icers of state by the two Houses or the supervision of the royal
expenditure by the Commons as Infringements on the prerogative which only
the pressure of the war and the weakness of a minority had forced the Crown
to bow to. The judgement of his councillors was one with that of the king.
Vere was no mere royal favourite; he was a great noble and of ancient
lineage. Michael de la Pole was a man of large fortune and an old servant
of the Crown; he had taken part in the war for thirty years, and had been
admiral and captain of Calais. But neither were men to counsel the young
king wisely in his effort to obtain independence at once of Parliament and
of the great nobles. His first aim had been to break the pressure of the
royal house itself, and in his encounter with John of Gaunt he had proved
successful. But the departure of the Duke of Lancaster only called to the
front his brother and his son. Thomas of Woodstock, the Duke of Gloucester,
had inherited much of the lands and the influence of the old house of
Bohun. Round Henry, Earl of Derby, the son of John of Gaunt by Blanche of
Lancaster, the old Lancastrian party of constitutional opposition was once
more forming itself. The favour shown to the followers of Wyclif at the
Court threw on the side of this new opposition the bulk of the bishops and
Churchmen. Richard himself showed no sympathy with the Lollards, but the
action of her Bohemian servants shows the tendencies of his queen. Three
members of the royal Council were patrons of the Lollards, and the Earl of
Salisbury, a favourite with the king, was their avowed head. The Commons
displayed no hostility to the Lollards nor any zeal for the Church; but the
lukewarm prosecution of the war, the profuse expenditure of the Court, and
above all the manifest will of the king to free himself from Parliamentary
control, estranged the Lower House. Richard's haughty words told their own
tale. When the Parliament of 1385 called for an enquiry every year into the
royal household, the king replied he would enquire when he pleased. When it
prayed to know the names of the officers of state, he answered that he
would change them at his will.

[Sidenote: The Lords Appellant]

The burthen of such answers and of the policy they revealed fell on the
royal councillors, and the departure of John of Gaunt forced the new
opposition into vigorous action. The Parliament of 1386 called for the
removal of Suffolk. Richard replied that he woul