THE FRENCH WARS.J represented in the English parliament. Aquitaine, now become independent of France, as Scotland had become in dependent of England, was granted by Edward to his famous son Edward the Black Prince, who kept his court at Bour deaux, now the capital of a sovereign state. >ttish The long alliance between France and Scotland againsl r ; England had now fairly set in, and the Scottish war weul J? .Jon alongside of the French war. In 1346 the king ol Dflvii I ace Scots, David Bruce, invaded England and was taken prisoner, as John of France was ten years later. In the same year as this last event Edward Balliol surrendered his claim to Edward of England, who presently invaded Scotland in the new character of its immediate sovereign. In 13-57 David was released, and was described in the treaty as King of Scotland. In later documents however the title was not given either to him or to his successor Robert, the first of the Stewart kings. A desultory and occasional warfare long went on, and the claims of the English kings, either to the old superiority or, by the cession of Edward Balliol, to the Scottish crown itself, are ever and anon put forward. England had now, in the form of Scotland and France, a standing enemy on each side. xmd The peace of Bretigny was not long kept. The English 3nch rule in Aquitaine was, speaking generally, acceptable to the r> cities ; but the French connexion was more to the taste of the nobles. The prince of Aquitaine presently embroiled himself in the affairs of Spain, supporting Pedro the Cruel of Castile against his brother Henry. In 1367 he won the splendid but useless victory of Navarete or Najara ; but the cost of the expedition led to injudicious taxation in Aquitaine. Though the principality no longer owed homage to the French crown, those who deemed themselves aggrieved appealed to the French king as superior lord. Charles V., who had succeeded John in 1364, accepted the appeal, and summoned the prince of Aquitaine to his court. A new war began, which, often carried on with much languor, often interrupted by truces, but not ended by any formal peace, lasted till the treaty of Troyes in 1420. The peace was clearly broken by the French, and Edward again took up the title of King of France. But fortune now dis tinctly turned to the French side. The most striking event of the war was the recovery and massacre of Limoges by the prince of Aquitaine in 1370. The prince now came to England to end his days more worthily as a patriotic states man. The war went on, till in 1374 all was lost save Calais, the great southern cities of Bourdeaux and Bayoune, and a few other points in the south. The last few years of Edward s reign were a time of truce. ign of The change from the reign of Edward III. to that of Aard Ri c h ar j II. i s in some points like the change from the reign of Edward I. to that of Edward II. The leading events again touch the internal rather than the external history. The internal history of the reign of Edward III. is of the highest importance. But it is of an importance wholly constitutional and social. It is not marked on the surface by any striking internal events. In the reign of Richard we have over again the same kind of internal events which mark the reign of Edward II , but with the addition of a great social struggle to which we have seen no parallel in earlier times. But, if there is much in com mon in the two reigns, there is a marked difference between the two men. Richard, if foolish and extravagant, was not weak ; he had distinct political aims ; he seems to have seriously designed the establishment of a despotic power in the crown. His accession marks another stage in the
- oeg- growth of the doctrine of hereditary succession. Richard,
^ the minor son of the Black Prince, succeeded his grand- ig father without opposition, without any public mention of any claims on the part of his uncles, the surviving sons of 319 the late king. In fact the dissatisfaction which was shown at a vague rumour that the young king s eldest uncle John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, had designs on the crown, shows how men s ideas on such matters had changed, not only sinco the days of Alfred, but even since the days of John. In the reign which thus began foreign affairs become quite secondary. The wars both with France and Scotland go on, bub they go on for the most part languidly ; occasional raids alternate with truces. But the very beginning of Richard s reign saw an actual French invasion of England, in which the Isle of Wight was ravaged and Hastings burned. The French war was ended, as far as this reign is concerned, by Richard s second marriage with Isabel of France in 1396, which was accom panied by a truce for twenty-five years. The first marked internal event of Richard s reign was The pea- the result of political, social, and religious causes which had sant re- been busily at work during the reign of Edward. The volt immediate occasion of the famous outbreak of Richard s time was a poll-tax which was laid on by parliament in 1380. The peasant revolt of the next year followed. The spirit shown by the young king in the famous story of the death of Wat Tyler has often been dwelled on, as if it were something exceptional. But Richard did not lack spirit at any time; and at this time his spirit was chiefly shown in making promises which were not, and could not be, carried out. The revolt was put down, and the rest of the Revolu- iuternal history of the reign consists of disputes, not so *!? s of much between the king and the people or the barons in rei general as among his uncles, his- favourites, and his ministers. One of Richard s favourites, Michael de la Pole, earl of Suffolk, deserves notice, less on his own account than as one who, sprung from a merchant family at Kingston- oc-Hull, rose to the height of power. Though he himself fell from power and died in obscurity, yet he was in the end the founder of a ducal house. We thus see that the con tempt for trade which had lately come in among the other follies of chivalry was, after all, not very deep set. Richard s other chief favourite was Robert Vere, of the house of the earls of Oxford, whom he raised to the rank of marquess of Dublin, and at last to that of duke of Ireland. The year 1386 saw the fall of the favourites; and the impeachment of the earl of Suffolk by the Commons Impeach- marks a constitutional stage. This time the accused ment by escaped with a slight punishment ; but, as in the times of Henry III. and Edward II., the royal authority was trans ferred to a council under the duke of Gloucester. The next year the king attempted a revolution ; but a new impeachment followed, on which both the favourites were condemned to death as traitors in a parliament known as the Won derful and the Merciless; but they escaped beyond sea. In 1389 the king, by a sudden stroke, won back his power. For a while his rule was constitutional and seemingly not unpopular ; but he gradually aimed at despotism. In 1397 he procured the overthrow of his uncle the duke of Gloucester and the chief of the nobles of liis party, contriving that all that was done openly should be under legal forms. Duke Thomas died in a mysterious way. His chief adherent, the earl of Arundel, was beheaded. In
- he next year, on occasion of a judicial combat between
Thomas Mowbray, duke of Norfolk, and the king s cousin Henry, duke of Hereford, the son of John of Gaunt, the dug arbitrarily banished both disputants, but promised them the possession of their estates. But in breach of this romise, when John of Gaunt died in 1399, Richard seized on the inheritance of his son. He then chose this very nopporhine moment to go personally to settle the disturb- ances of Ireland. During his absence Henry came back; Fichard s ilichard, on his return, found himself generally forsaken, deposi-
and he was presently deposed by parliament. The election