272. transit moriens. He died apparently on the way back from Ireland, in Anglesea according to Adam of Usk, who says that he was poisoned (p. 28). Walsingham says that he died of ‘pestilence’ (ii. 242): cp. Annales Henrici IV, p. 321 (Rolls Series, 28. 3).
276. Cignus: apparently the young duke of Gloucester is here meant, and it is not intended to state that he was killed by grief for the loss of his father, but that his mother died of grief for him: cp. Annales Henrici IV, p. 321.
286. dies Martis, Tuesday, Sept. 30. Richard’s renunciation was made on Sept. 29 (Rot. Parl. iii. 416 ff.).
300 ff. The demise of the crown made new writs necessary, but the same parliament met again six days later (Oct. 6).
310. verbalis ... non iudicialis. This appears to mean that the proceedings were confined to a recital of the circumstances connected with the deposition of Richard, and that no parliamentary business was done until after the coronation, which took place on the next Monday, Oct. 13.
332 ff. The threefold right is stated here by Gower in the same way as by Chaucer:
‘O conquerour of Brutes Albioun,
Which that by lyne and free eleccioun
Ben verray kyng,’ &c.
In the margin, however, Gower places the right by conquest last, and tempers the idea of it by the addition ‘sine sanguinis effusione.’ Henry’s challenge claimed the realm by descent through ‘right line of blood’ (that is, apparently, setting aside descent through females, cp. Eulog. Hist. contin. iii. 383) and by ‘that right which God of his grace hath sent me ... to recover it’ (that is, by conquest). To these was added the right conferred by parliamentary election. It is not at all necessary to suppose that he relied on the legend about Edmund Crouchback, which had been officially examined and rejected (Adam of Usk, p. 30). His reference to Henry III may have been occasioned only by the fact that he was himself of the same name, and would come to the throne as Henry IV.