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STORIES FROM 
 
 ENGLISH HISTORY 
 
 From B.C. 55 to A.D. 1901 
 
 EDITED AND ADAPTED BY 
 
 HENRY P. WARREN, L.H.D. 
 
 PRINCIPAL OF THE ALBANY ACADEMY 
 
 - ' *• V L ■- K. . „ l> J ,J JO 
 
 -0-O>©^00- 
 
 BOSTON, U.S.A. 
 D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS 
 
 1901 
 
m^% 
 
 THE LIBRARY OF 
 
 0OMGRESS, 
 Two Cories Received 
 
 NOV, 2 1901 
 
 COPVCJIOHT ENTRY 
 
 ICLASS XXa No. 
 
 copy a. 
 
 Copyright, 1901, 
 By D. C. Heath & Co. 
 
 c c« * 
 
 .. * c 
 
 SEC c 
 
 • c • 
 
 • ec • 
 
 
 BMimpton press 
 
 H. M. PLIMPTON & CO., PRINTERS & BINDERS, 
 NORWOOD, MASS., U.S.A. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 In writing this book an endeavor has been made 
 to interest boys and girls in English history by 
 stories of some of its great events and of some of 
 the great men who adorn its pages. This aim being 
 kept steadily in view throughout, it seemed right 
 to select certain important incidents and characters, 
 and to deal with them in some detail and in as 
 interesting a way as possible, rather than to load 
 the pages with a multitude of names and dates, in 
 the vain effort to crowd into a few pages a continu- 
 ous history which should be at once full and inter- 
 esting. Yet it is believed that no important events 
 or personages have been entirely neglected, while 
 particular attention has been directed toward those 
 of chief significance to American boys and girls. 
 
 Upon the pictorial illustrations much care has 
 been expended. Some are derived from great his- 
 torical paintings and old prints ; others are from 
 drawings by some of the best artists of the day; 
 all, it is hoped, will succeed in imparting additional 
 interest to the historical facts, scenes, and char- 
 acters which they portray. 
 
 in 
 
/ 
 
 IV PREFACE. 
 
 The book is based upon the Warwick history 
 readers, long and favorably known to the English 
 public. Certain abridgments and additions have 
 been made in order to adapt the scope and contents 
 to the present needs of American boys and girls. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Story of Ancient Britain — 
 
 i. The Landing of Caesar ......... i 
 
 2. Britain and the Britons . . . . . . , . . 3 
 
 3. Caesar's Second Coming ........ 6 
 
 4. Caradoc . 7 
 
 5. Boadicea ........... 10 
 
 6. Britain under the Romans . . 12 
 
 The Beginning of Christian England — 
 
 1. Britain becomes England . . . . . . . .15 
 
 2. The English . . . . . . . . . . 17 
 
 3. The Coming of Augustine . . . . . . . .18 
 
 4. Caedmon, the Old English Singer ....... 22 
 
 The Story of Alfred the Great — 
 
 1. Alfred the Boy . . . ... 26 
 
 2. Alfred the Warrior ......... 29 
 
 3. Alfred in Misfortune . . . . . „ . . .31 
 
 4. Alfred in Retirement ......... 33 
 
 5. Alfred conquers the Danes ........ 34 
 
 6. Alfred the King 37 
 
 7. Alfred's Last Years 39 
 
 The Danes in England — 
 
 1. The Danish Conquest ......... 42 
 
 2. The Danish Kings .......... 44 
 
 The Norman Conquest — 
 
 1. Harold's Oath . 47 
 
 2. The Battle of Hastings 50 
 
 3. Completion of the Conquest 52 
 
 4. Hereward . . . . . . . . • " • 55 
 
 5. Results of the Conquest — I 57 
 
 6. Results of the Conquest — 2 . . . . . . . .60 
 
 The Story of Henry the Second — 
 
 1. Henry's Title and Character 62 
 
 2. Henry's Work for England — 1 . . . • . .64 
 
 3. Henry's Work for England — 2 67 
 
 4. Thomas Becket 69 
 
 v 
 
VI CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 5. Becket Quarrels with Henry ........ 70 
 
 6. The Council of Northampton ....... 73 
 
 7. The End of Becket 75 
 
 8. Henry's Last Years ......... 78 
 
 The Crusades and Richard the First — 
 
 1. What the Crusades were ........ 81 
 
 2. The Third Crusade ......... 84 
 
 3. Richard's Adventures and Death 86 
 
 King John and the Great Charter — 
 
 1. The Signing ot the Charter ........ 89. 
 
 2. Stephen Langton .......... 91 
 
 3. Last Days of King John 94 
 
 Earl Simon of Montfort — 
 
 1. Governor of Gascony ......... 96 
 
 2. The Provisions of Oxford ........ 98 
 
 3. Simon against the King ........ 101 
 
 4. The End of Simon ......... 103 
 
 The Story of Edward the First — 
 
 1. Edward's Early Years . . . . . . . . . 107 
 
 2. Edward conquers Wales . . . . . . . .110 
 
 3. Edward invades Scotland . . . . . . . .112 
 
 4. Sir William Wallace . . . . . . . . .114 
 
 5. Edward loses Scotland . . . . . . . . .117 
 
 6. Edward's Work for England ' . . .119 
 
 The Hundred Years' War — 
 
 1. The Beginning of the War 121 
 
 2. The Battle of Crecy 123 
 
 3. The Citizens of Calais . . . . . . . . .126 
 
 4. Poictiers and Agincourt . . . . . . . .130 
 
 5. Joan of Arc — 1 .......... 133 
 
 6. Joan of Arc — 2 134 
 
 The Black Death and the State of England — , 
 
 1. The Black Death 138 
 
 2. Wat Tyler's Rebellion 140 
 
 3. The State of England 143 
 
 The Wars of the Roses — 
 
 1. The Cause of the War 147 
 
 2. The Earl of Warwick ......... 149 
 
 3. The End of the War 153 
 
 The Story of William Caxton — 
 
 1. Caxton at Bruges . . . . . . . . . .156 
 
 2. Caxton begins to Print 159 
 
 3. Caxton in England . .162 
 
CONTENTS. Vll 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Discovery of America — 
 
 i. Christopher Columbus 166 
 
 2. Results of the Discovery 168 
 
 The King and the Cardinal — 
 
 1. King Hal and the French War 171 
 
 2. Flodden Field 174 
 
 3. Thomas Wolsey 177 
 
 4. The Field of the Cloth of Gold 179 
 
 5. The Fall of Wolsey 182 
 
 6. Last Days of Wolsey 185 
 
 The Story of the Reformation — 
 
 1. The King as Head of the Church 188 
 
 2. The Ruin of the Monasteries . ....... 191 
 
 3. The New Religious Faith 194 
 
 4. Religious Persecutions ......... 196 
 
 The Story of Sir Thomas More-- 
 
 1. More's Life ' . . • .199 
 
 2. More's Death .203 
 
 The Story of Lady Jane Grey — 
 
 1. The Question of the Succession 206 
 
 2. The Fate of Lady Jane 208 
 
 The Story of Queen Elizabeth — 
 
 1. Elizabeth and Mary 214 
 
 2. Elizabeth's Character . . 215 
 
 3. England under Elizabeth 217 
 
 The Story of Mary Queen of Scots — 
 
 1. Mary and Darnley 222 
 
 2. Mary's Misfortunes 225 
 
 The Story of Sir Francis Drake — 
 
 1. His Early Life . . 229 
 
 2. One of Drake's Adventures 230 
 
 The Story of the Spanish Armada — 
 
 1. The Coming of the Armada * . . 234 
 
 2. The Defeat of the Armada 237 
 
 The Story of Sir Walter Raleigh — 
 
 1. Raleigh a Favorite of the Queen 242 
 
 2. Raleigh in Disgrace 245 
 
 The Story of William Shakespeare — 
 
 1. Shakespeare's Life . . 248 
 
 2. Shakespeare's Works , . , . 252 
 
Vlll ' CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Story of the Pilgrim Fathers — 
 
 I. Religious Freedom . . . . . . . . . 255 
 
 The Story of the Great Rebellion — 
 
 1. The Petition of Right 258 
 
 2. The Government of Ireland 260 
 
 3. More Trouble for King Charles 262 
 
 4. Affair of the Five Members ........ 264 
 
 5. Oliver Cromwell appears ........ 267 
 
 6. Success of the " New Model " . . . . . . .271 
 
 7. Fall of the King .......... 274 
 
 8. Last Days of the King ......... 277 
 
 The Story of Oliver Cromwell — 
 
 1. Cromwell's Last Victories . 280 
 
 2. Cromwell becomes Protector ........ 283 
 
 3. England's Greatness under Cromwell ...... 286 
 
 4. Cromwell's Difficulties and Death 289 
 
 The Story of General Monk — 
 
 1. The Restoration 292 
 
 The Story of John Milton — 
 
 1. Milton's Life and Works . 297 
 
 The Story of Two Great Calamities — 
 
 1. The Plague of London ......... 302 
 
 2. The Fire of London ......... 303 
 
 The Story of the Revolution — 
 
 1. James the Second 308 
 
 2. The Dispensing Power ......... 309 
 
 3. Trial of the Seven Bishops 311 
 
 4. William of Orange . . . . . . . . -313 
 
 5. The War in Ireland . . . . . . . . • 3 J 7 
 
 6. The War with France ......... 321 
 
 7. The Close of William the Third's Reign 323 
 
 The Story of Marlborough — 
 
 1. The Balance of Power 326 
 
 2. The Battle of Blenheim 329 
 
 3. Marlborough's Downfall 333 
 
 The Revolt of 1715 335 
 
 Sir Robert Walpole — 
 
 1. The South Sea Bubble 337 
 
 2. The Origin of the " Prime Minister " ...... 340 
 
 " Bonnie Prince Charlie " — 
 
 J. The Outbreak in the North 343 
 
CONTENTS. IX 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The British in India — 
 
 1. Clive goes to India — The Siege of Arcot ..... 347 
 
 2. The Black Hole — Plassey . . 350 
 
 3. The Story of Warren Hastings ....... 352 
 
 The Story of General Wolfe and the Taking of Quebec . 358 
 
 William Pitt, Earl of Chatham 362 
 
 The American War of Independence 367 
 
 William Pitt, the Younger — 
 
 1. Reduction of Taxation — The French Revolution .... 369 
 
 2. War with France — The Irish Act of Union 373 
 
 The Story of Lord Nelson ........ 377 
 
 The Story of Wellington — 
 
 1. Sir Arthur Wellesley in India 383 
 
 2. Wellesley commands in the Peninsula ...... 385 
 
 3. The End of the Great War 389 
 
 England's Second War with America 391 
 
 The Story of Spinning and Weaving — 
 
 1. Hargreaves and the Spinning-jenny ...... 393 
 
 2. The Story of Arkwright and Crompton ...... 395 
 
 3. Cartwright and the Power-loom ....... 397 
 
 The Story of the Steam-engine and the Locomotive — 
 
 1. James Watt and the Steam-engine ...... 399 
 
 2. George Stephenson and the Locomotive ..... 401 
 
 The Great Reform Bill 406 
 
 John Howard, the Reformer of the Jails 412 
 
 William Wilberforce, the Freer of the Slaves . . . .415 
 
 The Story of David Livingstone . . . . . . .417 
 
 The Crimean War . . , . 423 
 
 The Indian Mutiny — 
 
 1. The Outbreak — Relief of Lucknow ...... 427 
 
 2. Sir Colin Campbell quells the Mutiny ...... 428 
 
 Some Injustices removed 432 
 
 The British Colonies — 
 
 1. The Dominion of Canada . . . . . . . . 438 
 
 2. Australia 440 
 
 3. The Federation of the Australian Colonies , , * . . 442 
 
X CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 4. Cape Colony and Natal 444 
 
 5. The Transvaal and the Orange Free State 446 
 
 6. Egypt 45 1 
 
 The Story of Queen Victoria 455 
 
 List of Important Dates in English History .... 464 
 
 Index 47 1 
 
 LIST OF MAPS. 
 
 Great Britain (in colors) facing page 1 
 
 The Straits of Dover 4 
 
 England in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries . . .111 
 Reference Maps' for the Wars of the Roses . . . .115 
 
 The French Frontier under Louis XIV. . . . . .331 
 
 Map of India 349 
 
 the book also contains more than 
 one hundred and twenty illustrations. 
 
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STORIES FROM ENGLISH HISTORY 
 
 FROM B.C. 55 TO 1901 A.D. 
 
 THE STORY OF ANCIENT BRITAIN. 
 I. THE LANDING OF C^SAR. 
 
 One day in August, fifty-five years before Christ, 
 some unknown ships were seen crossing the sea 
 toward the southeast corner of the island of Britain. 
 The men on the beach watched them closely. As 
 they drew nearer, the rays of the sun flashed on the 
 helmets and swords of armed men. The ships 
 were full of soldiers. 
 
 " See, yonder comes the enemy ! " the watchers 
 may have cried. "It is the great chief of whom we 
 have heard. He is coming with his mighty men to 
 conquer our country, and to make our sons and 
 daughters slaves. We must fight for our lives and 
 homes ! " 
 
 The news of the coming of the enemy soon 
 spread along the coast. Crowds of warriors flocked 
 together to defend their island home. When the 
 ships had nearly reached the land, the soldiers on 
 board them saw, stretching along the shore, a great 
 throng of wild, half-naked men. 
 
2 THE STORY OF ANCIENT BRITAIN. 
 
 It was not easy for the strangers to land. . Their 
 ships were large, and could not come very close to 
 
 The Landing of the Romans. 
 
 the beach. The soldiers were not used to the sea, 
 and were not eager to fight the waves before they 
 could reach land and fight the men. 
 
BRITAIN AND THE BRITONS. 3 
 
 But at length a brave standard-bearer in one of 
 the ships raised his standard aloft. Pointing to 
 the figure of an eagle which crowned it, he cried : 
 " Soldiers, follow me, unless you wish to give up 
 your eagle to the enemy ! I at any rate will do my 
 duty to my general and my country." 
 
 So saying, he leaped boldly into the sea, with the 
 standard in his hand. Ashamed of their fear, all 
 the soldiers sprang after him, and dashed through 
 the water toward the land. 
 
 The brave men on shore rushed out to meet 
 them, hurling stones and darts. Many a hard blow 
 was struck, many a man was wounded and slain. 
 But the strangers were the better soldiers, and after 
 a hard struggle they stood on dry land, and drove 
 the enemy in flight before them. 
 
 II. BRITAIN AND THE BRITONS. 
 
 The strangers who had thus gained a footing 
 upon the island were Romans. They were the 
 finest soldiers in the world, and conquered wher- 
 ever they went. Their general was Julius Caesar, 
 one of the greatest soldiers that ever lived. 
 
 Caesar had for many years been fighting in Gaul, 
 the country which we now call France. The men 
 of Gaul fought bravely, and Caesar found out that 
 they were sometimes helped by friendly warriors 
 from Britain. 
 
 So, when he had conquered Gaul, Caesar made 
 
THE STORY OF ANCIENT BRITAIN. 
 
 up his mind to cross the sea and conquer the men 
 of the island also. He wanted to prevent them 
 helping the Gauls any more. He also wanted to 
 see what the island was like. He had heard strange 
 tales of its beauty and wealth, and he wished to see 
 for himself if they were true. 
 
 What he saw he has told us himself, in a book 
 
 which he wrote 
 about his wars. The 
 island, he tells us, 
 was called Britain, 
 and the people Brit- 
 ons. They were 
 much like the peo- 
 ple of Gaul, — tall, 
 strong, with blue 
 eyes and long light 
 hair. Those who 
 lived near the sea 
 grew grain, and car- 
 ried on trade with 
 Gaul. Those who 
 lived inland were more savage, fed on milk and 
 flesh, and had only the skins of beasts for their 
 dress. 
 
 They were brave in battle, and in war time 
 
 painted their bodies blue in order to frighten their 
 
 enemies. They used war-chariots, which they 
 
 drove with furious speed into the enemy's ranks. 
 
 They had no towns with streets of well-built 
 
BRITAIN AND THE BRITONS. 5 
 
 houses, but lived in mud huts scattered here and 
 there. The dress even of the richest of them was 
 poor and rough, though their chiefs sometimes 
 wore ornaments of gold. 
 
 Britons making a Boat of Basket-work. 
 
 Such were the people who lived in Britain two 
 thousand years ago, and who faced the Romans so 
 bravely at the coast. 
 
6 THE STORY OF ANCIENT BRITAIN. 
 
 III. CESAR'S SECOND COMING. 
 
 When the Britons found that they were helpless 
 against the Romans, they begged Caesar to make 
 peace. This he was willing to do. 
 
 But a great storm arose, and the Roman ships, 
 which had been left on the beach, were lifted by the 
 waves and dashed upon the rocks. Many of them 
 were hopelessly ruined, and some other ships which 
 were bringing Caesar's horse-soldiers from Gaul, 
 were forced by the storm to put back. 
 
 The Britons saw what damage the storm had 
 done, and they were glad of it. Caesar's army was 
 not very large, and he had lost some of his ships. 
 If only his soldiers could be kept on the island, and 
 be prevented from getting food during the winter 
 months, the Britons thought that they might de- 
 stroy their enemy after all. 
 
 But Caesar was too great a general to let his army 
 be destroyed in this way. He ordered the ships 
 that were most damaged to be broken up, and 
 with their wood the holes in other ships were 
 mended. 
 
 Grain for food was got from the harvest-fields of 
 the Britons, and the Romans made, around their 
 camp, a rampart and a ditch, behind which they 
 were safe from attack. 
 
 But when the storms had ceased, Caesar thought 
 it best to return to Gaul, for he could not hope to 
 
CARADOC. 7 
 
 crush the Britons with his little army. After one 
 more terrible battle, in which the Romans were 
 victors, Caesar burned down many of the dwellings 
 of the Britons, and then left the island. 
 
 The next year he returned with a larger army, 
 which landed without having to fight. For the 
 Britons, remembering their first defeat, had fled 
 into one of the dark forests which covered the 
 country. There they built a stronghold, from 
 which they made, from time to time, sudden attacks 
 on the enemy. 
 
 Caesar then marched inland, and crossed the 
 Thames with his troops, fighting hard all the way. 
 The Romans soon captured the stronghold of the 
 British chief Caswallon, who then gave up the 
 struggle, and promised to pay tribute to the victors. 
 
 Caesar had now shown the Britons how helpless 
 they were against the power of Rome ; this was all 
 that he had meant to do. There was no longer any 
 fear that they would help the Gauls, and the great 
 Roman general left Britain forever. 
 
 IV. CARADOC. 
 
 For nearly a hundred years after Caesar went 
 away from Britain, the Romans left the island alone. 
 Then the Roman Emperor Claudius, wishing to 
 make Britain a real part of his empire, sent a 
 general to conquer it. 
 
 The Britons, as before, stoutly defended them- 
 
8 THE STORY OF ANCIENT BRITAIN. 
 
 selves, but they were no match for the well-trained 
 Roman soldiers. Some of their tribes even went 
 over to the side of the enemy, and helped to defeat 
 their own brethren. 
 
 In a fierce battle, one of the British chiefs was 
 killed. Caradoc, the bravest of them all, was forced 
 to flee into the country that is now called Wales, 
 and the Roman general seized upon his lands. 
 
 Caradoc was not only brave : he was also skilled 
 in the art of war. He withdrew with a vast horde 
 of Britons into the hills of Wales, where he knew 
 every step of the ground. 
 
 When the Roman general led his army after him, 
 Caradoc chose a position upon a steep hill. He 
 threw up a wall of huge stones for a defence, and 
 was also protected by a deep river which ran between 
 him and the Romans. 
 
 At the approach of the enemy, Caradoc and other 
 chiefs rushed from rank to rank, cheering their men 
 with brave words. On came the Romans, to be 
 met with thick showers of darts and stones. 
 
 Still they pressed on. They were armed with 
 helmet, breastplate, and shield, which saved them 
 many a wound, and their spears and swords were of 
 the finest make. 
 
 The Britons had no armor, and their weapons 
 were not equal to those of the Romans. They were 
 not so well trained, and though they fought with 
 desperate courage, they suffered a terrible defeat. 
 
 Caradoc escaped, and fled to his step-mother in 
 
CARADOC. 
 
 the north ; while his wife and daughter were taken 
 prisoners. But he was not long free, for his step- 
 mother, wishing to win favor with the Romans, 
 gave the brave chief up to them. 
 
 When the Roman general returned to his own 
 country, he took Caradoc and his family with him 
 among his prisoners. All Rome flocked to see the 
 general ride in triumph 
 through the streets. 
 
 First in the long 
 line of prisoners came 
 slaves whom Caradoc 
 had conquered in war. 
 Then came men bear- 
 ing chains of gold and 
 rich treasures which he 
 had taken from other 
 British tribes. His 
 wife and daughter, 
 and his brothers fol- 
 lowed next ; and last of 
 all came Caradoc him- 
 self with a bold fearless look. 
 
 " I had men and horses, arms and wealth," he 
 said, when he stood before the Roman emperor; 
 " I might have been your friend instead of your 
 captive. My fall and your triumph will ever be 
 famous ; so now, if you save my life, the fame of 
 your mercy will never die." 
 
 Struck by the courage of the chief, the emperor 
 
 Roman Soldiers. 
 
THE STORY OF ANCIENT BRITAIN. 
 
 pardoned him and all his family. Their chains 
 were struck off, and it is said that Caradoc remained 
 in Rome, and received many favors at the em- 
 peror's hands. 
 
 V. BOADICEA. 
 
 For more than ten years after the capture of 
 Caradoc, the Romans could do no more than hold 
 their own in Britain. Then dreadful things hap- 
 pened which ended sadly for the Britons. 
 
 One of the British kings had arranged that, at 
 his death, his kingdom should be divided equally 
 between his two daughters and the Roman em- 
 peror. In this way he thought to keep his family 
 and his kingdom safe. 
 
 But when he died, Roman soldiers came and 
 plundered his country. They whipped his wife 
 Boadicea with cruel rods, and ill-treated his two 
 daughters. They took for themselves all that had 
 belonged to him and to his chief men, and carried 
 away his kinsfolk as slaves. 
 
 The people were shocked and maddened by this 
 conduct, and feared for their own lives and goods. 
 Getting other tribes to join them, they raised a great 
 army to fight against the Romans. 
 
 One day they fell upon the Romans when they 
 were little expected, and took a terrible revenge, 
 slaying old and young without mercy, and setting 
 fire to houses and temples. The Romans fled to 
 
BOADICEA. I I 
 
 London, which was even then a thriving business 
 town. 
 
 The Britons followed, and the Roman general 
 was forced to leave the town, for the greater part 
 of his army was elsewhere, and the force he had 
 was too small to fight the enemy. Then the 
 Britons burned London, and slew thousands of the 
 people of the city. 
 
 But the Roman general soon collected all his 
 forces, and made ready for a great battle. He 
 placed his army where there was an open plain in 
 front and a forest at their backs. Horse and foot 
 stood firm in close array. 
 
 Opposite them stood the army of the Britons, a 
 great throng of wild, fierce men, eager for vengeance 
 on their foe. Then Boadicea appeared with her 
 daughters in a war-chariot, and rode up and down 
 the ranks from tribe to tribe. 
 
 " Britons," she cried, " in this battle I myself will 
 lead you on ! The Romans have robbed you of 
 your freedom; look, my body smarts with these 
 wounds they have inflicted ; my daughters weep for 
 the injuries they have suffered. 
 
 " One of the Roman legions has perished, and the 
 rest are afraid. They will run away if you only 
 shout, and wall not wait for your blows. Let us 
 fight, then, for in this battle we must conquer or 
 die. This is the mind of a woman; men, if they 
 like, may live and be slaves ! " 
 
 Then the battle began, and with javelin and lance 
 
12 THE STORY OF ANCIENT BRITAIN. 
 
 the Roman met the foe. The Britons fought with 
 fury, but they had no chance against their well- 
 trained enemy. The Romans slew even women 
 and beasts of burden, as well as many thousands of 
 the warriors. 
 
 Boadicea fled, and fearing lest, if she were taken, 
 she should suffer again, she put an end to her life 
 by poison. 
 
 VI. BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS. 
 
 The Romans were not soldiers only ; they could 
 do a great deal more than fight. They were a 
 great people in many ways, and when they had 
 conquered Britain by force of arms, they turned 
 their attention to the arts of peace. For nearly 
 four hundred years the Romans held Britain as a 
 part of the Roman empire, and during that time 
 the country was greatly changed for the better. 
 
 Many of the dense forests which grew in various 
 parts of it were cut down. Marshes were drained, 
 and well-built towns were founded where at one 
 time there was nothing but wild underwood or 
 swamp. Fine temples, baths, and public buildings 
 adorned the streets of the towns, in which trade 
 flourished and wealth grew. 
 
 Great roads were made, running from London 
 into all parts of the country, and passing through 
 forests and over rivers. Mines of tin, lead, and 
 copper were worked, and the metal got from them 
 
14 THE STORY OF ANCIENT BRITAIN. 
 
 was sent across the sea to Gaul and Italy. The 
 Romans encouraged the fisheries of the island, and 
 taught the Britons better ways of tilling their fields 
 and growing crops. 
 
 The rich Romans built themselves splendid villas 
 in the country, paving the floors with colored tiles, 
 and adorning the rooms with graceful pillars and fine 
 carvings. Remains of Roman houses and pottery 
 are to this day sometimes dug up in some parts of 
 England. 
 
 The Romans taught the Britons how to make 
 better clothes than those they had been accustomed 
 to wear. Some of the Britons learned to speak 
 Latin, the language of the Romans, and British 
 soldiers served in the army of the empire. 
 
 It was during this time that the story of Christ 
 first became known in Britain. What the religion 
 of the Britons was before this we do not know ; but 
 their priests were called Druids, and offered human 
 sacrifices in dim groves of oak. Though the religion 
 of Christ began to be known, there were many sav- 
 age Britons still in the land who hated the Christian 
 religion, and who would not learn anything at all 
 from the Romans. 
 
THE BEGINNING OF CHRISTIAN ENGLAND. 
 I. BRITAIN BECOMES ENGLAND. 
 
 There came a time when the Romans left Britain. 
 Wild tribes were attacking their splendid city Rome, 
 and all the Roman soldiers were needed for its 
 defence. 
 
 It was a bad day for the Britons when the last 
 Roman soldier went away. For many years the 
 Romans had defended the country from the fierce 
 warriors who attacked it, some of whom came from 
 the part of the island now called Scotland, some 
 from over the sea. 
 
 When the Britons were left to themselves, they 
 found that they were too weak to keep off their 
 bold enemies. They sent to Rome most pitiful 
 letters asking for help. 
 
 In one of them they said: "The savages drive 
 us into the sea, the sea drives us back on to the 
 savages. Our only choice is whether we shall die 
 by the sword, or drown ; for we have none to save 
 us." 
 
 But Rome could not spare soldiers for the defence 
 of Britain. At length, less than a hundred years 
 after the Romans had gone, wild heathen Angles 
 and Saxons from Denmark and North Germany 
 
 15 
 
i6 
 
 THE BEGINNING OF CHRISTIAN ENGLAND. 
 
 overcame the Britons, and took for themselves some 
 land in the southeast part of the island. 
 
 Step by step they drove the Britons inland ; every 
 
 The First Preaching of Christianity in Britain. 
 
 year new bands poured across the sea to assist them, 
 and by and by they became masters of the country. 
 They made their home on the land which they had 
 
THE ENGLISH. I 7 
 
 won, and called it England. Those of the Britons 
 who escaped death or slavery had to seek refuge in 
 the wild country in the west, and their descendants 
 live in Wales and Cornwall to this day. 
 
 II. THE ENGLISH. 
 
 These heathen people from over the sea, and not 
 the Britons, were the forefathers of the English 
 people of to-day. Let us try to see what they were 
 like, and how they lived. 
 
 Like the Britons, they were tall and strong, with 
 bright blue eyes, and light hair which was allowed 
 to grow long both by men and women, but they 
 were farmers and fishermen, and lived together in 
 villages or little townships. They made it a boast 
 that they were free ; indeed, the men of different vil- 
 lages kept so much apart that they were like enemies. 
 
 The greater part of the men were called churls, 
 and were freemen, each holding his own portion of 
 land. The chief men, who had earned fame them- 
 selves, or whose fathers had been noble, were called 
 earls. From these earls were chosen leaders in 
 war and rulers in peace, and these leaders were 
 known as aldermen. But no man enjoyed more 
 rights than any of his fellows. 
 
 Disputes between the villagers were settled at 
 the " tun-moot," that is, a town meeting at which 
 all the men would attend to give their votes. Mat- 
 ters of more importance were decided at the " shire- 
 
1 8 THE BEGINNING OF CHRISTIAN ENGLAND. 
 
 moot" or county meeting. Here again every free- 
 man had the right to attend. 
 
 Laws were made, and the great questions of 
 peace and war were talked about, by the " Witan " 
 or wise men of the people: that is, the earls and 
 other great men ; but the people came to their meet- 
 ings, and showed by their shouts what they thought 
 of their wise men's speeches. These meetings were 
 not held in a hall, but beneath some spreading tree, 
 or upon some grassy hill-top. 
 
 The people had at first not one king, but many. 
 There were at one time at least seven great king- 
 doms in England, though at last one of the kings, 
 Egbert of Wessex, was looked upon as chief or 
 master-king by the rest. 
 
 The love of freedom which these Old English 
 felt is still felt by their descendants, and in Eng- 
 land and America it has helped to make them the 
 great nations that they are. 
 
 III. THE COMING OF AUGUSTINE. 
 
 There is a pretty story which connects Britain, 
 now called England, again with Rome, which was 
 at that time the chief Christian city of Europe. 
 
 One day a young Roman priest named Gregory 
 was passing through the market-place of Rome. 
 Among the slaves who were huddled together 
 there, waiting to be bought, were some pretty boys 
 
THE COMING OF AUGUSTINE. 
 
 19 
 
 whose fair hair and ruddy faces were strange to 
 the dark Roman. 
 
 " Who are they ? " he asked of one who was 
 standing by. 
 
 Gregory and the little English Slaves. 
 
 " They are Angles," was the answer ; " Angles 
 from England over the sea." 
 
 " Not Angles, but angels," he said, touching 
 their fair locks kindly. " And do they come from 
 England ? " 
 
20 THE BEGINNING OF CHRISTIAN ENGLAND. 
 
 " Yes ; from heathen Deira, the kingdom of King 
 Ella, there." 
 
 " Then shall they be saved from the wrath of 
 God," 1 said Gregory, " and Alleluia shall be sung 
 in the land of Ella." 
 
 Many years after, when the young priest had 
 become Pope Gregory the Great, he remembered 
 the boys in the market-place, and what he had said 
 about them, and how he had longed to go and 
 teach them. He wished to change the English 
 from heathens to Christians, but he could not now 
 go to England himself, as he had meant to do. 
 
 At the head of one of the convents in Rome was 
 a monk named Augustine, and he was chosen by 
 Gregory to go to England. With him he took 
 forty monks, and they landed in the Isle of Thanet, 
 in Kent. 
 
 Now the English were pagans, and worshipped 
 many gods, chief of whom was Woden, 2 the god of 
 war, the father of slaughter, the giver of victory. 
 They believed that heroes, when they died, went to 
 a heaven where the days were spent in fighting and 
 the nights in feasting. 
 
 They offered up animals as sacrifices to their 
 gods. Sometimes they killed their slaves and even 
 their children upon their altars. Their religion 
 was one of cruelty, not of love. 
 
 But Ethelbert, the king of Kent, had married a 
 
 1 De ira means in Latin "from the wrath." 
 
 2 His name forms part of Wednesday, the day of Woden. 
 
THE COMING OF AUGUSTINE. 
 
 21 
 
 Christian lady, Bertha, daughter of the k&ig of 
 Paris. He had also met and talked with wise men 
 of other lands, who were not so rough as the Eng- 
 
 Queen Bertha reading to King Ethelbert. 
 
 lish in their ways of life. He had learnt from them 
 and from his wife many things he would not other- 
 wise have known, and he was a good and wise 
 king. 
 
2 2 THE BEGINNING OF CHRISTIAN ENGLAND. 
 
 When Augustine reached England and sent word 
 to the king that he had come to speak of Christ, 
 Ethelbert received him kindly. With his wife he 
 sat among his people in the open air to receive the 
 teachers. . 
 
 The rough English must have wondered as the 
 monks came slowly along, chanting solemn hymns, 
 and bearing aloft a great silver cross, and a banner 
 painted with the figure of Jesus. 
 
 Ethelbert listened with attention to what Augus- 
 tine had to say. " Fair are your words," he said, 
 when the monks had finished, " but also new and 
 strange. I may not forsake the gods of my father, 
 but as for my people, they may believe whatsoever 
 they will, and no man shall hinder them." 
 
 He allowed Augustine to make his home in Can- 
 terbury, where he held services in Bertha's church. 
 There the monks lived a simple life, preaching to 
 all who would hear, caring nothing for riches, and 
 depending for their daily food upon the kindness 
 of those they taught. 
 
 In course of time, their good example led many 
 to believe what they taught, and by and by King 
 Ethelbert was baptized, and thousands of his people 
 with him. 
 
 IV. C^DMON, THE OLD ENGLISH SINGER. 
 
 It was long before all England became Christian. 
 The country was ruled, not by one king, but by 
 many, and all were not so good and wise as Ethel- 
 
OEDMON, THE OLD ENGLISH SINGER. 
 
 23 
 
 bert. But at length the old gods were given up 
 throughout the country. 
 
 One of the pagan kings who became Christians 
 was Edwin, who ruled over the north part of the 
 
 Cedmon repeating his Poem to the Abbess Hilda. 
 
 country. He was kind to Christian teachers, and, 
 after his death, a grand-niece of his, named Hilda, 
 founded a home for monks and nuns at Whitby. It 
 stood on a high cliff, the broad sea below it on one 
 side, the woody valley of the river Esk on the other. 
 Here men and women lived pure and earnest 
 
24 THE BEGINNING OF CHRISTIAN ENGLAND. 
 
 lives. They read and studied, they shared all their 
 goods in common ; they called Hilda " mother," and 
 looked up to her as one far higher and holier than 
 themselves. She taught and cared for the poor, 
 ignorant people round about, and they learnt the 
 stories of the Bible in song and poem. 
 
 How the first of these poems was made is told 
 us in an old story. Among the men who came to 
 the monastery to work and to be taught was one 
 of middle age named Caedmon. At night the ser- 
 vants and others would meet in the hall, and pass the 
 time pleasantly in singing songs of brave deeds of 
 old, to the music of the harp. 
 
 But Caedmon knew no songs. When, as he sat 
 with the rest, his turn came to sing, and he saw the 
 harp coming towards him, he would rise from the 
 table in shame, and go home sad and lonely. Yet 
 he felt in his heart that he would like to sing, not of 
 battles and heroes, but of the wonderful things that 
 he had learnt from the Lady Hilda. 
 
 One night he had gone out from the feast to the 
 stables. Some of the guests had come from far, and 
 their beasts must be guarded against robbers. It 
 was Caedmon's turn to watch them, and as he sat 
 among them, sad because he had no gift of song, he 
 fell asleep. 
 
 In his sleep he had a wondrous dream. One 
 stood by him and called him by name. " Caedmon," 
 he said, " sing me something." 
 
 " I cannot sing," the poor man replied ; " indeed, 
 
C^EDMON, THE OLD ENGLISH SINGER. 25 
 
 I have come out hither from the feast because 1 
 could not sing." 
 
 " But you shall sing to me," said the stranger. 
 
 " What," asked Caedmon, " ought I to sing ? " 
 
 " Sing of the beginning of all things," was the 
 answer ; " sing of the Creation of the World." 
 
 Then Caedmon began to sing words which came 
 to his lips he knew not how. In the morning, re- 
 membering part of what he had sung in his dream, 
 he went to one of the servants of the house, and 
 told him about it. 
 
 He was taken to Hilda, who said, when she had 
 heard his poem, that his new power was the gift of 
 God. She told him a Bible story, and when he 
 came next day with the story turned into verse, she 
 asked him to become a monk, and to give up the 
 rest of his life to making poems. 
 
 So he went to live in the monastery, where he was 
 taught the sacred stories, and turned them into song. 
 There he lived to a great age, and died at last peace- 
 fully in his sleep. He was a good and humble man, 
 of whom all were fond. 
 
THE STORY OF ALFRED THE GREAT. 
 I. ALFRED THE BOY. 
 
 The greatest of the kings who ruled over Eng- 
 land in early times was Alfred, and about him many 
 stories are told. 
 
 Alfred was the youngest and favorite son of 
 King Ethelwolf, who was in many ways a good 
 king. He had been brought up in a monastery, 
 and all his life thought much of learning and reli- 
 gion. His mother died when he was four years 
 old. 
 
 When Alfred was seven Ethelwolf went on a visit 
 to Rome, taking the boy with him. Along with 
 the king went many of his chief men, and the 
 people of the countries through which they passed 
 wondered at the splendor and wealth of the English 
 king. 
 
 When they came to Rome, Ethelwolf gave rich 
 presents to the Pope. One was a golden crown, 
 another was a sword, the hilt of which was made of 
 gold. Other presents were vessels of gold and 
 silver, and dresses beautifully made and richly 
 adorned. The king also gave away much money in 
 Rome, and the people of Rome were loud in his 
 praises. 
 
 26 
 
ALFRED THE BOY. 27 
 
 Little Alfred must have enjoyed his visit. As 
 he saw the splendid buildings in Rome, the temples, 
 the theatres, the circus, the statues ; as he walked 
 where Caesar had walked, and stood where Caradoc 
 had bowed before the Emperor Claudius, his mind 
 must have been filled with new thoughts and 
 wishes. 
 
 Perhaps he said to himself : " Oh ! if I were a 
 king, I would do my best to make my country as 
 great and as beautiful as this beautiful Rome." 
 
 They stayed in Rome a year, and then they set 
 out for home. On the way back through France, 
 Ethel wolf married Judith, the young daughter of 
 the French king, whose beauty he had admired 
 when he saw her on his former journey. She was 
 only seven years older than Alfred. 
 
 Judith was very kind to her young stepson. 
 When they were back in England, she read to him 
 the stories and poems of which he grew so fond. 
 The boy was bright and thoughtful, and he used to 
 look with delight and longing at the books from 
 which Judith read. 
 
 They were not printed, but were written by hand. 
 Monks spent long days in forming shapely letters, 
 and in making the books beautiful with pictures 
 and ornaments, wonderful in form and splendid in 
 color. 
 
 One day, when Judith had been reading to Al- 
 fred and his elder brothers, she promised to give 
 the book to the boy who first learned to read. The 
 
28 
 
 THE STORY OF ALFRED THE GREAT. 
 
 bigger boys thought little of this, but Alfred set to 
 work, and very soon won the book for his own. 
 
 In those days few people could read, and hardly 
 any one could write. Only the monks and their 
 
 Alfred receives his Book. 
 
 pupils learnt to read: The greatest men in the 
 land could not write their names, but made a cross 
 upon papers which they wished to sign. So Al- 
 fred's brothers were not to be blamed because they 
 loved games better than reading. 
 
 Alfred loved games too. He grew up a strong, 
 
ALFRED THE WARRIOR. 29 
 
 handsome youth, fond of sports and hunting, as 
 well as of reading and study. He became also a 
 brave and skilful soldier, and a favorite with all 
 people, high and low. 
 
 II. ALFRED THE WARRIOR. 
 
 After Ethelwolfs death, three of his sons became 
 king in turn. The third of these was Ethelred, 
 and it was in his reign that Alfred showed what he 
 could do in war. 
 
 For many years England had been troubled, as 
 Britain had been, by the attacks of fierce warriors 
 from over the sea. These were the Danes or North- 
 men who were very much like what the English 
 had once been. They were bold and daring in 
 fight on sea and land, and believed in the same gods 
 that the heathen English had once worshipped. 
 
 At first they would cross the water in the sum- 
 mer, rob the English of whatever they could, and 
 return to their own countries for the winter. But 
 becoming bolder, they at last began to remain in 
 the island to enjoy what, they had won by their 
 fighting. They settled in Kent, and in the eastern 
 counties, and from their settlements they used to 
 attack and plunder the English. 
 
 The English kings tried to drive them out, and 
 won many battles against them. But as fast as one 
 band was defeated, another would land and come to 
 its help. It was just as impossible to keep them 
 
30 TH£ STORY OF ALFRED THE GREAT. 
 
 out, as it had been for the Britons to keep the 
 English out years before. 
 
 In Ethelred's time the Danes had won a great 
 part of the country, and had formed a strong camp 
 where the town of Reading now is. It was near 
 this camp that a great battle was fought, in which 
 Alfred showed his bravery and skill. 
 
 The English army came in sight of the Danes at 
 the close of a spring day. All things were got 
 ready for the battle, and then the two armies went 
 to their tents for the night. 
 
 Early in the morning Alfred, who had charge of 
 one part of the English army, went out to set his 
 men in order. But Ethelred refused to leave his 
 tent until the priests had performed the service of 
 the church. 
 
 The Danes made the first attack, and Alfred was 
 hard pressed on a little hill where he had placed his 
 men. Long and fierce was the fight around a thorn 
 tree that stood alone at the top of the hill. At last 
 Ethelred came to help his brother. His men fought 
 well and bravely, and the Danes were overpowered, 
 and put to flight. 
 
 Not long after this victory, another battle was 
 fought at Merton, in Surrey. This time the Danes 
 were the victors, and Ethelred was wounded. After 
 lying ill for some months he died, and Alfred, who 
 was now twenty-two years old, became king. 
 
 He was king, not of all England, but of Wessex, 
 the country of the West Saxons, which took in the 
 
ALFRED IN MISFORTUNE. 3 1 
 
 southern part of the country from Bristol Channel 
 to the border of Sussex. But the king of Wessex 
 was looked up to as their head by the other kings. 
 
 Alfred was crowned king at Winchester, then 
 and long after the capital, and at once had to fight 
 hard for his kingdom against the Danes. 
 
 III. ALFRED IN MISFORTUNE. 
 
 A great battle was fought between the English 
 and the Danes at Wilton. Neither side could claim 
 the victory, but the slaughter was so great that even 
 the Danes were glad to make peace. Very soon the 
 peace was broken. 
 
 The Danes came suddenly upon the castle of 
 Wareham and the city of Exeter, and captured 
 them. Other Danes crossed the sea to help their 
 friends. 
 
 Alfred built a fleet of ships to fight them on the 
 sea, and his ships were sometimes able to drive the 
 enemy back. In spite of this, the Danes were so 
 strong, and overran Wessex in such swarms, that the 
 English lost all hope of ever getting rid of them. 
 
 Many Englishmen fled to France, and Alfred 
 himself at last had to go into hiding at Athelney, a 
 spot among the swamps of Somerset. Stories say 
 that he lived for some time in the hut of a cow- 
 herd, where he spent his time in making plans for 
 freeing his country from the hated Danes. 
 
 One day he was sitting by the fire, thinking 
 
32 
 
 THE STORY OF ALFRED THE GREAT. 
 
 deeply, and mending his bow. The cowherd's 
 wife had put some loaves to bake, and then attended 
 to other things. By and by there arose a smell of 
 burning, and the woman came quickly to the fire, 
 and found that the loaves were burning black. 
 
 She took them up and turned angrily to the 
 man who sat there, not knowing that he was the 
 
 King Alfred allows the Cakes to Burn. 
 
 king. " You man ! " she cried, " you will not turn 
 the bread you see burning, but you will be very glad 
 to eat it when it is done." 
 
 The king bore her scolding with patience, and after- 
 wards took care to tend her bread as she wished. 
 
 By and by some of Alfred's noblemen found out 
 where their king was, and came to him. With their 
 aid he turned the swampy place into a strong camp, 
 and with them he talked over his plans. 
 
ALFRED IN RETIREMENT. 33 
 
 IV. ALFRED IN RETIREMENT. 
 
 One winter day, when food had run short, and 
 Alfred's companions had gone out with their bows 
 and arrows to hunt for more, a poor beggar came 
 to the door. He asked the cowherd's wife for 
 bread, but there was only a small loaf in the hut. 
 
 Alfred looked up from the book he was reading, 
 thought for a moment, and then bade the woman 
 give half the loaf to the beggar. He said that the 
 same Power which once fed five thousand men with 
 five loaves and two small fishes, would also provide 
 food for him and his men. 
 
 Then he returned to his reading, and, being 
 weary, he fell asleep. He dreamed that an angel 
 appeared to him and told him that God was pleased 
 with his kindness, and would soon bring him back 
 to his kingdom, and give him greater power than 
 before. In token of this, his companions would 
 return that night from hunting with a plentiful 
 supply of food. 
 
 Alfred awoke full of hope and courage. By and 
 by his men returned laden with game and fish. He 
 told them of his dream, and they were all full of 
 joy at the thought that things were changing for 
 the better. 
 
 An event now happened which raised their hopes 
 still higher. The Danes, after fighting in Wales, 
 crossed the Bristol Channel and laid siege to the 
 castle of Kenwith, in Devonshire. The commander 
 
34 THE STORY OF ALFRED THE GREAT. 
 
 of the castle, one of Alfred's noblemen, planned 
 a night attack upon the enemy, so as to take them 
 by surprise. 
 
 One dark night he got his men together, and just 
 before the dawn they rushed out of the castle, and 
 came upon the Danes sleeping in their tents. In 
 the darkness, the Danes were thrown into confusion, 
 and did not know their friends from their foes. 
 
 They were outmatched, and when they learned 
 that their leader had been killed, and their banner 
 taken, they fled in despair to their ships. Twelve 
 hundred dead bodies were left upon the ground. 
 
 When Alfred heard of this victory, he made up 
 his mind that now was the time to go out against 
 the Danes. So he sent messengers into all parts 
 of the country, asking for soldiers to join him. 
 
 The people were delighted to hear of their king 
 again, for they had begun to think that he must be 
 dead. Soldiers from all parts flocked to his stand- 
 ard, and very soon he was at the head of a large 
 army. 
 
 V. ALFRED CONQUERS THE DANES. 
 
 The main body of the Danes had made their 
 camp on a hill at Edington, in Wiltshire. Alfred 
 wished to know exactly how large their army was, 
 and what was their position on the hill. 
 
 He might have sent one of his own men to the 
 Danish camp as a spy. Instead of doing so, he 
 
ALFRED CONQUERS THE DANES. 35 
 
 dressed himself like one of the strolling harpers who 
 used to follow an army from place to place, singing 
 songs for the amusement of the soldiers, and in this 
 disguise he went to the Danes. 
 
 Alfred's memory was stored with old songs, and 
 he was a skilful player on the harp, so that he was 
 well received by the Danish soldiers when he 
 offered to sing to them. While they sat in groups, 
 drinking their mead and listening to his music, 
 Alfred carefully noticed how their camp was placed 
 on the hill, and formed an idea of their number. 
 
 His playing was so good that Guthrum, the Da- 
 nish general, heard of it, and ordered the harper to 
 be brought to his tent. Alfred was in great danger 
 of being found out, but he was careful of his actions, 
 and, after playing for some time to Guthrum, he 
 left the camp in safety. He had learnt all that he 
 wished to know, and returned to Athelney with a 
 plan of attack in his mind. 
 
 He arranged that his men were to meet on the 
 border of Selwood Forest. They came together as 
 secretly as possible, but as they grew in numbers 
 they became bold, and the forest was soon filled 
 with the blare of trumpets, the clash of arms, and 
 the shouts of the soldiers. 
 
 The Danes heard the din, and Guthrum drew up 
 his army in readiness for battle. Alfred's troops 
 marched boldly to meet them. They began the 
 fight at a distance with arrows, then at closer quar- 
 ters they used their lances, and very soon it be- 
 
■56 THE STORY OF ALFRED THE GREAT. 
 
 J&W^n 
 
 Battle of Edington. 
 
 came a desperate fight with swords and axes, hand 
 to hand, and man to man. 
 
 Terrible was the slaughter, and for long no man 
 could tell which side would win. At last the Danes 
 
ALFRED THE KING. T>7 
 
 gave way, and began to retreat. Hundreds had 
 been killed, many were taken prisoners, and those 
 who escaped took refuge in a castle. 
 
 For fourteen days they were shut up there, not 
 daring to come out and fight. Food and water got 
 less and less, and at last, fearing that they would 
 starve, Guthrum opened the gates to King Alfred. 
 
 Then Alfred showed the nobleness and the wis- 
 dom of a great king. He saw that it was impossi- 
 ble to keep the Danes out of England, so he agreed 
 to allow Guthrum to rule over the eastern part of 
 the island if he would promise to leave Alfred's 
 kingdom of Wessex, and never return, and if he 
 would become a Christian. 
 
 Guthrum was glad to agree to these very merci- 
 ful terms. He came to see Alfred, and became his 
 guest for some weeks, and was baptized as a Chris- 
 tian under the name of Ethelstane. Then English 
 and Danes joined together in feasts and rejoicings, 
 and by and by, when Guthrum went to his new king- 
 dom, he took with him many presents from Alfred. 
 
 VI. ALFRED THE KING. 
 
 Great as King Alfred was in war, he was still 
 greater in peace. No king before him, and few 
 kings after him, did more for the real happiness 
 and welfare of the people. 
 
 He drew up a book of laws for the protection of 
 life and property. Men who did wrong were se- 
 
38 THE STORY OF ALFRED THE GREAT. 
 
 verely punished, but no man was put to death for 
 his crime. Alfred took care that the judges should 
 be fair and upright men, for any who acted unjustly 
 were heavily punished. 
 
 Respect for Alfred's law was so great, that peo- 
 ple said if apples of gold grew beside the public 
 highway, a man might walk the country from end 
 to end and not dare to steal them. 
 
 Alfred showed great favor to religious men and 
 men of learning. He wished all his people to learn 
 to read. He was himself anxious to learn all that 
 he could, and invited a learned bishop named Asser 
 to leave his home in Wales, and come to live with 
 him and be his teacher. 
 
 Asser taught Alfred many things, and among 
 them, the Latin language. When Alfred had 
 learned Latin, he set about translating Latin books 
 into English for the use of his people. He made 
 a translation of a History of the World, and of a 
 History of the English Church written by a good 
 and learned monk named Bede. To the first of 
 these he added two stories of travel, which were 
 told him by the travellers themselves. Thus 
 he tried to give his people knowledge and fresh 
 ideas. 
 
 In his reign, too, there was begun the Saxon 
 Chronicle. This was the story of England from 
 Caesar's invasion to Alfred's own day. Monks 
 wrote in it, year by year, the principal events in 
 the history of the country. 
 
ALFREDS LAST YEARS. 39 
 
 After Alfred's death, the Chronicle continued to 
 be written for nearly three hundred years, and from 
 it we get nearly all our knowledge of the early 
 history of the country. 
 
 VII. ALFRED'S LAST YEARS. 
 
 Alfred is said to have invented a clever way of 
 telling the time, for there were no clocks or watches 
 then. He noticed hovv evenly the candles, used in 
 his palace and in the churches, burnt down, and he 
 found out by careful trial the size of a candle which 
 would burn exactly three inches in an hour. 
 
 Then he ordered a large number of these candles 
 to be made, each of them one foot long. They 
 were marked off in inches, so that each inch of 
 candle lasted twenty minutes, and each candle 
 lasted four hours. 
 
 By taking care that such candles were always 
 kept burning, he made it possible to know exactly 
 how the time was going. This was a great help 
 for those who had work to do. 
 
 In those days the windows, even in castles and 
 palaces, were often mere holes in the walls, for glass 
 was then not used in England. On a rough day, 
 the wind, sweeping in through these holes, blew the 
 candle flames about, and made the candles burn 
 faster than they were meant to do. 
 
 Alfred set his wits to work to prevent this. He 
 knew that horn, when softened with hot water, 
 
4-0 THE STORY OF ALFRED THE GREAT. 
 
 could be cut into very thin plates, through which 
 light would easily pass. So he set some thin strips 
 of horn into the sides of a wooden box, and thus 
 made a rough lantern, in which his candle-clocks 
 would burn steadily. 
 
 Now that he could exactly measure time, Alfred 
 is said to have divided his day into three parts of 
 eight hours each. One he gave to sleep and food 
 and exercise, another to the business of the country, 
 and the third to religion and study and the care of 
 Church matters. 
 
 This great king is sometimes called the Founder 
 of the British Navy. For he spent great pains in 
 building ships which, as we have seen, were able to 
 drive away the ships of the Danes. 
 
 Alfred's last years were disturbed by more 
 troubles with the Danes. Under a fierce leader, 
 named Hasting, fresh bands of the Northmen 
 poured into the country. For several years Alfred 
 fought them on sea and land, and at length was 
 able to drive them out. 
 
 Only four years afterwards, the great king's 
 useful life came to a peaceful end. As he lay 
 on his deathbed, he called to him his son Edward, 
 a young man who had many of his father's fine 
 qualities. 
 
 "Thou, my dear son," said the dying king, "set 
 thee now beside me, and I will deliver to thee true 
 counsel. I feel that my last hour is nigh. My 
 strength is gone from me ; my countenance is 
 
ALFREDS LAST YEARS. 4 1 
 
 wasted and wan. My days are almost come to an 
 end, and it is time for us to part. 
 
 " I go to another world, and thou art to be left 
 alone to hold all that which I have held to this 
 time. I pray thee, my dear child, to be a father to 
 thy people. Be the children's father and the 
 widow's friend. 
 
 " Comfort the poor, protect and shelter the weak, 
 and, with all thy might, right that which is wrong. 
 Then shall the Lord love thee, and God himself 
 shall be thy great reward." 
 
 So King Alfred passed away. He was fifty-two 
 years old. His body was buried in the cathedral at 
 Winchester, and his kingdom passed peacefully to 
 his son. 
 
 Alfred's people loved and admired him : he was 
 so calm and patient, so earnest and sincere, so eager 
 to please them and to do them good, and so careless 
 of his own pleasure. Alfred the Truth-teller they 
 called him : afterwards he was known as Alfred the 
 Great. 
 
THE DANES IN ENGLAND. 
 I. THE DANISH CONQUEST. 
 
 For more than a hundred years after the death of 
 Alfred the Great, the English kings had to fight 
 hard against fresh bands of Danes. First Alfred's 
 son Edward, then his grandson Athelstan, led their 
 armies against the invaders, and showed themselves 
 to be able warriors, as they were also good kings. 
 
 Athelstan won a splendid victory over a large 
 force of Danes and Scots, in which five Danish 
 kings and seven earls were among the slain. But, 
 in course of time, there came to the throne kings 
 who were neither so brave nor so wise as King 
 Alfred and his family. The most foolish of these 
 was Ethelred, who became known as the King of 
 Ill-counsel. 
 
 It was in a very shameful way that he became 
 king. His half-brother Edward was king, but his 
 mother wished Ethelred, her other son, to reign. 
 One day Edward was out riding in the country, 
 and, becoming very thirsty, he called at the house of 
 his stepmother, and asked for something to drink. 
 She came to the door herself, bringing a cup of 
 wine which Edward took from her hand, still sitting 
 on his horse. 
 
 42 
 
THE DANISH CONQUEST. 43 
 
 While he was drinking, one of his stepmother's 
 servants came behind him, and stabbed him in the 
 back. Edward put his horse to the gallop, but soon 
 became faint from the loss of blood, and fell from 
 the saddle. His foot stuck in the stirrup, and he 
 was dragged along the ground by his startled horse 
 until he died. 
 
 Ethelred then became king, and the reign thus 
 badly begun went on badly. Danes came in large 
 numbers over the sea ; they sailed up the Humber, 
 slaying and robbing ; they even sailed up the Thames 
 and threatened London. 
 
 The foolish king paid them a large sum of money 
 to leave England, but they soon returned, and laid 
 waste the country worse than before. Ethelred 
 again gave them money, which he got together by 
 putting a tax upon the people. This tax was known 
 as Danegeld, that is, Dane-money. 
 
 Then there came into Ethelred's mind the terrible 
 thought of killing the Danes who were settled in his 
 kingdom. On St. Brice's day his plan was carried 
 out. The English slew all the Danes upon whom 
 they could lay hands, — men, women, and children. 
 Among those who were killed was the sister of the 
 Danish King Sweyn, who, when he heard the news, 
 swore to take England from Ethelred. 
 
 For several years the Danes kept up their attacks 
 on England, destroying churches, burning towns 
 and villages, and slaying without mercy. Then, 
 with one mighty effort, they overcame the last 
 
44 THE DANES IN ENGLAND. 
 
 feeble defence of the English, captured Oxford, 
 Winchester, and London, and drove Ethelred in 
 flight over sea to Normandy. 
 
 II. THE DANISH KINGS. 
 
 Sweyn, the king of Denmark, died only a few 
 weeks after the flight of Ethelred, who then returned 
 to his kingdom. The English king died two years 
 later, and his son, Edmund Ironside, became king. 
 
 Edmund at once had to fight against Canute, the 
 son of Sweyn. Five great battles were fought, in 
 some of which Edmund was the victor. But at the 
 battle of Ashdown, in Essex, the English were 
 beaten by the Danes, and then the kingdom was 
 divided between Edmund and Canute. 
 
 Only a few months afterwards Edmund died, and 
 then Canute became sole king of England. Canute 
 was a little man, but as bold and fierce as a lion, 
 and a most able warrior. 
 
 As a king he showed himself both wise and 
 merciful. He kept the country at peace, and took 
 care that justice was done, in this way earning the 
 love of his people. He paid great respect to the 
 Church, and once went as a pilgrim to Rome. He 
 gave splendid gifts to churches and religious houses, 
 and was a good friend to the monks. 
 
 An old story tells how he was going one day by 
 boat to Ely to keep a church festival, and heard the 
 
46 THE DANES IN ENGLAND. 
 
 sweet song of the monks as he came near. Then 
 he bade the rowers sing with him, and composed a 
 little song for them to sing — 
 
 Merrily sang the monks in Ely, 
 
 As Canute the king rowed by. 
 Row, boatmen, near the land, 
 And let us hear the monks sing. 
 
 There is another story, which shows what good 
 sense Canute had. Some of his courtiers used to 
 flatter him, and say that so great was he that even 
 the sea would obey him. 
 
 One day, when the king was by the seashore with 
 his courtiers, the waves came rolling up the sand 
 nearer and nearer to Canute's feet. He sternly 
 bade them go back, and when they still came on, 
 he turned to the lords, saying, " One only is there 
 who can say to the sea, thus far shalt thou come 
 and no farther." And the lords sank their heads 
 in shame, knowing that the king meant God, and 
 that he intended by these words to rebuke them 
 for their senseless flattery. 
 
 When Canute died the nation grieved, for he had 
 ruled wisely. His two sons, who reigned after him 
 in turn, were savage, foolish men, in no way fit for 
 their high place. 
 
 After a reign of two years, the second of them 
 died in a drunken revel at the house of one of his 
 lords. Then the crown passed away from the 
 Danes, and went to Edward, son of Ethelred, a 
 quiet, saintly man, forty-one years of age. 
 
THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 
 I. HAROLD'S OATH. 
 
 In the hall of a Norman castle, one day, there 
 were met together many noble warriors and proud 
 churchmen. Among the company were two men 
 who seemed to be of more importance than the rest, 
 for all eyes were bent on them. 
 
 One was a tall, dark man, whose strong frame and 
 stern look marked him out as a leader of men. The 
 other also was tall and big, but his hair was fair and 
 his eyes were blue; and, while his look was proud, 
 there was something of discontent in it. 
 
 The dark man was William, Duke of Normandy • 
 the fair man was Harold, Earl of Wessex. The 
 former was head of a race of men descended from 
 fierce Northmen who had made a home for them- 
 selves in the north of France. The latter was the 
 most powerful man in England. 
 
 At this time Harold was William's guest, or 
 rather his prisoner. For, sailing down the English 
 Channel, his vessel had been wrecked on the Nor- 
 man shore, and William had taken him from the 
 nobleman upon whose land he had been cast. 
 
 William was glad to get Harold into his power. 
 Both these strong men were aiming at the crown of 
 England, and William had made up his mind to 
 
 47 
 
48 THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 
 
 gain Harold's support for himself, by fair means or 
 foul. 
 
 So he had gathered his chief men together to 
 hear Harold take an oath to him. In the middle of 
 the hall was what appeared to be a table covered 
 with a velvet cloth. By this Harold stood, and 
 there, lifting up his right hand, he swore a solemn 
 oath that he would be William's man, and help him 
 to become king of England. 
 
 Instantly the cloth was removed, and Harold saw, 
 not a table, but a chest with a glass top, within 
 which lay holy relics of the Saints. In the belief of 
 the men of that time, Harold's oath was made more 
 solemn by being spoken above these relics. 
 
 Thus English Harold, though wishing to be king 
 of England himself, was tricked into promising to 
 help a Norman to be king. How was it possible 
 for either of these men to entertain such a wish ? 
 
 The king of England at that time was Edward, 
 the son of Ethelred, known from his pious life as 
 Edward the Confessor. He was a good man, with 
 a fine face and kingly manners, and was beloved 
 by his people for his wise rule and his love of 
 peace. 
 
 Edward had no children. The heir to the throne 
 was a child, Edgar the Atheling, a grandson of Ed- 
 mund Ironside. In those stirring times kingdoms 
 needed at their head strong men, and not boys. 
 
 Earl Harold was a strong man — a brave soldier 
 who had showed some signs of having the qualities 
 
HAROLD S OATH. 
 
 49 
 
 of a king. Thus, though he was not of royal blood, 
 he was looked upon by many of the English as the 
 fittest man to succeed Edward. 
 
 Duke William was also a strong man. From his 
 youth up he had had to fight hard for his dukedom ; 
 
 Harold takes an Oath of Allegiance. 
 
 he had never lost a battle, and was famed as the 
 greatest warrior in Europe. 
 
 King Edward had passed his childhood in Nor- 
 mandy, and loved the Norman people and their 
 ways. He gathered Normans about him at his 
 English court, and once, when William went to visit 
 
5<D THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 
 
 him in England, Edward is said to have made a sort 
 of promise that William should be king after him. 
 Now it will be seen why Duke William was so 
 glad to get Earl Harold into his power, and why he 
 made him swear so solemn an oath. 
 
 II. THE BATTLE OF HASTINGS. 
 
 Edward died, and the Council of Wise Men, the 
 great national council of England, chose Harold to 
 be their king. When the news reached Duke Will- 
 iam, he was speechless with rage. 
 
 At once he resolved to win the crown of Eng- 
 land by force of arms. First he sent messengers to 
 Harold, demanding that he should keep his oath. 
 But Harold replied that a forced oath was not bind- 
 ing, and that he had been chosen king by the votes 
 of the Wise Men of England. 
 
 William then set about gathering together a huge 
 army for the conquest of England. He sent word 
 to the Pope how Harold had broken the oath taken 
 so solemnly over holy relics, and asked his leave to 
 punish so wicked a man. The Pope gave his con- 
 sent, and sent him a banner which he had blessed. 
 
 William, having got together his army, with much 
 labor built a fleet of ships to carry it to England. 
 Meanwhile Harold was preparing to defend his 
 kingdom. 
 
 Suddenly the English received news that an army 
 had invaded them on the north. Tostig, one of 
 
THE BATTLE OF HASTINGS. 5 1 
 
 Harold's brothers, had been banished from his Eng- 
 lish earldom because he ill-used his people. He 
 had now returned to take revenge, and with him was 
 Harold Hardrada, the fierce king of Norway, to help 
 him in battle. 
 
 Harold of England hurried northward with a 
 small army, met the invaders at Stamford Bridge 
 in Yorkshire, and defeated them in a great battle. 
 Tostig and the king of Norway were both slain. 
 
 While resting at York, Harold heard that William 
 the Norman had landed on the south coast. Hurry- 
 ing with all speed southward, collecting forces as 
 he went, Harold came within reach of his enemy a 
 fortnight after the landing. Against the advice of 
 his friends, he decided at once to risk a battle. He 
 drew up his army on the hill of Senlac, a few miles 
 from Hastings, and there awaited the Norman attack. 
 
 Most of the English were foot-soldiers, armed 
 with huge axes. The Normans were strong in 
 horse-soldiers, and had also some archers. Again 
 and again the Normans fell back before the terrible 
 English battle-axes. William himself was struck 
 from his horse, and a cry arose that he was slain. 
 " I live ! " he shouted, tearing off his helmet so that 
 his men might see his face ; " and by God's help 
 will conquer yet ! " 
 
 Presently he drew off part of his troops as if he 
 meant to flee. Harold's eager men, forgetting his 
 order not to stir from their posts, poured down the 
 hill in pursuit. Then the Normans turned round, 
 
52 THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 
 
 and, pressing firmly in good order up the hill, smote 
 down the broken ranks of the English. 
 
 Still a fierce fight was kept up at the top of the 
 hill, where Harold and his faithful body-guard wielded 
 their deadly axes around their banner. William 
 ordered his archers to shoot their arrows in the air, 
 so that they might fall on the bare heads of the 
 English. An arrow pierced Harold's right eye, and, 
 as he tore it out, he was struck to the ground by a 
 Norman knight. 
 
 Over his dead body the fight raged on until not a 
 man of his guards was left alive. Then darkness 
 put an end to the battle. William had won his title 
 of " the Conqueror," and sat down to eat and drink 
 among the dead. 
 
 III. COMPLETION OF THE CONQUEST. 
 
 The Normans won the battle of Hastings because 
 they were better armed and better trained than the 
 English, and because William was a more skilful 
 general than Harold. But the winning of this one 
 battle did not give William the whole of England. 
 
 At first the English, having no great and trusted 
 leader, made little resistance to the Conqueror, who 
 was crowned king at Westminster on Christmas Day. 
 But when he returned to Normandy to look after 
 affairs there, his English subjects rose in rebellion 
 in many parts of the country. 
 
 If they had joined together under one strong 
 
COMPLETION OF THE CONQUEST. 
 
 53 
 
 leader, they might perhaps have driven out the 
 Normans. But their chief men were jealous of 
 
 The Battle of Hastings — the Fight round the Standard. 
 
 one another, and the men of the north would not 
 help the men of the south. 
 
54 THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 
 
 The men of Kent took arms against the cruel 
 Odo, William's brother, who had been left to guard 
 the kingdom. The men of Yorkshire sought help 
 from the Danes against the Normans. In the south- 
 west, Harold's mother raised a rebellion against 
 William, and the city of Exeter refused to own him 
 as king. 
 
 When William had settled his business in Nor- 
 mandy, he returned to England and set about 
 finishing his conquest. He put down the men of 
 Kent, then marched to the west, and took Exeter 
 after a siege of nearly three weeks. He showed 
 mercy to the brave defenders, but built a castle to 
 keep them down in future, and made them pay him 
 large sums of money. 
 
 Then he marched northwards, and Edwin and 
 Morcar, the northern earls, gave in to him. But a 
 year afterwards, help came from Denmark, and the 
 north broke out again in rebellion. 
 
 William bribed the Danish leaders to desert the 
 English. Then, in order to punish the rebels so 
 fearfully that they would never dare to rise up 
 again, he laid waste the north of England. 
 
 Crops and cattle were destroyed, farms and all 
 that belonged to them were burned. Hundreds of 
 men, women, and children lost their homes and 
 died of hunger. Some people kept themselves alive 
 by eating horse flesh, some even ate the dead bodies 
 of their fellow-men. Others sold themselves as 
 slaves to the Normans. 
 
HEREWARD. 55 
 
 Thus a district which once had been fertile be- 
 came a dreary waste. For many years afterwards, 
 the unploughed fields and the blackened remains 
 of ruined homesteads told the tale of the Con- 
 queror's cruelty. 
 
 IV. HEREWARD. 
 
 When William had put down the rebels in the 
 north, almost all England was his. Only in one part 
 of the country was a firm stand still made against him. 
 
 In the eastern counties there was a swampy 
 district called the Isle of Ely, where a small spot 
 of dry land rose above the rivers and fens which 
 shut it in. On this spot a bold Englishman named 
 Hereward formed his camp. 
 
 Here for nearly a year a fierce band of English- 
 men held out against the Normans. To the Camp 
 of Refuge, as it was called, came many bold and 
 desperate men who would not have the Normans 
 for their masters. They made their home within a 
 monastery, where they kept their weapons hanging 
 from the roof in constant readiness for use. 
 
 William went up with an army, but at first he 
 could not get within reach of the rebels, because 
 of the water. So he began to build a great cause- 
 way of wood and stone, by which he might lead his 
 men over the swamps. 
 
 Many stories are told of Hereward's deeds — how 
 he went to the Norman camp, once dressed as a 
 
56 THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 
 
 potter, another time as a fisherman, to find out all 
 he could about his enemy. 
 
 At last, some of the monks, wishing to find favor 
 
 Hereward brought before the Conqueror. 
 
 with William, showed him a secret way into the 
 Camp of Refuge. The Normans entered and slew 
 many of the rebels ; they also took many prisoners. 
 
RESULTS OF THE CONQUEST. 57 
 
 Even then Hereward was not beaten, for he es- 
 caped to a ship which was kept ready for him close 
 by. He sailed away, but came back at times and 
 made himself a terror to the Normans. 
 
 At last he was either defeated or he gave him- 
 self up to William. Some stories say that he was 
 taken into favor by William, who gave him lands, 
 and took him to Normandy to help him in his 
 French wars. 
 
 V. RESULTS OF THE CONQUEST. — i. 
 
 William had shown himself strong enough to 
 master the country ; he now showed himself wise 
 enough to govern it. In the first place, to prevent all 
 disputes, he said that all the land of England was his, 
 and he gave much of it to his Norman followers. 
 
 To keep down the people, he built many strong 
 castles, such as the Tower of London. In these, 
 soldiers were kept in readiness to put down any 
 attempt at rebellion. In order to make his hold on 
 the country still more strong and firm, William 
 bound the nation to himself by means of the feudal 
 system, which had already existed in France and 
 Germany for two hundred years. This was as 
 follows : — 
 
 Every man who received land from the king had 
 to do homage to him, that is, to swear to be his man 
 and serve him in war with a certain number of 
 soldiers. Such a man was called a tenant-in-chief, 
 and the land he held was called \\\s fee ox feud. 
 
58 THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 
 
 He might let out his land in portions to tenants 
 of his own, who had to make to him the same prom- 
 ise that he had made to the king. Thus in time 
 of war the king would summon his tenants-in-chief ; 
 they would summon their tenants, and in this way 
 a large army was brought together. Most of 
 William's tenants-in-chief were Normans, upon 
 whom he could depend to obey his call. 
 
 It was important for William to know all about 
 the land which he had thus got. He therefore sent 
 men into all parts of the country, to find out who 
 the owners had been in the days of King Edward, 
 w T ho the present owners were, how much their hold- 
 ings were worth, and what number of cattle and 
 sheep they owned. 
 
 The answers to these and other questions were 
 written in a book called Domesday Book, or book 
 of judgment, which is still to be seen in the British 
 Museum. 
 
 This inquiry offended the people, who said it 
 was a shame for the king to set down in the book 
 every yard of land and every cow or pig they 
 owned. But the book was of real value in help- 
 ing William to govern in an orderly way. 
 
 Another act of William's caused great anger and 
 had terrible results. This was the clearing of the 
 New Forest. William was fond of hunting, and 
 marked off several wide districts where stags were 
 kept for his sole pleasure. 
 
 One of these districts was in Hampshire, and was 
 
RESULTS OF THE CONQUEST. 
 
 59 
 
 called the New Forest. There people were turned 
 out of their homes, and villages were destroyed, in 
 order that the land might be made into a hunting- 
 ground. 
 
