court, and at the same time, were considered as glorious achievements; but all that England gained by them was only glory. Whatever was won in France, with all the dangers of war, and the expence of preparation, was successively, and in a manner silently, lost, without the mortification of a defeat.

The English, by their frequent supplies, had been quite exhausted, and were unable to continue an army in the field. Charles, who had succeeded his father John, who died a prisoner in the Savoy, on the other hand, cautiously forebore coming to any decisive engagement; but was contented to let his enemies waste their strength in attempts to plunder a fortified country. When they were tired, he then was sure to sally forth, and possess himself of such places as they were not strong enough to defend. He first fell upon Ponthieu; the citizens of Abbeville opened their gates to him; those of St. Valois, Rue, and Crotoy, imitated the example; and the whole country was, in a little time, reduced to total submission. The southern provinces were, in the same manner, invaded by his generals with equal success; while the Black Prince, destitute of supplies from England, and wasted by a cruel and consumptive disorder, was obliged to return to his native country, leaving the affairs of the south of France in a most desperate condition. But what of all other things served to gloom the latter part of this splendid reign, was the approaching death of the Black Prince, whose constitution shewed but too manifestly the symptoms of a speedy dissolution. This valiant and accomplished prince died in the forty-sixth year of his age, leaving behind him a character without a single blemish; and a degree of sorrow among the people, that time could scarcely alleviate.

The king was most sensibly affected with the loss of his son; and tried every art to allay his uneasiness. He removed himself entirely from the duties and burdens of the state, and left his kingdom to be plundered by a set of rapacious ministers. He did not survive the consequences of his bad conduct; but died about a year after the prince, at Sherne, in Surry, deserted by all his courtiers, even by those who had grown rich by his bounty. He expired in the sixty-fifth year of his age, and fifty-first of his reign, 1377; a prince more admired than beloved by his subjects, and more an object of their applause than their sorrow.

A. D. 1940.

It was in this reign that the order of the Garter was instituted; the number was to consist of twenty-four persons besides the king. A story prevails, but unsupported by any ancient authority, that the countess of Salisbury, at a ball, happening to drop her garter, the king took it up, and

presented it to her with these words, "Honi soit qui mal y pense;"-Evil be to him that evil thinks. This accident, it is said, gave rise to the order and the motto.

Edward left many children by his queen Philippa of Hainault; his eldest son, the Black Prince, died before him, but he left a son named Richard, who succeeded to the throne.

RI

Hutagenet.

RICHARD II.

ICHARD II. was but eleven years old when he came to the throne of his grandfather, and found the people discontented and poor, the nobles proud and rebellious. As he was a minor, the government was vested in the hands of his three uncles, the dukes of Lancaster, York, and Gloucester; and as the late king had left the kingdom involved in many dangerous and expensive wars, which demanded large and constant supplies, the murmurs of the people increased in proportion. The expences of armaments to face the enemy on every side, and a want of economy in the administration, entirely exhausted the treasury; and a new tax of three groats on every person above fifteen, was granted by parliament as a supply. The indignation of the people had been for some time increasing; but a tax so unequitable, in which the rich paid no more than the poor, kindled the resentment of the latter into a flame. It began in Essex, where a report was industriously spread, that the peasants were to be destroyed, their houses

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burned, and their farms plundered. A blacksmith, well known by the name of Wat Tyler, was the first that excited them to arms. The tax-gatherers, coming to this man's house while he was at work, demanded payment for his daughter; which he refused, alledging she was under the age mentioned in the act. One of the brutal collectors insisted on her being a full grown woman; and immediately attempted a very indecent proof of his assertion. This provoked the father to such a degree, that he instantly struck him dead with a blow of his hammer. The standers-by applauded his spirit, and, one and all, resolved to defend his conduct. He was considered as a champion in the cause, and appointed the leader, and spokesman of the people. It is easy to imagine the disorders committed by this tumultuous rabble; the whole neighbourhood rose in arms; they burnt and plundered wherever they came, and revenged upon their former masters all those insults which they had long sustained with impunity. As the discontent was general, the insurgents increased in proportion as they approached the capital. The flame soon propagated itself into Kent, Hertfordshire, Surry, Sussex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridge, and Lincoln. They were found to amount to above a hundred thousand men by the time they were arrived at Blackheath. At the head of one party of these was Wat Tyler, who led his men into Smithfield, where he was met by the king, who invited him to a conference, under a pretence of hearing and redressing his grievances. Tyler ordered his companions to retire, till he should give them a signal, boldly ventured to meet the king in the midst of his retinue, and accordingly began the conference. The demands of this demagogue are censured by all the historians of the time, as insolent and extravagant; and yet nothing can be more just than those they have delivered for him. He required that all slaves should be set free; that all commonages should be open to the poor as well as rich; and that a general pardon should be passed for the late outrages. Whilst he made these demands, he now and then lifted up his sword in a menacing manner; which insolence so raised the indignation of William Walworth, then mayor of London, attending on the king, that, without considering the danger to which he exposed his majesty, he stunned Tyler with a blow of his mace; while one of the king's knights, riding up, dispatched him with his sword. The mutineers, seeing their leader fall, prepared themselves to take revenge; and their bows were now bent for execution, when Richard, though not yet quite sixteen years of age, rode up to the rebels, and, with admirable presence of mind cried out, "What, my people, will you then kill your king? Be

