(1) As promised yesterday, I will now write a thread on the time a Chief Justice of the King's Bench dressed up as a hobo and climbed onto the roof of a pub in order to spy on parliamentary proceedings, and was later found to have occult amulets on his person.
(2) It is, in some ways, a sad story. It is also highly significant, constitutionally-speaking. My thread is a bit circuitous in getting there, but please bear with me. It all starts with the death of king Edward III in 1377 (Edw III pictured) 
(3) Edward had been on the throne for 50 years, and he'd accomplished much in that time. His son, Edward the Black Prince, unfortunately died in 1376, leaving the Black Prince's young son Richard as Edward's heir.
(4) Shortly after Richard II ascended the throne, the peasant's revolt broke out in response to a poll tax enacted by parliament. The notion that a duke should pay as much as a labourer struck the peasants as
(5) deeply unfair, heavily-taxed as they already were to pay for the war in France. At a meeting between the 14 year old king Richard and his retinue, and the rebel army, the rebel leader Wat Tyler was stabbed to death by the Lord Mayor of London, William Walworth.
(6) The rebel army were induced to lay down their arms by promises of pardons and an end to serfdom. However, shortly thereafter the king's officials and the nobility went out into the shires to suppress the peasantry with extreme violence.
(7) After being pleaded with by peasants at one town to live up to his promises to end serfdom, Richard replied; "You wretches, detestable on land and sea. You who seek equality with lords are unworthy to live. Rustics you were and rustics you will remain. For as long as we live
(8) , we will strive to suppress you. For as long as we live we will strive to suppress you. However, we will spare your lives if you remain faithful".
(9) Richard's uncle, Thomas, Duke of Gloucester, and the newly-minted Chief Justice of the King's Bench, Sir Robert Tresilian, were given special commissions to apprehend and execute suspected rebels and sent out into the shires. (pictured, Tresilian's name in King's Bench roll)
(10) Tresilian was particularly enthusiastic in discharging his commission, executing 19 by hanging, and another 12 by drawing and quartering.
(11) After the rebellion, things calmed down for a while. However, politics became increasingly fractious due to Richard II's manner of ruling. He showered lands, titles and honours on a small group of favourites (pictured, late-medieval cool dudes standing around looking cool),
(12) including his Lord Chancellor Michael de la Pole, the son of a wool merchant and financier from Hull, whom he elevated to the Earldom of Suffolk. His other favourite and, some whisper, his lover, was Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford.
(13) These favourites took the opportunity to fill their boots with gold, selling access to the king and engaging in corrupt practices. The king was living far beyond his means, both because of his own extravagence and because money stuck to the fingers of his servants
(14) and favourites. By 1385, parliament had enough. It created a commission to oversee the royal household and finances. Richard simply ignored it. The party continued
(15) At the parliament the following year, 1386, known as the Wonderful Parliament, the Earl of Suffolk requested £155,000 in taxes. The sum was unprecedented. The Commons refused and moved to impeach Suffolk from his office of Lord Chancellor. Articles including accusations of
(16) embezzlement and vice were drawn up in the House of Commons and passed by the house, thus impeaching Suffolk. They were then sent to the House of Lords, which approved the articles and convicted him. This parliament thus innovated the procedure of impeachment that is
(17) still used today in the United States congress. Parliament also demanded that he accept a commission of eleven peers and three principal officials to form a commission of government to oversee royal finances and important decisions.
(18) Richard was still contemptuous of parliament. He declared that he would not get rid of the boy who turned the spits in his kitchen if parliament asked him to. He absented himself from parliament and traveled to Eltham to sulk. Parliament sent a deputation of lords,
(19) including the king's uncle, the Duke of Gloucester. Gloucester warned the king that if he did not grow the **** up and start doing his duty, he could be deposed. The king decided to accede to parliament's demand and dismissed Suffolk as Lord Chancellor. Suffolk was
(20) imprisoned and his land grants reversed. He also accepted parliament's demand in respect of the commission. However, after parliament concluded and the MPs went home, Richard denounced the commission. He made it clear he would not accept their oversight. He even
(21) released Suffolk and invited the earl to spend Christmas with him. His lands were re-granted. The king then went on a royal progress through the country, to drum up support (pictured, more riotous high living at Richard's court)
(22) He also summoned the justices of the King's Bench and Common Pleas, including Chief Justice Sir Robert Tresilian, to his country court and procured from them a legal opinion that the commission and any attempts to constrain the actions of the king were treasonable.
(23) This raised the stakes considerably and a group of senior magnates including the king's uncle, Gloucester, Richard FitzAlan, Earl of Surrey and Thomas de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, raised an army from their retainers and tenants, to defend
(24) their position and the rights of parliament. The king also raised an army, primarily from his estates in Wales and from his extensive network of supporters in Cheshire. The army was led by the Robert de Vere, now promoted to Duke of Ireland. There may have been as many
(25) as 5000 men on each side. The armies met at Radcot Bridge in Oxfordshire. The armies drew up on either side of the river, and De Vere gave the order; chhaaaaaaarggee!
(TBC in following thread, please consider making a modest donation to my book fund gofundme.com/manage/fundrai…)
(TBC in following thread, please consider making a modest donation to my book fund gofundme.com/manage/fundrai…)
Part two of the thread commences here;
