The Accusation of the Five

1388: The Duke of Gloucester and his party became aware that the king was plotting against them and decided to strike first.

They armed themselves and confronted Richard in London. They sent four messengers to the king: the archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Lovel, Lord Cobham, and Lord Devereux. Through these messengers they demanded that the king should deliver up to them "the persons who had seduced him by their pernicious counsel."

A few days later, they accused the following men of being enemies of the state:

1. The archbishop of York
2. The duke of Ireland
3. The earl of Suffolk
4. Sir Robert Tresilian
5. Sir Nicholos Brembre

The duke of Ireland raised forces and tried to oppose the Duke and his party, but was defeated. The duke of Gloucester then appeared with 40,000 men and compelled Richard to summon a parliament. This provided Gloucester and his party with an opportunity, as Hume puts it, "by observing a few legal forms, to take vengeance on all their enemies."

Five men came forward in parliament to bring accusations against the five counsellors:

1. The duke of Gloucester
2. The earl of Derby
3. The earl of Arundel
4. The earl of Warwic
5. The earl of Nottingham.

The proceedings, says Hume, "were well suited to the violence and iniquity of the times." Brembre, the only one of the accused who was in custody, was sentenced to death after only the appearance of a trial in the house of lords (whom, says Hume, were not by law his proper judges).

He was executed along with Tresilian, who had been apprehended in the meantime.

Hume sees these men as being not guilty of any of the accusations against them, but rather as being men who faithfully defended their king first against the unlawful commission established by Gloucester and his party and then against the detention of the king against his will. To Hume, the actions of the accusers and the judges in parliament were "without any regard to reason, justice, or humanity."

(Hume says that "the royal prerogative was invaded by the commission." You can see why Americans didn't especially like Hume's version of the English history, as I think Forrest McDonald points out.)