The first and most considerable is the revenge which he took on the princes and great barons who had formerly usurped, and still persevered in controlling and threatening his authority; the second is the violation of the laws and general privileges of his people.

But the former, however irregular in many of its circumstances, was fully supported by authority of parliament, and was but a copy of the violence which the princes and barons themselves, during their former triumph, had exercised against him and his party.
The detention of Lancaster's estate was, properly speaking a revocation, by parliamentary authority, of a grace which the King himself had formerly granted him.

The murder of Glocester (for the secret execution, however merited, of that prince certainly deserves this appellation) was a private deed formed not any precedent, and implied not any usurped or arbitrary power of the crown which could justly give umbrage to the people.

It really proceeded from a defect of power in the king, rather than from his ambition; and proves that, instead of being dangerous to the constitution, he possessed not even the authority necessary for the execution of the laws.
* Knyghton, p.2744.Otterborne, p.

212.
** Tyrrel, vol.iii.part ii.p.1008, from the records, Knyghton, p, 2746.