Unit 15 Richard II and the Rebellion of Wat Tyler

Edward III died in 1377 and left his throne to his grandson Richard (the son of Black Prince who had died a year before). Richard II was a boy of 11. At the beginning of his reign His Uncle John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, was the Regent. The heavy cost of the Hundred Years' War led to the introduction in 1377 of a high poll tax. The attempts the government made in the following year to enforce collection of the tax led to the outbreak of the Peasants' Revolt, also called Wat Tyler's Rebellion (1381), the first great popular rebellion in English history. Wat Tyler was a blacksmith, who joined the people raising against high taxes and then became their leader. The legend is that his daughter was insulted by a taxcollector and Tyler killed him throwing a hammer at him and then called people to join him in his march on London. The rebellion was centred in the southeastern counties and East Anglia. It began in Essex in May, taking the government of the young king Richard II by surprise. On the 13th of June the men entered London, where they massacred merchants and burned the palace of the king's uncle, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. The government was compelled to negotiate. On the 14th of June Richard met the men of Essex outside London at Mile End, where he promised cheap land, free trade, and the abolition of serfdom and forced labour. During the king's absence, the Kentish rebels in the city forced the surrender of the Tower of London; the chancellor, Archbishop Simon of Sudbury, and the treasurer, Sir Robert Hales, both of whom were held responsible for the poll tax, were beheaded. Tyler was treacherously cut down in Richard's presence by the enraged mayor of London. The king, with great presence of mind, appealed to the rebels as their sovereign and, after promising reforms, persuaded them to disperse. The crisis in London was over, but in the provinces the rebellion reached its climax in the following weeks. King Richard's promises at Mile End and Smithfield were promptly forgotten. In the years after the Revolt, Richard's interest in the affairs of state intermittently increased. According to the chronicler Thomas Walsingham, a contemporary of Richard's, the choice of Anne of Bohemia, the daughter of the Holy Roman emperor Charles IV, as his bride in 1381 was very much Richard's own. By 1383 his personal initiative showed in the choice of his friends and counselors, including two figures of particular importance - Sir Simon Burley, his former tutor, and Burley's ally, Sir Michael de la Pole, chancellor from 1383. He tried to get rid of John of Gaunt`s guidance and rule independently. It provoked deep conflicts with the higher nobility. In a short period of time there was a major crisis in Parliament as the king demanded more and more taxes. In July the Duke of Lancaster departed for Spain with a large fleet to pursue his claim to the Castilian throne and the French planned an invasion of England. To start the war an unprecedentedly large grant of taxation was demanded from Parliament by the minister La pole. The House of Commons demanded his resignation. De la Pole was replaced as chancellor and put on trial, and a commission of government was appointed to hold office for a year. Richard reacted to the Commons' assault by retreating to the Midlands to rally his supporters. The duke of Gloucester and the earls of Warwick, Arundel, Nottingham, and Derby mobilized their retinues in self-defense. Richard dispatched his friend Robert de Vere southward with an armed force, but the latter was defeated at Radcot Bridge on the 20<sup>th</sup> of December, 1387. A few days later London was occupied by the rebellious lords. In the aptly named "Merciless Parliament" that followed, two of Richard's main allies were executed, and others were dismissed from office. Later the rebellion stopped and at a council meeting at Westminster on the 3<sup>rd</sup> of May,1389, Richard formally resumed responsibility for government. At the same time, he published a manifesto promising better governance and an easing of the burden of taxation. In a five-year period beginning in 1389, Richard went some way toward honouring his promises. Taxes fell sharply following a truce with the French in 1389, and from 1389 to 1391 no demands for a tax on "moveable" property were made. Yet the seeming moderation of Richard's rule was matched by a strong emphasis on the reassertion of royal authority He attracted to the central offices of government a corps of hard-working ministers deeply committed to his cause, notably John Waltham, the treasurer (1391-95), and Edmund Stafford, the chancellor (1396-99). He encouraged lofty new forms of address-for example, "your highness" or "your majesty," instead of "my lord." In January 1398 a quarrel broke out between Henry Bolingbroke, Lancaster's son, and the king's former ally, Thomas Mowbray (Duke of Norfolk and Earl of Nottingham). Mowbray apparently warned Bolingbroke of a plot by some of the king's intimates to destroy the Lancastrian inheritance. Bolingbroke reported the conversation to the king, who ordered that the conflict created by this betrayal of confidence be settled by a trial by combat. A day was set for the adversaries to meet, but at the last moment Richard, fearful of Bolingbroke's possible victory, cancelled the engagement and gave judgment himself. Bolingbroke was sentenced to exile for 10 years, and Mowbray for life. In February 1399 John of Gaunt died, and Richard took possession of his inheritance. Three months later Richard set off for Ireland. While he was away, Henry Bolingbroke, returned from exile and demanded to return his father`s possessions. Landing in Yorkshire, the duke met the earl of Northumberland and quickly won his support. Then he began a march across central and western England. Around the 15^th of August Richard surrendered to Northumberland at Conway. On the 29^th of September, after a series of meetings in the Tower of London, Richard was induced to lay aside his crown. On the following day the king's statement of abdication was read in Parliament and approved. In January 1400 a group of his former courtiers, led by the earl of Salisbury, plotted to restore him to the throne. Their rebellion was crushed, but it convinced Bolingbroke, by now Henry IV, that he could no longer allow Richard to live. Sometime in February the former king was killed. Early in Henry V's reign Richard was given honourable burial in the tomb that he had made for himself in Westminster Abbey.

I. Read the text, translate it into Russian.

II. Memorize the words, answer the questions: