War and Misrule (1307-1399). Various

A TORCHLIGHT PROCESSION (1377) .

       THE KING OF FRANCE EQUIPS A FLEET (1377) .

       CHARACTER OF EDWARD III.

       THE PEASANTS' REVOLT (1381) .

       WONDROUS AND UNHEARD-OF PRODIGIES (1381) .

       HERETICAL AND ERRONEOUS CONCLUSIONS OF WICLIF (Condemned at London , 1382) .

       THE FOLLOWERS OF THIS MASTER JOHN (1382) .

       THE PARLIAMENT OF 1384 (April , 1384) .

       THE PLOT AGAINST LANCASTER (February , 1385) .

       THE FRENCH IN SCOTLAND.

       THE DEATH OF WICLIF (1385) .

       CHARLES VI.'S FRUSTRATED INVASION OF ENGLAND (August , 1386) .

       THE STATE OF ENGLAND (1386) .

       THE WONDERFUL PARLIAMENT (October-November , 1386) .

       RICHARD APPEALS TO THE JUDGES (August , 1387) .

       DEFEAT OF THE KING'S FRIENDS (November-December , 1387) .

       THE MERCILESS PARLIAMENT (February , 1388) .

       ON THE TRUCE BETWEEN ENGLAND AND FRANCE (1394) .

       SUPPOSED PLOTS (1397) .

       RICHARD'S REVENGE (July , 1397) .

       THE "APPEAL" OF THE APPELLANTS (1397) .

       THE STATE OF IRELAND (1399) .

       THE BETRAYAL OF THE KING (August , 1399) .

       ABDICATION AND DEATH (1399) .

       THE CHARACTER OF RICHARD II., AS DESCRIBED BY A MONK OF EVESHAM.

       RICHARD THE REDELESS (1399) .

       ISABELLA OF FRANCE RETURNS TO HER OWN COUNTRY (1399) .

       APPENDIX

       A NORMAL SCHOOLBOY.

       BEGGAR'S BRATS ARE BOOK-LEARNED.

       CAUSES OF THE IMPAIRING OF OUR LANGUAGE.

INTRODUCTION

       Table of Contents

      This series of English History Source Books is intended for use with any ordinary textbook of English History. Experience has conclusively shown that such apparatus is a valuable—nay, an indispensable—adjunct to the history lesson. It is capable of two main uses: either by way of lively illustration at the close of a lesson, or by way of inference-drawing, before the textbook is read, at the beginning of the lesson. The kind of problems and exercises that may be based on the documents are legion, and are admirably illustrated in a History of England for Schools, Part I., by Keatinge and Frazer, pp. 377–381. However, we have no wish to prescribe for the teacher the manner in which he shall exercise his craft, but simply to provide him and his pupils with materials hitherto not readily accessible for school purposes. The very moderate price of the books in this series should bring them within the reach of every secondary school. Source books enable the pupil to take a more active part than hitherto in the history lesson. Here is the apparatus, the raw material: its use we leave to teacher and taught.

      Our belief is that the books may profitably be used by all grades of historical students between the standards of fourth-form boys in secondary schools and undergraduates at Universities. What differentiates students at one extreme from those at the other is not so much the kind of subject-matter dealt with, as the amount they can read into or extract from it.

      In regard to choice of subject-matter, while trying to satisfy the natural demand for certain "stock" documents of vital importance, we hope to introduce much fresh and novel matter. It is our intention that the majority of the extracts should be lively in style—that is, personal, or descriptive, or rhetorical, or even strongly partisan—and should not so much profess to give the truth as supply data for inference. We aim at the greatest possible variety, and lay under contribution letters, biographies, ballads and poems, diaries, debates, and newspaper accounts. Economics, London, municipal, and social life generally, and local history, are represented in these pages.

      The order of the extracts is strictly chronological, each being numbered, titled, and dated, and its authority given. The text is modernised, where necessary, to the extent of leaving no difficulties in reading.

      We shall be most grateful to teachers and students who may send us suggestions for improvement.

      S.E. WINBOLT.

       KENNETH BELL.

      NOTE TO THIS VOLUME

      I have to thank Sir E. Maunde Thompson and the Council of the Royal Society of Literature for permission to quote from Sir E. Maunde Thompson's translation of Adam of Usk's Chronicle. The sources used in this book are for the most part contemporary.

      A.A.L.

BILL OF ARTICLES PRESENTED TO EDWARD II

       BY THE BARONS IN THE PARLIAMENT OF 1310.

       Table of Contents

      Source.—Annales Londonienses in Chronicles of the Reigns of Edward I. and Edward II. (Rolls Series), ed. Stubbs, i. 169.

      To our lord the King