Froissard, liv. ii. chap. 77. Walsing. p. 252. Knyghton,
p. 2637.

** Walsing. p. 267.

*** 5 Rich. II. cap. ult., as quoted in the Observations on
Ancient Statutes, p. 262.

**** Walsing. p. 265.

[Illustration: 1_246_richard.jpg RICHARD II. ENTRY INTO LONDON]

A youth of sixteen, (which was at this time the king's age) who had
discovered so much courage, presence of mind, and address, and had
so dexterously eluded the violence of this tumult, raised great
expectations in the nation; and it was natural to hope that he would,
in the course of his life, equal the glories which had so uniformly
attended his father and his grandfather in all their undertakings.
{1385.} But in proportion as Richard advanced in years, these hopes
vanished; and his want of capacity, at least of solid judgment, appeared
in every enterprise which he attempted. The Scots, sensible of their own
deficiency in cavalry, had applied to the regency of Charles VI.; and
John de Vienne, admiral of France, had been sent over with a body of one
thousand five hundred men at arms, to support them in their incursions
against the English. The danger was now deemed by the king's uncles
somewhat serious; and a numerous army of sixty thousand men was levied,
and they marched into Scotland with Richard himself at their head. The
Scots did not pretend to make resistance against so great a force: they
abandoned without scruple their country to be pillaged and destroyed
by the enemy: and when De Vienne expressed his surprise at this plan
of operations, they told him, that all their cattle was driven into the
forests and fastnesses; that their houses and other goods were of small
value; and that they well knew how to compensate any losses which they
might sustain in that respect, by making an incursion into England.
Accordingly, when Richard entered Scotland by Berwick and the east
coast, the Scots, to the number of thirty thousand men, attended by the
French, entered the borders of England by the west, and carrying their
ravages through Cumberland, Westmoreland, and Lancashire, collected
a rich booty, and then returned in tranquillity to their own country.
Richard, meanwhile, advanced towards Edinburgh, and destroyed in his way
all the towns and villages on each side of him: he reduced that city to
ashes: he treated in the same manner Perth, Dundee, and other places
in the low countries; but when he was advised to march towards the west