In the days of the predecessors of King Richard the Second, notwithstanding the claim made by thekings of a right on their part to reign on account of the influence exercised by their government inpromoting law and order throughout the community, the country was really kept in a continual stateof turmoil by the quarrels which the different parties concerned in this government were engaged inwith each other and with surrounding nations. These quarrels were of various kinds.1. The kings, as we have already seen, were perpetually quarreling with the nobles.2. The different branches of the royal family were often engaged in bitter and cruel wars with eachother, arising from their conflicting claims to the crown.3. The kings of different countries were continually making forays into each other's territories, orwaging war against each other with fire and sword. These wars arose sometimes from a lawless spiritof depredation, and sometimes were waged to resent personal insults or injuries, real or imaginary.4. The Pope of Rome, who claimed jurisdiction over the Church in England as well as elsewhere, was constantly coming into collision with the civil power.The Pope.His claim of jurisdiction in England.From some one or other of these several causes, the kingdom of England, in the time of Richard'spredecessors, was seldom at peace. Some great quarrel or other was continually going on. There wasa great deal of difficulty during the reigns that immediately preceded that of Richard the Secondbetween the kings and the Pope. The Pope, as has already been remarked, was considered the headof the whole Christian Church, and he claimed rights in respect to the appointment of thearchbishops, and bishops, and other ecclesiastics in England, and in respect to the government andcontrol of the monasteries, and the abbeys, and to the appropriation and expenditure of therevenues of the Church, which sometimes interfered very seriously with the views and designs of theking. Hence there arose continual disputes and quarrels. The Pope never came himself to England, but he often sent a grand embassador, called a legate, who traveled with great pomp and parade, andwith many attendants, and assumed in all his doings a most lofty and superior air. In the contests inwhich these legates were engaged with the king