16. Weakness of the English Colony. 1367—1377.—It takes two to make a bargain, and the Irish were not to be prevented from encroaching on the English because the English had resolved no longer to encroach upon them. The renewal of the war with France in 1369 made it impossible to send help from England, and during the latter part of the reign of Edward III. the Irish pillaged freely within the English territory, constantly winning ground from their antagonists.
Genealogy of the more important Sons of Edward III.
CHAPTER XVII.
RICHARD II. AND THE SOCIAL REVOLUTION.
1377—1381.
LEADING DATES
Reign of Richard II., 1377-1399
- Accession of Richard II 1377
- The peasants' revolt 1381
1. The First Years of Richard II. 1377—1378.—"Woe to the land," quoted Langland from Ecclesiastes, in the second edition of Piers the Plowman, "when the king is a child." Richard was but ten years of age when he was raised to the throne. The French plundered the coast, and the Scots plundered the Borders. In the presence of such dangers Lancaster and Wykeham forgot their differences, and as Lancaster was too generally distrusted to allow of his acting as regent, the council governed in the name of the young king. Lancaster, however, took the lead, and renewed the war with France with but little result beyond so great a waste of money as to stir up Parliament to claim a control over the expenditure of the Crown.