Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 48.djvu/160

 plunging his subjects into civil strife. Soothsayers told him that he would certainly become emperor and the greatest monarch of the world. The country was indeed rife with discontent, but he had reserved a weapon in the vague exceptions to the amnesty wherewith he thought to trample it out and at the same time replenish his treasury. He declared that ‘he might not ride surely in his realm for dread of men of London and seventeen shires lying round about,’ and by threats of using military force extorted from suspected persons ‘submissory letters,’ in which they acknowledged themselves ‘misdoers,’ and bound themselves to observe all that had been done in the Great parliament or by its authority since, as well as heavy fines known as Le Plesaunce. Individuals were everywhere compelled to put their names to ‘blank charters’ or ‘raggemans,’ and ‘no man wist what it meant’ (, p. 100). Unless he was afterwards belied, he terrified his lieges from seeking their just rights, ‘declaring, with a stern countenance, that the laws were in his mouth or in his breast, and that he alone could change the laws of his realm.’ Many charged with speaking ill of him were denied their right to trial by jury. His Cheshire guards treated the people with great insolence. On the death of John of Gaunt (3 Feb. 1399) Richard and the parliamentary committee took the fatal step (18 March) of quashing the letters patent granted to Hereford at his departure allowing him to receive inheritances by proxy during his absence, on the ground that they were given ‘par inadvertence et sanz convenable advisement.’ They went so far as to condemn Henry Bowet [q. v.] to death for assisting Hereford in obtaining them.

Richard must have thought that he had so effectually cowed his subjects that he might safely go over to Ireland to avenge the death of the Earl of March in the previous September. It was afterwards believed that he had not wanted warning of the coming catastrophe; a hermit admonished him in the name of ‘him whom it is dangerous to disobey’ to amend his ways, or he should shortly hear such news as would make his ears tingle. Richard demanded that he should prove his divine mission by walking on water, and cast him into prison. Nevertheless he was said to have fallen into deep despondency. Before leaving London he made his will (16 April), expressly providing for the contingency of his being drowned or slain in Ireland, and bequeathing a large sum of money to his successor on condition that he maintained the acts of the last parliament and its committee, failing which his executors were to spend it in upholding the said acts ‘to the death if need be.’ He celebrated the Garter feast at Windsor with exceptional splendour, and took an affectionate farewell of his child-queen, lifting her again and again in his arms with many kisses. As the month of May closed he crossed from Milford to Waterford, accompanied by upwards of a dozen peers and bishops, and carrying with him the regalia and his treasure. Jean Creton, a French esquire who went with the expedition, has left a vivid description in verse of the sufferings of the army in the dense woods of Macmurrogh's country, when even knights had no food for five days together. Macmurrogh granted an interview to the Earl of Gloucester, but on hearing his terms Richard, pale with anger, swore by St. Edward that he would not leave Ireland till he had him in his power, alive or dead. Advancing to Dublin in the first week in July, he proposed to renew the campaign in the autumn, when the trees were leafless. He is said to have intended to crown the Duke of Surrey as king of Ireland (, p. 35).

About the time that Richard entered Dublin, the injured Henry of Lancaster landed in Yorkshire, but, owing to storms in the Channel, the news did not reach the king until past the middle of July. By that time Henry was in full march upon Bristol, where Wiltshire with Bussy, Green, and Bagot, the three knights left to assist the regent York, were anxiously awaiting Richard's return. The troops raised by York had shown no disposition to be led against Henry. Richard declared that Lancaster should die a death that would make a noise as far as Turkey, and sent Lancaster's son (afterwards Henry V) to Trim Castle for safe keeping. Rejecting advice to cross at once into North Wales with such a following as he had shipping for, he returned to Waterford and conveyed the bulk of his army over to Milford to join his supporters at Bristol, sending Salisbury from Dublin to raise Cheshire and North Wales. But on reaching Milford about the last week in July he learned that Henry was certain to reach Bristol first, and decided to make his way with all speed into North Wales. Finding it impossible to move his army rapidly through so difficult a country, he directed Worcester to disperse it. He himself stole away at midnight with a handful of followers and rode northwards through Carmarthen. But Henry, after executing Wiltshire, Bussy, and Green (29 July), reached Chester by forced marches through Hereford and Shrewsbury on 9 Aug. Richard arrived at Conway to find himself hemmed in. Salisbury's levies had already dispersed. Defections on the