 Severe laws were made, punishing very heavily 
 
 Keep of Richmond Castle, Yorkshire. 
 
 any man who hunted in the king's grounds. Thus 
 the king, in seeking his pleasure, caused misery to 
 many people. In the course of time he brought 
 misery on himself too. For, before he died, a son 
 and a grandson of his both met their deaths in the 
 New Forest, most likely by the hands of angry men 
 
60 THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 
 
 who had lost their homes and lands when the forest 
 was enclosed. 
 
 The Conqueror's son, William the Red (Rufus), 
 who became king after him, was also murdered in 
 the Forest. People said that these deaths in the 
 Conqueror's family were God's punishment for his 
 cruelty. 
 
 VI. RESULTS OF THE CONQUEST. — 2. 
 
 The Norman Conquest brought much distress 
 on Englishmen. The Norman landowners harshly 
 treated those who were under them, and men 
 who had once been free, with land of their own, 
 now became bond-servants on the land of others. 
 
 But in the end the Conquest was of the greatest 
 benefit to England. Before, the country had not 
 been really united. Parts of it had been ruled by 
 great earls who were almost as powerful as the 
 king, and this was not good for the people. 
 
 With William, however, the power of the king 
 greatly increased, and his rule, while hard and 
 stern, was firm and rested on law. This was bound 
 to have good results in time. 
 
 The invasion of England by the Normans had 
 other good results. England had not had much to 
 do with the rest of Europe ; and Englishmen, liv- 
 ing in their snug little island, thought of nothing 
 but their own concerns. 
 
 They did not learn the new things that were 
 
RESULTS OF THE CONQUEST. 6 1 
 
 being learned by the rest of Europe. They were 
 slow-going, backward in trade, in art, in knowledge ; 
 their manners were rough, and their buildings 
 clumsy. 
 
 The Normans brought with them improvements 
 in all these things. They knew how to build ; they 
 were lively and dashing in manner ; they loved art, 
 and were more polite and " gentlemanly " than the 
 English. In short, they woke up old England, and 
 gave new life to the nation. 
 
 Although at first they treated the English as a 
 conquered race, the two peoples soon became one. 
 The Norman brightness and charm joined with the 
 English solid strength to form the mighty race 
 which now peoples and governs so great a part of 
 the globe. 
 
 The Normans spoke a kind of French, and at 
 first the Norman nobles and their English depend- 
 ents could not understand one another. But by 
 and by French words and forms were taken into 
 the English language. 
 
 The rough old English speech was much im- 
 proved by this mixture with the smoother French. 
 The English language thus formed is now the finest 
 language in the world, and is spoken by far more 
 people than speak any other. 
 
THE STORY OF HENRY THE SECOND. 
 I. HENRY'S TITLE AND CHARACTER. 
 
 Two sons of William the Conqueror were in turn 
 kings of England. The first of them, William the 
 Red, was an able but wicked man, and no one grieved 
 when he was found dead in New Forest, with an 
 arrow through his heart. 
 
 The second of them, Henry I., was also an able 
 man, and he pleased the English far more than his 
 father and brother had done. He tried to deal justly 
 and kindly with the English, and to make all men 
 obey the law, great nobles as well as poor people. 
 
 When he died, leaving no son, there broke out a 
 terrible war between his daughter Maud and his 
 nephew Stephen, who both wished to be sovereign. 
 At length, it was agreed that Stephen should be 
 king until his death, and that then Maud's son 
 Henry should rule the country. 
 
 Henry became King Stephen's adopted son, and 
 when Stephen died in 1154, the nation gladly ac- 
 cepted the young man, only twenty-one years old, 
 as their king. 
 
 During Stephen's reign, the country had been in 
 great misery. Stephen himself was a good-humored 
 
 62 
 
henry's title and character. 63 
 
 and generous man, but, during the long civil war, 
 he had been unable to defend the people from the 
 cruelty of the great lords. Knowing that Henry II. 
 was a strong and able man, the nation looked to him 
 for relief. They were not disappointed. 
 
 Henry's father had been the lord of a large domain 
 in France. Henry's wife Eleanor was the duchess 
 of another French province, and he was himself the 
 Duke of Normandy. Thus the English king was 
 lord of a greater part of France than was the French 
 king himself. 
 
 Henry was a strongly built man, with square broad 
 shoulders and thick neck. His face was ruddy and 
 freckled, and his hair was red, and cropped short. 
 He had long powerful arms, and hands as rough 
 as any ploughman's. He rode on horseback so 
 much that his legs were somewhat bandy. His 
 voice was harsh and cracked, and when he was 
 angry, his flashing gray eyes made him look terrible. 
 
 He was a restless and busy man. Indeed, so 
 hard a worker was he that his servants prayed God 
 to make their master a little more quiet. He dressed 
 plainly, and lived on simple food, and would patiently 
 spend whole days and nights in trying to think out 
 plans by which to govern his people. 
 
 Though he was a fine soldier and a great general, 
 he was a lover of peace, and showed himself full of 
 pity for the wounded. While he could not speak 
 English, he knew several other languages, and was 
 fond of reading, and of talking with learned men. 
 
64 THE STORY OF HENRY THE SECOND. 
 
 He had a very hot and fiery temper, and would 
 sometimes roll about on the ground in his rage. 
 Things he had once read, the faces of people he had 
 once seen, rarely slipped from his memory, and he 
 was faithful to his friends and unforgiving to his 
 
 Queen Maud's Chamber, Arundel Castle. * 
 
 enemies. He paid great attention to his religious 
 duties ; indeed, he was a strange mixture of good 
 and bad. 
 
 II. HENRY'S WORK FOR ENGLAND. — i. 
 
 Henry proved himself to be one of the greatest 
 kings that England has ever had. Early in his 
 reign, he set to work to put down all those lords 
 
HENRY S WORK FOR ENGLAND 
 
 65 
 
 who brought misery on the people and who were a 
 trouble to himself. 
 
 These lords had built castles in different parts of 
 the country, where they acted like little kings. The 
 people around were entirely subject to them ; they 
 
 Norman Castle. From a Drawing in Grose's Military Antiquities. 
 
 1. The Donjon-keep. 2. Chapel. 3. Stables. 4. Inner Ballium. 5. Outer Bal- 
 lium. 6. Barbican. 7. Mount, supposed to be the court-hill or tribunal, and 
 also the place where justice was executed. 8. Soldier's Lodgings. 
 
 could be imprisoned and put to death at their lord's 
 pleasure, and suffered much in many ways. Many 
 of the lords waged war against one another, so that 
 
66 THE STORY OF HENRY THE SECOND. 
 
 it became impossible for people to till the ground, 
 and their flocks and herds were always in danger. 
 
 Henry destroyed many of these castles ; he made 
 the lords understand that he would have the laws 
 obeyed. The king himself travelled rapidly through 
 the land, to find out exactly how the people lived, 
 and how his officers treated them. He went from 
 place to place so quickly, and took so little notice 
 of difficulties, that he disgusted his servants and 
 courtiers. 
 
 Sometimes they would journey to a town where 
 there were not enough houses for them to lodge in, 
 and they had to put up with miserable huts, or even 
 to sleep on the ground. They sometimes had no 
 food but stale fish, and the coarsest black bread. 
 
 One of the king's servants wrote : " If the king 
 has proclaimed that he intends to stop late in any 
 place, you may be sure that he will start very early 
 in the morning, and with his sudden haste destroy 
 every one's plans. You will see men running about 
 like mad, urging forward their pack-horses, driving 
 their wagons into one another, everything in the 
 utmost disorder. 
 
 " Whereas, if the king has given out that he will 
 start early in the morning, he will certainly change 
 his mind, and you may be sure he will snore till 
 noon. You will see the pack-horses drooping under 
 their loads, wagons waiting, drivers nodding, trades- 
 men fretting, all grumbling at one another." 
 
 Ashe passed through the country, Henry heard 
 
HENRY'S WORK FOR ENGLAND. 67 
 
 lawsuits, settled cases which people thought the 
 judges had not tried properly, and drew up charters 
 granting rights and favors to towns and traders. 
 He was thoroughly honest and just, and made him- 
 self a terror to all false judges and cruel and unruly 
 lords. 
 
 III. HENRY'S WORK FOR ENGLAND. — 2. 
 
 Henry's great work was the drawing up of a new 
 plan of carrying out the law, which did much for 
 the welfare and freedom of Englishmen. Up to his 
 reign, most of the law business of the country had 
 been done at the shire-courts. These were meet- 
 ings held at certain times, in each county, and were 
 attended by the lords of the county, the sheriff, the 
 clergy, and people from the towns. 
 
 Here, if a man brought a charge against another 
 man, he had to bring witnesses to support it. The 
 accused man had to bring persons who could speak 
 well of him, and very often the question whether he 
 was guilty or not was settled by the votes of the 
 whole meeting. 
 
 Sometimes he was tried by the method called 
 Ordeal. He had to plunge his hand into boiling 
 water, or to walk a certain number of paces holding 
 a red-hot iron. If he received no hurt, he was be- 
 lieved to be innocent. 
 
 This way of settling disputes was very rough and 
 ready, and often led to further quarrels. So Henry 
 
68 THE STORY OF HENRY THE SECOND. 
 
 resolved to make some great changes. There was 
 a King's Court in London, where the work was done 
 by trained lawyers and judges. But few people went 
 to it, for in those days travelling was difficult and 
 cost much money. 
 
 So Henry sent judges to hold Assizes in all parts 
 of the country. The judges went on circuit, as it 
 is called, visiting one place after another. They thus 
 took the law to the people, instead of making people 
 come to the law. In this way right was done, and 
 the people knew that they could now have some pro- 
 tection against their lords. 
 
 The result of this was that the nation began to 
 grow prosperous. The land was tilled, and gave 
 good crops ; farms were safely stocked with sheep 
 and cattle ; trade grew in the towns. 
 
 Monasteries sprang up all over the country, and 
 became centres of trade. Round the houses of the 
 monks clustered barns and storehouses. The monks 
 employed men to drain swamps, to turn stagnant 
 water into running streams, to make roads and build 
 mills. 
 
 In Henry's reign, taxes were first paid to the king 
 in money. In former reigns they had been paid in 
 goods, such as corn, game, fish, eggs, cattle, honey, 
 and beer. 
 
 Knowledge and learning spread. Teachers gath- 
 ered pupils about them at Oxford and other places, 
 and English scholars went abroad, to France and 
 Italy, to learn law, art, and science. 
 
THOMAS BECKET. 69 
 
 IV. THOMAS BECKET. 
 
 One of the greatest figures of Henry's reign, the 
 first Englishman since the Conquest who rose to be 
 head of the English Church, was Thomas of Lon- 
 don. In those days family surnames were not 
 known, but Thomas is generally called Thomas 
 Becket, after his father Gilbert Becket. 
 
 He was born in 1 1 18, in the London street called 
 Cheapside. His father was a well-to-do merchant, 
 and rose to be port-reeve, or, as he would now be 
 called, Lord Mayor of London. Thomas was well 
 brought up. He was taught in London and in 
 Paris, and after serving for a time in a London 
 office, he was taken into the household of Theo- 
 bald, Archbishop of Canterbury. 
 
 He soon became a great favorite with the arch- 
 bishop. Slight and pale, with dark hair, long nose 
 and straight features, he had a merry face and 
 a keen mind. He stuttered slightly, but pleased 
 every one by his frank and winning conversation. 
 
 He was soon employed in important business, 
 and received many favors towards the end of 
 Stephen's reign. He became a deacon in the 
 Church, and when Henry came to the throne, the 
 archbishop advised the king to make his favorite 
 Thomas chancellor of the kingdom. 
 
 Thomas was very learned and industrious, and gave 
 the king much help in his great and difficult work. 
 Henry, like everybody else, became fond of his chan- 
 
7<3 THE STORY OF HENRY THE SECOND. 
 
 cellor. They were always together. They sat 
 together in hall and Church, rode out hunting to- 
 gether, fought side by side in battle, and together 
 played many a pleasant game of chess. 
 
 Thomas lived in splendid style. He dressed in 
 scarlet and furs, and in robes costly with cloth of 
 gold. His household was of enormous size, and he 
 had young nobles of the highest order to wait on 
 him. His tables groaned under the weight of his 
 gold and silver plate, and in the great London 
 shops where cooked foods were sold, it was always 
 Thomas's servants who bought the choicest dishes 
 for their master, and paid the highest prices. 
 
 Henry delighted to honor his excellent servant. 
 He gave him rich gifts, and treated him as his dear- 
 est friend. Sometimes he would go to the great 
 hall where Thomas was dining, and spring over the 
 table and sit down by his side. 
 
 V. BECKET QUARRELS WITH HENRY. 
 
 For several years the king and the chancellor 
 were the best of friends. Then the Archbishop of 
 Canterbury died, and Henry chose Becket to fill his 
 place. 
 
 Instantly there was coolness between the old 
 friends, for a great change took place in Becket's 
 way of life. He put off his fine clothes and wore 
 sackcloth : the black frock of the monk took the 
 place of the chancellor's fur-lined cloak. His table 
 
HENRYS WORK FOR ENGLAND. 
 
 71 
 
 was still loaded with dainty food, but the poor and 
 not the noble were now his guests. 
 
 His gay servants were sent away, and his house- 
 hold was formed of forty solemn monks, with whom 
 he spent hours in prayer and study. He visited the 
 
72 THE STORY OF HENRY THE SECOND. 
 
 sick: every day he washed the feet of thirteen 
 beggars. 
 
 This change of life offended Henry, who saw 
 that he could no longer depend on Becket doing 
 what he wished. The archbishop put his duty to 
 the Church higher than his duty to the king. 
 
 The first quarrel was about a land-tax, by which 
 the king wished to obtain a large sum of money. 
 Becket said that the manner in which this money 
 was to be got was unjust, and Henry, being in the 
 wrong, had to give way. 
 
 But a greater quarrel was about the Church 
 courts. Clergymen who wronged their fellow-men 
 were not tried by the king's judges, but by courts 
 of clergymen. Henry thought that the punishments 
 put upon the clergy by these courts were not severe 
 enough, and wished that all men, whether holding 
 offices in the Church or not, should be tried by the 
 common law of the land. 
 
 Becket declared that the Church would not give 
 up its rights, and at first the bishops supported 
 him. But when Henry threatened to take away 
 their offices and their lands, they gave way, and 
 Becket was left alone. 
 
 The bishops and the Pope begged him to let the 
 king have his way, and at length he agreed to do 
 so. Then Henry called a great council at Claren- 
 don in Wiltshire. Here Becket changed his mind, 
 and the king gave way to a furious burst of anger 
 against his old friend. 
 
THE COUNCIL OF NORTHAMPTON. 73 
 
 The king's servants broke into the hall where the 
 bishops were sitting, and brandished their axes above 
 their heads. With tears and cries the bishops fell 
 on their knees and besought Becket to give way. 
 
 At last he said, " I am ready to keep the customs 
 of the kingdom." Henry at once ordered these 
 customs to be written down, and the famous Con- 
 stitutions of Clarendon were put together. 
 
 When Becket was asked to sign and seal this 
 writing, he cried, " While I live I will never set my 
 seal to it." But he appears to have given way at 
 last, though unwillingly. 
 
 VI. THE COUNCIL OF NORTHAMPTON. 
 
 The Constitutions of Clarendon settled that the 
 clergy should be tried by the common law, but 
 Becket refused to obey them. " I will humble 
 thee," cried the king, "and will restore thee to the 
 place from whence I took thee." 
 
 A certain John the Marshal made a charge 
 against Becket in the king's court. Becket refused 
 to appear there, and appealed to the Pope, but the 
 king's council sentenced him to pay a fine. 
 
 Then Henry held a council at Northampton, at 
 which he called on Becket to give an account of 
 certain moneys he had received as chancellor. 
 Becket agreed to pay the king part of the money, 
 but this was refused, and he was allowed a few days 
 in which to submit entirely. 
 
74 THE STORY OF HENRY THE SECOND. 
 
 The last days of the council came, and the 
 bishops begged of Becket to obey the king. But 
 the archbishop ordered them to be silent ; he put 
 on his robes and said mass, and then set out for the 
 castle where the council was held, only two of his 
 servants riding with him. 
 
 In his right hand he held his archbishop's cross, 
 and crowds of people thronged about him, weeping, 
 and asking for his blessing, for they believed that 
 that day he should be slain. 
 
 When the king heard of his coming, he retired 
 with his chief officers to the upper room where he 
 held private council. A messenger was sent to 
 Becket demanding that he should withdraw his 
 appeal to the Pope. He refused, and the barons 
 cried out in anger when the messenger returned 
 with the news. 
 
 Then the lords passed sentence against Becket, 
 declaring him a traitor, and the Earl of Leicester 
 was sent to pronounce judgment. As the earl 
 entered the hall where the bishops sat, the arch- 
 bishop sprang up and raised his cross aloft. " By 
 the right of my office I forbid you to pronounce the 
 sentence," he cried. 
 
 The nobles drew back, and, still holding his 
 cross, Becket said, " I also withdraw, for the hour 
 is past." As he passed proudly down the hall, 
 cries of " traitor ! " were raided, and knights and 
 barons followed him almost mad with rage. 
 
 That night, helped by the darkness and a terrible 
 
THE END OF BECKET. 75 
 
 storm, Becket fled from Northampton, and in a few 
 days escaped to France. When Henry heard the 
 news, for a moment he could scarcely speak for wrath. 
 Then he thundered out, " We have not done with 
 him yet ! " 
 
 VII. THE END OF BECKET. 
 
 For six years Becket remained abroad, and the 
 Pope in vain tried to make peace between him and 
 Henry. At length the archbishop found another 
 cause of complaint. 
 
 Henry wished the kingdom to pass at his death 
 to his eldest son, and in order to insure that there 
 should be no trouble he decided to have the boy 
 crowned during his father's lifetime. This was a 
 plan adopted with success by the kings of France. 
 
 He therefore had his young son, Henry, crowned 
 in Becket's absence by the Archbishop of York. 
 But the right of crowning belonged to the Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury, and the Pope declared that 
 all who had taken part in the ceremony were cast 
 out of the Church. 
 
 Henry thought now that it would be wise to make 
 friends with Becket, so he met him in France, and 
 promised that he should return in safety to England, 
 and that the crowning should be performed over 
 again by himself. 
 
 But the friendship was not sincere. As soon as 
 Becket returned to England, he again declared that 
 
j6 THE STORY OF HENRY THE SECOND. 
 
 he would punish the bishops, who thereupon fled 
 across the sea to Henry in France. " What a pack 
 of fools and cowards I have nourished in my house," 
 cried the angry king, "that not one of them will 
 avenge me of this one upstart clerk ! " 
 
 Four knights who heard this hasty speech secretly 
 left the court, and crossed with all speed to England. 
 They hurried to Canterbury, and, seeking Becket, 
 they demanded that he should at once submit to 
 the king. 
 
 When Becket refused with bitter words, the 
 knights withdrew to arm themselves. It was 
 time for evening service, and, putting on his mitre 
 and robes, against the advice of his friends, the 
 archbishop went into the cathedral. 
 
 A noise was heard at the doors ; they were burst 
 in ; and as the knights rushed forward, the monks fled, 
 leaving Becket alone at the head of a flight of steps. 
 
 One of the knights cried, " Where is the traitor 
 Becket ? " " Here ! " cried the archbishop, " no 
 traitor, but priest of God ! " Another tried to 
 drag him down. " Come," he said, " thou art our 
 prisoner." Becket thrust him headlong down the 
 steps. " Away ! Thou art my vassal ! " he cried. 
 
 One faithful monk was wounded in defence of his 
 master. Then the knights fell upon Becket, struck 
 off his mitre, and pierced him with many wounds. 
 Becket fell dead, and as the murderers left the cathe- 
 dral, a terrible thunderstorm broke over the place. 
 
 The murder of Becket caused great distress 
 
THE END OF BECKET. 
 
 77 
 
 to Henry. For three days he ate nothing ; for 
 five weeks he refused to see any visitors. Some 
 years later he visited Canterbury, passed a whole 
 night in prayer before Becket's tomb, and in the 
 
 " No Traitor, but Priest of God ! " 
 
 morning asked the monks to whip his bare back, 
 in token of his sorrow for the wicked deed. 
 
 Becket was looked upon as a martyr, and the 
 people loved and honored his memory, and went 
 as pilgrims to his tomb. 
 
78 THE STORY OF HENRY THE SECOND. 
 
 VIII. HENRY'S LAST YEARS. 
 
 Henry II. was the first English king who tried 
 to conquer Ireland. The people of that country, 
 who were of a different race from the English, 
 were ruled by many kings, each at the head of a 
 small kingdom of his own, and the kings were 
 almost constantly at war one with another. 
 
 Several of these kings joined together, and drove 
 away a king who had offended them. He fled to 
 Henry, did homage to him, and got leave to obtain 
 the help of some English lords and knights, so that 
 he might get back his Irish throne again. 
 
 By the aid of Richard de Clare, commonly known 
 as Strongbow, and of other knights, the Irish king 
 was restored. Then the English knights fought 
 against the Irish, and also against the Danes who 
 had settled in Ireland, and took much of the land 
 for themselves. 
 
 Henry at last crossed to Ireland himself, in order 
 to prevent his knights from getting beyond his rule 
 and government. He restored order and received 
 homage, but he soon had to leave the country, and 
 then disorder and bloodshed broke out again. 
 
 Henry was recalled from Ireland by a revolt of 
 his barons. The power of the barons had been 
 much reduced by Henry's wise measures, and they 
 smarted under his iron rule. Numbers of lords, 
 both in England and Normandy, joined together 
 to fight against him. 
 
HENRY S LAST YEARS. 79 
 
 He acted with wonderful energy. The king of 
 France was amazed at the speed with which Henry 
 went about his work. " The king of England," he 
 said, " is now in Ireland, now in England, now in 
 Normandy ; he may rather be said to fly than to 
 go by horse or boat." 
 
 Henry crushed the rebellion everywhere, but he 
 never again enjoyed rest. His own sons, of whom 
 he was fond, and to whom he had given many lands, 
 rebelled against him. 
 
 Henry loved his sons too well to fight against them 
 in deadly earnest. He was forgiving, and wished 
 to be at peace with them. Two of them were re- 
 moved by death, but the two who were left, Richard 
 and John, still troubled their father. 
 
 At length Richard joined with the king of France 
 in making war on Henry. The English king seemed 
 to have lost his former power ; he was old, and 
 weary, and ill, and hardly escaped defeat. . 
 
 Then he had to give way to the demands of the 
 French king. He had to do homage to him for his 
 lands in France, to pay him a large sum of money, 
 and to give up some castles to him. 
 
 After agreeing with bitter sorrow to all this, he 
 was carried in a litter to his castle at Chinon. There 
 a list was brought to him of those who had rebelled. 
 He ordered his chancellor to read it, and the very 
 first name that he heard was that of John, his young- 
 est and favorite son. 
 
 " Is it true," the poor king cried, " that John, my 
 
80 THE STORY OF HENRY THE SECOND. 
 
 very heart, whom I have loved beyond all my sons, 
 has forsaken me ? " Then he lay down and turned 
 his face to the wall. " Now you have said enough," 
 he murmured ; "let all the rest go as it will, I care no 
 more for myself and the world." 
 
 " Shame on a conquered king ! " were the words 
 constantly on his lips. Then in a few days he died. 
 
THE CRUSADES AND RICHARD THE FIRST. 
 I. WHAT THE CRUSADES WERE. 
 
 In the year 1094 a small, thin, haggard man might 
 have been seen travelling through France on an ass, 
 and stopping here and there to speak to the people 
 who came about him. 
 
 Peter the Hermit preaching the Crusade. 
 
 His head and feet were bare ; his cheeks were 
 hollow and worn with suffering. In his hand he 
 carried a crucifix, which, as he addressed the people, 
 he raised high above his head. Rich and poor 
 
82 THE CRUSADES AND RICHARD THE FIRST. 
 
 came in crowds to hear what he had to say, and as 
 they listened to his stories of dreadful cruelty, they 
 groaned and shed tears. 
 
 This man was Peter the Hermit, who had gone as 
 a pilgrim to the tomb of Christ in Palestine. He 
 had been cruelly treated, like many other Christian 
 pilgrims, by the Turks, who then were masters of 
 the holy place. 
 
 In those days people thought that God would be 
 pleased with them, and would forgive them their 
 sins, if they went to Jerusalem to pray at the tomb 
 of Christ. But the Turks were followers of the 
 prophet Mahomet, and did not believe in Christ, and 
 they did horrible deeds of cruelty to the Christian 
 pilgrims. 
 
 Now Peter had come to urge Christian people to 
 raise a great army, and fight against these Turks, 
 and rescue the sacred city from them. He preached 
 so powerfully that hundreds and thousands of people 
 were eager to do what he wished. 
 
 In the next year a great council was held at Cler- 
 mont, in the south of France. Thousands of people 
 gathered to hear a speech from Pope Urban. The 
 Pope told them that, if they went to fight against 
 the Turks in Palestine, sufferings and torments 
 might be their lot; but though their bodies might 
 suffer, their souls would be saved. 
 
 " It is the will of God ! " shouted the people. "Yes, 
 it is His will," replied the Pope. " You are soldiers 
 of the Cross ; wear then on your breasts or on your 
 
WHAT THE CRUSADES WERE. 83 
 
 shoulders the blood-red sign of Him who died for 
 you. 
 
 This was the beginning of the Crusades, or Wars 
 of the Cross. At different times in the course of 
 two hundred years, nine of these wars were under- 
 taken. 
 
 Many thousands of people " took the Cross," that is, 
 engaged to go and fight against the Turks. Large 
 numbers of the Crusaders were sincerely anxious to 
 do this, since they believed it to be a solemn duty. 
 Others joined them simply because they liked fight- 
 ing, and were eager to make great names for them- 
 selves. 
 
 Serfs were set free by their lords ; criminals were 
 let out of prison ; debtors escaped from those to 
 whom they owed money, in order to take part in the 
 holy wars. 
 
 Men who had lived wicked lives took the Cross, 
 believing that by fighting the infidels they would 
 earn pardon for their worst sins. Lords sold their 
 lands and ladies gave their jewels, in order to buy 
 arms and horses for the knights and men-at-arms 
 who left their homes for the East. 
 
 Not one of the Crusades was really successful. 
 Sometimes they failed because of the folly of those 
 who took part in them. Great armies set out for 
 the Holy Land without having taken the least care 
 to provide food for the journey. Thousands of men 
 and women died of starvation. 
 
 Sometimes they failed through quarrels among 
 
84 THE CRUSADES AND RICHARD THE FIRST. 
 
 their leaders. They all failed in the end. Never- 
 theless, the Crusaders did take Jerusalem, and it 
 was for a number of years the capital of a Christian 
 kingdom. 
 
 II. THE THIRD CRUSADE. 
 
 Richard I. was the first English king who went 
 on a crusade. Richard was a tall, handsome man, 
 thirty-two years old when he became king ; very 
 strong and brave, and therefore called Lion-heart ; 
 fond of showy dress, and wasteful of money. He 
 w r as a fine soldier, a good speaker, and a warm-hearted 
 though not a good man. 
 
 Having raised great sums of money in all kinds 
 of ways, Richard left England only six months after 
 he became king. He was joined by the king of 
 France and other great princes. 
 
 On arriving in Palestine, Richard, by his wonder- 
 ful bravery and strength, struck terror into the hearts 
 of his enemies. He took part in the siege of Acre, 
 where Saladin, the great leader of the Turks, was 
 forced to surrender. The king of France then 
 returned home, leaving Richard to advance alone to 
 Jerusalem. The English king came within sight of 
 the sacred city, but had to retire without capturing it. 
 
 Soon afterwards, hearing of troubles in England, 
 Richard resolved to return to his kingdom. His 
 brother John, whom he had left behind, though not 
 as ruler, was trying to take the kingdom from him, 
 
THE THIRD CRUSADE. 
 
 85 
 
 with the aid of the French king. So Richard made 
 a truce with Saladin, and started on his homeward 
 journey. 
 
 At the Siege of Acre. 
 
86 THE CRUSADES AND RICHARD THE FIRST. 
 III. RICHARD'S. ADVENTURES AND DEATH. 
 
 Sailing along the coast of Italy, Richard's ship 
 was wrecked, and he resolved to finish his journey 
 overland. He had made enemies on the continent, 
 and knew that the journey would be dangerous ; but 
 he thought that in his pilgrim's dress he would be 
 safe. 
 
 He sent a servant of his, named Baldwin, to the 
 lord of that part of the country, to ask leave for him- 
 self and " Hugh the Merchant" to pass through on 
 their way home from pilgrimage. Baldwin took 
 with him a costly ring as a present to the lord. 
 
 The lord looked at the ring, and said : " This 
 jewel can only come from a king ; that king must be 
 Richard of England. Tell him he may come to me 
 in peace." 
 
 But " Hugh the Merchant " (as Richard called 
 himself) did not trust the promise, and fled, leaving 
 some of his companions in prison. He went on 
 with one knight and a boy. The boy was sent to buy 
 food at a market near Vienna, and, as he had plenty 
 of money, the merchants were curious to know the 
 name of his master. 
 
 He was forced to tell it, and then Richard's house 
 was surrounded by a troop of soldiers, who called on 
 the king to come out as their prisoner. Richard 
 refused to give himself up except to their lord, who 
 happened to be Leopold, Duke of Austria. 
 
 Now Leopold had been with Richard in the 
 
Richard's adventures and death. 87 
 
 Holy Land, and had become his bitter enemy. 
 He was therefore glad to get Richard into his 
 power. He put him in prison, but soon sold 
 him to the German emperor for ,£60,000. Richard 
 was then kept a prisoner in a strong castle. 
 
 For a time none of his subjects knew where 
 their king was. At last, as the story says, his 
 prison was discovered by his minstrel Blondel, 
 who wandered all over Europe seeking his master. 
 
 Singing one day a song of Richard's beneath 
 a small window in a castle wall, the minstrel heard 
 the voice of his master faintly echoing the song 
 from within. Overjoyed at hearing once more the 
 well-known voice, Blondel hastened to England with 
 the good news that he had found the king's prison. 
 A large sum of money was at once raised to buy 
 the king's freedom. 
 
 Richard returned to England after four years' 
 absence, having spent one year in prison. He 
 now remained in his kingdom only two months, 
 during which, however, he put an end to the dis- 
 order caused by the rebellion of his brother John. 
 
 Richard spent his last years in war with the king 
 of France. In the tenth year of his reign, he heard 
 that a great treasure of gold had been found buried 
 in the earth on an estate in the south of France. 
 As the lord of this estate was a vassal of his, Rich- 
 ard demanded the larger share of the treasure. 
 When this was refused, he besieged a castle be- 
 longing to the lord, 
 
88 THE CRUSADES AND RICHARD THE FIRST. 
 
 The castle was strong, and held out stubbornly, 
 though the king threatened to hang every man, 
 woman, and child in it unless it were given up. 
 One day, as he rode round it, an arrow shot from 
 the wall struck him. His doctors were clumsy, and 
 made his wound worse, and he knew that he must 
 die. 
 
 When the castle was taken, the man who had 
 wounded him was made prisoner, and brought 
 before the dying king. " What have I done to 
 you that you should kill me ? " Richard asked. 
 " You have slain my father and my brothers, and 
 taken all that belonged to them," was the reply. 
 
 Then the generous king forgave the man, and 
 bade his servants let him go in peace. Thus 
 Richard died, and he was buried with his father 
 in a Norman abbey. 
 
KING JOHN AND THE GREAT CHARTER. 
 I. SIGNING OF THE CHARTER. 
 
 On a summer day, in the year 12 15, a meadow 
 near Windsor was the scene of an event which 
 Englishmen look back upon as one of the most 
 important events in their history. 
 
 The chief figure in the scene was a king — a 
 king so bad that no other king of England has 
 borne his name. It was John, whose rebellion 
 had broken the heart of his father, Henry II. 
 
 John had been a bad son and a bad brother 
 before he became a bad king. He had done his 
 best to get the kingdom away from his brother 
 Richard, who had in his noble way forgiven him. 
 He was a mean, false, cruel man. When a lad, he 
 had gone to Ireland on behalf of his father to receive 
 the homage of the Irish chiefs, and amused himself 
 there by pulling hairs out of their beards. 
 
 He was at heart a coward, but played the bully 
 when he had nothing to fear. He was greedy and 
 wasteful, slothful and stubborn, bad-tempered, and 
 guilty of all kinds of wickedness. He actually put 
 to death his own nephew, Arthur, a boy of sixteen, 
 because some of his French subjects wished to have 
 Arthur as their king. 
 
 89 
 
9Q 
 
 KING JOHN AND THE GREAT CHARTER. 
 
 And now, on this meadow of Runnymede, after 
 sixteen years of misrule, King John was compelled 
 to set his seal to a charter which made Englishmen 
 forever free. 
 
 John sets his Seal to the Great Charter. 
 
 About him were grouped some of England's great- 
 est men. There was Cardinal Stephen Langton, 
 Archbishop of Canterbury, a wise and learned man, 
 who loved England well. There were Robert Fitz- 
 walter and William Marshal, great barons, who were 
 ready to use their swords against the tyrant king. 
 
STEPHEN LANGTON. 9 1 
 
 These men stood there while John unwillingly put 
 his seal to the Charter drawn up by Langton. 
 
 How did this Great Charter make Englishmen 
 free ? Firstly, it settled what the rights of the 
 people were, and showed that there were certain 
 things which King John must not do. Secondly, 
 it remained for future ages to refer to : whenever 
 a king was inclined to act like a tyrant, there was 
 the Great Charter for the people to appeal to. It 
 was confirmed many times by succeeding kings ; 
 upon it other charters of liberty were based. 
 
 It laid down the rule that the king could not 
 demand money from his people without the con- 
 sent of the Council of the Realm. It declared that 
 no freeman should be put in prison, or banished, or 
 deprived of his goods until he had been judged by 
 his equals according to the law of the land. The 
 laborer's tools, the merchant's goods, were as care- 
 fully guarded as the wealth of the barons. 
 
 " To none will we sell or deny or delay right or 
 justice " are trie famous words of the Charter. In 
 short, it secured liberty and justice for all, — high 
 and low, rich and poor. Let us now see what events 
 led up to the signing of the Great Charter. 
 
 II. STEPHEN LANGTON. 
 
 John brought upon himself much trouble, and upon 
 England much disgrace, by his wilful folly. 
 
 The Archbishop of Canterbury having died, a 
 
92 KING JOHN AND THE GREAT CHARTER. 
 
 new one had to be chosen. The right of choice lay 
 with the monks of Canterbury. Some of the monks 
 chose one man ; others, acting under orders from 
 John, elected one of John's own favorites. An 
 appeal was made to the Pope, who set aside both 
 these men, and caused an English cardinal, named 
 Stephen Langton, to be made archbishop instead. 
 
 Langton was a great and good man. He was a 
 hard worker and a learned writer ; it was he who 
 first divided the books of the Bible into chapters as 
 they are at the present time. Above all, he tried 
 to persuade John to rule well. 
 
 John was furious when he heard of what the 
 Pope had done. For six years the new archbishop 
 dared not come to England, so terrible were John's 
 threats. The monks of Canterbury were driven out 
 of their monastery, and the church lands were seized. 
 
 In order to force John to admit the archbishop 
 and restore the monks, the Pope laid the country 
 under an Interdict, that is, he ordered churches to 
 be shut up, forbade services to be held, and would 
 not even allow the burial service to be used. 
 
 John did not care for this ; the trouble fell only 
 on the people. Then the Pope declared that the 
 king was no longer a member of the Church, and 
 that he must be shunned as an outcast. The Pope 
 also ordered Philip, king of France, to take John's 
 kingdom from him. When John found that Philip 
 -was preparing to do so, and that his own lords were 
 deserting him, he gave way. 
 
STEPHEN LANGTON. 93 
 
 He allowed Langton to go to England ; he prom- 
 ised to give back to the Church the lands he had 
 taken from it. He even gave his kingdom to the 
 Pope, and did homage to him for it ; he agreed to 
 pay him a large yearly tribute. These were dis- 
 graceful things for any English king to do. 
 
 Meanwhile the barons were growing more and 
 more weary of John's rule. Heavy taxes were laid 
 upon them, and in many ways they were shamefully 
 treated. The common people fared no better. 
 
 At length, at a council held in London, Stephen 
 Langton brought out and read to the clergy and 
 barons the Charter of Henry I., in which that king 
 had promised to rule England according to English 
 law. The barons solemnly swore to compel John 
 to rule according to this Charter. 
 
 Some time after, when John sent to ask what the 
 barons wanted, Langton, as their spokesman, went 
 to him, and read out the articles which afterwards 
 became the Great Charter. Then John flew into a 
 rage, and declared that he would never agree to 
 them. " Why do they not demand my kingdom 
 also ? " he cried. 
 
 The barons at once took up arms under Robert 
 Fitzwalter, and were gladly welcomed by the citi- 
 zens of London. Finding that his party was grow- 
 ing less and less, and the party of the barons 
 stronger and stronger, the king at last gave way. 
 At Runnymede, as we have seen, he signed the 
 Great Charter of English freedom. 
 
94 KING JOHN AND THE GREAT CHARTER. 
 
 III. LAST DAYS OF KING JOHN. 
 
 After John had signed the Great Charter, some 
 of the foreign captains whom he had hired to fight 
 for him taunted him with being only a puppet king. 
 John flew into a terrible rage. He flung himself 
 on the ground, gnashing with his teeth. 
 
 Then, to show how little he cared for the Charter, 
 he set about revenging himself on the barons. He 
 got together an army of foreign soldiers, and the 
 barons, fearing that they might be overcome, sought 
 help from France. 
 
 Louis, the son of the French king, went over at 
 once with an army. He landed in Kent, and, with 
 the aid of the English barons, made himself master 
 of several towns and castles. 
 
 The king, meanwhile, went about the country with 
 his foreign army, destroying houses and castles, 
 burning crops, plundering and slaying. At length, 
 he was one day fording the river Welland with his 
 troops. The tide came up before the whole army 
 had crossed, and washed away all the king's bag- 
 gage, while many of his soldiers were drowned. 
 
 This caused such vexation to John that it made 
 him ill. The same night at supper he ate heartily 
 of some peaches, and drank a quantity of new beer. 
 The result was a fever, of which he died. His death 
 saved England from great troubles. The barons no 
 longer needed the help of the French, and Louis had 
 to return, though unwillingly, to his own country. 
 
• LAST DAYS OF KING JOHN. 95 
 
 The new king was John's son Henry, a boy nine 
 years of age, and the people hoped that the great 
 
 King John's Army overwhelmed by the Tide. 
 
 barons would teach the young king to rule wisely 
 and justly. 
 
EARL SIMON OF MONTFORT. 
 I. GOVERNOR OF GASCON Y. 
 
 In the reign of John, a great churchman was the 
 leader of those who stood up boldly against misrule. 
 In the reign of John's son, Henry III., the lead was 
 taken by a great baron. 
 
 Simon of Montfort was not by birth an English- 
 man. He was the son of a great French warrior 
 lord, and was born about the year 1208. Brought 
 up in the north of France, at the castle of Montfort 
 from which he took his name, he went as a young 
 man to England, and was kindly received by King 
 Henry. 
 
 He was handsome, brave, and skilful in war; in- 
 deed, he was reckoned the finest soldier of his day. 
 When he married Henry's sister Eleanor, and by 
 and by succeeded to the earldom of Leicester, he 
 became the most striking and important figure at 
 the English court. 
 
 It was not very long before a quarrel arose be- 
 tween Simon and the king. Henry was a weak, 
 foolish king: a far better man than his father, but 
 of feeble will and fretful temper. 
 
 The exact cause of his quarrel with Simon is not 
 known, but he made such charges against the earl 
 
 96 
 
GOVERNOR OF GASCONY. 97 
 
 that Simon felt himself obliged to leave England. 
 He went on a crusade, but when he returned he 
 overlooked Henry's unkindness, and fought well 
 for him in some battles in France. 
 
 A few years later, Simon thought of going on 
 another crusade, but other work was given him to 
 do. Gascony, a province in the south of France, 
 was the only one of all Henry II.'s French lands 
 which now belonged to the English king. There 
 were constant troubles in the province. Many of 
 the lords wished to have the king of France for 
 their king instead of Henry. There was no peace 
 in the country, and the state of the poorer people 
 was very wretched. 
 
 Henry made Simon governor of Gascony, know- 
 ing that he was wise and brave and a skilful leader. 
 Simon proved a stern and terrible governor. He 
 destroyed castles belonging to the rebel lords, and 
 put down the bands of robber knights who roamed 
 over the country burning and plundering; he took 
 the part of the poor and weak against the rich and 
 strong. 
 
 Several times he put down revolts, and spent im- 
 mense sums of his own money in the service of the 
 king. Henry showed himself very ungrateful. He 
 listened to mean and spiteful stories about Simon, 
 which said that the troubles in Gascony were caused 
 by the governor's cruelty. 
 
 Simon demanded to be tried before his fellow- 
 lords, and at the trial he made a strong defence 
 
98 EARL SIMON OF MONTFORT. 
 
 against the charges brought against him. He fin- 
 ished with the scornful cry, " Your testimony against 
 me is worthless, for you are all liars and traitors ! ' : 
 
 Simon's defence was so good that the company 
 of lords with one voice declared him innocent. But 
 the very next day the king picked a quarrel with the 
 earl. Simon asked Henry to keep a promise he had 
 made when appointing him governor of Gascony. 
 Henry replied that he would keep no promise made 
 to a traitor. 
 
 " That word is a lie ! " Simon cried angrily ; " and 
 were you not my sovereign, an ill hour would it be 
 for you in which you dared to utter it." 
 
 A few days later Henry said to him, " Go back 
 to Gascony, thou lover and maker of strife ! " Simon 
 quietly answered, " Gladly will I go ; nor do I think 
 to return till I have made thine enemies thy foot- 
 stool, ungrateful though thou be." 
 
 II. THE PROVISIONS OF OXFORD. 
 
 One of Henry's worst faults was his fondness for 
 foreigners. His court was filled with Frenchmen 
 and Italians, who treated the English barons with 
 pride and scorn. Henry spent large sums of money 
 upon them, and most of' this had to be supplied by 
 the English barons. They had to get the money 
 from their tenants, and the whole nation suffered. 
 
 Another thing in which Henry displeased his 
 people was his support of the Pope. Up to the 
 
Earl Simon of Montfort and the Barons before Henry. 
 
 LofC. 
 
IOO EARL SIMON OF MONTFORT. 
 
 reign of John, the Pope had been looked up to only 
 as the head of the Church ; but when John actually 
 gave up his kingdom to him, he began to claim 
 much more power in England than he had ever 
 had before. 
 
 The clergy and the barons were obliged to give 
 him much money. He made foreigners the minis- 
 ters of English churches, and some of them never 
 went to England at all, but enjoyed the wealth of 
 their English offices at their foreign homes. This 
 was unfair to the English clergy. 
 
 These and other things were so galling to the 
 barons that they made up their minds to put a stop 
 to them. A meeting of the Great Council, or Parlia- 
 ment as it now began to be called, took place at 
 Oxford. 
 
 Here Henry was obliged to consent to the Pro- 
 visions of Oxford, a plan of reform drawn up by 
 Simon and his friends. The foreign favorites were 
 to be sent away, and the king was only to act by 
 the advice of a special council of fifteen. Thus 
 the barons became masters of the country. 
 
 About this time, Henry was one day going in his 
 barge up the Thames, when he was overtaken by a 
 sudden thunderstorm. Fearing its violence, he 
 ordered the boat to be run ashore, and took refuge 
 in the house in which Simon then lived. 
 
 Simon welcomed the king, and told him not to 
 fear, as the storm was well-nigh over. " I fear be- 
 yond measure the thunder and lightning," replied 
 
SIMON AGAINST THE KING. IOI 
 
 the king; "but I fear you more than all the thunder 
 and lightning in the world." 
 
 " Fear your enemies, my lord king," was Simon's 
 answer; "fear those who flatter you to your ruin, 
 not me, your constant and faithful friend." 
 
 III. SIMON AGAINST THE KING. 
 
 King Henry soon began to show that he- would 
 not tamely put up with being ruled by his barons. 
 He was helped by quarrels among them. Simon 
 was not trusted by them all ; he was a foreigner 
 himself, and had an overbearing temper, and for 
 these reasons he was disliked by some of the barons. 
 
 Henry soon broke his promise to observe the 
 Provisions of Oxford. He brought back to Eng- 
 land some of the foreigners who had been sent 
 away, and showed that things would soon be as bad 
 as they had been before. 
 
 There was nothing left for the barons to do but 
 to take up arms. Simon was marked out as their 
 natural leader. He was trusted by the people, who 
 believed he was thinking more of the good of the 
 nation than of any gain for himself. 
 
 Earl Simon acted promptly and with vigor. 
 Foreigners were again sent out of the country, and 
 Dover was captured ; then Simon sent a letter to 
 the citizens of London, asking for their support. 
 They gave it gladly, and kept Henry almost a pris- 
 oner in the Tower of London. 
 
102 EARL SIMON OF MONTFORT. 
 
 The people were delighted at the thought of get- 
 ting a better government, and loved Earl Simon 
 more than ever. A verse of a song of the time 
 says : — 
 
 " Montfort is he rightly called, 
 He is the mount and he is bold, 1 
 
 And has great chivalry ; 
 The truth I tell, my troth I plight, 
 He hates the wrong, he loves the right, 
 So shall have mastery." 
 
 The earl marched to London, and the king once 
 more agreed to the Provisions of Oxford, sent away 
 his ministers, and gave their places to men chosen 
 by the barons. 
 
 In order to have matters settled once for all, and 
 peaceably, both the king and the barons agreed to 
 ask the king of France to decide the dispute be- 
 tween them. His judgment was entirely in Henry's 
 favor, but nothing else could have been expected, 
 for one king would not be likely to say that the 
 power of any other king, in his own country, should 
 be lessened. 
 
 The question now before the barons was : Is 
 England to be a free nation, or is she to be bound 
 down by foreign favorites and foreign priests ? It 
 must be remembered that the best of the English 
 clergy were on the side of the barons. 
 
 They did not reject outright the French king's 
 award ; they took up one part of it, which said that 
 
 1 In French, Montfort means " bold mount," niont = mount, fort = bold. 
 
THE END OF SIMON. IO3 
 
 England was to enjoy what rights she had before 
 the Provisions of Oxford. They said that Henry 
 had not observed the Great Charter, which secured 
 these rights to the nation, and they were resolved to 
 make him observe it. 
 
 Earl Simon himself said, " Though all should 
 leave me, I and my four sons will uphold the cause 
 of justice, as I have sworn to do, for the honor of 
 the Church and the good of the realm." 
 
 IV. THE END OF SIMON. 
 
 Civil war broke out. Everywhere there was kill- 
 ing, burning, and robbing. Peaceful villages were 
 filled with the horrid sounds of battle. Women 
 and children trembled for the safety of their loved 
 ones, and wept for those who were slain. 
 
 After several sieges and lesser fights, a great bat- 
 tle was fought near Lewes. It was won by Earl 
 Simon after a hard fight, and King Henry and his 
 son Edward were taken prisoner. 
 
 Simon was now ruler of the country. He at once 
 set about putting the government in order. Power 
 was to be in the hands of nine councillors, who were 
 to consult a parliament formed of barons, the chief 
 clergy, four knights from each county, and also, for 
 the first time in English history, two citizens from 
 each of certain towns. 
 
 This parliament met on January 30, 1265. The 
 fact that the town sent members to it has led to 
 
104 EARL SIMON OF MONTFORT. 
 
 Simon being called the founder of the House of 
 Commons. The parliament was not to make the 
 laws as it does now ; it was to see that the king and 
 his ministers ruled in accordance with the law — 
 which meant simply the old customs of the country. 
 
 Earl Simon's power did not last long. He was 
 still distrusted by some of the nobles, and one of 
 his strongest supporters left him. The king still 
 had many friends who were working hard for him. 
 
 At length Prince Edward escaped, by a daring 
 trick, from the captivity in which he had been kept 
 since the battle of Lewes. A new horse had just 
 been given to him, and he said that he wished to try 
 its paces. One day he went out with his attend- 
 ants, and rode races with them till their horses were 
 tired. Then he sprang upon a fresh horse, and gal- 
 loped off. " Good day, my lords," he cried, " go tell 
 my father I shall soon see him out of ward." 
 
 At once the king's supporters gathered round the 
 prince, and Earl Simon saw that a hard fight was 
 before him. His own army was small, and he sent 
 to his son Simon, bidding him come to his help at 
 Hereford. 
 
 The young man did not' hurry, and when he 
 reached his father's castle at Kenilworth, he fool- 
 ishly allowed his troops to sleep in the village, in- 
 stead of in the castle. They were surprised by 
 Edward at early morning, many were captured, and 
 all their arms and baggage fell into the hands of 
 the king's soldiers. 
 
THE END OF SIMON. 
 
 !°5 
 
 Earl Simon, knowing nothing of his son's mis- 
 hap, went toward Evesham to meet him. He soon 
 learned to his sorrow that the forces seen advancing 
 were those of Edward, and, watching them from a 
 
 The Last Fight of Simon of Montfort. 
 
 hill, he admired the way they came on. " It is from 
 me that they have learned that order," he said. As 
 he saw how much larger Edward's army was than 
 his own, the brave earl knew that defeat and death 
 were near. " Now let us commend our souls to 
 God, for our bodies belong to our enemies." 
 
106 EARL SIMON OF MONTFORT. 
 
 Simon was urged to flee, but he refused. There 
 was a desperate fight ; the earl had a horse killed 
 under him, but fought on foot, dealing hard blows 
 with the sword which he wielded with both hands. 
 At length a blow from behind struck him down, 
 and he died murmuring " It is God's grace." 
 
 Simon of Montfort was a good and a great man. 
 He was sober and simple in his life ; his closest 
 friends, bishop Robert Grosseteste and friar Adam 
 Marsh, were the holiest men of their time ; he was 
 a lover of books, and of good conversation. Simon 
 the Righteous, he was called by the people. 
 
 His faults w r ere his pride, his fierce temper, and his 
 love of gain; but there is no doubt that he had a 
 real love for his adopted country, and worked hard 
 to secure freedom for Englishmen. 
 
 After his death his cause triumphed, for King- 
 Henry left the government in the hands of his son 
 Edward, who ruled very much in the way that Earl 
 Simon would have wished. 
 
THE STORY OF EDWARD THE FIRST. 
 I. EDWARD'S EARLY YEARS. 
 
 All the kings who ruled England from the time 
 of William the Conqueror to Henry III. were far 
 more Norman than English. Their names were 
 French ; they spoke French ; their lands in France 
 took up a great deal of their attention. 
 
 Edward I. was the first king of England since the 
 Conquest who bore an old English name. He was 
 also the first who showed a real desire to understand 
 Englishmen, and to make England, by the aid of 
 the English, a great power in Europe. The work 
 he did, and the wisdom he showed, made him one 
 of the greatest of English sovereigns. 
 
 In character he was altogether unlike his grand- 
 father, John, and his father, Henry. His will was 
 strong, but he was not obstinate. He was a good 
 son, a good husband, and a good father. He lived 
 purely and simply, and did not care for show or fine 
 dress. " I should not be a better king," he said once, 
 "however splendidly I was dressed.'' He loved 
 truth and justice ; his actions were upright ; his 
 motto was, " Keep troth," and he was faithful to it. 
 
 His one great fault was a passionate temper, which 
 sometimes blazed forth with terrible fury. On one 
 
 107 
 
108 THE STORY OF EDWARD THE FIRST. 
 
 occasion when Edward was thundering at a meeting 
 of the clergy, the Dean of St. Paul's fell dead from 
 fright. But Edward's wrath sank away as quickly 
 as it rose. 
 
 Towards the end of Henry's reign, Edward went 
 on a crusade. He won one great victory over the 
 Saracens at Nazareth, but did little else in Palestine. 
 
 One hot June evening, as Edward was sitting 
 lightly clad upon his bed in his tent at Acre, a mes- 
 senger came to him with an urgent message from 
 one of the Saracen chiefs. This chief had said that 
 he wished to become a Christian, and Edward will- 
 ingly received his messenger. 
 
 The man entered the tent, and from his belt took 
 a letter, which he gave to Edward. As the prince 
 was opening it, the man struck at his heart with a 
 dagger. Edward warded off the blow with his arm ; 
 then, springing up, he felled the man to the earth, 
 and killed him. 
 
 Edward's wound was dressed, but after a time the 
 flesh around it showed signs of poisoning. The 
 prince's attendants looked sad, and the doctors 
 whispered together. 
 
 " What are you whispering about ? " cried the 
 prince ; " can I not be cured ? Speak out, and fear 
 not." His English doctor replied, " You may be 
 cured, Sire, but only at the price of great suffering." 
 
 Edward then bade the doctor do with him what- 
 ever he pleased. Edward's wife, Eleanor, whom he 
 dearly loved, wished to stay with him, but the doctor 
 
EDWARDS EARLY YEARS. IO9 
 
 ordered her away, and she was led out weeping. " It 
 is better, lady," said the attendants, " that you should 
 weep than the whole of England." 
 
 Prince Edward and the Saracen Assassin. 
 
 Then the doctor cut away the poisoned flesh, and 
 in a few days Edward had quite recovered. At a 
 
I IO THE STORY OF EDWARD THE FIRST. 
 
 later time a pretty story was told, that Eleanor her- 
 self sucked the poison from her husband's wound. 
 
 Edward was recalled to England by news of his 
 father's serious illness. Before he reached home 
 Henry was dead, and the prince became, at the age 
 of thirty-three, King Edward I. 
 
 II. EDWARD CONQUERS WALES. 
 
 For many years there had been troubles between 
 the English and their neighbors in Wales. The 
 people of Wales were descendants of the ancient 
 Britons. They would not submit either to the rule 
 of the Saxons or the Normans. They loved their 
 freedom ; and under their own princes they were 
 constantly at war with the English kings. 
 
 The chief of the Welsh princes, Llewelyn, had 
 helped Simon of Montfort; but on the defeat of 
 Simon he had done homage to Henry III. But 
 when Edward became king, Llewelyn refused to 
 do homage to him. An old prophecy of a British 
 wizard, Merlin, had said that some day a Welsh 
 prince should be crowned in London. Llewelyn 
 fancied that he was that prince, and that he would 
 become a great British king. 
 
 Edward, who already in his youth had fought in 
 W 7 ales, led an army against the Welsh prince. He 
 went with great caution, taking care that, as his 
 army advanced, a fleet should sail along the coast, 
 carrying food for the soldiers. Llewelyn took refuge 
 
EDWARD CONQUERS WALES. 
 
 I I I 
 
 in the wild mountains of North Wales, but, in the 
 winter, want of food compelled him to surrender. 
 
 Edward then made an attempt to rule the Welsh. 
 But he did not understand them, and though he 
 himself wished to be just, the officers he appointed 
 
I 1 2 THE STORY OF EDWARD THE FIRST. 
 
 to act for him were harsh and cruel. A new rising 
 of the Welsh was the result. Edward led another 
 army against them, and Llewelyn again took refuge 
 in the Snowdon mountains. 
 
 But Llewelyn was soon killed, and his brother 
 David, who had helped him, was captured and 
 hanged. Edward then took Wales as a part of 
 his kingdom. He ruled it by English law, but 
 he put several Welshmen in places of honor as 
 his officers, and tried to keep some of the old 
 W 7 elsh customs. To make all secure, Edward set 
 up a strong line of castles and fortified towns. 
 
 Sixteen years later, Edw r ard created his eldest 
 son the first Prince of Wales, and gave him the 
 government of that country. The young prince 
 was born in Wales, and had a Welsh' nurse, so 
 the Welsh people were fond of him. In later years, 
 when the prince became King Edward II., and 
 suffered cruel misfortunes, the Welsh people did 
 their best to help him. 
 
 III. EDWARD INVADES SCOTLAND. 
 
 Edward, having conquered Wales, wished to 
 bring Scotland also under English rule. That 
 country had up to this time been separate from 
 England, and was ruled by kings of its own. 
 
 In Edward's time, it happened that the sovereign 
 of Scotland was a little girl, daughter of the king 
 of Norway, who had married a Scottish princess. 
 
EDWARD INVADES SCOTLAND. II3 
 
 The little queen was not yet four years old, and 
 was known as the Maid of Norway. 
 
 Edward thought that it would be well if the 
 two kingdoms were ruled by one sovereign ; so 
 he proposed that the Maid, when old enough, 
 should become the wife of his son Edward. The 
 Scots agreed to this, and King Edward sent to 
 fetch the little girl from her home in Norway. 
 
 He sent with the ship plenty of the things that 
 he thought the Maid might like, such as walnuts, 
 figs, and gingerbread. But she was a delicate little 
 thing, and the voyage across the rough North Sea 
 was too much for her. She became ill, and the ship 
 put into the Orkney Islands. There the poor little 
 queen died. 
 
 Her death was the cause of much trouble to Scot- 
 land. There was no near heir to the throne, which 
 was claimed by several nobles. Two of these, John 
 Baliol and Robert Bruce, had a stronger claim than 
 the others. The Scots, fearing that civil war might 
 break out, asked King Edward to decide which of 
 these two had the better right to the crown. 
 
 Edward accepted the task and decided for John 
 Baliol, who promised to rule as his vassal, and at 
 once did homage to him. Afterwards, when Ed- 
 ward demanded that Baliol should appear at his 
 court to answer for some action of his, the Scottish 
 lords would not allow their king to obey. Edward 
 at once sent an army to Scotland to punish Baliol 
 for not obeying. 
 
ii4 
 
 THE STORY OF EDWARD THE FIRST. 
 
 Edward captured Berwick, then the chief seaport 
 of Scotland. One of his generals won a great 
 victory at Dunbar, and in four months Baliol sub- 
 mitted and resigned the crown to 
 Edward. 
 
 To show that he meant Scot- 
 land to be no longer a separate 
 kingdom, Edward carried the 
 Scottish crown and the 
 royal jewels away to Eng- 
 land. With them he took 
 the stone upon which 
 for ages past the kings 
 of Scotland had been 
 crowned, a stone which 
 people said was the one 
 on which Jacob had rested 
 his head at Bethel. 
 That stone may now be seen in Westminster 
 Abbey, beneath the seat of the chair in which all 
 English sovereigns since that time have sat at their 
 coronation. 
 
 Coronation Chair, Westminster 
 Abbey, containing the Stone 
 from Scone. 
 
 IV. SIR WILLIAM WALLACE. 
 
 Edward was not to rule Scotland in peace. He 
 had promised, as in the case of Wales, to rule justly, 
 after the old Scottish customs, but his ministers were 
 severe and unjust, and the Scots rose up against them. 
 Their leader was Sir William Wallace, whose life 
 was one of strange adventure and daring deeds. 
 
SIR WILLIAM WALLACE. I I 5 
 
 He was a bitter enemy to the English, and his 
 enmity arose, it is said, in the following way. 
 
 One day he was stopped in the streets of Lanark 
 by some of the English soldiers. He was wearing 
 a sword, which they said he had no right to do. 
 
 Words led to blows, and Wallace, who was a 
 very tall and strong man, slew one of the soldiers 
 after a brief struggle, and put the rest to flight. 
 But he then had to flee, or the governor of the 
 town would have put him to death for what he 
 had done. 
 
 He escaped ; but the governor, a man of cruel 
 nature, broke into his house and killed his wife. 
 This roused Wallace's heart to a deep and lasting 
 hatred of the English. He gathered round him a 
 host of devoted followers, and resolved to turn the 
 English out of Scotland if he could. 
 
 After several small successes, he at last gained 
 a great victory at Stirling, which forced the Eng- 
 lish to leave the country. The Scottish people 
 then made Wallace governor of Scotland, and he 
 tried by wise and just rule to bring back prosperity 
 to the land. 
 
 During all this time Edward was in Flanders. 
 When he returned, he resolved to regain Scotland 
 at any cost. He gathered together an army of 
 80,000 men, and marched towards the north. He 
 took Edinburgh, but then serious troubles began. 
 Wallace, who had only been able to get together 
 a force of 20,000 men, was unwilling to meet 
 
Il6 THE STORY OF EDWARD THE FIRST. 
 
 Edward in the open field. So he retreated before 
 him, laying waste the land as he went. 
 
 Edward's army soon began to suffer, as Wallace 
 had destroyed all the crops and food supplies. 
 Moreover, the ships that Edward expected from 
 England with provisions did not arrive. When 
 he was in this plight, and had given orders to 
 retreat, the news came that Wallace was encamped 
 at Falkirk, and was going to follow close upon the 
 retreating English and make a night attack upon 
 them. 
 
 Edward rejoiced when he heard this. " As the 
 Lord lives," he cried, " there will be no need for 
 them to follow me, for on this very day I will 
 march forward and meet them face to face." He 
 advanced, and although, on the very morning of 
 the battle, two of his ribs were broken by a kick 
 from a horse, he led his army to the fight. 
 
 The battle was fierce and long. Again and 
 again the mail-clad horsemen of England charged 
 the Scottish spearmen. Again and again they 
 were driven back. At times the whole Scottish 
 army, quite surrounded by the masses of the 
 attacking party, seemed lost. 
 
 But again the attack would grow less, and the 
 Scottish spearmen, the front ranks kneeling, those 
 behind standing, would be seen unbroken as be- 
 fore. At last Edward withdrew the cavalry and 
 threw forward the archers — those English archers 
 who have decided so many a hard-fought fight. 
 
EDWARD LOSES SCOTLAND. I I y 
 
 Arrows fell like hail upon the Scottish ranks, and 
 where never a horseman had been able to break 
 through, the arrows cut wide gaps. A charge of 
 cavalry completed the defeat, and Scotland seemed 
 once more to be in Edward's power. 
 
 In the end Wallace was betrayed into the hands 
 of Edward, who had him tortured without mercy, 
 and put to death. This conduct is a great blot on 
 the name of one of the greatest of the English 
 kings. 
 
 V. EDWARD LOSES SCOTLAND. 
 
 The Scots mourned the death of their hero, but 
 they were not long left without a leader. Another 
 great man arose to carry on the work of winning 
 back Scottish freedom. This was Robert Bruce, 
 grandson of the Bruce who had been the rival of 
 Baliol. Bruce, as a noble, had the help of the 
 other nobles as well as of the people. Of Wallace 
 the nobles had always been jealous, and they had 
 given him very little support. 
 
 Edward was now old and infirm, but his mind 
 was still set on mastering the Scots. Again he 
 marched northwards, though so feeble that he had 
 to be carried on a litter. At Carlisle he mounted 
 his horse and led his army in person, but so weak 
 was he that in four days he only managed to ride 
 six miles. At the village of Burgh-on-Sands he 
 became very ill, and could go no farther. 
 
 As he lay dying, he left a message for his son 
 
I 1 8 THE STORY OF EDWARD THE FIRST. 
 
 Edward, who was in London. He begged him 
 to go on with the war, and to carry his bones at 
 the head of the army, so that, though dead, the 
 great warrior might seem to lead his soldiers 
 against the enemy. 
 
 Then he died, at the age of sixty-eight, an age 
 which few 7 men reached in those days. The great 
 king was buried in Westminster Abbey, where we 
 can read on his plain gray marble monument Latin 
 words which mean, " This is Edward the First, the 
 hammer of the Scots — keep troth." 
 
 Although the Scottish war did not come to an 
 end during Edward's reign, this is a good place 
 to tell how Scotland at last won back her freedom. 
 
 Robert Bruce, having been crowned king, gradu- 
 ally took fort after fort and castle after castle, till 
 Stirling was the only strong place in Scotland 
 remaining in English hands. 
 
 Edward II., a w T eak-willed and foolish man, gave 
 himself up to pleasure, and for a time paid no heed 
 to his great father's last words. At last he set off to 
 the relief of Stirling. The largest and most splen- 
 did army that ever entered Scotland w r as got to- 
 gether, and at the little stream, the Bannockburn, 
 near Stirling, it met the army of Bruce. 
 
 Bruce, like Wallace, was a great general. But he 
 was more fortunate than Wallace in having only an 
 unskilled warrior to fight against, instead of the able 
 and warlike Edward I\ Moreover he had a good 
 body of cavalry in his army, and did not depend 
 
EDWARDS WORK FOR ENGLAND. 
 
 II 9 
 
 entirely on his foot-soldiers. When the English 
 archers came into action, Bruce charged them with 
 his horse, and scattered them. He thus avoided 
 the fate that befell Wallace's army at Falkirk. 
 
 At Bannockburn. The Scots kneel in Prayer before the Battle. 
 
 By skilful generalship he completely overthrew 
 the English host. From that time until his death 
 Bruce ruled Scotland wisely and well, and kept his 
 country free from the power of England. 
 
 VI. EDWARD'S WORK FOR ENGLAND. 
 
 The lessons which Edward I. had learned during 
 the last years of his father's reign helped him to 
 rule wisely when he himself became king. Great as 
 
120 THE STORY OF EDWARD THE FIRST. 
 
 he was as a warrior, he was just as great as a law- 
 giver. He made many changes for the better in 
 the way of carrying out the law, and so made it 
 easier for people to have justice done to them. 
 
 Edward started the tax known as the Customs. 
 Needing much money to pay the expenses of his 
 government, he laid a tax on every sack of wool 
 sent out of England. This he did with the consent 
 of Parliament. The troubles of his father's reign 
 had shown him that the king would be most truly 
 powerful if he trusted the people, and took them 
 into his confidence. 
 
 It is to Edward that England owes her present 
 form of government. He called together many 
 parliaments during the first twenty years of his 
 reign, and at length, in 1295, he summoned a parlia- 
 ment in which all the different classes of the people 
 — the clergy, the nobility, and the commons — had 
 some one to speak for them. This is sometimes 
 known as the Model Parliament. 
 
 The barons came in person ; the clergy sent their 
 bishops and other chief men ; the people sent two 
 knights from each county, two citizens from each 
 city, and two men from each borough. Thus Ed- 
 ward took care that every one who had to obey the 
 laws should have a voice in making them, and so 
 he did much to help Englishmen to be free. 
 
THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR. 
 I. THE BEGINNING OF THE WAR. 
 
 After the death of Robert Bruce, when Edward 
 III. was king of England, war again broke out 
 between Scotland and England, and the Scots 
 sought help from France to keep the English out 
 of their country. 
 
 It was partly this help given by France to Scot- 
 land which led to that war between France and 
 England which lasted for more than one hundred 
 years. Fighting did not go on all that time, but it 
 was a hundred years before England at last gave up 
 the attempt to conquer France. 
 
 Other causes of the war were, — the attempts 
 made by the French king to take from Edward III. 
 a French province which belonged to the English 
 king, and the damage which French sailors did 
 to English ships. The port of Southampton was 
 burned by the French, and much injury was done 
 to English trade. 
 
 So Edward declared war against France. He 
 obtained the help of the Flemings, the people of 
 Flanders, a country on the northeast border of 
 France. But in order to get their help Edward had 
 to make a claim to the throne of France. For the 
 Flemings said that they were the vassals of whoever 
 
 121 
 
122 THE HUNDRED YEARS* WAR. 
 
 was king of France, and they wanted an excuse for 
 fighting against Philip, their true king. 
 
 Edward's mother was a French princess, and 
 Edward himself was the nearest male relative of 
 the late French king ; but he had no real right to 
 the throne. 
 
 The war began with a sea-fight. Edward, learn- 
 ing that a large French fleet lay in the harbor of 
 Sluys, on the coast of Flanders, made up his mind 
 to attack it, though he was warned how dangerous 
 such an undertaking was. When his advisers 
 begged him not to go, he grew angry, and cried, 
 " I shall go ; those who are afraid where there is no 
 cause for fear, may stay at home ! " He got together 
 a fleet of two hundred ships, and set sail. 
 
 In those days there were no cannon, and the ships 
 did not fight at a distance with powder and shot. 
 First the archers let fly a volley of arrows ; then 
 the ships were driven one against another, and the 
 English men-at-arms leaped on board the ships of 
 the enemy, and fought with pike and sword. 
 
 At the battle of Sluys the English were com- 
 pletely victorious. They lost only two ships, while 
 nearly all the French ships were destroyed or in- 
 jured, and thousands upon thousands of French and 
 Norman sailors and soldiers were slain or drowned. 
 
 No one dared at first tell the French king of the 
 disaster. At length the court jester called out, 
 " What cowards those English are ! " Philip asked 
 why. " Because," said the jester, " they did not dare 
 
THE BATTLE OF CRECY. I 23 
 
 to leap into the sea as our brave Frenchmen did!" 
 Then Philip guessed, from the jester's mockery, 
 what had really happened. 
 
 II. THE BATTLE OF CRECY. 
 
 For several years after the battle of Sluys, the 
 war went on slowly and with no success. Then 
 Edward crossed to France with a large army, deter- 
 mined to punish the men of Normandy and of 
 Calais for their raids on the English coast. With 
 him he took his eldest son, also named Edward, who 
 was at this time a lad of sixteen years of age. He 
 grew up to be so mighty and terrible a warrior that 
 the French called him the Black Prince. 
 
 The French were very backward to defend their 
 country, and for some months Edward went through 
 Normandy ravaging and burning. At length he 
 reached Rouen, where he wished to cross the river 
 Seine on his way to Calais. There he found the 
 bridges broken down, so that his position was very 
 dangerous. The French king was at hand with an 
 army twice the size of his own ; to retreat was im- 
 possible, to advance was full of danger. 
 
 At length Edward repaired one of the bridges, 
 and crossed, only to find before him another river, 
 the Somme. Over this, too, the bridges were de- 
 stroyed, all but one, which was in the hands of the 
 enemy. He learned at last of a spot where the river 
 could be crossed at low tide. Hastily he led his army 
 
124 THE HUNDRED YEARS WAR. 
 
 over, and had only just got across when the French 
 army arrived at the bank the English had left. By 
 this time the tide had risen, and the baffled French 
 could not cross to pursue their enemy. 
 
 Edward now determined to risk a battle. He 
 drew up his army on a slope near the village of 
 Crecy, where he waited while the French crossed by 
 the bridge many miles farther up the river. 
 
 He arranged his army in three portions, remain- 
 ing himself in the rear with one part as a reserve. 
 One of the other divisions was commanded by the 
 Black Prince, who was aided by Sir John of Chan- 
 dos, one of the finest soldiers of the time. 
 
 Two days passed before the French army arrived. 
 The battle began on the evening of August 26, 
 1 346. The French soldiers, weary and hungry after 
 a long march, were impatient and disorderly, for they 
 expected to win an easy victory over the small Eng- 
 lish army. The English had had good food and a 
 long rest, and were seated on the ground, rank by 
 rank, awaiting the enemy. 
 
 When King Philip saw them his blood boiled, so 
 much he hated them. He ordered his crossbow- 
 men to advance, and the English sprang up to meet 
 them. Just at that moment a terrible thunderstorm 
 broke over the field. The rain fell in torrents, and 
 so drenched the strings of the Frenchmen's bows 
 that they became useless. But the English archers 
 kept their bows in canvas cases, so that they were 
 dry and in good trim. 
 
THE BATTLE OF CRECY. 
 
 125 
 
 Then the storm ceased as suddenly as it arose, 
 and the sun shone out, right in the faces of the 
 dazzled French. With a shout the French bowmen 
 advanced, but when they were met by a shower of 
 
 King Edward watching the Battle of Crecy. 
 
 English arrows they threw down their bows and 
 took to their heels. 
 
 In vain the men-at-arms tried to drive them back 
 to the fight. They could not face again those ter- 
 rible arrows, which still flew thick and fast. But 
 the French knights behind kept pressing on, trust- 
 
126 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR. 
 
 ing to their greater numbers to break through the 
 ranks of English archers and footmen. 
 
