family known as the House of Lancaster, because he inherited the duchy of Lancaster from his father, John of Gaunt. Since the accession of Henry III., the custom had established itself, of placing on the throne the eldest son of the last king, or, if he died

in his father's lifetime, as the Black Prince had done, the eldest son of the eldest son. Still, though the habit of choosing any one who was thought fit out of the royal family had gone out, Englishmen did not consider that the government of a country was to be

looked on as belonging to a king, in the same way that a house or a field belonged to a man. They dethroned Edward II. and Richard II. because they governed badly. When Edward II. was dethroned, they put his eldest son in his place. Richard II. had no children. There was, however, an heir to the crown, nearer than Henry, by right of birth, in Roger Mortimer, Earl of March, who was the grandson of Lionel, Duke of Clarence, a son of Edward III., older than John of Gaunt. Henry IV. therefore reigned not by right of birth, but because parliament had allowed him to take the throne, very much as John had reigned. For this reason he was obliged to act more according to the wishes of parliament than the kings before him had done, because, if he did not, parliament might dethrone him as it had dethroned Richard. In many ways this was a good thing. The king could no longer do as he pleased, as Richard had done, and could not take away men's money or lands or banish them without trial. But parliaments are made of men, and three or four hundred men can do things as wicked and evil as one man can.

2. Law made for the Burning of Heretics.-At this time the men who made up the parliament were still frightened lest there should be another rebellion of the peasants. The Lollards were still preaching against the doctrines believed by the church, and those who disbelieved the doctrines of the church were usually the same men who would have tried to free the serfs from working for the landlords without being paid for their labours, and who would have liked to do as much harm to the landlords as they could.

Parliament, therefore, determined to try and put down the heretics-as those were called who taught a belief which was different from that of the churchpartly because they thought that heresy was doing harm, and partly because they were afraid lest the heretics should want to take away the property of the gentlemen. For the first time in English history, a law was made directing that heretics should be burnt alive. The bishops and all religious persons were convinced that any one who believed what was false in religion would suffer everlasting torments, even if he made a mistake honestly, and they therefore thought that they were doing a charitable thing in burning those who taught others to believe that which would bring such frightful consequences upon them.

3. Rebellion against Henry IV.-Henry's reign was a troubled one. The great nobles who had done much to place him on the throne were not ready to obey him, and he had to be always ready to fight in order to keep them down. One great house, that of the Percies, was particularly dangerous to him. The head of that house was the Earl of Northumberland. His lands were on the borders which separate England from Scotland. It was his business to see that no Scottish army and no Scottish band of robbers crossed the Tweed, to burn English houses and to kill English men. It was therefore necessary that he should have many armed men under his command, and it was easy to employ these armed men against the king. He made friendship with the Scots, and some of that nation, together with Owen Glendower, a powerful man in Wales, joined him in

a rebellion. A great battle was fought at Shrewsbury, where Northumberland was defeated, and his son Harry Hotspur was killed. Henry had not come to an end of his difficulties. Enemy after enemy opposed him, and he died a sad and wornout man, after a reign of fourteen years.

KING RICHARD II. KNIGHTING HENRY OF MONMOUTH IN
IRELAND, 1399.

4. Henry of Monmouth, Prince of Wales.-His son, Henry of Monmouth, had been knighted by Richard II. before his father became king. He had fought bravely at the battle of Shrewsbury. He was full of frolic, and there are stories about his wild conduct

when he was amusing himself. It is said that he once threatened a judge named Gascoigne, and that Gascoigne sent him to prison. The story used to be believed that, when Henry became king, he praised Gascoigne for doing justice, though he had himself

JUDGE GASCOIGNE.

been the sufferer. As however he really dismissed Gascoigne as soon as his father died, it is to be feared that he did not behave as well as has been supposed.

5. Henry V. makes War upon France.-The new king, Henry V., resolved to free himself from these