Middle English Literature

Primary documents and further reading
Creton, J. (1824) Histoire du Roy d’Angleterre Richard, ed. and trans. J. Webb.
Archaeologia 20: 1–423.
Bennett, M. (1999) Richard II and the Revolution of 1399. Stroud, Gloucestershire:
Sutton.
Ferster, J. (1996) Fictions of Advice: The Literature and Politics of Counsel in Late
Medieval England. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Giancarlo, M. (2002) “Murder, Lies, and Storytelling: The Manipulation of Justice(s)
in the Parliaments of 1397 and 1399.” Speculum 77: 76–112.
Given-Wilson, C. (1993) “The Manner of the King’s Renunciation: A ‘Lancastrian
Narrative’?” English Historical Review 108: 365–70.
Gransden, A. (1982) Historical Writing in England II: c. 1307 to the Early Sixteenth
Century. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Patterson, L. (1993) “Making Identities in Fifteenth-century England: Henry V and
John Lydgate.” In J. N. Cox and L. J. Reynolds (eds.) New Historical Literary
Study: Essays on Reproducing Texts, Representing History. Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press, 69–107.
Saul, N. (1997) Richard II. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Scanlon, L. (1990) “The King’s Two Voices: Narrative and Power in Hoccleve’s
Regement of Princes.” In L. Patterson (ed.) Literary Practice and Social Change in
Britain, 1380–1530. Berkeley: University of California Press, 216–47.
Stow, G. B. (1984) “Richard II in Thomas Walsingham’s Chronicles.” Speculum 59:
68–102.
Strohm, P. (1998) England’s Empty Throne: Usurpation and the Language of Legiti-
mation, 1399–1422. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Taylor, J. (1987) English Historical Literature in the Fourteenth Century. Oxford:
Clarendon Press.
Thomas, A. H. and I. D. Thornley (eds.) (1938) The Great Chronicle of London.
London: George W. Jones.
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Walsingham, T. (1864) Historia Anglicana, vol. 2, ed. H. T. Riley. Rolls Series.
London.
Rotuli Parliamentorum (1767) Vol. 3, ed. J. Strachey et al. London, 415–53. In C. Given-
Wilson (ed. and trans.) (1993) Chronicles of the Revolution, 1397–1400: The Reign of Richard
II. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 169–86 (selections).
Language: Latin and English (Southwestern)
Date: ca. 1400
The Record and Process of the renunciation of King Richard the Second
since the Conquest and of the acceptance of the same renunciation,
together with the deposition of the same King Richard, here follow:
Be it remembered that at about nine o’clock on Monday the feast of
St. Michael the Archangel, in the twenty-third year of the reign of King
Richard II,
1
the lords spiritual and temporal and other great persons –
namely Richard le Scrope, archbishop of York; John, bishop of Hereford;
Henry, earl of Northumberland; Ralph, earl of Westmorland; Hugh, Lord
Burnell; Thomas, Lord Berkeley;
2
the prior of Canterbury; the abbot of West-
minster; Sir William Thirning and John Markham, justices; Thomas Stowe
and John Burbach, doctors of law; Thomas Erpingham and Thomas Gray,
knights; and William Ferriby and Denis Lopham, notaries public, who had
initially been deputed, with the consent and counsel of the lords spiritual
and temporal – the justices, and others learned in civil and canon law and in
the laws of the kingdom, [who were] gathered together in the usual meeting-
place of the council at Westminster to undertake the following act, came
into the presence of the said King Richard in the Tower of London. And
there, in the same king’s presence, it was recited by the earl of Northumber-
land, acting on behalf of and with the permission of all the aforesaid, how
the same king at an earlier time, at Conway in North Wales, being then at
liberty, had promised lord Thomas,
3
archbishop of Canterbury, and the
aforesaid earl of Northumberland that he was willing to yield up and re-
nounce his crowns of England and France and his royal majesty on account
of his own inability and insufficiency which he himself admitted there,
1
September 29, 1399.
2
Richard le Scrope, archbishop of York 1398–1405; John Trefnant, bishop of Hereford
1389–1404; Henry de Percy, earl of Northumberland 1377–1405; Ralph de Neville, earl
of Westmorland 1397–1425; Hugh, Lord Burnell (ca. 1347–1417); Thomas de Berkeley
(ca. 1352–1417).
