his red and white colours. But Gloucester and Warwick, who had taken up arms, were already within striking distance of the city, and Richard failed to prevent the Earl of Arundel from joining them on 13 Nov. at Haringay, near Highgate. London refused to fight against them. The Earl of Northumberland told the king that he would not risk having his head broken for the Duke of Ireland; and if the royal party really thought of securing French support by the sacrifice of Calais, it was now too late. Richard admitted the three lords to an audience in Westminster Hall on 17 Nov.; they disavowed any evil intentions against himself, and laid a formal charge of treason against his five advisers. According to one account, Richard hotly reproached them, ‘non sine magno tædio auditorum,’ but promised that the accused should meet the charges in an early parliament. As soon, however, as he was relieved of the appellants' presence he allowed the five to fly. De Vere, who went to Chester, raised troops in the royal earldom, and by the middle of December was in full march through the midlands to join Richard. The writs for the forthcoming parliament ordered none but those who had taken little part in the recent struggle (‘magis indifferentes in debatis modernis’) to be returned.
The three lords met in great wrath at Huntingdon (12 Dec.), and determined, it is said, to depose Richard. They were now joined by two much younger men—Henry, earl of Derby, eldest son of Lancaster, and Thomas Mowbray, third earl of Nottingham [q. v.] Their rout of De Vere at Radcotbridge (20 Dec.) left Richard helpless. The day after Christmas they reached London, and the mob compelled the mayor to open the gates to them. On the 27th they obtained the keys of the Tower, and entered the presence of the hapless king with linked arms. He was confronted with letters taken at Radcotbridge proving that De Vere had acted under his orders, and that (it is alleged) he had obtained a safe-conduct into France. Gloucester showed him forces on Tower Hill below, and ‘soothed his mind’ by assurances that ten times their number were ready to join in destroying the traitors to the king and the realm. Richard spoke them fair, and agreed to meet them next day at Westminster. He begged them to sup and stay the night with him, but only Derby and Nottingham could be persuaded to do so. Some subsequent recalcitrance was met by a threat of deposition, and Richard finally consented to the imprisonment of such of the five favourites as had not escaped along with several other courtiers, pending the meeting of parliament. Arundel and Gloucester still dallied with the idea of getting rid of the king himself, and the records of Edward II's deposition were again inspected, but they were overruled by Derby and Nottingham. Parliament met on 3 Feb., and the five lords renewed their appeal against Suffolk, De Vere, Neville, Tresilian, and Brembre. Found guilty of treason, they were all condemned to death, except the archbishop. He and Richard's confessor, the Dominican Rushook, bishop of Chichester [q. v.], condemned for ‘performing certain secret affairs at the will of the king,’ were afterwards translated by the pope to worthless sees. Two only, Tresilian and Brembre, were in the appellants' power, and the sentence was forthwith carried out upon them. Four knights in the royal service, one of whom was Sir Simon Burley, met the same fate. Burley's case alone would have justified the epithet of ‘merciless’ which clung to this fatal parliament. Richard never forgot this vindictiveness. For the present he could only look on while the appellants promoted chancellor Arundel to Neville's archbishopric, and carried on the government in his name. They made some attempt to justify their promises of reform, but did not shrink from charging the shattered national finances with a grant of 20,000l. to themselves.
For nearly a year Richard made no sign, and when at last he broke silence his unexpected line of action showed that he had either learned the lesson of his past failures, or was guided by wiser advice. The recent success of Charles VI in throwing off the control of his uncles may have moved him to emulation (St. Denys, i. 560). On 3 May 1389 he asked the council how old he was, and, on their admitting that he was over twenty-one, he declared that he meant to exercise that independence in the administration of his inheritance which none denied to the meanest heir in his dominions. He would choose his own counsellors, and be a king indeed. Suiting the action to the word, he demanded the seals from Arundel, and handed them next day to the veteran William of Wykeham; Wykeham's old colleague Brantingham succeeded Bishop Gilbert of Hereford at the treasury; the judges substituted by the appellants for those banished to Ireland by the ‘Merciless Parliament’ were removed. But no attempt was made to recall the latter or the greater victims of 1388 who had found refuge abroad. Suffolk, Neville, and De Vere all died in exile. The new ministers had sat on the commission of 1386, and Bishop Gilbert himself presently returned to the treasury. Richard promised his subjects by proclamation (8 May) greater
