The resolution was welcomed by the whole country; and Richard justified the country’s hopes by wielding his new power with singular wisdom and success.  He refused to recall De Vere or the five judges.  The intercession of John of Gaunt on his return from Spain brought about a full reconciliation with the Lords Appellant.  A truce was concluded with France, and its renewal year after year enabled the king to lighten the burthen of taxation.  Richard announced his purpose to govern by advice of Parliament; he soon restored the Lords Appellant to his Council, and committed the chief offices of state to great Churchmen like Wykeham and Arundel.  A series of statutes showed the activity of the Houses.  A Statute of Provisors which re-enacted those of Edward the Third was passed in 1390; the Statute of Praemunire, which punished the obtaining of bulls or other instruments from Rome with forfeiture, in 1393.  The lords were bridled anew by a Statute of Maintenance, which forbade their violently supporting other men’s causes in courts of justice, and giving “livery” to a host of retainers.  The Statute of Uses in 1391, which rendered illegal the devices which had been invented to frustrate that of Mortmain, showed the same resolve to deal firmly with the Church.  A reform of the staple and other mercantile enactments proved the king’s care for trade.  Throughout the legislation of these eight years we see the same tone of coolness and moderation.  Eager as he was to win the good-will of the Parliament and the Church, Richard refused to bow to the panic of the landowners or to second the persecution of the priesthood.  The demands of the Parliament that education should be denied to the sons of villeins was refused.  Lollardry as a social danger was held firmly at bay, and in 1387 the king ordered Lollard books to be seized and brought before the Council.  But the royal officers showed little zeal in aiding the bishops to seize or punish the heretical teachers.

[Sidenote:  French and English]

It was in the period of peace which was won for the country by the wisdom and decision of its young king that England listened to the voice of her first great singer.  The work of Chaucer marks the final settlement of the English tongue.  The close of the great movement towards national unity which had been going on ever since the Conquest was shown in the middle of the fourteenth century by the disuse, even amongst the nobler classes, of the French tongue.  In spite of the efforts of the grammar schools and of the strength of fashion English won its way throughout the reign of Edward the Third to its final triumph in that of his grandson.  It was ordered to be used in courts of law in 1362 “because the French tongue is much unknown,” and in the following year it was employed by the Chancellor in opening Parliament.  Bishops began to preach in English, and the English tracts of Wyclif made it once more a literary tongue.  We see the general advance