 Then it was that a knight went in haste to King 
 Edward, who was watching the fight from a wind- 
 mill on the hill, and begged him to come to the aid 
 of his gallant son. 
 
 " Is my son dead ? " asked the king. " No, Sire," 
 replied the knight. " Is he unhorsed, or so des- 
 perately wounded that he cannot support himself ? " 
 " No, Sire," replied the knight, " but he is in so hot 
 a strife that he has great need of your help." Then 
 said the king, " Let the boy win his spurs, for I am 
 resolved that all the glory of this day shall be his." 
 
 The boy won his spurs indeed. So well did he 
 and his men fight that the French fled, after man)> 
 of their bravest knights were slain. The battle 
 ended in a complete victory for the English. They 
 lost few men, while the French loss was enormous. 
 
 The battle of Crecy is very important in one 
 respect. It showed that the bravest and boldest 
 knights of France were powerless against the sturdy 
 English yeomen, with their bows and arrows. The 
 men who had left their ploughs and their spades at 
 Edward's call put to rout the finest nobility of 
 France. The people won the day, and not the 
 nobles. 
 
 III. THE CITIZENS OF CALAIS. 
 
 After the battle of Crecy, Edward hastened north- 
 ward and began the siege of Calais. In those days 
 
THE CITIZENS OF CALAIS. I 27 
 
 towns were strongly defended with thick walls, above 
 which rose castles and turrets at various points. 
 Cannon were not yet in use, and it was almost 
 impossible to capture a town by assault. 
 
 The plan of a siege was to surround the town, 
 and keep the people shut up without any chance 
 of getting food. This was done at Calais. For a 
 whole year the English remained before the walls, 
 living in huts which their carpenters had built, and 
 which made a little town of themselves. 
 
 The sufferings of the people of Calais were ter- 
 rible. They made their food last as long as possible, 
 and when it was gone they began to eat their 
 horses, dogs, and cats, and even began to speak of 
 eating one another. 
 
 They hoped to hold out till an army came to 
 relieve them, but though a French army came quite 
 near, the soldiers so feared the English that they 
 went away again without righting. 
 
 At last the governor of the town offered to sur- 
 render, if Edward would allow the people to depart 
 unharmed. A brave English knight, Sir Walter 
 Manny, asked Edward to agree to this, but the king 
 refused. However, he consented to spare the citi- 
 zens, if they gave up to him six of the chief men 
 among them. These were to come to him bare- 
 headed and barefooted, with ropes about their necks, 
 bringing the keys of the city. "On them," said the 
 king in his anger, " I will work my will ! " 
 
 The poor starving people were sad when they 
 
128 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR. 
 
 heard these hard terms. They met in the market- 
 place at the ringing of a bell. There the richest 
 man in the town stepped forward and spoke. " My 
 friends," he said, " it would be a pity for all our 
 people to die of famine. Whoever dies for his 
 people will find grace and pardon in the sight of 
 God. I will be the first, and willingly will I yield 
 myself, in nothing but my shirt, with my head bare 
 and a halter round my neck, to the mercy of the 
 king of England." 
 
 Women threw themselves at his feet with tears, 
 blessing him. Five other noble-minded men joined 
 themselves with him, and all six went out of the city, 
 and came to meet Edward. 
 
 The English king sat in state to receive them, his 
 queen by his side, and many nobles around him. The 
 six men fell humbly at his feet, and, offering him 
 the keys, begged him to have mercy upon them, and 
 spare their lives. 
 
 Barons and knights wept as they beheld the piti- 
 ful sight. Sir Walter Manny pleaded for the cap- 
 tives : " Let not the world have cause to speak ill of 
 your cruelty," he said to the king. 
 
 But Edward looked at them with angry eyes. 
 He could not forget what injuries the men .of 
 Calais had done to English seamen. Then Queen 
 Philippa fell on her knees before the king, and 
 said with tears : " My gentle sir, since I crossed 
 the seas with great danger to see you, not one 
 favor have I asked of you ; now I humbly beg 
 
THE CITIZENS OF CALAIS. I 29 
 
 that for love of Christ and of me you will have 
 mercy on these men." 
 
 For a time Edward looked at her in silence. Then, 
 raising her tenderly, he said : " My lady, I could 
 wish that you had not been here, but I cannot re- 
 
 The Queen begs Edward to spare the Men of Calais. 
 
 fuse you ; I give them to you to do with as you 
 please." Then the queen took the men of Calais to 
 her tent, where she had them fed and clothed, and 
 sent them away with a present of money. 
 
I30 THE HUNDRED YEARS WAR. 
 
 IV. POICTIERS AND AGINCOURT. 
 
 The war lingered on for several years. Ten years 
 after the battle of Crecy, the Black Prince won a 
 splendid victory at Poictiers, where he captured the 
 king of France, who was carried a prisoner to Lon- 
 don. After the battle of Poictiers, the English won 
 no great successes in France for many years. 
 
 The Black Prince wore himself out with constant 
 warfare, and died before his father. He proved him- 
 self to be a great, though a merciless, soldier, and 
 Englishmen were proud of him ; but they liked him 
 still better in his last years, when, though ill and 
 weak, he did his best to improve the government of 
 his country. 
 
 About sixty years after the battle of Poictiers, an- 
 other wonderful victory was won by the English in 
 France. The English king, Henry V., was a young 
 man twenty-eight years old. He was warlike in 
 character, and longed to conquer France. So he 
 raised again the claim to the French crown which 
 Edward III. had made. 
 
 In his younger days, when Prince of Wales, Henry 
 is said to have behaved in ways unworthy of a prince. 
 Stories are told of him robbing travellers and play- 
 ing other pranks with a crew of idle rogues. 
 
 One of these stories is somewhat to his credit. A 
 comrade of his was brought one day before the chief 
 justice, charged with an offence against the law. 
 The prince, hearing of this, came to the court in a 
 
POICTIERS AND AGINCOURT. 
 
 131 
 
 rage, and ordered the prisoner to be released. The 
 judge refused to release him, whereupon the prince 
 
 Prince Henry and the Chief Justice. 
 
 came angrily up to the judge's seat, and the on- 
 lookers in terror expected to see him kill the judge. 
 But the judge, looking calmly at the hot-headed 
 youth, rebuked him for setting a bad example to his 
 
I32 THE HUNDRED YEARS WAR. 
 
 father's subjects, and ordered him to prison. The 
 prince's attendants would have fought the officers of 
 the law ; but the prince, seeing how wrong he had 
 been, forbade them to lift a hand for him, and went 
 humbly to his punishment. His father, when he 
 heard the story, said how glad he was to find he 
 had so just a judge and so obedient a son. 
 
 Henry proved to be a splendid soldier. At Agin- 
 court, a village a few miles north of Crecy, he de- 
 feated, with ten thousand men, a French army five 
 times as large. 
 
 The English were hungry and tired, but eager for 
 the fight. The French hesitated to make an attack, 
 whereupon Henry ordered his archers to advance. 
 They obeyed with a shout, and planting in the 
 ground before them a row of thick stakes sharpened 
 at both ends, they shot their arrows into the ranks 
 of the French horsemen. 
 
 The French charged, but their horses' legs stuck 
 fast in the mud, the ground being a ploughed field 
 soaked with rain. Those who got free could not 
 pass the close hedge of stakes, and hundreds were 
 slain. Many of the greatest nobles of France per- 
 ished ; eleven thousand French lay dead on the 
 field, but on the English side only a few men fell. 
 
 After the battle, it was arranged that Henry 
 should become king of France on the death of the 
 king then reigning, but only seven years later 
 Henry died, without having been able to call 
 France his own kingdom, as he had wished to do. 
 
JOAN OF ARC. 133 
 
 V. JOAN OF ARC — 1. 
 
 At Henry's death, the chief part in the French 
 war was taken by his brother, the Duke of Bedford. 
 Bedford was a skilful warrior, and a wise statesman, 
 who, within fifteen years of the battle of Agincourt, 
 had made himself master of almost the whole of the 
 north of France. One great town alone, the town 
 of Orleans, remained to the French. If that were 
 captured, Bedford believed that he would be able to 
 conquer the kingdom of France. 
 
 So he laid siege to Orleans for many months. 
 The French made a stout defence against his 
 attacks, but could not drive him away. All the 
 attempts of the French to relieve Orleans having 
 failed, it seemed as though the town must give in. 
 At this serious moment a savior appeared for 
 Orleans, almost as by a miracle. It was a young 
 girl of seventeen, whose memory is to this day 
 loved by the French as that of a saint and martyr. 
 
 Her name was Joan of Arc, and she is sometimes 
 called the Maid of Orleans. Her father was a poor 
 peasant, and the little girl grew up in a quiet coun- 
 try village, far away from the scenes of war. She 
 was very ignorant; she could neither read nor 
 write ; all her skill lay in sewing and spinning ; but 
 now and then she went to the field to tend her 
 father's sheep. 
 
 She was gentle and good. Her mother had 
 taught her to pray; she loved to sit and dream, 
 
134 THE HUNDRED YEARS WAR. 
 
 and think over the stories of angels which she had 
 been told. 
 
 As she grew older, stories of the horrors and 
 miseries caused by war filled Joan's simple mind 
 with sorrow. By and by her own village began to 
 suffer, and she became more and more sad. She 
 felt great pity for the realm of France. 
 
 Suddenly she began to hear, as she thought, 
 voices in the air calling her as the Voice called 
 the boy Samuel of old. She paid little heed to 
 them at first, but one day a voice said, " Joan, 
 you are called to live another life, and to do mar- 
 vellous things ; for it is you whom God has chosen 
 to bring happiness to France, and to render aid to 
 King Charles." 
 
 VI. JOAN OF ARC — 2. 
 
 Distrusting the voice no longer, Joan went to a 
 great captain and she told her story. He laughed 
 at her,' called her a foolish girl, and bade her go 
 home to her parents. Joan sadly returned, but she 
 still heard the voices. By and by her village was 
 burned and its church destroyed. Joan could wait 
 no longer ; again she went to the captain, who this 
 time paid more attention to what she said, and at 
 last agreed to send her to Charles. 
 
 Armed like a soldier and riding on a black horse, 
 the young girl set out. She was tall and strongly 
 built, with a pleasant face, beautiful black hair, and 
 
JOAN OF ARC. 135 
 
 a sweet voice. When she came to Charles she 
 begged him to give her an army, and allow her to 
 go to Orleans. At first Charles thought her re- 
 quests fit only to be laughed at. But by and by 
 his doubts were overcome by the maid's earnestness 
 
 Joan of Arc at the head of her Troops. 
 
 and purity of heart, and he gave her a suit of white 
 armor and bade her go. 
 
 Clad in her armor, mounted on a white horse, 
 and bearing a white banner embroidered with lilies, 
 Joan set out with an army for Orleans. The rough 
 soldiers adored her, and for her sake they gave up 
 
I36 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR. 
 
 some of their bad habits and lived more decent 
 lives. 
 
 The English had heard of her, and were so over- 
 come with terror when she appeared, that they 
 allowed her to pass into Orleans with food for the 
 starving people. They could not believe that any 
 woman but a witch would dare to engage in such 
 dangerous work, and they were not there to fight 
 against witches. 
 
 In a few days the French captured several of the 
 English forts. The presence of the Maid gave them 
 courage. A few days more, and Orleans was saved. 
 The English had so lost heart that they withdrew 
 from the place. Then Joan went to Rheims, where 
 the kings of France were crowned, and stood by the 
 side of Charles at the altar, unfolding her lily-white 
 banner as the crown was placed on his head. 
 
 Unhappily Joan did not return to her country 
 home ; she remained with the soldiers, still leading 
 and cheering them, until by and by she was taken 
 prisoner by the troops of one of Charles's enemies, 
 and handed over to the English. Those were cruel 
 times, when terrible deeds were sometimes done in 
 the name of religion. The English had Joan brought 
 to trial, and accused of being a witch, and of acting 
 as no Christian woman would act. 
 
 Such charges were monstrous and cruel, but her 
 enemies were resolved to put out of the world the 
 brave and good girl who had saved France. She 
 was condemned, and on May 30th, 1431, in the 
 
JOAN OF ARC. I37 
 
 market-place of Rouen, Joan was burned to death. 
 Some even of her cruel English enemies shed tears 
 as they watched her sufferings ; and as she bent for- 
 ward and murmured the name of Jesus ere she died, 
 an Englishman standing by hung his head in shame. 
 " We are lost ! " he said, " we have burnt a saint ! " 
 
 The English cause was indeed lost. The Duke 
 of Bedford soon died, and there was no able man 
 to replace him. Twenty years after the death of 
 Joan, England had lost all that she had won in 
 France except Calais : that remained an English 
 town for two hundred years. 
 
THE BLACK DEATH AND THE STATE OF 
 
 ENGLAND. 
 
 I. THE BLACK DEATH. 
 
 During the early part of the Hundred Years' 
 War, England was fairly prosperous. Edward III. 
 had encouraged trade ; for his wars cost much money, 
 and as the money had to be provided in part by taxes 
 on the people, it could not be got unless trade was 
 good. 
 
 He brought Flemish weavers to England, and 
 tried to improve the English manufacture of wool. 
 The trading classes during his reign grew much in 
 wealth and importance. The plunder gained in the 
 war also helped to make England rich. The nobles, 
 indeed, became wasteful, and spent large sums on 
 their pleasures and their dress. 
 
 In the midst of all this, a dreadful plague fell 
 upon the country. It was a strange disease, which 
 came from the east of Europe, and spread with awful 
 speed. No one could check it. It was helped by 
 the dirty habits of the people and the filthy state of 
 their houses and towns ; for in those days people did 
 not know, as we now know, how important it is to 
 be clean if we wish to be healthy. 
 
 This disease, known as the Black Death, carried 
 
 138 
 
THE BLACK DEATH. I 39 
 
 off thousands upon thousands of the people, for the 
 most part from among the poor. But though it was 
 so terrible at the time, it brought great good to Eng- 
 lish workmen in after years. So many poor laborers 
 died, that it was not easy to find men to till the 
 fields. Those who were left demanded higher wages 
 than the landlords could well afford to pay, so that 
 some landlords left their crops to perish rather than 
 pay men to reap them. 
 
 Two years after the plague, Parliament passed 
 a famous law on behalf of the landlords, by which 
 an attempt was made to fix wages at a low rate, and 
 in other ways to keep the laborers down. 
 
 At that time the country laborers were little bet- 
 ter than slaves. They were not allowed to go from 
 place to place in search of higher wages ; they had 
 to put up with what they could get, and to serve the 
 masters on whose land they were born. If they 
 tried to escape, and were captured, they were 
 branded with a red-hot iron. 
 
 When wages rose after the Black Death, the la- 
 borers who were not contented wished more than 
 ever for freedom to go about in search of mas- 
 ters who would pay them better. But the masters 
 would not allow them to do so, and began to treat 
 them more harshly than ever. Things got worse 
 and worse, until, in the reign of Richard II., grand- 
 son of Edward III., a rebellion broke out. 
 
I40 THE STATE OF ENGLAND. 
 
 II. WAT TYLER'S REBELLION. 
 
 The laborers had many reasons for their discon- 
 tent. Some of the wilder spirits among them now 
 began to stir up their fury by asking why they were 
 laborers at all. A poor priest of Kent, named John 
 Ball, went about the country telling the people that 
 no man ought to be richer than any other man, and 
 that all men were born equal. . 
 
 A rough rhyme was made up — 
 
 " When Adam delved and Eve span, 
 Who was then the gentleman ? " 
 
 This was sung all over the country, and the rougher 
 spirits among the poor began to grow eager to get 
 hold of the property of the rich and divide it among 
 themselves. They were ready to break out in open 
 violence at any moment. 
 
 Just at this dangerous time a new tax was put on 
 the people. Every person over fifteen years of age 
 was ordered to pay a certain sum toward the ex- 
 penses of the French war. The poor raised loud 
 and bitter complaints, but they did not at first refuse 
 to pay, or rise in rebellion. 
 
 One day, one of the men sent to inquire whether 
 the tax had been paid behaved with shameful rude- 
 ness in the house of a workman at Dartford, in 
 Kent. The man was so enraged that he struck the 
 tax-collector dead. 
 
 His neighbors took his part, and soon a great 
 
WAT TYLER S REBELLION. 
 
 I 4 I 
 
 mob of rough men from Essex and Kent were on 
 the march to London. On the way they broke into 
 
 The Boy King Richard rides up to Tyler's Men. 
 
 the houses of the gentry, and robbed and slew with- 
 out mercy. 
 
I42 THE STATE OF ENGLAND. 
 
 The king and his council were too much taken by 
 surprise to put down the rising at once. They shut 
 the gates of London, then a walled city, and asked 
 what the rebels wanted. The rebels answered that, 
 first of all, they desired that no man should be held 
 as a serf upon the land of his lord. 
 
 King Richard, then only a boy of fourteen, said 
 that he would go out to the rebels, and try to quiet 
 them. He met them at Smithfield, and began to 
 talk to them ; but their leader, a man named Wat 
 Tyler, behaved so roughly that the Lord Mayor, 
 thinking that the king would be hurt, struck Tyler 
 down with a dagger, and he was killed as he lay on 
 the ground. 
 
 The men of Kent, seeing their leader dead, bent 
 their bows, and shouted that they would have re- 
 venge. But the young king galloped boldly up to 
 them, promised to grant them what they asked for, 
 and cried, " I myself will be your leader ! " 
 
 Trusting in his promise, the people went away to 
 their homes. The king's council afterward would 
 not allow the promise to be kept, and the rebels 
 were punished with much cruelty. 
 
 But from that time the laborers had more free- 
 dom, for the lords saw that it was impossible to 
 keep down the poor people as they had done before. 
 It was not long before every serf had become a free 
 man. 
 
THE STATE OF ENGLAND. 
 
 143 
 
 III. THE STATE OF ENGLAND. 
 
 The life of Englishmen in the fourteenth century 
 was very different from the life of the people to-day. 
 There were, roughly, five classes in the country — 
 the clergy, the nobles, the traders, the yeomen, and 
 the villains. 
 
 The traders grew in importance during this 
 period. The eastern counties were the seat of a 
 great trade in wool and fish. Fairs were held in 
 towns in various parts of the country, at which 
 merchants of all nations sold their wares. 
 
 The yeomen were tenant-farmers, who in time of war 
 served as bowmen 
 and men-at-arms. 
 
 The villains 
 could not leave the 
 lands on which they 
 were born, but had 
 to work there for 
 their masters, and 
 lived in miserable 
 huts without win- 
 dows or chimneys. 
 Their food was 
 good on the whole, 
 though they suf- 
 fered for want of 
 vegetables, the only one commonly eaten being cab- 
 bage. Meat, bread, butter, and cheese were cheap. 
 
 Husbandman and Country Woman of 
 Fifteenth Century. 
 
144 THE STATE OF ENGLAND. 
 
 The laborers wore rough clothes of wool or 
 leather; the traders wore cloth of good material, 
 but plain. The nobles decked themselves out in 
 splendid clothing. Their dress consisted of a long- 
 sleeved vest, with a large and costly mantle, and 
 feathered hat. Their shoes were very long, bent 
 upward at the toes, and fastened to the knees with 
 chains of gold and silver. 
 
 Though the houses of the poor were so bad, men 
 were skilful in building grand churches, and fine 
 houses for the wealthy. Splendid castles and manor 
 houses were built. A manor house consisted of 
 a large hall, where the family and servants had their 
 meals, where the ladies worked at their sewing 
 and spinning, and where the servants slept at 
 night, either on benches or on rushes placed on 
 the floor. 
 
 At one end of the hall were sleeping rooms for 
 the family; at the other end were stables. Some 
 houses had large kitchens, and an upper chamber, 
 or " solar," built over the hall. 
 
 There was as a rule no chimney ; the smoke found 
 its way out through holes and gratings in the roof. 
 Glass windows were seen nowhere but in palaces 
 and churches. There was scarcely any furniture ; 
 a table and a few seats, with a dresser for holding 
 the plate, were almost the only things in use. 
 
 People rose in the morning with the sun. They 
 had dinner as early as nine o'clock, and were called 
 to it by a blast of the horn. There were no forks 
 
THE STATE OF ENGLAND. 
 
 145 
 
 or plates. People used their fingers, and cut their 
 meat or fish on chunks of bread. After dinner, water 
 was brought for washing, and minstrels played or 
 sang while the company drank their wine or beer. 
 Tea and coffee were as yet unknown. 
 
 Supper was eaten at five o'clock, and everybody 
 went to bed at sunset, for candles were dear. Books 
 
 Court Costumes, Time of Richard II. 
 
 were few, and were written by hand. Few people 
 could read, but they used to listen to the stories told 
 or sung by wandering story-tellers, who went about 
 the country calling at the houses of the rich, where 
 they were sure of a welcome, and of food and a 
 lodging in return for their stories. 
 
 Life in England was hard for the poor, as it is 
 everywhere, but they had a good deal of pleasure, 
 too. Every saint's day was a holiday, and on these 
 
I46 THE STATE OF ENGLAND. 
 
 days, as well as on Sundays, people danced and 
 made merry on the village green. 
 
 In the towns, the tradesmen joined together in 
 guilds, each trade having one of its own. Every 
 man who followed a trade had to belong to the 
 trade guild, otherwise he perhaps would not have 
 been allowed to work, or would have found it hard 
 to make a living. These guilds were abolished in 
 the reign of Henry VI 1 1., except in the city of Lon- 
 don, where they remain to this day, though they 
 have no longer the power they once had. 
 
 We have seen that the Norman Conquest carried 
 the French language into England. For many 
 years the upper classes in England spoke French 
 and understood no English, while the lower class 
 kept their English and understood no French. But 
 by the time of Edward III., English had overcome 
 French, though many French words had crept into 
 the language. From this time English was the 
 language used in the courts of law and in the 
 schools, and great books began to be written in 
 English. 
 
THE WARS OF THE ROSES. 
 I. THE CAUSE OF THE WAR. 
 
 At Edward III.'s death the crown passed to his 
 grandson, Richard II. Richard proved a weak, 
 unwise, and unworthy king, and after a reign of 
 twenty-two years, his cousin, Henry Bolingbroke, 
 took the crown from him, and became King Henry 
 IV. It was during the reign of Bolingbroke's 
 grandson, Henry VI., that the Wars of the Roses 
 broke out. 
 
 The sixth Henry was a gentle, weak-minded man, 
 who was quite unfit to rule, and who never had any 
 real power. He was completely in the hands of 
 favorite lords, who were really the rulers of the 
 country. 
 
 Henry VI. was king when Joan of Arc drove the 
 English from Orleans, and when England began to 
 lose her hold on France. The loss of the lands in 
 France, won in so long and fierce a contest, caused 
 great anger among the English people, and the 
 misrule of the king's favorite, the Duke of Suffolk, 
 added to their wrath and discontent. 
 
 At length the men of Kent rose in rebellion 
 under a soldier named Jack Cade, demanding that 
 the kingdom should be governed by the Duke of 
 
 147 
 
148 THE WARS OF THE ROSES. 
 
 York. The duke was an able soldier and he bore a 
 good character. He was also heir to the throne, for 
 as yet Henry had no son. 
 
 Cade's rebellion was put down, but Henry was 
 forced to give the Duke of York a greater share in 
 governing the country. When Henry soon after- 
 ward suddenly went out of his mind, York was 
 named by the lords protector of the kingdom. 
 
 The king recovered his senses as suddenly as he 
 had lost them, and York had to give up his position 
 at the head of the kingdom. Henry at once brought 
 back to power a former favorite, the Duke of Som- 
 erset; and York, knowing that Somerset was his 
 enemy, and would put him to death if he could, took 
 up arms. 
 
 A battle was fought at St. Albans, in which Som- 
 erset was killed. This brought York again into 
 power, and the king tried to make peace between 
 the followers of York and those of Somerset. But 
 war broke out again, and now York made a claim 
 to the throne. He was the descendant of the third 
 son of Edward III., while Henry was descended 
 from the fourth son, the Earl of Lancaster. If 
 Henry had died childless, York would have become 
 king ; but the birth of a prince, who was named 
 Edward, had destroyed York's chance of becoming 
 king in peace. 
 
 The lords would not allow his claim, but they 
 arranged that at Henry's death the crown should 
 pass to York and not to Prince Edward. This 
 
THE EARL OF WARWICK. 
 
 149 
 
 decision led to the great struggle between the 
 houses of Lancaster and York, known as the Wars 
 of the Roses. 
 
 It is said that one day the leaders of the two 
 parties in the struggle were walking in a garden. 
 
 Abbey of St. Albans. 
 
 As they spoke hard words to one another, one of 
 them plucked a white rose, and the other a red one, 
 and these roses became the badges of their parties. 
 The red rose was the badge of Lancaster, the white 
 rose that of York. 
 
 II. THE EARL OF WARWICK. 
 
 King Henry's wife was Margaret of Anjou, a 
 French princess of great bravery and ability, but of 
 a hard and cruel temper. Englishmen hated her, for 
 
I50 THE WARS OF THE ROSES. 
 
 she was no true friend to England. When the lords 
 decided that York should succeed Henry, Margaret 
 was furious, for she wished, as was quite natural, 
 that her son Edward should be king after his father. 
 
 She resolved to stand up for the rights of her 
 son. She gathered together a great army from 
 Scotland and the north of England, and a battle was 
 fought at Wakefield, in Yorkshire, where the Duke 
 of York was slain. Margaret had his head cut off, 
 and set up on the walls of York, and upon the head 
 was placed, in mockery, a crown of paper. 
 
 But the death of the Duke of York did not end 
 the war, for his son Edward, a handsome young man 
 of nineteen, stepped at once into his father's place 
 as head of the Yorkists. He was aided by a great 
 nobleman, the Earl of Warwick, who was afterward 
 known as the king-maker, for a reason that will be 
 seen presently. 
 
 Warwick was much beloved by Englishmen, 
 being kindly in manner, a good master to his ser- 
 vants, and a man who sought not so much his own 
 greatness as the good of the realm. 
 
 Edward of York, with Warwick, hastened to 
 London, where the citizens received him joyfully, 
 and where the lords offered him the crown of Eng- 
 land. In another battle at St. Albans Warwick was 
 defeated, and Henry, whom he had kept as a pris- 
 oner, escaped to his own friends. But at Towton 
 Queen Margaret's army was utterly defeated, and 
 twenty thousand of her soldiers were slain. 
 
THE EARL OF WARWICK. 
 
 151 
 
 Not long afterwards Henry was captured and 
 imprisoned in the Tower of London, and Edward 
 of York was, by aid of Warwick, crowned king as 
 Edward IV. But he soon deeply offended many of 
 his friends, and among them Warwick, towards 
 whom he acted with great deceit. 
 
 Warwick Castle. 
 
 The result was that Warwick after a time left 
 Edward's party, and went over to the side of Henry. 
 He even became friendly with Queen Margaret, who 
 had before been his bitterest enemy. 
 
 Warwick for a time had to remain out of the 
 country, but he soon returned. He was so well 
 received by the people that Edward, feeling unable 
 to resist him, fled to Flanders, where his sister was 
 the wife of the reigning duke. 
 
 Then Warwick went to the Tower, whither he 
 had himself taken King Henry as a prisoner five 
 years before, and brought the poor king out. Old, 
 
152 
 
 THE WARS OF THE ROSES. 
 
 Warwick conducts Henry VI. from the Tower. 
 
THE END OF THE WAR. 1 53 
 
 and worn, and dressed in very shabby clothes, Henry 
 was led by the king-maker through the streets. 
 Then Warwick had him dressed in robes fit for a 
 king to wear, and restored him to the throne from 
 which he had before removed him. 
 
 III. THE END OF THE WAR. 
 
 In the very next year Edward went back to Eng- 
 land with an army, entered London in triumph, and 
 took the king prisoner. Then he marched out to 
 meet Warwick, taking Henry with him. 
 
 At Barnet the armies of Lancaster and of York 
 met once more. Warwick, now the leader for the 
 Red Rose, was killed in the battle, and his army 
 was defeated. In the same year another battle was 
 fought at Tewkesbury, where the White Rose was 
 again successful. After this battle Prince Edward, 
 Henry's son, now eighteen years old, was brutally 
 killed. King Henry was again placed in the Tower, 
 where he was murdered by King Edward's order. 
 
 Edward IV. reigned for the rest of his life in 
 peace. At his death his son Edward, a boy twelve 
 years of age, was crowned king, and Richard, Duke 
 of Gloucester, was named protector, until the young 
 king was old enough to rule. 
 
 Gloucester was an able man, but his name is 
 stained with deeds of blood which were thought 
 horrible even in those cruel days. Pretending that 
 he wished to keep his nephew, the young king, out 
 
154 THE WARS OF THE ROSES. 
 
 of harm's way, he placed him in the Tower of Lon- 
 don, and soon gave him his younger brother as a 
 companion. Before long the two boys were dead. 
 No one knew how they died, but a story began to be 
 whispered that their uncle had ordered their murder. 
 
 Gloucester then made himself king as Richard 
 III. He ruled for only two years. Then Henry, 
 Earl of Richmond, the head of the House of Lan- 
 caster, came to England from the foreign town in 
 which he had been living, and fought Richard in the 
 battle of Bosworth Field. Richard fought bravely 
 and died a soldiers death. His crown, which he 
 had worn in battle, was found in a holly bush and 
 placed on the head of Richmond, who was hailed 
 by the army as King Henry VII. 
 
 Thus ended the Wars of the Roses, with triumph 
 for the House of Lancaster. It was a struggle be- 
 tween the great nobles. Trade, reaping, and sowing, 
 went on almost as usual, while the lords and their 
 followers were fighting out the quarrel among them- 
 selves. Many of the lords were slain ; many more 
 were ruined. The lands of traitors passed to the 
 king, and thus many lords of both parties lost all 
 their lands. 
 
 As a result, Henry VII., and the sovereigns who 
 ruled after him, had much wealth, and became more 
 powerful than any king of England had yet been. 
 
 There were now no great lords to check the 
 power of the king. Some of the later kings used 
 their power unwisely, and it needed another war, in 
 
THE END OF THE WAR. 
 
 !55 
 
 Reference Map for the Wars of the Roses. 
 
 the reign of Charles L, to teach the lesson that the 
 sovereign's duty is to seek the good of the nation, 
 and not his own pleasure or gain. 
 
THE STORY OF WILLIAM CAXTON. 
 I. CAXTON AT BRUGES. 
 
 During the autumn and winter of the year 1470, 
 the town of Bruges in Flanders was a scene of un- 
 usual bustle and gayety. It was always a busy place ; 
 merchants flocked to its markets from every country 
 in Europe ; and there Margaret, Duchess of Bur- 
 gundy, kept her court. But now its streets were more 
 gay and busy than ever, for Edward the Fourth, king 
 of England, held his court there. The great war be- 
 tween the houses of Lancaster and York was going 
 on, and Edward, the head of the Yorkists, had been 
 worsted, and had fled from England to avoid capture. 
 
 It was natural for him to seek refuge in Bruges, 
 for the Duchess of Burgundy, his sister, had be- 
 come the wife of the great duke, known as Charles 
 the Bold. Edward was therefore sure of a welcome 
 at the duke's court, and he hoped to find there not 
 only pleasant society, but also active help against 
 his enemies at home. 
 
 Among the higher servants of the Duchess Mar- 
 garet was a certain William Caxton, an Englishman, 
 who was born in the Weald of Kent, and who was 
 at this time some forty-eight years of age. How 
 Caxton came to enter the service of the duchess is 
 
 156 
 
CAXTON AT BRUGES. 157 
 
 not known. As a boy he was apprenticed to 
 Robert Large, a London silk merchant who became 
 Lord Mayor. At his master's death, he settled in 
 Bruges as a wool merchant, became prosperous, and 
 was made governor of all the English merchants in 
 the town. In this important office he had to settle 
 disputes between the traders, and to watch over the 
 interests of English merchants generally. 
 
 A year after the marriage of Margaret, however, 
 Caxton gave up his governorship, and became a 
 member of the duchess's household. 
 
 What his duties were is uncertain, but he had so 
 much leisure that he found himself in danger of 
 becoming lazy. He tells us that to save himself 
 from idleness, he took a French book to read, and 
 therein he found many strange and marvellous 
 stories, in which he had great pleasure and delight. 
 
 Never having seen the book in English, he 
 thought he would translate it into his own language. 
 He began the work in March, 1469 ; before the year 
 was out he had finished only fifty pages, then he 
 grew weary and laid the book aside. 
 
 The Duchess Margaret had seen Caxton's trans- 
 lation, and was pleased with it ; the book was the 
 famous story of Troy, the great city of the ancient 
 world which was besieged by the Greeks for ten 
 years before it fell. When her royal brother Edward 
 came to Bruges with many of his nobles, they heard 
 about Caxton's translation, and were eager to read 
 it. The duchess therefore commanded him to finish 
 
158 
 
 THE STORY OF WILLIAM CAXTON. 
 
 his work, and in the next year the whole book was 
 translated into English. By that time Edward had 
 gone back to England with an army, and had won the 
 great battles of Barnet and Tewkesbury ; but there 
 still remained several English noblemen at Marga- 
 ret's court, who desired copies of Caxton's book. 
 
 The Market Tower, Bruges (begun 1291, finished about 1390). 
 
 Several copies were written out, and Caxton 
 worked hard at copying with his own hand. Re- 
 quests for more copies came in rapidly as the book 
 became known ; and Caxton tells us that in writing 
 the same his pen was worn out, his hand became 
 weary and not steadfast, and his eyes were made 
 dim by overmuch looking at the white paper. 
 
CAXTON BEGINS TO PRINT. 1 59 
 
 II. CAXTON BEGINS TO PRINT. 
 
 Wearisome as it was, there had been, until this 
 time, no other way of copying books than by writ- 
 ing them out. In the quiet of the monasteries, 
 monks and their pupils spent long years in making 
 copies of books, and there were also men who made 
 copying a regular trade. Some of the copies thus 
 written were beautiful works of art ; the writing was 
 carefully done, capital letters were often painted in 
 colors, and the margins were decorated with colored 
 pictures and elegant designs. 
 
 Such manuscript books were scarce, and very 
 expensive. The Duke of Burgundy once gave 
 $275 for a single book. As most people never even 
 saw a book, there was no need for them to learn to 
 read, and very few people wished to do so. 
 
 A few years after Caxton's birth, people began to 
 speak of a new and wonderful way of making books 
 which had sprung up in Germany. It was so 
 strange to them, and they so little understood it, 
 that they actually thought those who practised it 
 were the servants of the Evil One, or magicians at 
 best. Men had at last learned the art of printing. 
 For many years, small books and rough pictures 
 had been printed from wooden blocks engraved in a 
 simple and clumsy fashion. It was not till near the 
 middle of the fifteenth century that men first began 
 to print from movable types. 
 
 At the time when Caxton had completed his 
 
i6o 
 
 THE STORY OF WILLIAM CAXTON. 
 
 translation of the History of Troy, it chanced that 
 one Colard Mansion, a skilful copyist, had just set 
 up the first printing-press in Bruges. Here was 
 
 Early Printers at Work. 
 
 Caxton's opportunity for supplying copies of his 
 book to all who wished for them. He paid Mansion 
 to teach him the new art, and provided him with 
 
CAXTON BEGINS TO PRINT. l6l 
 
 money to buy more types ; he also suggested im- 
 provements in the form of the types. 
 
 The two men worked together, and at length, about 
 the year 1474, the first book ever printed in the Eng- 
 lish language appeared ; it was Caxton's translation 
 of the French History of Troy. It formed a large 
 book of nearly eight hundred pages, and it must 
 have taken a long time to print. Nowadays, when 
 
 t***5<gmte %anmagape$c fat^Ueof fluent pat 
 flGf ft/Qfe* ef$o$e*€tt^eafci#* kfymm* 
 
 ittttf atfcl fSdtt fpg^t ftr *** Mil 
 
 Thenne beganne agayne the bataylle of the one parte / And of the other 
 Eneas ascryed to theym and sayd. Lordes why doo ye fiyghte / Ye knowe well 
 that the couuenante ys deuysed and made / That Turnus and I shall fiyghte for 
 you alle / 
 
 Then began again the battle on the one part. And on the other, Aeneas cried to 
 them and said : " Lords, why do ye fight? Ye know well that the covenant is devised 
 and made, that Turnus and 1 shall fight for you all." 
 
 Facsimile of Part of Caxton's Aeneid (reduced), with the same in 
 Modern Type and in Modern Spelling. 
 
 a book is set up in type, a printer can print many 
 pages at once, and can make copies very rapidly by 
 means of a press worked by steam. But at first 
 every page was printed separately; the type was 
 inked, and the paper was put on and taken off by 
 hand. Slow as it was, printing effected an immense 
 saving of time and labor; for when once the type 
 was set, a hundred copies could be printed in the 
 time taken to write one. 
 
1 62 THE STORY OF WILLIAM CAXTON. 
 
 The type that Caxton used was not at all like that 
 used in printing this book. The letters were much 
 larger, and in shape resembled those which are now 
 called Old English. 
 
 III. CAXTON IN ENGLAND. 
 
 Caxton, as might be expected of one who had 
 been governor of the English wool merchants in 
 Bruges, was a good man of business. He saw that 
 there would be a great demand for printed books, 
 and that a good living might be earned by anybody 
 who set up as a printer. So after printing with 
 Mansion a book called The Game and Play of the 
 Chess, he sailed for England with his types and 
 presses in 1476. 
 
 He took a house in Westminster, opposite the 
 west door of the great abbey. The place was then 
 called the Almonry, and as houses were known by 
 signs, and not by numbers, Caxton took for his 
 sign a pole painted red. His full address was there- 
 fore " At Westminster, in the Almonry, at the Red 
 Pole." When it became known that Caxton had set 
 up a press at Westminster, he was soon sought out 
 by the nobles who had met him at Bruges. One 
 of those who went to see him working at his new 
 trade was Earl Rivers, brother-in law of the king. 
 The earl had translated a French book into Eng- 
 lish, and this was the first work that Caxton printed 
 in England. 
 
CAXTON IN ENGLAND. 
 
 163 
 
 It was called The Dictes and Sayings of the Phi- 
 losophers, and appeared in the year 1477. For four- 
 teen years, until his death in 1491, Caxton went on 
 printing at Westminster, and during that time 
 ninety-nine books were produced at the sign of the 
 
 Facsimile of One of the Illustrations to Caxton's "Game and Play 
 
 of the Chess." 
 
 Red Pole : stories and poems, fables, service-books 
 and sermons. 
 
 Other printers followed Caxton's example, and 
 books soon became numerous and much cheaper. 
 Many people now began to learn to read, who 
 would never have thought of doing so ; and the 
 new invention was the means of bringing knowl- 
 edge and happiness to thousands. 
 
164 THE STORY OF WILLIAM CAXTON. 
 
 Caxton, besides being a printer, was a translator; 
 twenty of the books that he printed were transla- 
 tions — some of them by himself. He thus did 
 double service for the English people. 
 
 Before books were printed, people in different 
 parts of the country spoke so differently that it was 
 almost as if there were no one English language, 
 but each district had a language of its own. The 
 people of one county could hardly make themselves 
 understood by the people of another. When we 
 remember that, even now, a Yorkshire peasant can 
 scarcely understand a man of Devon, we can im- 
 agine how much worse the case was in those days 
 when books were few and travelling was difficult. 
 
 Caxton tells us a curious story which illustrates 
 this. Some merchants, sailing down the Thames 
 in order to cross the sea to Holland, were delayed 
 by lack of wind, and went on shore at the North 
 Foreland to refresh themselves. One of them 
 went into a house, and asked for eggs ; but the 
 woman of the house, not understanding him, an- 
 swered that she could not speak French. " Neither 
 can I speak French," said the man ; " I want some 
 eggs." The woman was still puzzled to know what 
 he meant by eggs, until one of his companions said 
 that he wanted some eyren, and then the woman 
 knew, and brought the eggs. For in that part of 
 the country eggs were called eyren. 
 
 Spelling, too, was very uncertain. Even educated 
 people spelled words very much as they pleased, 
 
CAXTON IN ENGLAND. 1 65 
 
 according to the way in which they thought the 
 sounds should be represented by letters. Thus 
 such a common word as baby was spelled also babi\ 
 babee, babie, babby ; and candle appears in the forms 
 condle, candel, candil, candell, and caitdelle. 
 
 When Caxton began to translate, he was per- 
 plexed as to the kind of English he should use. If 
 he employed the rough and homely language of his 
 native village, he would offend the refined tastes of 
 the nobles. On the other hand, he could not use 
 the more elegant language spoken by the nobles, 
 such as those whom he met at Bruges ; for the great 
 mass of his countrymen were not well educated, and 
 they would then have found his books too hard to 
 read. 
 
 What Caxton did was to make a selection from 
 both kinds of English ; thus his translations were 
 neither too rough in style for the nobles, nor too 
 learned for ordinary people. When he began to 
 print, he thought it well to spell each word upon one 
 plan throughout his books. And so when printed 
 books grew common, men of all classes and in all 
 parts of the country read the same words and 
 learned to spell them in the same way, and the 
 English language became one tongue. 
 
 Since that time, many new words have come into 
 the language, and spelling has been somewhat 
 altered, and made much more definite. But the 
 English of to-day is very much what it was as 
 printed by Caxton in his ninety-nine books. 
 
THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 I. CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 
 
 About fifty years after the art of printing was 
 invented, another great event happened which had 
 an important effect on the future history of the 
 English nation. This was the discovery of Amer- 
 ica. 
 
 At that time most people believed that the earth 
 was a great plain, with water all round it, but 
 learned men were teaching that the earth is a 
 globe. Men had travelled overland into different 
 parts of the known world, and had brought back 
 wonderful tales of the wealth and beauty of far-off 
 countries. They had gone as far as India, and even 
 China, and it was thought that beyond India, as 
 Eastern Asia was called, there was no more land 
 on the globe. The greater part of Africa was 
 entirely unknown. 
 
 Some of the seamen in the west of Europe 
 believed that if they sailed westward across the 
 Atlantic, they would at last come to the eastern 
 shores of India. Unknown plants had been picked 
 up at sea, and also pieces of wood marked with 
 strange figures, and it was supposed that India 
 was the only country from which such things could 
 have come. 
 
 1 66 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 167 
 
 One of the men who were filled with curiosity to 
 know more about what was beyond the sea, was 
 Christopher Columbus. He was born in 1436 at 
 Genoa, then a thriving seaport, where his father 
 was a wool-comber. When the time came for him 
 to choose a trade, the boy declared that he longed 
 to be a sailor. So he spent a rough seafaring life 
 until 1470, when he was wrecked on the coast of 
 Portugal after a sea-fight. He escaped on a plank, 
 and reached his brother's house at Lisbon. There 
 he married the daughter of an old navigator, and he 
 settled down in Portugal as a maker of maps and 
 charts. 
 
 Now Columbus had learned something of astron- 
 omy as well as of navigation ; he had made many 
 voyages round the western coasts of Europe ; he 
 had talked with travellers and seamen, and had 
 read many books of travel. What he had heard 
 and read made him feel sure that there was land 
 on the other side of the ocean, and he was filled 
 with a longing to discover it. But he was not 
 rich, and could not afford to buy ships and pay 
 crews to sail them. So he went to the king of 
 Portugal, and declared that if he were provided 
 with ships and men, he would find the eastern 
 shores of India, and thus open up a way by which 
 the wealth of the east could be obtained, without 
 the cost and danger of journeys by land. 
 
 But his ideas were thought absurd, and he did 
 not obtain the help he wanted. Nothing daunted, 
 
1 68 THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 he tried elsewhere. He sent letters to Henry the 
 Seventh of England, asking for his assistance; but 
 the letters never reached him. He then applied to 
 a powerful duke in Spain, who sent him to the good 
 Queen Isabella of Castile. She received him with 
 favor, but her counsellors advised her not to give 
 money to him. 
 
 Disappointed but not discouraged, Columbus tried 
 again and again to get what he wanted ; and at 
 length, after seven weary years, the queen agreed 
 to fit out an expedition at her own expense. 
 Columbus was made an admiral, and was promised 
 a reward if he were successful in discovering any 
 new lands. Every boy and girl who reads this book 
 knows the story of the voyages, the discoveries, and 
 the life and sorrowful end of Christopher Columbus. 
 
 II. RESULTS OF THE DISCOVERY. 
 
 The example of Columbus stirred other seamen 
 to undertake daring voyages of discovery. There 
 was living at Bristol a Venetian merchant named 
 John Cabot, who had spent a long life in trading with 
 distant countries. He had sailed not only to the 
 countries in the south of Europe and along the 
 shores of the Great Sea, but had ventured as far as 
 Iceland. There he heard stories of a land far across 
 the western ocean, which the great-grandfathers of 
 the men of Iceland were said to have visited many 
 
RESULTS OF THE DISCOVERY. 1 69 
 
 years before. Longing to see this land, and hearing 
 of the successful voyage of Columbus, Cabot applied 
 to King Henry the Seventh for help, just as Colum- 
 bus had applied to the king of Portugal. 
 
 Henry was fond of money, and he thought that 
 if there really were a rich land over the sea, he might 
 get part of its wealth for himself. So he fitted out 
 some ships, and allowed Cabot and his sons to set 
 out on their voyage of discovery; he also made them 
 promise to go back to Bristol, and to give him a 
 part of whatever they brought with them. 
 
 Cabot sailed away to the northwest early in the 
 year 1497, an d after a long and dangerous voyage, 
 reached the shores of the land now called Labrador. 
 Thus Cabot was the first man from the old world 
 that we know for certain landed on the mainland of 
 America. He continued his voyage, and after dis- 
 covering a land which he called Newfoundland, he 
 returned to Engand. His son Sebastian explored 
 the coast as far south as the Carolinas. These dis- 
 coveries and that of Hudson in Hudson's bay, were 
 the bases of England's claim to the western continent. 
 
 A little thought will show how important the dis- 
 covery of America was. Men had learned for the 
 first time of the existence of an immense continent, 
 very thinly peopled, rich in gold and minerals, and in 
 everything necessary to support life and make it 
 pleasant. It was a land open to all comers, and so 
 large that there was room for everybody. Men who 
 found life hard and dull at home in Europe could 
 
I70 THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 find in the new land plenty to interest them and 
 to employ their best powers. 
 
 The Spaniards soon made settlements in America, 
 and for years they drew from them such vast treas- 
 ures, that Spain became the richest and most power- 
 ful country in Europe. But Englishmen were never 
 slow to push out in search of adventure and novelty. 
 They did not intend to let Spain have all the benefits 
 of the discovery. The English sea-dogs, as they 
 liked to be called, delighted to meet the ships of 
 Spain upon the seas, and win from them, in fair 
 fight, the spoils they were bringing home. 
 
 Many a voyage was made by the bold English 
 seamen to the western world, and many an English 
 ship went back to the old country laden with the 
 wealth from over the sea. But it was a hundred 
 years before Englishmen made a serious attempt to 
 settle in North America. Then their settlements 
 grew and flourished, and while Spain sank to a 
 position of little importance in the world, England 
 rose to the foremost place. It was the English in 
 the new world who laid the foundations of our own 
 vast and mighty republic. 
 
THE KING AND THE CARDINAL. 
 I. KING HAL AND THE FRENCH WAR. 
 
 When King Henry the Seventh died in 1509, the 
 whole English nation was delighted that his suc- 
 cessor was the handsome young Prince "Hal. Henry 
 was a tall, strong, handsome youth, quick at out- 
 door sports and exercises, frank and hearty in 
 manner, and ready to crack a joke with any one. 
 " Bluff King Hal " he was called by the people. 
 
 He was a good scholar, too, fond of books and 
 music. He wrote and spoke in four languages, and 
 knew something of medicine, engineering, and ship- 
 building. He was especially learned in the views of 
 wise men about religion and church matters. 
 
 On becoming king, he at once pleased the people 
 by spending much of his fathers gathered wealth in 
 sports and shows. He got leave from the Pope to 
 marry Katharine, the Spanish princess who had 
 been the wife of his brother Arthur. He made 
 Katharine his queen chiefly because he wished to 
 keep friendly with the important kingdom of Spain. 
 Henry was eager to make a name for himself, and 
 to show Europe what an important man the king of 
 England was, and he soon began to meddle with 
 foreign affairs. 
 
 171 
 
172 
 
 THE KING AND THE CARDINAL. 
 
 At that time Germany, France, and Spain were 
 striving for the mastery of Italy, and the Pope, who 
 was a great prince as well as head of the church, 
 was at the mercy of the rivals. Among them all 
 he was likely to lose much of his power. So he 
 
 King Henry the Eighth. 
 
 made a league with the Emperor of Germany and 
 others, with the object of driving one of his enemies, 
 the French, out of Italy. 
 
 Henry was persuaded to join this league, and he 
 agreed to make an attack upon France. Four 
 years after his accession, he landed with an army 
 of twenty-five thousand men at Calais, which had 
 belonged to England since its capture by Edward 
 the Third a hundred and sixty years before. 
 
KING HAL AND THE FRENCH WAR. 1 73 
 
 The German emperor met Henry at the head of 
 his troops, and though he was an older man and had 
 fought many battles, he offered to serve as a volun- 
 teer under the young English king. This he did 
 because he wished to gain Henry for his friend, to 
 suit his own purposes, and he thought that he would 
 get Henry's support by flattering him. 
 
 The two armies laid siege to a small town named 
 Terouenne, which they kept shut up for six weeks. 
 Several attempts were made by the French to supply 
 the townspeople with food, and at last a body of 
 horsemen approached the town with orders to play 
 a trick on the besiegers. They were to pretend 
 to retreat, and so draw the enemy after them, 
 while other soldiers carried food into the town. So 
 the French horsemen, when they came in sight of 
 the besieging army, began to retire. Henry and the 
 emperor at once led their forces out against them, 
 and then the French, struck with sudden terror, 
 turned their sham retreat into a real and disorderly 
 flight. 
 
 The English cavalry poured after them in rapid 
 pursuit, and captured many prisoners. Not a man 
 was killed ; and when Henry jestingly praised the 
 French for the excellent speed of their horses, one 
 of the prisoners smiled and answered, " In truth, 
 sir, it was a battle of spurs." And as the Battle of 
 Spurs it is known in history to this day. 
 
 All plans to relieve the towns having failed, 
 Henry captured Terouenne and another fortress 
 
174 THE KING AND THE CARDINAL. 
 
 named Tournai. But peace was soon made ; for 
 Henry discovered that his allies thought of no one 
 but themselves. He knew he was not strong 
 enough to conquer France alone, and all his money 
 was gone. He had nothing to gain by fighting any 
 longer. 
 
 II. FLODDEN FIELD. 
 
 While Henry was in France, there was trouble 
 in England. Scotland was at that time a separate 
 kingdom, and its king, James the Fourth, had mar- 
 ried Margaret, Henry's sister. He took advantage 
 of the absence of the English king to seek revenge 
 for the injuries he had suffered at the hands of the 
 English. He complained of several wrongs done 
 to him. To begin with, when he married the Eng- 
 lish princess, her father had promised that at his 
 death she should have a large number of valuable 
 jewels. These her brother Henry had not yet sent, 
 and he showed no signs of sending them. 
 
 Again, the men who lived on either side of the 
 Border were constantly robbing and slaying one 
 another. James complained that if the offenders 
 were Englishmen, the English officials would not 
 give them up to justice ; but if they were Scots- 
 men, the English seized them in their own country, 
 and carried them into prison in England. 
 
 For these and other causes James resolved to 
 make war. He got a great army together, com- 
 posed of all classes, trained and untrained, and 
 
FLODDEN FIELD. 175 
 
 marched across the Border. The Scots captured 
 a few castles, but their march was delayed by 
 James, who, though brave, often gave way to idle- 
 ness and the pursuit of pleasure. 
 
 This delay gave time for the English com- 
 mander, the Earl of Surrey, to bring up a large 
 force of tried soldiers. James took up a strong 
 position on the hill of Flodden in Northumberland, 
 but foolishly allowed the English to get round to 
 the rear, where he was more open to attack. Thus 
 the English army lay between the Scots and their 
 own country, and the Scots owed their bad position 
 to the imprudence of their brave but foolhardy 
 king. 
 
 The battle began on the afternoon of September 
 9, 15 1 3. James, against the advice of his nobles, 
 commanded the centre of his army in person. At 
 the first furious onset, the right wing of the Eng- 
 lish army was thrown into disorder, and Sir 
 Edmund Howard, the English commander, nar- 
 rowly escaped being killed. But while the Scots 
 were plundering as though the battle were won, the 
 English cavalry under Lord Dacre, charged the 
 Scots, and completely routed them. 
 
 Meanwhile, on the left, the English archers, 
 under Sir Edward Stanley, had poured deadly 
 showers of arrows into the ranks of the Scottish 
 right wing, which consisted of Highlanders, who 
 had little armor. Eager to escape the fatal 
 arrows, and to fight at close quarters, the Scots 
 
176 THE KING AND THE CARDINAL. 
 
 rushed on, whirling their axes and two-handed 
 swords. The English gave way for a moment, but 
 quickly recovered and stood shoulder to shoulder, 
 presenting a wall of lances and bills. 1 The Scots 
 had spent all their strength in the first attack, and 
 in spite of their desperate valor they were driven 
 back in hopeless ruin. 
 
 In the centre James was fighting valiantly among 
 his spearmen, and the English could at first make 
 no impression upon the enemy's ranks. But at 
 last Stanley came up from his victory on the left, 
 and Lord Thomas Howard from the right, and the 
 Scots were beset on three sides at once. Still they 
 kept up the fight till James fell, pierced by count- 
 less wounds. His nobles fought and died round 
 his body, but darkness came on and put an end to 
 the battle. The slaughter had been great on both 
 sides, and the loss of their king had so broken the 
 spirit of the Scots that the survivors sadly retired 
 from the field, leaving the victory with the English. 
 
 So was the battle of Flodden lost and won — a 
 battle bravely fought on both sides. The blood- 
 stained plaid, taken from the body of the hapless 
 King James, was sent to Queen Katharine of Eng- 
 land. She had promised Henry to guard the king- 
 dom carefully while he was away, and she had 
 encouraged the English officers when they set out 
 for the north. Now she proudly sent to her hus- 
 
 1 The bills were broad hook-shaped blades, fastened on the end of a 
 long stout staff — on the backs of the blade there were sharp spikes. 
 
THOMAS WOLSEY. I 77 
 
 band the trophy of victory. " In this," she wrote to 
 him, " your grace shall see how I keep my promise, 
 sending you for your banner a king's coat." 
 
 III. THOMAS WOLSEY. 
 
 For a number of years the greatest man in Eng- 
 land, after the king, was Thomas Wolsey, the 
 king's friend and adviser. . Wolsey was a proud 
 and ambitious man, and during his life of fifty-nine 
 years he made many enemies. They were jealous 
 of him, and tried to put a slight upon him by say- 
 ing that he was the son of a butcher. But his 
 father was really a grazier and wool merchant at 
 Ipswich, where Thomas was born in the year 147 1. 
 He was a very bright boy. By the time that he 
 was fifteen years old, he had taken the Bachelor's 
 degree at Magdalen College, Oxford. By and by 
 he became master of Magdalen College School, and 
 then he went as rector to a little Somerset village. 
 
 But he soon left the quiet of the country, and 
 became one of King Henry the Seventh's chap- 
 lains, and assisted Henry's ministers in the business 
 of the country. He was rewarded for his work by 
 being made Dean of Lincoln ; for in those days 
 orifices in the church were given to men chiefly as 
 rewards for helping the king. 
 
 When Henry the Eighth became king, he made 
 Wolsey his chief minister. He gave him the bish- 
 opric of Lincoln, and a few months later made him 
 
178 
 
 THE KING AND THE CARDINAL. 
 
 Archbishop of York. In the next year he was 
 made a cardinal by the Pope, and soon he became 
 not only the Pope's legate, 1 but also chancellor of 
 He now lived in great splendor. He 
 
 England. 
 
 kept an enormous household, and earned the bitter 
 
 m-^n w 
 
 wm. 
 
 Cardinal Wolsey. 
 
 enmity of the nobles by the display of his wealth, 
 and by the favors he enjoyed from the king. 
 
 Wolsey had two great ambitions — one for him- 
 self, the other for his country. For himself, he 
 wished to be Pope ; for England, he wished to make 
 her the foremost country in Europe. 
 
 At this time the greatest sovereigns in Europe 
 
 1 The person who acted for the Pope at the English court. 
 
THE FIELD OF THE CLOTH OF GOLD. I 79 
 
 — the German Emperor Charles, and Francis the 
 French king — were each striving to gain more 
 power than the other. They were both anxious to 
 get the support of Henry, for the great victory at 
 Flodden had shown them how useful an English 
 army might be to them. Wolsey wished Henry to 
 be friendly with both Charles and Francis, but not 
 to take sides with either of them in their struggles. 
 He thought that, instead of helping them, Henry 
 might be able to use them to increase his own 
 power and importance in Europe. 
 
 Now it had been agreed that Henry and Francis 
 should meet near Calais, and spend some time 
 together in a friendly way. Wolsey did not wish 
 Henry to become a firm ally of Francis, so he wrote 
 to Charles, suggesting that he too should have a 
 meeting with Henry. This the emperor agreed to, 
 and he went across to England and met Henry, 
 only a few days before the English king set out for 
 France. On the last day of May Henry set sail 
 from Dover, and made for Calais. 
 
 IV. THE FIELD OF THE CLOTH OF GOLD. 
 
 Wolsey was fond of fine dress and grand display, 
 and in making the arrangements for the meeting of 
 the kings he did his utmost to make it as splendid 
 as possible. Hundreds of English workmen were 
 sent to Calais to prepare for the reception of the 
 king and his court — bricklayers and carpenters, 
 
i8o 
 
 THE KING AND THE CARDINAL. 
 
 The Meeting of the Kings on the Field of the Cloth of Gold. 
 
 masons and decorators, gold workers and armorers. 
 Wolsey himself chose the nobles who were to accom- 
 
THE FIELD OF THE CLOTH OF GOLD. l8l 
 
 pany the king, and vast sums were spent in prepar- 
 ing themselves and their servants for the journey. 
 One writer says that " many lords bore thither to 
 the meeting their mills, their forests, and their mead- 
 ows on their backs," meaning that they had sold 
 their property in order to pay for their fine clothes. 
 
 The king took with him to France more than five 
 thousand persons, and nearly three thousand horses. 
 Not one of his court was more splendid than the 
 great cardinal, whose personal followers numbered 
 eight hundred men. The place of meeting was a 
 meadow near Calais. Tents and huts had been 
 erected around the town, and the camp was bright 
 with flags and splendid decorations. Equal labor 
 and money had been spent on the French side, and 
 the splendor was such that the meeting place was 
 called the Field of the Cloth of Gold. 
 
 There the two kings met, dressed in all their 
 finery and jewels. Weeks were spent in feasts and 
 tournaments among the nobles, and all kinds of 
 frolics among the men-at-arms. Henry and Francis 
 gave each other costly presents, and talked long 
 together about matters of state. They professed 
 to love each other sincerely, and no doubt many 
 promises were made on both sides. But the whole 
 meeting was only a splendid sham. Each king was 
 thinking only of his own interests ; and a few weeks 
 after they had parted, Henry met the Emperor 
 Charles, the French king's bitter enemy. Charles 
 and Henry made a secret treaty, in which Henry 
 
1 82 THE KING AND THE CARDINAL. 
 
 made the same promises that he had just made to 
 Francis. The result was that Henry was trusted 
 by neither. 
 
 But the object of Wolsey was partly attained. 
 Charles and Francis both saw that it would be well 
 for them to keep on good terms with England, and 
 both were anxious not to offend Henry. 
 
 V. THE FALL OF WOLSEY. 
 
 For seven years after the meeting of the kings, 
 Wolsey continued to be the trusted servant of 
 King Henry, and worked hard for the good of his 
 country. He served Henry faithfully and unself- 
 ishly, and took on himself the blame and dislike 
 which some of the king's acts incurred. 
 
 Henry, as he grew older, became selfish and cruel, 
 and when Wolsey at last failed to carry out his 
 wishes, he treated the great man with base in- 
 gratitude. The story of Wolsey's fall is a sad one. 
 
 Henry had fallen in love with a lady of the court 
 named Anne Boleyn, who wished the king to marry 
 her and make her queen. Anne was young and 
 pretty and gay, and the king wanted to get rid of 
 his quiet, serious Queen Katharine. So he began 
 to pretend that he had done wrong in marrying his 
 brother's widow. He wanted the Pope to say that 
 the marriage had been wrong, and to allow him 
 to put away Katharine and marry Anne ; and he 
 expected Wolsey to arrange the matter. 
 
THE FALL OF WOLSEY. 
 
 183 
 
 But the Pope saw that Henry's wishes were 
 wrong ; and even if they had been right, it would 
 have been impossible for him to enable Henry to 
 attain them. He was a prisoner, for Rome was 
 in the hands of the troops of the Emperor Charles. 
 Katharine was the aunt of Charles, and the Pope 
 dared not offend him. 
 
 Queen Katharine refuses to give Way to the Cardinals. 
 
 All that he would do was to send an Italian 
 cardinal to England to join Wolsey in hearing both 
 sides of the matter, but he did not intend that they 
 should decide the question. The two cardinals at 
 first tried to induce Henry to change his mind. 
 When they found this impossible, they tried to 
 persuade the queen to agree to leave her husband ; 
 but she would not do so, knowing that she had 
 right on her side. 
 
184 THE KING AND THE CARDINAL. 
 
 When the cardinals at last began to hear the 
 case in court, the Italian did his utmost to delay 
 coming to a decision. Henry blamed Wolsey for 
 the delay, and began to show his anger against 
 him, though Wolsey was really doing his best for 
 his master. A month passed, and when Henry 
 came into court expecting judgment to be declared, 
 the Italian cardinal rose and put off the matter for 
 two months. The king was terribly angry, and so 
 were his nobles. The Duke of Suffolk slapped a 
 table and cried, " It was never merry in England 
 whilst we had cardinals among us." 
 
 Wolsey turned upon him with scorn, for he had 
 befriended the duke in many ways. " Sir," he said, 
 " of all men within this realm you have least cause 
 to dispraise or be offended at cardinals ; for if I, a 
 simple cardinal, had not been, you should have had 
 at this present no head upon your shoulders." 
 
 Though Wolsey spoke so boldly in the presence 
 of the king, he knew that he was a ruined man. 
 Now that the king was displeased with him, his 
 many enemies began to work for their revenge. 
 He was accused of acting as legate of the Pope 
 in England, contrary to a law passed in the reign 
 of Edward the Third. Wolsey had no defence ; for 
 though he had done this at the wish of the king, 
 yet, when the king ceased to support him, he could 
 say nothing for himself. 
 
 He was ordered to give up the great seal which 
 he held as chancellor, and to retire to his house at 
 
THE FALL OF WOLSEY. 1 85 
 
 Esher. On the way he received the present of a 
 ring from Henry, which gave him hope of winning 
 back the king's favor. He had wished to send a 
 gift to the king in return, but he was now so poor 
 that he had nothing worthy of his sovereign's 
 acceptance. 
 
 Among his servants, however, was a jester, who 
 was so clever that Wolsey said he was worth a 
 thousand pounds. The cardinal thought of send- 
 ing him to the king. But " the poor fool took on 
 so, and fired so in such a rage when he saw that 
 he must needs depart from my lord," that six tall 
 yeomen had to be sent with him to get him safely to 
 the king's palace. 
 
 VI. LAST DAYS OF WOLSEY. 
 
 At Christmas, Wolsey 's troubles made him ill, 
 and Henry sent his own doctor to him. " I would 
 not lose him for twenty thousand pounds," he said. 
 
 " Then," replied the doctor, " your Grace must 
 send him some comfortable message as soon as 
 is possible." Henry took a favorite ring from his 
 ringer and gave it to the doctor, saying, " Tell him 
 that I am not offended with him in my heart 
 nothing at all, and that shall he perceive, and God 
 send him life very shortly." 
 
 On Wolsey's recovery, the king gave him full 
 pardon, but his enemies were so powerful that he 
 had to give up all his offices except the archbish- 
 
1 86 THE KING AND THE CARDINAL. 
 
 opric of York. By and by he left Esher and set 
 out for the north. 
 
 A writer of that time says: " Who was less be- 
 loved in the north than my lord cardinal before he 
 was amongst them ? Who better beloved after he 
 had been there a while ? He gave bishops a right 
 good example how they might win men's hearts. 
 There were few holy days but he would ride five 
 or six miles from his house, now to this parish 
 church, now to that, and there cause one or other 
 of his doctors to make a sermon unto the people. 
 He inquired whether there were any debate or 
 grudge between any of his visitors. If there were, 
 after dinner he sent for the parties to the church, 
 and made them all one." 
 
 Meanwhile his enemies were still trying to ruin 
 him. It was discovered that he wrote letters to 
 servants of the French king and of the Emperor 
 Charles, and Henry ordered him to be brought to 
 London to be tried for treason. W T olsey was sit- 
 ting quietly in his room when the Earl of North- 
 umberland entered. He welcomed his visitor with 
 a smile ; but the earl, trembling, laid his hand upon 
 his arm, and said to him, with a very faint and soft 
 voice, " My lord, I arrest you of high treason." 
 
 Wolsey was speechless with astonishment. This 
 fresh act of injustice broke his bold spirit, and when 
 he set out for London he looked a worn-out old man. 
 His servants wept at parting from him ; a crowd of 
 country people met him at the gate and cried, " God 
 
LAST DAYS OF WOLSEY. 1 87 
 
 save your grace. The foul evil take all them that 
 have thus taken you from us ; we pray God that a 
 very vengeance may light on them." 
 
 He reached Leicester Abbey so weak and ill that 
 he had to be carried into it from his mule. " Father 
 Abbot," he said, " I am come hither to leave my 
 bones among you." For two days he lay there dy- 
 ing; then, on November 27, 1530, the great man 
 passed away. In his last hours he sadly regretted 
 that he had given so much time to state matters, 
 and so little to his duty as a clergyman. " If I had 
 served God so diligently as I have done the king," 
 he said, " he would not have given me over in my 
 gray hairs." 
 
 Wolsey was one of England's great statesmen, 
 though the value of what he did and would have 
 done for his country was for a long time not under- 
 stood. Eager as he was for his own greatness, he 
 was still more eager to make England great. Fond 
 as he was of display, it must be remembered that he 
 spent much of his wealth for his country's good. 
 
 He began to endow and build two colleges, one 
 at Ipswich, his native town, and the other at Ox- 
 ford ; this latter he meant to be a magnificent me- 
 morial of himself under the name Cardinal College. 
 He lived to see only the hall of his Oxford college 
 built ; but the king finished his work, and the col- 
 lege, under the name of Christ Church, remains as 
 a reminder of the great cardinal who served his 
 king too well. 
 
THE STORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 I. THE KING AS HEAD OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 The quarrel between Henry and the Pope over 
 the marriage question had very important results. 
 After Wolsey's death, the king again tried to get 
 leave from the Pope to put away Queen Katharine 
 and marry Anne Boleyn. As the Pope still re- 
 fused, the quarrel became very bitter. 
 
 A Cambridge lecturer named Thomas Cranmer, 
 in talking with the king's secretary, had suggested 
 that if the Pope would not give way, Henry might 
 ask the opinion of the learned men of Europe as to 
 whether his first marriage was lawful. Henry was 
 much pleased with the notion, and at once began 
 to show favor to Cranmer. 
 
 Letters were sent to the heads of all the universi- 
 ties in Europe, asking them to consider the question 
 with care, and to let the king of England know their 
 decision. Unhappily, Henry was more anxious to 
 get a favorable opinion than an honest one, and im- 
 mense sums of money were spent in bribing the 
 learned men. After all, only half of them decided 
 that Henry had done wrong in marrying his brother's 
 widow, and thus he was again bitterly disappointed. 
 
 But now a bold proposal was made by a man 
 who, for nearly ten years, wielded immense power 
 
THE KING AS HEAD OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 189 
 
 in England. This man was Thomas Cromwell, the 
 son of a blacksmith at Putney. When a youth, he 
 left England because of some disgraceful conduct, 
 and served as a common soldier in the French army 
 in Italy. Then he became a clerk at Antwerp, and 
 by and by returned to England, married, and en- 
 gaged in business. He was a cloth merchant, a 
 
 Thomas Cranmer. 
 
 lawyer, and a money-lender, and by dint of hard 
 work he became a man of wealth and importance. 
 
 Wolsey noticed the young man's ability, took him 
 into his service, and had him elected a member of 
 Parliament. When the cardinal was making plans for 
 the building of his colleges at Oxford and Ipswich, 
 he found Cromwell useful in getting the necessary 
 money together. Cromwell served his master faith- 
 
190 
 
 THE STORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 fully ; and when the great cardinal had lost the favor 
 of the king, and his enemies were seeking to ruin 
 him, Cromwell took his part manfully, and did what 
 he could to defend him. After Wolsey's death he 
 entered the king's service, and in a few years he be- 
 came his trusted adviser, and rose to a position as 
 great as the cardinal's had been. 
 
 Thomas Cromwell. 
 
 His proposal with regard to the king's marriage 
 was, that Henry should declare that the power of 
 the Pope was at an end in England, and that the 
 king had the right to do whatever he wished, — in 
 church matters as well as in matters of state. In 
 other words, Henry was to declare himself to be the 
 head of the Church in England. Thus he would 
 be able to do as he pleased without asking the 
 Pope. 
 
THE RUIN OF THE MONASTERIES. 191 
 
 Now, when it is remembered that the Pope was 
 admitted to be the head of the Church in every 
 Christian country, it will be seen how daring Crom- 
 well's proposal was. But Henry would shrink from 
 nothing in order to get his own way. The English 
 clergy were ordered to acknowledge the king as the 
 " only supreme head of the Church and Clergy of 
 England." They were very unwilling to do so, but 
 they knew that Henry would allow nothing to stand 
 in his way, and they were afraid to refuse. 
 
 Cranmer was now made Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury, and he at once held a court to decide the 
 great marriage question. In a short time Henry's 
 first marriage was declared unlawful, and a week 
 after, the king's new wife, Anne Boleyn, was crowned 
 queen by the archbishop. 
 
 II. THE RUIN OF THE MONASTERIES. 
 
 Henry had now defied the authority of the Pope ; 
 and acting on the advice of Cromwell, he proceeded 
 still further in his course. The king took into his 
 own hands the appointment of bishops, which had 
 formerly belonged to the Pope, and Cromwell com- 
 pelled the clergy to preach sermons against the 
 Pope, and in favor of Henry as head of the Church 
 in England. The Pope replied by excommunicat- 
 ing Henry, declaring him to be no longer king of 
 England, and giving permission to anybody who 
 pleased to take the crown from him. 
 
192 THE STORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 An Act of Parliament was now passed which re- 
 quired people to declare that Henry had done right, 
 according to the law of the Church, in sending away 
 his wife Katharine and marrying Anne. There 
 were many men who nobly refused to make such 
 a declaration. Numbers of such men were cruelly 
 put to death for their refusal. 
 
 Then Cromwell advised the king to set about 
 another measure which made both Henry and his 
 adviser hated throughout the land. Spread over 
 the country there were some six hundred monas- 
 teries, that is, places where men or women lived 
 apart from other people, because they had promised 
 to devote their lives to study and prayer and good 
 works. When these monasteries were founded, 
 people thought that the only way to live a really 
 good life was to become a monk or a nun, and 
 keep away from temptation and the pleasures of the 
 world. 
 
