precedent, to our
constitutional annals. Of the five lords appellants, as they were
called, Gloucester, Derby, Nottingham, Warwick, and Arundel, the three
former, at least, have little claim to our esteem; but in every age it
is the sophism of malignant and peevish men to traduce the cause of
freedom itself, on account of the interested motives by which its
ostensible advocates have frequently been actuated. The parliament, who
had the country thoroughly with them, acted no doubt honestly, but with
an inattention to the rules of law, culpable indeed, yet from which the
most civilized of their successors, in the heat of passion and triumph,
have scarcely been exempt. Whether all with whom they dealt severely,
some of them apparently of good previous reputation, merited such
punishment, is more than, upon uncertain evidence, a modern writer can
profess to decide.[162]

Notwithstanding the death or exile of all Richard's favourites, and the
oath taken not only by parliament, but by every class of the people, to
stand by the lords appellants, we find him, after about a year, suddenly
annihilating their pretensions, and snatching the reins again without
obstruction. The secret cause of this event is among the many
obscurities that attend the history of his reign. It was conducted with
a spirit and activity which broke out two or three times in the course
of his imprudent life; but we may conjecture that he had the advantage
of disunion among his enemies. For some years after this the king's
administration was prudent. The great seal, which he took away from
archbishop Arundel, he gave to Wykeham bishop of Winchester, another
member of the reforming commission, but a man of great moderation and
political experience. Some time after he restored the seal to Arundel,
and reinstated the duke of Gloucester in the council. The duke of
Lancaster, who had been absent during the transactions of the tenth and
eleventh years of the king, in prosecution of his Castilian war, formed
a link between the parties, and seems to have maintained some share of
public favour.

[Sidenote: Greater harmony between the king and parliament.]

There was now a more apparent harmony between the court and the
parliament. It seems to have been tacitly agreed that they should not
interfere with the king's household expenses; and they gratified him in
a point where his honour had been most wounded, declaring his
prerogative to be as high and unimpaired as