ith greedy ears every
complaint which the discontented or ambitious grandees suggested to
them.

{1397.} Glocester soon perceived the advantages which this dissolute
conduct gave him; and finding that both resentment and jealousy on the
part of his nephew still prevented him from acquiring any ascendant over
that prince, he determined to cultivate his popularity with the nation,
and to revenge himself on those who eclipsed him in favor and authority.
He seldom appeared at court or in council; he never declared his opinion
but in order to disapprove of the measures embraced by the king and
his favorites; and he courted the friendship of every man whom
disappointment or private resentment had rendered an enemy to the
administration. The long truce with France was unpopular with the
English, who breathed nothing but war against that hostile nation;
and Glocester took care to encourage all the vulgar prejudices which
prevailed on this subject. Forgetting the misfortunes which attended
the English arms during the later years of Edward, he made an invidious
comparison between the glories of that reign and the inactivity of the
present; and he lamented that Richard should have degenerated so much
from the heroic virtues by which his father and his grandfather were
distinguished. The military men were inflamed with a desire of war when
they heard him talk of the signal victories formerly obtained, and of
the easy prey which might be made of French riches by the superior valor
of the English; the populace readily embraced the same sentiments;
and all men exclaimed, that this prince, whose counsels were so much
neglected, was the true support of English honor and alone able to raise
the nation to its former power and splendor. His great abilities, his
popular manners, his princely extraction, his immense riches, his high
office of constable;[*] all these advantages, not a little assisted by
his want of court favor, gave him a mighty authority in the kingdom, and
rendered him formidable to Richard and his ministers.

Froissard,[**] a contemporary writer, and very impartial, but whose
credit is somewhat impaired by his want of exactness in material facts,
ascribes to the duke of Glocester more desperate views, and such as were
totally incompatible with the government and domestic tranquillity of
the nation. According to that historian, he proposed to his nephew,
Roger Mortimer, earl of Marche, whom Richard had declared his success