gether too young to exercise any real
control in respect to the government of the country. Every thing was,
consequently, left to the Parliament and the nobles. His uncles
endeavored to assume the general direction of affairs, but there was
nevertheless a strong party against them. There were no means of
deciding these disputes except by the votes in Parliament, and these
votes went one way and the other, as one party or the other, for the
time being, gained the ascendency. Every one watched very closely the
conduct of Richard's uncle John. He was the next oldest son of Edward
the Third, after Edward, the Prince of Wales, Richard's father. Of
course, if Richard were to die, he would become king; and if he
himself were to die before Richard did, and then Richard were to die
before he grew up and had children of his own, then his son, Richard's
cousin, Henry Bolingbroke, would be entitled to claim the kingdom.
Thus, while Richard remained unmarried and without heirs, this Henry
Bolingbroke was in the direct line of succession, and, of course, next
to Richard himself, he was, perhaps, the most important personage in
the kingdom. There was, it is true, another child, the grandchild of
an older uncle of Richard's, named Lionel; but he was very young at
this time, and he died not long afterward, leaving Henry Bolingbroke
the only heir.

It is curious enough that, a year or two after this, the French king
died, and was succeeded by his son, a boy of about twelve years of
age. This boy was Charles the Sixth. He was crowned in France with
ceremonies still more splendid and imposing in some respects than
those which had been observed in London on the occasion of Richard's
coronation. Thus the hopes and fears of all the millions of people
inhabiting France and England respectively, in regard to the
succession of the crown and the government of the country, were
concentrated in three boys not yet in their teens.

Of course, Richard and his cousin Henry Bolingbroke were rivals from
the beginning. Richard and his friends were jealous and suspicious of
Henry and of his father, and were always imagining that they were
wishing that Richard might die, in order that they might come into his
place. Thus there was no cordial friendship in the family, nor could
there be any. Of the other nobles and barons, some took sides in one
way and some in the other. The boys themselves, both Richard and
Henry, were too young to know much about these