Page:The Queens of England.djvu/172

146 THE QUEENS OF ENGLAND. been as great a favorite with her as with Richard, had, like several others, fled to the continent, where he died in 1392, at Brabant, having been mortally wounded in a boar hunt. Richard had by this time attained his twenty-second year ; and weary of the ignoble restraints imposed upon him, he re- solved to shake off the fetters that weighed upon him, and declare himself ruler of his own kingdom. He was en- couraged in this resolve by the example of Charles the Sixth of France, who, from being kept under the closest tutelage by his uncles, had, by a sudden effort, freed himself from their authority and established his right to govern alone. Accordingly, on the 3d May, 1389, at an extraordinary coun- cil held at the Easter holidays, the king, to the great surprise of the assembled lords, rose and demanded "What age he was of?" and on receiving their reply, he proceeded to declare that "he was certainly of age to govern his own house, family, and kingdom, since every man in the nation was admitted earlier to the management of his estate and affairs ; and he saw no reason why his condition should be worse than theirs, and why he should be denied a right which the law gave to the meanest of his subjects." The lords, in considerable confusion, replying that he surely had a right to take the command of the kingdom, he continued, "that he had long enough been under the management of tutors, and not suffered to do the least thing without them ; but he would now remove them from his counsel and manage his own affairs." He then proceeded to displace the Archbishop of York, Duke of Gloucester, Earl of Warwick, Bishop of Here- ford, and Earl of Arundel, with all the other officers of state appointed by Gloucester, and to bestow their appointments on persons selected by himself. He issued proclamations calculated to conciliate and reassure the people ; and such were the good effects of these wise measures, that in spite of all Gloucester's endeavors to excite a spirit of rebellion and opposition, he could not succeed in disposing the nation against their youthful monarch. The Duke of Lancaster returning from his Spanish expedition at this period, he proceeded to Reading, where the king then was, "as well to present his dutie to his soveraigne, as to be an author of love and peace betweene the king and lords . * . . . . which he graciously effected, as seeming to ad- dict his mind to offices of pietie and publique benefit." Gloucester was included in this peacemaking business, but we