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A 
 
 SHORT HISTORY OF ENGLAND 
 
 FOR 
 
 YOUNG PEOPLE 
 
 ^r- 
 
 MISS E. S. K1RKLAND 
 
 AUTHOR OF "A SHORT HISTORY OF FRANCE," "SIX LITTLE COOKS, 
 
 " dora's housekeeping," "speech and manners," etc. 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
 A. C. McCLURG & COMPANY 
 
 1891 
 
Copyright 
 By A. C, McClurg and Co. 
 
 A.D. 1891 
 
 tt- 
 
 
 THE LIBRARY! 
 OF CONGRESS 
 
 WASHINGTON 
 
 "■: ■ **■:: : ■ ' ■ r ■■ ■ - .".mi 
 
To My Classes in English History: 
 
 You already know something of American 
 history. For two hundred years it was closely 
 connected with that of England, and it is but 
 little more than a century since we began to 
 have a history exclusively our own. England 
 is our mother -country; her past belongs to us 
 as much as it does to the English, and ought to 
 be equally interesting to us and them. After 
 reading what was done and thought by our ances- 
 tors, you will understand all the better how the 
 separation came about which made us an inde- 
 pendent Nation. 
 
 E. S. K. 
 
 Chicago, October, 1891. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER. PAGE. 
 
 I. — Ancient Britain and the Romans, - - 7 
 
 II. — The Saxons and the Heptarchy, - 16 
 
 III. — From Egbert to the Six Boy- Kings, - 25 
 
 IV. — Six Boy -Kings to Norman Conquest, - 33 
 
 V. — The Norman Conquest, .... 42 
 
 VI. — Norman England. William II. Henry L, 50 
 
 VII. — White Ship. Death of Henry. Stephen, 56 
 
 VIII. — The First Plantagenet, ... 63 
 
 IX. — Richard I. and the Third Crusade, - 73 
 
 X. — John Lackland and the Magna Charta, 82 
 
 XL — Henry III. Simon de Montfort. First 
 
 House of Commons, 90 
 
 XII. — Edward I., Conqueror of Wales, - 98 
 
 XIII. — The War with Scotland, .... 106 
 
 XIV. — Edward II. Bannockburn, - - - 113 
 
 XV. — Edward III. The Hundred Years' War, 120 
 
 XVI. — The Black Prince, - 129 
 
 XVII. — Richard II. Wat Tyler. Bolingbroke, 137 
 
 XVIII. — Henry IV. Shrewsbury. Henry V., - 147 
 
 XIX. — Agincourt. Treaty of Troyes. Death 
 
 of Henry V., 154 
 
 XX. — Henry VI. War in France. Jack Cade, 162 
 
 XXI. — The Wars of the Roses, - - - 170 
 
 XXII. — Edward IV. Little Princes in the Tower, 178 
 
 XXIII. — The Last Plantagenet. The First Tudor, 185 
 
 XXIV. — The Sixteenth Century. Henry VIII. , 193 
 
 XXV. — Henry the Tyrant; also "Defender of 
 
 the Faith," 201 
 
 XXVI. — Henry's Wives. English Bible. Edward VI. , 209 
 
 XXVII. — Lady Jane Grey. Bloody Mary. Calais, 217 
 
 XXVIII. — Elizabeth. Mary Queen of Scots, - - 225 
 
 XXIX. — Plots. The Navigators. Mary Stuart, 233 
 
 XXX. — The Armada. Ireland. Queen's Death, 240 
 
vi CONTENTS. 
 
 XXXI. — Sixteenth Century Summary. James I., 249 
 
 XXXII. — The Bloody Hand. Raleigh. Trans- 
 lation' of the Bible, - - - 257 
 
 XXXIII. — Charles I. The Long Parliament, - 264 
 
 XXXIV. — Civil War. Marston Moor. Naseby, 273 
 XXXV. — Pride's Purge. Execution of Charles I. 
 
 Dunbar and Worcester, - - - 279 
 
 XXXVI. — The Protectorate. The Restoration, 287 
 XXXVII. — Charles II. Triple Alliance. Treaty 
 
 of Dover, 295 
 
 XXXVIII. — Plots. Habeas Corpus. Death of 
 
 Charles, 302 
 
 XXXIX. — James II. Sedgemoor. Seven Bishops. 
 
 Flight of the King, - - - 310 
 
 XL. — Revolution of 1688. William and Mary, 317 
 
 XLI. — Glencoe. Death of Mary. Peace of 
 
 Ryswick. Death of William III., - 323 
 
 XLII. — Anne. Act of Settlement. War of 
 the Spanish Succession. Union with 
 Scotland. Death, - 330 
 
 XLIII. — George I. Invasion of the Pretender. 
 
 South -Sea Bubble. George II., - 337 
 
 XLIV. — War with Spain. Austrian Succession. 
 
 Young Pretender. Quebec, - - 345 
 
 XLV. — Seven -Years' War. India. Death of 
 
 George II. Stamp Act, - - - 353 
 
 XLVI. — War with America. Peace of Ver- 
 sailles. Warren Hastings, - - 361 
 
 XLVII. — The French Revolution. Napoleon 
 
 in Egypt. Ireland, - - - - 370 
 
 XLVIII. — Union with Ireland. Trafalgar. Or- 
 ders in Council. Peninsular War. 
 War of 1812. Waterloo. St. Helena, 378 
 XLIX. — Death of George III. George IV. 
 
