An opportunity has been taken in the above List of correcting a few misprints in the titles or descriptions of the Cuts. Richard, also expired with his deposition; and at this critical moment it was alike indispensable for Henry that he should have a parliament assembled, and that it should be composed of his friends. He therefore contrived that the present members should be retained, by not allowing sufficient time for the election and return of fresh members. He forthwith directed writs to be issued returnable in six days, and proclamation to be made at the same time for the parliament to meet for business on the sixth day; assigning as a plausible reason for the shortness of this summons, that it was only for "the profit of the kingdom, and especially to spare the fatigues and expenses of his lieges, and in order that the grievances of the people might have the more speedy remedy." He declared, however, that this step was not meant to prejudice the states of his kingdom, or to be made a precedent for the calling of future parliaments.* HENRY IV., SURNAMED BOLINGBROKE. AVING been seated on the throne of England by the Archbishop, on Tuesday, the Feast of St. Jerome the Doctor, the 30th of September, 1399, Henry immediately immediately proceeded to exercise the royal authority, and to fill those offices which had become vacant by the removal of Richard. By that event the power of the justices, sheriffs, and other officers ceased, "and, therefore," in the language of parliament, "lest justice might be delayed, to the grievance of the people, the present king named and appointed his principal officers and justices, who took the usual oaths." But the authority of the parliament itself, which had been summoned in the name of King The king then rose from his throne, and "be Rot. Parl. holding the people with a cheerful countenance," he departed, and on the same day he gave a splendid banquet in the Whitehall to the nobles and the clergy, who attended in great numbers. On the following day, the 1st of October, a deputation waited upon Richard, late king, in the Tower, and there William Thyrning, justiciary, for himself and fellow procurators, in the name of the states and all the people, notified to Richard the acceptance of his resignation, and the cause and form of his deposition, and then renounced all homage and fealty to him. The forlorn king is said to have behaved with great composure, merely expressing a hope that his cousin Henry would be "a good lord" to him. The parliament met on Monday, the 6th; and the representatives of the commons seem to have been to a man the same individuals that had been summoned six weeks before in the name of Richard. On the Monday following, October the 13th, the Feast of St. Edward the Confessor, and the anniversary of the day on which he had gone into exile, Henry was crowned with the usual ceremonies in Westminster Abbey. During the procession the Earl of Northumberland, to whose assistance he was so greatly indebted, walked by his side, carrying the sword which Henry wore when he landed at Ravenspur. All the great nobles who held hereditary offices performed their duties without demur.* The parliament was in the best of humours, and the commons more especially went hand in hand with the new king. Many of the obnoxious acts of the late reign were instantly repealed, and the attainders of the earls of Arundel and Warwick were reversed. In the lords the most violent altercations soon ensued. The peers who had appealed to the Duke of Gloucester were called to account; but these chivalrous lords were not ashamed to take Rot. Parl-Rymer, up the same plea which had been used by the judges in the preceding reign: they said they acted through fear, and sealed that deed under compulsion of Richard. This was not very honourable in men who were sworn, as knights, to know no fear: but what followed was pretty true; they added, that they were not more guilty in prosecuting Gloucester than the rest of the house was in condemning him on their appeal. There was scarcely a lord present but had been involved in the inexplicable intrigues of the last twelve years. There was plenty of ground for recrimination, and the opportunity was not lost; the terms liar and traitor resounded from every corner of the house; forty gauntlets were thrown upon the floor, as the pledges of battles in the lists. A timid or an unreflecting king would have been lost in this perilous storm, which the firm and crafty Henry managed to subdue. The appellants were let off with the forfeiture of the titles and estates they had received from Richard as a reward for their services against his uncle Gloucester; and thus the dukes of Albemarle, Surrey, and Exeter, the Marquess of Dorset, and the Earl of Gloucester, descended to their former ranks, and became earls of Rutland, Kent, Huntingdon, and Somerset, and Lord le Despencer, under which names they will presently re-appear in plots and conspiracies. Several excellent statutes were enacted in this first parliament: treason was again reduced to the limits prescribed under Edward III.; appeals of treason in parliament, of which such an abuse had been made, were abolished, it being decreed that persons laying such accusations should proceed by means of the ordinary courts of law. Another great mcasure was the establishing a law, that the power of parliament should in no case be delegated to a standing commission. An attempt was made to |