FROM THE ACCESSION OF RICHARD THE SECOND TO THE WAR OF THE
ROSES.--1377 TO 1422.
[Illustration: ABDICATION OF RICHARD.]
1. Richard the Second, the son of Edward, the Black Prince, was
but eleven years old when, by the death of his grandfather, he
became king of England. His uncles governed the country till he was
old enough to act for himself; but they did not teach him to be a
wise, nor a just man, and this injustice was the cause of all his
misfortunes.
2. One of the first things he did on his own account, was to break a
promise he made to the people; and this was how it happened. A new
tax had caused great discontent among the labouring classes, and
their unwillingness to pay it was increased by the insolence of the
collectors, who, one day, in the house of a man called Walter, or
Wat Tiler, behaved so ill to his daughter, that he gave one of them
a blow on the head with his hammer, which unluckily killed him.
3. Now the neighbours knew that if Walter should be taken, he
would be put to death for the offence, and as they all had cause
to complain of the tax-gatherers, they assembled in front of his
cottage, and declared they would protect him.
4. This was at Deptford, and they all proceeded to London, being
joined by thousands of men from different towns, and a dreadful riot
there was; so that it was thought necessary for the king to take some
means of pacifying the rebels.
5. Accordingly he went, with the lord mayor and some nobles and
gentlemen, to meet them in Smithfield, and whilst Tiler, their
leader, was talking with the king, the mayor came behind him, and
struck him on the head with his mace, and stunned him, and he was
killed by Richard’s party; and then the king, fearing the rioters
would kill him in return, asked them what they wanted, saying, he was
ready to do any thing that was right and just.
6. They said they desired that the poll tax should be taken off;
slavery and villeinage abolished by law; so that all who were still
in bondage should be made free; and that the old feudal custom of
paying duties on goods, at all the markets and fairs, should be done
away with.
7. All this Richard promised to do; but no sooner had the men
dispersed and gone back to their homes, than he sent out a military
force to seize all who had been concerned in the rebellion; and I
grieve to say that, although he had given his word that they should
all be pardoned, he ordered the judges to have every one of them
executed.
8. After such conduct as this, you will not expect to hear much good
of Richard the Second, whose selfish extravagance led him to do all
kinds of unjust things, for the purpose of raising money to spend
on his own pleasures; so that it might truly be said that he was
constantly robbing his subjects; as, for instance, he once wanted
to borrow a large sum of the citizens of London, which they would
not lend him, because they knew very well he would never return it;
so he took away their charter, that is, the grant which gives them
the right to elect a lord mayor, and to manage the affairs of the
city independently of the king; and they were obliged to give him ten
times as much to get it back again, as they had refused to lend.
9. The citizens of London were very rich at this period, many of
them being great merchants, and it was in this reign that the famous
Whittington was Lord Mayor.
10. He had made a large fortune in the coal trade, which was then a
new branch of commerce, for coals were very little used for firing
till the time of Edward the Third.
11. King Richard had unjustly banished his cousin Henry, Earl of
Hereford, and on the death of Henry’s father, the Duke of Lancaster,
had taken possession of his estates.
12. This nobleman was a grandson of Edward the Third, and was much
liked by the English, who would rather have had him for their king
than the unworthy sovereign they had got, although he would have had
no right to the throne, even if Richard had been dead.
13. However, he came back to England, and finding most of the nobles
as well as the people willing to make him king, Richard was obliged
to resign the crown, and was imprisoned in Pomfret castle, where
it is supposed he died by unfair means; but as this is not quite
certain, we will hope it was not so. He had reigned twenty-two years,
when he was deposed, in 1399.
14. This usurpation of Henry the Fourth was the cause of the long
civil wars in England, called the Wars of the Roses, which began in
the time of Henry the Sixth, whose right to the throne was disputed,
although his father and grandfather had been suffered to reign
without opposition.
15. Henry the Fourth was, on the whole, a popular monarch, and under
his government things went on pretty well with the generality of the
people.
16. There was an insurrection in Wales, headed by a gentleman, named
Owen Glendower, who wished to restore the Welsh to their former
independence, and to be their prince, as he was of the ancient royal
family; and he was joined by the powerful Earl of Northumberland, and
his son Henry Percy, better known by the name of Hotspur, who was
one of the bravest knights of the age.
17. These noblemen had a quarrel with the king, and wanted to depose
him; but he gained a victory over them in a battle fought near
Shrewsbury, where Hotspur was killed. These events are not of much
importance, but I tell them because when you hear any celebrated
characters spoken of, you ought to know who they were, and when they
lived.
18. The prince of Wales, afterwards Henry the Fifth, was also
celebrated for his valour, but not for his good behaviour in his
youth; for his conduct was sometimes so disgraceful that his father
was quite ashamed of him, and nobody would have supposed he was the
son of a king.
19. One thing he used to do was to go out at night, with some idle
companions, and rob people on the highway, for amusement; yet he had
not a bad disposition, for once one of the judges sent him to prison
for trying to rescue one of his wicked companions; and he not only
submitted to the punishment, but when he came to be king, he treated
that judge with great respect and attention, because he knew he was a
just man, and would punish the rich as well as the poor, if they did
wrong. King Henry the Fourth died in 1413, in the fourteenth year of
his reign.
20. Henry the Fifth is famed as the conqueror of France. He went to
war with that country, on the same pretext that Edward the Third did
before; and with better success, for the French king was at last glad
to make peace by agreeing that Henry should be king of France after
his death.
21. The greatest victory gained by the English, was at the battle of
Agincourt. King Henry married the French king’s daughter, but he died
soon afterwards, in 1422, having reigned nine years; and leaving an
infant son; and in a little while the king of France died too, and he
also left a son.
22. Then there was a dispute which of these princes should be king of
France, and a new war was begun which lasted many years, during which
the English lost all that the armies of Henry the Fifth had won.
23. In the mean time the young king, Henry the Sixth, grew up so
weak in mind and sickly in body, that he was not able to govern the
country; therefore, his ministers and the queen, a French princess,
named Margaret of Anjou, had to manage every thing for him.
24. But many people did not like the queen, and began to say that
her husband had no right to the throne as his grandfather was a
usurper; but that Richard, Duke of York, ought to be king of England;
while others said that, as the Parliament had consented to let the
family of the Duke of Lancaster reign, it was lawful for them to keep
the crown; and that although king Henry was not fit for a ruler, the
rights of his son, prince Edward, ought to be protected.
25. The Duke of York was then governor of Ireland, but when he heard
of these disputes, he came back, and was placed at the head of the
government here, instead of the queen.
26. I think you will now quite understand why there was a civil war
in England. Every nobleman in the country took one side or the other,
and the friends of the Duke of York wore a white rose or ribbon
rosette; while those who supported the king, or House of Lancaster,
wore a crimson one; as people now wear different colored ribbons at
an election, to show which party they belong to; and this is why
these wars are called the Wars of the Roses.
QUESTIONS.
1. Who succeeded Edward the Third?
2. Who was Wat Tiler, and how was his rebellion occasioned?
4. How did the rebels proceed?
5. What means were taken to quell the insurrection?
6. What were the demands of the rebels?
7. What was the conduct of Richard on this occasion?
12. Who was the Earl of Hereford?
13. How was Richard dethroned, and what became of him?
16. What battle was fought in this reign, and why?
17. Who was killed in this battle?
18. Who succeeded Henry the Fourth?
20. How did Henry the Fifth distinguish himself?
23. What was the character of Henry the Sixth?
24. What gave rise to the Wars of the Roses?