to desert him, till at last he found that he had not above six thousand men, who followed his standard. Thus, not knowing whom to trust, or where to turn, he saw no other hopes of safety, but to throw himself upon the generosity of his enemy, and to gain from pity what he could not obtain by arms. He therefore sent Hereford word, that he was ready to submit to whatever terms he thought proper to prescribe, and that he earnestly desired a conference. For this purpose, the earl appointed him to meet at a castle within about ten miles of Chester, where he came the next day with his army. Richard, who the day before had been brought thither by the duke of Northumberland, descrying his rival's approach from the walls, went down to receive him; while Hereford, after some ceremony, entered the castle in complete armour, only his head was bare, in compliment to the fallen king. Richard received him with that open air for which he had been remarkable, and kindly bade him welcome. "My lord, the king, (returned the earl, with a cool respectful bow,) I am come sooner than you appointed, because your people say, that for one-and-twenty years you have governed with rigour and indiscretion. They are very ill-satisfied with your conduct; but, if it please God, I will help you to govern them better for the time to come." -To this declaration the king made no other answer, but"Fair cousin, since it pleases you, it pleases us likewise." But Hereford's haughty answer was not the only mortification the unfortunate Richard was to endure. After a short conversation with some of the king's attendants, Hereford ordered the king's horses to be brought out of the stable; and two wretched animals being produced, Richard was placed upon one, and his favourite, the earl of Salisbury, upon the other. In this mean equipage they rode to Chester; and were conveyed to the castle with a great noise of trumpets, and through a vast concourse of people, who were no way moved at the sight. In this manner he was led triumphantly along from town to town, amidst multitudes, who scoffed at him, and extolled his rival. Long live the good duke of Lancaster, our deliverer! was the general cry; but as for the king, to use the pathetic words of the poet, "None cried God bless him." Thus, after repeated indignities, he was confined a close prisoner in the Tower; there, if possible, to undergo a still greater variety of studied insolence, and flagrant contempt. The wretched monarch, humbled in this manner, began to lose the pride of a king with the splendours of royalty, and his spirit sunk to his circumstances. There was no great difficulty, therefore, in inducing him to sign a deed, by which he renounced his crown, as being unqualified for governing the kingdom. Upon this resignation, Hereford founded his principal claim; but willing to fortify his pretensions with every appearance of justice, he called a parliament, which was readily brought to approve and confirm his claims. A frivolous charge of thirty-three articles was drawn up, and found valid against the king; upon which he was solemnly deposed, and the earl of Hereford elected in his stead, by the title of Henry the IVth. Thus began the contest between the houses of York and Lancaster; which, for several years after, deluged the kingdom with blood; and yet, in the end, contributed to settle and confirm the constitution. When Richard was deposed, the earl of Northumberland made a motion in the house of peers, demanding the advise of parliament with regard to the future treatment of the deposed king. To this they replied, that, he should be imprisoned in some secure place, where his friends and partizans should not be able to find him. This was accordingly put in practice; but while he still continued alive, the usurper could not remain in safety. Indeed, some conspiracies and commotions, which followed soon after, induced Henry to wish for Richard's death; in consequence of which, one of those assassins that are found in every court, ready to commit the most horrid crimes for reward, went down to the place of this unfortunate monarch's confinement, in the castle of Pomfret, and, with eight of his followers, rushed into his apartment. The king, concluding their design was to take away his life, resolved not to fall unrevenged, but to sell it as dearly as he could; wherefore, wresting a pole-ax from one of the murderers, he soon laid four of their number dead at his feet. But he was at length overpowered, and struck dead by the blow of a pole-ax; although some assert that he was starved in prison. Thus died the unfortunate Richard, in the thirty-fourth year of his age, and the twenty-third of his reign. Though his conduct was blameable, yet the punishment he suffered was greater than his offences; and in the end his sufferings made more converts to his family and cause, than ever his most meritorious actions could have procured them. He left no posterity, either legitimate or otherwise. A. D. Lancarier. u k HENRY IV. Duke of Wereford. 