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| 1377–89 |
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| Richard's minority. Marriage to Anne of Bohemia (1382); rule by the council under the domination of John of Gaunt. Activity of Parliament: insistence by the Commons on the nomination of 12 new councillors. Renewal of war in France (1383): loss of the Flanders trade, complaints at the cost by Parliament. Poll taxes (1370 and 1380); sporadic violence, growing tension in the agricultural and urban classes. | 1 |
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| 1381 |
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| Peasants' Revolt. Efforts by the landlords to revert to the old servile tenures culminated in a peasant rising, the burning of manors, the destruction of records of tenures and of game parks, the assassination of landlords and lawyers, and a march (100,000(?) men) from the south and east of England on London, led by Jack Straw, Wat Tyler, and others (release of John Ball from prison). London admitted the marchers; lawyers and officials were murdered, their houses sacked, the Savoy (John of Gaunt's palace) burned. Significant demands: commutation of servile dues, disendowment of the Church, abolition of game laws. The Tower was seized, Archbishop Sudbury (mover, as chancellor, of the poll taxes) murdered. Richard met the rebels (Mile End), issued charters of manumission, and started most of them home. After the murder of Wat Tyler, Richard cleverly took command of the remnant (possibly 30,000), deluded them with false promises, and dispersed them. Cruel reaction ensued: Richard and Parliament annulled the charters; terrible repression followed, and a deliberate effort was made to restore villeinage. This proved impossible, and serfdom continued to disappear. | 2 |
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| 1381 |
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| Passage of the first Navigation Act, followed by clear signs of growing national monopoly of commerce. | 3 |
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| 1382 |
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| Wiclif, who had alienated his upper-class supporters by a denial of transubstantiation, was discredited by the Peasants' Revolt and condemned by the Church; he withdrew to Lutterworth (1382–84), where he continued to foster Lollardy until he died (1384). His body, by order of the Council of Constance, was dug up and burned (1428). | 4 |
| Archbishop Courtenay purged Oxford of Lollardy, thus separating the movement from the cultured classes. Parliament refused to allow persecution of the Lollards. The position of the English Church was not wholly due to its own corruption nor to the paralysis of the Avignonese Captivity, but was partly a result of the increase of secular influences on learning and society. | 5 |
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| 1389–97 |
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| Richard's personal rule. Truce with France (1389), peace negotiations, marriage to Isabelle, infant daughter of Charles VI (1396). Richard was on good terms with Parliament; England prosperous and quiet. | 6 |
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| 1397–99 |
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| Richard's attempt at absolutism. Richard, furious at a parliamentary demand for financial accounting, had the mover (Haxey) condemned for treason (not executed). In the next Parliament (Commons packed for Richard; Lords friendly) three of the lords appellant were convicted and executed for treason, Richard was voted an income for life (1398), and the powers of Parliament were delegated to a committee friendly to Richard. Heavy taxation led to the conspiracy of Henry of Bolingbroke (exiled son of John of Gaunt). | 7 |
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| 1399 |
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| Bolingbroke landed while Richard was in Ireland. Richard returned, and having alienated all important groups, was forced to abdicate. He was thrown into the Tower and later died (was murdered?) in prison (1400). Parliament accepted the abdication and, returning to the ancient custom of election, made Henry king. Henry's title by heredity was faulty; his claim was based on usurpation, legalized by Parliament, and backed by public opinion. | 8 |
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| 1399–1461 |
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| The House of Lancaster. | 9 |
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| 1399–1413 |
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| HENRY IV. The reign, in view of Henry's title to the throne, was dependent on Parliament. To retain the support of the Church, Henry opposed the demand (1404) of the Commons that Church property be confiscated and applied to poor relief. | 10 |
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| 1413–22 |
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| HENRY V, whose military achievements brought England to the first rank in Europe. Bent on the revival of the Church, he led a strong attack on Lollardy: Sir John Oldcastle (Lord Cobham), the leading Lollard, was excommunicated by Archbishop Arundel but escaped; a Lollard plot against the king's life was discovered; Henry attacked (1414) and captured a Lollard group, most of whom were hanged; anti-Lollard legislation allowed seizure of their books; Oldcastle, the last influential Lollard, executed (1417). Henceforth Lollardy was a lower-class movement driven underground until the Reformation. | 11 |
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| 1415 |
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| Henry, in alliance with Burgundy, reasserted his claims to the throne of France. Relying on the anarchy in France and hoping through military successes to unite the English behind the house of Lancaster, he advanced into France. | 12 |
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| 1415, Oct. 25 |
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| Battle of Agincourt, near Arras in Flanders. | 13 |
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