rt. In =1377= a new Parliament,
elected under Lancaster's influence, reversed all the proceedings of
the Good Parliament, and showed how little sympathy the baronial party
had with the people by imposing a poll tax of 4_d._ a head on all
except beggars, thus making the payment of a labourer and a duke
equal. The bishops, unable to strike at Lancaster, struck at Wycliffe,
as his creature. Wycliffe was summoned to appear before an
ecclesiastical court at St. Paul's, presided over by Courtenay, the
Bishop of London. He came supported by Lancaster and a troop of
Lancaster's followers. Hot words were exchanged between them and the
Bishop. The London crowd took their Bishop's part and the Duke was
compelled to flee for his life. In the summer of =1377= Edward III.
died, deserted by everyone, Alice Perrers making off, after robbing
him of his finger-rings.

[Illustration: Figures of Edward, the Black Prince, and Lionel, Duke
of Clarence, from the tomb of Edward III.; illustrating the ordinary
costume of gentlemen at the end of the fourteenth century.]

14. =Ireland from the Reign of John to that of Edward II.=--When
England was gradually losing its hold on France, what hold it had had
on Ireland was gradually slipping away. Henry II. had been quite
unable to effect in Ireland the kind of conquest which William the
Conqueror had effected in England. William had succeeded because he
had been able to secure order by placing himself at the head of the
conquered nation. In Ireland, in the first place, the king was a
perpetual absentee; and, in the second place, there was no Irish
national organisation at the head of which he could have placed
himself, even if he had from time to time visited the island. There
were separate tribes, each one attached to its own chief and to its
own laws and customs. They were unable to drive out their feudal
conquerors; but in the outlying parts of the country, they were able
to absorb them, just as the English in their own country absorbed
their Norman conquerors. The difference was that in England the
conquerors were absorbed into a nation: in Ireland they were absorbed
into the several tribes. The few who retained the English laws and
habits were, for the most part, confined to the part of Ireland in the
neighbourhood of Dublin, which was specially accessible to English
influences. In =1315= Edward Bruce, the brother of Robert Bruce,
invaded Ireland, and, though he was ultimately defeated and sl