mitted him into his councils and confidence; he retained the Duke of Ireland about his perfon, continued immersed in riot and debauchery, and feemed bent upon revoking every thing which had paffed in the laft Parliament. Surrounded again with his former favourites, he confulted with them how he might free himself from the restraint laid upon him by Parliament. The fcheme which they concerted was, to procure the opinion of all the Judges of the illegality of the commiffion lately extorted from the King; to raise a fufficient body of forces to Support him in maintaining his prerogative; and to procure a Parliament, which should be more at his devotion. In order to put this project in execution, all the Judges and Sheriffs of the feveral counties were fummoned to attend the King at Nottingham: The Judges were obliged to give their opinion, that the late commiffion and ftatute were null and void, as made against the King's will; and that all who were concerned in procuring them, were guilty of treafon. But as it was not equally eafy to prevail upon the Sheriffs to engage for the raifing the army, and procuring the Parliament, which the King required, he returned to London, after having declared his defigns, without being able to execute them. Upon this, the Duke of Gloucefter, with the Earls of Derby, Arundel, Warwick, and Nottingham, raised an army of forty thousand men, and marched to London. Without entering the city, they deputed the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Duke of York, the Bishops of Winchester and Ely, and four others, to the King, to demand that thofe evil Counsellors, who had interrupted the Commiffioners in their proceedings, and caufed differences between the King and the Lords of his Council, might be punished as traitors; protefting, that they meant not to attempt any thing against his perfon or honour. Thefe Lords, who chose to act as mediators between both parties, endeavoured what they could to reconcile the King to the confederate Lords, and to perfuade him to comply with their defires. Richard, unable to refift, and at a lofs for any other expedient, appeared to hearken to their advice; he received the confederate Lords with great fo lemnity in Weftminster- Hall, treated them with feeming friendhip, and promised them fatisfaction in the next Parliament, which he then appointed. These fair appearances were only intended to amufe the Lords, while the Duke of Ireland was raifing an army for the King in Wales and Cheshire. The confederate Lords, when they heard he was coming against them, detached a part of their army to meet him, under the command of the Earl of Derby, who entirely defeated him at Radcott-Bridge in Oxfordshire. The King was fo alarmed at this blow, that he betook himfelf to the Tower of London; and after many collufions with the Lords, he was obliged to give up his Confederates, and to meet them in Parliament. The Parliament met accordingly, and feveral perfons were impeached

..

in it, particularly the Duke of Ireland, the Earl of Suffolk, and the Archbishop of York; who all three, having made their efcape, were attainted and outlawed: Other perfons were executed, and fome banished.

But notwithstanding the King had been thus compelled to comply with the Parliament, he was refolved to shake off the reftraint which had been laid upon him, as foon as a proper opportunity fhould offer. Accordingly, the beginning of the next year feeming more favourable to his defigns, he fummoned a Council at Weftminster, and being then upwards of twenty one years of age, he declared himself of full age in form; and informed the Lords, that he fhould now take the reins of government into his own hands, and chufe fuch officers to ferve him as he fhould think moft expedient; and that therefore he would difcharge all those who were at present in office under him. He then ordered the Chancellor to deliver up to him the Great Seal, difplaced others of the chief officers of State who had been appointed by Parliament, and removed from the CouncilBoard his uncle the Duke of Gloucefter, and feveral others of the principal Nobility. The King offered the Great Seal to the Bishop of Winchefter, who did all he could to excufe himfelf from the acceptance of it. For Wykeham neither defired the office itself, nor was pleafed with the circumftances in which it was offered to him: But the King preffed it upon him in fuch a manner, that he could not refufe it; and the next day the Bifhop, much against his inclination, was again constituted Chancellor of England.

