A.D.1398.

the kingdom. Arundel himself was beheaded, and Warwick was doomed to perpetual confinement in the Isle of Man4. The destruction of the duke of Gloucester, and the supporters of his party, was followed by a misunderstanding among those noblemen who had joined in the prosecution; and the duke of Hereford, in particular, went so far as to accuse the duke of Norfolk in parliament of having spoken 66 many slanderous words of the king." Norfolk denied the charge: gave Hereford the lie, and offered to prove his innocence by duel. The challenge was accepted; the time and place of the combat were appointed, and the whole nation was held in suspence with regard to the event. But when the two champions appeared in the field, accoutred for the fight, the king interposed, to prevent both the present effusion of blood, and the future consequences of the quarrel. He stopped the duel, by the advice and authority of the parliamentary commissioners, appointed to regulate the combat: and, by the same authority, he ordered both the combatants to leave the kingdoms. Hereford was banished for ten years, and Norfolk for life.

The sentence pronounced upon these two noblemen appears to have been impartial, but it surely was not equitable. The one was condemned without being charged with any offence; the other without being convicted of any crime. It was alfo unpopular. Richard's conduct in this affair was considered as a mark of the pusillanimity of his temper: and the weakness and fluctuation of his councils, at least, appear on no occasion more evident. Henry, duke of Hereford, being a man of great prudence and self-command, behaved himself with so much humility after his condemnation, that the king promised to shorten the term of his exile four years; and also granted him letters-patent empowering him, in case

4. T. Walsingham. Froissard, liv. iv. Rymer, vol. vii.

5. T. Walsingham, Parl. Hist. vol. i,

any

any inheritance should accrue to him during the interval, to enter into immediate possession. But Hereford, who was son to the duke of Lancaster, had no sooner left the kingdom than Richard's jealousy of the power and riches of that family revived; and he grew sensible, that by Gloucester's death he had only removed a counterpoise to the Lancastrian interest, which was now become formidable to the throne. He therefore took every method to sully abroad the reputation of Henry duke of Hereford, and to obstruct his alliances, by representing him as guilty of treasonable practices; and when the duke of Lancaster died, he revoked his letters-patent to Henry, and retained possession of the family estate".

A.D.1399.

These instances of rapacity and severity, and the circumstances with which they were accompanied, threw upon Richard the universal odium of the people. Hereford, now duke of Lancaster, had formerly acquired the esteem of the public by his valour and abilities. He was connected with most of the principal nobility by blood, alliance, or friendship; his misfortunes added double lustre to his merit; all men made his case their own: they entered into his resentment; and they turned their eyes towards him as the only person who could retrieve the lost honour of the nation, or reform the abuses of government.

While the minds of men were thus disposed, Richard went over to quell an insurrection in Ireland, and thereby imprudently afforded his exiled cousin an opportunity of gratifying the wishes of the nation. Henry landed at Ravenspur, in Yorkshire, accompanied only by sixty persons; but he was suddenly joined by the earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland, two of the most potent barons in England, and the malecontents in all quarters flew to arms. He solemnly declared that he had no other purpose in this invasion than to recover the duchy of Lancaster, unjustly detain

6. Tyrrel, vol. iii. from the Records.

ed

ed from him; and he entreated his uncle, the duke of York, who had been left guardian of the kingdom, not to oppose a loyal and humble supplicant in the recovery of his legal patrimony. His entreaties had the desired effect. The guardian embraced his cause, and he immediately found himself master of England.

Richard no sooner received intelligence of this invasion, than he hastened over from Ireland, and landed at MilfordHaven, with a body of twenty thousand men. But even that small army was seized with the spirit of disaffection, and the king found himself almost entirely deserted. In this extremity he fled to the Isle of Anglesea, where he proposed to embark for France, and there wait the return of his subjects to a sense of their duty. But before he had an opportunity of carrying his design into execution, the earl of Northumberland waited upon him from the duke of Lancaster, with the strongest professions of loyalty and submission; and Richard was so credulous as to put himself in the power of his enemy. He was carried about in an abject manner, exposed to the insults of the populace; deposed, confined in prison, and afterwards murdered. And the duke of Lancaster was proclaimed king, under the name of Henry IV.

