King, after a life of brilliant triumphs, carried a sad and broken
heart to the grave, and Richard II., son of the heroic Prince Edward,
was king.

[Sidenote: Richard II.,1377-1399. Wat Tyler's Rebellion 1381.]

This last of the Plantagenets had need of great strength and wisdom to
cope with the forces stirring at that time in his kingdom, and was
singularly deficient in both. The costly conquests of his grandfather,
were a troublesome legacy to his feeble grandson. Enormous taxes
unjustly levied to pay for past glories, do not improve the temper of a
people. A shifting of the burden from one class to another arrayed all
in antagonisms against each other, and finally, when the burden fell
upon the lowest order, as it is apt to do, they rose in fierce
rebellion under the leadership of Wat Tyler, a blacksmith (1381).

Concessions were granted and quiet restored, but the people had learned
a new way of throwing off injustice. There began to be a new sentiment
in the air. Men were asking why the few should dress in velvet and the
many in rags. It was the first revolt against the tyranny of wealth,
when people were heard on the streets singing the couplet

"When Adam delved and Eve span,
Who was then the gentleman?"

As in the times of the early Saxon kings, the cause breeding
destruction was the widening distance between the king and the people.
In those earlier times the people unresistingly lapsed into decadence,
but the Anglo-Saxon had learned much since then, and it was not so safe
to degrade him and trample on his rights.