December 4, 2005

 

ARUNDEL, MAINE

"The Fall of the House of Usher" : A horror story by EDGAR ALLAN POE. At the end of the story, two of the Usher family fall dead, and the ancestral mansion of the Ushers splits in two and sinks into a lake. Also see The TITANIC.

Kennebunkport is a resort town on the Atlantic Ocean at the mouth of the Kennebunk River in southern Maine. Its population, 3,720 (2000), grows each summer with an influx of tourists, and it has long attracted artists, writers, and political figures (ex-president George Bush has a home there).

Its quaint streets lined with old houses as well as boutiques and galleries, its well-known Kennebunk Playhouse, and its boating, deep-sea fishing, whale watching, lobstering, and other ocean-related activities make it one of Maine's favorite tourist destinations.

Settled in 1629 and incorporated in 1653, the town was originally a fishing port and was called Arundel until 1821.

Richard II, b. Jan. 6, 1367, d. February 1400, king of England (1377-99), son of Edward, the Black Prince, succeeded his grandfather Edward III. Precocious, clever, and ruthless, Richard had exalted notions of royal power but proved unable to implement them. Richard's uncle, John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, was effective ruler of England during the young king's minority. The minority council was disrupted, however, by internal rivalries and by the continuing Hundred Years' War (1337-1453) with France. When an oppressive poll tax sparked the Peasants' Revolt in 1381, Richard himself negotiated a truce with the rebels. After the death (1385) of his mother, Joan of Kent, Richard began to take control. He offended much of the English populace with his high-handed style of government, lack of interest in the French war, and reliance on a few young friends, especially Robert de Vere, earl of Oxford, and Michael de la Pole, earl of Suffolk, the chancellor. After Gaunt left for Spain in 1386, Suffolk was impeached in Parliament and a council was imposed on the king, despite Richard's charges of treason. The Merciless Parliament of 1388 met under the threat of rebellion by the king's five leading opponents, known as the Lords Appellant-the king's uncle, the duke of Gloucester; Gaunt's son, Henry Bolingbroke; the earl of Arundel; the earl of Warwick; and the earl of Nottingham (later duke of Norfolk)-who forced the exile or execution of several royal favorites.

Determined to exact revenge, Richard gradually built up a royalist faction. In 1397, Gloucester was murdered and Warwick and Arundel were condemned in Parliament. Ruling arbitrarily and without check, Richard alienated nearly all magnates. In 1398 he exiled Bolingbroke, who, taking advantage of Richard's temporary absence in Ireland, invaded England the following year. Richard quickly returned but was forced to abdicate and died in prison, perhaps murdered. Soon after, Bolingbroke became Henry IV.