Leave had been given to Henry of Lancaster to receive his father's inheritance on the death of John of Gaunt, in February 1399.

But an ordinance of the Continual Committee annulled this permission and Richard seized the Lancastrian estates.

Archbishop Arundel at once saw the chance of dealing blow for blow.

He hastened to Paris and pressed the Duke to return to England, telling him how all men there looked for it, "especially the Londoners, who loved him a hundred times more than they did the king." For a while Henry remained buried in thought, "leaning on a window overlooking a garden"; but Arundel's pressure at last prevailed, he made his way secretly to Britanny, and with fifteen knights set sail from Vannes.
[Sidenote: Ireland and the Pale] What had really decided him was the opportunity offered by Richard's absence from the realm.

From the opening of his reign the king's attention had been constantly drawn to his dependent lordship of Ireland.