THE Life and Reign OF KING RICHARD THE SECOND By a Person of Quality LONDON Printed for M. L. and L. C. and Sold by Langly Curtis on Ludgate-hill 1681. TO THE READERS Gentlemen YOU are here presented with the Life and Reign of a Prince whose Misfortunes render his Story perhaps as Remarkable as any in our English Annals Concerning which I shall only assure you that the Compiler for he as little affects as deserves the Title of an Author has made it his Business truly to set down naked Matters of Fact as he finds them Related by the best Authors without obtruding his own Fancies or Dreams under the Notion of History Which that it may more evidently appear he thinks fit to give you an Account of Two of the Authors whom he hath principally followed Because One of them living in that very time and the other either then or not long after they may rationally be supposed to have the most certain knowledge of those Transactions The first is Henricus Knighton whose Work De Eventibus Angliae in Latin is Printed amongst divers other ancient Histories in that large and accurate Collection Intituled Historiae Anglicanae Scriptores Decem First brought into Publick Light from Authentick Manuscripts by those two learned Antiquaries Sir Roger Twysden Knight and Baronet and the Famous John Selden Esquire who both prefixt their Epistles thereunto Nor was that Miraculous Treasury of all solid Learning the most Reverend Usher Primate of Armaugh wanting in Advising and Promoting that Edition The Great Selden in his Preface Fol. 46. tells us That this Knighton was a Canon of the Abbey of Leicester and that he flourisht in the time of this King Richard the Second the most part of whose Reign he wrote deducing his History from William the Conquerour until within Four years before the Deposition of the said King Richard viz. To the year 1395. At which time we may suppose that Author was himself snatcht away by Death or disabled by some Disease for else he would not so abruptly have discontinued his Book Which Conjecture is confirmed by what Sir Roger Twysden in his Epistle tells us That in the Manuscript in the Renowned Cotton's Library which he conceives to be the very Autographon or Original Hand-writing of the Author and from which the same was exactly Printed there is in the first Page an Inscription Intituled Lamentum Compilatoris The Compilers Complaint beginning thus Sum Caecus factus subitâ Caligine tactus Blind I am grown with sudden darkness struck And thus concluding Me Deus allisit cum vult sanare valebit In Domino semper stat quod relevabitur Aeger Smitten I am by God who when he please Can help me and alone cure each Disease And so much for Knighton The other is Thomas Walsingham a Benedictine Monk belonging to the Abbey of S. Albans who for ought appears might likewise live in King Richard's days for he is said to have flourisht that is to be grown famous by his Labours about the year 1440. And Leland gives this Character of him In Historiis Colligendis studiosus atque diligens â—hat he was a Person very studious and diligent in Collecting or Compiling of Histories His History herein made use of begins An. Dom. 1273 and ends Anno 1432. To these cheifly is the present work Indebted and in most material passages they are Cited and their very words strictly Translated yet still not omitting to consult other the most credible Historians that have wrote of those times And as for the Process touching the Deposition of King Richard the Articles against him c. The same are punctually Translated from the words of the Record as the same Examined and attested are Printed in the said Volum called Hist. Anglicanae Scriptores decem from Col. 2743. to Col. 2762. Some of the Principal Contents KIng Richard so entertain'd by the City at his coming to the Crown that he was call'd the Londoners King Pag. 3 Alice Price her Insolence and Banishment 5 A Parliament tell the King his Demeasns were sufficient to maintain his Court and carry on his Wars 5 Philpots brave Exploits at Sea 6 A rare Example of Fidelity in a Spaniard 8 An odd Scotch Charm against the Plague 12 A very severe Poll-Bill granted 14 The Relation of Wat Tylers Rebellion which thereupon ensued 15 The Kings Charter of Freedom to the Bondmen and Pardon 18 His Revocation thereof 27 Scroop Lord Chancellor turn'd out for refusing to Seal an unlawful Grant 32 Articles against Wicliff and a brief account of his Life 34 The Vniversity of Oxfords Testimonial of his Piety and Learning 44 We do not find Christ ever Converted a Priest 47 The first pretended Act against the true Professors of Religion Complain'd of as Surreptitious and Repeal'd 47 Notable Railing Letters between the Cardinals 51 The Bishop of Norwich's Croisado against Schismaticks the Indulgences and Cheats thereof and his ill success at last 59. Sharp Messages between King Richard and his Parliament A Copy of the Impeachment of Michael Pole 81 Fourteen Lords appointed by Parliament to inspect past management of affairs and redress grievances 87 The King Commands Sheriffs to return such as he should Name to serve in Parliament the Sheriffs