disaffection spread through the country.

Hereford, now Duke of Lancaster, determined to take advantage of this, and seize upon the throne. So, in 1399, when Richard was absent in Ireland, he landed in Yorkshire with a small force, under the pretext of recovering his inheritance, which had been seized by the Crown, and of reforming the government of the kingdom.

He was soon joined by large numbers of the nobility, and his army increased by their retainers in the north. Richard, hearing of the invasion, hastened to England; but, finding himself deserted by almost all, he delivered himself up to Henry. When parliament assembled in the great hall at Westminster, Richard was compelled

to abdicate the throne, and release his people from their allegiance. He was then impeached for his long misgovernment, and condemned. Amid the acclamations of the people who thronged the hall, Henry claimed the throne, and, his claim being allowed by the Lords and Commons assembled, he was crowned, and proclaimed under the title of Henry the Fourth.

Richard was the last sovereign of the direct line of Plantagenet; Henry was the first of the house of Lan

caster.

CHAP. XVI.

CONSTITUTION, INDUSTRY, MANNERS, &c., DURING THE PLANTAGENET PERIOD.

IN reviewing the national progress during the Plantagenet period, the first thing that strikes our notice is the fact, that, about the time of Henry the Third, or Edward the Fourth, the great distinction of Normans and Saxons had disappeared, and all living in England had become Englishmen. This change, productive of such important consequences, is thus described by the most eloquent of our historians:*

"The stages of the progress by which the hostile elements were melted down in one homogeneous mass are But it is certain that, when

not actually known to us.

John became king, the distinctions between Saxons

* Macaulay's History of England, vol. i. p. 17.

THE CONSTITUTION UNDER THE PLANTAGENETS. 81

and Normans was strongly marked, and that before the end of the reign of his grandson it had almost disappeared. In the time of Richard the First the ordinary imprecation of a Norman gentleman was, 'May I become an Englishman!' His ordinary form of indignant denial 'Do you take me for an Englishman?' The descendant of such a gentleman a hundred later was proud of the English name.

was,

years

"The sources of the noblest rivers which spread fertility over continents, and bear richly-laden fleets to the sea, are to be sought in wild and barren tracts, incorrectly laid down in maps, and rarely explained by travellers. To such a tract, the history of our country, during the thirteenth century, may not unaptly be compared. Sterile and obscure as is this portion of our annals, it is there that we must seek for the origin of our freedom, our prosperity, and our glory. Then it was that the great English people was formed, that the national character began to exhibit those peculiarities which it has ever since retained, and that our fathers became emphatically islanders-islanders, not merely in geographical position, but in their politics, their feelings, and their manners. Then first appeared with distinctness that constitution of which all the other free constitutions in the world are copies, and which, in spite of many defects, deserves to be regarded as the best under which any great society has ever yet existed during many ages. Then it was that the House of Commons- that archetype of all the representative assemblies which now meet, either in the old or the new world-held its first sittings.

"Then it was that the common law rose to the dig

G

nity of a science, and rapidly became a not unworthy rival of the imperial jurisprudence. Then it was that the courage of those sailors who manned the rude barks of the Cinque Ports first made the flag of England terrible on the seas. Then it was that the most ancient colleges which still exist at both the great national seats of learning were founded. Then was formed that language, less musical, indeed, than the languages of the south, but in force, in richness, in aptitude for all the highest purposes of the poet, the philosopher, and the orator, inferior to that of Greece alone. Then too appeared the first faint dawn of that noble literature, the most splendid and the most durable of the many glories of England."

We have seen how Magna Charta was obtained. It is true that the privileges of that famous document were at first chiefly for the rich and noble of the land, for the barons, and knights, and freeholders; but as gradually all Englishmen became freemen, they claimed the benefit of the charter. We have also seen how the House of Commons rose; how, from an humble assembly, meeting to lay taxes on the commons, it rapidly grew a great power in the State, and dictated to kings.

During the long and prosperous reign of Edward the Third the Parliament succeeded in establishing upon a firm footing three essential principles of our government: -the illegality of raising money without consent; the necessity that the two houses should concur in any alterations of the law; and, lastly, the right of the Commons to inquire into public abuses, and to impeach public councillors. In Richard's reign these were all settled and confirmed by frequent exercise; and the

House of Commons further acquired the right of directing the application of subsidies, and calling the accountants before them.

In noticing the literature of the Plantagenet period, we must remember that the present English was, at the commencement of this era, in a state of formation. During the reigns of Henry and John, the king and nobles still spoke French, while the common people talked Saxon. There were, consequently, writers, who wrote for each class, in its own language. But as we come downwards we find a literature gradually springing up, addressed to a united nation. None of the names of comparatively obscure authors need be mentioned here, till we come to the reign of Edward the Third, where we find three eminent men, whose names are familiar: John Wycliffe, Geoffrey Chaucer, and John Mandeville.

We have already mentioned the first of these as a reformer in the Church, and as the translator of the Scriptures into English. This seems to have been accomplished about the year 1380.

Our oldest writer of English prose is Sir John Mandeville, who wrote an account of his travels in the East. His work was written about 1355, and is a most amusing and marvellous account of thirty years' wandering in and about the Holy Land.

Geoffrey Chaucer was born in London, about the year 1328. His chief patron was the Duke of Lancaster, by whose influence he seems to have been employed about the Court. The poetical celebrity of Chaucer rests on his "Canterbury Tales." These are a series of stories linked together by a curious device. A number of persons of all kinds and conditions set out from London