 But the monks and nuns who lived in these 
 monasteries did not spend the whole of their time 
 in prayer and study. They often worked hard 
 in many ways, and led useful lives. They kept 
 schools ; they cultivated land and cleared forests ; 
 they drained pestilent marshes, and looked after 
 the poor and the sick. They built splendid churches 
 and copied books, and wrote records of the history 
 of the country. Their houses were open to every 
 traveller, and many a weary horseman and foot- 
 sore wanderer found rest and refreshment there. 
 
THE RUIN OF THE MONASTERIES. 
 
 193 
 
 But there are bad men everywhere, and some of 
 the monks did not keep their vow to live sober and 
 godly lives. They were sometimes more eager to 
 be rich than to be good. Cromwell made the 
 wrong-doing of some the excuse for acts of injustice 
 against all. 
 
 Ruins of Fountains Abbey, one of the Religious Houses suppressed 
 
 by Henry VIII. 
 
 The king was extravagant and always in want of 
 money, but he was always reluctant to ask Parlia- 
 ment to levy taxes for him. He was anxious not to 
 seem to oppress the nation. So when Cromwell 
 proposed to shut up some of the monasteries and 
 
194 THE STORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 take their property, Henry was delighted. He al- 
 lowed Cromwell to take away their lands and treas- 
 ures, and to turn the inmates out to find other 
 homes. The wealth which Cromwell thus got he 
 gave to the king, who gave some of it back to 
 Cromwell as a reward, and some to lords of his 
 court. 
 
 Whatever the truth about the monasteries may 
 be, Henry in dealing with them acted as a tyrant, 
 and his tyranny went even further. An English 
 cardinal, named Reginald Pole, had written a book 
 against Henry's claim to be the head of the Church. 
 Because of this, Pole's elder brother, Lord Montagu, 
 and another relative, the Marquis of Exeter, were 
 beheaded, and even Pole's aged mother, the Coun- 
 tess of Salisbury, met the same fate. 
 
 III. THE NEW RELIGIOUS FAITH. 
 
 Side by side with this movement against the Pope 
 and the wealth of the Church, there was going on a 
 more quiet change of religious belief. For sev- 
 eral years learned men had been preaching against 
 some of the things which were commonly taught. 
 In Germany a man named Martin Luther was the 
 foremost among these Reformers, as they were 
 called. The people who held the new beliefs were 
 called Protestants, while those who held the old 
 beliefs were still known as Catholics. 
 
 In our days people think that what a man 
 
THE NEW RELIGIOUS FAITH. 1 95 
 
 believes is a matter for his own conscience ; in 
 those days they thought that a man who believed 
 differently from themselves should be made to 
 change his belief. For many years, both Catholics 
 and Protestants, when they had the power, treated 
 each other very cruelly. 
 
 One of the points on which the Protestants dif- 
 fered from the Catholics was as to the Bible. 
 Most of the Catholics thought that people should 
 not read the Bible for themselves, but should only 
 have it read and explained to them by clergymen. 
 But the Protestants thought that every man should 
 read the Bible for himself, and they wished it to be 
 translated out of the languages in which it was 
 written, into the language of the common people. 
 Some of the Catholics thought so too. One of 
 them, a wise Dutch scholar named Erasmus, was 
 anxious that the Bible should be translated into 
 every known language. " I long," he said, " for 
 the day when the husbandman shall sing portions 
 of the gospels to himself as he follows the plough, 
 when the weaver shall hum them to the time of 
 his shuttle, when the traveller shall while away 
 with their stories the weariness of his journey." 
 
 Now, when the teaching of Luther and others 
 reached England, Henry was at first very much 
 against it. He even wrote a book against Luther, 
 which he sent to the Pope, and for which the Pope 
 rewarded him with the title of Defender of the 
 Faith. But by and by, when Henry himself had 
 
I96 THE STORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 had his great quarrel with the Pope, it was natural 
 that he should think a little less hardly of those 
 who disagreed with the Pope on matters of belief. 
 The Protestants in England were slowly growing 
 in numbers, and already included a few of the 
 chief clergy. 
 
 When Henry declared himself head of the 
 Church, he began to think that he could order peo- 
 ple to believe just what he pleased. So he made 
 some changes in the articles of religion, that is, 
 the written statement of the Church's beliefs, and 
 the changes that he made were such as some of the 
 Catholics themselves agreed with. Henry himself 
 was never a Protestant ; and when the Protestants 
 tried to make their beliefs the established religion 
 of the country, he was angry. He got Parliament 
 to pass what was called the Act of Six Articles, 
 w T hich were six things that Henry said everybody 
 ought to believe. The Act inflicted severe punish- 
 ments on those who said anything against the six 
 articles. 
 
 IV. RELIGIOUS PERSECUTIONS. 
 
 Henry, by Cromwell's advice, ordered a transla- 
 tion of the Bible to be made in English, and a copy 
 to be placed in every church. There had been Eng- 
 lish translations before, but they had not been in 
 the hands of people generally, and had only been 
 read secretly and in fear. 
 
RELIGIOUS PERSECUTIONS. 
 
 197 
 
 Miles Coverdale, a Yorkshireman, had been for 
 some years helping his friend William Tyndal to 
 translate the Bible. In the year 1536 the first 
 printed copies of the Bible in English were im- 
 ported from Switzerland into England. Cromwell 
 then appointed Cran- 
 mer and the bishops 
 to revise the existing 
 version of the Bible, 
 and published it with- 
 out note or comment, 
 and in the year 1539 
 a copy of the English 
 Bible was chained to 
 the reading-desk of 
 every parish church. 
 From that time the 
 Bible has never ceased 
 to be printed and sold 
 freely. 
 
 The Protestants now 
 increased more rapidly 
 in numbers, and in the 
 short reign of Edward 
 the Sixth, Henry's son, 
 the government was in the hands of Protestants. 
 In the next reign, Queen Mary, Henry's elder daugh- 
 ter, who was a very strong Catholic, restored the 
 Catholic religion ; and now Protestants were terri- 
 bly persecuted. By the time Elizabeth, Henry's 
 
 Chained Bible in the Church of 
 St. Crux, York. 
 
I98 THE STORY OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 younger daughter, came to the throne, people of 
 both parties were sick of cruelty and torture, and 
 Elizabeth herself had no strong liking for one re- 
 ligion or the other. 
 
 She had both Catholics and Protestants among 
 her favorites and counsellors. She was inclined to 
 allow people to believe what they pleased, so long 
 as they were good subjects and acknowledged her 
 as the head of the Church. She was a tyrant like 
 her father, and punished Protestants and Catholics 
 alike if they offended her. Persecution was not 
 entirely given up for many years, but England 
 never again suffered horrors such as those of 
 Mary's reign. 
 
 Many of the people were Catholics at the open- 
 ing of Elizabeth's reign, but from its end, up to the 
 present time. Catholics and Protestants alike have 
 learned to live in friendship and peace with one 
 another, and in common loyalty to their country, 
 though their beliefs are not the same. 
 
 Of course there is a great deal more to be 
 learned about the Reformation than can be told in 
 this book. But enough has been said to show that 
 in England it began with a quarrel between the 
 king and the Pope, and that when changes in 
 belief followed, both sides thought that they were 
 right, and both sides sometimes did wrong things in 
 trying to make others believe as they did. 
 
THE STORY OF SIR THOMAS MORE. 
 I. MORE'S LIFE. 
 
 Thomas More was the son of a lawyer, and was 
 born in the year 1478. After he left school, the 
 boy became a page in the service of the Archbishop 
 
 Sir Thomas More. 
 
 of Canterbury, Henry the Seventh's great minister, 
 
 Cardinal Morton. The cardinal was pleased with 
 
 the boy's wit and intelligence, and often said to the 
 
 nobles who dined at his table, " This child here 
 
 waiting at the table, whosoever shall live to see it, 
 
 will prove a marvellous man." 
 
 199 
 
200 THE STORY OF SIR THOMAS MORE. 
 
 After studying at Oxford, More became a student 
 of law and a member of Parliament. When Henry 
 the Eighth came to the throne, More soon won 
 favor with him, and was taken into his service, and 
 made a knight. His manners and conversation 
 were so attractive that the king would often send 
 for him after supper, and talk and joke with him. 
 This kept him so much at court, that at last he 
 had great difficulty in getting leave to go home and 
 see his wife and children. So he began to be less 
 talkative and merry, and put on such serious airs, 
 and smiled so seldom, that the king began to think 
 him a dull companion, and did not send for him 
 quite so often. Thus he managed to get a little 
 liberty. 
 
 The home life of More was simple and charming. 
 He was fond of his three little girls, and taught 
 them very carefully, trying to win their interest by 
 showing them all sorts of curious things that he 
 had collected. " He was as fond of their pets and 
 games as the children themselves, and would take 
 grave scholars and statesmen into the garden to 
 see his girls' rabbit-hutches, or to watch the gam- 
 bols of their favorite monkey." When away from 
 home, he would write amusing verses for his little 
 ones to read, and he was always thinking about 
 their happiness. 
 
 No one was better pleased than More when the 
 young king gave up his plans for war with France. 
 He still enjoyed great favor with Henry. Once 
 
o 
 
 x 
 
 O 
 d 
 
 H 
 o 
 
 u 
 
 > 
 
202 THE STORY OF SIR THOMAS MORE. 
 
 the king paid an unexpected visit to his house at 
 Chelsea, " and after dinner, in a fair garden of his, 
 he walked with him by the space of an hour, hold- 
 ing his arm about his neck. 
 
 " As soon as his Grace was gone," says More's 
 son-in-law, " I, rejoicing, told Sir Thomas More how 
 happy he was, whom the king had so familiarly en- 
 tertained, as I have never seen him do to any before, 
 except Cardinal Wolsey, whom I saw his Grace once 
 walk with arm in arm." 
 
 More replied : " I find his Grace my very good 
 lord indeed, and I do believe he doth as singularly 
 favor me as any subject within this realm. How- 
 beit I may tell thee, I have no cause to be proud 
 thereof. For if my head would win him a castle in 
 France, it should not fail to go." 
 
 When the question of putting away Queen Kath- 
 arine arose, More, who was now lord chancellor, 
 felt that he could not agree with Henry, and gave 
 up his office. 
 
 There never lived a more upright judge than 
 More was. He refused to place his relatives in 
 important positions, unless they were the men best 
 fitted for them. It was impossible to bribe him, 
 as some judges in those days were bribed. Once 
 a gilt cup was given him by a lady as a New Year's 
 present. He courteously drank her health in it, 
 then returned it as a present to her husband. A 
 rich widow, in whose favor he had given a judgment, 
 sent him a large sum of money inside a pair of 
 
MORE S DEATH. 203 
 
 gloves. "Since it were against good manners to 
 forsake a gentlewoman's New Year's gift," he said, 
 " I am content to receive your gloves, but as for 
 your money I utterly refuse." 
 
 II. MORE'S DEATH. 
 
 After his retirement from office, More lived 
 quietly with his family at Chelsea. But Henry 
 was a king who never forgave any one who opposed 
 him. When the act was passed which required the 
 clergy and others to acknowledge that the king's 
 first marriage was unlawful, More refused to take 
 the oath. He was bidden to go to the archbishop's 
 palace at Lambeth and there take the oath. As he 
 went down the Thames in his boat, he sat silent for 
 a while. Then he turned and said to his son-in-law, 
 " I thank our Lord the field is won." By which 
 he meant that he had conquered the temptation to 
 give way, and would obey his conscience to the 
 end. 
 
 Nothing could make him change his mind, and 
 he was sent a prisoner to the Tower. Some time 
 after this an act was passed proclaiming Henry 
 head of the Church, and declaring that any one 
 who denied it was a traitor. Several clergymen 
 w r ere executed for refusing to acknowledge Henry's 
 headship, and from the window of his cell More 
 saw them on their way to the block. Yet he spoke 
 cheerfully to his daughter, who was visiting him, 
 
204 THE STORY OF SIR THOMAS MORE. 
 
 though he knew that the same fate would be his. 
 When his wife came to see him, and said that he 
 might, if he pleased, enjoy his house, his library, his 
 books and gallery, his gardens and orchards, and 
 live merrily with his family, instead of lying in a 
 filthy prison among mice and rats, he said, " Tell 
 me, is not this house as nigh heaven as mine own ? " 
 
 By and by it was reported to the Parliament that 
 the prisoner had spoken treasonable words ; and 
 being brought to trial in Westminster Hall, this 
 noble man was condemned to death, after he had 
 defended himself in a splendid speech. A week 
 afterwards, he was led from the Tower to the place 
 of execution. 
 
 The scaffold shook with his weight as he mounted 
 the steps. He turned and said cheerfully to the 
 officer, " I pray you, I pray you, Mr. Lieutenant, 
 see me safe up, and for my coming down let me 
 shift for myself." 
 
 Then kneeling down, he said a short prayer. 
 After which he rose, and turning to the headsman, 
 he smiled, and said : " Pluck up thy spirits, man, 
 and be not afraid to do thine office, for my neck is 
 very short. Take care that you do not aim awry." 
 He placed his head calmly on the block, but raised 
 it again to move his beard out of the path of the 
 axe. " Pity that should be cut," he said, " that has 
 committed no treason." 
 
 " So passed Sir Thomas More out of this world to 
 God upon the very same day in which himself had 
 
MORE S DEATH. 205 
 
 most desired." When the news was told to the 
 Emperor Charles, he sent for the English ambas- 
 sador, and said, " We would rather have lost the 
 best city of our dominions than have lost such a 
 worthy counsellor." 
 
 Sir Thomas More, besides being the wisest, wit- 
 tiest, and noblest Englishman of his day, was the 
 author of a famous book about an imaginary island 
 called Utopia. The name is Greek, and means No- 
 where-land, and the book describes the people and 
 customs of a land where all was happiness, peace, 
 and contentment, — a land which, the author knew 
 too well, existed nowhere. 
 
 More's object in writing this book was to draw 
 men's attention to evils in his own country, and to 
 what might be done to remedy them. He saw that 
 the king and his great men thought too much of 
 war and wealth and grandeur, and not enough of 
 the happiness and welfare of the people whom they 
 were set to govern. It was his wish to turn their 
 thoughts to this subject, and show, by means of his 
 picture of Utopia, what a blessed place to live in 
 such a land must be. 
 
 Nowadays there are many earnest men and women 
 whose minds are filled with the same desires that 
 caused More to write his wonderful book, and who 
 are working hard and unselfishly to help the poor 
 and the wretched, and to make the world a little 
 more like the Utopia which no man has ever seen. 
 
THE STORY OF LADY JANE GREY. ' 
 I. THE QUESTION OF THE SUCCESSION. 
 
 The list of the sovereigns of England does not 
 contain the name of Queen Jane ; yet for twelve 
 days, Queen Jane was sovereign of the country, 
 though only in name. She is best known as Lady 
 Jane Grey ; and to understand her unhappy story, 
 we must return to the reign of Henry the Eighth. 
 
 Not three years had passed after Henry's mar- 
 riage with Anne Boleyn, before the tyrant king was 
 tired of her, and had fallen in love with one of her 
 maids of honor, Lady Jane Seymour. He found 
 out, or pretended to find out, that Anne was not a 
 faithful wife ; and though she declared her innocence, 
 she was beheaded. The very next day Henry mar- 
 ried his third wife, Jane Seymour. To his great 
 delight, she became the mother of a prince, who was 
 named Edward; but the queen died a week after 
 his birth. Henry had now three children, Mary, 
 Elizabeth, and Edward ; and though he married 
 three more wives, no more children were born to 
 him. 
 
 Three years before his death, Henry made a will 
 
 in which he settled the succession to the crown. 
 
 Parliament accepted his arrangement, and passed 
 
 an Act confirming it. By this Act, when Henry 
 
 206 
 
THE QUESTION OF THE SUCCESSION. 207 
 
 died, the crown was to pass first to Edward, then to 
 Mary if Edward left no child, and then to Elizabeth 
 if Mary died childless. If all three left no children, 
 the next heirs were declared to be the descendants 
 of Henry's sister, Mary, who had married Charles 
 Brandon, Duke of Suffolk. 
 
 At Henry's death, therefore, his son became King 
 Edward the Sixth. As he was only ten years old, 
 it was decided that the kingdom should be governed 
 for him until he reached the age of eighteen. The 
 poor boy did not live so long. He was a quiet, 
 studious lad, and very anxious to do what was right, 
 and he had been brought up as a strict Protestant. 
 His reign is chiefly memorable for the drawing up 
 of the Book of Common Prayer, which, slightly 
 altered, is still in use ; and for the foundation of 
 sixteen grammar schools in various parts of the 
 country. 
 
 Edward being too young to govern, a protector 
 was appointed to rule in his stead. There were two 
 men who held this office, one after the other, both 
 of whom made themselves hated by their unwise 
 actions. The first, the Duke of Somerset, was de- 
 prived of his office by his enemies, and afterwards 
 beheaded ; the second, the Duke of Northumber- 
 land, brought the same fate upon himself by his 
 ambition. 
 
 In the sixth year of his reign, Edward became so 
 ill that it was clear he could not live long ; and the 
 Duke of Northumberland resolved to make himself 
 
2o8 THE STORY OF LADY JANE GREY. 
 
 all powerful in the land. He told the dying king 
 that if Henry's will were carried out, and Mary 
 became queen, she, being a Roman Catholic, would 
 restore the power of the Pope in England. He also 
 said that Elizabeth had no right to the crown, be- 
 cause her mother, Anne Boleyn, had not been legally 
 Henry's wife. After Elizabeth, the next heirs, by 
 Henry's will, were the grandchildren of his sister, 
 the Duchess of Suffolk ; and the eldest of these, 
 Lady Jane Grey, had just been married to North- 
 umberland's son, Lord Guilford Dudlev. In this 
 marriage we find the explanation of the Protector's 
 conduct. 
 
 Northumberland now persuaded Edward to make 
 a will, appointing the Lady Jane his heir, and called 
 upon the great peers and the chief state officials to 
 sign it. In vain it was pointed out that Parliament 
 alone could settle the succession to the throne ; 
 Northumberland violently demanded their assent to 
 his scheme, and they were afraid to refuse. Little 
 more than a fortnight later, the young king died, 
 and the most important men in the country had 
 promised to make Lady Jane Grey queen. 
 
 II. THE FATE OF LADY JANE. 
 
 The Lady Jane was a young girl of sixteen years, 
 and knew nothing of her father-in-law's designs. 
 She had been carefully brought up as a Protestant. 
 She was very bright and intelligent, and an excel- 
 
THE FATE OF LADY JANE. 200, 
 
 lent scholar, knowing Latin and Greek, in addition 
 to Italian and French. Above all, her character 
 was pure and beautiful. 
 
 When Northumberland sent for her, and told her 
 that Edward was dead, and that she was to be 
 queen, she burst into tears. Edward had been her 
 playmate and fellow pupil ; she was distressed at 
 his death, and also at her own unfitness to succeed 
 to his great office. She at first refused the crown, 
 and only accepted it after much persuasion. 
 
 She was led, richly dressed, through the streets 
 of London, and proclaimed queen at the Tower ; but 
 no one except her own heralds raised a cheer for 
 her. One apprentice boy ventured to say that 
 Mary should be queen and not Lady Jane, and he 
 was nailed by his ears to the pillory. The boy had 
 only expressed the opinion of many others in the 
 kingdom. Meanwhile a swift messenger had gal- 
 loped off to tell Mary what had happened. North- 
 umberland sent a party of men to seize her, but 
 when they reached the house where she had been 
 staying, she had escaped. 
 
 Nobles and gentlemen now flocked to Mary from 
 all parts, and she gained the support of many who 
 had been forced to sign Edward's will in favor of 
 Lady Jane. Northumberland raised an army and 
 marched out of London to fight for Queen Jane ; 
 but even his own men deserted and went over to 
 Mary. While he was absent, Mary was proclaimed 
 queen in London ; thousands of voices cried, " God 
 
2IO 
 
 THE STORY OF LADY JANE GREY. 
 
THE FATE OF LADY JANE. 
 
 21 I 
 
 save the Queen ! " — bells pealed, and bonfires blazed. 
 Most of the people were for the rightful queen ; 
 they detested Northumberland for his pride and 
 his bad government ; large numbers of them were 
 Catholics, and wished for a Catholic queen. 
 
 Lady Jane Grey and Roger Ascham. 
 
 Northumberland and many of his friends were 
 arrested and thrown into the Tower, and Mary rode 
 into London in triumph. The prisoners were tried 
 and condemned for treason, and Northumberland 
 and two others were executed ; but Mary spared 
 Lady Jane, whom she knew to be innocent. She 
 
212 THE STORY OF LADY JANE GREY. 
 
 and her young husband were sent to the Tower; 
 but they suffered no harsh treatment, and at first 
 enjoyed some liberty within the walls. 
 
 Unhappily, Lady Jane soon had to suffer for the 
 crimes of others. When Mary proposed to marry 
 Philip, the king of Spain, many of her subjects 
 were deeply offended. Sir Thomas Wyatt, a brave 
 and accomplished man, raised the men of Kent in 
 rebellion, and led them towards London, declaring 
 that they would not have a Spaniard as their king. 
 Mary was at first in great danger of losing her 
 crown ; but she won the Londoners to her side by 
 a spirited speech. When the insurgents arrived at 
 London Bridge, hoping to gain possession of the 
 city, they found the gate shut and the drawbridge 
 broken down. 
 
 Hastening to Kingston-on-Thames, Wyatt crossed 
 the river there, and marched through the night 
 towards the city. The roads were heavy with mire ; 
 many of his men lost courage and returned to their 
 homes ; and the rest, weary and faint with hunger, 
 broke and fled at the first attack of the queen's 
 troops. Wyatt was captured at Ludgate Hill and 
 sent to the Tower; hundreds of his supporters 
 were huddled into the common prisons until they 
 could be hanged. 
 
 And now Mary's vengeance fell on the Lady 
 Jane. She had taken no part in the rebellion, 
 and the rebels had not taken arms for her ; but per- 
 haps, if they had succeeded, she would have become 
 
THE FATE OF LADY JANE. 213 
 
 queen. While she lived, Mary felt that her throne 
 was not secure. On February 12, 1554, six months 
 after she had accepted the crown, Lady Jane was 
 led out to execution. She had just seen her hus- 
 band's dead body carried past her window, for he 
 suffered first. She walked firmly and quietly to the 
 scaffold ; while her attendants wept bitterly as they 
 accompanied her. She sprang lightly up the steps 
 of the scaffold, and told the people who crowded 
 round that she had broken the law in accepting the 
 crown ; but that she had meant no wrong, and the 
 guilt was not hers. Then she laid her head on 
 the block, and at one stroke of the axe, the good, 
 beautiful girl was dead. 
 
THE STORY OF QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 I. ELIZABETH AND MARY. 
 
 During the long reign of Queen Elizabeth, Eng- 
 land rose to a height of greatness and importance 
 to which it had never risen before. It owed much 
 to great statesmen and soldiers and sailors, but also 
 a very great deal to the queen herself. 
 
 Elizabeth was the daughter of Henry the Eighth 
 and Anne Boleyn. When she was less than three 
 years old, her mother was beheaded. The little 
 girl's life was not a very happy one. During the 
 reign of her brother Edward the Sixth, Elizabeth 
 lived at various manor-houses, and had for her 
 teacher a wise tutor named Roger Ascham. While 
 her sister Mary was queen, Elizabeth was in some 
 danger of losing her life. Mary, who was the 
 daughter of Henry's first queen, Katharine, was a 
 strong Roman Catholic, and was eager to prevent 
 the growth of the Protestant religion in England. 
 Elizabeth was thought to be a Protestant, like her 
 mother, and only her prudence prevented her from 
 suffering for her religion. 
 
 When Mary died, England was in a sad condi- 
 tion. Mary and her counsellors had so cruelly 
 treated people who did not agree with them in 
 
 religion, that the nation was sick of the whole 
 
 214 
 
ELIZABETHS CHARACTER. 215 
 
 matter. She had gone to war with France, too, to 
 please her husband, Philip of Spain ; and the Eng- 
 lish had been beaten, and had lost Calais, which 
 had belonged to them for more than two hundred 
 years. The loss of Calais made Mary so unpopu- 
 lar that the whole nation was quite pleased to hear 
 of her death. 
 
 Thus the people were ready to give a hearty wel- 
 come to their new queen, the Princess Elizabeth. 
 She had behaved so prudently during the five years 
 of her sister's reign, that nobody quite knew what 
 sort of queen she would be, and so both Catholics 
 and Protestants thought that they might be favored 
 by her. 
 
 II. ELIZABETH'S CHARACTER. 
 
 When she became queen, Elizabeth was twenty- 
 five years old. She had a queenly figure, a pleas- 
 ing if not a beautiful face, and a mind that had been 
 well trained. She was " a bold horsewoman, a good 
 shot, a graceful dancer, a skilled musician, and an 
 accomplished scholar." She could read Greek and 
 Latin, and speak Italian and French, and she keenly 
 enjoyed the poems and plays which the splendid 
 writers of her time produced. She was careful of 
 money; indeed, she was miserly, and would not 
 allow money to be spent even when it was needed 
 for the defence of the country. 
 
 But she was anxious to make the people fond of 
 her, and she did not wish heavy taxes to be put 
 
2l6 
 
 THE STORY OF QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 upon them. On one occasion she returned part 
 of the money which the House of Commons had 
 ordered to be collected for her. Fear was unknown 
 to her. There were many people who would have 
 liked to kill her, but she took no care for her own 
 safety, and allowed some of her most dangerous 
 
 Queen Elizabeth. 
 
 enemies to come freely to her court. She hated 
 war, and kept out of it as much as she could. 
 
 Besides these good qualities she had some bad 
 ones. Though sparing in some things, she spent 
 large sums of money on dress, and she loved show. 
 She was deceitful, and fond of trickery, rather than 
 of straightforward dealing. She was vain and 
 
ENGLAND UNDER ELIZABETH. 217 
 
 proud, and sometimes gave way to furious bursts of 
 anger, even going so far as to box the ears of one of 
 her councillors when he displeased her. 
 
 Her ideas of what was honest and fair were 
 strange. Once a number of Spanish ships, carrying 
 money to Philip's governor in the Low Countries, 
 came into English ports to escape the pirates who 
 sailed the English Channel. Philip had borrowed 
 the money from Italian money-lenders, but Eliza- 
 beth ordered it to be seized and brought to her. 
 She would borrow it herself, she said. 
 
 One of her worst faults was want of gratitude to 
 the men who served her well. She did not dismiss 
 or put to death her ministers for slight faults, as her 
 father Henry had done ; but she was often ungen- 
 erous in her treatment of them. Sir Francis Wal- 
 singham, a man of great ability, and one to whom 
 Elizabeth owed her life and who spent his whole 
 fortune in her service, died so poor that he had to 
 be buried at night to save expense. 
 
 III. ENGLAND UNDER ELIZABETH. 
 
 Englishmen in the reign of Elizabeth lived very 
 differently from Englishmen of to-day. Their 
 houses were not well built, but they ate good, 
 wholesome food; indeed, a Spaniard in writing 
 about their ways said, " These Englishmen have 
 their houses of sticks and dirt, but they fare com- 
 monly as well as the king." 
 
2l8 THE STORY OF QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 People got up at four o'clock in the morning all 
 the year round. At five o'clock they had breakfast 
 of bread and beef and beer, and then the laborers 
 went to work, and the gentlemen to pleasure or 
 business. Food was cheap ; beef and pork could 
 be bought for one cent a pound, a chicken for two 
 cents, and the best goose in a country market for 
 eight cents. For two cents a working-man could 
 buy as much as would now cost him twenty-five 
 cents ; but money was scarcer and wages were 
 lower than in our days. 
 
 The houses of the poor were made " of sticks and 
 dirt," as the Spanish writer said ; but buildings were 
 being greatly improved. Instead of holes in the roof 
 through which the smoke from the fires passed out, 
 chimneys were built. Instead of having mere holes 
 in the walls, or small windows of thin horn, the 
 people now began to have larger windows of glass. 
 Glass then cost a good deal of money, and some 
 people grumbled at the expense of the new windows. 
 
 Furniture began to be improved. Up to this 
 time beds like ours were almost unknown. People 
 used to sleep on pallets of straw, and rest their 
 heads on bags of chaff or logs of wood. But now 
 feather and wool beds came into use. The floors, 
 instead of being strewed with rushes, in. which 
 bones and waste food and filth of all kinds col- 
 lected, were now covered with carpets. 
 
 Nowadays there is not a very great difference 
 between the dress of rich and poor. But in Eliza- 
 
ENGLAND UNDER ELIZABETH. 
 
 219 
 
 beth's time, the nobles spent untold wealth upon 
 their dress. The queen set the example, and her 
 courtiers seemed to try to outdo one another in the 
 splendor of their clothing. They wore silks and 
 velvets of the most gaudy colors, while the poorer 
 classes dressed in plain garments of woollen cloth 
 and leather. 
 
 Costumes at the Time of Elizabeth. 
 
 Every man was bound by law to keep arms in his 
 house, according to the amount of his property. A 
 man whose land was worth seventy-five dollars a year 
 had to keep a hauberk, or shirt of mail, a helmet, a 
 sword, a dagger, and a horse. A man whose land 
 was worth only ten dollars a year kept a sword, a 
 bow and arrows, and a dagger. Every man above 
 fifteen years of age was bound to have bow and 
 arrows, so that all the men could be called out as 
 
2 20 THE STORY OF QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 soldiers if need arose. Shooting with bow and 
 arrows was a favorite exercise and amusement. 
 
 Every village had its pair of archery butts, " and 
 on Sundays and holidays, all able-bodied men were 
 required to appear in the field to employ their lei- 
 sure hours as valiant Englishmen ought to do." 
 Young men of the upper classes amused themselves 
 with sword and lance exercises, and with practice in 
 the use of firearms. Field sports were also com- 
 mon, such as fishing, shooting, and hunting. The 
 forests were kept for the sake of the rich, and poor 
 men were forbidden by law to hunt in them. 
 
 The trade of the country was rapidly growing in 
 extent and importance. A large number of the 
 people were employed in growing crops and in 
 pasturing sheep, — occupations of far more impor- 
 tance then than they are in England now. The 
 wool from the sheep had formerly been sent across 
 to Flanders to be woven into cloth, and to Florence 
 to be dyed ; but now Englishmen had learned to 
 weave it and dye it themselves. Manufactures of 
 woollen and iron goods now greatly increased, and 
 Manchester and Sheffield were rising towns. 
 
 The daring of English seamen was opening up 
 new markets for English goods abroad, and was 
 bringing goods from other lands to England. To- 
 bacco, mahogany, maize, and potatoes first became 
 known in England in this reign, and with new 
 materials new trades and occupations arose. 
 
 In one matter particularly Elizabeth showed her 
 
ENGLAND UNDER ELIZABETH. 22 1 
 
 good sense. It was the custom to reward favorites 
 with the grant of monopolies, that is, the sole right 
 to trade in certain articles. Thus Sir Walter 
 Raleigh had the sole right to export woollen broad- 
 cloth for a certain length of time ; also, he had the 
 right to demand a fee from every dealer in wine. 
 Now this of course made such articles dearer than 
 they would otherwise have been, and people com- 
 plained of the high prices they had to pay. When 
 the House of Commons objected to the monopolies, 
 Elizabeth admitted the justice of the complaints, 
 and took away a number of the monopolies from 
 the courtiers to whom they had been given. 
 
 Elizabeth's reign is famous for the beginning of 
 the poor-laws. Though most people were then able 
 to live in comfort, there was a large number of poor 
 folks. Men who were maimed in war, and men 
 who were too old and feeble to work, or who could 
 not get work, had either to beg or to starve. There 
 were severe laws against beggars who were well and 
 strong, but too lazy to work, and hundreds of such 
 men were caught and hanged every year. But that 
 did not help those who were willing but unable to 
 work. So at last laws were made by which the 
 people of every district were bound to look after 
 their own poor and old people, and to provide homes 
 and food for them. Those who could work were 
 made to do so ; and thus great numbers of idle men, 
 instead of being left to become robbers, were made 
 harmless and useful members of society. 
 
THE STORY OF MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. 
 I. MARY AND DARNLEY. 
 
 Mary Stuart, daughter of James the Fifth of 
 Scotland, was a queen from her babyhood, for she 
 was crowned when she was less than a year old. 
 As she grew older, Henry the Eighth w T as hoping 
 that he might be able to bring about a marriage 
 between the young Scotch queen and his son, Ed- 
 ward the Sixth. This would have united the two 
 countries under one crown. 
 
 But Mary's mother had been a French princess, 
 and she was not willing that her daughter should 
 marry an English king, so when the little girl was 
 five years old she was sent to France to be edu- 
 cated. At the age of sixteen she married Francis, 
 the eldest son of the French king ; and when, in less 
 than a year, he succeeded to the throne, Mary be- 
 came queen of both France and Scotland. 
 
 Francis had reigned only eighteen months when 
 he died, and the young girl found herself facing a 
 great responsibility. She had already lost her 
 mother who had been ruling Scotland for her, and 
 now the Scots were eager for her to return to her 
 own country. 
 
 Mary loved the gay court of France and she was 
 distressed at the thought of the difficulties which 
 
 222 
 
MARY AND DARNLEY. 
 
 223 
 
 Mary Queen of Scots leaving France. 
 
224 THE STORY OF MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. 
 
 awaited her in Scotland. The French were a bright, 
 pleasant people, while the Scotsmen were rough 
 and plainspoken. Moreover, many of them were 
 under the influence of the reformers, led by the 
 stern John Knox, who denounced the life of gayety 
 and ease to which Mary was accustomed. She de- 
 cided, however, to leave her beloved France, and 
 return to her native land. 
 
 For years the king of Scotland had been kept 
 in power mainly by the aid of French troops. At 
 last, with England's help, the reformers grew strong 
 enough to drive out the French, and the control 
 fell into the hands of a number of nobles who 
 called themselves, " Lords of the Congregation." 
 
 Mary was an ardent Catholic, and had it not been 
 for the charm of her youth and beauty, she would 
 have had serious trouble with her sternly Protes- 
 tant people. As it was, she gave great offence to 
 many of her lords by her marriage to Henry, Lord 
 Darnley, a handsome young man of nineteen. 
 
 He was not a stiong character, and Mary allowed 
 neither him nor his friends to have any power in 
 the government. They were enraged at this, es- 
 pecially when Mary, instead of asking their advice, 
 often consulted her secretary, an Italian named 
 David Rizzio. One evening Mary's husband, with 
 four friends, burst into the room where Rizzio was 
 sitting with the Queen, stabbed him as he clung to 
 her dress for protection, and then dragged him into 
 an ante-room where they hacked him to death. 
 
MARY S MISFORTUNES. 
 
 225 
 
 Mary's dislike of her husband now turned to hatred, 
 which, however, she carefully concealed. She treated 
 him with apparent friendliness and won him over 
 to her interest. 
 
 II. MARY'S MISFORTUNES. 
 
 Not long after this, Darnley fell sick and was 
 lodged in a solitary house near Edinburgh. Mary 
 
 West End of Princes Street, Edinburgh. 
 
 nursed him with every appearance of tenderness. 
 One night, when he was left alone with an attend- 
 ant, the house was blown up and burned to ashes. 
 The next day the dead bodies of Darnley and his 
 page were found in the garden. 
 
 Lord Both well, a few weeks afterwards, seized the 
 queen as she was out riding, carried her off to 
 Dunbar, and there married her. The whole nation 
 was shocked and indignant, for they believed that 
 
2 26 THE STORY OF MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. 
 
 Mary and Both well had planned the murder of 
 Darnley together. The Protestant " Lords of the 
 Congregation " flew to arms, while the Catholics 
 held aloof from a queen whose marriage with a 
 Protestant they could not forgive. Still, Bothwell 
 was able to raise a fair force and met the lords at 
 Carberry Hill ; but his men refused to fight, and 
 Bothwell fled to Denmark, where he afterwards died 
 in prison. Mary surrendered and was taken back 
 to Edinburgh. 
 
 The lords imprisoned the captive queen in Loch- 
 leven Castle, which stood in the middle of a lake. 
 Here Mary was forced to resign her crown to her 
 baby son, James, and to appoint her half-brother, 
 the Earl of Moray, regent. After nearly a year 
 Mary made her escape. A page took the keys" of 
 the castle from beside the plate of the governor as 
 he sat at supper, and ran off with them. Mary fol- 
 lowed the lad down the stairs. She unlocked the 
 outer gate and passed through with one or two 
 companions, locked it behind her, and sprang into 
 a little boat that lay by the shore. 
 
 They rowed rapidly across to where a number of 
 lords and other friends were waiting on horseback, 
 and galloped off in safety. A large number of nobles, 
 with other armed men, joined Mary at Hamilton. 
 When the Earl of Moray heard of the queen's es- 
 cape, he' speedily raised an army in defence of young 
 King James. He met and defeated the queen's 
 forces at Langside, two miles south of Glasgow. 
 
MARYS MISFORTUNES. 227 
 
 When Mary saw that all was lost she rode off 
 with a few friends towards the south, covering sixty 
 miles before she rested. At the coast of the Solway 
 Firth she embarked in a fishing boat for England, 
 for she hoped that Queen Elizabeth would protect 
 her and restore her to her kingdom. 
 
 Years before, Mary had claimed to be the rightful 
 queen of England, and many of the English Cath- 
 olics supported her claim. She was certainly heir 
 to the throne in the event of Elizabeth's death. 
 The Catholics of the north flocked to her, and the 
 Duke of Norfolk, the head of the English nobility, 
 wished to marry her. 
 
 Mary demanded that Elizabeth should either re- 
 store her to her position as queen of Scotland or 
 allow her to go to France. Elizabeth said that she 
 would help her if she would stand trial and show 
 that the charges made against her by the Scots 
 were untrue; but Mary declared that she, a queen, 
 could not be tried by English judges, and then 
 Elizabeth decided to keep her in England. 
 
 For the next twenty years Mary passed a weary 
 life, moving from one mansion to another in the 
 charge of guardians set over her by Elizabeth. All 
 the time her friends were working to make her 
 queen of England. Some were trying to persuade 
 the king of Spain to invade England in her favor. 
 They wished to depose Elizabeth and restore the 
 old religion, and several plots were formed for car- 
 rying out these designs. At length one of these 
 
2 28 THE STORY OF MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. 
 
 plots, which was said to have had for its object the 
 murder of Queen Elizabeth, was found out, and all 
 the conspirators were brought to trial and executed. 
 Mary herself was arrested by a troop of soldiers as 
 she was riding out with a hunting party. She 
 was taken to Fotheringay castle and charged with 
 plotting the death of the queen. After a trial be- 
 fore forty-five judges she was found guilty, and the 
 Parliament begged Elizabeth to have her put to 
 death. 
 
 Elizabeth at first hesitated, but at last she gave 
 way, and on February 18, 1587, the hapless Queen 
 of the Scots was beheaded at Fotheringay. She 
 met her death bravely and calmly, declaring her 
 innocence. Indeed, there are to this day people 
 who believe that the charges against her were 
 false. 
 
THE STORY OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE. 
 I. HIS EARLY LIFE. 
 
 In the last years of the reign of Edward the 
 Sixth, a little, chubby, blue-eyed, curly headed boy 
 might have been seen playing on the deck of an 
 
 Sir Francis Drake. 
 
 old ship moored off Chatham dockyard. The boy 
 was Francis Drake. Brought up on the hulk 
 which was his father's only house, his eyes were 
 
 constantly upon masts and rigging and guns, his 
 
 229 
 
23O THE STORY OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE. 
 
 ears were filled with the rough talk and the 
 jolly songs of the mariners, and he grew up with a 
 longing to enter the royal navy. 
 
 When Queen Mary came to the throne, Francis 
 became a ship-boy on a small vessel that sailed to 
 France and Holland. It was hard and rough work, 
 but the boy grew up sturdy and strong, and with a 
 deep hatred of the king of Spain for the cruelty 
 with which he treated his Dutch subjects. 
 
 Soon after Elizabeth became queen, Drake's 
 master died and left him his ship. With this he 
 traded for some years ; but when the king of Spain, 
 by shutting his seaports against English ships, ruined 
 Drake's trade, he sold his ship and entered the ser- 
 vice of John Hawkins, the bold sea-rover and slave- 
 trader. 
 
 After a successful trading voyage the English 
 ships were driven by a storm into a Spanish port 
 on the Gulf of Mexico. There, in spite of a prom- 
 ise to allow them to refit in safety, the Spaniards 
 basely attacked them unawares, and Hawkins lost 
 half his ships. From that moment he and Drake 
 vowed to show no mercy to Spain. 
 
 II. ONE OF DRAKE'S ADVENTURES. 
 
 The life of Sir Francis Drake is full of adventure. 
 He was the first English navigator to sail round 
 the world, and the story of the perils and miseries 
 and triumphs of that famous voyage would fill this 
 
ONE OF DRAKE S ADVENTURES. 
 
 23I 
 
 book. With the story of how he " singed the king 
 of Spain's beard," we must leave the bold hero. 
 
 The king of Spain had been for a long time pre- 
 paring a great fleet, with which he meant to con- 
 quer England. One day Drake slipped out of 
 Plymouth with twenty-four ships, and set sail for 
 Spain to see what damage he could do to the 
 
 Drake in the Cabin of his Ship. 
 
 Armada, as the Spanish fleet was named. After 
 sailing round the coast, he led his fleet into the bay 
 within which lies Cadiz harbor, and announced that 
 he was going to attack the huge ships which lay at 
 anchor there. Some of his officers thought him 
 mad, for the Spanish ships were not only powerful, 
 but they were defended by batteries on shore. 
 
232 THE STORY OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE. 
 
 As the sun was setting, Drake sailed into the 
 harbor. The merchant ships at once cut their 
 cables and attempted to escape from the terrible 
 Dragon, whose very name they feared, while ten 
 war-ships came out to defend them. Having sent 
 a part of his fleet to capture the flying vessels, with 
 the rest Drake met the Spanish war-ships, which, 
 before they could get their guns to bear, were 
 pounded and ruined by English shot. 
 
 Ship after ship was captured and sunk or burnt. 
 Far in the depth of the harbor lay the splendid ship 
 of Spain's greatest admiral amid a crowd of other 
 huge vessels. Drake made straight for these, and 
 before long, they too had been plundered and 
 destroyed. 
 
 Thus in thirty-six hours, Drake and his bold sea- 
 men had utterly destroyed many of the finest ships 
 in the world, and captured enough provisions to 
 store his fleet for months. This he called " singe- 
 ing the king of Spain's beard " ; and thus he suc- 
 ceeded in delaying the departure of the great 
 Armada for a year, until new ships and fresh stores 
 had been got ready by the Spaniards to replace 
 those they had lost. 
 
 With the defeat of the Armada in the year 1588, 
 Drake crowned his fame. He had been knighted 
 by the queen on his return from his voyage round 
 the world, and he was now the darling of the whole 
 country. All Europe rang with the glory of his 
 name, and in Spain the mischievous street boys 
 
ONE OF DRAKES ADVENTURES. 233 
 
 yelled under the windows of the beaten Spanish 
 admiral, "Drake is coming! Drake is coming!" 
 
 During the remaining eight years of his life, 
 Drake won no more great successes. When Spain 
 was preparing a new Armada for the conquest of 
 England, Drake led an expedition against it, and 
 destroyed much shipping, but the loss of life on the 
 English side was terrible. 
 
 He joined in an attempt to restore to the throne 
 of Portugal the sovereign whom Philip had deposed, 
 but it ended in failure. Then Drake in some way 
 lost the favor of the queen, and while other admi- 
 rals were scouring the seas, he had to remain at 
 home as governor of Plymouth. There he did 
 good work by building mills, and by bringing a 
 supply of water to the town from the river Meavy. 
 
 Drake did much for the strength and glory of 
 England. He believed he was doing God's work 
 in taking from Spain the wealth that would have 
 been used to help crush the Protestants. He never 
 allowed churches to be destroyed, he never killed 
 his prisoners, and his men had strict orders never 
 to hurt a woman or an unarmed man. 
 
THE STORY OF THE SPANISH ARMADA. 
 
 I. THE SAILING OF THE ARMADA. 
 
 "On the afternoon of the 19th July, a.d., 1588, a 
 group of English captains was collected at the 
 Bowling Green on the Hoe at Plymouth, whose 
 equals have never before or since been brought 
 together. There was Sir Francis Drake, the terror 
 of every Spanish coast in the old world and the 
 new ; there was Sir John Hawkins, the rough vet- 
 eran of many a daring voyage and of many a des- 
 perate battle ; there was Sir Martin Frobisher, one 
 of the earliest explorers of the Arctic seas ; there 
 was the high admiral of England, Lord Howard of 
 Effingham, a man of wise and noble courage, skilful 
 in sea matters, wary and prudent, and beloved by the 
 sailors. 
 
 " A match at bowls was being played, in which 
 Drake and other high officers of the fleet were 
 engaged, when a small armed vessel was seen 
 running before the wind into Plymouth harbor, 
 with all sails set. Her commander landed in haste, 
 and eagerly sought the- place where the English lord 
 admiral and his captains were standing. He was 
 the master of a Scotch privateer, and he told the 
 English officers that he had that morning seen the 
 Spanish Armada off the Cornish coast. At this 
 
 234 
 
THE SAILING OF THE ARMADA. 
 
 235 
 
 exciting information the captains began to hurry 
 down to the water, but Drake coolly checked his 
 comrades, and insisted that the match should be 
 
 
 </ 
 
 >ll 
 
 C^StAHlLAND-RA-l 
 
 News brought to Drake and the English Captains that the Armada 
 
 had been Sighted. 
 
 played out." " There is time to finish the game first, 
 and beat the Spaniards afterwards," he said. That 
 was the spirit in which the English went to the fight. 
 
236 
 
 THE STORY OF THE SPANISH ARMADA. 
 
 Beacon-fires were lit along the coast. " The warn- 
 ing flew to London, swift messengers galloping be- 
 hind it. There was saddling and arming in village 
 and town, and musters flocking to their posts. Loyal 
 England forgot its difference of creeds, and knew 
 nothing but that the invader was at the door." 
 
 " The most fortunate and invincible Armada " was 
 the title which Philip of Spain, in the pride of his 
 
 The Spanish Armada in the English Channel. 
 From a contemporary print. 
 
 heart, gave to the great fleet which he had been pre- 
 paring for so many years. With this fleet he intended 
 to avenge the many injuries and insults he had 
 suffered at the hands of Englishmen, and to depose 
 Elizabeth. 
 
 For years he had spent untold treasure upon his 
 preparations. The fleet at last sailed for England, 
 under the Duke of Medina Sidonia, one of the great- 
 
THE DEFEAT OF THE ARMADA. 237 
 
 est of Spanish grandees. There were 132 Spanish 
 ships in all, many of them huge vessels that rose 
 like castles out of the sea. Seventeen thousand 
 of the picked soldiers of Spain were on board, 
 with eight thousand sailors, and hundreds of doc- 
 tors, priests, and slaves. 
 
 At that time the royal navy of England consisted 
 of only thirty-six ships, all of them smaller than the 
 war-ships of Spain. But many private gentlemen, 
 sea-rovers, and merchants had ships, which they were 
 eager to send to sea for the defence of their loved 
 England. England was fortunate in her captains, 
 men of splendid daring and courage, who had 
 fought and beaten the Spaniards on the sea in all 
 parts of the world. The common seamen were 
 worthy of their commanders. They loved their 
 country, and would have died for their officers. 
 They cheerfully put up with the bad and scanty 
 food which was all that the stinginess of the queen 
 would allow to be provided. 
 
 II. THE DEFEAT OF THE ARMADA. 
 
 When the game of bowls was finished, the Eng- 
 lish captains put out to sea, and waited for the com- 
 ing of the enemy. As the beacons gave the signal, 
 ships of all sorts and sizes poured out from every 
 harbor, until the English fleet numbered some one 
 hundred and sixty vessels, most of them manned by 
 volunteers. 
 
238 THE STORY OF THE SPANISH ARMADA. 
 
 Now, Philip's plan was for the Armada to sail up 
 the Channel until it reached Dunkirk, and there to 
 anchor and allow a huge army, under the Duke of 
 Parma, to cross from Antwerp to England in safety. 
 The Spaniards were anxious to get through the 
 dangerous Channel as soon as possible. 
 
 The plan of the English admirals was to avoid a 
 general battle with the enemy, but to single out and 
 attack certain of their ships, doing as much damage 
 as they could with as little risk as possible to them- 
 selves. The English sailors were skilful at their 
 work, and could fire rapidly at the Spanish ships, 
 making every shot effective. The guns of the 
 Spaniards were fired slowly, their aim was not true, 
 and most of their shot passed over the low decks of 
 the small English vessels. 
 
 The Spaniards tried to lay hold of the English 
 ships with grappling-irons, trusting in the superior 
 numbers of their men if it came to a hand-to-hand 
 fight. But Lord Howard, acting on the advice of 
 Sir Walter Raleigh, had given strict orders to avoid 
 coming to close quarters. The English therefore 
 sailed their light ships as near as they pleased to 
 those of the enemy, fired their broadsides, and sped 
 to a safe distance before the unwieldy Spanish war- 
 ships could be brought fairly into action. 
 
 For a week this method of fighting, was pursued; 
 but the Armada, in spite of all their efforts, gradu- 
 ally drew nearer to its destination. It had suffered 
 considerable damage, and two or three ships had 
 
THE DEFEAT OF THE ARMADA. 
 
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24O THE STORY OF THE SPANISH ARMADA. 
 
 been captured ; but it was still strong and un- 
 daunted, and the English had used up nearly all 
 their ammunition, apparently without much success. 
 
 At last the Spanish ships dropped anchor off 
 Calais, with the English two miles behind them. 
 At all costs, thought the English admirals, the Ar- 
 mada must now be dislodged, for a change in the 
 weather might enable the Duke of Parma to cross 
 in safety under its protection. 
 
 After midnight on the following day, which was 
 Sunday, eight English ships, rilled with combusti- 
 bles and smeared all over with pitch, were rowed 
 silently in black darkness towards the crowded 
 Spanish vessels lying at anchor. Suddenly the 
 fire-ships burst into flame, and were carried by the 
 wind and the tide right upon the Armada. A 
 panic seized the Spaniards at the sight of these 
 blazing monsters. Cables were cut in mad haste, 
 and the swift tide carried the great fleet away from 
 its anchorage into the open sea. 
 
 In the morning the English admirals fell on the 
 disordered fleet. For six hours the fight continued, 
 and when night fell Drake kept close watch upon 
 the Armada, hoping that the wind would drive the 
 ships upon the sand-banks of the Dutch coast, and 
 place them at his mercy. 
 
 Next day the fight went on again. The Armada 
 was drawing nearer and nearer to its doom, when 
 suddenly the wind changed, and the Spanish admi- 
 ral, thankful at having escaped wreck, gave orders 
 
THE DEFEAT OF THE ARMADA. 241 
 
 to make all sail for the north, in the hope of escap- 
 ing round Scotland. " There was never anything 
 pleased me better," wrote Drake, " than the seeing 
 the enemy flying with a southerly wind to the 
 northward." 
 
 For two days Drake and Howard chased the 
 Spaniards. Then their powder and shot failed, a 
 tempest sprang up, and with bitter disappointment 
 at losing their prey they returned to the south, leav- 
 ing the remnant of the great Armada to its fate. 
 Storms tossed it upon the rock-bound coasts of 
 Scotland and Ireland, and many ships were crushed 
 and battered to destruction. Numbers of the Span- 
 iards got ashore on the Irish coast ; some of these 
 were slain by the wild natives, others were captured 
 and sent from village to village, with halters about 
 their necks, to be shipped to England. 
 
 Elizabeth disdained to put them to death, and 
 scorned to keep them ; so they were all sent back 
 to their own country, "to witness and recount the 
 worthy achievements of their invincible navy." 
 
 Thus the storms joined with the dauntless brav- 
 ery and unrivalled skill of English seamen to destroy 
 proud Philip's great fleet. A medal was struck in 
 Latin, to commemorate the event, with the motto 
 " God blew, and they were scattered." Since that 
 time England has striven to keep her position as 
 mistress of the seas, and has looked upon her navy 
 as her surest means of defence. 
 
THE STORY OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 I. RALEIGH A FAVORITE OF THE QUEEN. 
 
 Among the great men of Queen Elizabeth's court 
 none earned more splendid fame than Sir Walter 
 Raleigh. He was born near the sea, in an old farm- 
 house at the village of Budleigh, in the year 1552. 
 As a boy, he is said to have been fond of the com- 
 pany of sailors, and of reading all the books of 
 voyages upon which he could lay hands. After 
 studying at Oxford, he went to France among a 
 band of gentlemen soldiers, who had offered to 
 help the French Protestants in their fight for lib- 
 erty of religion. He afterwards gave his services 
 to the. people of the Low Countries, who were 
 struggling against Spanish oppression. 
 
 On returning to England, he began to study law 
 in London ; but he spent a good deal of his time in 
 freaks and frolics with other young men of fashion. 
 Presently he was made captain of a hundred sol- 
 diers in Ireland, where the people were constantly 
 in rebellion. Raleigh did good service against the 
 rebels ; but he grew tired of his duties there, and 
 wrote to the Earl of Leicester, the queen's favorite, 
 asking for other employment. At Leicester's invi- 
 tation he returned to England, and quickly won 
 
 high favor with the queen. It is said that Eliza- 
 
 242 
 
RALEIGH A FAVORITE OF THE QUEEN. 243 
 
 beth, walking one day with her ladies, came to a 
 miry puddle, and hesitated to go on ; whereupon 
 Raleigh, who happened to be there, instantly took 
 off a new plush cloak from his shoulders and spread 
 it over the mud. The queen stepped on this fair 
 foot-cloth with a gracious smile ; she was pleased at 
 Raleigh's readiness, and attracted by his handsome 
 appearance. She rewarded him with a post in the 
 palace, where one day he wrote with a diamond, on 
 a window which the queen would pass, — 
 
 " Fain would I climb, but that I fear to fall." 
 
 Elizabeth came up, and added the rhyming line, — 
 
 "If thy heart fails thee, climb not at all." 
 
 Raleigh soon became the queen's favorite courtier. 
 Elizabeth liked his looks, for he was tall and hand- 
 some, with curly hair and blue eyes ; she enjoyed 
 his company, for he was polite and witty, and amused 
 her with the stories he told in his broad but pleasant 
 west-country accent. She made him captain of the 
 yeomen of the guard, whose duty was to guard the 
 palace and the person of the queen ; and she listened 
 with attention to his advice in matters of state. 
 
 Raleigh now rose high in wealth and importance ; 
 the queen gave him estates in England and Ireland, 
 and much of the property of the traitor Anthony 
 Babington came to him. He spent large sums in 
 buying armor and fine clothes, diamonds and pearls, 
 books and pictures ; and in erecting houses, laying 
 
244 
 
 THE STORY OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 out gardens, and building ships. But he was not 
 satisfied with an idle court life ; he wished to do 
 something in the world. He proposed to join his 
 half-brother, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, in an expedi- 
 tion to Newfoundland, but the queen would not 
 part with him. Sir Humphrey went without him, 
 and died on his return voyage. 
 
 Sir Walter Raleigh. 
 
 Though Raleigh was not allowed to seek adven- 
 tures himself, he got leave from the queen to fit out 
 an expedition for settling a number of colonists in 
 America; for he had an idea that a great English 
 empire might be founded beyond the seas. When 
 his men returned from their voyage, bringing splen- 
 did furs and pearls, he called the part of America 
 
RALEIGH IN DISGRACE. 245 
 
 where they had landed Virginia, in honor of the 
 Virgin Queen. He sent other expeditions to Vir- 
 ginia, and tried to found a colony there. Every 
 time his men returned, they brought with them new 
 plants and fruits, such as potatoes, tobacco, and 
 melons ; and told wonderful stories of the wealth 
 and beauty of the great continent. 
 
 Raleigh was said to have been the first to smoke 
 tobacco in England. There is a story that one day 
 a servant, bringing a jug of ale into the room where 
 Raleigh was sitting, was alarmed to see smoke com- 
 ing from his mouth. The servant instantly emptied 
 the jug over his master's head, to put out the fire 
 which he thought was burning within him. 
 
 II. RALEIGH IN DISGRACE. 
 
 A year after the defeat of the Spanish Armada, 
 Raleigh paid a visit to his Irish estates. At that 
 time Edmund Spenser, the great poet, was secretary 
 to the governor of Ireland ; Raleigh visited him, and 
 read the first three books of his poem The Fczrie 
 Queene. When he returned to England he brought 
 Spenser with him, and introduced him to the notice 
 of Elizabeth. Raleigh now displeased the queen by 
 marrying one of her maids of honor without permis- 
 sion. For this he suffered six months' imprisonment 
 in the Tower of London. 
 
 Three years later he set out on a voyage to 
 Guiana, a country in South America which was 
 
246 THE STORY OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 reported to be marvellously rich in gold. One of 
 its kings was said to delight in rubbing himself with 
 turpentine, and then rolling about amid his gold 
 dust till he looked like a golden image. Raleigh 
 and his men sailed up the river Orinoco in search 
 of a wonderful gold mine of which they had heard ; 
 but though they saw signs of gold and silver in the 
 soil, they did not discover the mine. On his return 
 Raleigh wrote an account of the expedition, in which 
 he told some strange stories that he had heard: 
 stories of a tribe of women warriors, and of a race 
 of people who had eyes in their shoulders. 
 
 In the year after his return, news came that 
 another fleet was fitting out in Spain for the inva- 
 sion of England. The English government resolved 
 to destroy it, and a fleet set out for Cadiz. Raleigh 
 was one of the principal commanders, and planned 
 the attack which proved such a brilliant success. 
 Several Spanish ships in the harbor were captured, 
 the town was taken by assault, while immense spoils 
 were shared among the victors. 
 
 Seven years after this Queen Elizabeth died, and 
 James the Sixth of Scotland, son of Mary Queen of 
 Scots and next heir to the throne, became King 
 James the First of England. The new king at once 
 showed great dislike towards Raleigh, who had not 
 paid humble court to him before his accession. 
 Raleigh, too, was proud ; and his pride, with his 
 wealth and his successes, had made for him many 
 enemies, who poisoned the king's mind against him. 
 
RALEIGH IN DISGRACE. 247 
 
 He was tried for treason, unjustly condemned, and 
 sent to the Tower to await execution. There he 
 remained thirteen years, devoting his time to scien- 
 tific studies and the writing of books. He finally 
 persuaded the king to release him by promising to 
 sail to Guiana and bring back untold wealth to 
 the royal treasury. But the expedition was a sad 
 failure, and on Raleigh's return to England the Span- 
 ish ambassador demanded his death for the mischief 
 he had done to the Spanish possessions. So James, 
 to please the king of Spain, had him executed on 
 the old charge of conspiracy. As Raleigh stood on 
 the scaffold he called for the axe and said as he felt 
 its keen edge, " This is sharp medicine, but it is a 
 sure cure for all diseases." He refused to be blind- 
 folded, and as he knelt gave the signal for the exe- 
 cutioner to strike. The man hesitated. " What dost 
 thou fear?'' cried Raleigh. "Strike, man, strike!" 
 and his head was severed from the body. 
 
 So died Sir Walter Raleigh, bravely as he had 
 lived. He w r as in the first rank of discoverers, a 
 great admiral, a fine soldier, a wise counsellor, a 
 witty courtier, a poet, and a great prose writer. 
 After his cruel death his faults were forgotten, and 
 men remembered only his fine qualities. 
 
 It is to Raleigh that England owes the beginning 
 of her great colonial empire. Years after his death 
 others took up his unfinished work, and the vast 
 empire which he had only dreamed of became a 
 reality. 
 
THE STORY OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 
 I. SHAKESPEARE'S LIFE. 
 
 In the last year of Queen Elizabeth's reign there 
 might have been seen, in the Mermaid tavern off 
 Cheapside, as jolly and witty a company as ever met 
 to enjoy an hour's pleasant chat. There was Sir 
 Walter Raleigh, courtier, soldier, poet, and wit; 
 there was Ben Jonson, once a soldier, now known 
 as a great scholar and poet — a big man with a bad 
 temper ; there was many another man whose name 
 was made famous by play and poem. 
 
 There, too, perhaps a little less boisterous in his 
 merriment than some of the party, was a man who 
 was called Will Shakespeare — one who watched the 
 others with a twinkle in his light hazel eye, and 
 whose voice they all listened to eagerly when he 
 joined in their talk. That pleasant man, with the 
 high forehead and long auburn hair, was the writer 
 whom Englishmen boast of as the greatest poet the 
 world has seen. He was not great by birth; his 
 father was only a merchant in a country town : it 
 was his own mighty genius that raised him to his 
 high place among the world's great men. 
 
 In Warwickshire, the heart of England, there is a 
 
 little town called Stratford-on-Avon. Here William 
 
 248 
 
SHAKESPEARE S LIFE. 249 
 
 Shakespeare was born in April, 1564. Doubtless 
 the boy was sent to King Edward VI.'s grammar 
 school in the town, where he learnt among other 
 things a little Latin. Perhaps, like the boys he 
 afterwards wrote about, he went "with his satchel 
 and shining morning face, creeping like snail un- 
 willingly to school " ; or, like those other boys he 
 mentions, sometimes played truant and picked black- 
 berries instead. He left school early, for his father 
 fell into misfortune. What he did then is not 
 known ; but some people say that he helped his 
 father. He certainly married when he was eighteen 
 years old ; and, not very long" after, he left home to 
 seek his fortune in the great city of London. 
 
 Now, in the Guildhall of his native town, plays 
 had sometimes been performed by travelling com- 
 panies of actors. No doubt Shakespeare had been 
 present at some of these performances, and he must 
 have heartily enjoyed them ; for when he reached 
 London, poor and a stranger, he seems to have gone 
 at once to the theatre in search of work. It is said 
 that he began by holding the horses of the gen- 
 tlemen who came to see the play, and that he was 
 so careful and polite that his services were much 
 sought after. He paid boys to help him, and gentle- 
 men, as they rode up, called out for " Shakespeare's 
 boys " to come and mind their horses. 
 
 Then Shakespeare was taken inside the theatre 
 to assist the actors, and by and by he became an 
 actor himself. Presently he began to show that he 
 
25O THE STORY OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 
 
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SHAKESPEARE S LIFE. 
 
 251 
 
 could revise and improve the plays which were 
 acted ; and after helping other men to write their 
 works, at last he wrote plays that were entirely his 
 own. His poems and plays won him the favor and 
 friendship of great people. Several times he acted 
 with his company before Queen Elizabeth, who was 
 much pleased with his plays. 
 
 The Globe Theatre, Bankside, Southwark. 
 
 By and by he became one of the owners of the 
 theatre ; and, being careful in business matters, he 
 rose to a position of ease and comfort. He often 
 paid visits to his home and family at Stratford, and 
 it is pleasant to know that he helped his father 
 to regain his prosperity. At length he was rich 
 enough to buy a large house in his native town ; 
 thither he returned to spend his last years as a quiet 
 
252 THE STORY OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 country gentleman with his family. He died on 
 April 23, 16 1 6, and was buried in the Parish Church 
 at Stratford. 
 
 II. SHAKESPEARE'S WORKS. 
 
 Shakespeare's works are often all printed in one 
 book, and that not a very large one. Perhaps some 
 may wonder why Shakespeare has won fame as the 
 greatest of the world's poets. It would be very 
 difficult to tell the reason briefly ; but whoever reads 
 Shakespeare's works for himself, and thinks about 
 them, will begin to see a little why he deserves such 
 praise. For one thing, when Shakespeare has said 
 a thing, it seems impossible that it could ever be 
 said in a better way. The little songs which occur 
 in some of the plays are among the most charming 
 gems of poetry in the English language. 
 
 Shakespeare's plays, also, are wonderfully inter- 
 esting. Some of them tell the stories of certain of 
 the English kings : of the poor weak Richard the 
 Second; the crafty Henry the Fourth; the brave 
 Henry the Fifth, who fought and conquered at 
 Agincourt, and his wild pranks when as yet only 
 Madcap Harry. Others tell stories of the ancient 
 world. One is the sad, splendid life of Coriolanus, 
 the great Roman general who was expelled from 
 Rome because the people could not endure his pride, 
 and who, when he was going to fight against the 
 city, turned back at the pleading of his wife and 
 mother. Another is the story- of the murder of 
 
SHAKESPEARE S WORKS. 253 
 
 Julius Caesar ; another, that of the Roman general 
 Antony, who lost an empire through his own weak- 
 ness and folly. Other plays tell stories of imagi- 
 nary characters. Of Portia, the noble lady who 
 saved the life of her husband's friend ; of Othello, 
 the noble man who was led to murder his sweet, 
 innocent wife by the lies of a villain ; of Rosalind, 
 the bright, happy girl who dressed herself as a 
 young man, and went gayly into banishment with 
 her cousin Celia. 
 
 Shakespeare was not, perhaps, very learned in 
 books ; but he knew a great deal about plants 
 and animals, whose habits he must have carefully 
 observed ; and, above all, he seemed to know human 
 nature through and through. The characters in 
 his plays all seem to be living people ; among them 
 there are heroes and cowards, fine soldiers and 
 feeble-witted countrymen, witty jesters and amus- 
 ing rogues, lovely and tender ladies and tigers in 
 woman's shape. 
 
 Shakespeare seemed to be able to show us almost 
 every kind of man and woman, good and bad, and to 
 know how to touch all our feelings, whether sad or 
 joyous. We cannot help feeling sorry when we see 
 poor old King Lear wandering in the storm, made 
 mad by the unkindness of his daughters ; we must 
 laugh at the mishaps of the fat, jolly, cowardly 
 knight Falstaff ; every Englishman feels a thrill of 
 pride in his country when he hears the splendid 
 words of the dying John of Gaunt, — 
 
254 THE STORY OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 " This royal throne of kings, this sceptr'd isle, 
 This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, 
 This happy breed of men, this little world, 
 This precious stone set in the silver sea." 
 
 Last of all, though Shakespeare wrote his plays 
 only for the amusement of those who went to see 
 them, they contain many good lessons, which may 
 help those who read them to be better, and wiser, 
 and happier. It is pleasant to think that the play 
 of The Tempest, probably the last that Shakespeare 
 wrote, ends with scenes in which those who have 
 been wronged forgive those who have wronged 
 them ; and that the great poet passed his last 
 years in good-will towards all men. 
 
THE STORY OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 
 I. RELICxIOUS FREEDOM. 
 
 In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, Englishmen 
 made many voyages over the seas to America. 
 This they did partly out of a reckless spirit of 
 adventure, partly out of hatred of Spain, and partly 
 to gain a share of the matchless wealth of the 
 new world. There came a time later, when Eng- 
 lishmen sought America simply to find a home, 
 because it had become impossible for them to live 
 peaceably in England. No place was home to 
 them where they were not free to worship God 
 in the way they believed to be right; and when 
 this liberty was denied them in England, they left 
 their native land. 
 
 When the English Church was first separated 
 from that of Rome, the differences between the 
 services of the two churches were not great. But 
 soon a party grew up called the Puritans, who 
 wished to make the church service much plainer 
 and simpler than it had hitherto been. Now that 
 the sovereign was head of the English Church, 
 instead of the Pope, the people were ordered to 
 worship in the way which the sovereign settled 
 for them. Queen Elizabeth did not like the Puri- 
 
 255 
 
256 THE STORY OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 
 
 tans; she was fond of many of the old Catholic 
 forms of worship, to which they objected ; and 
 when some of them refused to attend church, 
 because they did not like the form of. service which 
 she had ordained, they were punished. 
 
 Besides the Puritans, who wished to alter the 
 form of worship, but not to leave the Church, there 
 arose a small party who thought that the Church 
 should be quite free from royal control. They held 
 that neither the sovereign nor anybody else ought 
 to say what people must believe, or how they must 
 worship ; but that people should be at liberty to fol- 
 low their own conscience in all religious matters. 
 They thought that there should not be a state 
 Church, or Church established by law. Those who 
 held these views became known as Separatists or 
 Independents, because they separated themselves 
 from the state Church. Numbers of these people 
 went to Holland in order to avoid the persecution 
 which they suffered in England. 
 
 When James the First ascended the throne, the 
 Puritans hoped that he would make some of the 
 changes in church matters which they desired ; but 
 they were disappointed. The Independents were 
 now still more harshly treated than they had been 
 in Elizabeth's reign. They were few in numbers, 
 and were so strict in their ways of life, and so scorn- 
 ful of all who remained in the Established Church, 
 that they were looked upon with dislike by all 
 churchmen, whether Puritans or not. 
 
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM. 257 
 
 In the year 1608 a number of Independents left 
 England, and joined their friends in Holland. They 
 settled in Leyden ; but, being most of them country 
 people, they found town-life irksome. Besides, their 
 children, as they grew up, learnt foreign ways ; but 
 the Independents still loved their native land, though 
 they had been obliged to leave it, and they did not 
 wish their children to become foreigners. 
 
 After a time, therefore, they desired to find a 
 new home, where they could live together in peace, 
 away from the temptations of town-life, and where 
 they could still keep their English character and 
 manners. They decided to go to America, and the 
 story of the band of courageous men and women 
 who left England in the Mayflower, their sufferings 
 from cold and famine and fever, their perseverance, 
 and the reward of their toil is too well known to 
 need repeating here, for this is the story of the Pil- 
 grim- Fathers. 
 
 Meanwhile, fresh persecution had arisen in Eng- 
 land, and a Puritan emigration began again on a 
 larger scale than the emigration of the Independents. 
 Charles the First, who was now king, granted a 
 charter to the new colony under the name of Massa- 
 chusetts. Farmers, and country gentlemen, clergy- 
 men and lawyers, God-fearing men of all classes, 
 left their beloved country for conscience' sake. In 
 the ten years from 1630 to 1640, twenty thousand 
 Puritans sought a home in New England. 
 
THE STORY OF THE GREAT REBELLION. 
 I. THE PETITION OF RIGHT. 
 
 On June 7, in the year 1628, King Charles the 
 First gave his assent to a famous document called 
 the Petition of Right. It was a statement, drawn up 
 by the House of Commons, reciting certain rights 
 of the English people which had not been respected 
 by the king, but which the House declared must be 
 respected for the future. 
 
 The Commons demanded, for example, that peo- 
 ple should not be compelled to lend the king money, 
 or to receive soldiers in their houses ; that no per- 
 son should be imprisoned without the cause being 
 stated, or should be tried by martial law in time of 
 peace, but should be brought before the regular 
 judges. People had suffered in the ways thus pro- 
 tested against ; and when the House of Commons 
 declared they would vote no money to the king 
 until their demands were granted, Charles unwill- 
 ingly gave his promise to that effect. 
 
 One of the leading members of the House which 
 forced this promise from the king was Sir Thomas 
 Wentworth, the member for Yorkshire. He be- 
 longed to an ancient and wealthy Yorkshire family, 
 had been educated at Cambridge, and had suffered 
 
 imprisonment for refusing to lend £40 to the king. 
 
 258 
 
THE PETITION OF RIGHT. 259 
 
 Charles had an unfortunate belief, encouraged by 
 his adviser and favorite, the Duke of Buckingham, 
 that he had a right to rule just as he pleased, and 
 that Parliament only existed to carry out his will. 
 There were members of Parliament, however, who 
 thought differently. Men like John Pym and Sir 
 John Eliot held that the king ought to govern as 
 
 • King Charles the First. 
 
 the nation wished, and that the wish of the nation 
 was to be discovered by consulting the House of 
 Commons, elected by the people. 
 
