Lord Holland's unconcern.--Richard's perplexity and
distress.--His mother's anguish.--Extraordinary marriage of the Duke
of Lancaster.--Indignation and rage of the ladies of the court.

In giving some general account of the character of Richard's reign,
and of the incidents that occurred during the course of it, we now go
back a little again, so as to begin at the beginning of it.

When Richard was married, he was, as has already been said, only about
fifteen or sixteen years of age. As he grew older, after this time,
and began to feel that sense of strength and independence which
pertains to manhood, he became more and more jealous of the power and
influence of his uncles in the government of the country. His mother,
too, who was still living, and who adhered closely to him, was very
suspicious of the uncles. She was continually imagining that they were
forming plots and conspiracies against her son in favor of themselves
or of their own children. She was particularly suspicious of the Duke
of Lancaster, and of his son Henry Bolingbroke. It proved in the end
that there was some reason for this suspicion, for this Henry
Bolingbroke was the means at last of deposing Richard from his throne
in order to take possession of it himself, as we shall see in the
sequel.

In order to prevent, as far as possible, these uncles from finding
opportunity to accomplish any of their supposed designs, Richard and
his mother excluded them, as much as they could, from power, and
appointed other persons, who had no such claims to the crown, to all
the important places about the court. This, of course, made the uncles
very angry. They called the men whom Richard thus brought forward his
favorites, and they hated them exceedingly. This state of things led
to a great many intrigues, and manoeuvres, and plots, and
counterplots, the favorites against the uncles, and the uncles against
the favorites. These difficulties were continued for many years.
Parties were formed in Parliament, of which sometimes one was in the
ascendency and sometimes the other, and all was turmoil and confusion.

When Richard was about twenty years old, one of his uncles--his uncle
Thomas, at that time Duke of Gloucester--gained such an influence in
Parliament that some of Richard's favorites were deposed from office
and imprisoned. The duke was imboldened by this success to take a
farther step. He told the Parliament that the government would never
be on a good foo