Dickens, Charles – A Child’s History of England

men were easily found about the court in such days.

The people murmured at all this, and were still very sore about the

French marriage. The nobles saw how little the King cared for law,

and how crafty he was, and began to be somewhat afraid for

themselves. The King’s life was a life of continued feasting and

excess; his retinue, down to the meanest servants, were dressed in

the most costly manner, and caroused at his tables, it is related,

to the number of ten thousand persons every day. He himself,

surrounded by a body of ten thousand archers, and enriched by a

duty on wool which the Commons had granted him for life, saw no

danger of ever being otherwise than powerful and absolute, and was

as fierce and haughty as a King could be.

He had two of his old enemies left, in the persons of the Dukes of

Hereford and Norfolk. Sparing these no more than the others, he

tampered with the Duke of Hereford until he got him to declare

before the Council that the Duke of Norfolk had lately held some

treasonable talk with him, as he was riding near Brentford; and

that he had told him, among other things, that he could not believe

the King’s oath – which nobody could, I should think. For this

treachery he obtained a pardon, and the Duke of Norfolk was

summoned to appear and defend himself. As he denied the charge and

said his accuser was a liar and a traitor, both noblemen, according

to the manner of those times, were held in custody, and the truth

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was ordered to be decided by wager of battle at Coventry. This

wager of battle meant that whosoever won the combat was to be

considered in the right; which nonsense meant in effect, that no

strong man could ever be wrong. A great holiday was made; a great

crowd assembled, with much parade and show; and the two combatants

were about to rush at each other with their lances, when the King,

sitting in a pavilion to see fair, threw down the truncheon he

carried in his hand, and forbade the battle. The Duke of Hereford

was to be banished for ten years, and the Duke of Norfolk was to be

banished for life. So said the King. The Duke of Hereford went to

France, and went no farther. The Duke of Norfolk made a pilgrimage

to the Holy Land, and afterwards died at Venice of a broken heart.

Faster and fiercer, after this, the King went on in his career.

The Duke of Lancaster, who was the father of the Duke of Hereford,

died soon after the departure of his son; and, the King, although

he had solemnly granted to that son leave to inherit his father’s

property, if it should come to him during his banishment,

immediately seized it all, like a robber. The judges were so

afraid of him, that they disgraced themselves by declaring this

theft to be just and lawful. His avarice knew no bounds. He

outlawed seventeen counties at once, on a frivolous pretence,

merely to raise money by way of fines for misconduct. In short, he

did as many dishonest things as he could; and cared so little for

the discontent of his subjects – though even the spaniel favourites

began to whisper to him that there was such a thing as discontent

afloat – that he took that time, of all others, for leaving England

and making an expedition against the Irish.

He was scarcely gone, leaving the DUKE OF YORK Regent in his

absence, when his cousin, Henry of Hereford, came over from France

to claim the rights of which he had been so monstrously deprived.

He was immediately joined by the two great Earls of Northumberland

and Westmoreland; and his uncle, the Regent, finding the King’s

cause unpopular, and the disinclination of the army to act against

Henry, very strong, withdrew with the Royal forces towards Bristol.

Henry, at the head of an army, came from Yorkshire (where he had

landed) to London and followed him. They joined their forces – how