 The quarrel between king and Parliament grew 
 to a dangerous height. It had been the custom, at 
 the opening of a new reign, for the House of Com- 
 mons to vote to the king, for life, a tax called ton- 
 
260 THE STORY OF THE GREAT REBELLION. 
 
 nage and poundage. This was a tax on goods that 
 came into and went out of the country. 
 
 The House had only granted the tax to Charles 
 for one year, and when the year had expired, Parlia- 
 ment dissolved without renewing it. Without wait- 
 ing for the consent of the Commons, Charles on his 
 own account demanded payment of the tax. Sev- 
 eral merchants who refused to pay it were thrown 
 into prison. 
 
 This enraged the members of the House, and 
 when they met again they proposed resolutions 
 declaring that any one who advised the collection of 
 tonnage and poundage without their consent, or 
 who paid the tax, was an enemy of the country. 
 Charles ordered the House to disperse ; but the 
 doors were locked, and the Speaker was held down 
 in his chair until the resolutions were passed. The 
 king immediately dissolved Parliament, and for 
 eleven years ruled without one. 
 
 II. THE GOVERNMENT OF IRELAND. 
 
 After three years of energetic rule in the north 
 of England, Wentworth was appointed Lord-deputy 
 or Governor of Ireland. That country, which had 
 in name belonged to England since the reign of 
 Henry the Second, had in reality only been sub- 
 jected to English rule in Elizabeth's reign. It was 
 troubled by constant rebellions, and the majority of 
 the people, being Roman Catholics, objected to the 
 
THE GOVERNMENT OF IRELAND. 26 1 
 
 establishment of the English Church among them. 
 Thus Catholics and Protestants lived in deadly 
 enmity with one another. 
 
 When Wentworth was sent to rule the island, he 
 found it in a terrible condition. The taxes were 
 unpaid, the army was ragged and disorderly; the 
 Protestant churches were falling in ruins, and some 
 were even used as stables and ale-houses. Part of 
 the money which ought to have gone to the clergy 
 was appropriated .by dishonest officials. The trade 
 of the country was crippled by the pirates who 
 infested the seas. The very ship which was con- 
 veying Wentworth's goods to Ireland was captured 
 by a pirate, and the new lord deputy lost furniture 
 worth $20,000, and linen worth $2500. 
 
 Wentworth was armed with full powers, and was 
 answerable to the king alone. He set to work with 
 energy to bring the country into a better state. He 
 enforced the payment of taxes by Catholics and 
 Protestants alike; he dismissed unjust officials, and 
 reorganized the army ; repaired the churches and 
 protected the clergy; and fitted out war-ships which 
 soon swept the pirates from the seas. He improved 
 trade, and spent much of his own money in encour- 
 aging the cultivation of hemp and flax for the man- 
 ufacture of linen. In many ways he showed that 
 he had a sincere desire for the welfare of Ireland, 
 and a passion for order and good government. 
 
 But he made countless enemies, both in Ireland 
 and in England. His ways were masterful ; and 
 
262 THE STORY OF THE GREAT REBELLION. 
 
 though his aims were often right and just, he used 
 illegal and unjust means to carry them out. He 
 offended the Protestants by allowing the Catholics 
 to worship in their own way; he offended many of 
 the Catholics by declaring that their lands belonged 
 to the king, and by bringing over Protestants to 
 settle on them. His great aim was to make the 
 king all powerful in the country, and to show both 
 Catholics and Protestants that they must depend 
 on the king's power for support and protection. 
 This was the system which he nicknamed " Thor- 
 ough " in his letters to his friend, Archbishop 
 Laud. 
 
 III. MORE TROUBLE FOR KING CHARLES. 
 
 While Wentworth was winning hatred by his 
 conduct in Ireland, the king and Archbishop Laud 
 were exciting enmity by their doings in England. 
 William Laud was made Archbishop of Canterbury 
 in the same year that Wentworth crossed to Ire- 
 land. He was a good and an able man, unselfish, 
 and kind to the poor ; his aim was a noble one — 
 to unite all Christian people in one pure and strong 
 church. But, like Wentworth, he tried to drive 
 people instead of leading them ; he attempted to 
 force his own opinions on the nation, and he failed. 
 
 One of the Courts of Law which Laud used to 
 enforce his will and that of King Charles, was that 
 known as The Court of the Star Chamber. This 
 court had power to punish any one of whose acts 
 
MORE TROUBLE FOR KING CHARLES. 263 
 
 the king did not approve, whether the act were 
 against the law or not, and its judgments were often 
 very cruel. 
 
 During the years when there was no Parliament 
 to vote supplies, money for carrying on the govern- 
 ment had to be obtained by other means, and 
 Charles levied taxes at his pleasure. One of these 
 taxes was known as Ship-money. It was properly a 
 tax that could only be claimed from the coast towns 
 in time of war, but by the advice of Laud it was now 
 demanded from inland counties and towns as well. 
 
 One country gentleman, named John Hampden, 
 had the courage to refuse to pay the five dollars 
 required of him. He took his stand on the law and 
 custom of the country, and particularly on the Peti- 
 tion of Right, which forbade the levying of taxes 
 without the consent of Parliament. The case was 
 tried by twelve judges, of whom seven pronounced 
 in favor of the king. Hampden was condemned, 
 but most people held that he was in the right, and 
 the opposition to Charles grew stronger. 
 
 Now Scotland burst into rebellion, on account 
 of Laud's interference in religious matters, and at 
 length it became a question of war. An English 
 army was hastily got together to compel the Scots 
 to obey, but the soldiers were of poor quality and 
 the officers incapable. The Scots, on the other 
 hand, were well drilled and thoroughly in earnest. 
 Charles gave way without fighting, and promised 
 that matters should be settled by a parliament. 
 
264 THE STORY OF THE GREAT REBELLION. 
 
 But the Parliament would do nothing for the 
 king until he had removed the grievances of which 
 they complained. Rather than yield, he dissolved 
 Parliament, and prepared again for war with Scot- 
 land. Wentworth, now Earl of Strafford, came 
 over from Ireland to help him ; but the Scots 
 invaded England, and drove back an English force 
 which opposed them. 
 
 It was clear that another parliament must be 
 called, either to satisfy the demands of the Scots 
 with regard to their religion, or to provide means 
 for fighting them. Accordingly, Charles issued a 
 summons for a new parliament. It met on Novem- 
 ber 3, 1640, and is known in history as the Long 
 Parliament, for it was not finally dispersed for 
 twenty years. 
 
 Meanwhile Parliament, made bold by the support 
 of the people, brought Strafford and Laud to trial. 
 Strafford was charged with political tyranny, and 
 Laud with religious tyranny. They were con- 
 demned and executed, meeting their fate with a 
 courage worthy of a better cause. 
 
 IV. AFFAIR OF THE FIVE MEMBERS. 
 
 When Strafford was dead, the House of Com- 
 mons set to work to compel Charles to govern as 
 it wished. Ship-money was declared to be against 
 the law, taxes were not to be levied without the 
 consent of Parliament ; the Courts of Star Chamber 
 
AFFAIR OF THE FIVE MEMBERS. 265 
 
 and High Commission were abolished, and the cere- 
 monies which Laud had restored to the church ser- 
 vice were forbidden. 
 
 About this time a terrible massacre took place in 
 Ireland, where the natives rose up against the Eng- 
 lish and Scotch settlers, and tortured and murdered 
 them. England was filled with horror, and the king 
 was blamed for the state of affairs which had pro- 
 duced the massacre. 
 
 The Commons drew up the Grand Remonstrance, 
 a document in which they stated the acts of misrule 
 of which they complained, and demanded certain 
 changes in the government of Church and State. 
 The Remonstrance was passed, after a long dis- 
 cussion, by a majority of only eleven ; and when 
 the king's party raised a protest against printing 
 it, many of the members drew their swords, and 
 bloodshed was only prevented by the influence of 
 Hampden. 
 
 Charles consented to have the Remonstrance read 
 to him ; but soon after, he ordered the attorney- 
 general to impeach five members of the House of 
 Commons, including Pym and Hampden, as well 
 as one of the peers. He charged them with a 
 treasonable correspondence with the Scotch army 
 during the recent troubles, and demanded their 
 immediate arrest. 
 
 Such a demand from the king was illegal, and the 
 Commons merely replied that they would consider 
 it. Next day Charles was persuaded by his queen 
 
266 THE STORY OF THE GREAT REBELLION. 
 
 to go down to the House himself, and arrest the 
 members by force. " Go along, you coward," she 
 said, " and pull those rascals out by the ears ! " 
 With five hundred armed gentlemen, the king went 
 down to the House of Commons. Leaving his 
 company in Westminster Hall, he entered the 
 House, and standing by the Speaker's chair, said 
 that he must have the men whom he accused. 
 There was dead silence. The king asked, " Is Mr. 
 Pym here ? " but not a word was spoken in reply. 
 
 He then turned to the Speaker, and asked 
 whether the five members were present. The 
 Speaker fell on his knees, and replied, " May it 
 please your Majesty, I have neither eyes to see nor 
 tongue to speak in this place, except as the House 
 is pleased to direct me." " Well, well," Charles 
 cried angrily, " 'tis no matter ; I think my eyes are 
 as good as another's." Carefully looking along the 
 benches, he saw that not one of the five was present ; 
 they had gone for safety to the city. With an angry 
 flush in his cheeks, the baffled king said, " Since I 
 see that my birds are flown, I do expect from you 
 that you will send them to me as soon as they re- 
 turn hither ; otherwise I must take my own course 
 to find them." 
 
 As he left the House, angry shouts of " Privilege, 
 privilege ! " burst from the members. The sheriffs 
 of London refused to give up the five members, 
 who, a few days later, returned to Westminster by 
 the river, amid the cheers of thousands of spectators 
 
OLIVER CROMWELL APPEARS. 267 
 
 who lined the banks. The train-bands or volunteers 
 of London took up arms in defence of the liberty of 
 the Commons. The friends of Charles feared for 
 their lives and fled. He had no army, and the 
 queen left the country with the crown jewels to buy 
 arms and raise money with which to pay soldiers. 
 Charles left London, summoning all loyal subjects 
 
 Costumes of the Nobility, Time of Charles I. 
 
 to his aid. Nobles and gentlemen came gayly at his 
 call, and on August 22, 1642, the royal standard was 
 set up at Nottingham, and civil war began. 
 
 V. OLIVER CROMWELL APPEARS. 
 
 The country was now divided into two great par- 
 ties. The west and the north were for Charles, the 
 east and south, with London, for the Parliament 
 
268 THE STORY OF THE GREAT REBELLION. 
 
 On the king's side were most of the lords and coun- 
 try gentlemen ; some who considered that he was in 
 the right, some who thought that he was in the 
 wrong, but supported him simply because he was 
 their sovereign. Among them, too, were some who 
 cared nothing about the rights of the quarrel, but 
 were gay, gallant gentlemen, who loved fighting and 
 hated the Puritans. 
 
 On the side of the Parliament there were a few 
 peers and some country gentlemen, but a great 
 many townsmen and farmers. Charles had as fol- 
 lowers the men of fashion and pleasure ; the Parlia- 
 ment had the wealth of the trading classes at its 
 back. The king's party were distinguished by their 
 flowing hair, fine dress, and gay manners, and were 
 known as Cavaliers ; many of his opponents cropped 
 their hair close, and wore plain clothes and odd- 
 looking hats, which gained for their party the scorn- 
 ful name of Roundheads. 
 
 After a skirmish in Yorkshire, Charles set out 
 with his army for the south. If he could only get 
 possession of London, with all its wealth, he thought 
 that success would speedily crown his cause. He 
 was met at Edgehill in Warwickshire by the army 
 of the Parliament under the Earl of Essex. At first 
 the battle inclined in favor of the Royalists ; Prince 
 Rupert, the king's nephew, carried all before him 
 with his fine troop of horse. Dashing in pursuit of 
 the flying enemy, he left the king's foot-soldiers to 
 be cut to pieces by the cavalry of the Parliament; 
 
OLIVER CROMWELL APPEARS. 
 
 269 
 
 and when he returned it was too late to win the 
 battle, although the kino- had the 
 
 advantage. 
 
 Charles now pressed rapidly on towards London, 
 and reached Brentford, only a few miles from the 
 city. Here he was met by the train-bands in full 
 force, — a strong, determined, well-led army. Fear- 
 
 Oliver Cromwell. 
 
 ing to risk a fight, the king fell back on Oxford 
 and made that city his headquarters. 
 
 There was, among the officers of the Parliamen- 
 tary army, a captain of horse named Oliver Crom- 
 well. Born in 1599, of good birth and means, he 
 had lived since his nineteenth year the quiet life of 
 a gentleman farmer. He was a member of the 
 Parliament which passed the Petition of Right; but 
 when that Parliament was dissolved, he returned to 
 
27O THE STORY OF THE GREAT REBELLION. 
 
 his home at Huntingdon, and took no further part 
 in public life for twelve years. He was an honest 
 and upright man, a Puritan in his beliefs, but not 
 so hard and stern as some of his party ; he was a 
 loving son, husband, and father ; and was filled with 
 a burning desire to help all who were desolate and 
 oppressed. When the great struggle began, he 
 raised a troop of horse for the Parliament. 
 
 At the very opening of the war Cromwell saw at 
 once what was needed to give victory to his party, 
 and he mentioned his ideas to John Hampden, who 
 was his cousin and who commanded a regiment of 
 foot-soldiers. " Your troops," he said, " are most 
 of them old, decayed serving-men, and tapsters, and 
 such kind of fellows ; the king's troops are gentle- 
 men's sons and persons of quality. Do you think 
 that the spirit of such base, mean fellows will ever 
 be able to encounter gentlemen that have honor 
 and courage and resolution in them ? You must 
 get men of a spirit that is likely to go on as far as 
 gentlemen will go, or else you will be beaten still." 
 What sort of spirit this was Cromwell tells us in 
 his own words : " I raised such men as had the fear 
 of God before them, as made some conscience of 
 what they did; and from that day forward they 
 were never beaten." 
 
 He drilled his men constantly in the use of arms 
 and the management of their horses, and kept them 
 under strict discipline. If a man swore, he paid a 
 fine of a shilling ; if he got drunk, he was put in the 
 
SUCCESS OF THE "NEW MODEL." 27 1 
 
 stocks ; if he called one of his mates a Roundhead, 
 he was dismissed. Cromwell's troop, his " lovely 
 company," as he called it, became known as a splen- 
 did body of sober, well-trained soldiers, and it was 
 these men who gave victory to the Parliament. 
 
 Cromwell soon gained a high place in the army. 
 He threw himself heart and soul into his new work. 
 He did not spare his own relatives in his zeal for 
 collecting arms and stores. Once he visited his 
 uncle, Sir Oliver Cromwell, with a good strong 
 party of horse. He asked him for his blessing, and 
 the few hours he was there he would not keep on 
 his hat in his uncle's presence. But at the same 
 time he not only disarmed, but stripped him of his 
 plate. It was this earnest man, this " Ironside," as 
 Prince Rupert called him, who was destined to 
 bring ruin and destruction upon King Charles. 
 
 VI. SUCCESS OF THE "NEW MODEL." 
 
 For a year the war went on without decisive suc- 
 cess for either party. Both Royalists and Round- 
 heads won and lost battles, and famous men were 
 killed on each side. 
 
 A Scottish army now came to the assistance of 
 the Parliament, but would lend its aid only on con- 
 dition that the Presbyterian form of religion should 
 be established in England. This was agreed to, 
 and the English leaders signed a formal document 
 called the Solemn League and Covenant, promising 
 
272 THE STORY OF THE GREAT REBELLION. 
 
 to support Presbyterianism. With the aid of the 
 Scots, the army of the Parliament won a great vic- 
 tory at Mars ton Moor, near York. Cromwell and 
 his Ironsides scattered the cavalry of Prince Rupert 
 like dust before them. " We never charged with- 
 
 Cromwell leading his Ironsides to Battle. 
 
 out routing the enemy," wrote Cromwell. " God 
 made them as stubble to our swords." 
 
 The north of England was now in the power 
 of the Parliament; but the commander-in-chief of 
 its army, the Earl of Manchester, was a quiet, 
 meek man, who did not follow up his successes. 
 
SUCCESS OF THE "NEW MODEL." 273 
 
 There was a growing division among the Parlia- 
 mentary party. The Presbyterians, such as Man- 
 chester, who formed the majority of the Parliament, 
 wished to make terms with the king without utterly 
 crushing him ; the Independents, led by Cromwell, 
 thought that no peace should be made until Charles 
 was thoroughly beaten. 
 
 While there was disagreement of this kind, suc- 
 cess was impossible ; Cromwell therefore carried 
 through Parliament the Self-denying Ordinance, 
 by which no member of either House could hold 
 command in the army. At the same time the army 
 was remodelled, and the " New Model," as it was 
 now called, was placed under the command of Sir 
 Thomas Fairfax. By means of the Self-denying 
 Ordinance and the New Model, the control of the 
 army was taken from the Presbyterians and given to 
 the Independents ; and the war was carried on with 
 more spirit and vigor. Cromwell, though a mem- 
 ber of the Commons, was placed second in com- 
 mand. 
 
 The whole army was now formed on the same 
 plan that Cromwell had adopted with his own Iron- 
 sides, and England never had finer troops. At 
 Naseby, in Northamptonshire, the New Model army 
 inflicted a crushing defeat on the king, capturing 
 five thousand prisoners, all his guns and baggage, 
 and his private papers. Cromwell and Fairfax then 
 marched from place to place, storming castles, tak- 
 ing towns, and forcing Royalist armies to surrender. 
 
274 THE STORY OF THE GREAT REBELLION. 
 
 Charles wandered about the country, trying in vain 
 to collect a new force large enough to take the 
 field. At length he gave himself up to the Scots 
 at Newark, hoping to win them over to his side. 
 
 The Presbyterian majority of Parliament, anxious 
 to bring the war to an end, offered Charles the 
 terms on which they would restore him to his king- 
 dom. He was to give Parliament the control of the 
 army for twenty years, to sign the Covenant, and to 
 support the Presbyterian form of worship. For six 
 months he declined to make any definite answer to 
 these demands, hoping that his enemies would quar- 
 rel among themselves. Then the Scots, weary of 
 his delay, gave him up to the Parliament in return 
 for the payment of their war expenses, and went 
 back to their own country. 
 
 VII. FALL OF THE KING. 
 
 What Charles had hoped for, a quarrel between 
 the army and the Parliament, at length broke out 
 with bitterness. The army, which consisted mainly 
 of Independents, was determined to secure complete 
 religious freedom ; the Parliament was equally deter- 
 mined to allow no religion but the Presbyterian to 
 be followed. 
 
 When the king at last agreed to rule as a Pres- 
 byterian, the Parliament ordered the army to be 
 disbanded ; but the soldiers refused to disperse until 
 their demands were satisfied. Then Cromwell took 
 
FALL OF THE KINC 275 
 
 a bold step ; he sent Cornet Joyce, with a strong 
 body of horse, to remove the king from Holmby 
 House, where he was lodging under the charge of 
 the commissioner of the Parliament. Having the 
 king now in its power, the army. left him at New- 
 market, and marched towards London. Its demand 
 for an immediate settlement of the kingdom being 
 refused, it entered the city in splendid array, and 
 then the House of Commons yielded to its show of 
 force. 
 
 For months Cromwell tried to induce the king to 
 make terms with the army ; but Charles, while pre- 
 tending to be ready to discuss an arrangement, was 
 really determined to yield nothing, and to get back 
 all his former power. Contriving to escape from 
 his guards, he sought refuge in the Isle of Wight. 
 When he was again captured, and lodged in Caris- 
 brooke Castle, he made a secret treaty with the 
 Scots, in which he promised to establish the Pres- 
 byterian worship in England for three years, and to 
 put down the Independents. On these terms the 
 Scots took up arms for the king. At the same 
 time the Cavaliers were mustering in various parts 
 of the country ; north and west and south men 
 raised the cry, " For God and King Charles ! " 
 
 Burning with anger at what they considered the 
 trickery of the king, the soldiers of the Parliament 
 fiercely resolved, first to vanquish the enemy, then to 
 bring to trial " Charles Stuart, that man of blood," 
 whose conduct had caused a renewal of the war. 
 
276 THE STORY OF THE GREAT REBELLION. 
 
 South, west, and north their generals hastened. 
 Cromwell met the Scots at Preston in Lancashire, 
 and in a battle lasting over three days, he cut to 
 pieces a fine army three times the size of his own. 
 Everywhere the Cavaliers were crushed. But when 
 Cromwell hurried back to London, he found the 
 Presbyterian parliament again striving to make dis- 
 honorable terms with the king, and threatening the 
 Independents with punishments. This he deter- 
 mined to prevent. 
 
 One morning, a regiment of foot-soldiers under 
 Colonel Pride marched into Westminster Hall, and 
 arrested forty-one Presbyterian members of the 
 House of Commons. Next day more than sixty 
 others were arrested, and " Pride's Purge," as this 
 act was called, made the army the absolute master 
 of the country. 
 
 The remnant of the Commons, known as the 
 " Rump," consisted of only fifty-three Independents. 
 They immediately passed a resolution to bring 
 Charles to justice, and appointed a High Court 
 of Justice for his trial. When the Lords refused 
 to take any part in it, the Commons declared that, 
 being chosen by the people, they themselves held 
 supreme power in the country, and that their deci- 
 sions had the force of law. 
 
 Charles was now brought to London, and on 
 January 21, 1649, he was put on trial in West- 
 minster Hall as a tyrant, a traitor, and an enemy of 
 the people. 
 
LAST DAYS OF THE KING. 
 
 277 
 
 VIII. LAST DAYS OF THE KING. 
 
 The proceedings of the Rump Parliament were 
 entirely illegal. No subject had the right to call 
 the sovereign to account for his actions ; no deci- 
 sion of the House of Commons could become law 
 
 Trial of King Charles the First in Westminster Hall. 
 
 unless agreed to by the Lords and by the king. In 
 bringing Charles to trial, the leaders of the army 
 were committing a greater offence against strict law 
 than ever Charles had committed. But the king had 
 shown himself to be incapable of ruling wisely ; he 
 had acted as a tyrant ; when he might have made a 
 
278 THE STORY OF THE GREAT REBELLION. 
 
 fair settlement, he engaged in underhand proceed- 
 ings, and brought the horrors of war again on the 
 country. The worst of it was that Charles believed 
 himself thoroughly in the right, even when he was 
 most deceitful. He thought he was justified in any 
 course which would restore him to his throne and 
 crush the rebels. 
 
 Cromwell, finding that it was impossible to trust 
 Charles, believed that he would be doing God's will, 
 and securing happiness to the nation, by taking the 
 king's life. The trial was a mockery from the begin- 
 ning; it was decided beforehand that the king should 
 die. When the names of the men who were to form 
 the court were read out, only sixty-seven out of a 
 hundred and thirty-five answered. Lady Fairfax, 
 when her husband's name was called, cried out, 
 " He is not here, and never will be ; you do wrong 
 to name him." Many of those who had fought most 
 stoutly against their king shrank from taking his 
 life. 
 
 When Charles was asked what answer he had to 
 the charges brought against him, he refused to plead, 
 denying that the court had any authority over him. 
 On the fifth day of the trial, he was sentenced to 
 death, and four days later the sentence was carried 
 out. 
 
 The scaffold was erected outside one of the win- 
 dows of the king's Banqueting House at Whitehall. 
 Excited crowds filled the streets ; the roofs and win- 
 dows of the surrounding houses were occupied by 
 
LAST DAYS OF THE KING. 279 
 
 spectators. As the unhappy king mounted the 
 steps of the scaffold, many of the people, and even 
 some of the rough soldiers on guard, burst into 
 tears. The king's quiet fearlessness and dignity 
 moved every one to pity. 
 
 Declaring that the war had been caused by those 
 who had rebelled against his authority, and that he 
 was dying a martyr for his people, Charles laid his 
 head on the block. At one blow it was struck off, 
 and as the headsman lifted it, crying in the custom- 
 ary way, " This is the head of a traitor ! " a deep 
 groan rose from the multitude below. 
 
 Charles Stuart's follies and crimes thus led him 
 to a terrible end; but after his death, people's 
 thoughts dwelt rather upon his good qualities than 
 upon his bad ones. They remembered that in his 
 home life he was one of the best men who ever wore 
 the crown of England ; and that he had the misfor- 
 tune to come early in life under bad influences. They 
 forgot his weakness, his deceit, his wrongheadedness, 
 and admired the kingly manner in which he met his 
 fate. " He nothing common did, or mean, upon that 
 memorable scene," wrote a poet of the time. The 
 Cavaliers honored his memory as that of a martyr, 
 and the nation soon learnt to hate those whom they 
 called his murderers. 
 
THE STORY OF OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 I. CROMWELL'S LAST VICTORIES. 
 
 King Charles was dead, and the chief men among 
 his enemies so hated the name of king that they pro- 
 nounced it treason to give any one that title. The 
 House of Lords was abolished ; the country was 
 declared to be a republic, under 'the title of the 
 Commonwealth ; and the government was put into 
 the hands of a Council of State. 
 
 There was one man far above all others in ability 
 and strength of character, and to whom the people 
 looked for security and peace. That man was Oliver 
 Cromwell, the victor of Marston Moor, Naseby, and 
 Preston. It was soon necessary for him to put 
 forth all his power in defence of the new govern- 
 ment. 
 
 The people of Ireland had risen in arms on behalf 
 of Charles, the eldest son of the late king, and Prince 
 Rupert had gone to their aid with a fleet. Cromwell 
 instantly made ready for war ; after sternly putting 
 down a mutiny among his troops, he crossed the 
 Irish Channel with a small but well-trained army. 
 
 For nine months he remained in Ireland, and made 
 his name a terror throughout the land. The flower 
 of the Royalist army was stationed at Drogheda, a 
 
 fortified seaport on the Boyne. After a stout resist- 
 
 280 
 
cromwell's last victories. 281 
 
 ance the place was taken by storm, and the whole 
 of the garrison, and many of the inhabitants, were 
 ruthlessly massacred. A similar massacre took 
 place at Wexford. Fort after fort surrendered to 
 the pitiless conqueror, and the severity of his meas- 
 ures speedily put an end to the rebellion. A few 
 years later, hundreds of Irish landowners were 
 removed from their lands, which were then given 
 to English settlers. 
 
 Having subdued Ireland, Cromwell was recalled 
 to lead an army against Scotland, where Prince 
 Charles had accepted the Covenant and been pro- 
 claimed king. The Scottish army, under a skilled 
 general, David Leslie, laid waste the south of the 
 country, and took up a strong position at Edinburgh, 
 from which it was impossible to dislodge it. The 
 English army suffered severely from the bad weather, 
 lack of food, and sickness ; and Cromwell at length, 
 almost despairing of success, withdrew to Dunbar, 
 to be near his ships that were lying off the coast. 
 Leslie immediately posted his army on the hills 
 to the south, thus cutting off Cromwell's retreat 
 to England, and placing the English at such disad- 
 vantage that defeat seemed certain. 
 
 Late one evening, the Scots, impatient to secure 
 the victory they believed to be theirs, began to 
 move down the hill towards the shore, intending to 
 attack on the English left. " The Lord hath de- 
 livered them into our hands ! " cried Cromwell, as 
 he saw the movement. The Scots were exposing 
 
282 
 
 THE STORY OF OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 themselves to danger as they left their secure posi- 
 tion on the hill. At dawn, September, 3, 1650, 
 Cromwell fell upon them with both foot and horse, 
 and, before the sun had burst through the morning 
 mist that hung over the fields, the Scots were flying 
 in all directions. 
 
 Escape of Prince Charles in Disguise. 
 
 A severe illness prevented Cromwell from follow- 
 ing up his great victory at Dunbar. Meanwhile, 
 Charles had collected a fresh army and made a 
 dashing march into England, hoping that the Eng- 
 lish Royalists would flock to his standard. Few 
 obeyed his call ; and when Cromwell came up with 
 
CROMWELL BECOMES PROTECTOR. 283 
 
 him at Worcester, the royal troops were disheartened 
 and tired out. 
 
 On the anniversary of the victory at Dunbar, 
 Cromwell's troops forced their way into Worcester, 
 after a siege of five days. With the loss of only 
 two hundred men, Cromwell won a brilliant and 
 decisive victory ; it was what he called his " crowning 
 mercy," and the last battle that he ever fought. 
 
 Many stories are told of the adventures of Prince 
 Charles after the battle. For days he remained hid- 
 den in an oak, from whose leafy shade he watched 
 the Roundhead troopers as they rode about seeking 
 him. Then he escaped to Bristol in the disguise of 
 a servant, riding on horseback with a lady sitting on 
 a cushion behind, as was then the fashion. After 
 several narrow escapes, he succeeded in reaching 
 France ; and he remained quietly abroad till his 
 people called him back again. 
 
 II. CROMWELL BECOMES PROTECTOR. 
 
 When Cromwell returned to London after crush- 
 ing the Royalists at Worcester, he was received as a 
 popular hero ; Parliament gave him Hampton Court 
 Palace as a residence, and voted him an annual sum 
 of ^4000, equal to $200,000 as values now are. 
 
 Soon, however, a conflict arose between the gen- 
 eral and the Parliament. The government of the 
 country had not yet been properly settled, and there 
 was much discontent among the people. The Par- 
 
284 
 
 THE STORY OF OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 liament did not now truly represent the nation, but 
 it nevertheless wished to hold supreme power, and 
 especially to obtain control of the army. 
 
 Cromwell and his officers demanded a new parlia- 
 ment, which would set about the reforms necessary 
 
 Cromwell dissolving the Long Parliament. 
 
 for the good of the country. Some of the Presby- 
 terian leaders of the House, while deciding for a new 
 parliament, resolved to pass a bill which would allow 
 the present members not only to retain their seats, 
 but also to reject any new member of whom they 
 might disapprove. 
 
CROMWELL BECOMES PROTECTOR. 285 
 
 With a company of musketeers, Cromwell marched 
 to the House, and took his seat while the bill was 
 being discussed. Presently he rose and made a long 
 and angry speech against it. One of the members 
 complaining of his harsh language, Cromwell left his 
 seat, clapped on his hat, walked up and down the 
 floor of the House stamping with his feet, and cried 
 out : " You are no parliament ; I say you are no parlia- 
 ment ! Come, come, we have had enough of this : 
 I will put an end to your prating. Call them in ! " 
 
 Thirty of his musketeers marched in and turned 
 out the members whom Cromwell called by name. 
 Going up to the mace that lay on the table, " What 
 shall we do with this bauble?" he cried. "Here, 
 take it away ! " and gave it to a musketeer. The 
 Speaker was dragged from his chair ; fifty-three mem- 
 bers were turned out, Cromwell reproaching them 
 with bitter words as they went. When the House 
 was cleared the doors were locked. Thus was 
 achieved the famous expulsion of the Long Parlia- 
 ment. 
 
 Cromwell now called a council of 140 members, — 
 men chosen by himself for their " godliness." They 
 began to work with such vigor, and with such im- 
 prudence, that bitter opposition was aroused in the 
 country, and they soon resigned their powers. A 
 few days later the leading men drew up a document 
 called the Instrument of Government, by which 
 Cromwell was made Lord Protector. He was to 
 govern with the assistance of a council, and to sum- 
 
286 THE STORY OF OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 mon Parliament every three years. Parliament alone 
 was to have the power to levy taxes, and any bill 
 passed by it was to become law after twenty days, 
 with or without the Protectors assent. Parliament 
 was to meet every year, and could not be dissolved 
 until it had sat for at least five months. 
 
 This famous document shows that Cromwell's idea 
 of government was much like that of Strafford ; he 
 believed in government by one person with the 
 assistance of a parliament, and not in a system which 
 gives Parliament the whole power. 
 
 III. ENGLAND'S GREATNESS UNDER CROMWELL. 
 
 For five years Cromwell was the ruler of the 
 Commonwealth of England, and under his strong 
 hand the country rose to a height of greatness and 
 power. Trade increased, law was respected, justice 
 was done ; learning and science were encouraged ; 
 men were not cruelly punished for their religious 
 beliefs ; taxes were not oppressive ; and the money 
 of the nation was prudently spent. 
 
 Abroad, too, England began to be feared and 
 respected for her strong government. A war broke 
 out with the Dutch, because England passed a Navi- 
 gation Act, requiring that imports should be brought 
 to the country in English vessels. The Dutch were 
 then known as the carriers for the world — their ships 
 carried goods for every nation, — and this Act injured 
 their trade. In the war, Admiral Blake won several 
 
England's greatness under cromwell. 287 
 
 Naval Engagement between Dutch and English Fleets. 
 
288 THE STORY OF OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 splendid victories over the most brilliant of Dutch 
 admirals, Van Tromp and De Ruyter; and the 
 peace which was concluded was to the advantage 
 of England. From that time the power of the 
 Dutch declined, and England gradually rose to 
 the proud position of mistress of the seas. 
 
 The haughty Spaniards again began to dread the 
 daring of English seamen. Cromwell demanded 
 that English merchants should be allowed to pur- 
 sue their trade freely in the Spanish colonies. When 
 this was refused, Cromwell sent an army to Flan- 
 ders, to help France in the great war then being 
 waged in the Low Countries against Spain, and the 
 French generals declared that Cromwell's troops 
 were the finest in the world. An English fleet was 
 sent to seize San Domingo in the West Indies, in 
 revenge for the seizure of English islands by Spain. 
 The attempt failed, but the island of Jamaica was 
 captured, and has remained ever since the chief of 
 the possession of England in the West Indies. 
 
 Meanwhile Blake had sailed to the Mediterranean, 
 and bombarded Tunis, — the headquarters of the 
 pirates who infested the seas, and made descents 
 upon the English and Irish coasts. The forts and 
 the pirate fleet were destroyed, and hundreds of 
 English and Dutch captives were set free from 
 slavery. Then Blake sailed for the harbor of 
 Santa Cruz, in the Canaries, where the great Span- 
 ish treasure-fleet had taken shelter. The harbor 
 was strongly fortified, and huge ships of war guarded 
 
Cromwell's difficulties and death. 289 
 
 the rich fleet within ; but in spite of shot and shell 
 Blake forced his way in, sunk or burnt every ship in 
 the harbor, and sailed out again in safety in the 
 teeth of a gale. 
 
 Not many weeks afterwards, part of Blake's fleet 
 fell in with some treasure-ships returning to Spain 
 across the Atlantic. The English fought and cap- 
 tured the ships of Spain ; soon after, the Londoners 
 cheered with delight as they saw thirty-eight wagons, 
 loaded with the Spaniards' silver, pass through the 
 streets of the city. By the aid of the English troops 
 the French won brilliant successes against Spain in 
 the Low Countries. Dunkirk was captured, and 
 was handed over to the English in reward for their 
 services. Cromwell was recognized by all Europe 
 as a great statesman and a mighty prince, and the 
 world was filled with the glory of England. 
 
 IV. CROMWELL'S DIFFICULTIES AND DEATH. 
 
 While glorious abroad and prosperous at home, 
 England was not really contented and happy. The 
 rule of the Puritans was too strict for the majority 
 of the people : theatres were 'shut up ; innocent 
 sports were forbidden ; and the beautiful service of 
 the English Church, which so many of the people 
 loved, was not allowed to be used. Cromwell him- 
 self, serious as he was, was not so gloomy and severe 
 as many of the Puritans. He loved music, and 
 placed an organ in his residence at Hampton Court. 
 
29O THE STORY OF OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 He loved books, and collected a fine library; he 
 prevented the destruction of some splendid pictures 
 which otherwise might have been lost to the 
 country. 
 
 Like all great men, he had many enemies ; not 
 only among the Royalists, but even among his own 
 party. Many were jealous of his power, and some 
 thought him a great tyrant. He himself believed 
 that he had been called by God to rule England, 
 and he could not put up with the opposition which 
 Parliament sometimes raised against him. 
 
 His first parliament, instead of applying itself to 
 various important matters to which Cromwell 
 directed its attention, began to wrangle about the 
 mode of government. Cromwell dissolved Parlia- 
 ment at once ; then, as insurrections began to spring 
 up, he divided England into twelve military districts, 
 which he placed under the charge of twelve major- 
 generals. For twenty months no parliament met, 
 and the country lay under martial law, — one of the 
 very things which had been condemned in the Peti- 
 tion of Right. Then Cromwell summoned a new 
 parliament, which offered him the title of king. 
 This he declined, because the officers of the army, 
 on whom he depended, were opposed to his accept- 
 ance of it. 
 
 Soon Parliament again raised objections to the 
 form of government, and was again dissolved. 
 Cromwell was deeply offended by the opposition 
 with which he met. " I would have been glad to 
 
CROMWELL S DIFFICULTIES AND DEATH. 29 1 
 
 have lived under my woodside, to have kept a flock 
 of sheep," he said, " rather than undertake such a 
 government as this. I do dissolve this parliament, 
 and let God be judge between you and me." 
 
 Seven months after this speech the great Pro- 
 tector was dead. The toil he had endured so bravely 
 for sixteen years, the worries he had suffered during 
 his few years of rule, had worn out his hardy frame. 
 Four days before his death a terrible storm raged 
 over the country, stripping roofs from houses, tear- 
 ing up trees by the roots, and scattering the seas 
 with wrecks. Mocking Cavaliers said it was the 
 Prince of Darkness come to fetch away the soul of 
 the regicide. While the winds swept around the 
 palace of Whitehall, Cromwell was breathing his 
 last prayer for his country. On the afternoon of 
 September 3, his great day, the day of his tri- 
 umphs at Dunbar and Worcester, the Lord Protector 
 died. 
 
THE STORY OF GENERAL MONK. 
 I. THE RESTORATION. 
 
 George Monk was born on December 6, 1608, 
 at Potheridge, in North Devon, the native county 
 of so many of the bold soldiers and sailors whose 
 names are famous in English history. Adopting 
 the profession of soldier, Monk served for a time in 
 the Dutch army. He took the side of King Charles 
 at the outbreak of the Civil War, and was known 
 as a brave soldier and able officer. " Honest George " 
 his regiment called him. In the very first battle in 
 which he was engaged, the king's army was defeated 
 and Monk was taken prisoner. For three years he 
 lay in the Tower of London ; and then, the king hav- 
 ing been decisively beaten by the New Model army, 
 Monk accepted a commission in the army of the 
 Parliament. 
 
 He became one of Cromwell's lieutenant-generals 
 in the campaign in Scotland, and fought, pike in 
 hand, at the head of his regiment at Dunbar. 
 When peace was concluded, Monk was placed at 
 the head of the army in Scotland, and became in 
 fact governor of that country, ruling on the prin- 
 ciple — "assist the weak inhabitants, and weaken 
 the mighty." He took no part in the quarrel 
 
 between the army and the Parliament. It was 
 
 202 
 
THE RESTORATION. 
 
 293 
 
 enough for him to do his duty without arguing; 
 his rufe was, strictly to obey those who paid him for 
 his services. 
 
 When Oliver Cromwell died, his son Richard 
 was named Protector. Utterly unlike his father, he 
 was a weak and indolent man. The army, which 
 had been so proud of Oliver, and had been the 
 
 General Monk. 
 
 mainstay of his government, knew nothing of the 
 new ruler; and when Richard was proclaimed Pro- 
 tector at. Edinburgh, Monk's soldiers grumbled. A 
 great cheer burst out when one of the troopers ex- 
 claimed, " Old George for my money ; he's fitter for 
 a Protector than Dick Cromwell ! " 
 
294 THE STORY OF GENERAL MONK. 
 
 Monk loyally supported Richard, and assisted him 
 with good advice ; but after ten months of confusion, 
 due to renewed quarrels between army and Parlia- 
 ment, the luckless Protector resigned office and 
 retired to the Continent. All was now confusion 
 in the government. Monk, watching affairs quietly 
 from his post in Scotland, saw that the country was 
 tired of military rule, and promised to support the 
 demands of the Parliament, — by force if quiet meas- 
 ures were of no avail. 
 
 It was on the first day of January, 1660, in the 
 midst of a bitter winter, that Monk began his 
 famous march to London. As he passed through 
 the country, people turned out to stare at him ; 
 church bells rang; everybody was tired of wran- 
 gling and confusion, and everybody hoped that 
 England would soon have a king again. Monk 
 said nothing about his intentions ; he only declared 
 that he was bent on securing the welfare of his 
 country. Soon after his arrival in London, the 
 Long Parliament dissolved itself by its own vote, 
 and a new parliament was elected. 
 
 As soon as the members met, letters were read 
 from Prince Charles, who promised, if he were 
 restored, to govern with the assistance of Parlia- 
 ment, to pardon those who had rebelled against his 
 father, and to allow liberty in religious matters. 
 Prince Charles had written at the advice of Monk ; 
 and when the letters were read, a member of the 
 Commons immediately moved that the proper gov- 
 
THE RESTORATION. 
 
 295 
 
 ernment of England was by King, Lords, and Com- 
 mons. The motion was passed with delight, and 
 the Great Rebellion was at an end. 
 
 On the 25th of May, 1660, the fleet which was 
 bringing the king back from Holland was sighted 
 from Dover. Swarms of noblemen and gentlemen 
 
 King Charles the Second. 
 
 hurried thither, eager to pay court to their sover- 
 eign. As Charles stepped from his boat upon the 
 beach at Dover, Monk fell on his knee and kissed 
 the king's hand. Charles raised him, and embrac- 
 ing him, called him his father. 
 
 England now had a king again, and Monk for the 
 
296 THE STORY OF GENERAL MONK. 
 
 remaining ten years of his life loyally served King 
 Charles the Second. Charles was grateful to the 
 man who had given him his kingdom ; he made 
 him a Knight of the Garter, appointed him Master 
 of the Horse, and raised him to the peerage with 
 the title of Duke of Albemarle. 
 
 When the terrible Plague broke out in London, 
 and king and courtiers fled for their lives, Monk 
 remained, fearless as ever, in the pestilent city, and 
 managed the whole affairs of the nation. The old 
 general died on January 2, 1670, and was buried with 
 great pomp in Westminster Abbey. 
 
 Monk was, in a sense, the founder of the British 
 army. Up to Cromwell's time there had been no 
 standing army, — that is to say, no soldiers who 
 were constantly paid by the state for their services. 
 When war broke out, men were called from their 
 farms and their workshops to fight, and returned to 
 their trades when the fighting was done. Crom- 
 well's army was the first standing army in England ; 
 but it was also a political and religious body, which 
 did not think itself bound always to obey Parlia- 
 ment. It was Monk who founded and kept on foot 
 a few famous regiments, separated the army from all 
 political questions, and taught soldiers and their 
 commanders alike the lesson contained in Tenny- 
 son's lines, — 
 
 " Theirs not to reason why, 
 Theirs not to make reply, 
 Theirs but to do and die." 
 
THE STORY OF JOHN MILTON. 
 I. MILTON'S LIFE. 
 
 Three days after the birth of George Monk, there 
 was born a far greater and more famous man, John 
 Milton. Monk was a great soldier; Milton was a 
 great poet, who showed in his own life the truth of 
 his fine words, " Peace hath her victories no less 
 renowned than war." John Milton was born on 
 December 9, 1608, in London. His father, who 
 was a money-broker, was a refined and learned 
 man, and an excellent musician. He brought up 
 his son to love books and music; and the boy 
 became so fond of reading that he used to sit up 
 till past midnight. 
 
 Leaving St. Paul's school at the age of seventeen, 
 Milton went to Christ's College, Cambridge, where 
 he remained for seven years. At college he was as 
 studious as he had been at home, and showed signs 
 of his poetical gifts while he was yet a student. 
 
 On leaving college, Milton went to live at Horton, 
 in Buckinghamshire, where his father had settled. 
 It was time for the young man to choose a profes- 
 sion, but he had already made up his mind to become 
 a great poet, and to compose something which the 
 world would not willingly let die. This aim he 
 
 placed before himself as a solemn duty, which would 
 
 297 
 
298 
 
 THE STORY OF JOHN MILTON. 
 
 require for its accomplishment that he should live a 
 pure life and give himself up to continued study. 
 His father was wealthy, and was quite willing that 
 his son should devote himself to what he had chosen 
 as his life-work. 
 
 For five years Milton lived at Horton, spending 
 his time in reading and study, and finding deep en- 
 
 John Milton. 
 
 joyment in the song of birds and the beauty of the 
 pleasant countryside. During these years he wrote 
 his two beautiful poems, // Penseroso and V Allegro, 
 and three others, composed for special occasions, 
 Arcades, Comus, and Lycidas. 
 
 In 1638 Milton set out on a journey through 
 France and Italy, intending to proceed to Greece. 
 He made a short stay in Florence and Rome, and 
 
MILTON S LIFE. 299 
 
 conversed with many notable people, who admired 
 his genius, but did not like his outspoken views on 
 religious matters. At this time the dispute between 
 Charles the First and the nation had become ex- 
 ceedingly bitter. Milton, hearing of the state of 
 affairs, brought his travels to an end sooner than he 
 had intended. He felt that it was his duty to take 
 a part in the struggle for liberty of conscience. 
 
 " I considered it dishonorable," he wrote, " to be 
 enjoying myself at ease in foreign lands, while my 
 countrymen were striking a blow for freedom." He 
 therefore returned to England, settling in London. 
 For twenty years Milton laid aside his intention of 
 writing a great poem. At the establishment of the 
 Commonwealth he was appointed Latin Secretary 
 to the Council of State, in which office it was his 
 duty to write letters in Latin to foreign countries. 
 He also wrote several pamphlets in defence of the 
 Commonwealth against the attacks of Royalist 
 writers, and the writing of one of these cost him 
 his eyesight. He had weakened his sight by con- 
 stant study; and, refusing to give up what he be- 
 lieved to be his duty to his country, he became quite 
 blind at the age of forty-four. But he did not give 
 up his employment, which he retained until the 
 Restoration of Charles the Second. 
 
 After the Restoration two of his books were 
 publicly burnt as a mark of disgrace, and he was 
 kept for a short time in custody. On his release he 
 took a house in Westminster, and gave himself up 
 
300 THE STORY OF JOHN MILTON. 
 
 to the composition of his greatest poem, Paradise 
 Lost, which appeared in the year 1667. 
 
 Being blind, Milton could not write down his own 
 verses ; but after composing them as he walked in 
 his garden, or lay awake at night, he would repeat 
 them aloud to some one who wrote them at his dicta- 
 tion. Friends and pupils came to read to the brave 
 poet. He had trained his daughters to pronounce 
 the words of several languages, and sometimes they 
 read to him ; though, understanding nothing of 
 what they read, they did not care for the task. 
 
 The last years of the poet were spent in quiet 
 happiness. He passed his time in conversing with 
 visitors, in hearing books read, in dictating his com- 
 positions, and in playing on the organ and the viol. 
 He died on November 8, 1674. 
 
 Milton ranks next to Shakespeare among the 
 great writers of England. Their lives present an 
 interesting contrast. Shakespeare was a country 
 boy, whose works show how fond he must have been 
 of country life, — of rambling in the woods, noting 
 the forms and colors of the flowers, and learning the 
 habits of animals and birds. Milton was a town 
 boy who did not live in the country until he 
 reached the years of manhood ; and who, though he 
 too found pleasure in country scenes, never learned 
 to know nature as Shakespeare did. 
 
 Milton spent many years at school and college ; 
 indeed, did little else but study up to his thirtieth 
 year. Shakespeare, on the other hand, had little 
 
MILTON S LIFE. 3OI 
 
 schooling, and throughout his life never gained a 
 large knowledge of books. Milton never had to 
 undergo the hardships of poverty. But Shakespeare 
 knew, when quite young, what it was to be poor, 
 and was working hard to earn his living at the 
 same age at which Milton was enjoying a life of 
 leisure at Cambridge. 
 
 Shakespeare was a cheerful, great-hearted man, 
 who enjoyed fun and merriment, and had troops of 
 friends who loved him for his kindliness. Milton 
 was more grave in his ways of life, though it would 
 be a mistake to suppose that he was a sour or 
 gloomy man. He shows us, in his poems L' Allegro 
 and // Penseroso, that he was not ; he loved music 
 and pictures, he liked the theatre, and composed his 
 poems Arcades and Comus for two grand entertain- 
 ments, given with music and splendid show before 
 noble ladies and gentlemen. But he was thought- 
 ful and earnest, a man who liked twilight walks in 
 the cool evening better than the glare of sunlight, 
 and loved to stand alone, listening to the song of 
 the nightingale, better than to mix with a gay com- 
 pany of his fellow-men. 
 
THE STORY OF TWO GREAT CALAMITIES. 
 I. THE PLAGUE OF LONDON. 
 
 In the summer of the year 1665, while England 
 was at war with Holland, London was attacked by 
 an enemy more difficult to fight against than any 
 armed force. A strange disease made its appear- 
 ance in St. Giles's parish in the west, and spread 
 with frightful rapidity through the city, seizing 
 chiefly on the poor, but sparing none who came in 
 its way. This disease was known as the Plague. 
 At its first appearance, the nobles and gentry fled 
 into the country, and their example was followed by 
 vast numbers of the trading classes. The royal fam- 
 ily left Whitehall ; and, of the government officials, 
 only the brave General Monk remained in town. 
 
 The skill of doctors seemed powerless to check 
 the dreadful disease. It was assisted by the hot 
 and sultry air, and by the filthy condition of the 
 city. Nowadays London has wide streets, well- 
 built houses, a plentiful supply of good water, and 
 an excellent system of drainage. But then the 
 streets were narrow, and the overhanging houses 
 almost met in the centre ; the rooms were small and 
 dark, and streets and houses were dirty beyond de- 
 scription ; while the water was poor in quality and 
 
 scanty in supply. 
 
 302 
 
THE FIRE OF LONDON. 303 
 
 As the disease spread, orders were given that the 
 door of every house attacked should be marked with 
 a red cross, and have the words " Lord have mercy 
 on us ! " painted above it. No one was then allowed 
 either to enter or to leave the house for a month. At 
 night, a cart went the round of the streets, accom- 
 panied by a man who rang a bell, and called on the 
 people to bring out their dead. 
 
 Thieves broke into the deserted houses, careless 
 of their lives. Shocking deeds of sin and shame 
 were committed by the worthless people who roamed 
 abroad. All business ceased ; grass grew in the 
 streets, the silence of which was broken only by the 
 wails of plague-stricken people, or the wild shouts 
 of drunken ruffians. It was four months before the 
 Plague showed any signs of abatement, and not until 
 the winter did people venture back into the city. 
 More than a hundred thousand persons had perished, 
 and for more than a year longer the disease lingered 
 in various quarters. 
 
 II. THE FIRE OF LONDON. 
 
 London had not recovered from the ravages of 
 the Plague when another calamity fell upon it. 
 The Plague had destroyed human life; the Fire 
 now destroyed property. About two o'clock on 
 Sunday morning, September 2, 1666, a fire broke 
 out in a bake-house in Pudding Lane, in a crowded 
 part of the city near the Thames. A strong wind 
 carried the flames to the surrounding houses, which 
 
304 THE STORY OF TWO GREAT CALAMITIES. 
 
 were built of wood ; and the fire quickly spread to 
 the neighboring warehouses, which contained stores 
 well fitted to feed the flames. 
 
 People were so amazed at the sudden outburst of 
 the fire that they failed to do what might have been 
 done to save other houses. As a writer says, " There 
 was nothing heard or seen but crying out and lam- 
 entation, running about like distracted creatures, 
 without at all attempting to save even their goods." 
 
 The wind grew in violence during the day, and 
 the fire spread with wonderful speed. " The follow- 
 ing night presented a most magnificent but appalling 
 spectacle. A vast column of fire, a mile in diameter, 
 was seen ascending to the clouds ; the flames, as 
 they rose, were bent and broken by the fury of the 
 wind. The glare of the sky, the heat of the atmos- 
 phere, the crackling of the flames, and the falling of 
 the houses and churches combined to fill every 
 breast with astonishment and terror." 
 
 An eye-witness wrote : " Here we saw the Thames 
 covered with goods floating, and barges and boats 
 laden with what some had time and courage to save. 
 We saw carts carrying things out to the fields, which 
 for many miles were strewed with movables of all 
 sorts, and tents erecting to shelter both people and 
 what goods they could get away. 
 
 " All the sky was of a fiery aspect, like the top of 
 a burning oven, and the light was seen above forty 
 miles round about. The noise and cracking and 
 thunder of the impetuous flames, the shrieking of 
 
THE FIRE OF LONDON. 
 
 305 
 
 Street in London during the Fire. 
 
306 THE STORY OF TWO GREAT CALAMITIES. 
 
 women and children, the hurry of people, the fall 
 of towers and houses and churches, was like a hide- 
 ous storm. The air all about was so hot and 
 inflamed that at the last one was not able -to 
 approach it, but they were forced to stand still and 
 let the flames burn on, which they did for near two 
 miles in length and one in breadth." 
 
 Next day the fire was still raging, and many 
 streets of houses were reduced to ashes. St. Paul's 
 Cathedral took fire. At length, the king ordered a 
 number of houses to be blown up, in order to make 
 a wide gap over which the flames would not leap. 
 The wind fell, and the fire, after raging for three 
 days and nights, gradually burnt itself out. ■ Besides 
 the cathedral of St. Paul's, eighty-eight churches 
 were burnt to the ground, and more than thirteen 
 thousand houses. The Royal Exchange, and many 
 other fine buildings were among the ruins ; and 
 thousands of people were rendered homeless and 
 slept in the fields. 
 
 In the midst of the terror, a report arose that an 
 army of French and Dutch had entered the city, 
 while another rumor declared that the fire had 
 been set by the Roman Catholics. Instantly there 
 was uproar and tumult. The citizens seized their 
 arms, and attacked every foreigner they met ; and 
 troops had to be sent by the king to quell the turbu- 
 lence of the mob. 
 
 Terrible as the Plague and fire -were in their 
 effects, they were in some ways a blessing. The 
 
THE FIRE OF LONDON. 
 
 307 
 
 Plague taught people the value of cleanliness. The 
 fire burnt out the remnant of the Plague, and de- 
 stroyed parts of the city that were really dens of 
 fever. London was rebuilt, with wider streets and 
 
 St. Paul's Cathedral, rebuilt after the Great Fire. 
 
 better houses. In place of the old Gothic cathedral, 
 Sir Christopher Wren erected St. Paul's as it now 
 is, with the magnificent dome which towers above 
 the smoke and din of the city. 
 
THE STORY OF THE REVOLUTION. 
 I. JAMES THE SECOND. 
 
 One of the greatest events in English history is 
 that known as the Revolution of 1688. England 
 went through a kind of revolution in the time of 
 Charles the First, when the Parliament waged war 
 against the king, defeated and put him to death, and 
 established the commonwealth. But these events 
 are not known in history as the Revolution, because 
 the change of government lasted only a few years, 
 and with the return of Charles the Second the old 
 form of government, monarchy, was restored. 
 
 We must now see how it came about that, forty 
 years after the death of Charles the First, another 
 and a greater revolution took place. This revo- 
 lution did not cause the death of a king, and was 
 accomplished without bloodshed ; it did not do away 
 with the office of king, but it took away from all 
 future kings of England the power to oppress the 
 people. 
 
 King Charles the Second reigned for twenty-five 
 years, during which time the prosperity of the coun- 
 try greatly increased. The king was a gay, witty, 
 and careless man, with fine ability, but of a selfish 
 
 and pleasure-loving character. He was careful, how- 
 
 308 
 
THE DISPENSING POWER. 309 
 
 ever, not to do anything to make himself generally 
 disliked ; he was determined, as he said, not to go 
 on his travels again, and therefore took care to keep 
 on good terms with his subjects. 
 
 When Charles died, leaving no lawful children, 
 his brother James, Duke of York, became King 
 James the Second. The new king was not so 
 bright as his brother, and his character was as bad ; 
 but he was more earnest and diligent. Unhappily 
 for himself, he held the same belief which had ruined 
 his father Charles the First, namely, that the king 
 was absolutely above the law, and could do just as 
 he pleased. 
 
 James thought that everybody who agreed with 
 him was right, and everybody who disagreed was 
 wrong. He had none of his brother's skill in man- 
 aging men, and he was unable to learn the lesson 
 which the sad fate of his father ought to have taught 
 him. 
 
 II. THE DISPENSING POWER. 
 
 King James soon began a course which was in the 
 end to cost him his crown. In the previous reign the 
 Corporation and Test Acts had been passed. These 
 were laws intended to prevent any one who was not 
 a member of the Church of England from serving 
 as a member of Parliament, a magistrate, an officer 
 in the army, or as a public official of any kind. But 
 James the king thought he was above the law and 
 appointed men to certain offices who did not belong 
 
3IO THE STORY OF THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 to the Church of England. When it was com- 
 plained that this was against the law, he said that 
 he, as king, had the right to excuse or " dispense " 
 persons from obedience to the law. Now James 
 had no such right, but he was unwise enough to try 
 to prove that he had. When the judges told him 
 that he was in the wrong, he dismissed them from 
 their offices, and appointed in their places men who, 
 he knew, would do whatever he wished. 
 
 James did many other things that were contrary 
 to the harsh and narrow laws which then existed. 
 When the people heard of these doings of the king, 
 they began to show their discontent. Riots broke 
 out in various parts of the country, and to overawe 
 the people James collected a great army on Houns- 
 low Heath, near London. 
 
 Blind to all signs of danger, the king now issued 
 a Declaration of Indulgence, in which he gave per- 
 mission to different sects in England to worship as 
 they pleased, and set aside all laws against them. 
 He then interfered with the universities. At Cam- 
 bridge the vice-chancellor was deprived of his office 
 for refusing to grant a degree to a monk. At 
 Oxford, James ordered the Fellows of Magdalen 
 College to elect as their president one who was not 
 a member of the Church of England. When they 
 refused, because the rule of the college was against 
 such an appointment, they were turned out. These 
 were acts of tyranny for which the king had no 
 defence whatever. 
 
TRIAL OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 3 1 I 
 
 III. TRIAL OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 
 
 The next proceeding of the foolhardy king was to 
 issue a second Declaration of Indulgence, which he 
 ordered to be read in all the churches throughout 
 the country. Most of the clergy objected to this 
 because it was illegal. Seven bishops, therefore, 
 including the Archbishop of Canterbury, drew up 
 and presented a petition to the king, in which they 
 assured him of their loyalty, but declared that they 
 could not advise the reading of an illegal document. 
 
 When the Sunday came on which the Declaration 
 was to be read, hardly a clergyman obeyed the king's 
 order. In the churches where it was obeyed, the 
 people rose in a body, and streamed out, leaving the 
 ministers to themselves. James was enraged at 
 the conduct of the bishops and clergy. He sum- 
 moned the seven bishops before him, and demanded 
 that they should comply with his wishes. On their 
 refusal, he sent them to the Tower; and as the 
 barge conveying them passed down the river, hun- 
 dreds of voices from the banks shouted " God bless 
 your lordships ! " 
 
 The bishops were charged with having published 
 a " false, malicious, and seditious libel," and were put 
 on their trial in Westminster Hall on June 29, 1688. 
 Among the jury was one Michael Arnold, the king's 
 brewer, who was in great distress at his position. 
 " Whatever I do, I am sure to be half ruined," he 
 said. " If I say not guilty, I shall brew no more for 
 
312 
 
 THE STORY OF THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 the king ; and if I say guilty, I shall brew no more 
 for anybody else.'' 
 
 The trial lasted for several hours, and it was 
 night before the jury retired to consider their ver- 
 
 Release of the Seven Bishops. 
 
 diet. They remained locked up all night, and hours 
 were spent in argument. At length, towards morn- 
 ing, all were in favor of the bishops but Arnold the 
 brewer, who refused to agree to a verdict of not 
 guilty. He would listen to no argument, and by 
 
WILLIAM OF ORANGE. 313 
 
 and by one of the jury, growing impatient, said : 
 " Look at me. I am the largest and strongest of 
 the twelve ; and before I find such a petition as this 
 a libel, here I will stay till I am no bigger than a 
 tobacco pipe." 
 
 At six o'clock in the morning the brewer gave 
 way, and the twelve jurymen, returning into court, 
 gave a unanimous verdict of Not Guilty. Instantly 
 the thousands of people who crowded the hall 
 shouted for joy ; the cry was taken up by thousands 
 outside; guns were fired; flags were run up the 
 masts of ships on the Thames ; and horsemen gal- 
 loped off to carry the joyful news into the country. 
 James was at the camp on Hounslow Heath when 
 the news reached him. Angry at the result of the 
 trial, he was setting out for London, when he was 
 startled bv boisterous cheers behind him. Asking 
 what they meant, he got the answer : " Nothing ; the 
 soldiers are glad that the bishops are acquitted." 
 " Do you call that nothing ? " said James ; "so much 
 the worse for them." 
 
 IV. WILLIAM OF ORANGE. 
 
 James had now been king for three years, and 
 had disgusted the nation by his contempt for law 
 and justice. But he had reached his fifty-sixth year, 
 and the people hoped that when his death took place 
 his grown-up daughter Mary would become queen, 
 and bring contentment to the country. Less than 
 three weeks before the trial of the seven bishops, a 
 
314 THE STORY OF THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 son was born to James, and the hopes of the nation 
 were destroyed. For the young prince would be 
 brought up in his father's religion, and the people 
 could only look forward to another Catholic king, 
 who, they thought, would respect the law no more 
 than James had done. This they were determined 
 not to endure. On the very day of the acquittal of 
 the seven bishops, a letter was sent to Holland, ask- 
 ing the ruler of that country to come and deliver 
 England from the tyrant. The ruler of Holland 
 was William of Orange, who was also the husband 
 of James's daughter Mary, the princess whom all 
 Englishmen had hoped might be their queen. 
 
 William accepted the invitation. He was de- 
 layed for some months, but on November 5, 1688, 
 he landed at Torbay, in Devonshire, and began his 
 march towards London. Nobles and gentlemen 
 flocked to his banner; and James, when he set out 
 with his troops to meet William, was deserted by 
 many of his officers and courtiers. 
 
 Returning to London, the poor king found that 
 even his second daughter, the Princess Anne, had 
 left him and gone to join William. " God help me ! " 
 he exclaimed ; " my own children have forsaken me." 
 James now sent the queen and the baby prince to 
 France ; and, fearing for his life, he tried to follow 
 them on the next day. As he crossed the Thames 
 he dropped the great seal into the water, hoping 
 that the business of the country could not be carried 
 on without that mark of royal authority. 
 
WILLIAM OF ORANGE. 
 
 315 
 
 Driving rapidly eastward, James arrived at Sheer- 
 ness, where he embarked on board a small boat. 
 His appearance excited the curiosity of some rough 
 fishermen, who boarded the boat, stripped him of his 
 money and watch, and carried him on shore, where 
 he was recognized. " Let me go," he cried ; " get 
 
 William the Third, Prinxe of Orange. 
 
 me a boat. The Prince of Orange is hunting for 
 my life. If you do not let me fly now, it will be too 
 late." He was rescued and brought back to Lon- 
 don. But William did not want him there. While he 
 remained in England he was king. He was there- 
 fore allowed to retire to Rochester, whence he 
 escaped, and took ship for France. 
 
316 THE STORY OF THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 Parliament then declared that by leaving the 
 country James had " abdicated " or given up the 
 government, and left the throne vacant ; and, two 
 months later, the crown of England was offered to 
 and accepted by William and Mary. The Revolu- 
 tion was over; it put an end to the claim of the 
 sovereign to be above the law, and henceforward 
 every English sovereign would have to rule by the 
 will of Parliament. 
 
 Most people were glad to be rid of James, yet in 
 
 spite of this the English people did not much like 
 
 * 
 William, because of his foreign ways and his cold 
 
 manners, and William soon found that it was harder 
 to keep his crown than it had been to win it. In- 
 deed, there were many persons who wanted James 
 to come back from over the sea and be king again. 
 They were called Jacobites, or friends of James. 
 When they drank the king's health, they would wave 
 their glasses over the water-bottle, to show that they 
 drank, not to William, but to the king "over the 
 water." 
 
 England, Scotland, and Ireland had the same 
 king. Most of the Scottish people were glad to have 
 William as their ruler; but the wild Highlanders, 
 who lived among the mountains of the north and 
 west of Scotland, rose in arms for King James. But 
 when William's government began to give money 
 to the chiefs, and to promise a pardon to those who 
 would submit, they all did so except the Macdonald 
 Clan, which lived in Glencoe. The chief of that 
 
THE WAR IN IRELAND. 3 1 7 
 
 clan was a few days too late in taking the oath to 
 obey William. Now this clan was much hated by 
 the Campbells, who lived not very far away. The 
 worst possible interpretation was given to the con- 
 duct of the Macdonalds in the report which was sent 
 to King William, so that, on reading it, he exclaimed, 
 "It will be proper to root out that set of thieves ! " 
 
 Soldiers were accordingly sent to Glencoe, and 
 they stayed there as though they were friends. 
 After they had been kindly entertained for more 
 than a week, they suddenly rose, murdered about 
 forty of the clan, and destroyed their village. 
 Many more of the clansmen perished in the snows 
 of winter amidst the wild country which surrounds 
 their glen. This massacre of Glencoe, as it is called, 
 has left a dark stain on William's reign. 
 
 V. THE WAR IN IRELAND. 
 
 In Ireland there was much harder fighting than 
 in Scotland ; for most of the Irish did not like to see 
 James II. driven from the throne and William 
 become king ; and they hoped that with the help 
 of James and some French officers they would keep 
 him as their king, and be free from the control of 
 England. James also saw that his best chance was to 
 go from France to Ireland and rouse the Irish against 
 William. He landed at Kinsale, and was soon at 
 the head of a large army. Nearly all Ireland, ex- 
 cept the northern part, owned James as king. 
 
3'8 
 
 THE STORY OF THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 Even in the north the Irish supporters of William 
 were so few that they had to take refuge within the 
 walls of Londonderry. James's army followed them 
 there, and expected soon to storm the weak walls of 
 that city. But there were thousands of brave men 
 in Londonderry who would not give in. An old 
 
 Queen Mary. 
 
 clergyman named Walker acted as governor, and 
 kept up their spirits by his brave words and by the 
 sermons which he preached in the cathedral. Several 
 times the defenders drove James's troops away from 
 their walls. 
 
 At last their foes closed them all round so as to 
 starve them out. Their hunger became worse and 
 
THE WAR IN IRELAND. 
 
 3*9 
 
320 THE STORY OF THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 worse, until they had to hunt the rats and mice for 
 food, and a dog's paw was sold for more than five 
 shillings. At last, when all hope seemed to be gone, 
 three English ships forced their way up the river, and 
 brought food to the brave defenders. So James's 
 troops, after trying for over one hundred days to 
 take Londonderry, had to abandon the attempt. 
 
 In the next year (1690) William landed in the 
 north of Ireland and began to march towards 
 Dublin. The Jacobite army was drawn up on the 
 south bank of the river Boyne, to prevent William's 
 troops crossing that river. The day before the battle 
 William was wounded by a ball ; but his undaunted 
 spirit kept him on horseback for many hours in his 
 determination to inspirit his men. 
 
 On the next day was fought the battle of the 
 Boyne. William sent some of his troops to cross the 
 river higher up, so as to make the Jacobites fearful 
 of being cut off from Dublin ; and most of their best 
 troops were thus drawn away from the bank of the 
 river. Then William's men rushed into the river, 
 crossed it by a ford, and though they suffered much 
 from the Irish bullets, they drove their foes away 
 from the bank and scattered them in flight. 
 
 The Irish horsemen charged bravely, but they 
 could not win the day. James rode away as fast 
 as he could to Dublin and thence to Kinsale, where 
 he took ship for France. The Irish were enraged 
 at his cowardice ; and one of their officers said to 
 one of William's men, " Change kings, and we will 
 
THE WAR WITH FRANCE. 32 I 
 
 fight you again." After a few more fruitless strug- 
 gles, the whole of Ireland submitted to King 
 William ; and unhappily the Protestants after their 
 victory oppressed the Roman Catholic Irish very 
 cruelly. So the old enmity lived on in that land. 
 
 VI. THE WAR WITH FRANCE. 
 
 The help which the king of France had given to 
 James led to war with England. In the end the 
 English had the best of it ; for in a great battle 
 off Cape La Hogue they burned most of the 
 French ships under the eyes of James and the 
 French troops. When the news of this victory 
 reached London, Queen Mary II. gave up the 
 royal palace of Greenwich for the wounded English 
 sailors ; and for a long time it was used for old and 
 disabled sailors of the navy. It was the first great 
 public hospital in England. 
 
 King William was not so fortunate in his battles 
 on land, which were mostly fought in Flanders. His 
 fixed determination had always been to band Eng- 
 land with the other Protestant states in a league 
 against the great king of France, Louis XIV.; 
 and, now that he was undisputed king of Great 
 Britain and Ireland, he gained his end. But the 
 French army was larger and better equipped than 
 all the forces — English, Dutch, Spanish, and 
 German — which could be used for the defence of 
 Holland. Besides, William was not so able a 
 
322 
 
 THE STORY OF THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 general as some of the French, and he was often 
 beaten ; but his spirits always rose in time of 
 danger. When his friends despaired he was calm 
 and determined ; and he generally managed to steal 
 
 Battle of Cape La Hogue. 
 
 a march on his foes while they were enjoying their 
 triumph. In the end he was able to hold his own, 
 and to save the Netherlands from being conquered 
 by the French; and then Louis XIV. made peace 
 with William. 
 
THE CLOSE OF WILLIAM THE THIRDS REIGN. 323 
 VII. THE CLOSE OF WILLIAM THE THIRD'S REIGN. 
 
 One of the worst of William's trials was the death 
 of his queen. In those days towns were not kept 
 so clean as they are now ; and the practice of vac- 
 cination had not yet been introduced. For these 
 reasons small-pox was a terrible and generally a 
 fatal scourge. It attacked Queen Mary II., and 
 she soon died of it. 
 
 William was generally stern, but he really had a 
 tender heart; and he showed it now. He said to 
 one of the bishops, " I was the happiest man on 
 earth, and now I am the most miserable." Still he 
 held up bravely ; and in the last eight years of his 
 lonely life he stoutly faced the French and his secret 
 foes in England. 
 
 Many English people did not like to be ruled by 
 a king who was a Dutchman and could not speak 
 English properly. Indeed, William found that very 
 few of his ministers and generals could be trusted. 
 Some were secret friends of James, and some stole 
 the public money. But when William raised to 
 power some of his trusty Dutchmen, there was 
 more grumbling than ever. Forty Jacobites made 
 a plot to murder him as he was on his way back 
 from hunting to his favorite palace, Hampton Court ; 
 but one of them secretly told about the plot. So it 
 ended only in several of them being executed. 
 
 Even after this the English Parliament was very 
 jealous of W T illiam, and would hardly grant him sup- 
 
324 THE STORY OF THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 plies which were needed to make Louis XIV. keep 
 the peace. But when James II. died in France, 
 Louis at once showed that he would try to make 
 James's son king of England. This enraged the 
 English people, who were determined not to let 
 Louis meddle in English affairs. For this and 
 other reasons there was another war with France ; 
 and William's last parliament raised the British 
 army to forty thousand men. 
 
 In the midst of these difficulties William had an 
 accident which led to his death. He was riding in 
 the park at Hampton Court, when his horse stum- 
 bled over a mole-hill, threw him, and broke his 
 collar-bone. William had always been weakly ; 
 and after long years of hard work and anxiety he 
 had no strength to recover from the shock, and he 
 died in 1702. 
 
 Few men have had so hard a life of struggle as 
 William of Orange. His father died before he was 
 born ; and his foes kept the young lad out of his 
 rights in Holland. Nevertheless, at twenty-two 
 years of age his energy brought him to the first 
 place in the Dutch Republic ; and he not only freed 
 his land from the French, but became the champion 
 of the Protestants of Europe. At thirty-eight years 
 of age he became king of England. He restored 
 liberty to the people, he kept France from conquer- 
 ing the Netherlands, and but for him all those of 
 his faith would have been in sore straits all over 
 Europe. 
 
