the 1388 Merciless Parliament. While it was the King's first political defeat, it was not to be his last. Richard's defiant response to the 1386 parliament, and attempts to convict its promoters of treason, turned, says the scholar Alison McHardy, "the king's critics from angry into desperate men". This ultimately led to the Battle of Radcot Bridge on 19 December 1387 between troops loyal to Richard, led by de Vere, and an army captained by Henry Bolingbroke, Earl of Derby. Bolingbroke won, and de Vere fled into exile. Then the following year's Parliament ordained the exile or executions of several royal supporters. Palmer has commented that "it is generally recognised that all the constitutional and political troubles of Richard II's reign can be traced back to the Wonderful Parliament". Although the court party was swept from power in 1386—when, as J. S. Roskell put it, "the exercise of royal authority was virtually handed over to a parliamentary commission"—Richard had a "violent reaction" to the proceedings. Roskell also suggests that the affair was not so much an argument about who should rule, King or Parliament, as the answer to that being anyone other than the King would have been anachronistic. Rather, it was regarding whose attitude towards Parliament would prevail: the King, who saw Parliament as being a tool of royal authority, or Parliament, who saw themselves in an advisory role to the King. In 1388, a number of men close to the King, including Burley and the Mayor of London, Nicholas Brembre were hanged at Tyburn, while Tresilian was discovered hiding in sanctuary in Westminster Abbey. He was dragged into court with cries of 'We have him!' from the mob and, having already been convicted by the Lords Appellant, was summarily hanged naked before his throat was cut. De la Pole avoided such a fate. Even before Radcot Bridge, he had escaped to Calais, where his brother Edmund was Captain. This was to no avail, as the governor of the town, Sir William Beauchamp, returned him under armed escort to the King. From there—with royal permission—he made his way to Hull and took ship for Dordrecht. Arriving in Paris by December 1387, he died there in 1389 and, in the same year, Richard resumed his personal authority. Although the epithet 'wonderful' is widely applied to this Parliament-stemming from the use of the Latin mirabilis by a contemporary chronicler to describe