would not suffer the combatants to engage, but commanded both of them to leave the kingdom. Norfolk he banished for life, but the duke of Hereford only for ten years. The former retired to Venice, where, in a short time he died. Hereford behaved in a resigned and submissive manner; and the king consented to shorten the time of his banishment four years: he also granted him letters patent, ensuring him of the enjoyment of any inheritance which should fall to him during his absence. Upon the death of his father, the duke of Lancaster, however, which happened shortly after, Richard revoked these letters, and kept the estate to himself. This last injury inflamed the resentment of Hereford, and he now formed the bold design of dethroning the king. He was a great favorite both with the army and people; was immensely rich, and connected by blood or alliance with all the great families of the nation. The king at the same time, it is said, gave himself up to an idle, effeminate life; and his ministers followed his example. The number of malecontents daily increased, and only waited for a favorable opportunity to put their schemes in execution: this opportunity soon offered. The earl of March, presumptive heir to the crown, having been appointed the king's lieutenant in Ireland, was slain in a skirmish with the Irish; which so incensed Richard, that, unmindful of his precarious situation at home, he went over to that country with a considerable army, in order to revenge his death. The duke of Lancaster (for this title Hereford assumed on the death of his father) hearing of the king's absence, instantly embarked at Nantz; and with a retinue of only sixty persons in three small vessels, landed at Ravenspur in Yorkshire. The earl of Northumberland, who had long been a malecontent, together with Henry Percy, his son, who, from his ardent valor, was surnamed Hotspur, immediately joined him, and the people flocked to his standard in such numbers, that in a few days he was at the head of 60,000 men. Richard, in the meantime, continued in perfect security in Ireland. Contrary winds for three weeks prevented his receiving any news of the rebellion which was begun in England. He landed therefore at Milford Haven without suspicion, attended by about 20,000 men; and immediately found himself opposed by an overwhelming force. To complete his difficulties, his army gradually deserted till he was at last obliged to compromise with the duke of Lancaster, or rather to submit to whatever terms he pleased to prescribe. The duke would not enter into any treaty with him; but carried him to London, where he was confined a close prisoner in the tower; formally deposed by parliament, or rather by the duke of Lancaster, and at last put to death. The manner of his death is variously related. According to some, eight or nine ruffians were sent to the castle of Pomfret, whither the unhappy prince had been removed, in order to dispatch him. They rushed unexpectedly into his apartment; but Richard, knowing their design, resolved to sell his life as dear as possible, and wresting a pole-ax from one of the murderers, killed four of them; but was at length overpowered and killed. Others relate that he was starved in prison; and that, after he was denied all nourishment, he prolonged his life fourteen days, by feeding on the flocks of his bed. He died in 1399, in the thirty-fourth year of his age, and twenty-third of his reign, during which, the famous reformer Wickliff first published his doctrines. See WICKLIFf. The Protestant accounts of this great man's rise are numerous: it is a subject, perhaps, upon which a Catholic historian should also be heard. Dr. Lingard thus introduces it : It is about the year 1360 that the name of Wycliffe is first mentioned in history. He was then engaged in a fierce but ridiculous controversy with the different orders of friars. They. had been established in England for more than a century and by their zeal, piety, and learning, the usual concomitants of new religious institutions, had deservedly earned the esteem of the public. Some taught with applause in the universities; many lent their aid to the parochial clergy in the discharge of their ministry; several had been raised to the episcopal dignity; and others had been employed in difficult and important negociations by their sovereigns. The reputation and prosperity of the new orders awakened the jealousy of their rivals. FitzRalph, archbishop of Armagh, openly accused them before the pontiff; and Wycliffe, treading in the footsteps of Fitz-Ralph, maintained at Oxford that a life of mendicity was repugnant to the precepts of the gospel, and that the friars in practice and doctrine were involved in the guilt of fifty heresies. The men, whom he attacked, endeavoured to justify themselves by the example of Christ, who was supported by the alms of his disciples; and Wycliffe replied by this nice distinction: that Christ, though he received, did not ask; while the friars, not content with spontaneous offerings, exhorted others by their importunity and falsehoods. This