3
Thomas Arundel, archbishop of Canterbury 1396–7, 1399–1414.

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which was to be done in the best manner and form that could be devised
according to the counsel of learned men. In reply to this, and in the
presence of the aforesaid lords and others, the king replied easily that he was
willing to carry out what he had formerly promised in this regard; he
wished, however, to speak with his kinsmen Henry, duke of Lancaster, and
the aforesaid archbishop before thus fulfilling his promise. He also asked
to be given a copy of the Cession made by him, that he might study it for
a while; a copy was therefore given to him, and the said lords and others
returned to their lodgings.
Later on that same day, after dinner, after the king had grown impatient
for the arrival of the duke of Lancaster, who delayed a long time, at length
the duke of Lancaster, the lords and other persons named above, and the
archbishop of Canterbury came into the king’s presence in the Tower,
where Lords Roos, Willoughby, and Bergavenny were also present.
4
And
after the king had spoken apart for a while with the said duke and arch-
bishop of Canterbury, with whom, it seemed to those present, he conversed
with a cheerful expression, he at length called forward all who were there
and announced to them that he was ready to perform the Cession and
Renunciation which he had promised. And although he was informed that,
in order to save him the trouble of reading such a lengthy document, he
could allow his Cession and Renunciation, which was written down on a
parchment schedule to be read out for him by others, nevertheless he
himself, willingly and, so it seemed, with a cheerful expression, took the
schedule in his hands and announced that he wished to read it himself, and,
quite distinctly, he read it out. Thus did he absolve his liegemen, and
renounce, and yield up, and this he swore, and indeed he added further
remarks and enlargements during the reading, and he signed it at the foot
with his own hand as can be clearly seen on the aforesaid schedule, the
tenor of which follows in these words:
“In the name of God, amen. I, Richard, by the grace of God king of
England and France and lord of Ireland, absolve all my archbishops, bish-
ops, and other prelates of the church in the said kingdoms and dominions
whatsoever, both secular and regular, of whatever dignity, degree, estate, or
condition they be, and all my dukes, marquises, earls, barons, knights,
vassals, vavasours, and all my other liegemen whatsoever, whether ecclesias-
tical or secular, by whatever name they might be described, from their Oath
of Fealty and Homage and any other oaths to me which they have taken,
4
William de Ros (d. 1414), William de Willoughby (ca. 1370–1409), Beauchamp, Lord
Abergavenny (d. 1411).
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together with all bonds of allegiance, regality, and lordship, or of any other
kind, by which they are or have been bound to me . . . And by these words
I fully, willingly, directly, and totally renounce my right to the rule, govern-
ance, and administration of these kingdoms and dominions, and all and
every type of power and jurisdiction in them, together with the name,
honour, regality, and majesty of kingship . . . Saving the rights of my suc-
cessors as kings of England in these kingdoms and dominions in all the
foregoing for all time . . . I confess, acknowledge, recognize, and from my own
certain knowledge truly admit that I have been and am entirely inadequate
and unequal to the task of ruling and governing the aforesaid kingdoms
and dominions and all that pertains to them, and that, on account of my
notorious insufficiencies, I deserve to be deposed from them. And I swear
upon these Holy Gospels, physically held here by me in person, that I shall
never contravene the aforesaid Renunciation, Resignation, Demission, and
Cession, nor in any way, by word or deed, on my own behalf or, so far as I am
able, through any other person, either openly or secretly challenge them, or
allow them to be challenged, but I shall regard the same Renunciation,
Resignation, Demission, and Cession as established and accepted by me in
perpetuity and shall firmly hold and observe them in each and every part, as
God and these Holy Gospels shall judge me. Written by me, the aforesaid
King Richard, with my own hand.”
And immediately the same king added to this Renunciation and Cession
in his own words that, were it in his power, he should like the duke of
Lancaster to succeed him to the throne. Yet, since his power to decide such
things, as he himself said, was now minimal, he asked the aforesaid arch-
bishop of York and bishop of Hereford, whom he also appointed as his
spokesmen to convey and announce his Cession and Renunciation to the
estates of the realm, that they should declare his will and intention in this
matter too to the people. And, as a sign of his will and intention, he
publicly removed from his finger his golden signet ring and placed it on
the aforesaid duke’s finger, declaring that he wished this deed of his to be
made known to all the estates of the realm. When this had been done, all
who were there bade him farewell and left the Tower to return to their
lodgings.
