ossible to obtain from him the least sign or token that would
serve, even for form's sake, as an assent on his part to the royal
decrees. At one time Parliament appointed a commission to visit him in
his chamber, for the purpose of ascertaining the state that he was in,
and to see also whether they could not get some token from him which
they could consider as his assent to certain measures which it was
deemed important to take; but they could not get from the king any
answer or sign of any kind, notwithstanding all that they could do or
say. They retired for a time, and afterward came back again to make a
second attempt, and then, as an ancient narrative records the story,
"they moved and stirred him by all the ways and means that they could
think of to have an answer of the said matter, but they could have no
answer, word nor sign, and therefore, with sorrowful hearts, came
away."

This being the state of things, Parliament thought it time to make
some definite arrangements for the succession. Accordingly, they
passed a formal and solemn enactment declaring Richard Plantagenet
heir presumptive of the crown, and investing him with the rank and
privileges pertaining to that position. They also appointed him, for
the present, Protector and defender of the realm.

Richard, the subject of this volume, was at this time an infant two
years old. The other ten children had been born at various periods
before.

It was now, of course, expected that Henry would soon die, and that
then Richard Plantagenet would at once ascend the throne, acknowledged
by the whole realm as the sole and rightful heir. But these
expectations were suddenly disturbed, and the whole kingdom was thrown
into a state of great excitement and alarm by the news of a very
unexpected and important event which occurred at this time, namely,
the birth of a child to Margaret, the queen. This event awakened all
the latent fires of civil dissension and discord anew. The Lancastrian
party, of course, at once rallied around the infant prince, who, they
claimed, was the rightful heir to the crown. They began at once to
reconstruct and strengthen their plans, and to shape their measures
with a view to retain the kingdom in the Lancaster line. On the other
hand, the friends of the combined houses of Clarence and York declared
that they would not acknowledge the new-comer as the rightful heir.
They did not believe that he was the son of the king, for he, as they
said,