controversy had no immediate result: but it is mentioned as the origin of that violent hostility to the friars which Wycliffe displayed in every subsequent stage of his life. Archbishop Islip had founded Canterbury Hall, in Oxford, for a warden and eleven scholars, of whom eight were to be secular clergymen, the warden and three others to be monks, taken from his own convent at Christ Church. In 1365, by means with which we are not acquainted, Wycliffe superseded Woodhall the warden, and, with the approbation of the founder, expelled both him and his monks. Islip died the next year: his successor Simon Langham, alleging that the appointment of Wycliffe was contrary to the charter of foundation, and had bee: obtained at a time when his predecessor, from age and infirmity, was incapable of business, commanded the new warden to make place for the old; and, on his refusal, sequestrated the revenues of the hall. Wycliffe appealed to the pope, and commissioned one of the fellows to prosecute the appeal. After a tedious process, judgment was given against him: both he and his associates were expelled in turn; and the king's approbation was obtained to sanction the whole proceeding. To his disappointment at this decision has been attributed, perhaps rashly, Wycliffe's subsequent opposition to the papal authority. He had obtained the honorary title of one of the king's chaplains, and as such strenuously maintained in the university the rights of the crown against the pretensions of the. pontiff. His name stands the second on the list of commissioners, appointed to meet the papal envoys at Bruges, for the purpose of adjusting in an amicable manner the disputes between the two powers. He was afterwards preferred to a prebend in the collegate church of Westbury. He already possessed the rectory of Fylingham, which he exchanged for that of Lutterworth, both in the diocese of Lincoln. To accept of preferment was so contrary to the principles which he afterwards taught, that it is probable he had not yet determined to embrace the profession of a reformer. He continued, however to lecture at Oxford, and imitated in his manner of life the austerity of the men whom he so warmly opposed. He always went barefoot, and was clad in a gown of the coarsest russet. By degrees he diverted his invectives from the friars to the whole body of the clergy. The popes, the bishops, the rectors, and curates, smarted successively under the lash. Every clergyman was bound, he contended, to imitate the Saviour in poverty, as well as in virtue. But clerks possessioners, so he termed the beneficed clergy, did not imitate the poverty of Christ. They were choked with the tallow of worldly goods, and consequently were hypocrites and antichrists. By falling into sin they became traitors to their God and of course forfeited the emoluments of their cures. In such cases it became the duty of laymen, under pain of damnation, to withhold from them their tithes, and to take from them their possessions. To disseminate these and similar principles, he collected a body of fanatics, whom he distinguished by the name of poor priests. They were clad like himself, professed their determination never to accept of any benefice, and undertook to exercise the calling of itinerant preachers without the licence, and even in opposition to the authority of the bishops. 'The coarseness of Wycliffe's invectives, and the refractory conduct of his poor priests, soon became subjects of astonishment and complaint. In the last year of Edward, while the parliament was sitting, he was summoned to answer in St. Paul's before the primate and bishop of London. He obeyed; but made his appearance between the two most powerful subjects in England, the duke of Lancaster, and Percy the lord mareschal. Their object was to intimidate his opponents: and the attempt was begun by Lancaster, who ordered a chair to be given to Wycliffe. Courtney, the bishop of London, replied that it was not customary for the accused to sit in the presence, and without the permission, of his judges. A vehement altercation ensued, and the language of Lancaster grew so abusive, that the populace rose in defence of their bishop, and had it not been for his interference, would have offered violence to his reviler. Though the duke escaped with his life, his palace of the Savoy was pillaged in the tumult which has been already described. Wycliffe found it necessary to make the best apology in his power, and was permitted to depart with a severe reprimand, and an order to be silent for the future on those subjects, which had given so much cause for complaint.' 