use was his own. Richard at this
inopportune moment took occasion to sail to Ireland. He had been there
once before in =1394= in the vain hope of protecting the English
colonists (see p. 265). His first expedition had been a miserable
failure: his second expedition was cut short by bad news from England.

[Illustration: Meeting of Henry of Lancaster and Richard II. at Flint:
from Harl. MS. 1319.]

14. =Henry of Lancaster in England. 1399.=--Lancaster, with a small
force, landed at Ravenspur, in Yorkshire, a harbour which has now
disappeared in the sea. At first he gave out that he had come merely
to demand his own inheritance. Then he alleged that he had come to
redress the wrongs of the realm. Northumberland brought the Percies to
his help. Armed men flocked to his support in crowds. The Duke of
York, who had been left behind by Richard as regent, accepted this
statement and joined him with all his forces. When Richard heard what
had happened, he sent the Earl of Salisbury from Ireland to Wales to
summon the Welshmen to his aid. The Welshmen rallied to Salisbury, but
the king was long in following, and when Richard landed they had all
dispersed. Richard found himself almost alone in Conway Castle, whilst
Lancaster had a whole kingdom at his back.

[Illustration: Henry of Lancaster claiming the throne: from Harl. MS.
1319.]

15. =The Deposition of Richard and the Enthronement of Henry IV.
1399.=--By lying promises Lancaster induced Richard to place himself
in his power at Flint. "My lord," said Lancaster to him, "I have now
come before you have sent for me. The reason is that your people
commonly say you have ruled them very rigorously for twenty or two and
twenty years; but, if it please God, I will help you to govern
better." The pretence of helping the king to govern was soon
abandoned. Richard was carried to London and thrown into the Tower. He
consented, probably not till after he had been threatened with the
fate of Edward II., to sign his abdication. On the following morning
the act of abdication was read in Parliament. The throne was empty
Then Lancaster stepped forward. "In the name," he said, "of the
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, I, Henry of Lancaster, challenge this
realm of England, and the crown with all its members and
appurtenances, as I am descended by right line of the blood coming
from the good lord King Henry the Third,[27] and through that right
God of his grace hath sent me, with help of my kin