Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 48.djvu/156

 peace and better justice than had hitherto prevailed in his time, and disavowed any intention of taking vengeance for what had been done in the Merciless parliament. Certain abuses of his minority were admitted and redressed. The favourable impression thus created was strengthened by a three years' truce with France, Spain, and Scotland.

The most difficult element in the situation was the position of the appellants. Gloucester, Arundel, and Warwick hardly knew how far to trust the royal assurances; they were in disgrace, and Arundel's posts were given to Richard's half-brother, John Holland, earl of Huntingdon [q. v.] Richard seemed disposed to discriminate between them and their younger associates, and almost quarrelled with his new council in his anxiety to heap favours on Nottingham. But Northumberland's mediation was seconded by John of Gaunt, who, at Richard's special request, hastened his return from Spain, where he had become a changed man. By the middle of December the three appellants were again in the council, though Richard is said to have disliked to see all three together in his presence (Cont. Eulogii, iii. 367). He even paid them the arrears of the 20,000l. they had extorted from the Merciless parliament (Issues, p. 239). For some years the evil past seemed on the whole to have been exorcised. The country was relieved from the strain of the war, taxation was lighter, and parliament passed useful legislation against the abuses of the papal power and the evils of livery and maintenance. But if Richard had for the time renounced revenge, he had not forgotten. Arundel, who had sinned more deeply against him than even Gloucester, never received any further public employment. Gloucester's position and popularity would have made any such exclusion in his case too marked. Yet signs of distrust between him and Richard were not wanting. He was appointed the king's lieutenant in Ireland early in 1392, but was suddenly superseded by the Earl of March in July. It was Arundel, rather than Gloucester, who seemed to keep the old wound open. He had incurred Richard's displeasure by marrying March's sister without license, and quarrelling bitterly with Lancaster. The latter accused him of complicity in the mysterious movement in Cheshire and adjacent counties against himself and Gloucester in the spring of 1393. The insurgents were apparently under the impression that Richard desired revenge upon the magnates (Fœdera, vii. 746). In the parliament of January 1394 Arundel complained of Lancaster's excessive influence over the king, with whom he went ‘en mayne et brace,’ while Richard and his retinue wore his badge. It was Lancaster's confessor, Richard Maidstone [q. v.], too, who about this time praised Richard's moderation in remarkable terms: Nec habet ultrices Rex pius iste manus. Quot mala, quot mortes tenero sit passus ab ævo, Quamque sit inultus, Anglia tota videt. Political Songs, i. 282. Richard was too often reminded that he had injuries unavenged. The parliament received his proposal to recall the banished judges from Ireland so coldly, the commons expressing their fear of the penalties of the statute of 1388, that he went no further with it. While Gloucester received a large grant from the estates of De Vere, Arundel was banished from court. But Richard soon recalled him, and granted him a special pardon (30 April) for all his offences.

The sudden death of the young queen on 7 June proved a doubly unfortunate event, for it not only removed an influence which constantly made for peace, but indirectly aggravated the quarrel with Arundel. Richard's grief was so excessive that he had Sheen Palace, where she died, razed to the ground. Arundel was therefore extremely ill-advised in absenting himself from the procession which bore the body to Westminster on 2 Aug., and in making his appearance in the abbey next day, after the funeral service had begun, with a request to be allowed to retire. Richard so far forgot himself as to snatch a baton from an attendant and strike the earl across the head with such violence that he fell to the ground and his blood flowed over the pavement; the office for the dead had to be interrupted while the clergy performed the service for freeing the sacred building from the pollution of blood, and before they had done the night was far advanced. Arundel was sent to the Tower, but released a week later, on the eve of Richard's departure for Ireland.

The condition of Ireland had given great anxiety from the beginning of the reign. The turbulent septs of Leinster harassed the narrowed Pale. Art MacMurrogh [q. v.], chief of the Cavanagh sept in Carlow, Wexford, and Wicklow, assumed the royal title. The Anglo-Irish returned in large numbers to England, and while Edward III is said to have drawn thirty thousand marks a year from Ireland, it cost Richard that much to maintain it. Those who remained sent a request in 1392 for Richard's presence in person, and parliament in 1393 granted money for the purpose; but it was not until the following summer that he was able to go. He sailed