RICHARD II.—1377 to 1399.
How Richard the Second sent men round the country to gather the
taxes; how Wat Tyler killed one of them and collected an army; how
he met the King in Smithfield, and was killed by the Mayor; how King
Richard behaved cruelly to his uncles; how he was forced to give up
the crown to his cousin Henry of Hereford, and died at Pomfret.
Richard the Second was only eleven years old when his grandfather,
King Edward the Third, died. He was made king immediately. The
people, who loved him for the sake of his good and brave father,
the Black Prince, were very peaceable and quiet in the beginning of
his reign. But his uncles, who were clever men, and wanted to be
powerful, did not agree very well with one another.
When Richard was about sixteen, a civil war had very nearly taken
place. I will tell you how it happened.
The king was not so well brought up as he ought to have been, and
he loved eating and drinking and fine clothes, and he made a great
many feasts, and gave fine presents to his favourites, so that he
often wanted money before it was the right time to pay the taxes. It
happened, as I said, when the king was about sixteen, that he wanted
money, and so did his uncles, who were in France, where the French
and English still continued to fight now and then. The great lords
sent the men who gathered the king’s taxes round the country, and one
of them, whose business was to get the poll-tax, that is, a tax on
everybody’s head, was so cruel, and so rude to the daughter of a poor
man named Wat Tyler, that Wat, who could not bear to see his child
ill-used, struck him on the head with his hammer and killed him.
Wat Tyler’s neighbours, hearing the noise, all came round, and,
finding how much the taxgatherer had vexed Wat, they took his part,
and got their friends to do the same, and a great many thousands of
them collected together at Blackheath, and sent to the king, who
then lived in the Tower of London, to beg him to listen to their
complaints, and not to allow the noblemen to oppress them, nor to
send to gather taxes in a cruel manner. The king did not go to them,
but he read the paper of complaints they sent, and promised to do his
people justice. A few days afterwards, the king, with his officers,
met Wat Tyler, and a great many of the people who had joined him,
in Smithfield, and spoke to him about the complaints the people had
made. The Mayor of London, who was near them, fancied Wat Tyler was
going to stab the king, so he rode up to him and killed him.
Wat Tyler’s friends now thought it best to make peace with the king;
so for this time the civil war was stopped.
[Illustration: Death of Wat Tyler.]
I have told you this story, to show you what mischief is done by
cruelty and injustice. It was unjust to collect the taxes at a wrong
time, and for a bad purpose. It was cruel in the taxgatherer to
behave ill to Tyler’s daughter. That injustice and cruelty brought
about the death of the tax-man, and that of Wat Tyler, who seems to
have been a bold, brave man, wishing to do what was right.
Soon after this disturbance, the king was married to a princess of
Bohemia, who was so gentle and kind to the people, that they called
her the good Queen Anne, and they hoped that she would persuade the
king to send away his bad companions; but they were disappointed, for
Richard II. was too ill-tempered to take her advice, and the people,
who had loved him when he was a child for his father’s sake, now
began to hate him.
In the meantime he was at war with Scotland, and with Ireland, and
with France; and instead of gaining battles, and making the name of
our dear England glorious, he lost, by degrees, all credit, and was
laughed at by foreigners, as well as by his own subjects.
I have told you that the king had several uncles, who took care of
the kingdom while he was a child. Instead of being grateful for this,
he ordered one to be put to death, and ill-used another; and when
his third uncle, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, died, he took all
his money and lands away from John’s son, whose name was Henry of
Hereford, and made use of his riches to spend in eating, drinking,
and riot of all kinds.
The good Queen Anne died soon, and she had no son, and the people all
began to wish they had another king instead of this Richard, who was
a disgrace to his good father the Black Prince.
Now Henry of Hereford, who was the king’s cousin, was very clever;
and the people knew he was very brave, for he had fought in the
armies of some foreign princes at one time. Besides, he behaved
kindly and good-naturedly to the people, so a good many of them began
to wish him to be king. Then Richard grew afraid of him, and sent him
out of the country.
[Illustration: Henry of Hereford claiming the Crown of England.]
Soon word was sent to Henry that King Richard was gone to Ireland
to quiet some disturbance there, and that, if he pleased to come to
England and make himself king, he would find many persons ready to
take his part.
Henry came accordingly, and, on King Richard’s return from Ireland,
he forced him to call the parliament to meet him in London. Now
the lords and the gentlemen, or, as they began to be called, the
commons of the parliament, all agreed that Richard was too cruel,
and revengeful, and extravagant to be king any longer, and that his
cousin, Henry of Hereford, son of the great Duke of Lancaster, should
be king.
Richard was forced to give up the crown; and of all the people who
had lived with him, and to whom he had shown kindness, there was only
one, the Bishop of Carlisle, who took his part, or said a word in his
favour; so he was put into prison at Pomfret Castle, and some time
afterwards he died there. Some people say he was killed by a bad man
called Exton; others say he was starved to death.