which took place in his absence. Perhaps, too, he would have liked to keep his promise about freeing the villeins, for when parliament met he begged them to consider the propriety of abolishing the system of serfdom, or villeinage. But parliament refused; they said "no one should rob them of their villeins."

Results.

32. Thus it would seem as if all had been in vain. But it was not so really; the insurrection bore fruit. The poll-tax was entirely done away with; that was one good fruit. Another was, that though the masters would not, in so many words, set the villeins free, it appears that the spirit the men had shown made them a great deal more careful as to their treatment; they did not dare any longer to demand the services they had been used to, fearing the men would refuse to obey. Gradually they perhaps saw how much better the other plan of hiring and paying labourers worked. Thus, at the end of fifty years from the plague of the Black Death, the freedom of the English serfs was secured. The long struggle of the labourers succeeded at last, and every Englishman was free.

33. Before leaving this subject we will notice for a moment how the same conflict went on in France. There, too, the peasants had been oppressed, far more than in England indeed; the serfs had been treated like beasts of burden. They rose up at last against their oppressors, plundered and burnt their castles, and massacred the nobles, men, women, and children, wherever they could find them. The English revolters did nothing at all like this; there was nothing which could be called a massacre." We think the English government was very unjust and cruel in the punishments it inflicted, but it was mild and merciful compared with the French. The way the poor

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miserable peasants were treated makes one's blood run cold. The dauphin on one occasion killed 20,000 of them; they were cut down in heaps, crushed to death, and slaughtered like wild beasts. In some parts the whole country was cleared of them by the savage butchery of the knights and lords.

But what was the result? In England, as we have just seen, it was not very long before justice and the right prevailed; neither rich nor poor had any such horrible things to remember, or wrongs to avenge on either side. The English nation went on, more or less peacefully, growing in liberty and unity. The French nobles, no doubt, thought they had "stamped out" the rebellion. They continued century after century to treat the poor as badly as ever, and at last came the frightful explosion of the French Revolution.

LECTURE XXXII.-RICHARD THE REDELESS.

Character of Richard. His uncles. Troubles of the reign. Death of the Duke of Gloucester. Richard_ aims at absolute power. Henry of Lancaster. His banishment. His return. Deposition of Richard.

1. RICHARD's behaviour at the time of the revolt showed great presence of mind, courage, and a certain generosity, and it might have been hoped that a young boy possessing these qualities would grow into a fine and noble king. But it was not so; for though he was handsome, clever, and affectionate, as well as high-spirited, he grew up headstrong, proud, self-willed, and very revengeful; he had been spoiled by flattery and ill-management in his youth, and never learned how to govern himself; far less, therefore, could he govern a great kingdom. He soon gained the title of Richard the Redeless, which has just the same meaning as the old nickname of Ethelred the Unready, the unwise or uncounselled one.

2. While he was still young his uncles strove to get all the power they could, and gave great offence to the king. We have already heard about John of Gaunt, Duke of LanThe king's caster, and how he had set every one against him uncles. by his pride and extravagance, and how he cared for nothing but pleasing the rich courtiers, so that the peasants had burned down his palace, and declared they would never have a king named John. This must have shown him how utterly he was hated, and that there was no hope of his ever being king; and after that he seems to have quite altered his conduct, and to have become a peace-maker rather than a disturber. In Shakespeare's play of Richard II. John of Gaunt appears as a very noble character and great lover of his country, but this picture would only have been true of him in his later years.

3. Another younger son of Edward III. was the Duke of York. He does not seem to have been clever like his brothers, nor ever to have quite known his own mind, or what side he meant to take; as we may read also in Shakespeare's play. It

is important to remember these two dukes, because it was their descendants who caused the dreadful civil wars, of which we shall soon have to hear, between the houses of Lancaster and York.

4. The youngest uncle of the king was the Duke of Gloucester. He was clever and ambitious, and as soon as John of Gaunt retired he got most of the power into his own hands. Richard made favourites, as Edward II. had done, and they were hated and looked on as upstarts, just as Gaveston and Hugh le Despenser had been. The Duke of Gloucester gained great influence with the parliament, and encouraged them to make a dead set against these favourites, and to call on the king to dismiss them. Richard, the spoilt child, was growing up very haughty and arrogant, and he replied that for such men as the members of parliament he would not dismiss the meanest servant in his kitchen.

1387.

5. But by this time parliament was so powerful that it was no use treating them in this high-handed way. Richard had to give in. Not only were his ministers dismissed and banished, but a new sort of government was appointed, with the Duke of Gloucester at its head, and making Richard a mere puppet. The Duke of Gloucester in his turn used his power very tyrannically; a great many knights, judges, and others whom he looked on as his enemies were put to death, and when the king attempted to interfere the Duke led an army of 40,000 men against him. Richard had to yield once more, and his friends to fly for their lives.

