THE CHARACTER OF RICHARD II., AS DESCRIBED BY A MONK OF EVESHAM.
Source.—Vita R. Ricardi II. (ed. Hearne, 1729), 169.
King Richard was of common stature. His hair was yellow, his face white, round, and effeminate, sometimes flushed; he was abrupt and stammering in his speech, capricious in his ways, since spurning the counsels of the elder nobles, he adhered rather to that of the young. In his gifts he was prodigal, in his banquets and dress splendid beyond measure, timid and unsuccessful in war against foreign enemies, ill-tempered with his domestics, arrogant, rapacious, and too much given over to luxury. He was a great lover of late hours, so that sometimes till midnight, sometimes till morning, he would remain drinking and committing other unspeakable excesses. Grievously extorting tithes and taxes, and other subsidies, from his people, throughout his reign, scarcely a year passed in which he did not have a tenth, or a fifteenth, or their halves, from Parliament. And while these grants came into his treasury, under pretext of repelling national enemies, everything was foolishly wasted upon his extravagances.
However, there were two praiseworthy features to be found in him: the one, that he loved and promoted the Church of God and the persons of the clergy, especially the Black Monks; the other, that he endowed the Church of Westminster with rents to the value of 500 marks to pray for the salvation of his soul on his anniversary, although he is not buried there. May God have mercy on his soul. Amen.
RICHARD THE REDELESS (1399).
Source.—William Langland's Richard the Redeless (about 1362-1399).
Prologus II. 1-36.
And as I passid in my preire[102] . ther prestis[103] were at messe,
In a blessid borugh[104] . that Bristow[105] is named,
In a temple of the trinite . the toune even amyddis,[106]
That Cristis chirche is cleped[107] . amonge the comune peple,
Sodeynly ther sourdid[108] . selcouthe[109] thingis,
A grett wondir to wyse men . as it well mygth,[110]
And dowtes[111] ffor to deme[112] . ffor drede comynge after.
So sore were the sawis[113] . of bothe two sidis,
Of Richard that regned . so riche and so noble,
That whyle he werrid[114] be west . on the wilde Yrisshe,
Henrri was entrid[115] . on the est half,
Whom all the londe loued . in lengthe and in brede,
And ros with him rapely[116] . to rightyn his wronge,
Ffor he shulde hem serue . of the same after.
Thus tales me troblid . ffor they trewe were,
And amarride[117] my minde rith moche[118] . and my wittis eke:[119]
Ffor it passid[120] my parceit[121] . and my preifis[122] also,
How so wondirffull werkis . wolde haue an ende.
But in sothe whan they sembled . some dede repente,
As knowyn is in cumpas . of Cristen londis,
That rewthe[123] was, if reson . ne had reffourmed
The myssecheff and the mysserule . that men tho in endurid.[124]
I had pete[125] of his passion . that prince was of Walis,
And eke our crouned kynge . till Crist woll no lenger;
And as a lord to his liage . though I lite[126] hade,
All myn hoole herte[127] was his . while he in helthe regnid.
And ffor I wuste not witterly[128] . what shulde ffall,
Whedir God wolde geue[129] him grace . sone to amende,
To be oure gioure[130] ageyn . or graunte it another,
This made me to muse . many tyme and ofte,
For to written him a writte[131] . to wissen[132] him better,
And to meuve him of mysserewle . his mynde to reffresshe,
Ffor to preise[133] the prynce . that paradise made,
To fullfill him with ffeith . and ffortune aboue,
And not to grucchen a grott[134] . ageine godis sonde[135]
But mekely to suffre . what so him sente were.
Passus Primus.