When Prince Edward brought his prisoner, the King of France, to London, as there were no carriages then, they rode on horseback into the city. King John was well dressed, and mounted on a beautiful white horse which belonged to the prince; while Edward himself rode by his side upon a black pony to wait upon him and do anything he might want. And in that manner he went with King John to the palace belonging to the King of England called the Savoy. King John was set free when peace was made; but the French never could afford money enough to pay the English what they asked for letting him go back to his people. So the good King John came back, to keep his word of honour, and died in England. This goodness and gentleness of the Black Prince made everybody love him. And his bravery in battle, and his wisdom in governing those parts of France which his father and he had conquered, gave the English hopes that when he became king he would be as good a king as his father, and that England would be still happier. [Illustration: Edward the Black Prince waiting on John, King of France.] But the Black Prince died at the age of forty-six, just one year before his father. His good mother Philippa, had died some years before. And all the people of England grieved very much. Their good queen, their favourite prince, and their wise and brave King Edward the Third, all died while the Black Prince’s son was quite a child. And though some of the prince’s brothers were brave and clever men, the people knew, by what had happened in former times, that the country is never well ruled while the king is too young to govern for himself. CHAPTER XXVIII. RICHARD II.—1377 to 1399. How Richard the Second sent men round the country to gather the taxes; how Wat Tyler killed one of them and collected an army; how he met the King in Smithfield, and was killed by the Mayor; how King Richard behaved cruelly to his uncles; how he was forced to give up the crown to his cousin Henry of Hereford, and died at Pomfret. Richard the Second was only eleven years old when his grandfather, King Edward the Third, died. He was made king immediately. The people, who loved him for the sake of his good and brave father, the Black Prince, were very peaceable and quiet in the beginning of his reign. But his uncles, who were clever men, and wanted to be powerful, did not agree very well with one another. When Richard was about sixteen, a civil war had very nearly taken place. I will tell you how it happened.