Wykeham appears clearly to have had no fhare in advifing the bold and hazardous ftep which the King had taken. However, being now at the head of his counfels, he feems to have ufed his utmost endeavours to correct and foften it, and prevent the ill confequences which might be apprehended from it. Proclamations were accordingly iffued forth, calculated to compofe and quiet the minds of the people. And when the Parliament met in the beginning of the year 1390, Wykeham, as Chancellor of England, opened it by a speech; in which, among other things, he declared it was the intention of the King to rule his fubjects in peace, equity, and juftice; and that they fhould enjoy their liberties, franchises, and privileges, in time to come, as they had enjoyed them in the times of his noble progenitors, the Kings of England. And as foon as the neceffary forms of opening the Parliament were over, the new Ministry took another meafure, calculated to obviate any complaints against the King's late proceedings. The Bifhop of Winchefter, as Chancellor, the Treafurer, and all the Lords of the Council, prayed the King in Parliament to be discharged of their offices, in confideration of the great labours and expences they had undergone therein, and to have others placed in them. The King accordingly accepted of their refignations; and

when

when they had received their difcharge, they required openly, that if any perfon would complain of any thing unduly done by them, he should declare it to the King in Parliament. The Commons required to be allowed till the next day to confider of the matter; at which time they, together with the Lords, affirmed, that after diligent enquiry they had found all things to have been very well done; and the Commons returned them thanks in full Parliament for their fidelity and good conduct. Upon which the King reinstated the Chancellor and Treasurer in their offices, and reftored all his late Counsellors, and together with them the Dukes of Lancaster and Gloucester, to the CouncilBoard: The former had lately returned, after three years abfence, from his Spanish expedition, (m) and had effected a reconciliation between the King and the Duke of Gloucester, And the November following, another Parliament being called, was again opened with a fpeech by Wykeham as Chancellor; in which he acquainted them, that a truce was concluded between the Courts of France and England, and that a negociation was on foot for a treaty of peace between them.

Wykeham had used his endeavours, and had happily fucceeded in restoring the public tranquility, and had the fatisfaction of leaving things in a promifing fituation, when he quitted the office of Chancellor, by delivering the Great Seal to the King in September, 1391, after having been in poffeffion of it upwards of two years and four months. But it does not appear what motives, either on the part of Wykeham, or the King, occafioned this removal or refignation. However, Arundel, Archbishop of York, whom he had fucceeded in that office, was now made Chancellor again in his place.

Notwithstanding the tranquil ftate of the public affairs at Wykeham's removal, fuch was the weakness and arbitrary difpofition of Richard, that he would not fuffer them long to continue fo. He confidered his power and dignity as precarious, while they depended on the authority of Parliament; and his chief aim, therefore, was to fet himself above all oppofition and refiftance. To forward his views, he precipitated a truce for thirty years with the King of France, and married a daughter of that Monarch, though only seven years of age. He also found means to caufe the Duke of Gloucefter, his uncle, who oppofed his arbitrary defigns, to be feized, and conveyed away to Calais, and afterwards to be there privately murdered. He even fucceeded so far in his designs, as to procure a Parliament,

(m) John of Ghent, in 1371, married Conftance, daughter of Pedro, King of Caftile; and Pedro be ing dead, the Duke affumed, in virtue of his wife's right, the arms and title of King of Caftile and Leon,

the

and accordingly was feveral times out of England for a confiderable time, being engaged in expeditions to fupport his claim to the kingdom of Caftile.

