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SUMMARY OF THE REIGN OF

RICHARD THE SECOND.

SURNAMED

OF BOURDEAUX.

Born at Bourdeaux, A. D. 1366. Crowned, June 21, 1376. Married twice, first to Anne of Luxemburg, sister of the Emperor Wenceslaus; and afterwards to Isabel, daughter of Charles VI. of France. Died, without issue, supposed to have been murdered in Pontefract Castle, Yorkshire, 1399, in the thirty-third year of his age, and twentythird of his reign. Buried at Langley, afterwards removed to Westminster.

PRINCIPAL EVENTS.

Wat Tyler's insurrections. The dagger first placed in the city arms in compliment to the Mayor's courageous attack on Tyler. The Duke of Gloucester smothered. Death of the Duke of Lancaster. Bolingbroke returns from banishment and seizes the crown. Violent death of the King.

EMINENT PERSONS.

William Courtney, Thomas Arundel, Archbishops of Canterbury. William Walworth, Lord Mayor of London. Roger Mortimer, Earl of March, Grandson to Clarence, heir apparent. Henry of Bolingbroke. Vere, Duke of Ireland. Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester.

COTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS.

Popes.

Gregory XI. 1370. Urban VI. 1378. Boniface IX. 1389.

Emperors

Emperors.

Of the East.-John VI. 1355. Emanuel II. 1391.
Of the West.-Charles IV. 1347. Wenceslaus, 1378.

Kings and Queens.

Of France.-Charles V. 1364. Charles VI. 1380.
Of Portugal.-Ferdinand, 1367. John I. 1385.
Of Denmark.-Olaus III. 1375. Margaret, 1385
Of Sweden.-Margaret held Sweden with Denmark.
Of Scotland.-Robert II. 1370. Robert III. 1390.

RICHARD

RICHARD II. SURNAMED OF BOURDEAUX.

"Thus when you see this land by faction lost,
"Her nobles slain, her laws, her freedom, lost;
"Let this reflection from the action flow,

"We ne'er from foreign foes can ruin know.
"Oh, let us then intestine discord shun,

"We ne'er can be but by ourselves undone."

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"Spur gall'd and tir'd by jaunting Bolingbroke."

"The skipping King he ambled up and down,

"With shallow jesters and rash basin wits,

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Mingled his royalty with carping fools;

"Had his great name prophaned with their scorns;

"Grew a companion to the common streets,
"That, being daily swallowed by men's eyes,

"He was but as the cuckoo is, in June,

Heard, not regarded."

SHAKESPEARE'S RICH. II.

AN infant Monarch to the Throne succeeds,
Son of the Black Prince EDWARD, but in sooth,

No heir to his great sire's illustrious deeds,
Was RICHARD, "being but a moonish youth ;"*

Shakespeare.

His Uncles LANCASTER* and GLOUCESTER Sway,
With YORK, whose guardianship the States obey.
Ambitious guardians! to prolong their rule,
They represent their nephew as the tool
Of NEVIL and TRESILIAN, POLE and VERE,†
(Who certainly had gained the royal ear.)
Much more his uncles had their charge befriended,
If they in honesty had recollected,

Some faults without exposure may be mended,

And by mild means are ofttimes best corrected.

But, as there's little in this reign,

Save what we must record with pain,

Sans further comment let us try,

A very brief Chronology,

"Twill trouble spare to you

and us,

Kind reader if you'll take it thus:

In thirteen hundred seventy-seven,

King EDWARD went, we hope, to heaven;

* The celebrated John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster; the Earl of Cambridge, afterwards Duke of York; and the Duke of Gloucester; all uncles to the King, were appointed his guardians, he being but ten years old.

+ Vere, Earl of Oxford, Marquis of Dublin, and Duke of Ireland; Tresilian, a Judge; Michael de la Pole, a merchant's son; and Nevil, Archbishop of York.

And

And left his grandson, doom'd by birth,

To wear a careful crown on earth.
In thirteen hundred seventy eight,
WICKLIFF'S opinions posed the state.
And JOHN of GAUNT marched many men
To France, to bring them back again;

While thirteen seventy nine and eighty,
Are not renowned for matters weighty,
Until a poll tax, ill collected,

Much danger to the land effected;

And caused the evils which were done
In thirteen hundred eighty one.

WAT TYLER and his friend JACK STRAW,

Into their own hands take the law,
'Till WALWORTH† knock'd rebellion down,
By cracking Master TYLER's crown;
And 'tis but just in RICHARD'S cause,
To say his gallantry deserved applause,

* A reformer of the Romish Church, he was cited by the Ecclesiastical Courts, but protected against them by the Duke

of Lancaster.

+ Sir William Walworth, Lord Mayor of London, enraged at Tyler's insolence in an interview with the King, struck him to the ground, and the dagger with which he dispatched him is commemorated by a place in the city arms.

The

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