c. 1330 1337 1348–49 1351 1353 1363 1366 1367 1368–74 1376 1377–81 1377 1378 1381–85 1381 1382 1384 c. 1386 1386 1387 1388 1389 1390 c1390–95    1391–93 1392 1393 1394 1394–95 1395 c. 1395 1396 1397 1398 1399 1400 c. 1400 1401 1402 1403 1403–09 1404 1405 1407–09 1407 1408 1409 1410 1411 1413 1414 1415

Birth of Langland Earliest English sumptuary law (restricted clothing according to class) Hundred Years’ War begins Great Plague First Statute of Provisors (allowing English crown patronage in ecclesiastical preferment) First Statute of Praemunire (antipapal legislation) Sumptuary laws restricting clothing and food according to specific estates Birth of Henry Bolingbroke, Earl of Derby, later Henry IV Birth of Richard of Bordeaux, later Richard II (reigned 1377–99) Piers Plowman A-text Death of Edward, the Black Prince, Richard of Bordeaux’s father (8 June) Good Parliament at Westminster (Commons, with Peter de la Mare as spokesman, draft 146 articles of complaint against the king’s councillors, including the chamberlain, Lord Latimer, who is executed) Piers Plowman B-text Death of Edward III Richard crowned king in July Great Schism, with rival popes in Rome and Avignon Piers Plowman C-text Great Rising (Peasants’ Revolt) William Courtenay, Archbishop of Canterbury, and a London Council condemn twenty-four of Wyclif’s propositions (ten as heretical and fourteen as erroneous) Statute against Itinerant Preachers Death of Wyclif Death of Langland Robert de Vere, Richard’s favorite, Earl of Oxford and Marquis of Dublin (1385), created Duke of Ireland Wonderful Parliament: Duke of Gloucester challenges Richard’s “evil ministers”; succeeds in ousting the chancellor, Michael de la Pole, and others from office. A commission is established to reform (and in effect to rule) the government De Vere abandons his royal wife, Philippa de Coucy, for a Bohemian lady in waiting, outraging the dukes of Gloucester and Lancaster Lords Appellant, led by Henry Bolingbroke and including the Duke of Gloucester, challenge the Earl of Oxford at Radcot Bridge; Richard II takes refuge in the Tower of London Merciless Parliament (Westminster; February): Robert Tresilian, Chief Justice of the King’s Bench, Nicholas Brembre, former Mayor of London, and Thomas Usk executed, along with four chamber knights, including Simon Burley, Richard’s tutor Battle of Otterburn or Chevy Chase (Scots defeat the English): 5 August Third Statute of Laborers in Cambridge Parliament, September (concerned with vagrancy) Richard II comes into his majority; rules in his own right Statute of Livery and Maintenance (forbids retaining private armies and identifying badges) Statute of Provisors (reiterating and expanding 1351 statute) Chaucer’s ecclesiastical satires written (The Friar’s & Summoner’s Tales) Jack Upland William Woodford’s reply to Jack Upland (Responsiones ad quaestiones LXV) Trial of Walter Brut, Lollard sympathizer, before Bishop Trefnant. In 1393 Brut is executed Richard II’s quarrel with Londoners (moves Exchequer, Common Bench, and Chancery to York) Great Statue of Praemunire (asserts king’s right to bestow benefices in England) Rising in Cheshire Hilary Parliament (quarrel between Lancaster and Arundel about Cheshire rising) Death of Queen Anne Richard II’s first expedition to Ireland Twelve Conclusions of the Lollards (Lollard Manifesto) affixed to doors of Westminster and St. Paul’s Cheshire yeomen and archers enlisted as King Richard’s household troops; given badges with emblem of the White Hart Piers the Plowman’s Crede Richard II marries Isabella of France, age 7 Death of Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, while imprisoned at Calais, in the custody of Thomas Mowbray, Earl of Nottingham Westminster Parliament. John Bushy appointed as speaker of the Commons. Four points of treason determined. Arrest and execution of Richard FitzAlan, Earl of Arundel; banishment of Thomas Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick. At Richard’s instigation, this Parliament created what Walsingham called the “duketti” (the “little dukes”), including the Earl of Derby (to Duke of Hereford); the Earl of Rutland (to Duke of Aumale); the Earl of Huntingdon (to Duke of Exeter); and the Earl of Nottingham (to Duke of Norfolk). Thomas Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury, impeached and exiled Shrewsbury Parliament (accedes to king’s wishes especially as regards burdensome taxation) King Richard interrupts judicial duel at Coventry: Henry of Hereford (“Bolingbroke”), versus Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk; Bolingbroke banished for ten years (later commuted to six) Death of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster (3 February) Henry of Hereford’s banishment extended to life; Lancastrian estates confiscated Richard II’s second Irish expedition, leaving the Duke of York as regent Henry of Hereford returns from banishment in Paris together with the exiled former Archbishop, Thomas Arundel (early July). Hereford moves quickly through England to Berkeley Castle, where he forced York to yield, and then marched to Bristol, executing Sir John Bushy and Sir Henry Green, two of Richard’s ministers Deposition of Richard II by decree of parliamentary elements: lords spiritual and temporal (29 and 30 Sept.); accession of Henry of Lancaster as Henry IV; beginning of Lancastrian rule Richard II moved in secret from the Tower to Leeds Castle and then Pontefract (October) John Gower attaches the Tripartite Chronicle to Vox clamantis Death of Richard II (February) Death of Geoffrey Chaucer (25 October) Richard the Redeless The Plowman’s Tale (Chaucerian apocrypha) There Is a Busch That is Forgrowe (On King Richard’s ministers) Hilary Parliament (10 January–10 March) that paralleled Arundel’s drafting of legislation on heresy (De haeretico comburendo) that sanctioned the burning of heretics William Sawtry, Lollard, burned at Smithfield for heresy Battle of Homildon Hill: Henry Hotspur defeats the Scots Rumors circulate — spread in part by friars — that Richard II is still alive; friars hanged on Tyburn for the treasonous report Henry IV marries Joan of Brittany (February) Battle of Shrewsbury (Henry IV and loyalist forces defeat the Percies; Hotspur killed) Mum and the Sothsegger Parliament levies taxes of two tenths and two fifteenths because of rebellions and for defense and maintenance of the realm; parliament also refuses to subsidize aliens in Henry’s and Joan’s households Revolt of Northumberland Percies fails; Archbishop Scrope executed Archbishop Arundel’s Constitutions (regulations drafted with Lollardy and the suppression of Oxford University in mind) Arundel’s examination of William Thorpe, heretic Death of John Gower Archbishop Arundel’s Constitutions promulgated Burning of John Badby, Lollard heretic (5 March) Oxford board releases list of 267 heresies at the University; Oxford University compelled to submit to authority and discipline of Arundel Death of Henry IV; accession of Henry V Failure of Oldcastle Rising Battle of Agincourt (English defeat French)