As it is in the light of subsequent events that we see the greatness of Wyclif as a reformer, so it is from the later growth of the language that we best learn to appreciate the beauty of his writing. But it was less the reformer, or the master of English prose, than the great schoolman, that inspired the respect of his contemporaries; and, next to the deep influence of personal holiness and the attractive greatness of his moral character, it was to his supreme command of the weapons of scholastic discussion that he owed his astonishing influence.

XXV.

DEPOSITION OF RICHARD II.-YORK POWELL.

[During the first twelve years of Richard II.'s reign, the conduct of affairs was largely in the hands of his uncle, the duke of Lancaster, and, after him, of another uncle, the duke of Gloucester. Richard however, was allowed to choose his own ministers. In 1387, through the efforts of Gloucester and four other nobles, called Lords Appellant, the ministers were impeached in Parliament and condemned to death. Two years later the king suddenly assumed sole authority, and for nearly eight years ruled wisely and successfully. In 1389 he entered upon a course of arbitrary government which led to his deposition. His cousin, Henry of Bolingbroke, duke of Hereford, took the vacant throne, with the title of Henry IV.]

THE earl of March had been killed by the "wild Irish" at Kenlys, July 20, 1398, and now, that all was outwardly at peace in England, Richard was minded to go over to Ireland, and stay there till he had established good government once for all. He made his will, leaving all his money to his heir, on condition that he up

RICHARD II.

held the acts of the last two Parliaments, appointed his uncle, the duke of York, Keeper of the Realm, and then sailed, with many of his nobles, May, 1399. As soon as Henry heard that he was gone, he set out from Brittany with Archbishop Arundel and his nephew (the dead earl's son), Sir Thomas Erpingham, and forty men, and landed at Ravenspur, July 4, swearing to the northern lords who joined him that he was come to claim his heritage, and to put an end to the bad rule of the king's friends, but not to touch the crown. The Keeper was won over July 27, Bristol surrendered, and the king's friends there were hanged. Richard sent Salisbury to gather troops at Conway, promising to follow him at once; yet he did not come for three weeks, when he landed at Beaumaris. But there his own men fled from him, and he fell into despair, and cursed the untruth of England, saying, "Alas! what faith is there in this false world?" and, instead of going to Bordeaux, where he would have found help and welcome, left his treasure and fled, in disguise, to Conway. He found no help there; Salisbury's levies had gone home, tired of waiting for him. Ere he could make fresh plans, he was lured, by Northumberland's false oath, out of his stronghold and brought to Flint. "Fool that I was!" he cried, when he found himself betrayed, "to have saved the life of this Henry of Lancaster three times, as I have, yea, when his own father would have had him die for his treason and wickedness! 'Tis a true saying, indeed, 'Your worst foe is him you free from the gallows.'

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When he saw Lancaster, he smiled and said, "Welcome, fair cousin!" "I am come home before my time, sir," answered Lancaster, bowing, "for your people complain that you have ruled them harshly for a score of years or more, but now, if it please God, I will help you to rule better." "If it please you, it pleaseth us well," replied Richard. They then started for London.

At Lichfield the king tried to escape, but was retaken,

and henceforth strictly guarded. The Londoners welcomed Henry with joy, but hooted and groaned as the king was led to the Tower. Before the Parliament that had been called could meet, Richard, seeing no present hope, agreed, in writing, to give up the crown. When the Parliament met, the resignation was read in English and Latin, and accepted. Thirty-three charges against Richard were then read, which accused him of having acted wrongfully toward Archbishop Arundel and the appellants; of having packed Parliaments by means of the sheriffs, and got them to give up their lawful rights to him; of having lowered the free crown of England by seeking the pope's approval of acts of Parliament; of having raised unlawful taxes, loans, purveyance, and ransoms; of having broken the laws as to the sheriffs, and royal officers, and judges; of having made an unrighteous will; of having said and held that the laws lay in his own mouth, and that he could change them as he liked, and that the life, lands, and goods of every man were at his mercy without trial.