THE CLOSE OF WILLIAM THE THIRDS REIGN. 325 
 
 The career of William of Orange is a signal 
 example of the influence for good which an able 
 and determined man can exert on his own people 
 and on those of other countries. Beginning life as 
 an orphan and almost as a prisoner, he rose superior 
 to the difficulties which beset his youth ; he became 
 successively the liberator of Holland and of Eng- 
 land, and ended his life of toil and struggle as the 
 victorious champion of the cause of the liberty of 
 the people. 
 
THE STORY OF MARLBOROUGH. 
 I. THE BALANCE OF POWER. 
 
 John Churchill, who later became Duke of Marl- 
 borough, was one of the greatest generals of all 
 time. He was born in 1650 at Ashe, in Devonshire. 
 Even in his youth he showed himself to be a brave 
 and skilful officer, and when he served with the 
 Royal Guards in France he was publicly thanked 
 for his ability and energy. 
 
 The French knew him as " the handsome Eng- 
 lishman." It was only natural that he should make 
 friends on all sides, and many grand presents were 
 made to him. Unfortunately, this made him too 
 fond of money, and he often stooped to mean and 
 underhand actions to further his interests. Thus, 
 though he was advanced to favor by James II. for 
 putting down a revolt, he deserted to William of 
 Orange when he seemed likely to become king. 
 For this William gave him the title of Earl of Marl- 
 borough, and soon sent him to the Netherlands to 
 lead the British troops against the French. But 
 Marlborough soon began working in a treacherous 
 way for James II., and against William III. For 
 this treachery he was brought back to England, and 
 was imprisoned in the Tower for a time. Yet he 
 was finally pardoned, and again was sent to fight 
 
 326 
 
THE BALANCE OF POWER. 
 
 327 
 
 was no other general who 
 
 the French ; for there 
 
 could hope to beat the foes of England. 
 
 William III. had had hard work to keep the great 
 king of France, Louis XIV., from conquering Hol- 
 land. But just before William III. died, the king 
 of France had become still more powerful than he 
 
 John, Duke of Marlborough. 
 
 had been before. Louis had long ago married a 
 princess of the Spanish royal family, so that his 
 grandson had a claim to the crown of Spain. The 
 king of Spain had no children of his own, and 
 when he died he left his many lands to the grand- 
 son of the king of France. This young man, 
 
328 
 
 THE STORY OF MARLBOROUGH. 
 
 Philip V., was to govern not only Spain and her 
 vast colonies in America, but also a great part of 
 Italy, and the Spanish Netherlands, which we now 
 call Belgium. As he was a grandson of the king 
 of France, he would be a close ally of France. 
 Men began to ask what would happen if nearly 
 
 Queen Anne. 
 
 half Europe was governed by the same family. The 
 English ambassador at Paris wrote : " I fear that in 
 a few years France will be master of us all." This 
 Marlborough prevented. He restored the balance 
 of power, that is, he prevented any one country 
 from growing so strong as to control the others. • 
 
THE BATTLE OF BLENHEIM 329 
 
 When William III. died, the Princess Anne, who 
 was the second daughter of James II., became queen 
 of England. The new queen was at first very fond 
 of Marlborough's wife, and they used to write to 
 each other as bosom friends. Neither Anne nor the 
 greater part of the English people looked with much 
 favor on the war with France, but Marlborough was 
 kept in his command, and was made duke. 
 
 II. THE BATTLE OF BLENHEIM. 
 
 Marlborough had command of the British and 
 Dutch troops in the Netherlands, but the Dutch 
 officers and advisers were timid. As Marlborough 
 always wanted to strike quick and hard at the 
 French, he was often almost in despair. It was 
 like putting a race-horse and a mule to draw the 
 same carriage. But, fortunately, Marlborough had 
 a very good temper. His favorite motto was 
 " Patience will overcome all things," and by his 
 winning speech he generally got his way. 
 
 In the first two campaigns he showed his skill 
 and energy by taking five fortresses from the French 
 and Spaniards, and thereby saved Holland from 
 being conquered. The Dutch now showed how 
 thankful they were to their deliverer. Once he 
 and his staff were very near being captured, and the 
 news got about that he had been made prisoner. 
 W 7 hen he arrived in safety at The Hague, the Dutch 
 people wept for joy to see him. 
 
3.30 THE STORY OF MARLBOROUGH. 
 
 But Marlborough was to do far more than save 
 Holland. In his next campaigns he crushed the 
 power of France, which then seemed so threatening 
 to Europe. The French, with the help of the 
 Bavarians, hoped to conquer the greater part of 
 Germany. Marlborough made his plans secretly 
 and skilfully to prevent this. He quickly led his 
 troops along the bank of the river Rhine, and then, 
 turning up the valley of the Neckar, he took the 
 Bavarians by surprise, and defeated them on the 
 bank of the Danube. The French sent a large 
 army to help the Bavarians ; while Marlborough 
 was joined by the Imperial troops, commanded by 
 Prince Eugene, who was also a great general. 
 
 The French and Bavarians now took their stand 
 on a line of hills, in front of which was a stream 
 that flowed into the Danube. The strongest part 
 of their position was the village of Blenheim, which 
 rises high above this stream and above the swiftly 
 'flowing Danube. Soon the battle raged all along 
 the line, and the French at first beat back the 
 British attack on Blenheim. Then Marlborough 
 ordered his soldiers merely to keep up a pretence 
 of attacking this strong position, while he made his 
 chief attack across the marshy ground against the 
 weakest part of the enemy's line — the centre. It 
 was a difficult and dangerous task to cross the 
 marshy valley and the stream under the fire of the 
 French and Bavarians, but at last it was done ; and 
 late in the afternoon Marlborough led 8000 of his 
 
THE BATTLE OF BLENHEIM. 
 
 331 
 
 horsemen up the opposite slope, to charge an even 
 larger force of French cavalry. He routed them, 
 
332 THE STORY OF MARLBOROUGH. 
 
 and they made for the Danube, hoping to cross it 
 by a ford ; but the water was too deep and the cur- 
 rent too strong. Hundreds were swept away by 
 the waters, and the rest surrendered to Marl- 
 borough's troopers. But this was not all. The 
 11,000 French foot-soldiers, who had been so 
 bravely defending Blenheim, were now, by the 
 flight of the French centre, cut off from their 
 comrades, and had to lay down their arms. 
 
 Altogether the French and Bavarians lost nearly 
 40,000 men in killed, wounded, and prisoners, as 
 well as most of their cannons, and all their tents 
 and baggage. The survivors, only some 20,000 in 
 number, retreated with haste towards France. 
 
 Such was the great victory of Blenheim, which 
 was won mainly by the skill and daring of Marl- 
 borough. An English officer who was in the battle 
 thus describes his conduct there. " No general ever 
 did behave with more composure of temper and 
 presence of mind than did the duke. He was in all 
 places wherever his presence was required, without 
 fear of danger or in the least hurry, giving his orders 
 with all the calmness imaginable." 
 
 Thanks to Marlborough, Germany was saved 
 from a French invasion, and he recovered nearly 
 all the German strongholds which the enemy had 
 seized earlier in the war. For these great services 
 Marlborough, on his return to England, was thanked 
 by Parliament. The splendid estate of Woodstock, 
 near Oxford, was also given to him and to his heirs. 
 
MARLBOROUGH S DOWNFALL. 333 
 
 In the next year little was done ; but in the year 
 after that, when the French made an effort to regain 
 ground in the Netherlands, Marlborough met and 
 defeated them in the great battle of Ramillies, and 
 they had to give up all the lands which they had 
 held. The war dragged on for nearly three years 
 more, until after a long and desperate battle at Mal- 
 plaquet, Marlborough drove the French out of their 
 lines; but his troops lost more heavily than the 
 French. 
 
 III. MARLBOROUGH'S DOWNFALL. 
 
 The English people were now weary of the war, 
 and, besides, Queen Anne was on very cool terms 
 with Marlborough. She had had a violent quarrel 
 with his wife, and dismissed her from all her high 
 offices. In vain did the duke, when he came back 
 to England, throw himself on his knees, begging 
 the queen not to disgrace his wife. The man who 
 had subdued the power of France could not bend 
 the will of the resentful queen, and he himself was 
 soon disgraced. It happened thus : — 
 
 The Whig ministry which had supported him 
 had become more and more unpopular ; and at last 
 a Tory ministry was formed by the queen. Some 
 of the new ministers, who desired to ruin Marl- 
 borough, charged him with taking the public 
 money, and the charges were proved to be correct. 
 Marlborough's excuses were that others had done 
 the same, and that he had used much of it for get- 
 
334 THE STORY OF MARLBOROUGH. 
 
 ting news about the enemy's plans. These were 
 lame excuses ; and as the new ministers desired to 
 ruin Marlborough, the queen soon dismissed him 
 from his office. He bore his disgrace with dignity 
 and manliness, and, with his duchess, retired to the 
 Continent after peace was made. 
 
 The terms of peace left England not much 
 stronger, for all her triumphs. She was to keep 
 Gibraltar and Minorca, which had been conquered 
 in the war; and she gained Nova Scotia, the lands 
 around Hudson's Bay, as well as fuller control over 
 Newfoundland. The Dutch were better protected 
 against France, but elsewhere Louis XIV. held his 
 own. 
 
 When George I. became king of Great Britain 
 and Ireland in 1714, he restored Marlborough to 
 honor; but the famous general never returned to 
 active service, and after some years of retirement he 
 died in 1722. 
 
 Marlborough was more than fifty years of age 
 before he commanded a great army. A great 
 French writer has said of him that he never be- 
 sieged a fortress which he did not take, or fought 
 a battle which he did not win. This cannot be said 
 of any other general in modern times, not even of 
 Wellington, 
 
THE REVOLT OF 1715. 
 
 On Queen Anne's death in 1 714 the crown of 
 Great Britain and Ireland went to Prince George 
 of Hanover in Germany, who was great-grandson 
 of King James I. He was a heavy, dull man, who 
 never could speak English, and did not care for 
 England. The English people put up with him 
 because he was a Protestant. If the son of James 
 II. had not been a Roman Catholic, he would have 
 been welcomed back from exile in France, and 
 gladly accepted as king. 
 
 The Jacobites, that is, the supporters of the exiled 
 prince, w 7 ere far more numerous in Scotland than 
 in England. The Act of Union with England had 
 caused much discontent in the northern country ; 
 and when the Earl of Mar began to arouse the 
 Highlanders against George I.'s rule, James the 
 Pretender set sail for Scotland. 
 
 Mar had twelve thousand men under arms for the 
 Stuart prince, and soon held all Scotland north of 
 the Firth of Forth. Part of his men crossed the 
 Forth and marched towards the border. They 
 crossed into England near Carlisle, although the 
 wild Highlanders were very loath to leave Scot- 
 land. Marching carelessly southward, they were 
 brought to bay at Preston, in Lancashire, and after 
 
 335 
 
336 THE REVOLT OF I 71 5. 
 
 a short fight they had to surrender, some fifteen 
 hundred in number. 
 
 On that same day the rebels were defeated in 
 Scotland. Mar had had to retreat before King 
 George's troops, which were commanded by the 
 Duke of Argyle, but finally the two armies met at 
 Sheriffmuir, between Perth and Stirling. On one 
 wing the Highlanders were successful, but on the 
 other Argyle led his men across some frozen 
 marshes, attacked the rebels on their flank, and 
 put them to flight. On the whole, the royal troops 
 had the best of it, and Mar retreated. 
 
 Then, when it was too late, the Pretender landed 
 farther north and called himself king. But he 
 showed little spirit ; and when Argyle marched 
 against him, both he and Mar fled to France. 
 Many of the chief insurgents were pardoned, and 
 only a few were executed. One of the condemned 
 English lords escaped from prison in woman's 
 clothes, which his wife secretly brought to him. 
 
 Both England and Scotland began to settle down, 
 because it was felt that the Pretender was foolish, 
 selfish, and obstinate ; but neither George I. nor his 
 son, George II., gained the affection of the people, 
 as was proved by the startling successes won by 
 the young Pretender in 1745. 
 
SIR ROBERT WALPOLE. 
 
 I. THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE. 
 
 After the revolt of 171 5 England was at peace 
 with all nations, except for a short war with Spain. 
 During the many previous years of the war, mer- 
 chants had feared that French men-of-war would 
 
 The Old South Sea House. 
 
 capture their ships, but now they felt sure that their 
 ships might proceed on their voyages in safety. 
 The treaty of 171 3 between Great Britain and 
 Spain had also granted to English merchants the 
 
 1 1 *7 
 
33$ SIR ROBERT WALPOLE. 
 
 right of sending a merchant ship every year to 
 the South Seas, as the Pacific Ocean was then 
 called. In consequence, English commerce and 
 wealth began to increase by leaps and bounds. 
 
 All this made people ready to venture their 
 money in risky enterprises, and a number of mer- 
 chants and bankers formed a great company for 
 trading with the South Seas. Their schemes caught 
 the public fancy, and when the South Sea Company 
 promised to make all rich who trusted their money 
 to it, people rushed to take its shares. They paid 
 absurdly high prices for very doubtful chances of 
 gain ; and men and women, rich and poor, went 
 almost crazy with excitement. 
 
 When they regained their senses they saw that 
 they had paid far too dear for profits which might 
 never come. Then, all at once with equal folly 
 they rushed to sell their shares, but very few people 
 would buy. The great South Sea Bubble burst, and 
 many thousands of people were ruined. 
 
 The only man who came forward with any plan 
 for healing some of the misery was Robert Walpole, 
 who was known to be the best man at figures in 
 the House of Commons. He had warned people 
 against trusting these schemes, and now he showed 
 his skill in repairing some of the ruin. This 
 brought him back to power as one of the chief 
 of the king's ministers, and for the next twenty- 
 one years he was the first man in England next 
 to the king. 
 
THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE. 339 
 
 He was a rough Norfolk squire, who had long 
 been a strong supporter of the Whig party. He 
 had a complete belief in his own ability. It was 
 said of him " that his face was bronzed over by a 
 glare of confidence," and he now showed great 
 skill in managing men and in keeping his supporters 
 contented. He was not a great orator ; but in that 
 
 Sir Robert Walpole, afterwards Earl of Orford. 
 
 corrupt age members of Parliament were more often 
 led by bribes than by appeals to their reason or 
 to the public interest. Still, Walpole felt that in 
 crushing a Jacobite plot, and in keeping first George 
 I. and then George II. on the throne, he was doing 
 the best for his country, and though he often used 
 bad means to gain his ends, he managed to secure 
 rest and quiet for the land. 
 
34° SIR ROBERT WALPOLE. 
 
 Thus, when the Irish were much enraged because 
 they thought that a bad coinage was to be forced 
 on them, Walpole gave way. Indeed, whenever it 
 was possible, he did so rather than make a public 
 disturbance. His favorite mottoes were, " Let sleep- 
 ing dogs lie " and " Leave well alone." 
 
 Gradually most men came to feel that Walpole 
 was necessary to the peace and prosperity of the 
 land. If he resigned office, the Tories would have 
 come back to power, and would perhaps have 
 brought back the Pretender to be king. The 
 merchants liked Walpole because he preserved 
 peace ; Dissenters liked him because he and the 
 Whig party had put a stop to recent attempts at 
 religious persecution, and George I. liked Walpole 
 and the Whigs because they supported him and 
 kept out the Stuarts. 
 
 II. THE ORIGIN OF THE "PRIME MINISTER." 
 
 As George I. spoke only German and detested 
 English politics, he ceased to preside at the meet- 
 ings of his ministers, at which affairs of public 
 importance were discussed. Now, when men meet 
 for business, there must always be some one to 
 preside, otherwise there can be no order. Who 
 was to direct the meetings of the ministers? Grad-V 
 ually, as Walpole became more and more important, 
 he directed the meetings, and was called the first, 
 or prime, minister. 
 
THE ORIGIN OF THE "PRIME MINISTER." 34I 
 
 Before Walpole's time the king's ministers had 
 all been equal, and had had to obey only the king 
 or queen ; but from that time onward the position 
 of prime minister has become more and more 
 important, until now he directs a good deal of the 
 action of the other ministers. In fact, the whole 
 ministry now acts under the general guidance of the 
 prime minister, and the chief ministers form what 
 is called a cabinet. So that, because George I. and 
 later George II. trusted Walpole with the control 
 of business for twenty-one years, this great change 
 came about ; and the prime minister has latterly 
 had far more to do with the public affairs of the 
 British empire than the reigning sovereign. 
 
 We must notice one other result of Walpole's 
 long control of public affairs. Before his time the 
 king or queen used often to forbid the passing of 
 a law ; but since then this has hardly ever been 
 done. George I. and then George II. trusted 
 Walpole to look after their interests. Therefore it 
 came to be the custom for the king always to give 
 his assent to bills passed by Parliament. Thus 
 the king's power became less, while that of Parlia- 
 ment and of the king's ministers became greater. 
 Remember, then, that in Walpole's time we see the 
 ,English government taking its present form. 
 
 England owes much to Sir Robert Walpole in 
 other ways. He was the first English minister 
 who encouraged commerce by letting raw material 
 come into the country more freely, so that England's 
 
342 SIR ROBERT WALPOLE. 
 
 manufactured goods became better and cheaper 
 than before. He also made it easier to export 
 England's manufactures, and before very long the 
 value of England's exports rose from $30,000,000 
 a year to more than $60,000,000. Her colonies also 
 had certain privileges granted to them for their 
 trade, and altogether the British empire grew 
 greatly in wealth and power. 
 
 But Walpole's success raised up many enemies 
 who were jealous of him, and tried to poison the 
 public mind against him. This was the case when 
 he proposed a useful reform in the collection of part 
 of the taxes, so as to check smuggling. Troubles 
 in Scotland, and disputes between George II. and 
 his son, the Prince of Wales, also added to his diffi- 
 culties, and after a long fight against his foes he 
 had to resign (1742). King George II. was deeply 
 grieved at losing his trusty adviser, and falling on 
 his neck, he kissed him and begged to see him 
 frequently. 
 
 Men soon found out how unable his foes were to 
 take his place, and matters went from bad to worse 
 for the next few years. After three years of retire- 
 ment, death overtook the statesman who had done 
 so much for the peace and prosperity of his country. 
 Englishmen regretted his downfall, until a greater 
 statesman came to power, William Pitt, Earl of" 
 Chatham. 
 
"BONNIE PRINCE CHARLIE." 
 THE OUTBREAK IN THE NORTH. 
 
 The Scots were still sore because their Parlia- 
 ment had been united with that of England. But 
 now, when England was again at war with France, 
 it seemed a favorable time for the Jacobites to rise 
 in revolt and try to win back the crown of Great 
 Britain for the son of James II., or the Old Pre- 
 tender as he was called. 
 
 His son, the Young Pretender, was a tall, hand- 
 some youth, with far more dash and energy than 
 his father had shown in 1 7 1 5 ; and though the 
 French government did not help him much, he 
 determined to sail to Scotland, even if he landed 
 there with only one follower. On the voyage he 
 was nearly captured by an English man-of-war ; but 
 at last he set foot on Scottish soil near Moidart in 
 Inverness-shire. Even the bold clansmen were 
 aghast at his rashness in attempting with but seven 
 followers to overthrow a powerful king like George 
 II.; but the young prince, soon called Bonnie 
 Prince Charlie, charmed all hearts by his winning 
 ways. As a friend said of him, " If this prince 
 once sets his eyes upon you, he will make you do 
 whatever he pleases." 
 
 343 
 
344 
 
 BONNIE PRINCE CHARLIE. 
 
 The Macdonalds and the brave chieftain Cameron 
 of Lochiel joined his cause, and a successful skir- 
 mish with King George's troops raised the spirits of 
 the Highlanders. They were delighted by the tall 
 athletic form of the young prince, and by his shar- 
 
 Prince Charlie receives the Highland Chiefs on Board the Doutelle, 
 
 ing all their perils and hardships. At night he often 
 lay down among them to sleep, sheltered only by 
 his plaid. 
 
 When the royal troops were timidly withdrawn 
 northwards to Inverness, the road towards the south 
 was left open, and the prince marched in triumph 
 
THE OUTBREAK IN THE NORTH. 345 
 
 to Perth and thence to Edinburgh. At the old 
 cross of the Scottish capital he caused his father to 
 be proclaimed king ; and when the young prince 
 rode into Edinburgh, the streets rang with the 
 cheering of the rejoicing Jacobites, many of them 
 pressing round to kiss the boots of the handsome 
 young cavalier. He took up his abode for a time 
 at the ancient palace of Holy rood, where so many of 
 his ancestors had dwelt. 
 
 For about a year Charles held his followers to- 
 gether and fought the English with varying suc- 
 cess. At last the Duke of Cumberland, who was 
 in command of the royal troops, forced a decisive 
 issue. On Culloden Moor, not far from the town 
 of Culloden, was fought the last serious battle on 
 British soil. The Highlanders were hungry and 
 dispirited ; and the Macdonalds, angry at not hav- 
 ing the post of honor on the right wing of the 
 rebel army, stood moody and motionless. Yet the 
 other clansmen by their wild rush burst through 
 the first line of the royal troops, only to be driven 
 back by steady volleys from the second line. In 
 their rage some of them stood hurling stones at 
 the red-coats until a general charge of the royal 
 troops swept them from the moor. No quarter 
 was given to the rebels, and the severity of the 
 Duke of Cumberland gained him the title of the 
 Butcher. 
 
 Charles fled for his life. When his foes were 
 closing all around him, a brave young lady, Flora 
 
346 " BONNIE PRINCE CHARLIE." 
 
 Macdonald, helped him to escape, disguised in 
 woman's clothes, to Skye. He was in the utmost 
 danger, for the soldiers were searching for him every- 
 where. Yet, though ,£30,000 was promised to any 
 one who would capture him, not one of the poor 
 clansmen betrayed him. The prince was even 
 befriended for three weeks by a band of robbers, 
 who hid him from his pursuers and fed him with 
 the best of their food. 
 
 At last two French vessels rescued him, and he 
 left Scotland at the same spot where fourteen 
 months before he had landed, flushed with the hope 
 of regaining Great Britain for the Stuarts. 
 
 King George's government strove to crush out 
 the Jacobite spirit in the Highlands by putting- 
 down the power of the chieftains and by forbid- 
 ding the clansmen to wear their kilt and tartan. 
 Later many Highland regiments were raised to 
 fight for George III., and now they form some of 
 the best and most devoted troops of the empire. 
 
 Yet long after the rebellion of 1745 the clansmen 
 yearned for the return of Bonnie Prince Charlie, 
 and in this verse of an old Scottish song there 
 breathes the devotion felt for the romantic young 
 adventurer, so frank in speech and handsome in 
 person, so gallant in fight and generous even to his 
 
 foes — 
 
 " I once had sons, but now ha'e nanc, 
 I bred them toiling sairly ; 
 And I wad bear them a' again, 
 And lose them a' for Charlie." 
 
THE BRITISH IN INDIA. 
 
 I. CLIVE GOES TO INDIA — THE SIEGE OF ARCOT. 
 
 In i 745 it seemed as though the power of Eng- 
 land was in danger from a few thousands of un- 
 trained Highlanders. Yet within fifteen years she 
 
 Robert, Lord Clive. 
 
 acquired a mighty empire across the seas, owing to 
 the exploits of Clive and Wolfe and the organizing 
 genius of that great statesman, the elder Pitt. 
 
 Before the time of Clive his countrymen in India 
 held only a few factories and trading-stations on or 
 near the coasts. These were Surat, Bombay, Fort 
 
 347 
 
348 THE BRITISH IN INDIA. 
 
 St. George (now known as Madras), and Fort Will- 
 iam (now known as Calcutta). Bombay belonged to 
 the British crown, but the other three stations 
 belonged to an important trading company, the Eng- 
 lish East India Company, which paid rent to the 
 native rulers. It was the courage and genius of Clive 
 which soon made this struggling little trading com- 
 pany the possessor of large and wealthy provinces. 
 
 Robert Clive was born in 1 725 at Market Drayton, 
 in Shropshire. All through his school life he showed 
 a daring and masterful spirit which nearly drove his 
 parents and teachers to despair. Not knowing what 
 to do with him, his parents at last sent him out as a 
 clerk in the service of the East India Company. 
 
 The French were then more powerful in the East 
 than the English. In one of their inroads they cap- 
 tured Madras and took all the English prisoners. 
 Among them was Clive, who managed to escape in 
 the disguise of a native, and became an ensign in 
 the Company's little army. 
 
 Before long peace was made between England 
 and France, and Madras was restored to the Eng- 
 lish Company ; but the ambition of Dupleix, the 
 French governor of Pondicherry, again brought the 
 English and French to war in the south of India. 
 This ambitious man had formed the plan of playing 
 off the rival native rulers one against the other, and 
 by this means he meant to make his countrymen 
 supreme in India. The bravery of the French sol- 
 diers scattered in flight ten times their number of 
 
CLIVE GOES TO INDIA. 
 
 349 
 
350 THE BRITISH IN INDIA. 
 
 native troops, and the rule of Dupleix in the south 
 of India seemed in 1750 to be firmly established. 
 
 But the genius of Clive soon changed the whole 
 aspect of affairs. He persuaded the English East 
 India Company to send help instantly to one of the 
 native princes against the French, and to seize the 
 important town of Arcot. He led his little force 
 of five hundred men quickly towards its walls. Un- 
 daunted by a terrific thunder-storm which burst 
 over them, Clive and his men struggled on, and the 
 defenders were so astonished at foes coming against 
 them in such a tempest that they fled, and left Arcot 
 as the prize of Clive's valor. 
 
 An army of ten thousand natives and a few 
 French threatened him in the weak walls of Arcot, 
 but Clive's daring spirit again nerved his scanty 
 band to resist these overwhelming numbers, and 
 Arcot was saved for the English. 
 
 II. THE BLACK HOLE — PLASSEY. 
 
 This and other exploits made Clive famous, and 
 he was rightly looked on as the greatest English 
 commander since the time of Marlborough. On 
 his return to England to restore his health he was 
 greeted as the saviour of the Company's rule in 
 India. After a time of rest he returned to India, 
 where his vigorous hand was needed more than ever. 
 
 The Company's settlement at Fort William, now 
 known as Calcutta, had been seized by the Nabob 
 
PLASSEY. 351 
 
 Surajah-Dowlah, who then ruled over Bengal. This 
 fickle and cruel young despot, annoyed at the grow- 
 ing power of the English, had suddenly marched a 
 great army against Fort William and seized it. The 
 English prisoners, 146 in number, were promised 
 that their lives would be spared ; but their fiendish 
 captors shut them all up in a narrow cell called the 
 Black Hole. Stifled by heat and by the foul air, 
 they struggled in agony to get near the few small 
 air-holes, and begged the native guards to fire on 
 them to put them out of their misery. The guards 
 only mocked at their torments. So this awful night 
 wore on, the groans getting fewer and feebler, until 
 the next morning only twenty-three ghastly figures 
 staggered from that charnel-house. The rest had 
 perished of heat, thirst, and suffocation. 
 
 Clive sailed from the Madras coast to Fort Will- 
 iam on the Hoogley, to punish Surajah-Dowlah for 
 this frightful crime, dive's little force of three 
 thousand men stood face to face at Plassey with 
 sixty thousand foes. Even his stout heart was for a 
 brief space appalled at the danger. He went apart 
 to a grove to think, and at the end of an hour's 
 musing he made up his mind to fight at once. 
 
 The few British guns poured a destructive fire 
 against the fifty cumbrous cannon and the crowded 
 ranks opposite them. Then Clive, at the right 
 moment, ordered a general charge. It swept away 
 the dense and confused masses of their foes, and in 
 a few minutes the plain was covered with torrents 
 
352 THE BRITISH IN INDIA. 
 
 of fugitives, horse, foot, and elephants flying before 
 the thin lines of red-coats. The camp, the baggage, 
 cannon, and treasure of their foes were the spoils 
 of the victors; and the great province of Bengal 
 was conquered by this one blow (1757). 
 
 Other successes were gained over the Dutch and 
 the French; and the capture of Pondicherry in 1761 
 made England as supreme in the south as she was 
 in Bengal. 
 
 III. THE STORY OF WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 Warren Hastings, who was to become one of 
 the greatest of the governors of India, was born at 
 Daylesford in Worcestershire (1732). He was left 
 to the care of a distant relative who did not want to 
 be burdened with him. So, as in the case of Clive, 
 young Hastings was sent off to India as a clerk in 
 the service of the East India Company. 
 
 After the battle of Plassey, Clive, hearing of the 
 skill of the young clerk, made him agent at the 
 court of the new Nabob, Meer Jaffeer. Soon 
 Hastings rose to an important post in the govern- 
 ment of Bengal, and he protected the natives from 
 the greed of many officers of the East India 
 Company. 
 
 In 1770 Bengal suffered from a frightful famine, 
 such as happened, and sometimes still happens, 
 whenever the monsoon fails, for then hardly any 
 rice or corn can grow and the people starve. More 
 than half of the people died ; for there were then 
 
THE STORY OF WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 353 
 
 no railways to bring food from other parts, and no 
 canals from which water could be drawn to irrigate 
 the fields. These have since been made by British 
 engineers, and a famine in India is not so terrible 
 now as it was then. 
 
 Warren Hastings. 
 
 Three years after this dreadful scourge Warren 
 Hastings became governor-general of India. He 
 was the first who held that office and who ruled 
 
354 THE BRITISH IN INDIA. 
 
 British India partly under the control of the Parlia- 
 ment. But its control was very slight, and the first 
 governor-general did several things which would not 
 be allowed now. 
 
 One of these was as follows : He let out on hire 
 British troops to a native prince who wanted to 
 conquer some of his neighbor's lands. On success 
 crowning this disgraceful enterprise, a large sum 
 was paid to the East India Company by the con- 
 queror ; but a fertile province was made desolate by 
 British troops for the sake of gain to the Company. 
 This and other acts brought Hastings into trouble. 
 
 But in the years 1 776-1 783 England's difficulties 
 were so very great in America, in Europe, and also 
 in India, that Hastings could not be spared. He 
 had to face the great and growing power of the 
 Mahrattas. These were bands of fierce and warlike 
 horsemen who swept over the plains, carrying off 
 plunder. They had founded some important states 
 in India, and now they were likely to be helped by 
 the French. The position was critical, for if French 
 and Mahrattas had been allowed to act together, 
 England would probably have lost her hold on 
 India. 
 
 Danger acts as a spur to great and manly natures, 
 and Hastings determined to strike at once and to 
 strike hard at the Mahrattas. He raised more 
 sepoys, he made an alliance with a native prince, 
 and sent an army to the west of India to attack the 
 Mahrattas before the French could help them. 
 
THE STORY OF WARREN HASTINGS. 
 
 65 
 
35^ THE BRITISH IN INDIA. 
 
 A powerful native ruler in southern India, seeing 
 the British busy far away to the north, seized the 
 opportunity to send an army of ninety thousand men 
 against Madras. A small British force was attacked 
 by immense numbers of the enemy. On came the 
 victors, believing that they would sweep the English 
 into the sea. The brave garrison in Madras saw 
 the night sky aglow with the flames of burning 
 villages, and in terror they sought refuge behind the 
 walls of Fort St. George. Such were the tidings 
 sent off to the governor-general in Calcutta. 
 
 Warren Hastings did not despair. He sent all 
 possible troops to the south to meet this new foe, 
 and with them large supplies of money for the ex- 
 penses of the new war. His men were in time to 
 defeat the native troops before a French fleet arrived. 
 In 1783 peace was made between England and her 
 enemies, and her dominion in the south of India 
 was left as large as it had been before this war 
 
 The vigor of Hastings saved British rule in India, 
 but his conduct was marred by some unjust acts. 
 He had been in sore need of money for the expedi- 
 tion to save Madras ; and, not knowing how to get 
 it by fair means, he forced the ruler of Benares to 
 pay a very large sum. What was even worse, he 
 forced the Princesses of Oude to give up their con- 
 cealed treasures, and he had their officers tortured 
 to force them to do so. The English East India 
 Company had had claims in both these cases, but 
 nothing can excuse the cruelty and wickedness of 
 
THE STORY OF WARREN HASTINGS. 357 
 
 its governor's action in wringing these large sums 
 from almost helpless native governments. 
 
 In 1785 Hastings returned to England. He left 
 her dominion in India far larger than he found it 
 when he first became governor-general, and on his 
 return home he received the thanks of King George 
 III. and the applause of the people. 
 
 But soon there came a change. He was brought 
 to trial for his acts of extortion in India. It was 
 one of the most famous trials in the world's history. 
 Westminster Hall was crowded with the greatest, 
 the noblest, and the fairest of the land ; and so 
 great was the public interest that #250 were paid 
 for a single seat there. Burke, the finest orator 
 of that age, accused Warren Hastings in a noble 
 speech which at times brought tears to many an 
 eye. Sheridan also made a brilliant speech against 
 him. But the interest died away as the trial went 
 on for months and years. At last, after seven years 
 (1795), Hastings was acquitted; for men by that 
 time had come to feel that his actions after all had 
 saved India to Britain, and the lives of thousands of 
 his countrymen. He died in 18 18, having won the 
 reputation of being the second founder of British 
 rule in India. 
 
THE STORY OF GENERAL WOLFE AND THE 
 TAKING OF QUEBEC. 
 
 When we read the life of Clive we saw that 
 for some time the French appeared certain of 
 becoming masters of India. At about the same 
 period they were making great and successful 
 efforts to gain nearly the whole of North America. 
 The French had long had possession of Canada. 
 They also held or laid claim to the lands along 
 the courses of the rivers Ohio and Mississippi. But 
 this did not satisfy the ambition of Vaudreuil, the 
 French governor of Canada, who formed great plans 
 of building forts at strategic points on the Ohio 
 and Mississippi. He hoped by these means to shut 
 in the English settlers, who then had only the colo- 
 nies on the coast of the Atlantic. 
 
 Montcalm, commander of the French forces in 
 America, won many tribes of Indians to help him 
 in his contest with the English, and perhaps he 
 would have succeeded in America, like Dupleix in 
 India, if in both cases an English hero had not 
 appeared to baffle French designs. Clive worsted 
 Dupleix in India; Wolfe overcame Montcalm in 
 North America. 
 
 James Wolfe was born in Kent in 1726. He 
 grew up to be a shy, modest young man, of a weak 
 
 358 
 
THE STORY OF GENERAL WOLFE. 359 
 
 and delicate frame, and he ever showed great kindli- 
 ness and modesty of spirit. He early entered the 
 army, and distinguished himself by his bravery in 
 the wars against France, as also at the battle of 
 Culloden. Later he showed his bravery in the war 
 in North America (1758); but the generals who 
 commanded the British there were incapable, and 
 they were very often defeated. 
 
 Matters were soon changed when younger and 
 abler men were appointed to command there. 
 Among these was Wolfe, who was selected by Pitt 
 for his energy of mind and power of awakening 
 enthusiasm. Three British armies were to attack 
 the French in North America. Wolfe, with eight 
 thousand men, sailed up the broad and noble river 
 St. Lawrence to attack Quebec, 1759. 
 
 The city of Quebec stands on a lofty cliff which 
 overhangs that stately river. Many streams, which 
 in England would be thought large rivers, pour 
 their waters into the St. Lawrence. Some miles 
 below Quebec, near one of these streams, Wolfe 
 landed his men ; but, in trying to cross its rocky 
 bed near a great waterfall, they were driven back by 
 the French. 
 
 Other attempts failed, and the French were so 
 strongly posted in and around Quebec that it seemed 
 impossible to dislodge them. Still, Wolfe and his 
 officers did not give up the attempt. He knew 
 that higher up the St. Lawrence above Quebec there 
 were steep cliffs, which at one point were indented 
 
360 THE STORY OF GENERAL WOLFE. 
 
 by a small watercourse. He thought that if his men 
 could quietly make their way up at this point by a 
 steep winding path, they would take the enemy by 
 surprise. 
 
 One night in September, 1759, all was ready. 
 The oars were muffled so as to make no noise which 
 would alarm the French ; but there were so few 
 boats that Wolfe's small force had to cross in two 
 divisions. While he was anxiously waiting, Wolfe 
 repeated to his officers nearly the whole of Gray's 
 Elegy in a Country Churchyard, and said that he 
 would rather be the poet w r ho wrote that than have 
 the fame of conquering the French the next day. 
 
 At last all his men were landed, and began to 
 climb the cliffs by the steep and narrow path. 
 They reached the top and even dragged up one 
 small cannon without the French taking alarm. 
 When dawn broke, the French found nearly four 
 thousand British troops on the Heights of Abraham 
 just outside Quebec. 
 
 Montcalm hastily brought his men up for battle, 
 and they fought as bravely as ever ; but Wolfe's 
 men were all trained soldiers, and now that they 
 were on even terms with their foes, they soon gained 
 ground from them. As Wolfe was cheering on his 
 troops, he was severely wounded in two places. 
 The dying hero was carried to the rear ; and when 
 he heard the shout " They run," he raised himself 
 on his elbow and eagerly asked, " Who run ? " On 
 hearing the answer " The French run," he uttered 
 
THE STORY OF GENERAL WOLFE. 36 1 
 
 his last words, " I die contented." The French 
 commander also perished in this battle, which at 
 once overthrew all his great designs. 
 
 First Quebec surrendered, a little later the rest 
 of Canada submitted, and that fine country has ever 
 since been one of England's greatest colonies, and 
 the French and English there now live peacefully 
 side by side. On the promenade at Quebec there 
 is a statue in honor of those brave and able men, 
 Wolfe and Montcalm. It bears an inscription to 
 this effect : — 
 
 " Their valor gave them a united death, 
 History has given them a united fame, 
 Posterity, a united monument." 
 
WILLIAM PITT, EARL OF CHATHAM. 
 
 The great orator and statesman, called the elder 
 Pitt, to distinguish him from his famous son, was 
 born in Cornwall, in 1 708. In his youth he entered 
 the army, but his talents fitted him more for Parlia- 
 ment than for the battlefield. He entered Parlia- 
 ment as member for Old Sarum, a tiny hamlet close 
 to Salisbury. 
 
 He soon showed that he was a splendid speaker. 
 His noble figure, his powerful yet musical voice, 
 and his rapid vehement style of speaking carried his 
 audience along with him. Moreover, men felt that 
 he meant what he said. As he once whispered to 
 a member of Parliament, "When once I am up on 
 my feet everything that is in my mind comes out." 
 His attacks against Walpole partly led to the fall of 
 that great minister in 1742; and the Duchess of 
 Marlborough, who had hated Walpole, left $50,000 
 to Pitt for his defence of the laws of England. 
 
 After Walpole's death, there followed a time of 
 confusion in public affairs ; and though George II. 
 bitterly hated Pitt, when the difficulties of the coun- 
 try seemed overwhelming, he became the most im- 
 portant of the king's ministers (1757). 
 
 Times were indeed very serious for the nation. 
 
 Scotland was still discontented, and many people 
 
 362 
 
WILLIAM PITT, EARL OF CHATHAM. 363 
 
 even in England still longed for the return of the 
 Stuarts. In 1756 war had broken out with France, 
 and at first England was beaten in several encoun- 
 ters. Minorca, which belonged to England, was 
 captured by the French; and Admiral Byng, who 
 did not do his utmost to prevent its capture, was 
 shot by order of a court-martial. Englishmen had 
 
 William Pitt, First Earl of Chatham. 
 
 begun to feel that their day was past, and one of 
 the chief statesmen exclaimed in despair, " We are 
 no longer a nation ! " 
 
 As soon as Pitt became chief minister, he aroused 
 the people out of their despair. " Be one people ! " 
 he cried; "forget everything but the public welfare. 
 I set you the example." His fiery speeches and the 
 
364 WILLIAM PITT, EARL OF CHATHAM. 
 
 boldness of his acts soon made Britons feel more 
 confident. An officer once said that none who went 
 to talk with him could help feeling braver for it. 
 
 When a great man like Pitt begins to control 
 public affairs, there is sure to be a change for the 
 better. He determined to do his utmost to help 
 the King of Prussia, Frederick the Great, who was 
 bravely struggling against the French, Austrians, 
 and Russians. Pitt could not then send many men 
 to help Frederick, but he helped him with money, 
 for he saw that while France was thus kept busy in 
 fighting Prussia, her colonies would the more easily 
 fall to England. 
 
 Pitt did more than all the soldiers had done for 
 keeping the Highlands quiet. They had vainly 
 tried to crush the spirit of the Highlanders, but 
 Pitt hit upon the happy thought of enlisting the 
 Highlanders as soldiers, so that their courage might 
 be used for their country ; and they soon showed 
 their bravery in India and Canada. 
 
 Pitt also chose young and energetic men to lead 
 the new enterprises, and we have seen how wise 
 he was in the choice of Wolfe for the conquest of 
 Canada. This is one of the marks of a great ruler 
 or statesman. He cannot do everything himself; 
 but if he is a great man, he will pick out the right 
 men and set them to whatever work they can do 
 best. 
 
 Soon there came news, not of defeats, but of 
 victories, from all parts. Bengal was conquered in 
 
WILLIAM PITT, EARL OF CHATHAM. 365 
 
 1757. Two years later came the capture of Quebec ; 
 and there were two victories over the French nearer 
 home. In 1756 England was in such despair that 
 George II. had even thought of bringing Hanoverian 
 troops over, to help to protect England from the 
 French. When the king died in 1 760, he left Eng- 
 land successful in all points, having conquered a 
 great colonial empire from her rival. Very much 
 of this was due to the energy of Pitt, and to the 
 courage which he breathed into all who came near 
 him. 
 
 The next king, George III., did not like Pitt, 
 and the great statesman resigned his office. A 
 little later he was called back to the ministry ; 
 but it was only for a short time. He did his best 
 to prevent the foolish acts which turned her kins- 
 men in North America against the mother country ; 
 and in his later years, when he was made Earl of 
 Chatham, he still raised his powerful voice on be- 
 half of friendship towards those colonists. " You 
 cannot conquer America," he cried. " If I were an 
 American, I would never lay down my arms, never, 
 never, never ! " 
 
 The end of Pitt's life was very sad. He had 
 always been a martyr to gout, and had made many 
 of his finest speeches with his limbs swathed in 
 flannels so as to ease the pain. Now it had grown 
 much worse ; but he wished to speak once more 
 on the question of America. Though his end was 
 drawing near he was carried to the House of Lords, 
 
366 WILLIAM PITT, EARL OF CHATHAM. 
 
 and uttered a few feeble words. It was too much 
 for him, and he fell back in a swoon. He was 
 carried home, and died five weeks later (May, 1778). 
 
 When he left office in 1761, his country was 
 everywhere victorious. When he died, her mis- 
 takes had banded nearly all the world against her. 
 We see then how much one great man can do for 
 a nation, and how his vigor and wisdom may be 
 missed when he no longer guides its affairs. 
 
 In one respect his example lived on. Before his 
 time, some of the king's ministers had thought it 
 quite a fit thing to take large sums or bounties 
 from the nation's money. Pitt was the first who 
 refused to touch a penny which was not fairly and 
 openly his by right. He was a patriot, and he 
 saw that a land could never be strong where the 
 governors were not quite straightforward in money 
 matters. Since his time there has been far more 
 honor and honesty in public life than there had 
 been before. 
 
 Because he brought back victory to Britain's flag 
 and honor to her public life, Pitt earned the honor- 
 able name of the Great Commoner. 
 
THE AMERICAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. 
 
 Many years before the time of which we are 
 writing, Englishmen had settled on the Atlantic 
 coast of North America, and England possessed 
 thirteen colonies there. The most important of 
 these were Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, and 
 Massachusetts. In course of time the colonies 
 became powerful, and disputes arose between them 
 and the British government. The worst dispute 
 was on the subject of taxation ; it arose in the 
 following manner. 
 
 There had been, as we have seen, a long war 
 between the English and the French in North 
 America, which ended with the conquest of Canada 
 by New England. . As this war had given safety to 
 her North American colonists, the British govern- 
 ment resolved to make them bear some of its cost ; 
 and perhaps the colonists would have done so, had 
 they been wisely treated in other respects. But the 
 government also interfered with their trade and 
 their customs duties ; and when the colonists re- 
 sisted, it gave way on some points, but resolved 
 to keep a small duty on tea imported into those 
 colonies. The ministers wanted to show that 
 England had the right to tax the colonists ; while 
 the colonists denied that the Parliament had any 
 
 367 
 
368 THE AMERICAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. 
 
 right to tax those who did not send members to 
 Westminster. 
 
 Then came the closing of the port of Boston, the 
 fight at Lexington, and the battle of Bunker Hill. 
 July 4, 1776, the colonists declared their inde- 
 pendence of England. In 1777 France came to the 
 assistance of the colonies. For five years the strug- 
 gle continued, until English statesmen came to see 
 that it was folly to prolong the war in America, 
 and in 1781 England recognized the independence 
 of the British colonies. 
 
 In Europe, England boldly faced her many ene- 
 mies, and her troops splendidly defended Gibraltar 
 for three years against countless assaults of the 
 French and Spaniards. The English Admiral 
 Rodney also gained a great victory over the 
 French fleet in the West Indies. So Great Britain 
 ended this war against her many foes with some- 
 thing like honor (1783). 
 
 In other parts of the world she held her own 
 fairly well, and even gained ground in India. 
 Hardly ever had any country fought so many ene- 
 mies at once, and come out of the struggle so cred- 
 itably. The loss of the United States was, of 
 course, a terrible blow ; but it has taught her the 
 important lesson, that it is best to let her colonies 
 manage their own taxation and arrange as far as 
 possible their local affairs. 
 
WILLIAM PITT, THE YOUNGER. 
 
 I. REDUCTION OF TAXATION — THE FRENCH 
 REVOLUTION. 
 
 We have read of the wonderful way in which 
 William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, restored his country 
 in 1 757-1 760, after a time of failure and disgrace. 
 His second son, also named William, was to render 
 equally great services to England, after reverses far 
 more terrible than those which the Earl of Chatham 
 had repaired. 
 
 This famous son of a famous father was born in 
 1759 at Hayes, in Kent. He completed his educa- 
 tion at the University of Cambridge, and entered 
 Parliament at an unusually early age. At the time 
 when he entered public life his country was in a 
 sad state. England was fighting her American 
 colonists as well as half the great states of Europe. 
 Ireland was in almost open revolt ; a little later 
 England had to make peace with her many foes 
 (1783), and all these disasters wrung from the patri- 
 otic young Pitt the despairing cry, " The sun of 
 England's glory is set." 
 
 Pitt had lately become Chancellor of the Ex- 
 chequer, and had to do his best to meet the heavy 
 expenses of the wars. His clear and .convincing 
 speeches and his straightforward conduct quickly 
 
 369 
 
37o 
 
 WILLIAM PITT, THE YOUNGER. 
 
 gained him a great name, and in 1 784 he took 
 on his shoulders the heavy burden of being Prime 
 Minister of George III. Pitt was then a youth 
 of twenty-four years of age, and could get no man 
 
 William Pitt, the Younger. 
 
 of power and experience to work with him. " They 
 are a set of children playing at ministers," said one 
 of his opponents, " and ought to be sent back to 
 school." The current of events at first seemed 
 certain to sweep him helplessly before it. The 
 
REDUCTION OF TAXATION. 37 1 
 
 country was sullen after its defeats and losses, trade 
 was bad, and he had to face a hostile majority in 
 Parliament itself. 
 
 Still the young Prime Minister struggled on, 
 showing that he had faith in his country and confi- 
 dence in his own powers. On one occasion he said, 
 " I am sure that I can save this country, and that 
 nobody else can." This was no empty boast, but 
 the expression of an able man's confidence in him- 
 self; and every one admired his pluck, his talents, 
 his clear, telling speeches, and, above all, his keen 
 sense of honor. The country had recently been 
 ruled by men whose honesty had not been above 
 suspicion. Now it felt that the spirit of Chatham 
 was breathing again in his son. After many re- 
 verses in Parliament Pitt at last appealed to the 
 people, and after the general election he had a 
 majority of members favorable to him. 
 
 He had already begun to put the finances in 
 order, and sadly they needed it. The recent wars 
 had added more than $500,000,000 to the national 
 debt. The taxes were very heavy, and so were the 
 duties on articles which came into the country, or 
 which were exported. Pitt boldly determined to 
 make these duties lighter, so as to encourage trade 
 with other countries. To make up for the slight 
 loss to the nation's revenue, he imposed an income- 
 tax, which was not to be paid by the poor. By these 
 wise and far-seeing measures Pitt soon made his 
 country more prosperous than it had ever been 
 
372 WILLIAM PITT, THE YOUNGER. 
 
 before, and he began to reduce the national debt 
 so as to be able to lessen the taxes still more. 
 
 But all this useful work soon came to an end, 
 owing to terrible events which took place in France. 
 For a long time the French people had had a bad 
 system of taxation and government. The poor were 
 very heavily taxed, while the rich were nearly free 
 from taxes. The people had little or no voice in 
 public affairs, and her recent war with England had 
 made France bankrupt. At last her people rose in 
 their fury and overthrew the old order of things. 
 They seized the Bastille, a very strong castle, which 
 then stood by one of the gates of Paris : they com- 
 pelled their king and queen to come to Paris, and 
 in 1 793 the extreme party caused them, as well as 
 many others whom they hated, to be executed. 
 
 These events are known as the French Revolu- 
 tion. Excited and ignorant men seized on power at 
 Paris. War was proclaimed against neighboring 
 countries, and in 1793 the young French Republic 
 made war on England. Pitt had done all that he 
 could to keep at peace with France ; but the violence 
 and folly of the men who were in power at Paris 
 brought about a war which dashed all his hopes of 
 progress and prosperity. The war, which began in 
 1793, lasted (with a short interval) for twenty-one 
 years. At first the British were so few and so badly 
 led that they were several times beaten by the 
 French in the Netherlands. 
 
 There was much discontent in England, caused 
 
WAR WITH FRANCE. 373 
 
 by the burdens of the war, and by the desire of a 
 few of the people to overthrow the monarchy and 
 to make England a republic, like that which the 
 French had made. Some severe laws were passed 
 to curb the agitators, and Pitt felt that he must give 
 up his plans of reform until the war was over. 
 
 He did not show himself to be as great a war 
 minister as his father had been, for he had not 
 Chatham's gift of putting the right man in the right 
 place. France, on the contrary, showed a marvellous 
 power in raising soldiers and driving back her many 
 foes. Her victories became all the more astound- 
 ing when her troops were commanded by that great 
 military genius, Napoleon Bonaparte. 
 
 II, WAR WITH FRANCE — THE IRISH ACT OF UNION. 
 
 Napoleon Bonaparte was born in Corsica in 1769, 
 and was educated in France. He so distinguished 
 himself in some events of the French Revolution 
 that he was named commander of the French army 
 in Italy. There he defeated the Austrians in eigh- 
 teen great battles, drove them back to Vienna, and 
 compelled them to make peace with France (1797). 
 
 England was now left alone to struggle against 
 the mighty power of France and her allies. It was 
 a terrible time for her. Though her sailors had 
 beaten the French and Dutch fleets, they themselves 
 were discontented, and broke out into obstinate 
 mutinies. At last, when the ringleaders were 
 
374 
 
 WILLIAM PITT, THE YOUNGER. 
 
 hanged, the men returned to their duty ; and, under 
 Nelson, they soon showed their former devotion 
 and bravery. The rest of these events will be told 
 in the chapters which describe the lives of Nelson 
 
 and Wellington. 
 
 Napoleon at the Head of his Army crossing the Alps to Italy. 
 
 Pitt had to face all these difficulties, as well as 
 the troubles in Ireland, where the people were 
 deeply excited by the events of the French Revolu- 
 tion, and desired to overthrow the form of govern- 
 ment which then oppressed them. Ever since the 
 conquest of Ireland by William III., the Protestants 
 
THE IRISH ACT OF UNION. 375 
 
 there had kept the Roman Catholics in a state of 
 subjection. This led to bitter feelings, and in 1 798 
 a fierce rebellion broke out, which was put down by 
 the governing classes with terrible bloodshed. 
 
 Pitt saw that this state of things must be ended, 
 and in 1800 the Act of Union was passed, whereby 
 the Irish members of Parliament were to sit with 
 the British Parliament at Westminster, and the 
 same laws were to hold good for Ireland as for 
 Great Britain. He also hoped to pass a measure 
 for giving to all Roman Catholics the same rights 
 as the Protestants had. But George III. was very 
 angry at this last proposal, and Pitt had to resign 
 (1801). This was unfortunate, as Pitt was needed 
 just then more than ever; but he had pledged his 
 word to get justice done to the Roman Catholics, 
 and as the king would not let it be done, Pitt felt 
 that he must resign office. It was not until 1829 
 that Roman Catholics had the right of voting and 
 other political rights. 
 
 The next ministry was a very weak one. Peace 
 was made with France on unfavorable terms, but 
 did not last. Napoleon had become almost com- 
 plete master of France, and seemed bent on pro- 
 voking England to war. After war broke out, every 
 one felt that only Pitt could manage the affairs 
 of England, and he became Prime Minister again 
 
 (1804). 
 
 Napoleon now became Emperor of the French, 
 and he seemed determined to invade and conquer 
 
376 WILLIAM PITT, THE YOUNGER. 
 
 England. He assembled a great army of one 
 hundred and twenty thousand men on the cliffs 
 at Boulogne, and prepared a fleet of about twelve 
 hundred small vessels and flat-bottomed row-boats 
 to take them over the Straits of Dover. The 
 English were much alarmed, and Pitt organized a 
 national defence. In every town and village men 
 began to form bands of volunteers. Beacons were 
 piled upon the hill-tops of Kent so as to flash the 
 news of any landing of the foe. Besides this, the 
 sailors were on the alert, and they defeated every 
 attempt of the French to get command of the 
 English Channel. 
 
 Napoleon, finding his plan useless, suddenly broke 
 up his camp at Boulogne, marched his troops against 
 those of Austria, and by terrible defeats again com- 
 pelled her to sign a disastrous peace. This news 
 crushed Pitt's health and spirits. He had hoped 
 that the great States of Europe would conquer 
 Napoleon ; but now he said to his attendants, " Roll 
 up that map of Europe, it will not be wanted these 
 ten years." The prophecy was to come strangely 
 true. The dying statesman saw that Europe would 
 for a long time be subject to Napoleon. His. keen 
 foresight detected the greater disasters yet to come, 
 and the truth crushed him. His release from the 
 troubles of life was to him a merciful deliverance. 
 Yet his last thoughts wandered off to the land 
 which he had loved so well, and his last words 
 were, " My country, how I love my country ! " 
 
THE STORY OF LORD NELSON. 
 
 Pitt, Nelson, and Wellington — these were the 
 men who served their country best during the great 
 war with France. Pitt was the statesman who 
 guided his country's councils, Nelson gained for her 
 the mastery of the seas, and Wellington did more 
 than any other man to overthrow Napoleon's power. 
 
 Horatio Nelson was the son of the rector of 
 Burnham Thorpe in Norfolk, and was born there 
 in 1758. In boyhood, as in the rest of his life, he 
 seemed never to know what fear was. When he 
 entered the navy, he hated its hard and cruel rules ; 
 but he began to like the life when *he went on ad- 
 venturous voyages. In due course he became cap- 
 tain ; and when the great war with France began, 
 he commanded a warship in the Mediterranean. 
 During the siege of a town in Corsica, where he 
 commanded an English battery, a French cannon 
 ball struck the ground near him and drove some 
 sand up into one of his eyes, so that he lost sight in 
 that eye. 
 
 The first great sea fight in which he took part 
 was that of Cape St. Vincent (1797). His fleet 
 numbered fifteen ships of the line and four frigates. 
 That of the Spaniards was twice as strong, but the 
 English were brave, skilled, and confident. They 
 
 377 
 
78 
 
 THE STORY OF LORD NELSON. 
 
 soon threw the Spanish fleet into confusion, and the 
 men of Nelson's ship jumped on board an enemy's 
 ship, which was closely locked with his, and captured 
 it. Nelson was not content with this, but called to 
 his men to take another large Spanish ship close 
 
 Horatio, Viscount Nelson. 
 
 by. Inspiriting his men by the words, " Victory, or 
 Westminster Abbey ! " he leaped on it, and soon the 
 Union Jack replaced the Spanish flag at the mast- 
 head of the second prize. For this exploit the 
 English Admiral Jervis embraced Nelson, and said 
 he could not thank him enough. 
 
THE STORY OF LORD NELSON. 379 
 
 Nelson was not always successful. He failed in 
 attacks on Cadiz and on Teneriffe, and at the latter 
 place his right arm was torn off by a cannon ball. 
 A little later he was sent to blockade the French 
 fleet in Toulon, but during a storm it managed to 
 get out, and sailed for Malta and Egypt ; for the 
 plan of Napoleon was to conquer Egypt and then 
 go on to drive the English from India. 
 
 Nelson put a stop to these designs. After search- 
 ing the east of the Mediterranean for the French 
 fleet, he came up with it as it lay at anchor not far 
 from the mouth of the river Nile. It was near sun- 
 set, but Nelson determined to attack at once. He 
 sent his ships in two lines, to sail both sides of 
 the enemy's line and conquer it bit by bit. 
 
 Darkness quickly drew on, but the whole scene 
 was lit up by the flashes from the guns. The lead- 
 ing French ships quickly had their masts shot away, 
 and soon their largest ship, L" Orient, caught fire. 
 The flames spread with fearful rapidity, throwing 
 a lurid light on the desperate combat, and when the 
 fire reached her powder magazine the gallant ship 
 blew up. After this the firing went on for five hours, 
 till out of the seventeen French ships only four 
 escaped. 
 
 Napoleon's troops had conquered Egypt, but the 
 destruction of their fleet now cut them off from 
 France. After a time Napoleon succeeded in escap- 
 ing to France, but his army had to surrender to the 
 English two years later, and Egypt was given back 
 
380 THE STORY OF LORD NELSON. 
 
 to Turkey. Nelson also took Malta from the French. 
 So, instead of being driven from India, Britain be- 
 came, thanks to Nelson, stronger than ever before 
 in the Mediterranean. 
 
 In 1 80 1 Nelson again delivered her from a great 
 danger. Russia, Prussia, Sweden, and Denmark had 
 formed a league against her, while she was with- 
 out an ally and was still at war with France, Spain, 
 and Holland. But Admirals Parker and Nelson at 
 once sailed with a great fleet to Copenhagen, so as 
 to seize the mouth of the Baltic, and beat the Danes 
 before the Russians and Prussians could help them. 
 Off Copenhagen there was a long and obstinate 
 battle between Nelson's ships and the Danish bat- 
 teries and armed hulks. At one time it seemed that 
 Nelson must be beaten, and Parker gave the signal 
 to recall him and his ships. But Nelson, in his 
 determination to fight on, put his telescope to his 
 blind eye, exclaiming: " I really do not see the signal. 
 Keep mine for closer battle flying. That's the way 
 I answer such signals. Nail mine to the mast." 
 
 In 1803 Nelson was sent to blockade a large 
 French fleet in Toulon and prevent it from sailing 
 away and helping their army to cross from Boulogne 
 to Kent. He spent many weary months cruising 
 off Toulon. At last the French fleet put out to sea 
 while Nelson's ships were away. When the admiral 
 found out the enemy's course, he chased them 
 across the Atlantic. He next discovered that they 
 meant to sail back to the English Channel, and 
 
THE STORY OF LORD NELSON. 
 
 38l 
 
 The Battle of the Nile — Destruction of the French Ship 
 
 V Orient. 
 
382 THE STORY OF LORD NELSON. 
 
 sent fast-sailing ships to warn the admiralty of 
 their intentions. 
 
 Finally he came up with the French and Spanish 
 fleets off Cape Trafalgar. They had thirty-three 
 ships of the line and eight frigates, while Nelson's 
 fleet numbered only twenty-seven ships of the line 
 and four frigates. But his men were well trained, 
 and were devoted to their leader ; and when Nelson 
 hoisted as his signal " England expects that every 
 man will do his duty," all the crews received it with 
 a ringing cheer. 
 
 The British ships, sailing in two columns, soon 
 broke through and disordered the enemy's line. 
 The French and Spaniards fought stubbornly, and 
 Nelson's ship, the Victory, suffered terribly. A 
 musket shot fired from the mast of a French ship 
 pierced Nelson's back, and he fell. When taken 
 below he would not let the doctor attend to him, 
 but bade him see to the wounded men whose lives 
 could be saved. No human skill could save him, 
 and his life slowly ebbed away. He lived just long 
 enough to know that his fleet had gained a com- 
 plete victory, and his last words were, " Thank God, 
 I have done my duty." 
 
 This great victory of Trafalgar (October, 1805) 
 made England mistress of the seas more than ever 
 she had been before. In return for Nelson's bravery 
 and devotion to his country, England reared a 
 monument to him in St. Paul's Cathedral and the 
 great column in Trafalgar Square in London. 
 
THE STORY OF WELLINGTON. 
 I. SIR ARTHUR WELLESLEY IN INDIA. 
 
 Arthur Wellesley, who was afterwards made 
 Duke of Wellington, was born in Ireland in 1769, 
 the same year in which his great antagonist, Napo- 
 leon, was born. The family was noble and talented 
 but poor, and only with difficulty was Arthur, the 
 third son, sent to the great school at Eton. 
 
 There he showed himself a bright, spirited lad, 
 fond of all manly games. Indeed, he afterwards 
 said that Waterloo was won in the playing-fields at 
 Eton. He meant that Englishmen became strong 
 and alert by taking part in football and cricket, and 
 so were able to beat their foes in warfare. 
 
 He spent a short time at a military school in 
 France, and in due course he entered the navy. 
 He first saw active service in Flanders in 1794, 
 when he was captain of a regiment. Soon after- 
 wards Wellesley was sent with his regiment to 
 India, where he distinguished himself by defeating an 
 able and powerful ruler in the south of India called 
 Tippoo, who was hoping, with the help of the 
 French, to drive out the English. Tippoo had 
 about seventy thousand troops, while the English 
 did not number more than twenty thousand men. 
 
 Wellesley's next great exploits were against the 
 
 383 
 
;8 4 
 
 THE STORY OF WELLINGTON. 
 
 warlike Mahrattas. When we read about Warren 
 Hastings, we learned that the Mahrattas were bands 
 
 Sir Arthur Wellesley leading the Charge at the Battle of 
 
 Assaye. 
 
 of horsemen who had plundered a great part of 
 India, had formed powerful States, and had then 
 
WELLESLEY COMMANDS IN THE PENINSULA. 385 
 
 threatened to break down English rule. They were 
 in 1800 quite as dangerous as they had been in 
 the time of Warren Hastings. 
 
 Wellesley was now made a general, and he 
 advanced against a force of Mahrattas, which was 
 nearly eight times as large as his own. Still, he 
 remembered Plassey, and did not despair. He met 
 his foes at Assaye (1803) and won a notable victory. 
 
 Again, in the same year, Wellesley routed the 
 Mahrattas, and they were glad to make peace. 
 Thus he completed the work which Clive and 
 Warren Hastings had begun, and there was no 
 serious war in central India until the Mutiny of 
 
 1857. 
 
 II. WELLESLEY COMMANDS IN THE PENINSULA AND 
 BECOMES DUKE OF WELLINGTON. 
 
 But Wellesley was to win far greater fame in 
 wars in Europe against the French. While he 
 was strengthening England in India, Napoleon 
 Bonaparte had been making himself master of 
 France, and in 1804 was crowned Emperor. Again 
 there was war between England and France, which 
 soon enveloped all Europe in flames. Though 
 Nelson drove the French off the seas, Napoleon's 
 armies were so splendidly led that they defeated 
 the Austrians, the Russians, and the Prussians in 
 several great battles. In 1807 Napoleon was 
 almost completely master of the Continent. It 
 seemed as though England was to be mistress of 
 
386 THE STORY OF WELLINGTON. 
 
 the seas, but Napoleon was to be master of the 
 land. Indeed, he hoped to be able to ruin the 
 trade of England, and so compel her to accept 
 peace on any terms. Thus the war became a 
 struggle for life or death to the British. 
 
 The French Emperor had resolved to have Spain 
 under his control. His troops occupied most of the 
 strong places in that land, and by a trick he kid- 
 
 Oporto, showing the Bridge of Boats and Troops crossing the 
 
 Douro, 1809. 
 
 napped the king of Spain and kept him a captive 
 in France. The Spaniards are a very proud people, 
 and were determined to drive out the French troops. 
 They begged England to help them in this desperate 
 struggle, and Wellesley was sent out with a small 
 force. 
 
 In 1809 Wellesley for the first time met the brave 
 French marshal Soult, with whom he had so many 
 battles. The French in Spain had invaded Portugal, 
 
WELLESLEY COMMANDS IN THE PENINSULA. 387 
 
 and now occupied the city of Oporto. Wellesley's 
 army rapidly marched against them, quickly crossed 
 the broad river Douro in boats, surprised Soult's 
 army, put it to flight, and captured all its baggage. 
 The French just managed to escape into Spain. 
 
 Wellesley gained another victory in that year, 
 1809, the battle of Talavera. As a reward for his 
 skill and valor he received the title of Viscount 
 Wellington, and a few years later he was called 
 Duke of Wellington, as we shall call him in the 
 future. 
 
 In 1 8 10 Napoleon had no enemies to fight except 
 the British, Spanish, and Portuguese troops, and he 
 hoped to be able quickly to end the Peninsular War. 
 He sent a great army of his best troops into Spain, 
 led by one of his ablest generals. On it swept through 
 Spain, and drove Wellington's smaller army before 
 it through the north of Portugal. Here Wellington 
 turned to bay, and the superior forces and utmost 
 skill of the French failed to dislodge him. 
 
 In 181 2 Napoleon collected an army of more than 
 half a million men, and led them into Russia, to sub- 
 due that vast land. He reached Moscow, but then 
 had to retreat, and lost nearly all that great army 
 in the winter snows. As he had recalled a good 
 number of his troops from Spain to serve him in 
 Russia, Wellington had not such odds to fight 
 against in Spain during the campaign of 1812. 
 
 One of the younger French generals also gave 
 Wellington an opportunity of striking quick and 
 
3 88 
 
 THE STORY OF WELLINGTON. 
 
 hard. The French had been making rapid marches 
 to cut his men off from the fortress of Ciudad Rod- 
 rigo, but near Salamanca part of their army marched 
 too far from the rest of it. Wellington saw his 
 opportunity and gained a great victory, taking about 
 
 Triumphal Entry of Wellington into Madrid. 
 
 seven thousand prisoners. This victory of Sala- 
 manca made the French give up their hold on 
 Madrid, and retreat towards the river Ebro. 
 Wellington led his army into the Spanish capital 
 amidst the wild rejoicings of the people. 
 
THE END OF THE GREAT WAR. 389 
 
 The next year he commanded a large force of 
 Spanish as well as English soldiers, and at Vittoria 
 completely defeated the French, taking all their 
 stores, money, and cannon. He then drove them 
 over the Pyrenees, and forced them to give up their 
 hold on Spain. 
 
 III. THE END OF THE GREAT WAR. 
 
 Wellington gained two more successes over his 
 adversary, Soult ; then the war came to a speedy 
 end, for the following reason. 
 
 The other peoples of Europe, especially the Ger- 
 mans, had risen against Napoleon's rule, had driven 
 his armies from their land, and had just captured 
 Paris. The French were weary of war. Napoleon 
 gave up his crown, and the victorious allies de- 
 termined that he should now rule only over the 
 small island of Elba, off the coast of Italy. 
 
 But there was much discontent in France with 
 the ruler who took Napoleon's place, and when the 
 allies began to quarrel among themselves, Napoleon 
 secretly took ship, and with a few troops landed on 
 the coast of France. His old soldiers soon flocked 
 to his side, and he again became Emperor of the 
 French for a short time. But troops began to 
 march from Prussia, Austria, and Russia to de- 
 throne him. 
 
 England also sent an army to Belgium, under the 
 command of Wellington, who now, for the first time, 
 met the great Napoleon in battle. The French 
 
390 THE STORY OF WELLINGTON. 
 
 Emperor hoped to surprise Wellington's army and 
 that of the Prussians. He nearly succeeded, and 
 flinging a great French force against the Prussians 
 at Ligny, he defeated them and drove them back. 
 
 On that same day another desperate battle was 
 going on at Quatre Bras, only a few miles away 
 from Ligny. Wellington's men there had hard 
 work to keep their position from being seized by 
 the French. At last, when the English army was 
 reenforced, the French drew off; but Wellington 
 had to fall back on a position at Waterloo, nearer 
 Brussels, to keep touch with his Prussian allies. , 
 
 Wellington, with sixty-nine thousand men, of 
 whom only one-third were British, now stood face 
 to face at Waterloo with Napoleon's army, which 
 numbered at least seventy-five thousand well-trained 
 soldiers. Many of Wellington's men were raw and 
 undisciplined, and he trusted to the help which 
 Bluchers Prussians would bring in the coming 
 battle. 
 
 After a terrific struggle in which the flower of 
 both armies were engaged, the victory was with 
 Wellington who, aided by the Prussians, drove the 
 French away in headlong rout. 
 
 Napoleon fled for his life to Paris. There he 
 again abdicated, and was soon taken on a British 
 war-ship to the lonely island of St. Helena. Then, 
 thanks to Wellington and Bliicher, Europe had 
 peace, which lasted for forty years. 
 
ENGLAND'S SECOND WAR WITH AMERICA. 
 
 While England was fighting Napoleon she un- 
 wisely engaged in a second war with the United 
 States. When Napoleon had become master of 
 Europe west of Spain, he attempted to bring Eng- 
 land to terms by closing all ports of Europe- to 
 her ships. England retaliated by blockading these 
 ports. - At that time the United States was the 
 rival of England in the carrying trade of the world. 
 She suffered severely and often most unjustly by 
 the seizure of her ships and cargoes. 
 
 Again England claimed the right to search 
 American vessels for deserters on the ground that 
 an English sailor could not lose his nationality, 
 and so could be seized anywhere and made to 
 perform service due the state. Sailors were in 
 great demand, for England had large fleets of war 
 vessels in service, and naturally the officers were 
 not particular as to the nationality of the sailors 
 whom they impressed. It is claimed that thousands 
 of American sailors were forced to man English 
 ships during the Napoleonic wars. After a bitter 
 controversy war was declared (1812). On land it 
 was waged about the Great Lakes for the most 
 part, with much bloodshed but indifferent results. 
 Washington was captured by the English and wan- 
 
 391 
 
39 2 England's second war with America. 
 
 tonly burned; but in her attempts upon New Orleans 
 England suffered a terrible defeat. It was the battle 
 of Bunker Hill repeated. Brave men charged across 
 an open plain upon breastworks manned by men 
 equally brave; but this time there was plenty of 
 ammunition. 
 
 On the ocean the Americans were brilliantly 
 successful in a series of great naval battles. Their 
 ships were built on finer lines and threw greater 
 weight of metal than the English. On the Great 
 Lakes, too, the Americans were easily victorious. 
 
 This distressing war ended with the exhaustion 
 of both parties and the tacit withdrawal on the part 
 of England of the claim of her right to search 
 American ships. 
 
STORY OF SPINNING AND WEAVING. 
 I. HARGREAVES AND THE SPINNING-JENNY. 
 
 In early days spinning and weaving were done in 
 a very simple manner. The men would shear the 
 sheep in June, and cleanse the wool in the streams. 
 Then it would generally be put by till the long 
 autumn and winter evenings, when the wife and 
 
 A Weaver at a Hand-loom. 
 
 daughters would take out their spinning-wheels, 
 and make the rough wool into thread. 
 
