del and Nottingham bringing up the rear ; after spending Christmas day at St. Albans, they reached London on 26 Dec., and encamped in the fields at Clerkenwell. The London populace siding with the formidable host without, the mayor ordered the gates to be opened to the lords (Walsingham, ii. 171). They insisted on an interview with Richard in the Tower, and entered his presence with linked arms. The helpless young king consented to meet them next day at Westminster, and besought them to sup and stay the night with him, in token of goodwill. Gloucester refused, but Richard succeeded in keeping Derby and Nottingham to supper (Knighton, col. 2704 ; Derby only according to the Monk of Evesham, p. 100, and Walsingham, ii. 172). Next day (27 Dec.) they formally appealed his favourites of treason at Westminster, and Richard was forced to order their arrest (Knighton, col. 2705 ; Evesham, p. 100 ; Walsingham, ii. 172-3 ; Fœdera, vii. 566-8). As one of the five appellants Nottingham joined in the subsequent proscription of the king's friends in the Merciless parliament which met on 3 Feb. 1388 (Rot. Parl. in, 229 seq. ; Knighton, cols. 2713-26). On 10 March he was joined as marshal with Gloucester the constable to hear a suit between Matthew Gournay and Louis de Sancerre, marshal of France (Fœdera, vii. 570). In the early months of 1389 he is said to have been sent against the Scots, who were ravaging Northumberland; but, being entrusted with only five hundred lances, did not venture an encounter with the Scots, who numbered, if we may believe the chroniclers, thirty thousand (Walsingham, ii. 180; Monk of Evesham, p. 107).
When Richard shook off the tutelage of the appellants on 3 May, Nottingham was removed with the others from the privy council (Walsingham, ii. 182, and Monk of Evesham p. 109, mention only Gloucester and Warwick). But once his own master, Richard showed particular anxiety to conciliate the earl-marshal. He gave him the overdue livery of his lands, and a week after his emancipation (11 May) placed him on the commission appointed to negotiate a truce with Scotland (Ord. of Privy Council, i. 27). His great possessions in the north naturally suggested his employment in the defence of the Scottish border, as his grandfather had been employed before him. On 1 June, therefore, he was constituted warden of the east marches, captain of Berwick, and constable of Roxburgh Castle for a term of two years (Dugdale, i. 128 ; Doyle). By the middle of September both he and Derby had been restored to their places at the council board,
which a month later (15 Oct.) was the scene of a hot dispute between the king and his new chancellor, William of Wykeham, who resisted Richard's proposal to grant a large pension to Nottingham (Ord. of Privy Council, i. 11, 12). Whatever may have been Richard's real feelings towards Gloucester and Arundel at this time, it was obviously to his interest to attach the younger and less prominent appellants to himself. Nottin gham alone was continuously employed in the service of the state, and entrusted with the most responsible commands. On 28 June 1390 he was associated with the treasurer, John Gilbert, bishop of St. David's, and others to obtain redress from the Scots for recent infractions of the truce (Fœdera, vii. 678 ; Ord. of Privy Council, i. 27 ; Lowth, Life of Wykeham, p. 228). In 1391 an exchange of posts was effected between Nottingham and the Earl of Northumberland, who returned to his old office of warden of the Scottish marches, while Mowbray took the captaincy of Calais (Dugdale, i. 128 ; Walsingham, ii. 203). In November of the next year, this office was renewed to him for six years, in conjunction with that of lieutenant of the king in Calais and the parts of Picardy, Flanders, and Artois for the same term (Dugdale, i. 128). On 12 Jan. 1394 Richard recognised Nottingham's just and hereditary right to bear for his crest a golden leopard gorged with a silver label (Gloucester's crest), but substituted a crown for the label, on the ground that the latter would appertain to the king's son, if he had any (Fœdera, vii. 763 ; Beltz, p. 298; Doyle). In March 1394 Nottingham was appointed chief justice of North Wales, and two months later chief justice of Chester and Flint (ib. ; Dugdale, i. 128). Nottingham accompanied Richard to Ireland in September 1394, and on his return was commissioned, with the Earl of Rutland, son of Edmund of Langley, duke of York, and others, on 8 July, and again in October and December, to negotiate a long truce with France and a marriage for the king with Isabella, daughter of Charles VI of France (Ann. Ricardi II, p. 172; Fœdera, vii. 802). He was present at the costly wedding festivities at Calais in October 1396 (Ann. Ricardi II, p. 190). Nottingham thus closely identified himself with the French connection, which by its baneful influence upon Richard's character and policy, and its unpopularity in the country contributed more than anything else to hastening his misfortunes. In the parliament of January 1397 Richard gave Nottingham another signal proof of his favour by an express recognition of the earl-marshalship of England as hereditary in his
