lt of Limoges, notwithstanding his former kindness to
its people, that he caused three thousand of her citizens to be put to
the sword.

The Black Prince fought no more, but after six years of illness died,
in 1376, with a good record for courage and statecraft. His father, the
king, survived him only a year, expiring in the sixty-fifth year of his
age, 1377.

English literature was encouraged during his reign, and John Wickliffe,
Gower, Chaucer, and other men whose genius greatly outstripped their
orthography were seen to flourish some.

[Illustration: A STRIKING ILLUSTRATION OF WAT TYLER'S CONTROVERSY WITH
THE TAX RECEIVER.]

Edward III. was succeeded by his grandson, Richard, and war with France
was maintained, though Charles the Wise held his own, with the aid of
the Scotch under Robert II., the first of the Stuarts.

A heavy war-tax was levied _per capita_ at the rate of three groats on
male and female above the age of fifteen, and those who know the value
of a groat will admit that it was too much. A damsel named Tyler,
daughter of Wat the Tyler, was so badly treated by the assessor that her
father struck the officer dead with his hammer, in 1381, and placed
himself at the head of a revolt, numbering one hundred thousand people,
who collected on Blackheath. Jack Straw and Rev. John Ball also aided in
the convention. The latter objected to the gentlemen on general
principles, claiming that Adam was no gentleman, and that Eve had still
less claim in that direction.[A]

[Footnote A: Rev. John Ball chose as a war-cry and transparency these
words:

"When Adam delved and Eve span,
Where was then the gentleman?"

Those who have tried it in modern times say that to be a gentleman is no
sinecure, and the well-bred author falls in with this sentiment, though
still regarding it as a great boon.--HISTORIAN.]

In this outbreak, and during the same year, the rebels broke into the
city of London, burned the palaces, plundered the warehouses, and killed
off the gentlemen wherever an _alibi_ could not be established, winding
up with the murder of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

During a conference with Tyler, the king was so rudely addressed by Wat,
that Walworth, mayor of London, struck the rebel with his sword, and
others despatched him before he knew exactly Wat was Wat.

Richard, to quiet this storm, acceded to the rebel demands until he
could get his forces together, when he ignored his promises in a right
r