Historic%20Yorkshire

THE FALL AND DEATH OF RICHARDII.
not to take his life. The peers accordinglyadvised that
he be placed in safe keepingin some fortified castle, and
preventedfrom holding the slightest communication with
his friends. It was popularlyreported that the scene of
his incarceration was Leeds Castle, Kent, or Pontefract
Castle, Yorkshire. The latter is the more probable, as
there is abundant evidence to show. It was wellinto the
nextyear (1400) thatit was deemedexpedientthat Richard
should be announced as dead, for some of those turbulent
spirits who are ever ready to raise the standard of revolt
upon never such hopeless ground, had not only raised
agitations in favour of Richard, but even assumed his
person. Therefore, the Council,professingutterignorance
as to the place and circumstanceof Richard's seclusion,
advised that if living he be placed in close confinement,
or if dead, or when he died, that his body should be
exhibited publicly, in order that the people might no
longer surround his name with the possibilities and
probabilities of reassumed regal power. Consequentlyit
was shortly afterwards annouced that Richard was dead.
The gates ofPontefract Castle were opened to permit the
egression of a procession draped in funeral black. A
hundred dark-robed mourners went before and after the
carriage in which reposed the remains of the dead
prisoner-king, and which was sumptuously covered with
the ornaments and trappings of woe, whilefour banners
bearingthe arms of St.Edward and St.George were held
aloft. The lugubrious train went south, and neared the
metropolis, where Richard had latelybeen such a humiliated
and insulted captive, when it was met by thirty
citizens, who, clad in white and bearing torches, came
out to do honour to the remains; and Henry, too, his
well-knit, if somewhat short, figure distinguishing him
from the rest by akingly dignity ofbearing,accompanied
the cortege, and bore a corner of the pall. The procession
stopped at St. Paul's, where the body remained for two
days for public exhibition. The faithlessLondoners came
in crowds to look upon the dead face of Richard, and
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