Answer The People would hold their Antient Customs of free choice 97 Questions to the Judges and their Answers 99 The shrewd Repartee of Sir Huge de Lyn a Natural to King Richard 105 The Lords in Arms treat with the King are promised redress in Parliament 107 The Duke of Ireland routed 110 The Answer of the Governour of Calice when Commanded by the King to deliver it up to the French to whom he had sold it 111 The Articles against the Duke of Ireland the Lord Chief Justice c. 115 The Lord Chief Justice Tresilian Hang'd at Tyburn the other Judges Banisht 135 The King not to Pardon Murder 141 The Kings severities to the Londoners 146 An interview between K. R. and the French K. 154 The Duke of Gloucester surpriz'd and basely Murder'd 159 The Earl of Arundel beheaded 161 All Bay-trees wither and the Current of a River dry'd up 166 A Combate appointed between the Duke of Hereford and Norfolk and they both Banisht 167 The Duke of Lancaster Lands in England 182 King Richard surrenders his Person 190 The Record of his Resignation and Deposition 192 The Articles against him 201 Touching the manner of his Death 239 THE Life and Reign OF KING RICHARD The Second KIng Richard the Second was born at Burdeaux in France in the Year 1366. His Father was that Renowned Hero Edward commonly called The Black Prince eldest Son of the Great and Victorious King Edward the Third His Mother Joan Daughter of the Earl of Kent for her exquisite Beauty styled The fair Maid of Kent And if he were so unhappy as not altogether to Inherit his Grandfathers Prudence and his Fathers Spirit and Conduct yet it cannot be denied but he retained something of his
of Premunice against Provisors and the abuses of Begging Fryars which so bridled and restrained the Popes Rampant Usurpations that he could but little prevail here in England during the Reign of King Edward the Third and King Richard the Second Towards making of which Laws Wickliffe's Doctrine struck a great stroak he maintaining very learnedly and stoutly the Kings jurisdiction Crown and Dignity against Papal and all kind of Encroachments by the Laws Civil Cannon and Common of which last especially he made great use and was well skill'd therein But for full satisfaction concerning this famous Man I shall here add the Testimonial of the University given in his behalf after his Death as follows viz. TO all singular the Children of our holy Mother the Church to whom these presents shall come the Vice-Chancellor of the Vniversity of Oxford with the whole Congregation of the Masters wish perpetual health in the Lord Forasmuch as it is not commonly seen â—hat the Acts and Monuments of Valiant men nor the praise and merits of good men should be pass'd over and hidden with perpetual silence but that true report and fame should continually spread abroad the same in strange and far distant places both in Testimony thereof and for the example of others Forasmuch also as the provident discretion of Mans nature hath devised this defence against slander that when ever Witnesses by Word of Mouth cannot be present the Pen by Writing may supply the same Therefore the special good will and care which we bare unto John Wickliff sometime Child of this our Vniversity and Professor of Divinity moving and exciting our minds as his manners and conditions required no less with one Mind Voice and Testimony we do witness all his conditions and doings throughout his whole life to have been most sincere and commendable whose honest manners good disposition profoundness of learning and most redolent fame we desire the more earnestly to be notified to and celebrated by all the faithful for that we understand the maturity and ripeness of his Conversation his diligent Labors and Travels tend much to the Praise of God the help and safeguard of others and the profit of truth Wherefore we signify unto you by these presents that his Conversation even from his youth upwards unto the time of his death was so praise-worthy and honest that never at any time was there any note or spot of suspicion noised of him but in his answering reading preaching and determining he behaved himself laudably and as a stout Champion of the Faith vanquishing by the force of the Scriptures all such who by their wilful Beggary Blasphemed and slandered Christ's Religion Neither was this said Doctor Convict of any Heresie or burned by our Prelates Note his Bones were not yet but long after ordered to be taken up and burnt by the Council of Constance after his Burial For God forbid thaâ— our Prelates should have condemned a man of such honesty 〈◊〉 an Heretick who amongst all the rest of the Vniversity had Written in Logick Philosophy Divinity Morality and the Speculative Art beyond comparison the knowledg of all which things we desire to testifie that the fame and renown of this said Doctor may be more evident and had in repute amongst those into whose hands these present Letters Testimonial shall come In Witness whereof we have caused these our Letters Testimonial to be Sealed with our Common Seal dated at Oxford in our Congregation House the 15. of October in the Year