6. Of England under the House of Lancaster. After sentence of deposition had been pronounced on Richard by both houses of parliament, the throne being vacant, the duke of Lancaster stepped forth; and having crossed himself on the forehead and on the breast, and called on the name of Christ, gave in his claim to the throne in the name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, as descended by right line of blood from Henry III.' This claim was founded on a false assumption that Edmund earl of Lancaster, son of Henry III., was really the eldest brother of Edward I.; but that, by reason of some deformity in his person, he had been deprived of the succession, and Edward the younger brother imposed on the nation in his stead. The duke of Lancaster inherited from Edmund, by his mother,,the right which he now pretended to the crown; though the falsehood of the story was so generally known, that he thought proper to mention it only in general terms. No opposition, however, was made to the validity of his title in parliament; and thus commenced the differences between the houses of York and Lancaster, which were not terminated but by many bloody and ruinous conflicts. The reign of Henry IV. was little less than a continued series of insurrections. In the very first parliament he called, no fewer than forty challenges were given and accepted by different barons; and though Henry had ability and address enough to forbid these duels from being fought, it was not in his power to prevent continual insurrections and combinations against himself. The most formidable one was conducted by the earl of Northumberland, and commenced A. D. 1402. The occasion of it was, that Henry denied the earl liberty to ransom some Scots prisoners, who had been taken in a skirmish with that nation. The king was desirous of detaining them in order to increase his demands upon Scotland in making peace; but as the ransom of prisoners was in that age looked upon as a right belonging to those who had taken them, the earl thought himself injured. The injury appeared the greater, Northumberland considering the king as indebted to him both for his life and crown. He now resolved therefore to dethrone Henry; and to raise to the throne young Mortimer, who was the true heir, being the son of Roger Mortimer earl of March, whom Richard II. had declared his successor. For this purpose he entered into an alliance with the Scots and Welsh, who were to make an irruption into England at the same time that he himself was to raise what forces he could to join them. But when all things were prepared, the earl found himself unable to lead on the troops, by a sudden fit of illness with which he was seized at Berwick. On this, young Percy, surnamed Hotspur, took the command, and marched towards Shrewsbury, in order to join the Welsh. But the king had happily a small army with which he intended to have acted against the Scots; and knowing the importance of celerity on such an occasion, instantly hurried down, to give battle to the rebels. The approached Shrewsbury before a junction as an auxiliary to his authority, and determined wh the Welsh could be effected; and gladly to pay his court to the clergy. There were hiavailed himself of the impatience which foolishly therto no penal laws against heresy; not indeed urged Percy to seek an engagement. The even- through the liberality of the court of Rome, but ing before the battle he sent a manifesto to Henry; through the stupidity of the people who were in which he renounced his allegiance, set the content for ages with the absurdities of the estaking at defiance, and enumerated all the griev- blished religion. But when the learning and ances of which he imagined the nation might genius of Wickliff had once broke the fetters of justly complain. He reproached him, and very prejudice, the ecclesiastics called aloud for the justly, with perjury; for Henry, on his first land- punishment of his disciples; and Henry resolved ing in England, had sworn upon the gospels, to gratify them. He engaged parliament to pass before the earl of Northumberland, that he had no a law for this purpose, by which it was enacted, other intention but to recover possession of the that when an heretic, who relapsed, or refused to duchy of Lancaster, and that he would ever re- abjure his opinions, was delivered over to the main a faithful subject to king Richard. He secular arm by the bishop or his commissaries, aggravated his guilt, in first dethroning and then he should be committed to the flames in the premurdering that prince; and in usurping on the sence of the populace. This weapon did not retitle of the house of Mortimer; to whom, both main long unemployed in the hands of the clergy. by lineal succession and the declarations of par- William Sautré, rector of St. Osithe's in London, liament, the throne, then vacant by Richard's had been condemned by the convocation of Candeath, of right belonged. Several other heavy terbury: his sentence was ratified by the house charges were brought against him; which, at that of peers; the king issued his writ for the extime, were productive of no other effect than to ecution; and he was burnt alive in 1401. The irritate the king and his adherents to the utmost. doctrines of Wickliff, however, gained ground The armies on each side were in number about very considerably in England. In 1405 the 12,000; and as both leaders were men of known commons, who had been required to grant supbravery, an obstinate engagement was expected. plies, proposed