Since Wycliffe was, above all things, the enemy of the political clergy
of high estate, and since those clergy were precisely the leaders of the
attack upon John of Gaunt, it came to pass that hatred of a common foe
drew the duke and the doctor together for a space. There was a strange
alliance between the advocate of clerical reform, and the practical
exponent of secular misgovernment. The only point on which they were
agreed was that it would be highly desirable to strip the Church of most
of her endowments, in order to fill the exchequer of the state.
Lancaster hoped to use Wycliffe as his mouthpiece against his enemies;
Wycliffe hoped to see Lancaster disendowing bishops and monasteries and
defying the pope. Hence the attempt of the political bishops to get
Wycliffe condemned as a heretic became inextricably mixed with the
attempt of the constitutional party, to which the bishops belonged, to
evict the duke from his position of first councillor to the king and
director of the policy of the realm.
The "Good Parliament."
Overthrow of the king's favourites.
Constitutional reforms.
The struggle began in the parliament of 1376, called by the
anti-Lancastrian party the "Good Parliament." Headed by the earl of
March, William Courtenay, bishop of London, and Sir Peter de la Mare,
the daring speaker of the House of Commons, the duke's enemies began
their campaign by accusing the king's ministers and favourites of
corruption. Here they were on safe ground, for the misdeeds of Lord
Latimer--the king's chamberlain, Lord Neville--his steward, Richard
Lyons--his financial agent, and Alice Perrers--his greedy and shameless
mistress, had been so flagrant that it was hard for Lancaster to defend
them. In face of the evidence brought forward the old king and his son
had to abandon their friends to the angry parliament. Latimer and Lyons
were condemned to imprisonment and forfeiture of their goods, Alice
Perrers was banished from court. Encouraged by this victory, the
parliament passed on to constitutional reforms, forced on the king a
council of twelve peers nominated by themselves, who were to exercise
over him much the same control that the lords ordainers had held over
his father, and compelled him to assent to a long list of petitions
which, if properly carried out, would have removed most of the practical
grievances of the nation. Having so done they dispersed, not guessing
that Lancaster had yielded so easily because he was set on undoing their
work the moment that they were gone.
John of Gaunt re-establishes the royal power.
Death of the Black Prince.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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