DURING the last reign,the preaching of Wickliffe against the pride and cunning of the Pope and all his men,had made a great noise in England.Whether the new King wished to be in favour with the priests,or whether he hoped,by pretending to be very religious,to cheat Heaven itself into the belief that he was not a usurper,I don't know.Both suppositions are likely enough.It is certain that he began his reign by making a strong show against the followers of Wickliffe,who were called Lollards,or heretics-although his father,John of Gaunt,had been of that way of thinking,as he himself had been more than suspected of being.It is no less certain that he first established in England the detestable and atrocious custom,brought from abroad,of burning those people as a punishment for their opinions.It was the importation into England of one of the practices of what was called the Holy Inquisition:which was the most UNholy and the most infamous tribunal that ever disgraced mankind,and made men more like demons than followers of Our Saviour.
No real right to the crown,as you know,was in this King.Edward Mortimer,the young Earl of March-who was only eight or nine years old,and who was descended from the Duke of Clarence,the elder brother of Henry's father-was,by succession,the real heir to the throne.However,the King got his son declared Prince of Wales;and,obtaining possession of the young Earl of March and his little brother,kept them in confinement (but not severely)in Windsor Castle.He then required the Parliament to decide what was to be done with the deposed King,who was quiet enough,and who only said that he hoped his cousin Henry would be 'a good lord'to him.The Parliament replied that they would recommend his being kept in some secret place where the people could not resort,and where his friends could not be admitted to see him.Henry accordingly passed this sentence upon him,and it now began to be pretty clear to the nation that Richard the Second would not live very long.
It was a noisy Parliament,as it was an unprincipled one,and the Lords quarrelled so violently among themselves as to which of them had been loyal and which disloyal,and which consistent and which inconsistent,that forty gauntlets are said to have been thrown upon the floor at one time as challenges to as many battles:the truth being that they were all false and base together,and had been,at one time with the old King,and at another time with the new one,and seldom true for any length of time to any one.They soon began to plot again.A conspiracy was formed to invite the King to a tournament at Oxford,and then to take him by surprise and kill him.This murderous enterprise,which was agreed upon at secret meetings in the house of the Abbot of Westminster,was betrayed by the Earl of Rutland-one of the conspirators.The King,instead of going to the tournament or staying at Windsor (where the conspirators suddenly went,on finding themselves discovered,with the hope of seizing him),retired to London,proclaimed them all traitors,and advanced upon them with a great force.They retired into the west of England,proclaiming Richard King;but,the people rose against them,and they were all slain.
Their treason hastened the death of the deposed monarch.Whether he was killed by hired assassins,or whether he was starved to death,or whether he refused food on hearing of his brothers being killed (who were in that plot),is very doubtful.He met his death somehow;and his body was publicly shown at St.Paul's Cathedral with only the lower part of the face uncovered.I can scarcely doubt that he was killed by the King's orders.
The French wife of the miserable Richard was now only ten years old;and,when her father,Charles of France,heard of her misfortunes and of her lonely condition in England,he went mad:
As he had several times done before,during the last five or six years.The French Dukes of Burgundy and Bourbon took up the poor girl's cause,without caring much about it,but on the chance of getting something out of England.The people of Bordeaux,who had a sort of superstitious attachment to the memory of Richard,because he was born there,swore by the Lord that he had been the best man in all his kingdom-which was going rather far-and promised to do great things against the English.Nevertheless,when they came to consider that they,and the whole people of France,were ruined by their own nobles,and that the English rule was much the better of the two,they cooled down again;and the two dukes,although they were very great men,could do nothing without them.Then,began negotiations between France and England for the sending home to Paris of the poor little Queen with all her jewels and her fortune of two hundred thousand francs in gold.The King was quite willing to restore the young lady,and even the jewels;
but he said he really could not part with the money.So,at last she was safely deposited at Paris without her fortune,and then the Duke of Burgundy (who was cousin to the French King)began to quarrel with the Duke of Orleans (who was brother to the French King)about the whole matter;and those two dukes made France even more wretched than ever.
As the idea of conquering Scotland was still popular at home,the King marched to the river Tyne and demanded homage of the King of that country.This being refused,he advanced to Edinburgh,but did little there;for,his army being in want of provisions,and the Scotch being very careful to hold him in check without giving battle,he was obliged to retire.It is to his immortal honour that in this sally he burnt no villages and slaughtered no people,but was particularly careful that his army should be merciful and harmless.It was a great example in those ruthless times.