1399. HEN ENRY soon found that the throne of a usurper is but a bed of thorns. Such violent animosities broke out among the barons in the first session of his parliament, that forty challenges were given and received, and forty gauntlets were thrown down as pledges of the sincerity of their resentment. But though these commotions were seemingly suppressed by his moderation for that time, yet one conspiracy broke out after another, and were detected in the formation, or actually punished in the field. A. D. 1402. J That formed against him by the earl of Northumberland was the most formidable. It was in a skirmish between the Scots and English, that Archibald, earl of Douglas, with many of the Scots nobility, were taken prisoners by the earl of Northumberland, and carried to Alnwick castle. When Henry received intelligence of this victory, he sent the carl orders not to ransom his prisoners, as he intended to detain them, in order to increase his demands in making peace with Scotland. This message was highly resented by the earl of Northumberland, who, by the laws of war that prevailed in that age, had a right to the ransom of all such as he had taken in battle. The command was still more irksome, as he considered the king as his debtor both for security and his crown. Accordingly, stung with this supposed injury, he resolved to overturn a throne, which he had the chief hand in establishing. A scheme was laid, in which the Scots and Welsh were to unite their forces, and to assist Northumberland in elevating Mortimer, as the true heir to the crown of England. When all things were prepared for the intended insurrection, the earl had the mortification to find himself unable to lead on the troops, being seized with a sudden illness at Berwick. But the want of his presence was well supplied by his son Henry Percy, surnamed Hotspur, who took the command of the troops, and marched them towards Shrewsbury, in order to join his forces with those of Glendower, a Welsh chieftain, who some time before had been exchanged from prison, and had now advanced with his forces as far as Shropshire. Upon the junction of these two armies, they published a manifesto, which aggravated their real grievances, and invented more. In the mean time, Henry, who had received no intelligence of their designs, was at first greatly surprised at the news of this rebellion. But fortune seemed to befriend him on this occasion: he had a small army in readiness, which he intended against the Scots, and knowing the importance of dispatch against such active enemies, he instantly hurried down to Shrewsbury, that he might give the rebels battle. Upon the approach of the two armies, both sides seemed willing to give a colour to their cause, by shewing a desire of reconciliation; but when they came to open their mutual demands, the treaty was turned into abuse and recrimination. On one side, was objected rebellion and ingratitude.; on the other, tyranny and usurpation. The two armies were pretty nearly equal, each consisting of about twelve thousand men; the animosity on both sides was inflamed to the highest pitch; and no prudence nor military skill could determine on which side the victory might incline. Accordingly, a very bloody engagement ensued, in which the generals on both sides exerted themselves with great bravery. Henry was seen every where in the thickest of the fight; while his valiant son, who was afterwards the renowned conqueror of France, fought by his side; and though wounded in the face by an arrow, still kept the field, and performed astonishing acts of valour. On the other side, the daring Hotspur supported that renown which he had acquired in so many bloody engagements, and every where sought out the king as a noble object of indignation. At last, however, his death, from an unknown hand, decided the victory; and the fortune of Henry once more prevailed. On that bloody day, it is said, that no less than two thousand three hundred gentlemen were slain, and about six thousand private men, of whom two thirds were of Hotspur's army. While this furious transaction was going forward, Northumberland, who was lately recovered from his indisposition, was advancing with a body of troops to reinforce the army of malecontents, and take upon him the command. But hearing by the way of his son's and brother's misfortune, he dismissed his troops, not daring to keep the field with so small a force, before an army superior in number, and flushed with recent victory. The earl, therefore, for a while, attempted to find safety by flight but at last, being pressed by his pursuers, and finding himself totally without resource, he chose rather to throw himself upon the king's mercy, than lead a precarious and indigent life in exile. Upon his appearing before Henry at York, he pretended that his sole intention in arming was to mediate between the two parties; and this, though but a very weak apology, seemed to satisfy the king. Northumberland, therefore, received a pardon; Henry probably thinking that he was sufficiently punished by the loss of his army, and the death of his favourite son. A. D. 1407. : By these means, Henry seemed to surmount all his troubles and the calm which was thus produced, was employed by him in endeavours to acquire popularity, which he had lost by the severities exercised during the preceding part of his reign. For that reason, he often permitted the house of commons to assume powers which had not been usually exercised by their predecessors. In the sixth year of his reign, when they voted him the supplies, they appointed treasurers of their own, to see the money disbursed for the purposes intended; and required them to deliver in their accounts to the house. They proposed thirty very important articles for the government of the king's household; and, on the whole, preserved their privileges and freedom more entire during his reign than any of his precedessors. But while the king thus laboured, not without success, to retrieve the reputation he had lost, his son Henry, prince of Wales, seemed equally bent on incurring the public aversion. He became notorious for all kinds of debauchery, and ever chose to be surrounded by a set of wretches, who took pride in committing the most illegal acts with the prince at their head. The king was not a little mortified at this degeneracy in his eldest son, who seemed entirely forgetful of his station, although he had already exhibited repeated proofs of his valour, conduct, and generosity. Such were the excesses into which he ran, that one of his dissolute companions having been brought to trial before Sir William Gascoigne, chief justice of the King's Bench, for some misde |