On the following day, Tuesday, the feast of St. Jerome, in the great hall
at Westminster, which had been suitably prepared for the holding of a
parliament, in the presence of the aforesaid archbishops of Canterbury and
York, the duke of Lancaster, and the other dukes and lords both spiritual
and temporal whose names are written above, as well as a great assembly of
the people of the realm gathered there for the holding of parliament, with

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the duke of Lancaster occupying his proper and accustomed place, and the
royal throne solemnly bedecked with cloth of gold standing vacant and
without any president, the aforesaid archbishop of York and bishop of
Hereford, in accordance with the king’s injunction, publicly announced that
the Cession and Renunciation had indeed been made by the king and that
he had signed it with his own hand and had handed over his own signet,
and they caused the Cession and Renunciation to be read out there, first in
Latin and then in English. Whereupon the estates and people there present
were immediately asked by the archbishop of Canterbury who, on account
of the dignity and prerogative of his metropolitan church of Canterbury,
has the privilege of speaking before all the other prelates and magnates
of the realm in such matters, if they wished, for their own welfare and for
the good of the realm, to accept that same Renunciation and Cession. To
which the same estates and people replied that, considering the reasons
given by the king himself in that Renunciation and Cession, it seemed most
expedient to them, and unanimously and without dissent they accepted
the Renunciation and Cession, each one singly and then jointly together
with the people. Following this acceptance, it was publicly declared there
that, as well as accepting this Cession and Renunciation, it would be of
great benefit and advantage to the realm if, in order to remove any scruple or
malevolent suspicion, the many wrongs and shortcomings so frequently
committed by the said king in his government of the kingdom, which, as he
himself confessed in his Cession, had rendered him worthy of deposition,
were to be set down in writing in the form of articles publicly read out and
announced to the people. The greater part of these articles was thus publicly
read out, of which the full tenor is as follows . . . [There follows a copy of
Richard’s coronation oath.]
Here follow the charges against the king, for which he was deposed:
1. Firstly, the king is charged for his evil government, namely, that he
gave the goods and possessions of the crown to unworthy persons and
otherwise indiscreetly dissipated them, as a result of which he had to impose
needlessly grievous and intolerable burdens upon the people, and committed
innumerable other crimes. By his assent and command, certain prelates and
other temporal lords were chosen and assigned by the whole parliament to
labour faithfully at their own costs for the just government of the kingdom;
5
the king, however, made an agreement with his supporters, proposing to
impeach of high treason the said lords spiritual and temporal thus employed
about the government of the kingdom and coerced the justices of the realm
5
I.e., the so-named Wonderful Parliament or Great and Continual Council of 1386–7.
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with threats of life and limb to confirm his wicked plans, intending to
destroy the said lords.
2. Item: the king, when he was formerly at Shrewsbury, caused to come
before him and others that supported him, in a chamber, various persons,
including the majority of the justices, where, through fear and threats, he
induced, compelled, and forced them each to answer certain questions on
his behalf concerning the laws of the kingdom against their will and other-
wise than they would have answered had they not been under compulsion
but at liberty;
6
by authority of which questions the king planned to proceed
to the destruction of the duke of Gloucester and the earls of Arundel and
Warwick and other lords against whom he had conceived a great hatred
because they wished him to be under good rule.
7
By divine providence and
through the resistance and power of the said lords, the king was prevented
from carrying out his plans.
3. Item: when the lords temporal, in order to defend themselves, resisted
the king’s evil designs, the king set a day for parliament to see justice done
to them, whereupon they, putting their hope and faith in the meeting of
parliament, retired peaceably to their houses, but the king then secretly sent
the duke of Ireland
8
with his letters and his standard into Cheshire in order
to raise to arms there a great number of men, and he incited them to rise up
against the said lords and the magnates of the kingdom and the servants of
the republic,
9
thus challenging the peace which he had publicly sworn to
keep, as a result of which deaths, imprisonments, quarrels, and numerous
other evils occurred throughout the kingdom, by which acts he committed
perjury.