the majority of the Members of which were bafe enough to give their fanction to his meafures. Wykeham excufed himself from attending on this Parliament, on account of ill health and infirmities, and fent his Procurators thither to act for him. This infamous Parliament went fo far as to devolve, by statute, the whole power of the Parliament upon the King, twelve Lords, and fix of the Commons; or any fix of the former, and any three of the latter. Shortly after the Duke of Hereford, fon to the Duke of Lancaster, having charged the Duke of Norfolk with speaking feditious words of the King, the truth of which charge was denied by Norfolk, it was decreed by the Committee of Parliament, that, for want of fufficient evidence, the difpute fhould be decided by fingle combat, according to the laws of chivalry. But juft as the combatants were ready to engage, the King commanded them to defift, and, by way of fettling the affair, banifhed the Duke of Hereford for fix years, and the Duke of Norfolk for life. The Duke of Lancaster dying the following year, his fon the Duke of Hereford fhould of courfe have fucceeded to his title and eftate; but Hereford being in exile, Richard arbitrarily caufed the eftate of the late Duke of Lancaster to be seized for his own ufe. Indeed, Richard feemed to think himself, by the death of his uncle, freed from all manner of restraint; for he plunged into every species of effeminate debauchery, and profligate profufion; to fupport which, he employed the moft unjuft and illegal methods of raifing money. In fhort, his oppreffions were fo great and intolerable, and his administration fo contemptible, that the whole nation turned their eyes upon the Duke of Lancaster, as the only perfon from whom they could expect redrefs. This Prince poffeffed confiderable talents, and was very popular; and therefore having received proper overtures from England, fet out for thence from Nantes, while Richard was engaged on an expedition into Ireland, whither he went to revenge the death of the Earl of Marche, the prefumptive heir to the Crown, who had been flain by the native Irish. Richard had made himself fo much detefted by his fubjects, and was fo entirely deferted by them, that though he returned from Ireland, Lancaster had in a very fhort time collected an army of an hundred thousand fighting men; and in feven and forty days made himself mafter of ail England, without the leaft oppofition, except from the garrifon of Bristol caftle. In confequence of this, Richard was reduced to the neceffity of refigning his Crown; and was in a formal manner depofed by the Parliament, and Henry, Duke of Lancafter, placed on the Throne in his ftead.

It does not appear that Wykeham had any hand in this important affair, any otherwife than by his prefence in that Parlia ment, in which the whole bufinefs of Richard's depofition was tranfa&ted. And the firft Parliament of Henry the Fourth being fummoned a few days after, the Bishop affifted at that alfo.

Shortly

Shortly after, a folemn Council of the Lords in Parliament was held by the King's command; and the queftion proposed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, with a ftrict injunction of fecrecy, was, What was to be done with the late King Richard, fo that he might be fafely guarded, and his life preserved? They were feverally afked their opinions; and they advised, that he should be kept under fafe and fecret guard in fome retired place: In pursuance of which advice, Richard was adjudged to perpetual imprisonment. The names of all the Lords who gave this advice are expreffed in the record; but the Bishop of Winchester is not among the number, though he at this time refided at his palace at Southwark. His many obligations and great attachment to the father and grandfather of Richard, as well as his perfonal obligations to that unhappy Prince himself, might have rendered his attendance on this occafion both improper and difagreeable. This was the laft Parliament which Wykeham attended in perfon; for he always afterwards fent Procurators to excufe his abfence, on account of his age and infirmities. Soon after the difmiffion of the Parliament, the Scots, taking advantage of the unfettled state of the nation, began to commence hoftilities on the borders of the kingdom. On which King Henry, in order to enable himself to undertake an expedition into Scotland in perfon, fummoned a great Council of Lords and Prelates; who, in confideration of the urgency of the cafe, granted the King an aid of themfelves, without obliging him to call a Parliament. The Bishop of Winchester was fummoned to this Council, and affifted at it; and it appears to have been the last public tranfaction in which he was concerned.

Our Prelate was now very far advanced in years. He had from his youth been conftantly engaged in a multiplicity of bu finefs, of the greatest importance, both of a public and private nature; and which he had attended with the utmost affiduity and application; for he had been bleffed with a very vigorous conftitution, and had enjoyed an uncommon fhare of health: But he was at length obliged, by the infirmities of age, to have recourse to retirement and eafe. During the two first years of King Henry the fourth's reign, it appears that Wykeham continued from time to time to remove from one to another of his palacesin the country, as he had been used to do. And the first remarkable indication of his weakness of body, was in May 1401, when he was not able to undergo the fatigue of adminiftering Ordination; but, though prefent himself, was obliged to procure another Bishop to ordain for him; and which he was forced to do ever after. At the end of this year he retired to SouthWaltham, and never removed from thence, except once or twice, on account of fome particular business, and that no farther than to Winchester