He was duke of Lancaster and the fourth son of Edward III, and had almost the power of a king during the minority of Richard II. Thus Savoy Palace, his London town house, was a target of Wat Tyler’s mob. He opposed the church’s right to exercise authority in temporal matters, and he protected John Wyclif for political reasons. He accompanied Wyclif to what was to be an examination before the bishop of London in 1377 and disrupted the proceedings, causing the meeting to break up in confusion.