Note 2 — Chapter III · IN THE DAYS OF THE LATER PLANTAGENETS

Stow says that though there was a garrison of 1,200 well-armed men in the Tower, they were so panic-stricken that they offered no resistance to the rebels, many of whom rushed into the King’s chamber and wantonly rolled about upon his bed, and insisted on kissing his mother. Mr. Trevelyan, in his England in the Age of Wycliffe, evidently thinks that Richard betrayed this fortress to the rebels as Louis XVI did the Tuileries in 1792, and sent orders that the mob were to be admitted.