 Then the husband at his loom would weave the 
 threads into cloth. In various parts of England 
 there were small factories, where many men and 
 apprentices were busy. The cloth turned out was 
 generally coarse, and it took a long time to make. 
 Besides, the spinners or spinsters of a family could 
 
 393 
 
394 STORY OF SPINNING AND WEAVING. 
 
 not make enough thread to keep one weaver going. 
 So men set their wits to work to invent some con- 
 trivance which would get the spinning done more 
 quickly. 
 
 Among the first to make any important advance 
 was a Lancashire weaver named Hargreaves. His 
 wife's spinning-wheel happened to be overturned, 
 and he noticed that the wheel went on turning when 
 
 Hargreaves's Spinning-jenny. 
 
 it was in that position. He thought to himself, 
 " Why should I not make a machine in which sev- 
 eral wheels could turn in that way, and which could 
 hold the pieces of wool and give them the twist 
 which would make them into thread ? " 
 
 Before long he made a machine (i 767) which spun 
 several threads more quickly and finely than his 
 wife and daughter could do them. He called his 
 machine a jenny, after the name of his wife. But 
 
THE STORY OF ARKWRIGHT AND CROMPTON. 395 
 
 his neighbors were jealous. They broke into his 
 cottage and destroyed his jenny. Then he re- 
 moved to Nottingham and made another better 
 than the first. After a few years he made one 
 which would spin thirty threads at once, and his 
 machine was found to be so useful that it was soon 
 used even in the village where the first jenny had 
 been destroyed. Hargreaves himself died a poor 
 man in 1778. 
 
 II. THE STORY OF ARKWRIGHT AND CROMPTON. 
 
 Another man who improved the spinning of 
 thread was Richard Arkwright. After being for 
 
 Arkwright's Spinning-jenny. 
 
 some time a barber, he travelled about buying up 
 hair, which he sold to wig-makers. In his travels 
 he kept his eyes open to what was going on in 
 
39^ 
 
 STORY OF SPINNING AND WEAVING. 
 
 other trades, and at that time there had been one 
 or two attempts to make a spinning-machine. He 
 knew little about this machinery at first, but he 
 made friends with mechanics and persuaded one of 
 them to make a model of a machine with improve- 
 ments which he suggested. 
 
 He next removed to Nottingham, and after a long 
 struggle with poverty he made a spinning-machine 
 which was, in some respects, better than that of 
 
 Cromfton's Spinning "Mule." 
 
 Hargreaves. In course of time he became a wealthy 
 man and was knighted by George I. 
 
 Another man who did much to improve the 
 spinning-machine was Samuel Crompton, the son 
 of a farmer near Bolton, in Lancashire, a quiet, 
 thoughtful lad ; when he was spinning, he used to 
 think of the way in which Hargreaves's jenny could 
 be improved. For a long time he worked secretly 
 at his improvement. He succeeded in making a 
 better machine than either Hargreaves or Ark- 
 
CARTWRIGHT AND THE POWER-LOOM. 397 
 
 wright, and as it had all the good points of both, 
 Crompton called his invention the mule. It made 
 thread finer and firmer than had ever been made 
 before, so that Crompton was soon able to make in 
 his own land muslins better than those of India. 
 
 The prosperity of Lancashire dates from the time 
 of Crompton ; the industry centred there more and 
 more, because the American cotton could be brought 
 so readily to Liverpool. Instead of being one of the 
 most backward of the counties, as it was in 1750, 
 it quickly became the wealthiest and most thickly 
 peopled county in Great Britain. 
 
 III. CARTWRIGHT AND THE POWER-LOOM. 
 
 It occurred to a clergyman, Dr. Cartwright, that 
 he would try to make a machine which would weave 
 cloth. At first he was laughed at, and was told 
 that it was quite impossible for any machine to copy 
 the movement of a weaver's hand. But Cartwright 
 persevered, and after long and patient labor, he con- 
 structed a machine which could weave patterns, and 
 could accomplish the same result in much less time 
 than handwork required. 
 
 In 1803 the new power-loom was first tried, and 
 was found to answer well. Since that time it has 
 been greatly improved in many ways, so that now 
 there are very few hand-looms to be found, except 
 in remote parts of Scotland and Ireland. The power- 
 
39$ STORY OF SPINNING AND WEAVING. 
 
 loom does the work more evenly, more quickly, and 
 more cheaply. 
 
 At first water-power was generally used to work 
 the new spinning-machines and the power-looms; 
 and many mills were built on swift-running rivers, 
 like those of Derbyshire, Lancashire, Yorkshire, and 
 Scotland. The cloth manufacture of the southern 
 and eastern counties began to decay, because there 
 are hardly any swift rivers in these parts. 
 
 But another change was beginning to take place. 
 Steam-power was found to be better than water- 
 power, for the rivers would occasionally overflow 
 and damage the mills, or in a dry summer there 
 might not be enough water to work the machinery. 
 In the early years of this century, the steam-engine 
 became of more use than ever it had been before. 
 You can always work a steam-engine if you can get 
 plenty of coal ; and, to get the coal cheaply, manu- 
 facturers began to make their factories and mills 
 near the great coal-pits of Lancashire, Yorkshire, 
 and the Midlands, and in the valley of the Clyde in 
 Scotland. 
 
 That is the chief reason why the great manufac- 
 turing towns have grown up near the great coal- 
 fields. To understand how this change came about, 
 we must look at the work of the chief inventors of 
 the steam-engine, Watt and Stephenson. 
 
THE STORY OF THE STEAM-ENGINE AND 
 THE LOCOMOTIVE. 
 
 I. JAMES WATT AND THE STEAM-ENGINE. 
 
 James Watt, who did so much to improve the 
 steam-engine, was born in 1736 at Greenock, a sea- 
 port at the mouth of the River Clyde. As a child, 
 he was very fond of tools, and of trying to improve 
 all his playthings. He early made many experi- 
 ments, some of which were with chemicals ; and, by 
 helping his father with the ropes and sails and ship's 
 tackle, he grew to be ready with his hands. 
 
 It was decided that he should be a maker of 
 instruments, such as compasses, parallel rulers, and 
 the like. He went to Glasgow, and then to London, 
 afterward returning to Glasgow, where he was 
 employed in making instruments for the University. 
 His skill soon gained him notice from the professors, 
 and one of them set him to repair a model of the 
 queer old steam-engines of those days. This set 
 young Watt to thinking seriously about the many 
 defects of this engine. Its greatest defect was the 
 waste of steam, and he contrived a plan for making 
 the steam do far more work than it did in the old 
 engine. 
 
 The old engines had mostly been used for pump- 
 ing water out of mines; and Watt, in 1775, went to 
 
 399 
 
400 THE STEAM-ENGINE AND THE LOCOMOTIVE. 
 
 the tin mines of Cornwall to improve the engines 
 there. Later he made an engine to work a great 
 hammer which would give three hundred blows a 
 minute — a thing never dreamed of before. After 
 1800 his steam-engine could be used by any one, and 
 many improvements were made in it ; so that it 
 
 James Watt. 
 
 began to be used more and more for working all 
 kinds of machinery in the new large factories. 
 Watt now gave his mind to the subject of making a 
 steam-boat, and a steam-engine which would draw a 
 carriage ; but the honor of these inventions was to 
 fall to others. 
 
GEORGE STEPHENSON AND THE LOCOMOTIVE. 4OI 
 II. GEORGE STEPHENSON AND THE LOCOMOTIVE. 
 
 George Stephenson was born in a humble 
 cottage near Newcastle-on-Tyne in the year 1781. 
 He was the second son of a fireman, who earned 
 only three dollars a week. Little George had a 
 hard time of it. He was ill-clad and poorly fed, and 
 soon had to take care of his four younger brothers 
 and sisters. 
 
 One of his chief duties was to keep them from 
 being run over by the wagons of coal, which were 
 drawn by horses on a railway just in front of their 
 cottage. There was then no thought about getting 
 the coal wagons drawn by a steam-engine ; for, as 
 we have already learned, the steam-engine of those 
 days was only used for pumping water out of mines. 
 For a long time George's father was the fireman 
 who looked after the fires of the pumping-engine at 
 the Wylam coal-mine. 
 
 The boy's first employment was to look after 
 some cows, for which he was paid four cents a day. 
 He used his spare time in making clay models of 
 the steam-engine, and with a friend even made a 
 large model of the winding machine which drew 
 loads up from the pit. 
 
 When he was fifteen years old, he was glad to be 
 taken on as fireman at 25 cents a day. He at once 
 began to study the working of his pumping-engine, 
 so as to be able to do his work well. By this means 
 he became a skilled workman, and had his, pay 
 
402 THE STEAM-ENGINE AND THE LOCOMOTIVE. 
 
 doubled. He also went to an evening-school, where 
 he was taught to read and write. 
 
 He continued to throw all his energy into his 
 work, and soon became well known as a repairer of 
 pumping-engines. On one occasion the manager 
 of a coal-mine came to him in despair, and said he 
 would make him a man for life if he would pump 
 the mine clear of water. Stephenson set the pump- 
 ing-engines to rights, so that in two days it pumped 
 all the water out, and the miners were able to go 
 on again with their work. 
 
 In 1 812 he was appointed engineer of the Killing- 
 worth coal-mine, with a salary of $500 a year, and 
 he now began to study seriously the means of get- 
 ting the coal wagons drawn by a steam-engine in- 
 stead of by horses. 
 
 He felt sure that he could make an engine which 
 would do its work cheaply and well. The chief 
 owner of the mine, Lord Ravensworth, believed in 
 him, and helped him to begin making a " travelling 
 engine," as it was called. He did his best ; but his 
 first engine (18 14) was not a success. 
 
 Stephenson noticed what a waste of steam there 
 was always from his engine; and he thought to 
 himself, " If I can make that steam do more work, 
 my engine will be more powerful." He therefore 
 let the steam escape up the smoke chimney. . It 
 drove out the smoke far more quickly, and gave a 
 better draught to the furnace, which burnt more 
 brightly and so made steam faster. 
 
GEORGE STEPHENSON AND THE LOCOMOTIVE. 403 
 
 Next year (1815) Stephenson made an engine 
 which had this great improvement and several 
 others. His new engine drew a heavy train of 
 coal trucks at six miles an hour, and was found to 
 do the work more cheaply than horses could do it. 
 Shortly afterwards he made a railway in the county 
 of Durham eight miles long. 
 
 In those times explosions of gas or fire-damp in 
 the collieries were terribly frequent. No one had 
 yet devised a safety-lamp ; and the miners worked 
 with open lights at constant risk to their lives. For 
 if an unguarded flame comes near to that dangerous 
 gas, a frightful explosion takes place and all near it 
 are killed. George Stephenson, after many experi- 
 ments, found out that a light might be safely used 
 inside fine wire-netting; and he made a safety-lamp 
 something like that which Sir Humphry Davy 
 planned shortly after. The Davy lamp has some 
 improvements on Stephenson's; but Stephenson's 
 was invented first, and it has saved thousands of 
 lives in the dangerous mines of the north of 
 England. 
 
 In 182 1 Mr. Pease of Darlington was planning a 
 railway to take coal from the coal-mines near that 
 town to the sea below Stockton-on-Tees. When 
 Stephenson heard that the railway was about to be 
 made, he and a friend went to call on Mr. Pease, 
 and told him that the new engine at Killingworth 
 colliery was worth fifty horses. His reasoning so 
 convinced Mr. Pease, that it was decided that 
 
404 THE STEAM-ENGINE AND THE LOCOMOTIVE. 
 
 Stephenson's engines should be used on the new 
 railway. 
 
 Stephenson drove his new engine on the opening 
 day, and it drew a long train at the rate of about 
 twelve miles an hour, which was thought most won- 
 derful. This railway was successful in carrying coal, 
 but very few passengers travelled by it. Its only 
 
 w 
 
 Stephenson's Locomotive — the "Rocket," 1829. 
 
 passenger carriages were two or three dark and un- 
 comfortable vans which were drawn by horses. 
 People still went generally by coach, even between 
 Darlington and Stockton, and it was thought a 
 great marvel when the train and the mail-coach had 
 a race, and the train won by a hundred yards. 
 
 The business men of Manchester heard about the 
 
GEORGE STEPHENSON AND THE LOCOMOTIVE. 405 
 
 success of this railway, and wanted to have a line 
 between Manchester and Liverpool, so as to travel 
 by it and get their goods more quickly. They ap- 
 pointed George Stephenson as engineer for their 
 railway, and he had the help of his well-trained son 
 Robert. The courage and patience of the Stephen- 
 sons conquered all the difficulties that were put in 
 their way by those who opposed the undertaking. 
 
 There was a race on the line, to see which of the 
 different engines was the best. Stephenson's engine, 
 the Rocket, was by far the best, for the others broke 
 down more than once. The prize of $2500, offered 
 by the directors to the maker of the best engine, 
 was therefore given to Stephenson ; and at the 
 opening of the line, in 1830, a passenger train 
 was drawn at the speed of about thirty miles an 
 hour. The world then knew that the patient 
 Northumbrian was a really great man, and that his 
 iron-horse was henceforth to be the king of the 
 road. George Stephenson and his son had a share 
 in making many other important railways. Among 
 the great achievements of Robert Stephenson we 
 may mention the high level bridge across the Tyne 
 at Newcastle, the tubular bridges across the Conway 
 River and the Menai Straits, and the immensely 
 long tubular bridge across the river St. Lawrence at 
 Montreal. 
 
THE GREAT REFORM BILL. 
 
 Some of you have no doubt seen the change 
 which has come over the life of a quiet old village 
 when a great factory has been started there, or when 
 a railway company has opened a station within easy 
 reach of it. The steady-going village, with its hum- 
 drum ways, is rudely awakened. The whirr of ma- 
 chinery, or the rush of express trains, breaks the 
 calm of rural life. The smoke of chimneys sullies 
 the pure air, and lines of new cottages branch out 
 on all sides. 
 
 Now that will show you, on a small scale, the 
 change which has been taking place on a great 
 scale in many parts of England and Scotland 
 during the last hundred years. Before the time 
 of Arkwright, Watt, and Stephenson, there were no 
 factories driven by steam power; but after their 
 time, it became more and more the custom to 
 make great factories where coal was abundant. So 
 people began to move away from the quiet towns 
 and villages of the east and south of England to the 
 new manufacturing towns which sprang up in the 
 north and Midlands ; for men have to move to 
 the place where they can get work. 
 
 Thus there grew up rapidly in the years 1790- 
 
 1830, a new, smoky, grimy, manufacturing England 
 
 406 
 
THE GREAT REFORM BILL. 407 
 
 side by side with the old pastoral and agricultural 
 England. And though the new towns of England 
 and Scotland were growing large and prosperous, 
 they had scarcely any voice in the government of 
 the country : that is to say, hardly any of them 
 could send members to Parliament, to make laws 
 and to look after their interests. The old rural 
 England still governed the new manufacturing 
 England. 
 
 Once nearly all Englishmen had had votes and 
 could take part in electing a member of Parlia- 
 ment; but by 1830 it had come to pass that most 
 of them had no votes. In fact, many places which 
 once had been prosperous, but had decayed, still 
 had the right of electing members of Parliament. 
 One place, Old Sarum, near Salisbury, was only a 
 deserted green mound, yet it sent two members 
 to Parliament. In Cornwall there were thirteen 
 villages, each of which sent two members to Par- 
 liament. On the other hand, great towns like 
 Birmingham, Blackburn, Bradford, Brighton, Green- 
 wich, Leeds, Manchester, Oldham, Sheffield, Sun- 
 derland, Wolverhampton, and others, returned no 
 member. It was high time that this absurd system 
 should be reformed. 
 
 In 1830 King George IV. died. His brother 
 William IV. came to the throne, and a new Parlia- 
 ment had to be elected. Then for the first time it 
 was seen how strong was the wish for a reform of 
 Parliament. Lord John Russell soon brought into 
 
408 THE GREAT REFORM BILL. 
 
 the House of Commons a Bill by which he pro- 
 posed to take members of Parliament away from all 
 places oi less than two thousand inhabitants ; and 
 towns having more than two thousand but less than 
 four thousand inhabitants were to have only one 
 member. Large towns like those just named were 
 now to return members to the House of Commons. 
 
 A great outcry was raised against this Reform 
 Bill, and it was thrown out by the House of Com- 
 mons. The king was at once advised to dissolve 
 Parliament, so that there might be an appeal to the 
 country whether it would have reform or not. He 
 did so; and the whole land rang with the cry, "The 
 Bill, the whole Bill, and nothing but the Bill." In 
 the new House of Commons there was a large 
 majority of members favorable to reform ; and the 
 Bill easily passed the House of Commons, only to 
 be thrown out by the House of Lords. Then there 
 was intense indignation through the country, and 
 riots broke out in many towns. 
 
 Again the Bill was Drought into Parliament, and 
 again was rejected by the House of Lords. The 
 reformers of Birmingham now threatened that they 
 would march to London two hundred thousand 
 strong, and compel the Lords to pass the bill. It was 
 in vain that the Duke of Wellington tried to form a 
 ministry and govern with a strong hand. He saw 
 that it would lead to a civil war, and that it would be 
 best to give way. He therefore advised the king to 
 recall the Reform Ministry; and when the Bill, 
 
THE GREAT REFORM BILL. 
 
 4O9 
 
4-IO THE GREAT REFORM BILL. 
 
 slightly altered, was again brought before Parlia- 
 ment, it became law (1832), after the most exciting 
 struggle which the country had passed through 
 since the coming of William of Orange. 
 
 Those who had feared that the measure would 
 lead to mob rule were soon found to be quite mis- 
 taken. The Reform Bill took power away from 
 many small and decayed towns, and gave it to the 
 new and prosperous towns, which only wanted to 
 have fair play from the government. England now 
 had fewer members of Parliament than before, while 
 more members were to be returned by large towns or 
 counties in Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. The Bill 
 also gave votes to more people in the counties, while 
 in towns those who rented a house at $50 a year, 
 or more, were to have the right of voting. This 
 gave more political power to the middle classes, and 
 to the more prosperous of the laboring classes, but 
 it did not bring mob rule ; on the contrary, it did 
 much for the cause of order. 
 
 A great reduction was made in the number of 
 days that an election might last. In former times 
 elections used to go on as long as one voter an hour 
 came to give his vote. Sometimes the voting went 
 on for weeks, and large sums were paid for votes. 
 After 1832 an election could not last more than two 
 days for a county, or one day for a town. So busi- 
 ness was not disturbed as at was before, and far less 
 bribery and rioting took place. 
 
 The Reform Bills of 1867-1871 and 1 884-1 885 
 
THE GREAT REFORM BILL. 4II 
 
 have carried on the work begun in 1832, and now 
 the House of Commons may be said to really repre- 
 sent the people of Great Britain and Ireland. 
 
 Men of all classes, from the wealthiest landowners 
 to the poorest workers in the factory or the field, 
 can now vote, without fear or favor, for a member 
 of the House of Commons, or for any of the town 
 or county governments or school boards, and bribery 
 and corruption are practically unknown. The gov- 
 ernment of England is chosen from the party which 
 has a majority in the House of Commons, which is 
 like our House of Representatives, and thus it is 
 that England is to-day, though by methods slightly 
 different from those employed by us, governed by 
 the people, for the people. The reigning monarch 
 really only registers the expression of their will. 
 
 Enormous changes have, as you see, come about 
 in this matter since the days of James I. As in Eng- 
 land, so in her colonies, no English monarch, no 
 English aristocracy, now tries to force upon the 
 people laws they do not like, but they are left to 
 make their own laws. In a word, England lets 
 them run alone and govern themselves, and they are 
 far more loyal to her than if she attempted to govern 
 them with a strong hand and in a selfish or tyran- 
 nical manner. Englishmen love freedom them- 
 selves, and have learned that what is good for them 
 is good for their fellow-men. 
 
JOHN HOWARD, THE REFORMER OF THE 
 
 JAILS. 
 
 We are now to read about some noble men, who 
 gave up a great part of their lives to serve their 
 fellow-creatures, and to improve their condition. 
 They are John Howard, who reformed the prison 
 system ; William Wilberforce, who did so much for 
 the slaves in the English colonies ; and David Liv- 
 ingstone, who gave his life for the cause of missions 
 in Africa. 
 
 When Howard was in middle life his attention 
 was called to the terrible condition of the prisons of 
 England. He visited them and found them ill-kept 
 and dirty, while the prisoners were herded together, 
 the vilest and most hardened criminals along with 
 less guilty offenders, so that the worse soon corrupted 
 those who were more respectable. Later he made 
 a tour of the chief prisons of France, the Nether- 
 lands, and parts of Germany. 
 
 Most of the Continental jails were as bad as those 
 of England, but Howard found that the prisoners 
 were set to work at some employment within the 
 prison walls, or were even compelled to mend roads, 
 while in England they were kept cooped up in mis- 
 erable dens, and were left in complete idleness. It 
 was only natural that they got into worse habits 
 
 than before, and that they fell ill of the jail fever 
 
 412 
 
JOHN HOWARD, THE REFORMER OF THE JAILS. 413 
 
 and died by hundreds. After seeing the prisons 
 of Germany, Howard felt more and more strongly 
 that the jail should be not merely a place of punish- 
 ment, but a place of correction, where the prisoner 
 might have a chance of breaking with the bad past, 
 and of learning some honest employment, which 
 would give him a new start in life when he came 
 out of prison. 
 
 Howard w T as not yet satisfied with his work, 
 although he had already travelled more than thir- 
 teen thousand miles in order to inspect English and 
 foreign prisons. He found that there were still 
 some out-of-the-way prisons in his own land which 
 he had not visited, and he travelled about to see 
 them. 
 
 When Howard at last published his book, The 
 State of Prisons, it was eagerly read. Till then 
 hardly any one had thought about prisoners ; or, if 
 people had thought about their miseries, they had 
 only shrugged their shoulders, and said that men 
 and women ought to take the more care to keep 
 out of prison. And yet it was not so easy then 
 as it is now to keep out of prison. Very many 
 small offences were punished by long imprisonment. 
 Men who set a haystack on fire, or who stole a 
 horse, or goods to the value of ten shillings, were 
 even hanged. Oat of 678 persons hanged in Lon- 
 don during the years between 1749 and 1771, as 
 many as 606 were hanged for crimes which we do 
 not now punish with death. 
 
4 14 JOHN HOWARD, THE REFORMER OF THE JAILS. 
 
 Howard's book set men thinking on the evils of 
 the whole system of punishment. They saw that 
 the law r s and the prisons, as they were then, only 
 made men worse ; and since Howard's day the. laws 
 have become more humane and just. Howard was 
 now known all over Europe for his labors on behalf 
 of prisoners, and in England he was often called the 
 prisoner's friend. 
 
 Elizabeth Fry, " the friend of women prisoners," 
 effected for this unfortunate class many of the re- 
 forms that Howard had first proposed for men. 
 
WILLIAM WILBERFORCE, THE FREER OF. 
 THE SLAVES. 
 
 In time past negro slaves had actually been sold 
 in a slave-market at Bristol and other English ports. 
 That was no longer allowed, but the slave-trade was 
 then carried on mostly by English ships. Negroes 
 from the west coast of Africa were captured by Eng- 
 lish sailors. Often their villages were burnt and 
 much blood was shed, before a sufficient number 
 of negroes were captured to make a ship's cargo. 
 Then they were driven to the shore, were forced 
 on board the boats, then on the ship, and had their 
 arms and feet fastened by chains. They were 
 packed as close as they could lie, and all the ex- 
 ercise they had was to get up and jump in their 
 chains. This they were compelled to do, as it was 
 thought to be a means of preserving their lives. 
 But, as the voyage often lasted more than two 
 months, a very large number of the poor prisoners 
 generally died on the voyage, and their bodies were 
 thrown overboard. Then, when the ship reached 
 America or the West Indian Islands, the miserable 
 survivors were sold as slaves to the planters, and 
 w T ere sent to work in the sugar plantations. 
 
 This dreadful trade in human flesh brought in 
 large gains to the ship-owners, and also to the 
 
 415 
 
41 6 WILLIAM WILBERFORCE. 
 
 planters, who got more work done by these negro 
 slaves than could be done by white men under that 
 burning sun. So, when Wilberforce and another 
 good man named Clarkson began to urge the people 
 to put a stop to this trade, there was a great outcry 
 raised by ship-owners and sugar merchants. 
 
 Time after time Wilberforce brought into Parlia- 
 ment a Bill for putting a stop to these evils ; but 
 the Bill was thrown out, sometimes by the House of 
 Commons, sometimes by the House of Lords. The 
 great war with France broke out, and William Pitt, 
 who had begun to do something for the freeing of 
 the slaves, was quite taken up by the war. But 
 after Pitt's death another great statesman, Charles 
 James Fox, came into power. In 1806 he proposed 
 a Bill for preventing British subjects from seizing 
 and selling slaves, and it was carried by a very large 
 majority. Since that time no British ships have 
 been allowed to seize slaves, and every slave who 
 sets foot on a British ship is a free man. 
 
 Though slaves might not be seized and sold, they 
 were still allowed to be kept in the colonies. For 
 twenty-seven years Wilberforce and his friends^ 
 struggled hard to get them freed. At last, just at 
 the time when Wilberforce was lying on his death- 
 bed, Parliament voted that £ 20,000,000 should be 
 given to the slave-owners in the colonies if they 
 would free their slaves ; and ever since Queen Vic- 
 toria came to the throne there have been no slaves 
 in any part of the British Empire. 
 
THE STORY OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE. 
 
 David Livingstone came of a Highland family, 
 one of whose members was slain at Culloden fight- 
 ing for the Stuarts. 
 
 He grew up to be a God-fearing and diligent 
 young man; and in 1836 he determined to become 
 a medical missionary, that is, he desired to heal the 
 bodies of the heathen as well as teach the Christian 
 religion. To gain the knowledge which would fit 
 him for his work, he became a student at the Uni- 
 versity of Glasgow ; and after each term was over 
 he worked in a factory, so as to earn money for his 
 expenses. In Glasgow he was much respected for 
 his courage and strict sense of duty. 
 
 After further preparation in London, Livingstone 
 set sail in 1840 for South Africa. That land was 
 not then the flourishing colony which it now is. 
 The white men were few and scattered, and the 
 natives were despised and ill-treated by the Dutch 
 settlers. After a time he made his way to the in- 
 terior in a wagon drawn by bullocks. This long 
 ^and tedious journey took him over vast and almost 
 arid plains, peopled by very few settlers, and still 
 haunted by the wild ostrich and the hyaena, or fur- 
 ther north by the lion and the elephant On arriv- 
 ing at his destination, Livingstone spent a little 
 
 417 
 
41 8 THE STORY OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE. 
 
 time at a mission station, where most of the natives 
 had become Christians. But he longed to go further 
 north among the tribes which were still heathen 
 savages. So he travelled away northwards, settled 
 down in their midst, learned their language, and 
 cured many of their sick by his medicines. Little 
 
 David Livingstone. 
 
 by little he won their confidence, and some of them 
 became Christians. 
 
 In course of time Livingstone married the 
 daughter of Dr. Moffat, who had long been a 
 missionary in Africa. His wife helped him in 
 many ways, especially in training the young chil- 
 dren of the natives at the settlement. But he felt 
 
THE STORY OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE. 419 
 
 it to be his duty to move on and found other 
 mission-stations. He also wished to explore the 
 country, to see if settlements could be made, and 
 peaceful means used to improve it. 
 
 After long and weary travels, Livingstone made 
 his way to the great river Zambesi. This broad 
 and noble river flowed through richly wooded 
 country, often among lofty hills. At one place it 
 plunged down into a deep chasm, making one of 
 the finest waterfalls in the world. These wonder- 
 ful falls were called by Livingstone the Victoria 
 Falls, in honor of Queen Victoria. 
 
 But though the scenery was grand and beautiful, 
 the natives were fierce and degraded. At one 
 place Livingstone saw them hack some prisoners in 
 pieces, and cast their limbs into the river to be 
 devoured by crocodiles. He was unable to stop 
 this cruel act, and hurried away in horror. He 
 travelled along up the course of the river, and came 
 across a sight which saddened him even more than 
 the last. He saw gangs of slaves, fastened together 
 by long ropes, being taken off to the coast to be 
 sold to- the slave-dealers. He then made up his 
 mind that he would do his best to bring honest 
 trade into this fair country, and so put a stop to 
 the traffic in human flesh. 
 
 At last, sick and weary, he came to the Atlantic 
 coast; then, turning back, he made his way down 
 the course of the Zambesi to its mouth in the 
 Indian Ocean. This journey had been accom- 
 
420 THE STORY OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE. 
 
 plished once previously, for a Portuguese officer 
 with soldiers had travelled across Africa from ocean 
 to ocean ; but Livingstone made this great journey 
 unprotected, save by some peaceful native attend- 
 ants, and though he passed through fierce tribes, 
 he never shed any blood. He always trusted to 
 kindness to melt the hearts even of savage chiefs, 
 and he kept up his peaceful attitude even when a 
 club was whirled over his head. For this reason, 
 and for his splendid work in an unknown land, he 
 received a warm welcome when he returned home 
 for a time of rest. 
 
 Before Livingstone's days the middle of Africa 
 was thought to be a vast sandy desert where only 
 camels and ostriches could exist. People were 
 surprised to read in Livingstone's description of 
 his travels that it was a beautiful land, teeming 
 with countless tribes and watered by noble rivers. 
 So he was honored by the universities and by 
 learned societies, as well as closely questioned by 
 the merchants of Manchester about the prospects 
 of trade. 
 
 Before long he returned to Africa, and made his 
 way up the Zambesi and one of its tributaries. He 
 was the first white man to see the great Lake 
 Nyassa, on the banks of which he hoped to found a 
 colony, and to open up a better sort of trade than 
 the slave trade. 
 
 Then he set himself to find the sources of the 
 great River Nile. He labored long and hard, and 
 
THE STORY OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE. 
 
 421 
 
 discovered two more large lakes. For some years 
 he was quite alone in the heart of that dark conti- 
 
 A Slave-gang on the March to the Coast. 
 
 nent. At last, when he was in the depths of dis- 
 tress, he was found and relieved by Mr. H. M. 
 Stanley (1871). This adventurous traveller tells 
 
422 THE STORY OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE. 
 
 us that Livingstone looked pale, weak, and weary, 
 and that his hair and beard were almost white : but 
 Stanley also noticed that the natives reverenced 
 him, and never passed his little hut without calling 
 a blessing on his head. 
 
 The old explorer was overjoyed at hearing the 
 English tongue again after having been alone in 
 Africa for so many years ; but he would not return 
 home, because he felt that his work in Africa was 
 not yet done. He wanted to make sure that the 
 rivers which he had found were the sources of the 
 Nile, and not of the Congo. But this last journey, 
 made in 1873 across marshes and other fever-stricken 
 parts, was too much for his weary frame, and he be- 
 came weaker and weaker. He had one day's severe 
 illness, and then early next morning his faithful 
 native followers found him dead. He was kneeling 
 as if in prayer. Thus he died, praying that Africa 
 might be saved from the curse of the slave-trade. 
 For that cause he had made his many travels, and 
 for Africa he laid down his life. 
 
 His native followers did what they could to pre- 
 serve the body of their beloved master. They carried 
 it reverently all the way to Zanzibar ; and now the 
 bones of Livingstone lie in Westminster Abbey, 
 where Britain buries the greatest of her heroes. 
 
THE CRIMEAN WAR 
 
 The greatest war in which Great Britain has been 
 engaged since Waterloo was the Crimean War, which 
 arose chiefly from the following causes. 
 
 Centuries ago a fierce and warlike people called 
 the Turks had crossed from Asia into the land 
 which we call Turkey. They conquered the Chris- 
 tian peoples there, and were for a long time the 
 terror of Europe. Gradually their power waned, 
 and in the early years of this century they were 
 twice conquered by the Russians. Russia hated 
 the Turks because they were Mohammedans, and 
 oppressed the Christian peoples of Turkey, who 
 were of the same religion as the Russians. In 1853 
 the powerful Czar of Russia claimed the right to 
 interfere between Turkey and her Christian sub- 
 jects ; and when Turkey refused to grant his claim, 
 he sent troops into her territory. 
 
 France and England began to take sides with 
 Turkey, because they did not want Russia to become 
 master of the Turkish lands. In 1854 they declared 
 war against Russia, and sent out great fleets and 
 armies to Varna, a Turkish port on the Black Sea. 
 But the Turks had already beaten the Russians on 
 the Danube, and had caused them to withdraw from 
 Turkish territory. 
 
 423 
 
424 THE CRIMEAN WAR. 
 
 The allies were not satisfied with this, but said 
 that the time had come to prevent Russia from be- 
 coming mistress of the Black Sea. So the English 
 and French forces were landed in the Crimea, in 
 order that they might destroy the great Russian 
 port and fortress, Sevastopol. The allies marched 
 to the south of the city, so as to get supplies from 
 their ships in the harbor of Balaclava. After some 
 delays they began to attack Sevastopol and its forts. 
 But by this time the Russians were strong enough 
 to try to cut off the British army from its ships, 
 and this led to the battle of Balaclava. 
 
 A strange blunder of the English led to the 
 famous charge of the Light Brigade. The officer 
 in command mistook the meaning of an order from 
 the commander-in-chief, and ordered his gallant 
 riders to charge the Russian army, numbering some 
 twenty-five thousand men. On swept the brave 
 horsemen into the " valley of death." The smoke 
 of the enemy's cannon and musketry fire closed 
 around them. On they rode right into a Russian 
 battery, put the gunners to the sword, and routed 
 some Russian squadrons. But then the Light Bri- 
 gade could do no more, and it had to ride back, 
 breaking through the Russians who had formed in 
 its rear. The enemy's cannon again made many 
 a brave horseman bite the dust, and out of six hun- 
 dred and seventy men of the Light Brigade only 
 one hundred and ninety-five rode back to the camp, 
 
 The Russians built strong earthworks to defend 
 
THE CRIMEAN WAR. 
 
 425 
 
426 THE CRIMEAN WAR. 
 
 Sevastopol. During the winter of 1854 and spring 
 of 1855 the English suffered frightfully from cold, 
 want, and neglect in the trenches and hospitals. 
 England was finally aroused, and the Government 
 hurried forward supplies and sent the famous Flor- 
 ence Nightingale with a corps of trained nurses. 
 
 At last, in September, 1855, the French made a 
 great effort and captured a strong Russian earth- 
 work called the Malakoff; but the English failed 
 to take the Redan, which was more difficult to hold 
 against the Russian fire. But the Russians felt 
 that they could hold out no longer in Sevastopol. 
 So they burnt the few remaining ships, blew up 
 their powder magazines, and in September, 1855, 
 they left the great fortress which for nearly a year 
 had defied the attacks of two armies. 
 
 Peace was soon made, but most of the results of 
 the war have entirely vanished. The Sultan did 
 not take advantage of the opportunity then given 
 of governing the Turkish Empire justly, and in 
 1876 many of his Christian subjects rose in revolt 
 against the bad government. Russia recovered 
 from her heavy losses in the Crimean War, and 
 in 1877 she nearly succeeded in overthrowing the 
 Turkish power. Turkey is now weaker than ever, 
 and her government is as bad as ever it was ; but 
 many of her Christian subjects have gained inde- 
 pendence from her control, and have formed the 
 flourishing states Roumania, Servia, and Bulgaria. 
 
THE INDIAN MUTINY. 
 I. THE OUTBREAK— RELIEF OF LUCKNOW. 
 
 After the exploits of Clive, Warren Hastings, 
 and Wellington, the Indian possessions of Great 
 Britain continued to increase, and the addition of 
 several kingdoms formed the Indian provinces into 
 a vast empire. When England was fighting Russia 
 in the Crimea, the discontented rulers and classes 
 in India thought it a good time to try to throw off 
 the British yoke. Many of the sepoys in the 
 service were annoyed by certain new rules, and 
 a spark kindled the discontent into a devouring 
 flame which nearly destroyed English dominion 
 in India. 
 
 It happened in this way. A new musket was 
 about to be distributed to the soldiers in India, and 
 the cartridges were said to be smeared with the fat of 
 the ox or the pig. Now, nearly all the sepoys were 
 either Hindoos or Mohammedans. The former 
 worship the ox as a sacred animal ; the latter loathe 
 the hog as unclean. For these reasons they refused 
 to touch the cartridges ; and when the news got 
 about that they would have to use them, they began 
 to mutiny. 
 
 The first serious outbreak was at Meerut (May, 
 
 1857), where they killed several of the British 
 
 427 
 
428 THE INDIAN MUTINY. 
 
 officers and even the women and children. Then 
 they seized the great city and fortress of Delhi. 
 The south and the extreme northwest remained 
 faithful, but the revolt was general in the great 
 district of the Ganges and its numerous tributaries. 
 
 At Lucknow a British garrison of nine hundred 
 men and seven hundred faithful native troops was 
 cooped up in the walls of the Residency, a large 
 building which had been made as strong as possible. 
 Soon the place was besieged by crowds of mutineers. 
 For eighty-seven days the defence was kept up 
 with splendid courage by the little garrison. They 
 held their own in spite of constant and fierce attacks, 
 — - in spite of bad food, intense heat, cholera, and 
 small-pox. At last, when all hope seemed to be 
 gone, they heard the sound of distant firing. 
 
 It was Sir Henry Havelock and his brave troops, 
 who had driven before them clouds of rebels, and 
 amidst great difficulties were now forcing their way 
 through the crowded streets of the city of Lucknow. 
 Imagine the joy with which the weary and heroic 
 garrison welcomed their deliverers. 
 
 II. SIR COLIN CAMPBELL QUELLS THE MUTINY. 
 
 Meanwhile at Delhi there had been events almost 
 as exciting as those at Lucknow. Delhi is a vast 
 fortified city, and its walls extend in a circuit of more 
 than five and one-half miles. It was held by forty 
 thousand rebel sepoys, and the brave English could 
 
SIR COLIN CAMPBELL QUELLS THE MUTINY. 429 
 
 muster only nine thousand men for the siege. This 
 small force at first made no serious attack, but 
 occupied a ridge a mile or two from the city. There 
 they were often attacked by the rebels, but they 
 clung to that ridge through the heat of the summer. 
 
 Charge of the Highlanders at Lucknow. 
 
 The arrival of reinforcements gave energy to the 
 English. They made a fierce assault upon the city 
 and entered. Then there was fierce fighting inside 
 the walls for a long time. The rebels fought 
 desperately from street to street, and from house 
 to house ; but British pluck prevailed, even over 
 
430 
 
 THE INDIAN MUTINY. 
 
 terrible odds, and Delhi was at last won (September, 
 
 1857)- 
 
 At Lucknow there was sharp fighting before the 
 garrison could be completely rescued. The aid 
 brought by Havelock had not been sufficient, but 
 more British troops were arriving from home, and 
 they were led by the gallant Sir Colin Campbell to 
 
 General Sir Colin Campbell. 
 
 the second relief of Lucknow. With only five 
 thousand men he drove aside larp-e bodies of the 
 rebels, and stormed some great buildings at Luck- 
 now. One of these was captured by Captain 
 Garnet Wolseley, who has since become a famous 
 general. 
 
 After great difficulties the British garrison was 
 rescued, and the men, women, and children were 
 
SIR COLIN CAMPBELL QUELLS THE MUTINY. 43 1 
 
 removed from the place which they had firmly held 
 for six months (November, 1857). 
 
 The worst of the mutiny was now over, and by 
 degrees the mutineers were beaten in Oude, and 
 also in Central India. Other nations had quite ex- 
 pected that England would fail ; but the struggle 
 there showed the bravery of British soldiers, and 
 proved that her men, even under that burning sun, 
 never knew when they were beaten. That was one 
 reason why they regained India, even when it 
 seemed hopelessly lost. But another reason was 
 that many of the peoples of India were contented 
 with the rule, which they had discovered to be far 
 better than that of their native princes. 
 
 Parliament now determined to make her gov- 
 ernment in India better than ever before, and de- 
 cided that England's dominions in India were too 
 large to be ruled by the East India Company. The 
 governing powers of that famous company have 
 therefore since 1858 been wielded by the English 
 government. Just laws have been made to satisfy 
 the natives, great works have been carried out to 
 make India more prosperous, and famines have been 
 relieved. The peoples of India see that England 
 is interested, and they know that it is only her rule 
 which keeps them at peace one with another. 
 
SOME INJUSTICES REMOVED. 
 
 RELIGIOUS TESTS ABOLISHED — FREE EDUCATION — 
 JUSTICE TO IRELAND. 
 
 One result of the bitter struggle between the 
 Roman Catholics and the Protestants in the seven- 
 teenth century was the passage of " The Act of 
 Supremacy," which compelled every member of 
 Parliament to acknowledge the English king 
 or queen as Head of the Church of England. 
 The Roman Catholics refused to do this, and so 
 for more than three hundred years they could not 
 sit in the House of Commons. 
 
 This unjust law remained in force until 1830. 
 Finally justice and good sense triumphed and the 
 law was repealed. But Jews were still denied 
 admission to the House of Commons. 
 
 In 1858 Baron Rothschild, the famous banker, 
 was admitted, and a few years later all religious 
 tests for admission to the House of Commons, or 
 to the great Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, 
 were removed. Tithes, too, are no longer directly 
 collected for the support of the Established Church 
 in England or Ireland. 
 
 While the great endowed or public schools of 
 England such as Harrow, Eton, and Rugby, fur- 
 
 43 2 
 
FREE EDUCATION. 
 
 433 
 
434 SOME INJUSTICES REMOVED. 
 
 nished an excellent education for the upper classes, 
 and the denominational, private, and grammar or 
 Latin schools did good work for the middle classes, 
 the poor were left to charity schools, except in Scot- 
 land, where a sound elementary education was given 
 to all. There the schoolhouse and the kirk stood 
 side by side in every village. 
 
 The ignorance of the common people of England, 
 in the nineteenth century, is shown by the fact that 
 forty per cent of the people, as late as 1840, could 
 not sign their names to the parish register. To-day 
 it is difficult to find an adult in the British Isles, 
 under thirty years of age, who has not at least a 
 fair elementary education. 
 
 But it was the people themselves who had to fight 
 for free education. The aristocracy, many of the 
 clergy, and the squires, or large landowners, bit- 
 terly opposed it for years. They claimed that if 
 every one were taught to read and write, there would 
 be no one to do the work needed to be done in the 
 world, and when they were shown how stupid this 
 idea was, they said that the common people ought 
 only to be taught "the three r's," by which they 
 meant, reading, writing, and arithmetic. 
 
 At length, and not until 1870, the education of 
 the English children was assured, and to-day it is 
 not only free, but compulsory throughout the land, 
 and all boys and girls who have intelligence and 
 industry can work their way up from the primary 
 school to the University. 
 
JUSTICE TO IRELAND. 435 
 
 During the first half of the nineteenth century 
 men, women, and children in factories and the fields 
 often worked for more than twelve hours a day. 
 Gradually the hours of labor have been reduced, and 
 now most factories only work nine hours a day ; the 
 government workshops only eight. 
 
 For a long time the writers in the newspapers in 
 England were not allowed to speak out so freely as 
 they can to-day. Men were often put in prison for 
 saying things which were against the government, 
 and much persecution of this kind was suffered. 
 Moreover, newspapers had to pay a tax, which made 
 them high-priced and prevented them from getting 
 into the hands of the poorer people. 
 
 Since the reign of James I. there has always been 
 discontent in Ireland, and with reason. A great 
 deal of the land is owned by Englishmen whose 
 ancestors obtained it by repeated acts of confisca- 
 tion because of rebellions during the reigns of 
 James and Elizabeth, and the protectorate of Crom- 
 well. The present tenants are mainly the descend- 
 ants of those whose lands were so confiscated. 
 The landlords are largely non-residents, who expect 
 their agents to send them good rentals. 
 
 Owing to their love of home and the soil on which 
 they were brought up, the tenants often promised 
 to pay more than they could afford, and often when 
 they made the land more productive, the landlords' 
 agents raised their rent. When crops failed they 
 were unable to pay, and until recently were evicted, 
 
436 SOME INJUSTICES REMOVED. 
 
 often under most cruel circumstances, thus losing the 
 value of all the improvements they had made on 
 the land. The law was always on the side of the 
 landlord. This evil had gone on for many years, 
 but with bitter complaining, when a period of dis- 
 tress came upon Ireland, between 1875 an d 1879, 
 owing to the failure of the potato crop. 
 
 The Irish Land League was then formed, which 
 had for its ultimate object to secure for the peasantry 
 of Ireland the title of the soil just as the French 
 peasantry in great measure own the soil of France. 
 The head of the League was Charles Stewart Par- 
 nell, whose mother was an American, and daughter 
 of the distinguished naval officer, Admiral Charles 
 Stewart. 
 
 The League extended throughout Ireland and 
 wherever Irishmen were found, the wide world over. 
 Immense sums of money were raised which were 
 used to support evicted tenants, to pay the ex- 
 penses of the members of the Land League who 
 were in Parliament, and the other expenses of the 
 campaign to secure justice for Ireland. The wrongs 
 of the tenants were urged upon Parliament, which 
 did take some action, but justice was doled out to 
 the Irish with a grudging hand. 
 
 The Land League then forced the " boycott " 
 against harsh landlords or agents. This word comes 
 from the name of Captain Boycott, — an unpopular 
 landlord's agent. In 1881 the people agreed among 
 themselves to sell him nothing, to transport nothing 
 
JUSTICE TO IRELAND. 437 
 
 to his house, to serve him in no way whatever, and 
 so successfully did they do this that he and his 
 family were reduced almost to starvation. This 
 weapon of " boycotting " was afterwards often em- 
 ployed against unpopular men all over Ireland. 
 
 The more reckless sympathizers with the tenants 
 mutilated cattle, burned farm buildings, shot land- 
 lords or agents, and perpetrated dynamite outrages. 
 This culminated in the murder of Lord Cavendish, 
 Chief Secretary of Ireland, and of Mr. Burke, a gov- 
 ernment official. 
 
 But Mr. Gladstone, in spite of these crimes, was 
 determined to try to do justice to Ireland. So, in 
 1 88 1, he secured the passage of a bill which is 
 known as the " Three F's " ; Fair Rent, Fixity of 
 Tenure, and Free Sale. By this law a Board of 
 Land Commissioners may fix the rent of the tenant ; 
 he is secure in the possession of his farm for fifteen 
 years ; he can sell his tenancy. 
 
 About the same time the Established Church 
 (Episcopal) of Ireland was disestablished, and it now 
 depends upon voluntary support. Thus another 
 cause of friction was removed, and a better feeling 
 seems to be growing up in Ireland, especially since 
 Mr. Gladstone's further attempts to give to Ireland 
 a measure of Home Rule. His efforts failed, but 
 since his death, a system of local self-government 
 has been introduced which it is hoped will pave the 
 way for a complete settlement of the disputes be- 
 tween the two countries. 
 
THE BRITISH COLONIES. 
 I. THE DOMINION OF CANADA. 
 
 We shall now turn our attention to the growth 
 of the chief groups of British colonies in North 
 America, Australia, and South Africa. 
 
 The Indian empire cannot be called a colony. 
 Its peoples have submitted to English rule ; but 
 that great land has not been colonized or peopled 
 by Englishmen, and it never can be, because the 
 heat is so intense that white men cannot live there 
 all their lives. 
 
 A colony is a land peopled, wholly or in part 
 from the nation which owns it ; and this has hap- 
 pened in the colonies in North America, Australia, 
 and South Africa. 
 
 In previous chapters we learned about England's 
 loss of her chief American colonies, which in 1776 
 called themselves the United States of America. 
 Many of their people did not wish to be separated 
 from the mother country, and soon moved across 
 the border, and settled in parts of Canada and of 
 Nova Scotia, so as to remain loyal to the British 
 crown. About twenty thousand of them settled in 
 a part of Nova Scotia, which was soon declared to 
 be a separate British colony, and was called New 
 Brunswick. 
 
 438 
 
THE DOMINION OF CANADA. 439 
 
 Others settled in Upper Canada, i.e. the parts 
 above Montreal, on the great river St. Lawrence, 
 and their coming made the British people far 
 stronger in Canada than ever they had been before. 
 The French, who form nearly all the population 
 of Lower Canada, had remained loyal to the 
 British rule, even when the troops of the United 
 States invaded their land and tempted them to 
 revolt. 
 
 And yet the government in London long feared 
 that Canada would revolt as the United States had 
 done. To prevent any chance of that, Canada was 
 divided into two provinces, which were kept as 
 much apart as possible. But this plan worked 
 badly. The French of Lower Canada were on bad 
 terms with the British population of Upper Canada ; 
 and both provinces were discontented with their 
 government. 
 
 In the first year of Queen Victoria's reign, there 
 was a revolt among the French. It was soon put 
 down by the British ; then the government decided 
 to unite the two provinces, and let Canada manage 
 its own affairs much more than before. From that 
 time (1841) the British part of Canada has increased 
 in population and prosperity more than the French 
 part. The French cling to their old manner of life 
 and of farming, while the English and Scotch 
 of Upper Canada have shown great enterprise. 
 
 For instance, a great railway, called the Grand 
 Trunk Railway, was opened ; and in order to con- 
 
44-0 THE BRITISH COLONIES. 
 
 nect Montreal with the United States, a very expen- 
 sive bridge was made over the St. Lawrence. It is 
 a lofty tubular bridge, more than three thousand 
 yards long, and rests on twenty-four huge stone 
 buttresses, built so as to resist the pressure of the 
 blocks of ice in spring. 
 
 Canada and the other British colonies in North 
 America continued to thrive, but little was done to 
 unite them till 1864. Then plans for uniting them 
 were discussed, and thanks to Sir John MacDonald, 
 all those colonies (except Newfoundland) agreed to 
 form the Dominion of Canada, which includes all 
 British North American colonies from Nova Scotia 
 on the Atlantic to Vancouver Island on the far-off 
 Pacific. Since then the Dominion of Canada has 
 become more and more prosperous. 
 
 II. AUSTRALIA. 
 
 There are great differences between the Domin- 
 ion of Canada and Australia. Canada is merely 
 the northern part of a great continent. Australia 
 is a vast island in the southern sea. Canada is a 
 land of great lakes and navigable rivers. The Aus- 
 tralian lakes are merely useless swamps ; the rivers 
 are often mere marshy pools connected by a feeble 
 trickle of water, but after heavy rains they rapidly 
 swell into raging torrents. In Canada the winter is 
 long and intensely cold, while Australia, except in 
 
EXPLORATION AND GROWTH OF AUSTRALIA. 44 1 
 
 its most southerly parts, has no winter. It has been 
 wittily said that in Australia you may ladle your 
 butter out in a spoon, while in Canada it often has 
 to be chopped with a hatchet. 
 
 Yet in these very different countries Englishmen 
 have prospered equally, and the population of Aus- 
 tralia and New Zealand is nearly as large as that 
 of the Dominion of Canada. At first the settle- 
 ment in Australia was very small and feeble. 
 
 Captain Cook discovered the Pacific coast of 
 Australia in 1769, and proclaimed it to be British 
 land. It was not till 1787 that any point of it was 
 settled. In that year 757 convicts were sent out to 
 form a settlement at Botany Bay, on the coast of 
 New South Wales. In the next year they were 
 removed to Sydney a little farther north. 
 
 Later free settlers went from England, and by 
 degrees roads were made over the mountains, and 
 sheep and cattle began to increase enormously. An 
 adventurous young explorer named Bass sailed 
 through the straits called after him, and when it was 
 thus proved that Van Diemen's Land (now called 
 Tasmania) was an island, convicts were sent there, 
 and formed the second Australian colony (1804). 
 A party of convicts was also sent to western Aus- 
 tralia (1826), thus founding the third of those col- 
 onies. In 1834 a colony was founded in South 
 Australia. 
 
 The youngest of those colonies are Victoria and 
 Queensland, which after 1850 became indepen- 
 
44 2 THE BRITISH COLONIES. 
 
 dent of the mother colony, New South Wales. 
 Just about the time when Victoria became a colony, 
 gold was discovered there in large quantities, and a 
 wild rush to it was made from all parts. In two 
 or three years the craze was over and matters settled 
 down. 
 
 Though gold-mining has been and is profitable, 
 the chief wealth of Australia is in the rearing of 
 sheep and the growth of wheat. Australian wheat 
 and wool are among the best in the world. The 
 vine and nearly all fruit-trees flourish in the fertile 
 parts ; and if the rainfall were more regular, Aus- 
 tralia would be one of the richest lands in the world. 
 But the long droughts often ruin the hopes of the 
 farmer, and cause the death of thousands of sheep 
 and cattle. 
 
 III. THE FEDERATION OF THE AUSTRALIAN COLONIES. 
 
 The world has probably seen no greater " triumph 
 of Democracy " than the federation of the six Aus- 
 tralian Colonies of Victoria, Queensland, New South 
 Wales, West Australia, South Australia, and the 
 Northern Territory, which have now become the 
 Australian Commonwealth. Each colony has local 
 self-government independent of that of the mother 
 country of England, and yet it is as closely bound 
 up with it and with each other as any state in 
 the Union is bound up with our own Federal 
 Government. 
 
THE FEDERATION OF THE AUSTRALIAN COLONIES. 443 
 
 During the last few years of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury there had been growing up among the Austra- 
 lians a sentiment in favor of the federation of the 
 Australian colonies, and "free and united Aus- 
 tralia," which has been the dream of many a 
 reformer and the theme of many a poet, has now 
 become an accomplished fact. The inauguration 
 of the Australian Commonwealth took place with 
 much pomp and ceremony at Sydney, New South 
 Wales, on January I, 1901. 
 
 This is probably one of the most important events 
 in the history of our race since the time when " the 
 embattled farmers stood, and fired the shot heard 
 round the world," and we should notice carefully 
 the difference between England's action in the time 
 of George III. at the end of the eighteenth century, 
 and the action she took in the reign of Queen Vic- 
 toria at the end of the nineteenth century. 
 
 In the reign of George III., a Tory Government 
 and a tyrannical king, under whose sway no real 
 liberty was enjoyed, either at home or abroad, so 
 little understood the temper of the people as to pro- 
 voke a war which lost to England the whole of the 
 American colonies. In the last days of Queen Vic- 
 toria's reign, when the English people were living 
 under what is practically the most democratic gov- 
 ernment in the world, a government which really 
 governs by the people for the people, those great 
 English colonies in the southern Pacific, which 
 have led the way in some democratic reforms and 
 
444 THE BRITISH COLONIES. 
 
 government experiments that have benefited the 
 world, have united to secure a larger measure of 
 freedom in self-government, and they have done so 
 without sacrificing any of their loyalty and love to 
 the mother land. 
 
 The new Commonwealth has framed its plan for 
 self-government largely upon the American Consti- 
 tution. It has borrowed much from England's 
 experience with Canada, and there are many who 
 think that this is the first step towards the federa- 
 tion of the British empire. 
 
 IV. CAPE COLONY AND NATAL. 
 
 The most important British colony in Africa is 
 Cape Colony. It is so called from the Cape of Good 
 Hope at the south-eastern tip of that great conti- 
 nent. The Portuguese gave that name to the cape 
 soon after they discovered it (i486), because, if they 
 reached that cape, there was a good hope that they 
 would reach India. In those days the Cape was the 
 chief place at which ships called between Europe 
 and India. After some time the Dutch East India 
 Company took possession of it, and jealously kept 
 out all other settlers and traders. Indeed many of 
 their own settlers found the rules so irksome that 
 they moved right away inland and formed other 
 settlements. 
 
 At last the rule of the Dutch ceased. In 1795, 
 an English fleet captured the settlement; and it 
 
CAPE COLONY AND NATAL. 
 
 445 
 
 has since belonged to England, except for a short 
 interval. Though it was a British colony, the set- 
 tlers were nearly all Dutch, until, in 1820, the gov- 
 ernment helped a large number of British settlers 
 to go out there, most of whom settled at or near 
 Port Elizabeth. There were many troubles with 
 the natives, especially with the agile and warlike 
 
 -■ - - -_" -■ '- - :^_~ " ■ ■ _ •■■■■ ■: •■■■- ■■■.■. ^Wgfflj 
 
 . .-■ -*. ■ " fS5 " _" .- .- "T.-.-^iJ-- 
 
 
 A Boer Trek. 
 
 Kaffirs. At one time it seemed as though their 
 hosts, armed with spears, would destroy all the colo- 
 nists, but at last they were thoroughly beaten. 
 
 There were many troubles between the govern- 
 ment and the Dutch settlers, who did not like hav- 
 ing their slaves set free by order of the English law 
 of 1834. In the following years nearly ten thousand 
 
446 THE BRITISH COLONIES. 
 
 of the Dutch farmers, called Boers, packed up their 
 goods in wagons, and went away to the north of 
 the Orange River, so as to be beyond English con- 
 trol. There they founded two independent states, 
 the Transvaal and the Orange Free State, which 
 touch Natal. 
 
 Natal was so called by the Portuguese who dis- 
 covered it, because they sighted its coast in 1497 
 on Christmas Day, the natal day of Christ. It was 
 not claimed by any Europeans till 1823, when a 
 small band of Englishmen bought land from the 
 Zulus and settled there. The little colony was 
 often in danger from the attacks of the powerful 
 and warlike Zulus, who also killed a great number 
 of Dutchmen or Boers. Then, when these had 
 conquered the Zulus, they attacked the English 
 settlers, but were at last driven back, and Natal 
 became an English colony in 1843. 
 
 V. THE TRANSVAAL AND THE ORANGE FREE STATE. 
 
 In 1869 the discovery of diamonds in Griqualand 
 West drew a large number of settlers to the country, 
 where in a short time the flourishing mining town 
 of Kimberley arose. Griqualand became part of 
 Cape Colony in 1871, and since then almost every 
 year some new region has come under the British 
 flag. 
 
 The continual discords between the Boers and 
 the natives, the bankruptcy of the Boer govern- 
 
THE TRANSVAAL AND THE ORANGE FREE STATE. 447 
 
 ment, and the desire of many of the Boers them- 
 selves, led Lord Beaconsfield in 1877 to place the 
 Transvaal under British rule, and Great Britain 
 was involved in war with the Zulus, a brave and 
 warlike race with whom the Boers had quarrelled. 
 The opening of the war was marked by the terrible 
 disaster at Isandula, when the Zulus, under their 
 king Cetewayo, cut to pieces the small British # force 
 opposed to them. But the Zulus were soon crushed 
 and Zulu land became a British colony. The Prince 
 Imperial of France, son of Napoleon and Eugenie, 
 was at this time a military student in England. In 
 a spirit of adventure he volunteered his services. 
 While on a scout his party was suddenly attacked 
 by the savages, the Prince was separated from his 
 companions and slain, and thus the last hope of the 
 Napoleonic family in the direct line in France was 
 cut off. 
 
 The Zulu war was hardly concluded when the 
 Boers revolted. They defeated small British forces 
 in several battles, and the English government, at 
 the suggestion of Mr. Gladstone, believing that the 
 annexation of the Transvaal had been a mistake, 
 with great generosity stopped the war and restored 
 their independence to the Boers, reserving to Great 
 Britain the right to control their foreign relations. 
 
 The discovery of valuable gold deposits in the 
 Transvaal — perhaps the most extensive in the 
 world — caused a great migration of Englishmen 
 to the mines. They were styled Outlanders by the 
 
448 THE BRITISH COLONIES. 
 
 Boers. They outnumbered the Boers, who were 
 fiercely jealous of them and denied them all political 
 rights, although they possessed most of the wealth, 
 intelligence, and enterprise of the colony. 
 
 The people labored under these disadvantages 
 and many others for years. The British govern- 
 ment meanwhile tried to induce the Boers to give 
 the Outlanders equal rights with them, but in vain. 
 The Boers feared progress, as we understand it. 
 They preferred farming and country life to that of 
 the towns and cities, and they feared that the city 
 dwellers, the miners, manufacturers, and capitalists, 
 grown more numerous, and in possession of equal 
 political rights with them, would outvote them. 
 They therefore continued to insist upon taxing 
 the Outlanders without allowing them to be politi- 
 cally represented. Many of these Outlanders had 
 been invited to the country by the Boers them- 
 selves, where they had invested enormous sums of 
 money, were carrying on mining and other in- 
 dustries which were heavily taxed, and had built 
 beautiful cities which had also contributed largely 
 to the revenue. 
 
 Unfortunately, while all this was being discussed, 
 some Outlanders under Dr. Jamieson attempted to 
 overthrow the Boer government, and depose Presi- 
 dent Kruger by force, by making a raid on Johan- 
 nesburg. This took place towards the end of 1895. 
 The attempt was however defeated, and Dr. Jamie- 
 son and his followers were punished. 
 
THE TRANSVAAL AND THE ORANGE FREE STATE. 449 
 
 The South African Chartered Company, which 
 was responsible for the raid, agreed to pay the Trans- 
 vaal Republic whatever sums had been expended 
 in connection with the invasion. A bill was pre- 
 sented by the Boers for eight million dollars divided 
 under two heads, material damages about three 
 millions, and moral and intellectual damages five 
 millions. The claim for moral and intellectual 
 damages was not considered by the English, and 
 details of expenditure under the other heading 
 were asked for. When they came to hand, many 
 of the items were absurd ; for example, nearly 
 twelve thousand dollars was charged for shoeing 
 horses, and twenty thousand dollars for carts and 
 horses. The raid only occupied four days, and no 
 account was taken of the fact that these supplies 
 remained the property of the Republic. Then the 
 English agreed to pay all expenses for which 
 vouchers were produced. No vouchers were ever 
 forwarded, and there the matter of compensation 
 rests. 
 
 After this, although President Kruger promised 
 to inquire into and remedy the grievances of the 
 Outlanders, their lot grew worse and worse, and in 
 March, 1899, twenty-five thousand of them appealed 
 to the British government for aid. Fresh negotia- 
 tions between the Boer and British governments 
 began immediately, and continued for over six 
 months ; President Kruger and his government in 
 the meanwhile continuing to arm themselves as 
 
450 THE BRITISH COLONIES. 
 
 rapidly as possible, as indeed they had been do- 
 ing ever since the Jamieson raid. The British, 
 meanwhile, strengthened their military forces in 
 their South African possessions bordering on the 
 Republics. 
 
 At length, however, in October, 1899, as the 
 British government found itself unable to comply 
 with certain demands of the Boers, war was begun 
 by the latter, by the invasion of the colony of Natal. 
 At first, owing to their ignorance of the geographi- 
 cal conditions of the country, their lack of prepara- 
 tion, and their clinging to old-fashioned methods 
 in warfare, the British suffered severe defeats, 
 although they fought with all the bravery for which 
 the race has ever been famous. The Boers on 
 their side were equally brave, and were frank in 
 their admiration of the bravery of the British, who 
 in turn heartily praised the bravery of the Boers. 
 The latter displayed remarkable skill in the handling 
 of their troops, adopting tactics well suited to the 
 nature of the country. After nearly two years fight- 
 ing, the British have succeeded in getting posses- 
 sion of the Orange Free State and the Transvaal 
 Republic, and the two Republics are now declared 
 British Crown Colonies. 
 
 The British nation claims that it fought in South 
 Africa for the same principle that the English in 
 America fought for in the War of the Revolution 
 against King George III., namely, that taxation and 
 representation must always go together. While the 
 
EGYPT. 451 
 
 Boers claim that they were defending their land 
 against unjust invasion, that Great Britain had no 
 right to fix the terms on which they should give 
 the franchise to the Outlanders, that England had 
 no suzerainty over the Transvaal Republics, and 
 that therefore she had no right to interfere in their 
 internal affairs. 
 
 The Germans and French have taken large tracts 
 of the African continent under their rule or pro- 
 tection. Similar extensions of British territory have 
 been made. Besides these possessions in the west 
 and south of Africa, the British hold on the east the 
 island and town of Zanzibar and considerable terri- 
 tory on the mainland. 
 
 Great trading companies are opening up the re- 
 sources of British Africa, and at last the slave-trade, 
 the curse of Africa for thousands of years, is nearing 
 its end. 
 
 VI. EGYPT. 
 
 In northeast Africa, circumstances have led to 
 the garrisoning of Egypt by British troops and the 
 rule of British officials. Through Egypt lies the 
 shortest route to India, and it is very important that 
 the country should not fall into the hands of rulers, 
 unfriendly to Britain, especially as she possesses a 
 very large number of shares in the Suez Canal 
 which connects the Mediterranean with the Red 
 Sea, and through which nine-tenths of the traffic is 
 carried on by British ships. 
 
452 THE BRITISH COLONIES. 
 
 Egypt is nominally a part of the Turkish empire 
 and is ruled under the Sultan of Turkey, by the 
 Khedive. In 1879, the Khedive Ismail abdicated 
 after a period of misrule and extravagance which 
 almost ruined the country, and his successor was 
 compelled to allow British and French officials to 
 direct his government. Many of the native Egyp- 
 tians resented this, and in 1882, an ambitious sol- 
 dier, Arabi Pasha, raised an insurrection, and 
 expelled the European officials. 
 
 England called upon France to help put down 
 the rebellion, but she refused, and England was 
 forced to act alone. Alexandria, which had been 
 fortified by Arabi, and in which a massacre of 
 Europeans had taken place, was bombarded by the 
 British fleet, and Arabi was routed by Sir Garnet 
 Wolseley at the fierce battle of Tel-el- Kebir (1882), 
 which took place after a long, silent, march across 
 the desert in the dead of night — the army having 
 only the light of the stars for its guide. Since that 
 time, Britain has taken Egypt under her protection 
 with great benefit to the country, which is now well 
 governed for the first time in its later history. 
 
 In 1888, further troubles occurred. A fanatic, 
 calling himself the Mahdi, raised a rebellion in the 
 Soudan against the Egyptian government. The 
 Egyptian garrisons were in danger of being de- 
 stroyed, and an Egyptian force sent to their relief 
 under an English officer, General Hicks, was cut to 
 pieces. General Gordon, a brave officer who knew 
 
EGYPT. 453 
 
 the country well and had done good work there 
 before, was then sent out by the British govern- 
 ment to withdraw the Egyptian garrisons. He took 
 no troops with him, believing that his personal in- 
 fluence would enable him to accomplish the work 
 safely. 
 
 On arriving at Khartoum; the capital of the Sou- 
 dan, Gordon was surrounded by the Mahdi's forces. 
 He made a gallant defence against them, but find- 
 ing it impossible to withdraw the Egyptian garrison 
 without help, he sent to London, asking for British 
 troops. Months passed before his request was 
 granted. Then Lord Wolseley was sent to Egypt 
 with a small force. On arriving, he made the 
 greatest possible haste towards Khartoum, taking 
 his army up the Nile in boats, with the help of 
 skilled Canadian boatmen, and marching rapidly 
 across the arid deserts. At the battle of Abukela, 
 the Mahdi's forces were defeated, and the British 
 pressed on, only to learn when within one hundred 
 miles of Khartoum, that the city had been betrayed 
 to the enemy, and that Gordon had been slain. 
 The Soudan was then left to its fate, and England 
 deeply mourned the loss of the general whose noble 
 character and romantic career made him so interest- 
 ing a figure. 
 
 But England never retraces a step taken in the 
 right direction. She quietly organized an army of 
 Soudanese and Egyptians, who were thoroughly 
 drilled by English officers, supported by English 
 
454 THE BRITISH COLONIES. 
 
 regulars, and commanded by a man of iron will. 
 Slowly they moved up the valley of the Nile towards 
 Khartoum. A railway followed them, insuring sup- 
 plies of all kinds. Before Khartoum, at Omdurman, 
 the army of the Mahdi was met and annihilated ; 
 Khartoum was reoccupied* and over the spot where 
 Gordon fell, the Christian burial service was read in 
 the presence of the English troops. The leader of 
 this successful expedition has since been made Lord 
 Kitchener, of Khartoum. A college has been built 
 for the education of the Soudanese, and soon rail- 
 road and river will join Cairo and Capetown, con- 
 necting the English colonies, and carrying western 
 civilization into the heart of Africa. 
 
THE STORY OF QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 The beginning of the twentieth century marked 
 the end of the long reign of Queen Victoria. She 
 reigned for sixty-four years, longer than any monarch 
 that ever sat on the English or any other throne. 
 When she ascended the throne the news took four 
 
 Windsor Castle. 
 
 weeks to reach America. The four words " The 
 Queen is dead," were flashed around the world in 
 less than half an hour. She was born on May 4, 
 18 1 9, and died January 22, 1901. She was the 
 granddaughter of King George III., a good man, 
 perhaps, but stupid and obstinate, for it was his 
 stupidity and obstinacy, and the bad advice of his 
 Tory ministers that provoked the war of the Ameri- 
 
 455 
 
456 QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 can Revolution. Victoria was very carefully edu- 
 cated, for it was soon seen that she, standing in 
 direct line of succession to the throne, was destined 
 to occupy it at no very distant day. When she was 
 about twelve years old she had gradually learned 
 that she was some day to be queen, and instead of 
 the prospect flattering her vanity, she trembled at 
 her coming responsibilities, and was very unhappy 
 at the thought of the weight of care she would have 
 to carry. But young as she was, she determined to 
 do all that she could to qualify herself for the high 
 position she was one day destined to fill. George 
 IV. had succeeded to George III., and King William 
 had followed him, dying in 1837. His successor 
 was sleeping soundly at Kensington Palace on the 
 night of June 19-20 of that year, when the Lord 
 Chamberlain and the Archbishop of Canterbury 
 came with the news that roused the maiden, who 
 had gone to sleep a princess and awoke a queen. 
 She slipped out of bed, threw a shawl round her 
 shoulders, and with her long bright hair falling over 
 her shoulders, she came into the room, and listened 
 with tearful eyes to the news they had to tell. Her 
 first thought w r as not for herself, but for her Aunt 
 Adelaide, the queen of William III., now left a 
 widow. When the Archbishop and the Lord 
 Chamberlain had left her, the queen's first act was 
 to sit down and write a letter of sympathy to her 
 widowed aunt. At eleven o'clock on June 20, the 
 Council of State was called to receive the young 
 
QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 I 
 
 457 
 
 queen. Lord Beaconsfield, describing the scene, 
 says : — 
 
 " There are assembled the prelates and captains 
 and chief men of her realm. A hum of half-sup- 
 pressed conversation fills that brilliant assemblage, 
 a sea of plumes, and glittering stars, and gorgeous 
 dresses. Hush! The portals open, — she comes. 
 The silence is as deep as that of a noontide forest. 
 
 Queen Victoria. 
 
 Attended for a moment by her royal mother and the 
 ladies of her court, who bow and then retire, Vic- 
 toria ascends her throne alone, and for the first time 
 amid an assembly of men." 
 
 On the tenth of February, 1840, Queen Victoria 
 was married to her cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Co- 
 burg, a man of noble character and great learning 
 and accomplishments. One of the most notable 
 events of the early part of her reign was the great 
 
45§ 
 
 QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 exhibition of 1 851, which was held in Hyde Park. 
 The conception of this is said to have been entirely 
 that of Prince Albert, and every boy and girl knows 
 how popular the idea has since become. Almost 
 every nation now has its International Exhibition 
 at intervals of five or ten years. The glass building, 
 which was erected in Hyde Park for this exhibition 
 in 1 85 1, was subsequently removed to a suburb of 
 
 King Edward VII. 
 
 London where it now stands, and is known as the 
 Crystal Palace. 
 
