of London, slew him with his dagger. At once there was a shout for vengeance. Richard rode boldly forward. 'I am your King. I will be your leader,' he said. The peasants had no complaint to bring against the boy. They believed that he would free

THE BOY-KING RICHARD FACING WAT TYLER AND THE MOB.

them from bondage, as he promised once more to do. They went peaceably home as the others had done. Riots, however, and disturbances spread through the country. At last the gentlemen took heart and attacked the peasants. The poor men had no proper arms, no order, no knowledge of war. They were slaughtered in thousands. The King

was not allowed to fulfil his promises, even if he had wished to do so.

thrust back into bondage.

The villeins were

They were called

on to fulfil their task of unpaid work for their landlords; and life seemed to them as hopeless as it had seemed before. But it was not long before better times came. The landlords found out that nothing was to be gained by making men work who did not want to work ; and gradually most of the villeins were set free. These freemen who worked willingly for pay, worked much harder than the villeins had done when they had been made to work for nothing.

2. John Wyclif. The landlords had their way, however, for a little time. They had force on their side. There was one man in England, however, who had been, for some time, trying to teach men that there is something better than force. John Wyclif was a learned priest. He began by arguing against the power of the Pope in England. The Popes had long ceased to do any good to England; and all that was known of them was, that they were always asking for English money, and trying to help their Italian friends by giving them Church offices in England. In the reigns of Edward III. and Richard II. laws

were made by the English Parliament to stop this. Wyclif argued against the Pope in this affair. Then he argued against the wealth and power of the clergy. Clergymen, he said,

ought to preach and visit the poor. Unless they did their duty they had no right to so much money. Wyclif translated the Bible; and sent out a number of men, called the 'Poor Priests,' to explain it to the people.

The great poet Chaucer, who lived at this time, is thought to have had Wyclif in his mind when he described a good priest, and told how he taught the doctrine of Christ and of His apostles, but followed it first himself. Byand-by Wyclif attacked some of the doctrines which were then believed in the Church. He found people of different kinds to support him. In the first place, there were those who learnt to believe what he taught. These people were called Lollards; from a word which means 'to sing,' just as if they had been called Psalm-singers.' In the second place, he was supported by great noblemen, who were very pleased to hear him say, that clergymen ought not to have money, unless they did their duty. What Wyclif meant was, that the clergymen ought to do their duty. What the great noblemen meant was, that they ought to take the clergymen's money away from them, without trying to make them do their duty. For some time Wyclif seemed to be prospering. But there were two things against him. Printing had not yet been invented, so that Bibles were very expensive, as each copy had to be written out; and even if poor people could have afforded to buy them, they had never been taught to read. Then again,

the great gentlemen had been frightened by the insurrection of the peasants. They had thought it a fine thing to take away the money of the clergymen because they did not do their duty, without really caring whether they did their duty or not. They had now found out, that the peasants could ask gentlemen whether they had been doing their duty, and whether they really cared for anything except for money and enjoyment. The consequence was, that they did not care to listen any longer to a man like Wyclif, and that they began to look upon him as a disturber of the peace. He was prevented from teaching at Oxford, and forced to go to his parish at Lutterworth, where he died not long after.

3. Richard II. and his Uncles. The rest of the reign of Richard II. was taken up with a long struggle for power, between the King on the one side, and his uncles, supported by some of the great nobles, on the other. Richard, when he reached manhood, showed that he could sometimes be as cool and daring, as he had been on the day when he faced Wat Tyler and his mob. 'Tell me,' he suddenly said to his uncle, the Duke of Gloucester, 'how old I am.' 'Your highness,' was the answer, 'is in your twenty-second year.' 'Then,' said the