A threat to Richard's authority still existed, however, in the form of the House of Lancaster, represented by John of Gaunt and his son Henry Bolingbroke, Duke of Hereford.
In 1398 Richard summoned a packed Parliament to Shrewsbury-known as the Parliament of Shrewsbury-which declared all the acts of the Merciless Parliament to be null and void, and announced that no restraint could legally be put on the king.