4. Item: although the king pardoned the duke of Gloucester and the earls
of Arundel and Warwick and all their supporters in full parliament and with
its assent, and for many years behaved towards them in peaceful and bene-
volent fashion, yet he continued to bear hatred in his heart towards them
so that when an opportunity came, he ordered the seizure of the duke of
Gloucester – his own uncle, the son of the celebrated Edward, former king
of England, and constable of England – who had come humbly forward to
6
The Questions to the Judges in August, 1387.
7
I.e., three out of the five lords appellant, who called for the Merciless Parliament of
February 1388: Thomas of Woodstock, duke of Gloucester 1385–97; Richard Fitzalan, earl of
Arundel 1346–97; and Thomas Beauchamp, earl of Warwick 1370–97, 1399–1401. The other
two were Henry Bolingbroke and Thomas Mowbray, earl of Nottingham 1383–99.
8
Robert de Vere, earl of Oxford 1381–88, created duke of Ireland in 1386, which he
forfeited in 1388.
9
At Radcot Bridge in December 1387, where the three lords appellant swiftly defeated de
Vere’s forces.

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meet his lord king in solemn procession, and the said earls of Arundel and
Warwick;
10
the said duke he sent abroad to the town of Calais to be impris-
oned by the earl of Nottingham, one of those who had appealed him, and
there he caused him, without response or any legal process, to be secretly
suffocated, strangled, and barbarously and cruelly murdered.
11
The earl of
Arundel, although he pleaded both a charter of general pardon and a charter
of pardon which had been granted to him, and requested that justice be
done to him, he wickedly ordered to be decapitated, having surrounded the
parliament with a great number of armed men and archers whom he had
gathered there for the purpose of overawing the people;
12
the earl of War-
wick and Lord Cobham he committed to perpetual imprisonment and con-
fiscated, from them and their heirs, their lands and tenements, both those
held in fee simple and those held in tail, expressly contrary to justice and to
the laws of his realm, and to his oath, granting them to their appellants.
13
5. Item: at the time when the king in his parliament caused the duke of
Gloucester and the earls of Arundel and Warwick to be adjudged, in order
that he would be free to pursue his cruel designs and wicked will against
them and others, he gathered together a great number of malefactors from
the county of Chester, some of whom travelled through the realm with
him, both within the royal household and separately from it, cruelly killing
some of the king’s subjects, beating and wounding others, plundering the
goods of the people, refusing to pay for their provisions, and raping and
ravishing both married and unmarried women. And although serious com-
plaints were made to the king about the excesses committed by them, yet
he made no attempt to stop them but rather supported these men in their
crimes, trusting in them and their protection against all others of his kingdom
so that his faithful subjects had great reason to grieve and to be indignant.
6. Item: although the king caused a proclamation to be made throughout
the kingdom that he had had his uncle the duke of Gloucester and the
earls of Arundel and Warwick seized and arrested not for any conspiracies
or insurrections committed by them within the kingdom of England but
for numerous extortions, oppressions, and other deeds done by them at a
later time contrary to his regality and to his royal majesty – for, as he
said, it was not his intention that any member of the duke’s or the earls’
following, or any person that had ridden with them at the time of those
10
On July 10, 1397.
11
Early September, 1397.
12
On September 21.
13
The earl of Warwick was imprisoned on September 28 and John, Lord Cobham, also a
member of the council of 1386–7, was banished in January 1398.
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conspiracies and insurrections should be harassed or molested on account of
that – nevertheless, he later impeached the said lords in parliament not for
any such extortions or oppressions but for the aforesaid conspiracies and
insurrections, for which they were adjudged to death, and he compelled
with threats of death many of their followers and many of those who had
ridden with them at that time to make fine and redemption as if they were
traitors, which was to the great destruction of many of his people. Thus
did he craftily, maliciously, and fraudulently deceive the said lords, their
followers, and the people of the realm.
7. Item: although many of these people, while making fine and redemp-
tion in this manner, had obtained from the king letters patent pardoning
them fully, yet they received no benefit from these letters of pardon until
they paid new fines and redemptions in order to save their lives, by which
they were gravely impoverished, which derogated greatly from the name
and honour of kingship.