of our Lord 1406. About the same time several of Wickliffs followers as Nicholas of Hartford John Aston John Purney and other Priests were much troubled for the same and the like Opinions among the rest our Author Henry de Knyghton tells us that on Palm Sunday he heard one at Leicester Preaching these horrible Heresies and Errors in his Opinion following viz. That to Blabber with the Lipps and multiply Words in Prayer signified nothing That to give Money for Celebrating of Masses would not avail any body unless he led a good Life That Christ never commanded any Body to Begg That no Man is bound to give Almes to any that has better Clâ—athes and outward accomodation than himself That none is truly a Prelate nor capable of a Bishoprick unless he be a Teacher and Preacher That Money got by Confessions is accursed and as well the giver as receiver Excommunicate That Preachers carrying about Baggs and Scripps are false Teachers since Christ in his Gospel Commands the contrary and the true Disciples of Christ never practised it That for those to Begg who are able to work is Condemned by the Law Civil and no where approved by the Law Evangelical That Christ Converted many of divers States and Conditions to the Faith but we do not find in the Holy Scripture that ever he converted a Priest These Opinions spreading so fast and the Bishops perceiving that yet they had not sufficient Authority by any Law or Statute of this Realm to proceed unto Death or Imprisonment against any for matters of Religion they therefore solicited the King for the power of the Temporal Sword who overcome with their importunity or perhaps incited by hopes of some Subsidy to be given him by the Clergy was content to give his Assent to an Ordinance bearing the name of an Act made in the Parliament holden at Westminster Anno Quint. R. 2. Ca. 5. in these Words ITem forasmuch as it is openly known that there be divers evil Persons within the Realm going from Country to Country and from Town to Town in certain Habits under dissimulation of great Holiness and without the License of the Ordinaries of the places or other sufficient Authority Preaching daily not only in Churches and Church-yards but also in Markets Fairs and open Places where a great Congregation of People is divers Sermons containing Heresies and notorious Errors to the great emblemishing of Christian Faith and Destruction of thr Laws and of the Estate of Holy Church to the great Peril of the Souls of the People and of all the Realm of England as more plainly is found and sufficiently proved before the Reverend Father in God the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishops and other Prelates Masters of Divinity and Doctors of the Canon and of Civil Law and a great part of the Clergy of the said Realm specially assembled for this great cause which Persons do also Preach divers matters of slaunder to ingender discord and dissention betwixt divers Estates of the said Realm as well Spiritual as Temporal in exciting of the People to the great Peril of all the Realm which Preachers cited or summoned before the Ordinaries of the places there to answer to that whereof they be impeached they will not obey their Summons and Commands nor care not for their Monitions nor Censures of the Holy Church but expresly despise them And moreover by their subtil and ingenious words do draw the People to hear their Sermons and do
maintain them in their errors by strong hand and by great routs It is ordained and assented in this present Parliament That the Kings Commissions be made and directed to the Sheriffs and other Ministers of our Sovereign Lord the King or other sufficient persons learned and according to the Certifications of the Prelates thereof to be made in the Chancery from time to time to arrest all such Preachers and also their Fauters Maintainers and Abetters and to hold them in Arrest and strong Prison till they will justifie to them according to the law and reason of Holy Church And the King willeth and commandeth that the Chancellor make such Commissions at all times that he by the Prelates or any of them shall be certified and thereof required as is aforesaid This was the first pretence of Statute against the true Professors of Religion and indeed was no Act of Parliament duly made but onely by the King and the Clergy for at Michaelm following in the sixth year of the King a Parliament being assembled complain'd thereof and having recited the same Add The which was never agreed nor granted by the Commons but whatsoever was moved therein was without their Assent and therefore prayen the Commons that the said Statute be disannulled for it is not in any wise their meaning that either themselves or such as shall succeed them shall be further justified or bound by the Prelates than were their Ancestors in former times Whereunto it is answered Il plaist au Roy The King is pleased Yet though the supposed Law of the Fifth were hereby so repealed and the fraud thereof discovered the Prelates ordered matters so that this Act of Repeal was never published nor since printed in the Statute Book with the rest