In the autumn of 1387, reacting to the increasing influence of certain courtiers on King Richard II, a coalition of magnates known as the Appellants formally accused five of Richard’s favourites of treason. Finding himself deprived of the support of much of his constituency, Richard acceded to a parliamentary hearing against the accused and, on 3 February 1388, parliament convened in the White Chamber at Westminster to decide the fate of several of Richard II’s most prominent supporters. As parliament began, the Lords Appellant entered the hall arm in arm, each wearing robes of gold cloth, and together genuflected to the king. The hall of parliament was filled with the great mass of spectators, but the accused were nowhere to be found, except for Nicholas Brembre, former mayor of London, who had been captured several days before. Geoffrey Martin, the clerk of the crown, stood in the midst of parliament and read out loud the articles of appeal against the accused. This took him two hours, and when he had finished, there was not a dry eye in the house, for all those who listened were stricken with grief at the things they heard.

We know of these tears shed in parliament on this day because this scene is recorded in the Historia siue narracio de modo et forma mirabilis parliamenti apud Westmonasterium anno domini millesimo CCCLXXXVJ, regni vero regis Ricardi secundi post conquestum anno decimo, a pamphlet composed shortly after the close of the Merciless Parliament. This pamphlet begins with an account of the activities of the Ricardian faction from late 1386 to late 1387, drawn from the parliamentary articles of appeal against the accused. Next follows a dramatic narrative of the parliamentary trials of the Ricardians in 1388, culminating with the execution of those condemned, and these trials and executions are the focal point of the pamphlet. This narrative of the proceedings against the Ricardians is both precise and detailed and certainly reads like an eyewitness account, suggesting that the author himself was one of the many spectators who packed the hall of parliament. Furthermore, the author’s tone is both didactic and ruthless, leaving little room for doubt that he approved wholeheartedly of the condemnation of the accused.