to the king to seize all the The battle was fought on the 20th of July 1403; temporalities of the church, and employ them and never was a conflict more terrible or deter- as a perpetual fund to serve the exigencies of mined. At last Percy being killed by an unthe state. They insisted that the clergy posknown hand, the victory was decided in favor of sessed a third of the lands of the kingdom; the royalists. There are said to have fallen on that they contributed nothing to the public burthat day near 2300 gentlemen, and 6000 private dens; and that their exorbitant riches tended soldiers, of whom near two-thirds were of Percy's only to disqualify them from performing their army. The earl of Northumberland having re- ministerial functions with proper zeal and atcovered from his sickness, and levied an army, tention. When this address was presented, the was on his march to join his son; but being archbishop of Canterbury, who then attended opposed by the earl of Westmoreland, and hear- the king, objected that the clergy, though they ing of the defeat of the earl at Shrewsbury, he went not in person to the wars, sent their vasdismissed his forces, and came with a small re-sals and tenants in all cases of necessity; while tinue to the king at York. He pretended that his sole intention was to mediate between the contending parties; and the king thought proper to accept of his apology, and grant him a pardon. The other rebels were treated with equal lenity; and none of them, except the earl of Worcester and sir Richard Vernon, who were regarded as the chief authors of the insurrection, perished by the hands of the executioner. This lenity, nлwever, was not sufficient to keep the kingdom quiet; one insurrection followed another almost during the whole of this reign; but either through Henry's vigilance, or the bad management of the conspirators, they never could bring their projects to bear. This reign is also remarkable for the first capital punishment inflicted on a clergyman of high rank. The archbishop of York having been concerned in an insurrection against the king, and happening to be taken prisoner, was heheaded without either indictment, trial, or defence; nor was any disturbance occasioned by this summary execution. But the most remarkable transaction of this period, was the introduction of the absurd and cruel practice of burning for heresy. Henry, while a subject, was thought to have been very favorable to the doctrines of Wickliff; but when he came to the throne, finding his possession of it very insecure, he availed himself of the superstition of the people at the same time they themselves who staid at further to satisfy the church that he was in earnest, ordered a Lollard to be burnt before the dissolution of parliament. The king had now been for some time subject to fits, which continued to increase, and gradually terminated his life. He expired at Westminster in 1413, in the forty-sixth year of his age, and thirteenth of his reign. Henry IV. was succeeded by his son Henry V. whose martial talents and character had at first occasioned unreasonable jealousies in the mind of his father. The active spirit of Henry restrained from its proper exercise had therefore broken out in every kind of extravagance and dissipation. It is reported that he scrupled not to accompany his riotous associates in attacking passengers on the streets and highways, and robbing them. No sooner, however, did he ascend the throne, than he is said to have called together his former companions, to acquaint them with his intended reformation, and exhort them to imitate his example: but he stricly prohibited them, till they had given proofs of their sincerity in this particular, to appear any more in his presence. Those of his father's wise ministers, who had checked his riotous disposition while prince Henry, found that they had, unintentionally, been paying the highest court to their future sovereign; and were received with all the marks of favor and confidence. The chief justice, who on one occasion had actually imprisoned the prince, met with praises instead of reproaches for his past conduct, and was exhorted to persevere in the same rigorous and impartial execution of the laws. The king was not only anxious to repair his own misconduct, but also to make amends for those iniquities, into which policy or necessity had betrayed his father. He expressed the deepest sorrow for the fate of king Richard, rewarded his most attached friends, and performed his funeral obsequies with solemnity. He took into favor the young earl of March, though his competitor for the throne; and gained so far on his gentle and unambitious nature, that he remained ever after sincerely attached to him. The family of Percy was also restored to its fortune and honors; and the king seemed desirous to bury all distinctions in oblivion. Men of merit were preferred, of whatever party they had been, until all men were unanimous in their attachment to Henry; and the defects of his title were forgotten in the personal regard which he inspired. The only