hat do these base and ignoble knights attempt?" cried
John of Gaunt. "Do they think they be kings or princes of the land?" But
the movement was too strong to be stayed. Even the Duke was silenced by the
charges brought against the ministers. After a strict enquiry Latimer and
Lyons were alike thrown into prison, Alice Perrers was banished, and
several of the royal servants were driven from the Court. At this moment
the death of the Black Prince shook the power of the Parliament. But it
only heightened its resolve to secure the succession. His son, Richard of
Bordeaux, as he was called from the place of his birth, was now a child of
but ten years old; and it was known that doubts were whispered on the
legitimacy of his birth and claim. An early marriage of his mother Joan of
Kent, a granddaughter of Edward the First, with the Earl of Salisbury had
been annulled; but the Lancastrian party used this first match to throw
doubts on the validity of her subsequent union with the Black Prince and on
the right of Richard to the throne. The dread of Lancaster's ambition is
the first indication of the approach of what was from this time to grow
into the great difficulty of the realm, the question of the succession to
the Crown. From the death of Edward the Third to the death of Charles the
First no English sovereign felt himself secure from rival claimants of his
throne. As yet however the dread was a baseless one; the people were
heartily with the Prince and his child. The Duke's proposal that the
succession should be settled in case of Richard's death was rejected; and
the boy himself was brought into Parliament and acknowledged as heir of the
Crown.

[Sidenote: Wyclif and John of Gaunt]

To secure their work the Commons ended by obtaining the addition of nine
lords with William of Wykeham and two other prelates among them to the
royal Council. But the Parliament was no sooner dismissed than the Duke at
once resumed his power. His anger at the blow which had been dealt at his
projects was no doubt quickened by resentment at the sudden advance of the
Lower House. From the Commons who shrank even from giving counsel on
matters of state to the Commons who dealt with such matters as their
special business, who investigated royal accounts, who impeached royal
ministers, who dictated changes in the royal advisers, was an immense step.
But it was a step which the Duke believed could be retraced. His haughty
will flung aside all restr