hand, and placed his own upon his throat. Don Henry immediately sprang upon his legs, and unsheathing his own dagger, drove it to his opponent's heart.*

"Ha!" said Pedro, "then the prophecy of the Starry Tower was true, and so was that of the villain whom I devoted to the flames. Henry," he added, fixing his eyes upon the Prince, while a bitter smile played upon his lips, "with my latest breath, take my

The malediction which he would have uttered was suspended by the death-rattle in his throat, and his head sunk lifeless upon the ground. Still the fierce and bitter smile lived upon his dead lip, and in his eye the cold, stern expression of hatred triumphed even over the glassy glare of mortality.

"He died, as he had lived," said Don Henry, "pitiless, and without remorse. And now are thy sufferings avenged, Castile; and your deaths, my beloved and noble-hearted brothers; and thy injuries also, thy ill-deserved injuries, sweet Blanche of Bourbon! Rest now, rest in peace, perturbed spirits, for the triumph of the just has arrived, and honour, valour, and beauty may find protection even in Castile."

The events of that day, fearful and bloody as they were, had no sooner become generally known than they were hailed with rapture throughout the whole kingdom. Don Henry mounted the throne .amidst universal acclamations. The neighbouring princes courted his alliance. He swayed the Castilian sceptre with honour to himself and advantage to the nation, and at his death transmitted it to his posterity.

* Mariana. Froissart.

HISTORICAL SUMMARY.

RICHARD THE SECOND.

1377.-ON the death of Edward, his grandson Richard was crowned without any opposition, though only eleven years of age. His three uncles, the Dukes of Lancaster, York, and Gloucester, were appointed regents.

The House of Commons, which was now growing into great consequence, for the first time chose a speaker, Peter de la Mare.

1378. The war was carried on between England and France, but in a very languid manner, when Charles V. died and was succeeded by his son Charles VI., a minor.

1381. To assist the Government to carry on the war with France, the Parliament ordered a poll tax, which led to the rebellion of Wat Tyler, Jack Straw, and others, who marched to London at the head of 100,000 men. The King held a conference with Tyler in Smithfield, where the latter was put to death by Walworth, the Mayor of London, upon which his followers submitted to the King.

The King married Anne of Luxembourg, daughter of the Emperor Wenceslaus.

1385.-The Scots, having no cavalry, applied to the regency of France, who sent over John de Vienne with 1500 men; about the same time an army of 60,000 men, with Richard and the Duke of Lancaster at their head, entered Scotland by Berwick. The Scots, leaving their country to be pillaged, entered England by Carlisle, and committed horrid devastations in Cumberland and Westmorland; but Richard, instead of waiting for the enemy on the west borders, returned to England, to his pleasures and amusements.

1386.-The Duke of Lancaster, having some pretensions to the kingdom of Castile by marriage, carried over the flower of the English army to Spain. Great discontents arose in England, amongst the nobles headed by the Duke of Gloucester, against Richard, on account of his unbounded affection for the Oxford, whom he created Duke of Ireland, and whom he allowed to ingdom as he pleased. Richard retired to Eltham; but the Parim a message, saying, that if he did not return and consent to the

banishment of his favourites, they would proceed to choose another King. He then banished his favourites, but soon afterwards recalled them.

1387.—The favourites stirred up the King to revenge; on which the Duke of Gloucester and other lords took to arms. The Duke of Ireland fled to Cheshire, and raised some forces, with which he was marching to London to the relief of the King, but was encountered in Oxfordshire by Gloucester and totally defeated. He fled into the Low Countries, where he died in exile a few years after; his papers, being taken, exposed the King's pernicious designs. A Parliament was assembled, by which several of the King's ministers were sentenced to be hanged at Tyburn, and others banished. To restore peace entirely, the King was persuaded to issue a general pardon.

1389.-The Duke of Lancaster, having sold all right to the crown of Castile, returned to England.

Richard took the reins of Government into his own hands, and changed the ministry. He made William of Wickham, Bishop of Winchester, his Chancellor.

1392.-The Scots made an irruption into England, when a battle was fought near Otterbourne, in which the son of the Earl of Northumberland was taken prisoner, and Douglas, the leader of the Scots, was killed.

1394.-The Queen died; she was a great favourer of the followers of Wickliffe, or Lollards. This sect had been founded for some time, and was gaining ground very fast.

1396.--The English and French courts concluded a truce for twenty-eight years; and to render the amity between the two crowns more durable, Richard was affianced to Isabella, Charles the Sixth's daughter, though she was only seven years of age. Richard went over to Ireland to quell a rebellion that had broken out there, and to revenge the death of the Earl of March, who had been slain; he had been declared presumptive heir to the crown, as Richard had no children.

1398.-The Duke of Lancaster died, and his son the Earl of Derby, who had been created Duke of Hereford, and was suffering banishment on account of a quarrel between him and the Duke of Norfolk, succeeded him. Taking advantage of the King's absence in Ireland, he landed in England, at Ravenspur in Yorkshire, with several nobles, pretending that he only wished to be reinstated in his possessions as Duke of Lancaster. Richard, arriving from Ireland, found that almost the whole nation had joined Henry of Lancaster, for the purpose of making him King. Even the very army which Richard brought from Ireland deserted him. He retired to the Isle of Anglesea, to embark either for Ireland or France; but the Earl of Northumberland got possession of his person, and carried him to Henry, at Flint Castle. Henry immediately con

ducted him to London, where a Parliament was assembled, which formally deposed Richard as unworthy to reign. One of the acts alleged against him, was the seizing his uncle, the Duke of Gloucester, sending him over to Calais, and there having him privately murdered.

Henry laid claim to the Crown as being descended by his mother from Edmund Earl of Lancaster, the pretended elder brother of Edward I., but who had been set aside on account of some deformity in his person.

The Parliament, having been gained over by Henry, would not examine his pretensions too narrowly; and on the 10th of September, 1399, they declared him King of England and France.

1400. Richard died in Pomfret Castle. Some historians affirm that he was starved to death; others, that he was assassinated.

AT

Black Prince over the French and Castilian army, commanded by Bertrand du Guesclin and the Count of Trastamare, the English performed acts of romantic heroism, which, although less generally known than those by which they distingusihed themselves