party which he was not able to bend to his measures, or with which the clergy, rather, would not suffer him to agree, was the new sect of Lollards. These reformers were now gaining such ground in England, that the established priesthood were alarmed, and Henry resolved to execute the laws upon them. The head of that party was sir John Oldcastle, lord Cobham; a nobleman who had distinguished himself by his valor and military talents on many occasions, and acquired the esteem both of the late and present king. His high character and zeal for the new sect pointed him out to Arundel archbishop of Canterbury, as a proper object of ecclesiastical fury, and he therefore applied to Henry for permission to indict him. The king desired him first to try gentle methods, and un dertook to converse with lord Cobham himself upon religious subjects. He did so, but could not prevail, and therefore abandoned Cobham to his enemies. He was immediately condemned to the flames as a heretic: but having found means to make his escape, he raised an insurrec tion; which was suppressed, without any other consequence than that of leaving a stain on the character of the new sect. Lord Cobham himself made his escape, but four years afterwards was taken and executed. Immediately after, the most severe laws were enacted against the Lollards. It was declared, that whoever was con victed of Lollardy, besides suffering capital punishment according to the laws formerly esta blished, should also forfeit his lands and goods to the king; and that the chancellor, treasurer, justices of the two benches, sheriffs, justices of the peace, and all the chief magistrates in every city and borough, should take an oath to use their utmost endeavours for the extirpation of heresy. Notwithstanding these denunciations, the very parliament which enacted them, viz. that of 1414, when the king demanded a supply, renewed the offer formerly pressed upon Henry IV., and entreated the king to seize all the ecclesiastical revenues, and convert them to the use of the crown. The clergy were greatly alarmed. They could offer the king nothing of equal value. They agreed, however, to confer on him all the priories alien, which depended on capital abbeys in Normandy, and which had been bequeathed to them when that province was united to England. The most effectual method, however, of warding off the blow, was by persuading the king to undertake a war with France, to recover the provinces which had formerly belonged to England. This was agreeable to the dying injunction of Henry IV., who advised his son never to let the English remain long in peace, which was apt to breed intestine commotions; but to employ them in foreign expeditions, by which the prince might acquire honor, the robility in sharing his dangers might attach themselves to his person, and all the restless spirits find occupation. The natural disposition of Henry sufficiently inclined him to follow this advice, and the civil disorders of France gave him the fairest prospect of success. Accordingly, in 1415, the king invaded France at the head of 30,000 men. The rapid progress of this army will be found related under the article FRANCE. He had espoused the king's daughter, and conquered the greatest part of the kingdom. His queen was delivered of a son named Henry, whose birth was celebrated by the greatest rejoicings both at London and Paris; and the infant prince seemed to be universally regarded as heir to both monarchies. But Henry's glory, when it seemed to be approaching the summit, was blasted at once by death, and all his mighty projects vanished. He was gradually reduced by a fistula, which the surgeons of the day could not cure; and expired on the 31st of August, 1422, in the thirty-fourth of his age, and tenth of his reign. Henry VI. succeeded to the throne while an infant not yet a year old, and his reign abounds, as we might expect, with the most dismal ac His new counts of misfortunes and civil wars. relatives soon began to dispute about the administration during his minority. The duke of Bedford, one of the most accomplished princes of the age, was appointed by parliament protector of England, defender of the church, and first counsellor to the king. His brother, the duke of Gloucester, was afterwards selected as regent, while he conducted the war in France; and to limit the power of both brothers, a council was named, without whose advice and approbation no measure could be carried into execution. France itself was now in the most desperate situation. The English were masters of almost the whole of it. Henry VI., while an infant, was solemnly invested with regal power by legates from Paris; so that Charles VII. of France succeeded only to a nominal kingdom. With all these advantages, however, the English daily lost ground in that country; and in the year 1450 were totally expelled from it. See FRANCE. It may easily be imagined, that such a train of bad success would produce discontents at home. The duke of Gloucester was envied by many on account of his station. Among these was Henry