ENGLAND. 211 



they forced Richard once more into terms : but being insincere in all 

 his compliances, he was upon the point of becoming more despotic 

 than any king in England ever had been, Avhen he lost his crown and 

 life by a sudden catastrophe. 



A quarrel happened between the duke qf Hereford, son to the 

 duke of Lancaster, and the duke of Norfolk ; and Richard banished 

 them both, with particular acts of injustice to^the former, who now 

 became duke of Lancaster by his father's death. Richard carrying 

 over a great army to quell a rebellion in Ireland, a strong parly form- 

 ed in England, the natural result of his tyranny, who offered the 

 duke of Lancaster the crown. The duke landed from France at 

 Ravenspur in Yorkshire, and was soon at the head of 60,000 men, all 

 of them English. Richard hurried back to England, where, his troops 

 refusing to fight, and his subjects, whom he had affected to despise, 

 generally deserting him, he was made prisoner with no more than 

 twenty attendants ; and being carried to London, was deposed in full 

 parliament, upon a formal charge of tyranny and misconduct ; and 

 soon after is supposed to have been starved to death in prison, in the 

 year 1399, the thirty -fourth of his age, and the twenty-third of his 

 reign. He had no issue by either of his two marriages. 



Henry the Fourth, son of John of Gaunt duke of Lancaster, fourth 

 son of Edward III, being settled on the throne of England, in pre- 

 judice to the elder branches of Edward Ill's family, the great nobility 

 were in hopes that this glaring defect in his title would render him 

 dependent upon them. At first some conspiracies were formed 

 against him by the dukes of Surry and Exeter, the earls of Glouces- 

 ter and Salisbury, and the archbishop of York ; but he crushed them 

 by his activity and steadiness, and laid a plan for reducing their 

 overgrown power. This was understood by the Percy family, the 

 greatest in the north of England, who complained that Henry had 

 deprived them of some Scotch prisoners, whom they had taken in. 

 battle ; and a dangerous i-ebellion broke out under the old earl of 

 Northumberland, and his son the famous Henry Percy, surnamed 

 Hotspur ; but it ended in the defeat of the rebels, chiefly by the 

 valour of the prince of Wales. With equal good-fortune, Henry sup- 

 pressed the insurrection of the Welch, under Owen Glendower ; and 

 by his prudent concessions to his .parliament, to the commons par- 

 ticularly, be at last overcame all opposition, while, to salve the defect 

 of his title, the parliament entailed the crown upon him, and the 

 heirs male of his body lawfully begotten, thereby shutting out all 

 female succession. The young duke of Rothsay, heir to the crown 

 of Scotland (afterwards James I, of that kingdom) falling a prisoner 

 into Henry's hands about this time, was of infinite service to his 

 government; and before his death, which happened in 1413, in the 

 forty-sixth year of his age, and thirteenth of his reign, he had the 

 satisfaction to see his son and successor, the prince of Wales, dis- 

 engage himself from many youthful follies, which till then had dis- 

 graced his conduct. 



The English marine was now so greatly increased, that we find an 

 English vessel of 200 tons in the Baltic, and many o'Lor ships of equal 

 burthen, carrying on a great trade all over Europe, but with the 

 Hanse towns in particular. 



At the accession of Henry V, in 1413, the Lollar^ls, or the fol- 

 lowers of Wickliffe, were excessively numerous ; and sir John Old- 

 castle, lord Cobham, having joined them, it was pretended that he 