The Parliament voted these charges true, and sufficient grounds for setting the king aside, and sent seven commissioners to tell him so. Only one man, Thomas Marks, bishop of Carlisle, spoke up for his master, and asked for a fair trial, but he was not listened to. As soon as the throne was declared vacant, the duke of Lancaster rose, and, crossing himself, said, "In the name of God, I, Henry of Lancaster, claim this realm, and the crown thereof, with all the members and appurtenances thereto, as coming of the right blood of King Henry, and through that right which God, of his grace, hath sent me, with the help of my kin and of my friends, to recover it, the which realm was in point to be undone for default of governance and undoing of laws." And with that he showed the signet which Richard had given him at Flint.

Whereon the Three Estates, severally and together, agreed

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to take him as king. Then Henry, having knelt down and prayed a while in their midst, was handed to the throne by the two archbishops. After a sermon by Arundel, on the text, "Behold the man whom I spake to thee of, the same shall rule over my people," Henry spoke again: "Sirs, I thank you, both spiritual and temporal, and all the estates of the land, and I do you to wit that it is not my will that any man should think that by way of conquest I would disinherit any man of his heritage, liberties, or other rights that he ought to have, or put him out of that he hath and hath had by the good laws of this realm, save those that have been against the good state and common profit of the realm." And on the morrow, October 1st, Sir William Thirning, as the spokesman of the Seven Commissioners, went to the Tower and addressed Richard, saying, “ Sir, ye remember you well that ye renounced and put off the state of king and lordship, and of all the dignity that belongeth thereto." "Yea," said Richard, "but not the ghostly honor of the royal anointing, which I could not renounce or put off." But Thirning went on to say that "his renunciation and cession was plainly accepted and agreed to by all the estates and people. And besides this, sir, at the instance of all the estates and people, there were certain articles of default in your governance there read, and there well heard and plainly understood by all the the estates aforesaid, and by them thought so true and notorious and well-known that for these two causes, and for others also, as they said, and having consideration to your own words in your renunciation and cession, that ye were not worthy nor sufficient nor able for to govern because of your own demerits (as it is more fully declared therein), they therefore thought that it was reasonable and cause for to depose you." "Nay, nay," cried Richard, "not for any lack of power, but because my rule did not please the people." "I am but using your words, sir," answered Thirning. "Well," said Richard, smiling, "I look for no more, but, after

all this, I hope that my cousin will be good lord to me." This was the imprisoned king's last free utterance. On the 27th he was condemned by the Lords and Council to perpetual imprisonment, and two days after sent from the Tower to Pomfret. His after fate is as yet unknown.

Richard was ruined, as William Langland says, by redelessness, or lack of good counsel. He was not an idle trifler, like Edward II., nor a shiftless spendthrift, like Henry III.; but a singularly gifted man, handsome, brave, generous, intelligent, merciful, and able to act boldly and quickly when he chose. His path was never free from difficulty and danger, family quarrels, foreign hatred, and English discontent, a heritage of trouble that came to him with his crown; but he was on the verge of safety when he ruined himself by two or three false steps taken in the interest of his friends, rather than of himself or his people. He was ill-advised when, for the sake of peace, he let the irritating misdeeds of his brothers, his officers, and his guard go unpunished; ill-advised when, out of love for art, splendor, and a fair life, he kept up a grand court, and was the patron of poets, painters, and architects, though he knew that his people grudged spending money on any thing but war; ill-advised when, impatient at the ceaseless falsehood and plots of his kinsmen, he used haughty language, and spoke of his royal rights as above the law; and still more ill-advised when he tried to govern well without consulting the likes and dislikes of the people he had to rule, banishing their favorites, breaking down their privileges, mocking at their cherished beliefs, and overriding the rights to which they clung. But Richard was no brutal or heartless tyrant, and if his luck had not left him, he might have put away the follies, set right the mistakes into which his youth and his young counselors had led him, and so reigned more happily than his supplanter. However, he had had his chance and failed, and the English people, perhaps rightly, would not give him another, though he had a few warm