Beaufort, bishop of Winchester, great uncle to the king, and the legitimate son of John of Gaunt, brother to Richard II. This prelate, to whom the care of the king's education had been committed, was a man of considerable capacity and experience, but of an intriguing and dangerous disposition. He had frequent disputes with the duke of Gloucester, and the duke of Bedford in vain employed both his own authority and that of parliament to reconcile them: their mutual animosities embarrassed the government for several years. The sentiments of the two leaders were particularly divided with regard to France. The bishop embraced every prospect of accommodation with that country; and the duke of Gloucester was for maintaining the honor of the English arms, and regaining whatever had been lost. Both parties called in all the auxiliaries they could. The bishop resolved to strengthen himself by procuring a proper match for Henry, at that time twenty-three years old; and then bringing over the queen to his interests. Accordingly, the earl of Suffolk, a nobleman whom he knew to be steadfast in his attachments, was sent over to France, apparently to settle the terms of a truce which had then been begun, but in reality to procure a suitable match for the king. The bishop and his friends had cast their eye on Margaret of Anjou, daughter of Regnier, titular king of Sicily, Naples, and Jerusalem; but without either real power or possessions. She was considered as the most accomplished princess of the age, both in mind and person; and it was thought would, by her own abilities, be able to supply the defects of her husband, who appeared weak, timid, and superstitious. The treaty was therefore hastened on by Suffolk, and soon after ratified in England. The queen came immediately into the bishop's measures: Gloucester was deprived of al real power, and every possible method adopted to render him odious. One step taken for this purpose was to accuse his duchess of witchcraft. She was charged with conversing with one Bolingbroke, a priest and reputed necromancer, and also with Mary Gourdemain, supposed to be a witch. It was asserted that these three, in conjunction, had made an image of the king in wax, which was placed before a gentle fire: as the wax dissolved, the king's strength was expected to waste; and upon its total dissolution h's life was to be at an end. This accusation was readily believed in a superstitious age. The prisoners were pronounced guilty; the duchess was condemned to do penance and suffer perpetual imprisonment; Bolingbroke, the priest, was hanged, and the woman burnt in Smithfield. The bishop, called also the cardinal, of Winchester, was resolved to carry his resentment against Gloucester to the utmost. He procured a parliament to be summoned, not at London, which was too well affected to the duke, but at St. Edmundsbury, where his adherents were sufficiently numerous to overawe every opponent. As soon as Gloucester appeared he was accused of treason, and thrown into prison; and on the day on which he was to make his defence, he was found dead in his bed, though without any signs of violence upon his body. The death of the duke was universally ascribed to the cardinal, who himself died six weeks after, testifying the utmost remorse, we are told, for the bloody scene in which he had so recently acted. But some writers assert that Gloucester died a natural death: and Dr. Lingard says that his supposed remorse respecting the death of the duke of Gloucester is a fiction which we owe wholly to the imagination of Shakspeare. What share the queen had in these transactions is uncertain; but most people believed that without her knowledge the duke's enemies durst not have venventured to attack him. The king himself shared in the general ill will, and he never had the art to remove the suspicion. His great incapacity was every day more apparent; and a pretender to the throne made his appearance in 1450, in the person of Richard duke of York. All the males of the house of Mortimer were extinct; but Anne, the sister of the last earl of March, having espoused the earl of Cambridge, who had been beheaded for treason in the reign of Henry V., had transmitted her latent, but not yet forgotten claim, to her son Richard. This prince, descended by his mother from Philippa, only daughter of the duke of Clarence, and second son of Edward III. stood plainly in order of succession before the king, who derived his descent from the duke of Lancaster, third son of that monarch. The duke was a man of valor and abilities, as well as of some ambition; and he thought the weakness and unpopularity of the present reign afforded a favorable opportunity to assert his title. The ensign of Richard was a white rose, that of Henry a red one; and these gave their names to the two factions, who were now about to drench the kingdom in blood. After the cardinal of Winchester's death, the duke of Suffolk, who had perhaps also been concerned in the assassination of Gloucester, governed every thing with uncontrollable sway. His conduct excited the |