Up
until
Richard's
marriage
in
January
1382
it
had
seemed
that
he might
eventually
make
a
more
than
passable
king;
from
that
time forward
it
rapidly
became
clear
that
he
would
be
nothing
of
the kind.
Already
he
was
showing
signs
of
a
quite
alarming
arrogance, self-indulgence
and
irresponsibility;
any
attempt
to
remonstrate
with him
threw
him
into
a
towering
rage,
provoking
streams
of
insults
and abuse
that
did
little
to
increase
the
dignity
which
he
was
always
so anxious
to
preserve.
Thus
on
the
death
in
December
1381
of
Edmund Mortimer,
Earl
of
March,
who
left
as
his
heir
a
seven-year-old
child, the
King
ordered
his
immense
estates
made
over
to
members
of
his own
household;
and
this
was
no
isolated
instance.
Such
was
his
insensate generosity
to
his
favourites
that
he
was
obliged
to
borrow
vast
sums
from
all
who
would
lend.
Some
of
the
crown
jewels
were
transferred to
Sir
Robert
Knollys
as
security
for
a
loan
of
£2,779;
soon
afterwards, the
crown
itself
was
pledged
to
the
City
of
London
for
a
further
,£2,000. When
Richard
Scrope,
the
Chancellor,
attempted
to
put
a
brake
on these
borrowings,
Richard
dismissed
him
from
office
—
summarily and
quite
unconstitutionally,
the
Chancellorship
being
a
parliamentary appointment
rather
than
a
royal
one.
When
Archbishop
William
Cour-tenay
-
who
had
been
raised
in
1381
to
the
see
of
Canterbury
—
was bold
enough
to
question
the
King's
choice
of
counsellors,
Richard drew
his
sword
and
threatened
to
pierce
him
through
the
heart.
Both
these
incidents
clearly
indicate
the
King's
greatest
weakness
of all:
his
blind
devotion
to
his
favourites.
Whether
or
not
we
are
to believe
the
chronicler
Thomas
Walsingham's
assertions
that
they
were knights
'of
Venus
rather
than
Bellona'
and
that
they
taught
the
King effeminate
habits,
discouraging
him
from
hunting,
hawking
and
other manly
sports,
there
can
be
no
question
that
they
were
frivolous,
rapacious and
empty-headed,
leading
lives
exclusively
devoted
to
pleasure
and their
own
gain.
Chief
among
them
at
first
was
Thomas
Mowbray,
who in
1383
had
inherited
the
earldom
of
Nottingham.
A
year
older
than his
master,
he
seems
to
have
been
a
pleasant
enough
young
man,
though without
any
particular
ability.
Richard
soon
tired
of
him,
and
the
bonds between
them
were
finally
broken
in
1385
when
Mowbray
married the
daughter
of
the
King's
detested
guardian,
Richard,
Earl
of
Arundel. He
certainly
possessed
little
of
the
charm
of
his
successor
in
Richard's affections,
Robert
de
Vere,
ninth
Earl
of
Oxford.
De
Vere
was
a
distant relative
of
the
King,
several
years
his
senior,
and
married
to
Richard's first
cousin
Philippa
de
Coucy,
granddaughter
of
Edward
III
-
a
fact which
did
not
prevent
him
from
carrying
on
a
flagrant
affair
with
one of
the
Queen's
Bohemian
ladies,
Agnes
Landskron.
This
alone
should have
done
much
to
discredit
the
allegations
of
homosexuality
between himself
and
the
King
that
are
made
by
more
than
one
contemporary chronicler;
it
was
plain
to
all
who
knew
the
two
men
that
their
tastes did
not
lie
in
this
particular
direction.
Nevertheless,
Richard's
effusive displays
of
affection
and
the
readiness
with
which
Oxford
accepted his
presents
of
money,
land
and
tides
would
certainly
have
awoken Gavestonian
memories
if
any
of
the
King's
subjects
had
been
old
enough to
harbour
them.
It
should
be
emphasized
that
neither
Mowbray,
de
Vere
-
despite his
post
as
hereditary
Chamberlain
of
England
-
nor
any
other
of
the King's
favourites
wielded
any
real
authority.
This,
at
the
time
of
which we
are
speaking,
was
principally
in
the
hands
of
the
Chancellor,
Michael de
la
Pole,
Earl
of
Suffolk;
but
there
was
another
very
real
power
behind the
throne
in
the
person
of
the
Vice-Chamberlain,
Richard's
old guardian
and
tutor
Sir
Simon
Burley,
now
one
of
the
richest
men
in the
kingdom.
Burley's
influence
on
the
King
was
exercised
not
only directly
but
also
through
Joan
of
Kent
and,
after
her
death,
through
the young
Queen,
whom
he
had
personally
brought
from
Bohemia;
both these
ladies
trusted
him
absolutely,
and
Richard
himself
treated
him
with a
respect
that
he
showed
towards
no
other
member
of
his
government.