over him, and governed him with an absolute
authority. The king set so little bounds to his affection, that he
first created his favorite marquis of Dublin, a title before unknown in
England, then duke of Ireland; and transferred to him by patent, which
was confirmed in parliament, the entire sovereignty for life of that
island.[***]

* Froissard, liv. ii. chap. 149, 150, etc., liv. iii. chap.
52. Walsing p. 316, 317.

** Froissard, liv. iii. chap. 41, 53. Walsing. p. 322,
323.

*** Cotton, p. 310, 311. Cox, Hist. of Ireland, p. 129.
Walsing, p. 324.

He gave him in marriage his cousin-german, the daughter of Ingelram de
Couci, earl of Bedford; but soon after he permitted him to repudiate
that lady, though of an unexceptionable character, and to marry a
foreigner, a Bohemian, with whom he had become enamored.[*] These public
declarations of attachment turned the attention of the whole court
towards the minion: all favors passed through his hands: access to the
king could only be obtained by his mediation: and Richard seemed to take
no pleasure in royal authority, but so far as it enabled him to load
with favors, and titles, and dignities, this object of his affections.

* Walsing. p. 228.

The jealousy of power immediately produced an animosity Between the
minion and his creatures on the one hand, and the princes of the blood
and chief nobility on the other; and the usual complaints against the
insolence of favorites were loudly echoed, and greedily received, in
every part of the kingdom. Moubray, earl of Nottingham, the mareschal,
Fitz-Alan, earl of Arundel, Piercy, earl of Northumberland, Montacute,
earl of Salisbury, Beauchamp, earl of Warwick, were all connected with
each other, and with the princes, by friendship or alliance, and still
more by their common antipathy to those who had eclipsed them in the
king's favor and confidence. No longer kept in awe by the personal
character of the prince, they scorned to submit to his ministers; and
the method which they took to redress the grievance complained of well
suited the violence of the age, and proves the desperate extremities to
which every opposition was sure to be instantly carried.

Michael de la Pole, the present chancellor, and lately created earl
of Suffolk, was the son of an eminent merchant; but had risen by his
abilities and valor during the wars of Edward III., had acquired the
friendship of that monarch, and was