-hot concerned for the loss of your leader; I myself will now be your general; follow me into the field, and you shall have whatever you desire." The awed multitude immediately desisted; they followed the king as if mechanically into the field, and there he granted them the same charter that he had before given to their companions, but which he soon after revoked in parliament.

Hitherto the king had acted under the control of the regency, who did all they could devise to abridge his power; however, in an extraordinary council of the nobility, assembled after Easter, he, to the astonishment of all present, desired to know his age; and being told that he was turned of two-and-twenty, he alledged, that it was time then for him to govern without help; and that there was no reason that he should be deprived of those rights which the meanest of his subjects enjoyed. Being thus set at liberty to conduct the business of govern

A. D. 1389.

ment at discretion, it quickly appeared that he wanted those arts that are usually found to procure a lasting respect; he was fond of luxurious pleasures, and idle ostentation; he admitted the meanest ranks to his familiarity; and his conversation was not adapted to impress them with a reverence for his morals or abilities. The cruelty shewn to the duke of Gloucester, who, upon slight suspicions, was sent to confinement in Calais, and there murdered in prison, with some other acts equally arbitrary, did not fail to increase those animosities which had already taken deep root in the kingdom. The aggrandisement of some new favourites contributed still more to make the king odious; but though he seemed resolved, by all his actions, to set his subjects against him, it was accident that gave the occasion for his overthrow. The duke of Hereford appeared in parliament, and accused the duke of Norfolk of having spoken seditious words against his majesty in a private conversation. Norfolk denied the charge, gave Hereford the lie, and offered to prove his innocence by single combat. As proofs were wanting for legal trial, the lords readily acquiesced in that mode of determination; the time and place were appointed; and the whole nation waited with anxious suspense for the event. At length the day arrived on which this duel was to be fought, and the champions having just begun their career, the king stopped the combat, and ordered both the combatants to leave the kingdom. The duke of Norfolk he banished for life, but the duke of Hereford only for ten years. Thus the one was condemned to exile without being charged with any offence, and the other without being convicted of a crime. The duke

of Norfolk was overwhelmed with grief and despondence at the judgment awarded against him; he retired to Venice, where, in a little time after, he died of a broken heart. Hereford's behaviour on this occasion was resigned and submissive, which so pleased the king, that he consented to shorten the date of his banishment four years; and he also granted him letters patent, ensuring him the enjoyment of any inheritance which should fall to him during his absence; but upon the death of his father, the duke of Lancaster, which happened shortly after, Richard revoked those letters, and retained the possession of the Lancaster estate to himself.

Such complicated injuries served to inflame the resentment of Hereford against the king; and although he had hitherto concealed it, he now set no bounds to his indignation, but even conceived a desire of dethroning a person who had shewn himself so unworthy of power. Indeed, no man could be better qualified for an enterprise of this nature than the earl of Hereford; he was cool, cautious, discerning, and resolute. He had served with distinction against the infidels of Lithuania; and hé had thus joined to his other merits those of piety and valour. He was stimulated by private injuries; and had alliances and fortune sufficient to give weight to his measures. He only waited the absence of the king from England to put his schemes into execution; and Richard's going over into Ireland to quell an insurrection there, was the opportunity he long had looked for.

Accordingly, he instantly embarked at Nantz, with a retinue of sixty persons, in three small vessels, and landed at Ravenspur, in Yorkshire. The earl of Northumberland, who had long been a malecontent, together with Henry Percy, his son, who, from his ardent valour, was surnamed Hotspur, immediately joined him with their forces. After this junction, the concourse of people coming to list under his banner was so great, that in a few days his army amounted to threescore thousand

men.

Whilst these things were transacting in England, Richard continued in Ireland in perfect security. Contrary winds, for three weeks together, prevented his receiving any news of the rebellion which was begun in his native dominions; wherefore, upon landing at Milford-haven with a body of twenty thousand men, he saw himself in a dreadful situation, in the midst of an enraged people, without any friend on whom to rely; and forsaken by those, who, in the sun-shine of his power, had only contributed to fan his follies. His little army gradually began