The beginning of the reign of Henry IV. as may naturally be expected from the manner in which he obtained the throne, was stained by many acts of blood and violence. All who opposed his title fell a sacrifice to his rigid policy, and superstition was called in, to swell by new crimes the horrid catalogue. While a subject, Henry was believed to have strongly imbibed the principles of Wickliffe, a secular priest educated at Oxford, who, during the reigns of Edward III. and Richard II. preached the doctrine of reformation; but finding himself possessed of the throne by so precarious a title, this politic prince thought superstition a

VOL. II.

7. T. Walsingham. Froissard, ubi sup.

F

necessary

A.D. 1400.

necessary engine of public authority. There had hitherto been no penal laws enacted against heresy in England: Henry, therefore, who made nothing of sacrificing his principles to his interest, understanding that the clergy called loudly for the punishment of the disciples of Wickliffe, whose learning and genius had in some measure broken the fetters of prejudice, resolved to procure the favour of the church by the most effectual of all methods, by gratifying her vengeance on those who presumed to dispute her infallibility. A law was accordingly enacted, That when any heretic, who relapsed, or refused to abjure his opinions, was delivered over to the secular arm, by the bishop or his commissaries, he should be committed to the flames by the civil magistrate before the whole people 8. This weapon did not long remain unemployed in the hands of the clergy. William Sautre, a clergyman in London, had been condemned by the convocation at Canterbury: his sentence was ratified by the house of peers; and the unhappy sectary suffered the punishment of fire, because he could not think as the church directed. What a fatal prelude to future horrors, proceeding from the same source!

But all the prudence and precaution of Henry could not shield him from numerous alarms. He was threatened from France with an invasion, which was only prevented by the disorders in that country; and the revolution in England was speedily followed by an insurrection in Wales. Owen Glendour, descended from the ancient princes of that country, had become obnoxious on account of his attachment to Richard; and Reginald, lord Grey of Ruthyn, who was closely connected with the new king, and who enjoyed a great fortune in the Marches of Wales, thought the opportunity favourable for oppressing his neighbour, and taking possession of his estate. Glendour, provoked at the injustice, and still more at the indignity, recovered possession by

8. 2 Hen. IV.7.

the

the sword. Henry sent assistance to Grey, the Welsh took part with Glendour: a tedious and troublesome war was kindled, which Glendour long sustained by his valour and activity, aided by the natural strength of the country, and the untamed spirit of the inhabitants.

A.D.1401.

The Scots also were tempted by these disorders to make incursions into England; and Henry, desirous of taking revenge upon them, conducted an army as far north as Edinburgh. But finding that the Scots would neither submit nor give him battle, he returned without effecting any thing of consequence. Next season, however, Archibald earl of Douglas, who, at the head of twelve thousand men, attended by many of the principal nobility of Scotland, had made an irruption into the northern counties, was overtaken by the Percies of Northumberland on his return, at Homeldon, on the borders of England, where a fierce battle ensued, and the Scots were totally routed. Douglas himself was taken prisoner; as were the earls of Angus, Murray, Orkney, and many others of the Scottish nobility and gentry 9.

A.D.1402.

When Henry received intelligence of this victory, he sent the earl of Northumberland orders not to ransome his prisoners; a privilege which that nobleman regarded as his right, by the then received laws of war. The king intended to detain them, that he might be able, by their means, to make an advantageous peace with Scotland. But by this selfish policy he gave fresh disgust to the powerful family of Northumberland. The impatient spirit of Harry Percy, commonly known by the name of Hotspur, and factious disposition of the earl of Worcester, younger brother of the carl of Northumberland, inflamed the discontents of that nobleman; and the precarious title of Henry tempted Northumberland to seek revenge, by overturning that throne which he had at first established. He entered into a correspondence with Glendour: he set the earl of Doug

9. Walsingham, Hall, Otterbourne.

las