Some pitied him when they saw him in this state, but others not, saying he had for a long time deserved death. Now consider, ye kings, lords, dukes, prelates and earls, how very changeable the fortunes of this world are. This King Richard reigned twenty-two years in great prosperity, and with much splendour; for there never was a King of England who expended such sums, by more than one hundred thousand florins, as King Richard did in keeping up his state and his household establishments. I, John Froissart, canon and treasurer of Chimay, know it well, for I witnessed and examined it, during my residence with him, for a quarter of a year. THE CHARACTER OF RICHARD II., AS DESCRIBED BY A MONK OF EVESHAM. SOURCE.--_Vita R. Ricardi II._ (ed. Hearne, 1729), 169. King Richard was of common stature. His hair was yellow, his face white, round, and effeminate, sometimes flushed; he was abrupt and stammering in his speech, capricious in his ways, since spurning the counsels of the elder nobles, he adhered rather to that of the young. In his gifts he was prodigal, in his banquets and dress splendid beyond measure, timid and unsuccessful in war against foreign enemies, ill-tempered with his domestics, arrogant, rapacious, and too much given over to luxury. He was a great lover of late hours, so that sometimes till midnight, sometimes till morning, he would remain drinking and committing other unspeakable excesses. Grievously extorting tithes and taxes, and other subsidies, from his people, throughout his reign, scarcely a year passed in which he did not have a tenth, or a fifteenth, or their halves, from Parliament. And while these grants came into his treasury, under pretext of repelling national enemies, everything was foolishly wasted upon his extravagances. However, there were two praiseworthy features to be found in him: the one, that he loved and promoted the Church of God and the persons of the clergy, especially the Black Monks; the other, that he endowed the Church of Westminster with rents to the value of 500 marks to pray for the salvation of his soul on his anniversary, although he is not buried there. May God have mercy on his soul. Amen. RICHARD THE REDELESS (1399). SOURCE.--William Langland's _Richard the Redeless_ (about 1362-1399). PROLOGUS II. 1-36.