in matters of parliament, to the time that they have
answer to their desire and request." This naturally ended in the
reappointment of the duke of York to his charge of protector. The
commons indeed were determined to bear no delay. As if ignorant of what
had been resolved in consequence of their second request, they urged it
a third time, on the next day of meeting; and received for answer that
"the king our said sovereign lord, by the advice and assent of his lords
spiritual and temporal being in this present parliament, had named and
desired the duke of York to be protector and defensor of this land." It
is worthy of notice that in these words, and indeed in effect, as
appears by the whole transaction, the house of peers assumed an
exclusive right of choosing the protector, though, in the act passed to
ratify their election, the commons' assent, as a matter of course, is
introduced. The last year's precedent was followed in the present
instance, excepting a remarkable deviation; instead of the words "during
the king's pleasure," the duke was to hold his office "until he should
be discharged of it by the lords in parliament."[444]

This extraordinary clause, and the slight allegations on which it was
thought fit to substitute a vicegerent for the reigning monarch, are
sufficient to prove, even if the common historians were silent, that
whatever passed as to this second protectorate of the duke of York was
altogether of a revolutionary complexion. In the actual circumstances of
civil blood already spilled and the king in captivity, we may justly
wonder that so much regard was shown to the regular forms and precedents
of the constitution. But the duke's natural moderation will account for
part of this, and the temper of the lords for much more. That assembly
appears for the most part to have been faithfully attached to the house
of Lancaster. The partisans of Richard were found in the commons and
among the populace. Several months elapsed after the victory of St.
Albans before an attempt was thus made to set aside a sovereign, not
labouring, so far as we know, under any more notorious infirmity than
before. It then originated in the commons, and seems to have received
but an unwilling consent from the upper house. Even in constituting the
duke of York protector over the head of Henry, whom all men despaired of
ever seeing in a state to face the dangers of such a season, the lords
did not forget the rights of his son. By