CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



shewn conspicuously ; but this lavish expendi- 

 ture of the resources of his kingdom, in which he 

 was supported by his parliament, was of no perma- 

 nent benefit, even to himself, for whom alone it 

 was made. John, king of France, who had been 

 made captive at Poitiers, and David, king of 

 Scotland, who had been taken at Ncvill's Cross in 

 1346, while conducting an invasion of England, 

 were prisoners in England at the same time. In 

 1360, after about twenty years of active fighting, 

 the English king left France with little more terri- 

 tory than he had previously enjoyed. Edward 

 had invaded Scotland with a powerful army in 

 1356, but without making any impression. The 

 Scots, under David's nephew, Robert Stewart, 

 effectually protected themselves, not only from his 

 arms, but from a proposal which David himself 

 basely undertook to make, that Lionel, the second 

 son of the English king, should be acknowledged 

 as his successor. Edward died in 1377, a year 

 after the decease of his son, the Black Prince. 



England was at this time affected more than at 

 any other by the fashions of chivalry a military 

 enthusiasm which for some centuries pervaded 

 all Christian Europe, which prompted, as one of 

 its first principles, a heedless bravery in encoun- 

 tering all kinds of danger. Its votaries were 

 expected to be particularly bold in behalf of the 

 fair sex, insomuch that a young knight would 

 sometimes challenge to mortal combat any one who 

 denied his mistress to be the loveliest in the world. 

 It was a system full of extravagance, and tending 

 to bloodshed ; but nevertheless it maintained a 

 certain courtesy towards females, and a romantic 

 principle of honour, which we may be glad to 

 admire, considering how rude was almost every 

 other feature of the age. In 1363, John Wycliffe, 

 an Oxford doctor, became famous for the attacks 

 he made on the orders of Begging Friars. He 

 questioned some of the doctrines of the church, 

 and hence he has generally been considered the 

 herald of the Protestant Reformation. He also 

 translated the Bible. His disciples, nicknamed 

 Lollards, were frequently burned as heretics. He 

 died in 1384. 



EDWARD III. in whose later days the govern- 

 ment had been conducted chiefly by his third son, 

 John of Gaunt or Ghent, Duke of Lancaster was 

 succeeded by his grandson, RICHARD II. then a 

 boy of eleven years of age, and who proved to be 

 a person of weak character. The Commons took 

 advantage of the irregularity of his government to 

 strengthen their privileges, which they had with 

 difficulty sustained during the more powerful rule 

 of his predecessor. Early in this reign, they 

 assumed the right, not only of taxing the country, 

 but of seeing how the money was spent. Indig- 

 nant at the severity of a tax imposed upon all 

 grown-up persons, the peasantry of the eastern 

 parts of England rose, in 1381, under one Walter, 

 a tiler, of Dartford, commonly called Wat Tyler, 

 and advanced, to the number of 60,000, to London, 

 where they put to death the chancellor and.primate, 

 as evil counsellors of their sovereign. They de- 

 manded the abolition of villeinage or slavery, the 

 free exercise of trades, fixed rents in place of com- 

 pulsory service, and a general pardon. The king 

 came to confer with them at Smithfield, where 

 Walworth, Mayor of London, stabbed Wat Tyler 

 with a dagger a weapon which has since figured 

 in the armorial bearings of the metropolis. The 



136 



peasants were dismayed, and submitted, although 

 not before the king had conceded their demands, 

 which concessions, however, he afterwards got 

 parliament to annul 



The country was misgoverned by Richard II. 

 till 1399, when he was deposed by his subjects 

 under his cousin, Henry, Duke of Lancaster, 

 whom he had sent into exile, and Percy, the 

 powerful Earl of Northumberland. Lancaster was 

 crowned as HENRY IV. ; and his predecessor, 

 Richard, soon after disappeared mysteriously, the 

 general belief being that he was murdered in 

 Pontefract Castle. 



In the meantime, David of Scotland died (1371), 

 and was succeeded by his nephew, ROBERT 

 STEWART, who was the son of Marjory Bruce, 

 daughter of Robert I. and the first monarch 

 of that family. ROBERT II. dying in 1390, was 

 succeeded by his son ROBERT III. who was a 

 good and gentle prince. He had two sons, 

 David and James : the former was starved 

 to death by his uncle, the Duke of Albany ; and 

 the latter, when on his way to France for his 

 education, was seized by Henry IV. of England, 

 and kept captive in that country for eighteen 

 years. Robert III. then died of a broken heart 

 (1406), and the kingdom fell into the hands of the 

 Duke of Albany, at whose death, in 1419, it was 

 governed by his son, Duke Murdoch. 



HOUSE OF LANCASTER. 



Henry IV. proved a prudent prince, and com- 

 paratively a good ruler. As Edmund, Earl of 

 March, great-grandson of Lionel, the second son 

 of Edward III. had a better right to the throne, 

 Henry was much troubled by insurrections, the 

 most formidable of which were those of the 

 Percies. Hotspur, the celebrated son of the Earl 

 of Northumberland, was, however, slain in battle 

 at Shrewsbury ; and Northumberland himself, 

 after being the moving power in two other insur- 

 rections, was also slain. At the same time, Owen 

 Glendower, who claimed to be descended from 

 the ancient princes of Wales, rose against Eng- 

 lish authority, and kept his ground for many 

 years. Somewhat strange to say, Glendower died 

 a peaceful death. 



On the death of Henry IV. in 1413, he was 

 succeeded by his son, who was proclaimed under 

 the title of HENRY V. The young king attained 

 high popularity, on account of his impartial ad- 

 ministration of justice, and his zeal to protect the 

 poor from the oppressions of their superiors. His 

 reign is less agreeably marked by the persecutions 

 of the Lollards, the most notable of whom was a 

 Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham, who was exe- 

 cuted as a traitor and a heretic. Being determined 

 to use every endeavour to gain the crown of 

 France, which he considered his by right of birth, 

 he landed in Normandy with 30,000 men (August 

 1415), and gave battle to a much superior force of 

 the French at Agincourt, October 25. He gained 

 a complete victory, which was sullied by his after- 

 wards ordering a massacre of his prisoners, under 

 the apprehension that an attempt was to be made 

 to rescue them. The war was carried on for some 

 years longer, and Henry would have probably 

 1 succeeded in making good his claim to the French 

 crown, if he had not died prematurely of a 

 | dysentery (August 31, 1422), in the thirty-fourth 



