Since his return he had silently followed in his father's track.
But the counsels of John of Gaunt were hardly wiser than of old; Arundel had already denounced his influence as a hurtful one; and in the events which were now to hurry quickly on he seems to have gone hand in hand with the king.
[Sidenote: Richard's Tyranny] A new uneasiness was seen in the Parliament of 1397, and the Commons prayed for a redress of the profusion of the Court.

Richard at once seized on the opportunity for a struggle.

He declared himself grieved that his subjects should "take on themselves any ordinance or governance of the person of the King or his hostel or of any persons of estate whom he might be pleased to have in his company." The Commons were at once overawed; they owned that the cognizance of such matters belonged wholly to the king, and gave up to the Duke of Lancaster the name of the member, Sir Thomas Haxey, who had brought forward this article of their prayer.

The lords pronounced him a traitor, and his life was only saved by the fact that he was a clergyman and by the interposition of Archbishop Arundel.

The Earl of Arundel and the Duke of Gloucester at once withdrew from Court.