8. Item: in the last parliament held at Shrewsbury,
14
the king, desiring to
oppress his people, subtly procured and caused to be granted that the
power of parliament should, with the assent of all the estates of the realm,
be delegated to certain persons who, once the parliament had been dissolved,
were to terminate certain petitions which were pending but had not been
decided in parliament; by authority of this concession, however, they pro-
ceeded by the king’s will to deal with other general business relating to that
parliament, which was derogatory to the state of parliament, to the preju-
dice of the whole realm, and a pernicious example. And in order that these
actions might seem to have proper authority, the king of his own volition
ordered the Rolls of Parliament to be erased and altered, contrary to the
intention of the aforesaid grant.
9. [The king decreed that no one was to intercede or plead for a pardon
for the exiled Henry, thus violating his oath.]
10. [The king sought papal confirmation of parliamentary statutes, which
would therefore include threats against those who would contravene them,
which was contrary to the crown and the good of the realm.]
11. [Despite the king’s approval of a duel between Henry and Thomas
Mowbray, earl of Nottingham, Richard instead banished Henry (on 16 Sep-
tember, 1398).]
12. [The king reneged on allowing Henry income while in exile.]
13. [The king selected sheriffs instead of officers, justices, and others
appointing them.]
14
January 28–31, 1398.

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14. [The king borrowed money from lords and others, and failed to pay
it back by the agreed time.]
15. Item: whereas the king of England used to live honestly upon the
revenues of the kingdom and the patrimony belonging to the crown with-
out oppressing his people except at times when the realm was burdened
with the expense of war, this king, despite the fact that throughout almost
the whole of his time there were truces in operation between the kingdom
of England and its enemies, not only gave away the greater part of his said
patrimony to unworthy persons but, because of this, was obliged to impose
grants upon his realm almost every year, which greatly oppressed his people
and impoverished his nation, nor did he use these grants for the benefit or
welfare of the English kingdom, but he dissipated it prodigiously upon the
ostentation, pomp, and vainglory of his own person. He also owed great
sums of money in the realm for victuals for his household and for other
purchases despite the fact that his wealth and riches were greater than can
be remembered for any of his progenitors.
16. Item: the king, not wishing to uphold or dispense the rightful laws
and customs of the realm but preferring to act according to his own arbitrary
will and to do whatever he wished, at times when his justices or others of
his council expounded to him upon the laws of the realm and asked him to
do justice according to those laws, frequently replied and declared expressly,
with an austere and determined expression, that his laws were in his mouth,
or, at other times, that they were in his breast, and that he alone could
change or make the laws of his kingdom. And thus, led astray by his own
opinions, he frequently failed to do justice to his liegemen but forced many,
through fear and threats, to desist from the pursuit of common justice.
17. [The king arranged for a petition to grant him liberty to go against
parliamentary statutes while they were still in effect, thus going against his
coronation oath.]
18. [The king interceded to allow sheriffs to remain in office longer than
the legal term of one year.]
19. [The king interfered in the appointment of knights of the shires and
then used bribes and threats to get them to agree to items such as granting
him the duties from will (at the parliament in Shrewsbury, 1398).]
20. [The king commanded sheriffs to obey all his mandates and to arrest
anyone who said anything against the king.]
21. [The king forced people in seventeen counties to submit to him as
traitors in order to extort their goods.]
22. [The king illegally ordered certain churchmen to provide him with
supplies and money to fund his expedition to Ireland (in 1399).]
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23. Item: in many great councils of the kingdom, when the lords of the
realm, justices, and others were charged faithfully to counsel the king on
matters concerning his welfare and that of his kingdom, the aforesaid lords,
justices, and others, when offering their advice according to their discretion,
were often so sharply and violently rebuked and reproved by the king that
they dared not speak the truth in giving their advice on such matters.
24. [Richard took royal treasure with him when he went to Ireland,
risking the impoverishment of the realm, and he ordered that “records of
his estate and government of the kingdom” be erased.]
25. Item: the king was so variable and dissimulating in both word and
letter, and so inconstant in his behaviour, especially in his dealings with the
pope, and with kings, and with lords and others both within and beyond
his own kingdom, that virtually no living person who came to know him could
or wished to trust him. Indeed, so faithless and deceitful was he reputed to
be, that he was a scandal not just to his own person and to the whole realm,
but above all to foreigners throughout the world who heard about him.