6. Before long, however, Gloucester's power came to an end. One day, in the midst of a great council, the king, turning suddenly to the duke, said, "Uncle, how old am

I?"

1389. Richard

assumes the authority.

So he put

"Your highness," replied the duke, "is in your twenty-second year." "Then," said Richard, "I must certainly be old enough to manage my own affairs; I am much obliged to you, my lords, for your past services, but I want them no longer." down the Duke of Gloucester's ministers, and set up others in their stead, and governed the country himself. Things went on very quietly for eight years; but all that time he kept in his own heart the determination to be revenged on his uncle and those who had supported him.

7. During this quiet time he made an effort to subdue and tame the people of Ireland. They were still as wild as they had been in the days of Henry II. Even the English- Ireland. men who had settled down in the country had

become quite as uncivilized as the natives, and had learnt all their ways. Richard showed great skill and good sense in his way of treating them, and by a mixture of firmness and gentleness he brought the island for the time to obedience and a sort of order. The four Irish kings did homage to him. He treated them with kindness and courtesy, knighted them, and tried to civilize them. The English gentleman who was intrusted with the task of teaching them good manners gave a very droll account of his difficulties, and the pains he took to break them of their uncouth habits; such as making grimaces as they sat at table, and eating out of the same plates as their servants and minstrels. He tried to make them wear dresses like English princes, of silk and fur; but he could not succeed very well, and complains that they would frequently return to "their coarse behaviour." And when, after nine months, Richard went back to England, after doing what he could to establish justice and peace, all the Irish did as the four kings did, and returned to their wild and lawless ways.

Anne of Bohemia.

8. While quite young the king had married a princess of Bohemia, whom he dearly loved, and whom all the country loved. She was called the "good Queen Anne;" it was she who was the friend and protector of Wycliffe ; and it was probably through her that Wycliffe's doctrines were carried to Bohemia, and took root there. There is no doubt that many of his books were sent to Bohemia, some of which are said to remain even now in an ancient library at Prague. John Huss and Jerome of Prague, who were some of the earliest reformers on the continent of Europe, probably learnt their doctrines in that way. In England, however, the teaching of Wycliffe fell into great disfavour after the peasants' revolt, because it was generally believed that some of his followers, if not he himself, had favoured the preaching and opinions of John Ball; and the son of John of Gaunt, Wycliffe's early protector, afterwards became a cruel persecutor of those who followed his doctrines.

1393.

9. Nevertheless the conflict with the Pope on temporal matters went on as vigorously as ever, and a law was passed which was called the Statute of Præmunire, ordering heavy punishment to any one who should venture to bring in his bulls, or exercise any authority in his name, in the kingdom of England.

Statute of Præmunire.

Not long after this the good Queen Anne died; and when, at the end of two years, Richard chose a new wife, his choice was

Richard

becomes

unpopular.

very displeasing to the country and to the Duke of Gloucester. The French war was still going on, and Richard wished to put an end to it by marrying a French princess. Strange to say, in spite of the heavy taxes and distress, the English were not at all anxious for peace. They greatly preferred continuing the war; they had never suffered from it as the French did, because it was all carried on in France, though the French had once or twice tried to invade England.

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10. Froissart tells us how they would say, "Why should we not for once make a visit to England, and learn the way thither, as the English have learnt the way into France? Let us go and see how they behave." They believed that if they did SO England would be ruined and destroyed beyond resource, the men put to death, and the women and children carried in slavery to France." We can fancy the English saying in return, as he tells us, "Let them come, and not a soul of them shall return to tell the story!" Once or twice a French army did really land somewhere in England, and ravaged a little, but no great harm came of it.

11. The English, therefore, still wished to carry on the war, and were angry with Richard for making a truce for twenty-five years, and for marrying the French princess, who was a little 1396. girl of eight years old. The Duke of Gloucester, in particular, declaimed loudly against it. Now was the time when Richard took the revenge he had nursed so long. The Duke and his friends were treacherously seized and imprisoned. Gloucester was sent to the castle in Calais, and never appeared again. It was given out that the duke died of apoplexy; but everybody was sure in their hearts that he was murdered by the king's orders. All this caused a great uproar; the two other dukes prepared to avenge their brother's death, and it was with great difficulty that a sort of peace was made. And when peace was restored "the King of England," says Froissart, "governed more fiercely than before. He now assumed greater state than ever kings of England had done, nor had there been any one who expended such large sums of money. At this period there was no one, however great, in England who dared speak his sentiments on what the king did or intended doing."

His arbitrary government.

12. The fact was, Richard desired to be an absolute monarch. We have seen how the different classes in the country-the lords, the commons, and the Church-had all at different times and in

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