 The Princess Royal, the queen's oldest daughter, 
 who afterwards became Empress of Germany and 
 mother of the present emperor of that country, was 
 born in 1840, and a year later the Prince of Wales, 
 who is now King Edward the VII., was born. Dur- 
 ing her long life she knew what it was to lose many 
 of her loved ones, but the greatest blow of all was 
 
QUEEN VICTORIA. 459 
 
 the death of the Prince Consort in November, 1861, 
 after twenty-two years of a happy married life, such 
 as is rarely the lot of any one, whether prince or 
 pauper. 
 
 A most remarkable display of national feeling 
 took place during the illness of the Prince of Wales 
 in 1872, and the devout side of the queen's charac- 
 ter was very prominently shown when the national 
 thanksgiving took place for his recovery. In this 
 connection it has been told of the queen that when 
 asked by a foreign potentate the secret of England's 
 greatness, she pointed to the Bible. 
 
 The leading public events of Queen Victoria's 
 reign have been dealt with in the preceding chap- 
 ters (all these great happenings were matters of im- 
 mediate personal concern to her), and her declining 
 years were much saddened by the unfortunate war 
 with the Boers. 
 
 The queen was always fortunate in her ad- 
 visers. Her first minister was Lord Melbourne, 
 upon whom she relied much until her marriage 
 with Prince Albert. While she always had a clear 
 judgment and a strong will of her own, she did not 
 fail to profit by the wisdom and experience of the 
 successive Prime Ministers who came into power 
 during her reign. Her influence was always for 
 peace, and for the good of her people, but above 
 all, Queen Victoria is entitled to the rank as the 
 Mother Queen of History. She had a large family 
 of sons and daughters, all of whom were carefully 
 
460 QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 brought up with a view to their filling the high posi- 
 tions which they would one day have to occupy. 
 
 She did not escape the dangers at the hands of 
 fanatics to which all royalties seem to be exposed. 
 Several times in the course of her long reign her 
 life was attempted, but the would-be assassins in no 
 case succeeded in wounding her. 
 
 She took the keenest interest in the world's 
 doings, and followed current events with much 
 closeness. She was a widely read woman, and had 
 sound literary tastes. Her books revealed the 
 domestic side of her character in a very complete, 
 simple, and pleasant way. She had some skill as 
 a musician, and at one time devoted considerable 
 attention to painting. She was an accomplished 
 linguist, speaking several European languages, and 
 after she was created Empress of India, by Lord 
 Beaconsfield in 1876, she set herself to learn Hin- 
 dustanee in order to be able more fully to enter into 
 the thoughts of the people of the vast empire of 
 India. 
 
 During her reign the first great example was 
 given to the world of settling disputes between 
 nations without righting in the case of the Ala- 
 bama, — a ship which was fitted out in England to 
 help the South during the Civil War in the United 
 States. This vessel, as well as the Florida and the 
 Shenandoah, which either had come from British 
 ports or had used them to refit or revictual, caused 
 great damage to Northern shipping, and America 
 
QUEEN VICTORIA. 46 1 
 
 was naturally indignant with the English in conse- 
 quence. An angry dispute went on for six years 
 after the Civil War was over. At length it was 
 referred to a court which sat at Geneva, in Switzer- 
 land ; and after the most able and learned lawyers on 
 both sides had argued the case it was decided that, 
 although the English government did not wish to let 
 the ships go from, or use, her ports, she ought to 
 have taken greater care to prevent them from doing 
 so, and must therefore pay for the consequences of 
 her want of oversight, so Great Britain had to pay 
 America the sum of $17,250,000, and thus the dis- 
 pute was settled. 
 
 This great example has been followed not only 
 by those who set it, but by other nations of the 
 world, and although it may be long before war will 
 entirely cease to be the means of settling disputes 
 between the nations, there is still hope that we may 
 go on in the path of freedom 
 
 " Till the war drum throbs no longer, and the battle flags are furled 
 In the Parliament of man, the Federation of the world." 
 
 Her power was always exercised in the direc- 
 tion of social reform and for the moral well- 
 being of her people. Under her reign more was 
 done for their benefit than under any other. We 
 have spoken in other chapters of some of the 
 changes that were made : popular education, rec- 
 reation grounds for the people, Saturday half- 
 holidays, the bank holidays, and the growth of the 
 
462 EDWARD THE SEVENTH. 
 
 public library system were all movements which had 
 her warm sympathy and hearty support. The pro- 
 tection of children and animals also was a subject 
 in which she was keenly interested, and it is to her 
 influence, no doubt, that so much has been done to 
 improve a condition of things which in the early 
 days of the century was a disgrace to England. 
 
 EDWARD VII. 
 
 The education and experience of the Prince of 
 Wales have especially fitted him to carry on the 
 work of a constitutional monarch, that is, a king 
 whose powers and duties are very much the same 
 as those of the President of the United States. 
 
 He has travelled all over the world, and has be- 
 come familiar with men and affairs. He is loyal 
 to the better traditions of Englishmen, while being 
 thoroughly in harmony with the onward movements 
 of the present day, and he has always shown that 
 he has the welfare of the people at heart. 
 
 He acceded to the throne on the 2 2d of January, 
 1 90 1, and addressing the people the next day said: 
 " My constant endeavor will be always to walk in 
 her (the Queen's) footsteps. ... I am fully deter- 
 mined to be a constitutional sovereign . . . and 
 . . . to work for the good and amelioration of my 
 people," and his actions have thus far been in ac- 
 cordance with this promise. 
 
IMPORTANT DATES IN ENGLISH HISTORY. 
 
 BRITAIN BEFORE THE COMING OF THE ENGLISH. 
 
 55 b.c. 
 
 54 • 
 
 43 a.d. 
 
 78-81 
 121 
 209 
 410 
 
 Caesar's first expedition to Britain. 
 
 Caesar's second expedition to Britain. 
 
 Beginning of Roman conquest of Britain. 
 
 Agricola's government of Britain. 
 
 Hadrian's wall built between the Solway and Tyne. 
 
 Severus restored wall of Hadrian. 
 
 Roman troops withdrawn from Britain. 
 
 ENGLAND BEFORE THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 
 
 450-586 . 
 
 . The English conquest of Britain. 
 
 597 • • ■ 
 
 . Landing of St. Augustine. 
 
 827 . . . 
 
 . Egbert becomes king of all England 
 
 787 (about) 
 
 . The Danish invasions begin. 
 
 871-901 . . 
 
 . Alfred's reign. 
 
 991 , . 
 
 . Danegeld first paid. 
 
 1002 . . 
 
 . Massacre of Danes. 
 
 1016-1035 
 
 . Cnut (Canute) first Danish king. 
 
 1016 . . 
 
 . Edmund Ironside. 
 
 1 042- 1 066 
 
 . Edward the Confessor. 
 
 1066 . . 
 
 . . Harold II. 
 
 1066, Octobei 
 
 • . Battle of Hastings. 
 
 ENGLAND UNDER NORMAN KINGS. 
 
 1066-1087 
 
 . William the Conqueror 
 
 1085-1086 
 
 . Domesday Book. 
 
 1087-1100 
 
 . William II. 
 
 1093 . . 
 
 . Anselm Archbishop of Canterbury 
 
 I IOO- I 135 
 
 . Henry I. 
 
 I 100 . . 
 
 . First charter. 
 
 1135-1154 
 
 . Stephen of Blois. 
 
 1138 . . 
 
 . . Battle of the Standard. 
 
 "53 • • 
 
 . Treaty of Wallingford. 
 
 
 464 
 
IMPORTANT DATES. 
 
 465 
 
 ENGLAND UNDER PLANTAGENET KINGS. 
 
 A.D. 
 
 
 IIS4-II89 . 
 
 . Henry II. 
 
 "55 • • • 
 
 . Becket chancellor. 
 
 1 162 . . . 
 
 . Becket Archbishop of Canterbury. 
 
 1 164 . . . 
 
 . Constitutions of Clarendon. 
 
 1 1 70, Decemb 
 
 er Becket murdered. 
 
 1171 . . . 
 
 . English rule in Ireland begins. 
 
 1 1 76 . . . 
 
 . Circuit judges established. 
 
 1189-1199 
 
 . Richard I. 
 
 1199-1216 
 
 . John. 
 
 1207 . . 
 
 . Stephen Langton archbishop. 
 
 1213 . . 
 
 . John's homage to Pope Innocent III. 
 
 1215 . . 
 
 . Magna Charta. 
 
 1216-1272 
 
 . Henry III. 
 
 1258 . . . 
 
 . Provisions of Oxford. 
 
 1264 . . 
 
 . Battle of Lewes. 
 
 1265 . . 
 
 . Battle of Evesham. 
 
 1265 . . 
 
 . Beginning of the House of Commons 
 
 1272-1307 
 
 . Edward I. 
 
 1 276-1 284 
 
 . Conquest of Wales. 
 
 1296 . . 
 
 . Edward invades Scotland. 
 
 1297 • • 
 
 . Confirmation of the charters. 
 
 1307-1327 
 
 . Edward II. 
 
 1314 . . 
 
 . Battle of Bannockburn. 
 
 *327-i377 
 
 . . Edward III. 
 
 1337 • • 
 
 . Hundred Years' War begins. 
 
 1340 . . 
 
 . . Battle of Sluys. 
 
 1346 . . 
 
 . . Battle of Crecy. 
 
 1347 • • 
 
 . . Capture of Calais. 
 
 1 348-1 349 
 
 . . The Black Death. 
 
 1356 . . 
 
 . Battle of Poitiers. 
 
 1362 . . 
 
 . . English language officially used. 
 
 I377~ I 399 
 
 . . Richard II. 
 
 1381 • • 
 
 . . The Peasants' revolt. 
 
 ENGLAND UNDER HOUSES OF LANCASTER AND YORK. 
 
 1399-1413 . 
 
 1403 . . . 
 
 1413-1422 . 
 
 1414 • • • 
 1415, October 
 1422-1461 
 
 1429 . . . 
 
 1431 • • • 
 
 Henry IV. 
 
 Battle of Shrewsbury. 
 
 Henry V. 
 
 Lollard rising. 
 
 Battle of Agincourt. 
 
 Henry VI. 
 
 English defeated at Orleans. 
 
 " Maid of Orleans " burnt. 
 
466 
 
 A.D 
 
 145° 
 145° 
 1453 
 
 1455 
 
 1461-1483 
 
 1466 
 1471 
 
 H75 
 
 1477 
 
 1483 
 1483-1485 
 
 1485 . 
 
 IMPORTANT DATES. 
 
 Normandy lost by English. 
 
 Jack Cade's (Yorkist) rising. 
 
 Hundred Years' War ends. 
 
 "Wars of the Roses begin. 
 
 Edward IV. 
 
 Henry VI. prisoner in Tower. 
 
 Edward IV. wins battles of Barnet and Tewkesbury. 
 
 Treaty of Pecquigny. 
 
 Caxton introduces printing. 
 
 Edward V., king, and murdered. 
 
 Richard III. 
 
 Battle of Bosworth; end of the Wars of the Roses. 
 
 ENGLAND UNDER THE TUDORS. 
 
 1485-1509 • 
 
 . Henry VII. 
 
 i486 . . . 
 
 . Star Chamber. 
 
 1492 . . . 
 
 . Perkin Warbeck's revolt. 
 
 1492 . . . 
 
 . America discovered. 
 
 1502 . . . 
 
 . Princess Margaret marries James IV. of Scotland 
 
 1509-1547 • 
 
 . Henry VIII. 
 
 i5!3-i5 2 9 • 
 
 . Wolsey in power. 
 
 1513 . . . 
 
 . Battle of Flodden. 
 
 1529 . . . 
 
 . Fall of Wolsey. 
 
 i533-i54o • 
 
 . Thomas Cromwell in power (The Terror). 
 
 1534 • • ■ 
 
 . Act of Supremacy. 
 
 1536 . . . 
 
 . Suppression of monasteries begins. 
 
 1536 . . . 
 
 . Wales united with England. 
 
 1536 • ■ 
 
 . Anne Boleyn executed. 
 
 I547-J553 
 
 . . Edward VI. 
 
 1548 • • 
 
 . First Book of Common Prayer. 
 
 1553-1558 
 
 . . Mary. 
 
 1554 • • 
 
 . Wyatt's insurrection. 
 
 1554 • • 
 
 . Lady Jane Grey executed. 
 
 1554 • • 
 
 . . Mary I. marries Philip II. 
 
 i55 6 - J 558 
 
 . . The persecution. 
 
 1558 . . 
 
 . . Calais recovered by French. 
 
 1558-1603 
 
 . . Elizabeth. 
 
 1559 • • 
 
 . . Court of High Commission founded. 
 
 1563 • • 
 
 . . English Reformation completed. 
 
 1568 . . 
 
 . . Mary Stuart flees to England. 
 
 1577-1580 
 
 . . Sir Francis Drake sails round world. 
 
 1587 . . 
 
 . . Mary Stuart executed. 
 
 1588 . . 
 
 . .. Spanish Armada. 
 
 1600 . . 
 
 . . East India Company's Charter. 
 
 1601 . . 
 
 . . Poor Law passed. 
 
IMPORTANT DATES. 
 
 467 
 
 ENGLAND UNDER THE STUARTS. 
 
 A.D. 
 
 
 
 1603- 
 
 1625 
 
 . . James I. 
 
 1605 
 
 
 . . Gunpowder Plot. 
 
 l6ll 
 
 
 . Authorized Version of Bible. 
 
 1625- 
 
 1649 
 
 . . Charles I. 
 
 1628 
 
 
 . . Petition of Right. 
 
 1633 
 
 
 . . Wentworth lord-deputy in Ireland. 
 
 1633 
 
 
 . . Laud made Archbishop of Canterbury. 
 
 1635 
 
 
 . . Ship-money resisted by Hampden. 
 
 1638 
 
 
 . . The National Covenant. 
 
 164O 
 
 
 . . Long Parliament met. 
 
 164I 
 
 
 . . Strafford executed. 
 
 164I 
 
 
 . . Court of High Commission abolished. 
 
 1 64I 
 
 
 . . Court of Star Chamber abolished. 
 
 1 64I 
 
 
 . . The Grand Remonstrance. 
 
 1642 
 
 
 . . . Affair of Five Members. 
 
 1642 
 
 
 . . Civil War begins. 
 
 1643 
 
 
 . . First Battle of Newbury. 
 
 1643 
 
 
 . . Solemn League and Covenant. 
 
 1644 
 
 
 . . . Battle of Marston Moor. 
 
 1644 
 
 
 . . . Second Battle of Newbury. 
 
 1645 
 
 
 . . , Self-denying Ordinance. 
 
 1645 
 
 
 . . Laud executed. 
 
 1645 
 
 
 . . . Battle of Naseby. 
 
 1647 
 
 
 . . . Charles I. given up to Parliament. 
 
 1648 
 
 
 . . . Pride's Purge. 
 
 1649 
 
 
 . . . Charles I. executed. 
 
 1649- 
 
 1660 
 
 . . The Commonwealth. 
 
 1649- 
 
 1650 
 
 . . Cromwell in Ireland. 
 
 1650 
 
 . 
 
 . . . Battle of Dunbar. 
 
 1651 
 
 # 
 
 , . . Battle of Worcester. 
 
 1652- 
 
 1653 
 
 . . Blake's battles with Dutch fleet. 
 
 1653 
 
 
 . . . Cromwell expels Long Parliament. 
 
 1653 
 
 . 
 
 . . . Cromwell Lord Protector. 
 
 1658 
 
 
 . . . Cromwell's death. 
 
 1660- 
 
 1685 
 
 . . Charles II. 
 
 l66o- 
 
 1667 
 
 . . Earl of Clarendon chief minister. 
 
 1665- 
 
 1667 
 
 . . Second Dutch War. 
 
 1665 
 
 . 
 
 . . . Plague of London. 
 
 1666 
 
 . 
 
 . . . Fire of London. 
 
 1667 
 
 . 
 
 . . . Dutch fleet in Medway and Thames. 
 
 1672- 
 
 1674 
 
 . . Third Dutch War. 
 
 1673 
 
 . 
 
 . . Test Act passed. 
 
 1673- 
 
 1679 
 
 . . Earl of Danby chief minister. 
 
 1677 
 
 . 
 
 . . . Princess Mary marries Prince of Orange 
 
468 
 
 IMPORTANT DATES. 
 
 A.D. 
 1679 
 
 
 , . . Habeas Corpus Act. 
 
 1685-1689 
 
 . . James II. 
 
 1685 . 
 
 . . . Monmouth's rebellion. 
 
 1688 . 
 
 . . Second Declaration of Indulgence. 
 
 1688 . 
 
 . . Seven Bishops tried. 
 
 1688, November. William of Orange lands at Torbay. 
 
 
 r William III., 
 
 \ and Mary II., to 1694. 
 
 1 689-1 702 
 
 1689 . 
 
 . . Toleration Act. 
 
 1689 
 
 
 . . Bill of Rights. 
 
 1689 
 
 
 . . Siege of Londonderry. 
 
 1690 
 
 
 , . . Battle of Boyne. 
 
 1692 
 
 
 . . Battle of La Hogue. 
 
 1692 
 
 
 . . Battle of Steenkerke. 
 
 1692 
 
 
 . . National debt began. 
 
 1694 
 
 
 . . Bank of England founded. 
 
 1695 
 
 
 . . Freedom of press. 
 
 1 701 
 
 
 . . Act of Settlement. 
 
 1702-1714 
 
 . . Anne. 
 
 1702-1713 
 
 . . War of Spanish Succession. 
 
 1704 . 
 
 . . Battle of Blenheim. 
 
 1704 . 
 
 . . Capture of Gibraltar. 
 
 1707 
 
 
 . . Act of union of England and Scotland 
 
 ENGLAND UNDER HANOVERIAN SOVEREIGNS. 
 
 1714- 
 
 1727 . 
 
 . George I. 
 
 1715 
 
 . . 
 
 . First Jacobite rebellion. 
 
 1711- 
 
 1720 
 
 . South Sea Scheme. 
 
 1721- 
 
 1742 . 
 
 . Walpole prime minister; the Cabinet 
 
 1727- 
 
 1760 
 
 . George II. 
 
 1741- 
 
 1748 . 
 
 War of Austrian Succession. 
 
 1743 
 
 . 
 
 . Battle of Dettingen. 
 
 1745 
 
 . 
 
 . Battle of Fontenoy. 
 
 1745- 
 
 1746 
 
 . Young Pretender's rebellion. 
 
 1745 
 
 . . 
 
 . Battle of Prestonpans. 
 
 1746 
 
 . 
 
 . Battle of Falkirk. 
 
 1746 
 
 . 
 
 . Battle of Culloden. 
 
 1752 
 
 . . 
 
 . New style (calendar) adopted. 
 
 1756- 
 
 1763 
 
 . Seven Years' War. 
 
 !757" 
 
 1761 
 
 . William Pitt (the elder) in power. 
 
 1760 
 
 . 
 
 . Conquest of Canada. 
 
 1760- 
 
 •1820 
 
 . George III. 
 
 1762 
 
 . 
 
 . Capture of Havana. 
 
 1764 
 
 . 
 
 . Grenville's Stamp Act. 
 
 1773 
 
 . . 
 
 . . Attack on tea ships in Boston harbor. 
 
IMPORTANT DATES. 
 
 469 
 
 A.D. 
 
 
 1774 . • • 
 
 . American Declaration of Rights. 
 
 1775 • • • 
 
 . War of American colonists. 
 
 1775 • '• • 
 
 . Battle of Bunker Hill. 
 
 1776, July 4th 
 
 . American Declaration of Independence. 
 
 1777 . . . 
 
 . British surrender at Saratoga. 
 
 1778 . . . 
 
 . Death of Chatham. 
 
 1781 . . . 
 
 . British surrender at Yorktown. 
 
 1 779-1 782 
 
 . Defence of Gibraltar. 
 
 1783 • • • 
 
 . England acknowledges America independent. 
 
 1783-1801 
 
 . William Pitt minister. 
 
 1 788-1 795 . 
 
 . Trial of Warren Hastings. 
 
 1789 . . . 
 
 . French Revolution. 
 
 1793 • • • 
 
 . War with French Republic. 
 
 1798 . . . 
 
 . Irish rebellion. 
 
 1798 . . . 
 
 . Battle of the Nile (Nelson). 
 
 1801 . . . 
 
 , Legislative Union of Great Britain and Ireland 
 
 1801 . . . 
 
 . Battle of Copenhagen (Nelson). 
 
 1802 . . , 
 
 . Peace of Amiens. 
 
 1805, October 
 
 . Battle of Trafalgar. 
 
 1806, Februar 
 
 y . Death of Pitt. 
 
 1807 . . . 
 
 . Abolition of British slave trade. 
 
 1812-1814 
 
 . War with United States. 
 
 1 8 14, Decernl 
 
 )er Treaty of Ghent. 
 
 1815, June 18 
 
 . Battle of Waterloo. 
 
 181 5, Novemt 
 
 >er Peace of Paris. 
 
 1816 . . 
 
 . Second Congress of Vienna. 
 
 1820-1830 
 
 . George IV. 
 
 1828 . . 
 
 . Corporation and Test Acts repealed. 
 
 1829 . . 
 
 . . Catholic Emancipation Act passed. 
 
 1830-1837 
 
 . William IV. 
 
 1832 . . 
 
 , . First Reform Act. 
 
 1834 . . 
 
 . . Abolition of Slavery in British dominions. 
 
 1834 . . 
 
 . . New Poor Law. 
 
 1835 • • 
 
 . . Municipal Reform Act. 
 
 1837-1901 
 
 . . Victoria. 
 
 1837-1848 
 
 . . Chartists give trouble. 
 
 1838 . . 
 
 . . Anti-Corn-Law League formed. 
 
 1846 . . 
 
 . . Repeal of Corn Laws. 
 
 1850 . . 
 
 . . Sir Robert Peel died. 
 
 1851 . . 
 
 . . Great Exhibition in Hyde Park. 
 
 1854-1856 
 
 . . Crimean War. 
 
 1856, March 
 
 . . Treaty of Paris. 
 
 1867 . . 
 
 . . Second Reform Act. 
 
 1869 . . 
 
 . . Irish Church Act (Disestablishment). 
 
 1870 . . 
 
 . . Irish Land Act. 
 
 1870 . • 
 
 . . Elementary Education Act. 
 
470 
 
 IMPORTANT DATES. 
 
 A.D. 
 
 
 1874 • . 
 
 , . Ashantee War. 
 
 1877 . . 
 
 , . Victoria proclaimed empress of India 
 
 1878 . . . 
 
 , . The Berlin Treaty. 
 
 1879 . , 
 
 . Zulu War. 
 
 l88l . . .. 
 
 . Boer War. 
 
 1882 . . , 
 
 . Egyptian War. 
 
 I 884- I 885 . 
 
 . Soudan War. 
 
 I 884- I 885 
 
 . Third Reform Act. 
 
 1887, June 
 
 . Queen's Jubilee celebrated. 
 
 1896 . . 
 
 , . Jameson's Raid on the Transvaal. 
 
 1899 . . 
 
 , . Boer War. 
 
 1901 . . , 
 
 , . Edward VII. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Abdication of King James, the, 316. 
 Abraham, Heights of, 360. 
 Abukela (a'boo-ke^la), battle of, 453. 
 Accession of Edward VII., 462. 
 Acre (a/ker or a/ker), 84, 108. 
 Act of Six Articles, the, 196. 
 Supremacy, the, 432. 
 Union, the, 335, 375. 
 Africa, Germans in, 450. 
 Agincourt (aj'in-kort), battle of, 132. 
 Alabama dispute, the, 460. 
 Albemarle (al-be-marl'), 296. 
 Albert, Prince, 457-459. 
 Alexandria (al-eg-zan'dri-a), 451. 
 Alfred, King, the story of, 26-41. 
 Alma (al'ma), heights of, 425. 
 Almonry (al'mpn-ri), in Westmin- 
 ster, the, 162. 
 America, discovery of, 166-170. 
 second war with, 391-392. 
 the Spaniards in, 170. 
 William Pitt and, 365. 
 American colonies, the, 367. 
 
 War of Independence, the, 367. 
 Angles (ang'glz) overcome Britons, 
 
 16-19. 
 Anjou (an 'jo), Margaret of, 149. 
 Anne, Queen, 329, and Marlborough, 
 
 333. 
 Arabi Pasha (a-ra-be' pash'a), 452. 
 Arbitration, 461. 
 Arcades (ar'ka-dez), 298. 
 Arcot (ar-kof) taken by Clive, 350. 
 Argyle (ar-gil'), 336. 
 Arkwright (ark'rlt), Sir Richard's 
 
 spinning-jenny, 395. 
 Armada (ar-ma'da), the Spanish, 
 
 231, 234-241'. 
 Arms in Elizabeth's time, 219. 
 Army, Gen. Monk the founder of, 
 
 296. 
 Arnold, Michael, 311. 
 Articles of religion changed by 
 
 Henry VIII., 196. 
 
 Arundel (ar'un-del) castle, 64. 
 Ascham (as'kam), Roger, 211-214. 
 Ashdown, battle of, 44. 
 Ashe (ash), Marlborough, born at, 
 
 326. 
 Assaye (as-si'), battle of, 384. 
 Asser (as'er), Bishop, 38. 
 Assizes first held, 68. 
 Atheling (ath'el-ing), Edgar the, 48. 
 Athelny (ath'el-ni), 31. 
 Athelstan (ath'el-stan), 42. 
 Augustine (a-gus'tin), 18, 20. 
 Australasia (as-tra-la'sha), 440. 
 Australia (as-tra'lia) , 438-442. 
 Australian commonwealth, the, 442. 
 
 Babington (bab'ing-ton), 243. 
 
 Balaclava (bal-a-kla'va), 424. 
 
 Balance of power, the, 326. 
 
 Baldwin, 86. 
 
 Baliol (ba'li-ol), John, 113. 
 
 Ball, John, 140. 
 
 Baltic, the, 380. # 
 
 Bank holidays, 461. 
 
 Bannockburn (ban'ok-bern), 118, 
 
 119. 
 Barnet (bar'net), battle of, 153. 
 Bass (bas), the explorations of, 441. 
 Bastille (bas-tel'), burning of the, 
 
 372. 
 Beaconsfield (be'konz-feld), Lord, 
 
 and the Boers, 447 ; describes 
 
 Victoria's first council of 
 
 state, 457. 
 Becket (bek'et), Thomas, 69-77. 
 Bede (bed), the Venerable, 38. 
 Bedford, Duke of, 133, 137. 
 Bengal (ben-gal'), 351. 
 
 famine in, 352. 
 Bertha, Queen, 21. 
 Berwick (ber'ik), 114. 
 Bible, divided into chapters by 
 
 Stephen Langton, 92. 
 chained the, 197. 
 
 47i 
 
472 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Bible in every church, 197. 
 
 read by the people, 195-196. 
 
 secret of England's greatness, 
 the, 459. 
 Birmingham (ber'ming-am), 407. 
 Blackburn (blak'bern), 407. 
 Black Death, the, 138, 139. 
 Black Hole of Calcutta, the, 351. 
 Black Prince, the, 124. 
 Black Sea, the, 423. 
 Blake, Admiral, 286-389. 
 Blenheim (blen'im), battle of, 329. 
 Blondel (blon-del') and Richard, 87. 
 Blucher (bliich'er), General, 390. 
 "Bluff King Hal," 171. 
 Boadicea (bo-a-di-se'a), Queen, 10, 
 
 12. 
 Boat-making, 5. 
 Boer trek, a, 445. 
 Boers (borz), first revolt of the, 447. 
 
 make war on British, 449. 
 Bolingbroke, Henry, 147. 
 Bolton (bol'ton), 396. 
 Boleyn (bul'in), Anne, queen, 182, 
 
 206-214. 
 Bombay (bom-ba/), 347. 
 Bonaparte (bo'na-part), Napoleon, 
 
 373. 
 " Bonnie Prince Charlie," 343-347. 
 Boston port closed, 368. 
 Bosworth (boz'werth) Field, 154. 
 Botany Bay, convicts sent to, 441. 
 Bothwell (both'wel), Lord, 225. 
 Bowling Green at Plymouth Hoe, 234. 
 Bowls, the famous game at, 236-237. 
 "Boycott," the, 437. 
 Boyne (boin), battle of the, 320. 
 Bradford (brad'ford), 407. 
 Brandon (bran'don), C, Duke of 
 
 Suffolk. 207. 
 Brentford (brent'ford), 269. 
 Britain (brit'an), the story of an- 
 cient, 1-14. 
 
 becomes England, 15. 
 
 and the Britons, 3. 
 
 Caesar's account of, 6. 
 Britons, the, 3. 
 
 under the Romans, 12. 
 Bruce (bros), Robert, 113, 117. 
 Bruges (bro'jes), 148, 158. 
 
 first printing-press at, 160. 
 Buckingham (buk'ing-am), Duke of, 
 259. 
 
 Budleigh, Raleigh born at, 242. 
 
 Bulgaria, 426. 
 
 Bunker Hill, battle of, 368. 
 
 Burgh (borg) on Sands, Edward I. 
 
 dies at, 117. 
 Burgundy (ber'gun-di) , Duchess of, 
 
 156. 
 Duke of, 159. 
 Burke (berk), Mr., murder of, 437. 
 Burnham Thorpe (bern-nem thorp), 
 
 377. 
 
 Cabinet, the, 341. 
 
 Cabot (kab'ot), John, 168. 
 
 S., 169. 
 Cade, Jack, rebellion of, 147. 
 Cadiz (ka'diz), 231, 246, 379. 
 Caedmon (kacl'mon), 22, 23, 25. 
 Csesar (se'zar), Julius, 3. 
 
 his account of Britain, 4. 
 Caesar, the landing of, 1. 
 
 second visit to Britain, 6. 
 Cairo (kl'ro) to Capetown, 453. 
 Calais (kal'is), 123-179, 240. 
 
 attacked by Henry VIII., 172. 
 
 Henry and Francis meet near, 
 179. 
 
 lost to the English, 215. 
 Calcutta (kal-kut'a), 348. 
 Cameron of Lochiel, 344. 
 Campbell (kam'bel), Sir Colin, 421. 
 
 portrait of, 430. 
 Canada, conquest of, 360. 
 
 revolt in, 438. 
 
 settlement of, 439. 
 
 the French in, 438. 
 Canaries (ka-na'riz), 
 Candle-clocks, 40. 
 
 Canterbury (kan'ter-ber-i) Cathe- 
 dral, 71. 
 Canute (ka-niit'), King, 44-46. 
 Cape Colony and Natal, 444. 
 
 St. Vincent, battle of, 377. 
 Caradoc (kar'adok), 7-9. 
 Carberry (kar'ber-i) Hill, 226. 
 Carisbrooke (kar'is-briik) Castle, 
 
 275. 
 Carlisle (kar-lll'), 335. 
 Carolinas, the, discovered, 169. 
 Cartwright (kart'rit), R., 397. 
 Caswallon (kaz-wol'len) captured, 7. 
 Catholics and Protestants, 194. 
 Cavaliers and Puritans, 268. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 473 
 
 Cavendish, Lord F., murder of, 437. 
 Caxton (kaks'ton), the story of, 156- 
 
 105. 
 Cetewayo (set-i-wa'yo), King, 446. 
 Chained Bible, tlie, 197. 
 Chandos (chan'dos), Sir John of, 
 
 124. 
 Charles, King, I., downfall of, 274- 
 
 279. 
 portrait of, 259. 
 
 Prince, escapes in disguise, 282. 
 the Bold, 156. 
 trial of, 277. 
 Charles II., return of, 292-296, 308. 
 Charter, the Great, 89. 
 Chatham (chat'am), 229. 
 Cheapside (chep'sld), 69. 
 Chelsea (chel'si), Sir T. More's 
 
 house at, 202. 
 Chess Game and Play, of the, 162, 
 
 163. 
 Chinon (she-n6n')i 79. 
 Churls (cherlz), 17. 
 Christianity in Britain, 14-16. 
 Ciudad, Roderigo (the-6-fhafh rofh- 
 
 re'go), 388. 
 Circuits of assise, 68. 
 Civil War, the, begun, 267. 
 Clarendon (klar'en-don), Constitu- 
 tions of, 73. 
 Clarkson (klark'son) and the Slave 
 
 Trade, 416." 
 Classes in the 14th century, 143. 
 Claudius (kla'di-us), Emperor, 7- 
 
 27. 
 Clergy in the 14th century, 143. 
 Clermont, 82. 
 
 Clive (kliv), Lord Robert, 347. 
 Cloth of Gold, Field of the, 179, 
 
 182. 
 Clyde (klid), the, 398. 
 Coal fields, the, 398. 
 Colonial Empire founded, 247. 
 Colonies, the British, 438, 454. 
 Columbus, Christopher, 166, 170. 
 Common prayerbook drawn up, 207. 
 Commons, House of, people now 
 
 represented in, 411. 
 Commonwealth, the, 280. 
 
 England's greatness under, 286. 
 Comus, 298. 
 Congo, the, 422. 
 Conquest, the Norman, 47, 62. 
 
 Conway river, the, 405. 
 
 Cook, Captain, discovers Australia, 
 
 441. 
 Copenhagen, battle of, 380. 
 Coriolanus (ko'ri-o-la/nus), 252. 
 Cornwall (korn'wal), Britons flee 
 
 to, 17. 
 Coronation Stone, the, 114. 
 Corporation and Test Act, the, 309. 
 Corsica, Napoleon born at, 373. 
 
 Nelson wounded at, 377. 
 Costumes of the 14th century, 143. 
 
 Queen Elizabeth's time, 219. 
 
 King Charles's time, 267. 
 
 King Richard Ill.'s time, 145. 
 Cotton trade, the, 397. 
 Council, the Great, 100. 
 
 of Northampton, 73. 
 
 of State, 280. 
 Coverdale (kuv'er-dal) , Miles, 197. 
 Cranmer (kran'mer), Thomas, 188— 
 
 189. 
 Crecy (kra-se'), battle of, 123. 
 Crime and punishment, 413. 
 Crimea (kri-me'a), war in, 423-426. 
 Crompton (kromp'ton), 396. 
 Cromwell (krum'wel), Oliver, 267, 
 271. 
 
 the story of, 280-292. 
 
 Richard, Protector, 203. 
 
 Thomas, 189. 
 Crusades (kru-sadz'), the, 81-88. 
 
 of Edward I., 108. 
 Crystal Palace, the, 458. 
 Culloden (Cul-lo'den), 345. 
 Cumberland (kum'ber-land), Duke 
 
 of, at Culloden, 345. 
 Customs, the, 120. 
 
 Dacre (da'ker), Lord, 175. 
 Danegeld (dan'geld), 43. 
 Danes (clanz) invade England, 29. 
 Danish Conquest, the, 42. 
 
 Kings, the, 44. 
 Darlington (dar'ling-ton), 403. 
 
 Conquered by Alfred, 34. 
 Darnley (darn'li), Henry, Lord, 224. 
 
 death of, 225. 
 Dartford, Wat Tyler's rebellion 
 
 breaks out at, 140. 
 Danube (dan'iib), the, 332, 423. 
 Davy (da'vi), Sir Humphry, 403. 
 Daylesford (dales'ferd), 352. 
 
474 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Declarations of Indulgence, the, 
 
 310-311. 
 Defender of the Faith, Henry made, 
 
 195. 
 Delhi (del'lu), seized, 428. 
 Denmark, Bothwell flees to, 226. 
 De Ruyter (de ri'ter), Admiral, 288. 
 Diamonds discovered in the Trans- 
 vaal, 447. 
 Dictes (dic'tes) and sayings of the 
 
 philosophers, 103. 
 Disestablishmentof the IrishCharch, 
 
 436. 
 Dispensing Power, the, 309. 
 Domesday (dooms'day) Book, 58. 
 Donjon (don/jon), 65. 
 Doutelle (dou-tel'), Prince Charles 
 
 on board the, 344. 
 Douro (do'ro), 387. 
 crossing the, 386. 
 Dover, Charles II. lands at, 296. 
 Drake, Sir Francis, the story of, 
 
 229-233, 234. 
 Dress in time of Queen Elizabeth, 
 
 219. 
 Drogheda (droch'-eda), 281. 
 Druids (dro'idz), 14. 
 Dublin as it is to-day, 319. 
 Dudley (dud'li), Lord Guilford, 208. 
 Dunbar (dun-bar'), 225. 
 
 battle of, 281. 
 Dunkirk (dun'kerk), 238. 
 
 captured, 289. 
 Dupleix (dii-pla'), 348-358. 
 Durham (dur'am), 403. 
 Dutch, troubles with the, 286, 287. 
 in Cape Colony, the, 443. 
 
 Earls (erls), 17. 
 
 East India Company, the, 348, 431. 
 Ebro (a'bro), the river, 388. 
 Edgehill (ej'hil), battle of, 268. 
 Edinburgh (ed'n-bur-o) taken by 
 Edward I., 115. " 
 
 view in, 225. 
 Edin and Ironsides, 44. 
 Edinton (ed'n-ton), battle of, 34, 36. 
 Education, free and compulsory, 434. 
 
 in Scotland, 434. 
 Edward, King, I., 46, 107-120. 
 
 the Confessor, 48. 
 
 the Black Prince, 123. 
 
 II., 112. 
 
 Edward, King, IV., 157. 
 
 VI., 207. 
 
 VII., 462. 
 Effingham (ef 'ing-am), Lord Howard 
 
 of, 234. 
 Egbert (eg'bert) of Wessex, 18. 
 Egypt (e'jipt) conquered by Napo- 
 leon, 379. 
 
 garrisoned by British troops, 451. 
 Elba (el'ba), Napoleon at, 389. 
 Eleanor (el'a-nqr), Queen, 63, 96. 
 
 wife of DeMontfort, 96. 
 Elections, conduct of, 410. 
 Eliot, Sir John, 259. 
 Elizabeth, Queen, the story of, 214- 
 221. 
 
 death of, 246. 
 Ella (el'a), 20. 
 Ely (e'li), isle of, 55. 
 Empress of India, Victoria, 460. 
 English, who they are, 17. 
 
 and French wars in America, 367. 
 Erasmus (e-raz'mus), 195. 
 Esk, the river, 23. 
 Ethelbert (eth'el-bert), 20, 22. 
 Ethelred (eth'el-rad), 29-42, 48. 
 Ethelstane (eth'el-stan), 37. 
 Ethel wolf (eth'el-wiiif), 26. 
 Eton (e'ton), 383-432. 
 Eugene (u-jen'), Prince, killed, 330. 
 Eugenie (e-zha-ne'), 330. 
 Evesham (evz'ham), 105. 
 Evictions in Ireland, 436. 
 Exeter (eks'e-ter), Marquis of, 174. 
 
 siege of, 54. 
 Exhibition, the great, of 1851, 458. 
 Exports in Walpole's time, 342. 
 Eyren (i'ren), 164. 
 
 Faerie Queene, The, 245. 
 
 Fairfax (far'faks), Sir T., and the 
 new model army^ 273. 
 Lady, 278. 
 
 Falkirk (fal'kerk), the battle of, 116. 
 
 Falstaff (fal'staf), Sir John, 253. 
 
 Federation of the Australian Colo- 
 nies, the, 442. 
 
 Feudal (fu'dal) system, the, 57. 
 
 Field of Cloth of Gold, 179-182. 
 
 Firedamp, 403. 
 
 Fire of London, the, 303-307. 
 
 Firth of Forth, the, 335. 
 
 Five members, affair of the, 264. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 475 
 
 Fitzwalter (fits-wal'ter) , R., 90, 93. 
 Flanders (flan'derz) , 121. 
 
 Edward I. in, 115. 
 
 Edward IV. , flees to, 151. 
 
 the war in, 288. 
 Flemings (flem'ingz), the, 121. 
 Flemish weavers in England, 138. 
 Flodden (flod'n) field, battle of, 174. 
 Florida, the, 4(30. 
 
 Food in the Fourteenth Century, 
 145. 
 
 in Elizabeth's time, 218. 
 Fort St. George, 348. 
 
 William, 348. 
 Fotheringay (fofih'er-in-ga), 228. 
 Fountains Abbey, ruins of, 193. 
 Fox, Charles James, 416. 
 France, war with, 321, 373. 
 
 assists the colonies, 368. 
 Francis, husband of Queen Mary, 
 
 222. 
 Frederick the Great, 364. 
 Free trade under Walpole, 342. 
 French in Canada, the, 439. 
 
 frontier under Louis XIV., 331. 
 
 republic makes war on England, 
 372. 
 Frobisher (fro'bish-er), Sir Martin, 
 
 234. 
 Fry, Mrs. Elizabeth, 414. 
 Furniture in Elizabeth's time, 218. 
 
 Ganges, The, 428. 
 
 Gascony (gas'ko-ni) , Governor of, 96. 
 
 Gaul (gal), conquered by Caesar, 3. 
 
 and Britain (map), 4. 
 Gaunt (gant), John of, 253. 
 Geneva, arbitration at, 461. 
 Genoa (jen'o-a), Columbus born at, 
 
 167. 
 George I., King, 335. 
 George III., King, 365. 
 George IV., King, death of, 407. 
 Germans in Africa, the, 450. 
 Gibraltar (ji-bral'tar), ceded, 334. 
 
 defence of, 368. 
 Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, 244. 
 Gladstone, W. E., and Ireland. 437. 
 
 and the first Transvaal War, 447. 
 Glasgow as it is to-day, 43°-. 
 Glencoe (s;len-ko'), massacre of, 
 
 316-317. 
 Globe Theatre, the, 251. 
 
 Gloucester (glos'ter), Duke of, 153. 
 
 Gold mining in Australia, 442. 
 discovered in the Transvaal, 447. 
 
 Gordon, General, in the Soudan, 452. 
 killed at Khartoum, 453. 
 
 Grammar schools founded, 207. 
 
 " Grand Remonstrance," the, 265. 
 
 Grand Trunk Railway, the, 439. 
 
 Great Charter, the, 89-91. 
 
 Great Council, the, 100. 
 
 " Great Commoner," the, 366. 
 
 Great Rebellion, the, 258-280, 295. 
 
 Greatness of England under Crom- 
 well, 286-288. 
 
 Greenwich (gren'ij), hospital, 321. 
 
 Gregory and the English slaves, 18- 
 19. 
 
 Gregory, Pope, 20. 
 
 Grey (gra) , Lady Jane, the story of, 
 206-213. 
 
 Griqualand (gre'kwa-land) , at, 446. 
 
 Grosseteste (gros'test), Robert, 
 Bishop, 106. 
 
 Guiana (ge-a/na), 245. 
 
 Guildhall (gild'hal), 249. 
 
 Guilds, the, 146. 
 
 Guthrump (guth'rtiinp), 35-37. 
 
 Hampden (hamp'den), John, 263- 
 
 265-270. 
 Hampton Court Palace, 283. 
 
 plot, the, 323. 
 Hardrada (har-dra/da), Harold, 51. 
 Hargreaves (har'grevz), James, 394. 
 Harold, Earl of Wessex, 47, 49. 
 Harrow, 432. 
 Hastings, 40. 
 
 battle of, 50-53. 
 
 story of, 352-357. 
 
 Warren, the trial of, 357. 
 Havelock (hav'-loek), Sir Henry, 
 
 428. 
 Hawkins, Sir John, 234. 
 Hayes (haz) , Pitt the younger born 
 
 at, 369. 
 Henry II., the story of, 62, 80. 
 
 and J. Cabot, 169. 
 
 III., crowned in his father's life- 
 time, 75. 
 
 IV., 147-252. 
 
 murdered in the Tower, 153. 
 
 Prince, and the chief justice, 131. 
 
 V. at Agincourt, 252. 
 
476 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Henry VII. , 154-171. 
 
 VIII. and the French War, 171. 
 and the Succession, 206. 
 Hereward (her'e-ward) , 55,57. 
 Hicks, General, in the Soudan, 452. 
 Highlanders become British soldiers, 
 364. 
 the, at Luck now, 429. 
 Hilda, the abbess, 23. 
 Hindoos (Hin'doz), 427. 
 Hindustanee, the Queen learns, 460. 
 Hoe, the, at Plymouth, 234. 
 Holidays in the 14th century, 146. 
 Holland, Independents flee to, 256. 
 Holmby House, 275. 
 Holy rood (ho'li-rod), 345. 
 Homage, to do, 57. 
 Home rule for Ireland, 436-437. 
 Hoogley (hog'le), the, 351. 
 Horton, 297. 
 
 Hospital, the first public, 321. 
 Hounslow (hounz'lo) Heath, 310. 
 Hours of labor, 435. 
 House of Lords abolished, 280. 
 Houses in the 14th century, 144. 
 of Parliament, the, 409. 
 in time of Elizabeth, 217. 
 Howard (how'ard), Lord Thomas, 
 176. 
 engages a Spanish ship, 239. 
 John, and the jails, 412-414. 
 Sir Edmund, 175. 
 Hudson Bay, discovered, 169. 
 
 ceded to England, 334. 
 Hugh, the merchant, 86. 
 Hundred Years 1 War, the, 121, 138. 
 Huntingdon, 270. 
 Husbandmen in the 14th century, 
 
 143. 
 Hysena (hi-e'na), 417. 
 
 H Penseroso, 298. 
 
 Impeachment of the five members, 
 
 265. 
 Imperial, the Prince, death of, 447. 
 Income tax first imposed, 371. 
 Independence, the War of, 367. 
 Independents, the, 256, 273. 
 Indian army on the march, 355. 
 
 mutiny, the, 427-431. 
 India, the British in, 347, 357. 
 
 map of, 349. 
 
 Victoria, Empress of, 460. 
 
 Interdict (in'ter-dikt), the, 92. 
 Inverness, 344. 
 Ipswich (ips'wich), 177. 
 Ireland, Henry II. attempts to con- 
 quer, 78. 
 Wentworth's government of, 260. 
 justice to, 435. 
 King William's war in, 317. 
 massacre in, 265. 
 rebellion in, 280-281. 
 Irish Act of Union, 375. 
 
 Church disestablished, 437. 
 Land League, the, 436. 
 "Ironsides," Cromwell's, 271. 
 Isabella of Castile and Columbus, 168. 
 Isandula (e-san-do'la), battle of, 446. 
 Ismail (is-ma-el'), Khedive, 451. 
 
 Jacobites (jak'o-blts), 316, 335, 343. 
 
 Jail fever, the, 413. 
 
 Jamaica captured, 288. 
 
 James the Fifth of Scotland, 222. 
 
 James, Sixth of Scotland and First 
 of England, 246. 
 the Second, 309-316, 324. 
 
 James, the Pretender, 335. 
 | Jamieson (ja'me-son) raid, the, 448. 
 I Jervis (jer'vis) Admiral, 378. 
 
 Jews, disabilities of, removed, 432. 
 
 Joan of Arc (jo-an' ovark), 133-137. 
 
 Johannesberg (yo-han'nes-borg), 
 448. 
 
 John, King, 89-95. 
 
 Joyce (jois'), Cornet, 275. 
 
 Judith, wife of King Alfred, 27. 
 
 Kaffirs (kaf'erz), troubles with, 445. 
 Katharine, wife of Henry VIII., 171. 
 
 and the cardinals, 183. 
 Kenilworth, 104. 
 Kenwith, 33. 
 Khartoum (char-tom'), Gen. Gordon 
 
 killed at, 453. 
 Khedive (ke-deV), Ismael, 452. 
 Killingworth (kil'ing-werth), 402. 
 Kimberley (kim'ber-in, 446. 
 King and the Cardinal^ the, 171-187. 
 King's power, the, 309-310. 
 
 reduced by Walpole, 341 . 
 
 as head of the church, 188. 
 Kingston on Thames, 212. 
 Kinsale (kin-sal'), James lands at,317. 
 
 flees to, 320. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 477 
 
 Kitchener, Lord, of Khartoum, 454. 
 
 Knox, John, 224. 
 
 Kruger (krtig'er), President, 449. 
 
 Labrador discovered, 169. 
 
 Labor, hours of, reduced, 435. 
 
 La Hogue (la hog) Cape, battle of, 
 
 321-322. 
 L> Allegro (lal-la'gro), 298. 
 Lambeth, 203. 
 Lanark, 115. 
 Lancaster (lang'kas-ter) , the House 
 
 of, 149. 
 Langside, Mary, defeated at, 226. 
 Langton (lang'ton), Stephen, 90-92. 
 Language in the 14th century, 146. 
 
 effect of printing on the, 164-165. 
 Large, Robert, 157. 
 Latin schools, 434. 
 Laud (lad), Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury, 262. 
 Leeds (ledz), 407. 
 Leicester (les'ter), Earl of, 74. 
 
 Abbey, Wolsey at, 187. 
 
 Earldom of, 96. 
 
 Earl of, befriends Raleigh, 243. 
 Leopold (leo-pold), Duke of Aus- 
 tria, 86. 
 Leslie (les'li), David, 281. 
 Lewes (lu'es), battle of, 103. 
 Lexington, battle of, 368. 
 Ley den (li'den), 257. 
 Light Brigade, charge of the, 424. 
 Ligny (len-ye'), 390. 
 Lincoln (ling'kpn), Wolsey dean and 
 
 bishop of, 177. 
 Liverpool, 397, 405. 
 Livingstone (liv'ing-ston), David, 
 
 the story of, 417^422. 
 Llewelyn (15-el'in), 110, 112. 
 Lochiel (loch-el), Cameron of, 344. 
 Lochleven (loch-le'vn) Castle, 226. 
 Locomotive, the story of the, 401. 
 London burned by Britons, 11. 
 
 captured by Danes, 44. 
 
 sanitary condition of, 302. 
 Londonderry (lun'don-der-i), siege 
 
 of, 318. 
 Long Parliament, the, 264, 284, 294. 
 Lord Protector, the, 291. 
 "Lords of the Congregation," the, 
 
 224. 
 V Orient (lo-ryon'), 379, 381. 
 
 Louis (lo'is), of France invades Eng- 
 land, 94. 
 
 XIV. and William at peace, 322. 
 Lucknow (luk'nou), siege of, 428. 
 
 charge of Highlanders at, 429. 
 Ludgate (lud'gat) Hill, 212. 
 Luther (lo'ther), Martin, 194. 
 Lycidas, 298. 
 
 MacDonald, Flora, 346. 
 MacDonald (mak-do'nal), the, 316, 
 344, 399. 
 
 Sir John, 439-440. 
 Madras (ma-dras'), 348, 356. 
 Madrid (ma-drid'), Wellington 
 
 enters, 388. 
 Magdalen (mag'da-len) College, 177. 
 Magna Charta, 91. 
 Mahdi (ma'de), rebellion of the, 452. 
 Mahomet (ma-hom'et), 82. 
 Mahrattas (ma-rat'az), the, 354-384. 
 Maid of Norway, The, 113. 
 Maid of Orleans, The, 133. 
 Malakoff (ma'la-kof), the, 426. 
 Malplaquet (mal-pla-ka'), the 333. 
 Malta (mal'ta) taken, 380. 
 Manchester (man'ches-ter), 405-407. 
 
 Earl of, 272. 
 Mansion, Colard, 160. 
 Mar, Earl of, 335. 
 Margaret of Anjou, 149. 
 Market Drayton, 348. 
 Marlborough (marl'bur-o), the story 
 
 of, 326-334. 
 Marsh, Friar Adam, 106. 
 Marshall, Baron William, 90. 
 Marston (mars'ton) Moor, 272. 
 Mary, and the Protestants, 197. 
 
 proclaimed Queen, 209. 
 
 Queen of Scots, the story of, 
 222-228. 
 
 Queen, portrait, 318. 
 Massachusetts, charter granted to, 
 257. 
 
 and the Revolution, 367. 
 Maud, Queen, in Arundel Castle, 64. 
 Mayflower, the, 257. 
 Meals in the 14th century, 145. 
 Meavey, the river, 233. 
 Medina (me-de'na), Duke Sidonia 
 
 de, 236. 
 Meer Jaffier (iner jaf'fer), 352. 
 Meerut (me'rut), 427. 
 
478 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Melbourne, Lord, 459. 
 
 Menai Strait (men'i strat), 405. 
 
 Merlin (nier'lin), prophecy of, 110. 
 
 Merton (mer'ton), 30. 
 
 Middle class gain in political power, 
 
 410. 
 Milton, John, the story of, 297-302. 
 Minorca (mi-n6r'ka) ceded to Eng- 
 land, 334. 
 Mississippi, French possessions on, 
 
 358. 
 "Model Parliament," the, 120. 
 Moffat (mof'at), Dr., 418. 
 Mohammedans (mo-ham'ed-nz), 423. 
 Moidart (mo'i-dart), 343. 
 Monasteries, centres of trade, 68 ; 
 
 ruin of the, 191. 
 Monk, General, the story of, 292-296. 
 Montagu (mon'ta-gu), Lord, 194. 
 Montcalm (mont-kam'), 358. 
 Montfort, Simon de (mont'fort), 
 
 96-106. 
 Montreal (mont-re-al'), 439. 
 Moray (mur'a), Earl of, regent, 226. 
 Morcar, 54. 
 More (mor), Sir Thomas, the story 
 
 of, 199-205. 
 Morton, Cardinal, 199. 
 Moscow (mos'kou), Napoleon's 
 
 march, 387. 
 Mutiny, the Indian, 427-431. 
 
 Napoleon (na-po'le-on), 375. 
 
 march to Moscow, 387. 
 
 his plan to attack England, 376. 
 
 his power broken, 389. 
 
 master of the continent, 385. 
 Naseby (naz'bi), battle of, 273. 
 Natal (na-tal') and Cape Colony, 444. 
 
 an English colony, 446. 
 National debt, the, 371. 
 Naval battles with America, 392. 
 Navigation Act, the, 286. 
 Navy founded by King Alfred, 40. 
 
 the, in Elizabeth's time, 237. 
 Nazareth, Edward at, 108. 
 Neckar (nek'kar), the, 330. 
 Negroes, traffic in, 415. 
 Nelson, the story of, 377-383. 
 Netherlands (nefh'er-landz), Marl- 
 borough in, 326. 
 Newark, King Charles surrenders 
 at, 274.^ 
 
 New Brunswick, 438. 
 
 Newcastle (nu'kas-1), 401. 
 
 New forest, the, 58. 
 
 Newfoundland (nu-found'land) dis- 
 covered, 169. 
 ceded to England, 334. 
 
 Newmarket, 275. 
 
 "New Model," the, 271. 
 
 New Orleans, English defeat at, 392. 
 
 New South Wales, 441. 
 
 New York and the Revolution, 367. 
 
 New Zealand (ze'land), 440. 
 
 Nightingale, Florence, 426. 
 
 Nile, battle of the, 379. 
 sources of the, 420. 
 
 Nobles, the, in the 14th Century, 
 143. 
 
 Norfolk (nor'fpk), Duke of, 227. 
 
 Norman castle, a, 65. 
 
 Norman Conquest, the, 47-55. 
 results of the, 60-62. 
 
 Normans (nor'nianz), their charac- 
 ter and what they did for 
 England, 61. 
 
 Northampton (n6rth-amp'ton), the 
 Council of, 73. 
 
 Northumberland (nor-thum'ber- 
 land), Earl of, 186. 
 Duke of, protector, 207. 
 beheaded, 211. 
 
 Norway (n6r'wa), the maid of, 112. 
 
 Nottingham (not'ing-am), 267. 
 
 Nova Scotia (no'va sko'shia) ceded 
 to England,"339-438." 
 
 Odo (o'do), 54. 
 
 Ohio, the French possession in, 358. 
 
 Oldham (old'am), 407. 
 
 Old Sarum (sa'rum), 362, 407. 
 
 Omdurman, 454. 
 
 Oporto (o-por'to), bridge of boats 
 
 at, 386. 
 Orange Free State, founded by 
 
 Boers, 446. 
 declared British Crown Colony, 
 
 450. 
 Ordeal, trial by, 67. 
 Oxford, Earl of, 339. 
 Orinoco (o-ri-no'ko), 246. 
 Orkney (ork'ni) Islands, the, 113. 
 Orleans, the siege of, 133. 
 Oude (oud), princesses of, 356, 431. 
 Outlanders and Boers, 448. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 479 
 
 Oxford (oks'ford), captured by 
 Danes, 44. 
 in Henry IP's reign, 68. 
 the provisions of, 98-100. 
 to-day, 201. 
 
 King Charles's headquarters at, 
 269. 
 
 Palestine (pal'es-tm), 82. 
 Paris in hands of the Germans, 389. 
 Parker, Admiral, 380. 
 Parliament (par'li-ment) , houses of, 
 409. 
 
 the first (1265), 103. 
 
 the long, 264. 
 
 dissolved by Cromwell, 284. 
 
 the Model, 120. 
 Parma (par'ma), Duke of, 238-240. 
 Parnell, C. S., 436. 
 Pease (pez), Mr., 403. 
 Pennsylvania and the Kevolution, 
 
 367. 
 Perth (perth), 336. 
 Peninsular War, the, 387. 
 Peter the Hermit, 81. 
 Petition of Right, the, 258. 
 Philip, King of Spain, 212. 
 Pilgrim Fathers, story of the, 255, 
 
 257. 
 Pitt, William, Earl of Chatham, 342, 
 
 347, 362-367. 
 Pitt, William, the Younger, 369-376. 
 Plague of London, the, 302, 303. 
 Plague, the, 296. 
 Plassey (plas'se), battle of, 351. 
 Plymouth, Drake, Governor of, 233. 
 Pole, Cardinal, beheaded, 194. 
 Pondicherry (pon-cli-sher'i), 348, 352. 
 Poor-laws, beginning of, 221. 
 Pope, the, and Henry VIII. , 183-188. 
 Pope's authority thrown off, 190. 
 
 Legate, the, 178. 
 Port Elizabeth, 445. 
 Portia, 253. 
 
 Portugal (por'tu-gal), 233, 386. 
 Potatoes first brought to England, 
 
 245. 
 Potheridge, 292. 
 Power-loom, the, 397. 
 Presbyterians, the, 273. 
 Press, freedom of the, 435. 
 Preston (Pres'ton), 276, 336. 
 Pretender sails for Scotland, 335. 
 
 Pretender, James, the, 335. 
 
 the Young, 343. 
 "Pride's Purge," 276. 
 Prime minister, origin of, 340. 
 Prince Charles, 281-282. 
 Prince of Wales, the first, 112, 458, 
 
 459. 
 Princes in the Tower, the, 154. 
 Princess, Royal, 458. 
 Printers, early at work, 160. 
 Printing, 159. 
 
 at Bruges, 160. 
 
 its effect on the language, 164- 
 165. 
 Prison reform, 412. 
 Prisons, the state of, 413. 
 Provisions of Oxford, the, 98-100. 
 Protestants, the, 194. 
 Prussia (prush'a). 
 Public libraries in England, 462. 
 Public Schools, the, 432. 
 Pudding Lane, 303. 
 Punishment and crime, 413. 
 Puritan England described, 289. 
 Puritans and cavaliers, 268. 
 Puritans, the, 255-256. 
 Putney, 189. 
 
 Pym (pirn). John, 259-265. 
 Pyrenees, the, 389. 
 
 Quatre Bras (katr-bra'), 390. 
 Quebec (kwe-bek'), 358, 361. 
 Queensland, 441. 
 
 Railroad, the first, 403. 
 
 Raleigh (ra'li), 221, 238, 242-247, 
 
 248. 
 Ramillies, the battle of, 333. 
 Ravensworth (ra/venz-werth) ,Lord, 
 
 402. 
 Rebellion, story of the great, 258- 
 
 280,' 295. 
 Redan (re-dan'), the, 426. 
 Red Pole, the sign of the, 162. 
 Reformation, story of the, 188-198. 
 Reform Bill, the great, 406-411. 
 Religious persecution, 196. 
 
 tests abolished, 432. 
 Remonstrance, the grand, 265. 
 Republic, England a, 280. 
 Restoration, the, 292-296. 
 Revolt, the, of 1715, 335-336. 
 Revolution, the, of 1688, 308-325. 
 
480 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Revolution, the French, 372. 
 Rheims (reiriz), Joan of Arc at, 136. 
 Richard I., 8i-88. 
 
 the boy king and Wat Tyler's 
 men, 141. 
 
 III., 154-252. 
 
 the Protector, 293. 
 Richmond (rich'mond), Castle, 59. 
 Right, the Petition' of, 258. 
 Rivers, Earl, 162. 
 
 Rizzio (ret'se-o), D. , murder of, 224. 
 " Rocket, 1 ' The, 404. 
 Rodney, Admiral, 368. 
 Roman Catholics, justice to, 375. 
 
 disabilities removed, 432. 
 Romans, the landing of, 2. 
 
 Britons under the, 12. 
 
 Caradoc in Rome, 9. 
 
 leave England, 15. 
 
 soldiers, 9. 
 Rosalind, 253. 
 
 Roses, Wars of the, 147-155. 
 Rothschild, Baron, 432. 
 Rouen (ro'on), 123. 
 Roumania (ro-ma'ni-a), 426. 
 Roundheads, 268. 
 Royalists, 271. 
 Rufus, William, 60. 
 Rugby, 432. 
 
 Rump, the, Parliament, 276-277. 
 Runny mede (run'i-mede), 90, 93. 
 Rupert (ro'pert), Prince, 271-280. 
 Russell, Lord John, 408. 
 Russia and the Turks, 423. 
 
 Safety lamp, the, 403. 
 Salaclin (sal'a-din), 85. 
 Salamanca (sa-la-mau'ka), 388. 
 Salisbury (salz-bu-ri), 362. 
 
 Countess of, beheaded, 194. 
 San Domingo (san do-meng'go), 288. 
 Sanitary condition of London, 302. 
 Santa Cruz (san'ta kroz), 289. 
 Saracens (sar'a-senz), 108. 
 Saxe-Coburg (saks-ko'berg), 457. 
 Saxon (sak'sn), chronicle the, 38. 
 Scone (skon), the coronation stone 
 
 from, 114. 
 Scotland, invaded by Edward, 112. 
 
 education in, 434. 
 
 rebels against Laud, 263. 
 
 Invades England, 264. 
 Sebastian (se-bas'^ian), 169. 
 
 Seine (san), the, 123. 
 Self-denying ordinance, the, 273. 
 Selwood (sel'wood), forest, 35. 
 Sen lac (sen'lac), the hill of, 51. 
 Separatists, the, 256. 
 Sepoys (se'poys) and the cartridges, 
 
 427. 
 Servia (ser'vi-a), 426. 
 Sevastopol (sev-as-to'pol), 424. 
 Seven bishops, trial of the, 311-313. 
 Seymour (se-mor), Jane, 206. 
 Shakespeare (shak'sper), William, 
 
 the story of, 248-254. 
 Sheerness, 315. 
 Sheffield (shef'eld), 407. 
 Shenandoah, the, 460. 
 Sheridan (sher'i-dan), 357. 
 Sherrifmuir (sher'rif-muir), 336. 
 Ship money, 263. 
 Shire (shir) courts, the, 67. 
 Skye (ski), 346. 
 Slave gang on the march, 421. 
 Slave trade, in Africa, 440. 
 
 abolished, 416. 
 Sluys (slois), the battle of, 122. 
 Smallpox, the scourge of, 323. 
 Smithfield, Wat Tyler at, 142. 
 Smuggling, restriction of, 342. 
 Snowdon (sno'don), mountains the, 
 
 112. 
 Solemn league and covenant, the 
 
 271. 
 Solway Firth (sol'wa ferth), 227. 
 Somerset (sum'er-set), Duke of, 207. 
 Somme (som), the, 123. 
 Soudan, the rebellion in, 452. 
 
 pacified, 454. 
 Soult (sort) army routed, 387. 
 South African Chartered Company, 
 
 the, 449. 
 Southampton (south -amp'ton), 121. 
 South Australia Colony, 441. 
 South Sea Bubble, the, 337. 
 South Sea House, the, 337. 
 South wark (suth'ark), 251. 
 Spain, treaty with, in 1713, 337. 
 Spaniards in America, 169, 170. 
 Spanish Armada, the. 231, 234-241. 
 Spanish power in West Indies de- 
 stroyed, 288. 
 Spenser, Edmund, 245. 
 Spinning and weaving, the story of, 
 
 393-399. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 481 
 
 Spinning-jenny, the, 394, 395. 
 
 Sports of Elizabeth's time, 220. 
 
 Spurs, battle of. the, 173. 
 
 St. Albans (al'banz), battle of, 148. 
 Abbey of, 149. 
 
 St. Brice's Day massacre, 43. 
 
 Stanley, H. M., (stan'li), finds Liv- 
 ingstone, 421. 
 
 Stanley, Sir Edward, 175. 
 
 Star Chamber, the, Court of, 262. 
 
 Steam engine, the story of, 399. 
 
 Steam power introduced, 398. 
 
 Stephen (ste'ven), King, 62. 
 
 Stephenson (ste'ven-son), George, 
 401. 
 
 St. Helena, Napoleon at, 390. 
 
 Stirling (ster'ling), the battle of, 115, 
 336. 
 
 St. Lawrence, the, 359. 
 
 Stockton (stok'ton), on Tees, 403. 
 
 St. Paul's Cathedral, burned, 306. 
 Nelson monument in, 382. 
 rebuilt, 307. 
 
 Stratford-on-Avon (strat'ford-on-a'- 
 von), 250. 
 
 Strongbow (Richard de Clare), 78, 
 
 Suez Canal, the, 451. 
 
 Suffolk (suf'gk), Duchess of, 208. 
 
 Sunderland (sun'der-land) . 
 
 Surajah-Dowlah (so-ra-ja'dou'la) , 
 351. 
 
 Surat (so-raf), 347. 
 
 Surrey, the Earl of, 175. 
 
 Sussex (sus'eks). 
 
 Sweyn (swan), King, 43, 44. 
 
 Sydney, convicts first sent to, 441. 
 
 Talavera (ta-la-va ro) , battle of, 387. 
 
 Tasmania, 440. 
 
 Taxes first paid in money, 68. 
 
 Tax on knowledge abolished, 435. 
 
 Tea tax, the, 367. 
 
 Tel-el-Kebir (tel-el-ke-ber'), 452. 
 
 Tenant-in-chief, 57. 
 
 Teneriffe (ten-er-if), attacked by 
 
 Nelson, 379. 
 Terounne, the siege of, 173. 
 Tewkesbury (tuks'bu-ri), 153. 
 Thanet (than'et), Isle of, 20. 
 Theobald (the'o-bald), 69. 
 "Three F's," the, 437. 
 Time measurement in Alfred's day, 
 
 39. 
 
 Tippoo Sahib (ti-po' sa'hib), 383. 
 
 Tithes, abolition of direct, 432. 
 
 Tobacco first brought to England, 
 245. 
 
 Tonnage and poundage, 260. 
 
 Torbay (t6r-ba), 314. 
 
 Tostig (tos'tig), 57. 
 
 Toulon (to'ldn), Nelson at, 379. 
 
 Tournai (tor-na') captured, 174. 
 
 Tower of London, 57, 101, 203-210. 
 
 Towton (tou'ton), the battle of, 
 150. 
 
 Trade in Elizabeth's time, 220. 
 
 Traders in the 14th century, 143. 
 
 Trafalgar (traf-al-gar'), 382. 
 Square, 382. 
 
 Transvaal (tranz-val'), founded by 
 the Boers, 446. 
 discovery of gold in, 447. 
 declared British crown colony, 
 
 450. 
 Mr. Gladstone and the, 446. 
 
 Troy (troi), the siege of, 157. 
 
 Tunis (tu'nis), bombardment of, 288. 
 
 Tun-moot (tun-mot) or town meet- 
 ing, 17. 
 
 Turkey and Russia, 423. 
 
 Tyler, Wat, rebellion of, 140. 
 
 Tynclale, W., 197. 
 
 Tyne (tin), 405. 
 
 Universities, beginnings of, 68. 
 
 religious tests abolished, 432. 
 Universal suffrage, 441. 
 Urban (er'ban), Pope, 82. 
 Utopia (u-to'pi-a), 205. 
 
 Vancouver (van-ko'ver), 440. 
 
 Van Diemen's (van de'men) land, 
 
 441. 
 Van Tromp, Admiral, 288. 
 Varna (var'na), fleets sent to, 423. 
 Vaudreuil, 358. 
 Victoria (vik-to'ri-a), 441-442. 
 
 falls, the, 419. 
 
 the story of Queen, 455-462. 
 Victory, the, 382. 
 Villains in the 14th century, 143. 
 Vincent, Cape St. (vin'sent), 377. 
 Virginia, discovery of, 244, 245, 
 
 and the revolution, 367. 
 Vittoria (ve-to're-a), 389. 
 Voting in England, 407. 
 
482 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Wakefield (wak'feld), battle of, 150. 
 Wales (walz), Britons flee to, 8-17. 
 
 conquest of, by Edward, 110. 
 
 first prince of, 112. 
 Wallace (wol'as), Sir W., 114. 
 Walpole (wol'pol), Sir R., 338-342. 
 Walsinghain (wol'sing-am), Sir F. , 
 
 217. 
 Wareham (war'am), 31. 
 Warwick (wor'ik), Earl of, 149. 
 
 and Henry V., 152. 
 
 Castle, 151. 
 
 defeated at St. Albans, 150. 
 
 killed at Barnet, 153. 
 Washington captured by the Eng- 
 lish, 391. 
 Waterloo (wa-ter-lo'), battle of, 390. 
 Watt, James, 399-400. 
 Weald (weld) of Kent, the, 156. 
 Weaver at his loom, 393. 
 Welland (wel'and), the, 94. 
 Wellesley (welz'li), Sir Arthur, 383. 
 Wellington (wel'ing-ton), the story 
 
 of, 383-390. 
 Wentworth (went'werth), Sir T., 
 
 258-264. 
 Wessex (wes'eks), 18-30. 
 
 Harold, Earl of, 47. 
 West Indies, Rodney in the, 366. 
 
 English possessions in the, 288. 
 Westminster Abbey, coronation 
 
 stone at, 114. 
 Westminster (west'min-ster) Hall, 
 Sir T. More's trial in, 204. 
 
 King Charles's trial in, 277. 
 
 Warren Hastings's trial in, 357. 
 Wexford (weks'fprd) massacre, 281. 
 Wheat growing in Australia, 442. 
 Whigs and Tories, 333. 
 Whitby, 23. 
 
 Whitehall, Charles beheaded at, 278. 
 Wilberforce (wil'ber-fors), 415-416. 
 William, of Normandy, 47. 
 
 IV., 407. 
 
 Orange, 313-317. 
 
 Rufus, 60, 
 Wilton (wil'ton), 31. 
 Winchester captured by the Danes, 
 44. 
 
 Alfred crowned king at, 31. 
 
 Alfred buried in, 41. 
 Windows of horn first made, 40. 
 
 of glass first made, 218. 
 Windsor (win'zor) Castle, 455. 
 " Witan," the (wit'n), 18. 
 Woden, 20. 
 Wolfe (wiilf), 347. 
 
 the story of, 358, 361. 
 Woiseley (wulz'li), Sir Garnet, 430. 
 
 routs Arabi Pasha, 452. 
 Wolsey (wiil'zi), Thomas, 177-187, 
 Woodstock (wud'stok) given to 
 
 Marlborough, 332. 
 Wool growing in Australia, 442. 
 Worcester (wus'ter), sie°'e of, 283. 
 Wren, Sir T., builds St. Paul's, 307. 
 Wyatt (wi'at), Sir Thomas, 212. 
 Wylam (wi'lam), mine, 401. 
 
 Yeoman in the 14th century, 143. 
 York, the house of the White Rose, 
 
 149. 
 Young Pretender, the, 343. 
 
 Zambesi (zam-be'ze), the, 419. 
 Zanzibar (zan-zi-bar'), 422, 451. 
 Zululand, a British colony, 447. 
 Zulus (zo'los), trouble with, 446. 
 war with, 447. 
 
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