26. Item: although the lands, tenements, goods, and chattels of each
free man should not, according to the laws in force since ancient times, be
seized except as a consequence of forfeiture, nevertheless the king, seeking
to undermine those laws, frequently declared in the presence of many lords
and others of the community of the realm that the lives of each of his
subjects, together with their lands, tenements, goods, and chattels, were his
and subject to his will, regardless of any forfeiture, which is entirely contrary
to the laws and customs of the kingdom.
27. Item: although a statute was ordained, which has hitherto been main-
tained, “that no free man should be arrested, etc., or in any way destroyed,
nor should the king proceed or order any process against him unless it be
by lawful judgement of his peers or by the law of the land,”
15
yet by the
will, command, and ordinance of the king, many of his liegemen, being
maliciously accused of having allegedly said things either openly or privately
to the disgrace, scandal, or dishonour of the king’s person, were seized,
imprisoned, and brought before the constable and marshal of England in
the Court of Chivalry, in which court the said liegemen were not permitted
to enter any response except that they were not guilty, nor to defend
themselves otherwise than by their bodies, despite the fact that those who
accused and appealed them were young, strong, and healthy, whereas the
accused were aged, impotent, lame or infirm. From this the destruction not
only of various lords and magnates of the realm but of each and every
15
Clause 39 of Magna Carta.

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person belonging to the community of the realm could have resulted. Thus,
when the king willfully contravened this statute of the realm, he undoubt-
edly thereby committed perjury.
28. [The king forced his subjects to swear oaths of allegiance to him.]
29. [The king impeded ecclesiastical cases against individuals, thereby
infringing on the liberties of the church.]
30. Item: the king in parliament, with armed men standing around in a
threatening manner, adjudged Thomas Arundel, archbishop of Canterbury,
primate of all England and his spiritual father, who was through the king’s
cunning absent at the time, to perpetual exile
16
without any reasonable or
legitimate cause, without lawful process, and contrary to the laws of the
kingdom which he himself had sworn to uphold.
31. Item: perusal of the king’s testament, written under his great and
privy seals as well as his signet, revealed among other things the following
clause: “Item, we wish that once the debts of our household, chamber, and
wardrobe have been paid, for which we leave twenty thousand pounds,
and when fuller provision has been made by our executors for the lepers
and chaplains whom we appointed to be maintained at Westminster and
Bermondsey, for which purpose we leave five or six thousand marks to be
spent by the said executors, the remainder of our gold should pass to our
successor on condition that he approves, ratifies, confirms, upholds, and
strictly observes each and every one of the statutes, ordinances, establishments,
and judgements made and given in our parliament held on the seventeenth
day of September in the twenty-first year of our reign at Westminster
17
or in
the same parliament when it was continued at Shrewsbury, and all the
ordinances, judgements, and establishments made or given on the sixteenth
of September in our twenty-second year at Coventry or afterwards on the
eighteenth day of March at Westminster by authority of the same parliament,
together with any ordinances or judgements which might in future be
promulgated under the authority of the same parliament. If, on the other
hand, our successor will not perform the above or refuses to do so, which
we cannot believe will happen, then we wish that Thomas, duke of Surrey;
Edward, duke of Aumale; John, duke of Exeter; and William le Scrope, earl
of Wiltshire,
18
once they have paid the debts of our household, chamber,
16
September 25, 1397.
17
1397.
18
Thomas de Holand, duke of Surrey ca. 1371–1400; Edward “of York,” duke of Aumale
ca. 1373–1415; John de Holand, duke of Exeter ca. 1350–1400; William le Scrope, earl of
Wiltshire ca. 1350–99.
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and wardrobe, and set aside five or six thousand marks, as mentioned above,
should have and keep the remainder for the defence and maintenance of
the aforesaid statutes, ordinances, establishments, and judgements to the
utmost of their ability, even unto death if need be, for each and every one
of which injunctions we burden their consciences as they would wish to
answer at the day of judgement.” Which article clearly demonstrates that
the king tried unswervingly to uphold and maintain those wrongful and
iniquitous statutes and ordinances, which are repugnant to all law and
reason, not only in his life but even in death, regardless of the danger to his
soul and to his kingdom, and to the ultimate destruction of his liegemen.
