1389. CHA P. office on William of Wickham, Bishop of WinchesXVII. ter; the Bishop of Hereford was displaced from the office of treasurer, the Earl of Arundel from that of admiral; even the Duke of Glocester and the Earl of Warwic were removed for a time from the council: And no opposition was made to these great changes. The history of this reign is imperfect, and little to be depended on; except where it is supported by public records: And it is not easy for us to assign the reason of this unexpected event. Perhaps some secret animosities, naturally to be expected in that situation, had crept in among the great men, and had enabled the King to recover his authority. Perhaps the violence of their former proceedings had lost them the affections of the people, who soon repent of any cruel extremities to which they are carried by their leaders. However this may be, Richard exercised with moderation the authority which he had resumed. He seemed to be entirely reconciled to his uncles' and the other great men, of whom he had so much reason to complain: He never attempted to recal from banishment the Duke of Ireland, whom he found so obnoxious to them: He confirmed, by proclamation, the general pardon which the parliament had passed for all offences: And he courted the affections of the people, by voluntarily remitting some subsidies which had been granted him; a remarkable and almost singular instance of such generosity. AFTER this composure of domestic differences, and this restoration of the government to its natural state, there passes an interval of eight years, which affords not many remarkable events. The Duke of Lancaster returned from Spain; having resigned to his rival all pretensions to the crown of Castile upon payment of a large sum of money", and having married his daughter, Philippa, to the King of Por 1 Dugdale, vol. ii. p. 173. Walsingham, p. 342. m Knyghton, p. 2677 tugal. XVII. tugal. The authority of this Prince served to coun- C H A P. terbalance that of the Duke of Glocester, and secured the power of Richard, who paid great court 1389. to his eldest uncle, by whom he had never been offended, and whom he found more moderate in his temper than the younger. He made a cession to him for life of the dutchy of Guienne", which the inclinations and changeable humour of the Gascons had restored to the English government; but as they remonstrated loudly against this deed, it was finally, with the Duke's consent, revoked by Richard. There happened an incident, which produced a dissention between Lancaster and his two brothers. After the death of the Spanish Princess, he espoused Catherine Swineford, daughter of a private knight of Hainault, by whose alliance York and Glocester thought the dignity of their family much injured: But the King gratified his uncle, by passing in parliament a charter of legitimation to the children whom that lady had borne him before marriage, and by creating the eldest Earl of Somerset. P THE wars, meanwhile, which Richard had inherited with his crown, still continued: though interrupted by frequent truces, according to the practice of that age, and conducted with little vigour, by reason of the weakness of all parties. The French war was scarcely heard of; the tranquillity of the northern borders was only interrupted by one inroad of the Scots, which proceeded more from a rivalship between the two martial families of Piercy and Douglas, than from any national quarrel: A fierce battle or skirmish was fought at Otterborne, in which young Piercy, sirnamed Hotspur, from his impetuous valour, was taken prisoner, and Douglas slain; and the victory remained 'undecided. p. 365. Walsingham, p. 352. • Ibid. p. 687. P Cotton, Froissard, liv. iii. chap. 124, 125, 126. Walsingham, p.355, Some XVII. 1389. 1396. CHA P. Some insurrections of the Irish obliged the King to make an expedition into that country, which he reduced to obedience; and he recovered, in some degree, by this enterprise, his character of courage, which had suffered a little by the inactivity of his reign. At last, the English and French courts began to think in earnest of a lasting peace; but found it so difficult to adjust their opposite pretensions, that they were content to establish a truce of twentyfive years: Brest and Cherbourg were restored, the former to the Duke of Britany, the latter to the King of Navarre: Both parties were left in possession of all the other places which they held at the time of concluding the truce: And to render the amity between the two crowns more durable, Richard, who was now a widower, was affianced to Isabella, the daughter of Charles. This Princess was only seven years of age; but the King agreed to so unequal a match, chiefly that he might fortify himself by this alliance against the enterprises of his uncles, and the incurable turbulence as well as inconstancy of his Barons. t THE administration of the King, though it was not, in this interval, sullied by any unpopular act, except the seizing of the charter of London ", which was soon after restored, tended not much to corroborate his authority; and his personal character brought him into contempt, even while his public government appeared, in a good measure, unexceptionable. Indolent, profuse, addicted to low pleasures; he spent his whole time in feasting and jollity, and dissipated, in idle show, or in bounties to favourites of no reputation, that revenue which the people expected to see him employ in enterprises directed to public honour and advantage. He forgot his rank by admitting all men to his familiarity; and he was not sensible that their acquaint XVII. 1396. ance with the qualities of his mind was not able to C HA P. impress them with the respect which he neglected to preserve from his birth and station. The Earls of Kent and Huntingdon, his half-brothers, were his chief confidents and favourites; and though he never devoted himself to them with so profuse an affection as that with which he had formerly been at tached to the Duke of Ireland, it was easy for men to see, that every grace passed through their hands, and that the King had rendered himself a mere cypher in the government. The small regard which the public bore to his person, disposed them to murmur against his administration, and to receive, with greedy ears, every complaint which the discontented or ambitious grandees suggested to them. 1397. the Duke GLOCESTER Soon perceived the advantages which this dissolute conduct gave him; and finding, that Cabals of both resentment and jealousy on the part of his of Glocesnephew still prevented him from acquiring any ter. ascendant over that Prince, he determined to cultivate his popularity with the nation, and to revenge himself on those who eclipsed him in favour and authority. He seldom appeared at court or in council: He never declared his opinion but in order to disapprove of the measures embraced by the King and his favourites; and he courted the friendship of every man whom disappointments or private resentment had rendered an enemy to the administration. The long truce with France was unpopular with the English, who breathed nothing but war against that hostile nation; and Glocester took care to encourage all the vulgar prejudices which prevailed on this subject. Forgetting the misfortunes which attended the English arms during the later years of Edward, he made an invidious comparison between the glories of that reign and the inactivity of the present, and he lamented that Richard should have degenerated so much from the heroic virtues by which his father CHAP. father and his grandfather were distinguished. XVII. The military men were inflamed with a desire of 1397. war, when they heard him talk of the signal victories formerly obtained, and of the easy prey which might be made of French riches by the superior valour of the English: The populace readily embraced the same sentiments: And all men exclaimed that this Prince, whose counsels were so much neglected, was the true support of English honour, and alone able to raise the nation to its former power and splendour. His great abilities, his popular manners, his princely extraction, his immense riches, his high office of constable ", all these advantages, not a little assisted by his want of court-favour, gave him a mighty authority in the kingdom, and rendered him formidable to Richard and his ministers. FROISSARD*, a contemporary writer and very impartial, but whose credit is somewhat impaired by his want of exactness in material facts, ascribes to the Duke of Glocester more desperate views, and such as were totally incompatible with the government and domestic tranquillity of the nation. According to that historian, he proposed to his nephew, Roger Mortimer Earl of Marche, whom Richard had declared his successor, to give him immediate possession of the throne, by the deposition of a Prince so unworthy of power and authority: And when Mortimer declined the project, he resolved to make a partition of the kingdom between himself, his two brothers, and the Earl of Arundel; and entirely to dispossess Richard of the crown. The King, it is said, being informed of these designs, saw that either his own ruin or that of Glocester was inevitable; and he resolved by a hasty blow, to prevent the execution of such destructive projects. This is certain, that Glocester, by his own confession, had often affected to speak contemptuously of the King's person and government; * Liv. iv. chap. 86. W Rymer, vol. vii. p. 152. |