of the Acts of that Parliament as Mr. Fox in his Acts and Monuments well observes The Year 1383 was famous for a Warlike Expedition undertaken by the English Clergie called a Croisado or going forth to fight the Lords Battels as they pretended under the Banner of the Cross. The occasion thus After the death of Pope Gregory the Eleventh which happened in the Year of our Lord 1378 one Bartholomew Bishop of Barri in Apulia by the undue acts hereafter mentioned got into the Chair by the name of Vrban the Sixth who as he entered by force so he proceeded with so much pride and insolence that most of the Cardinals forsook him and retiring to Avignion in France chose one Robert Bishop of Cibbo in his stead who took upon him the style of Pope Clement Now to destroy him and all that own'd and took part with him was the meritorious design And that the Reader may the better perceive the nature of the Quarrel and what mighty reason people had to venture their Lives and murder their Neighbours for this Vrbans Interest I shall insert a Copy of the Cardinals Letter to him as Walsingham recites it THe Bishops Presbyters and Deacons by Divine Merit Cardinals during the vacancy of the Apostolical See to Bartholomew late Archbishop of Barri wish the Spirit of founder counsel The sanctity and purity of the Catholick Faith and the wholsom devotion of Christian People the clear profession of the whole Ecclesiastick State and Salvation of all the faithful do require That those things which may occasion a scandal unto our faith the subversion of the Worshippers of Christ the weakning of the State of the Church and the evident danger of souls should be openly notified to all declared amongst the people and according to the Doctrine of the Gospel preached upon the house-tops lest by indiscreet silence those be left in error who might be reclaimed and they to whose office it belongs should lie under the reprehension of the Prophet saying Thy Prophets and Preachers shall prophesie unto thee things false and foolish and shall not lay open thine iniquity that they might provoke thee to penance Whereas therefore the Apostolick Seat being empty by the death of Pope Gregory XI of pious memory who in March last departed this life we for the Election of another Pope accâ—rding to Law and Custom had assembled our selves in the Conclave for that purpose assign'd in the Apostolical Palace the People of Rome gathered together by the sound of a Bell and in hostiâ—e manner surrounding the place almost filling the Palace both without and within did with vehement Terror threaten that unless without any delay we choose a Roman or Italian they would presently cut us into bits And so there being no due space afforded wherein we might deliberate of a fit Person they against our will and intention suddenly and abruptly by violence and bodily fear compelling us to choose an Italian We thereupon meerly to avoid the otherwise inevitable Peril of Death as at the same time we openly declared amongst our selves did think fit to nominate Thee for Pope not doubting but thou to whom as well as to all the Clergy and People that accursed violence was well known hadst had so much Conscience as in no sort to accept of the same But thou forgetful of thine own Salvation laying aside all pure Conscience and being otherwise ambitious wast so far inflamed with the Ardor of Worldly Honour upon the presentation of that Election though extorted also by Fear and against the Canonical Sanctions from those who carried it from us into the â—ity that thou to the greatest Scandal of the Christian Clergy and People and to the pernicious Example of others in such cases didst consent to the said Election though the same in Law were absolutely null and void and also out of fear as we well hope didst suffer thy self to be inthron'd in the City and Crown'd de facto and so hast taken upon thee the name of Pope who by the holy and wise Fathers and by Right and Law are rather and deservedly to be called An accursed Apostate Antichrist and the Invader and Destroyer of all Christianity Since therefore such thy wicked Intrusion into the Papacy is now divulged throughout the World grown notorious and cannot any longer be hid as being done just before Easter when from all parts of Christendom there were multitudes of People at Rome and whereas many Errors have already began to creep abroad and the Consciences of the Faithful to be intangled and that thou being long expected charitably admonished in secret regardest not to amend thy folly but rather dost desire to draw the whole Clergy and People into a Precipice and preferring the empty transitory Glory of the World before the Salvation of thine own and other Christians Souls obstinately endeavourest to hold the Popedom by Tyranny into which thou didst not enter by the Door We therefore not being able with safe Consciences any longer to dissemble the Premisses laying forth the same and giving notice thereof to thee and all faithful Christians though the same be already notorious to thy self and almost all the Clergy and People do publish and denounce thee accursed