32. [Even though the king had earlier forgiven Gloucester for his role in
the Great and Continual Council, he later had him murdered.]
33. [Richard dissuaded archbishop Arundel from answering in parlia-
ment in 1397 charges brought against him and then banished him, falsely
promising to end his exile soon.]
Following this all the estates assembled there were asked both individually
and jointly to give their opinion on the aforesaid, and it seemed to them,
bearing in mind also the king’s own confession of inadequacy and the other
things mentioned in his Renunciation and Cession, that the wrongs and
defects specified were fully sufficient and notorious to justify the king’s
deposition; all the aforesaid estates unanimously agreed, therefore, that there
was abundant cause, for the security and peace of the people, and the
welfare of the realm, to depose the king . . . [The estates then appointed pro-
ctors to carry out the “sentence of deposition,” which they wrote, read out,
and took to the king.]
Immediately after this, since it was clear from the foregoing and what
followed from them that the realm of England with its appurtenances was
vacant, the said Henry, duke of Lancaster, rose from his place and, standing
erect so that he could be seen by the people, humbly made the sign of the
cross on his forehead and on his breast and, after first invoking the name of
Christ, claimed this realm of England, now vacant as aforesaid, together with
the crown and all its members and appurtenances, in his mother tongue,
in the following words:
“In the name of Fadir, Son, and Holy Gost, I, Henry of Lancaster,
chalenge this rewme of Yngland and the corone with all the membres and
the appurtenances als I that am disendit be right lyne of the blode comyng
fro the gude lorde Kyng Henry therde and thorghe that ryght that God of
his grace hath sent me, with helpe of my kyn and of my frendes to recover
it, the whiche rewme was in poynt to be undone for defaut of governance
and undoyng of the gode lawes.”

---

Following this challenge and claim, the lords spiritual and temporal and
all the estates there present were individually and jointly asked what they
thought of this challenge and claim, to which the same estates, together
with all the people, unanimously and without any difficulty or delay agreed
that the aforesaid duke should reign over them. Whereupon the king
promptly showed to the estates of the realm the signet of King Richard
which, as mentioned earlier, had been willingly handed over to him as a
token, and the archbishop, taking the aforesaid King Henry by the right
hand, led him to the royal throne. After the king had knelt for a short while
to pray before the throne, the aforesaid archbishop of Canterbury, assisted
by the archbishop of York, seated the king upon the throne to tremendous
and joyful applause from the people. Presently, the said archbishop of Can-
terbury, having with difficulty on account of the joy of all present, imposed
silence upon them, preached a short sermon . . . [The theme of Arundel’s
sermon was “A man shall reign over the people.”
19
The archbishop preached
on the instability and danger caused by an immature ruler, contrasting that
former peril with the present, wherein a mature and wise man will reign.]
When this sermon was over, the lord King Henry, in order to set at peace
the minds of his subjects, then and there publicly spoke these words:
“Sires, I thank God and yowe, spirituel and temporel, and all the astates
of the lond, and do yowe to wyte it es noght my will that no man thynk yt
be waye of conquest I wold disherit any man of his heritage, franches, or
other ryghtes that hym aght to have, no put hym out of that that he has and
has had by the gude lawes and custumes of the rewme except thos persons
that has ben agan the gude purpose and the commune profyt of the rewme.”
[Henry set dates for the next parliament, Monday, 6 October, and his
coronation, Monday, 13 October, before all present retired to celebrate. On
the following Wednesday, Lord William Thirning and his fellow proctors
visited Richard in the Tower, read out the sentence of deposition, and
confirmed that the people’s homage to him had ended and would exist no
more. The record states simply that Richard:] answerd and seyd that he
loked not ther after, but he said that after all this he hoped that is cosyn
wolde be goode lord to hym.
Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, MS 59, fols. 230v–231r. “La Manere de la renonciacione
del Roy Richard de sa corone et de la eleccione del Roy Henri le quatre puis le conqueste etc.”
In C. Given-Wilson (ed. and trans.) (1993) Chronicles of the Revolution, 1397–1400: The Reign