 Catholic Emancipation. William IV., 386 
 
 L. — Parliamentary Reform. Abolition of 
 
 Slavery. Victoria, .... 392 
 
 LI. — Boundary Treaties. Corn -Laws Re- 
 pealed. Crimean War, - - - 399 
 LII. — Treaty of Berlin. Egypt. The 
 
 Queen's Jubilee, 407 
 
 List of Sovereigns, - 414 
 
A 
 
 SHORT HISTORY OF ENGLAND 
 
 FOR 
 
 YOUNG PEOPLE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ANCIENT BRITAIN AND THE ROMANS. 
 
 HE earliest name for the country now called 
 England was Albion, which we find in the 
 works of Greek writers more than three hun- 
 dred years before Christ. When the Romans went there 
 it bore the name of Britain, and as such it was known for 
 many centuries. Then it gradually became Angle-land, 
 •or England; and in modern times the inhabitants have 
 given to the whole island, including England, Scotland, 
 and Wales, the name of Great Britain. 
 
 There are many stories told about the Britons, going 
 back as far as eight or nine centuries before Christ; and 
 although there is reason to think that these stories were 
 invented by writers who lived long afterward, and that 
 {we really know nothing about the old Britons, yet it is 
 /well to know something of the fables. 
 
 The first person to settle in Britain, we are told, was 
 lone Brutus, (called "Brut" by the early story-tellers), who 
 
 (7) 
 
HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 was a great-grandson of ^Eneas, a Trojan warrior and 
 the hero of Virgil's ^neid. This Brutus is said to have 
 conquered a race of giants who dwelt in the country, and 
 to have built on the River Thames a city which he called 
 "New Troy." 
 
 Some hundreds of years after this we hear of a certain 
 Prince Bladud, who, being afflicted with leprosy, was 
 obliged to leave his father's palace and wander about the 
 country. By a lucky accident he discovered near the 
 River Avon some hot springs in which he bathed himself 
 and was completely cured. In gratitude for this, he built 
 a city around the magic waters, the modern successor 
 whereof is known by the name of Bath. 
 
 The son of this prince was the unhappy King Lear 
 who lives for us in Shakspeare's pages. The old story 
 makes Cordelia's husband, a French king, help poor Lear 
 to his throne again, driving away the wicked sisters; but 
 Shakspeare has altered it into one of the grandest of his 
 tragedies, and the king and his lovely daughter both die 
 as a consequence of the father's over-trustfulness. 
 
 After several centuries there comes a king called Lud,. 
 who improved the city of New Troy and built walls around 
 it. It was then called after him Lud's Town, or what- 
 ever answered to that name in Celtic, (the language of 
 the Britons); the Romans called it Londinum, and it has 
 now settled down into London. 
 
 The son of this King Lud was named Caswallon, 
 (Latin, Cassivelaunus), and as he was the king or chief 
 reigning in Britain when it was invaded by the Romans, 
 he belongs to the period of authentic history. So much 
 for fable. 
 
 The first people who visited the shores of Britain from 
 
ANCIENT BRITAIN AND THE ROMANS. 9 
 
 southern countries were undoubtedly the Phoenicians and 
 Carthaginians, who went to the south-western part of the 
 island (now called Cornwall), to obtain a supply of tin. 
 They made no settlements, nor did they leave any account 
 of what they saw there, so we may pass on at once to the 
 invasion by Julius Caesar, which took place 55 B.C. 
 
 The Britons whom Caesar attacked were fierce and 
 warlike savages, using javelins and arrows when they 
 fought, as well as shields to defend themselves. They 
 had, besides, a kind of blunt sword, which does not seem 
 to have done much harm. They rode furiously to battle 
 in chariots with sharp scythes sticking out on either side, 
 managing their well-trained little horses with wonderful 
 skill. In winter they dressed themselves in the skins of 
 animals; in summer, when Csesar first saw them, they 
 painted or tattooed their bodies with the blue juice of a 
 plant called woad, which must have been somewhat like 
 indigo. They had learned so much of civilized ways as 
 to make rough, round houses of sticks and clay, with a 
 hole at the top to let out the smoke; and those who lived 
 near the sea-shore had little boats called coracles, made 
 of basket-work covered with leather. 
 
 The most interesting thing to us about the Britons is 
 their religion. They were heathens, and their priests, 
 who directed all their affairs, were called Druids. Among 
 these Druids were the bards, or song-makers, who told 
 in verse the stories of chiefs and heroes. These songs 
 the people learned by heart and shouted them out be- 
 fore they went to battle, or when they returned after a 
 victory. Other poets composed hymns, which the priests 
 used in their worship. But as none of these were written 
 down, the Druids having made it unlawful to keep any 
 
10 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 record of what was done on these occasions, the memory 
 of them soon faded away. 
 
 i All oak trees were considered sacred by the Druids; 
 and where the mistletoe plant was found growing upon 
 one, it was made the occasion of a magnificent festival. 
 The Druids also built for their worship a kind of open-air 
 temple, formed by enclosing a large space of ground with 
 •stones so immense that we wonder to this day how they 
 were able to set them up in their present position. 
 
 These Druids had everything their own way; they 
 w*re not only priests and poets, but law-givers, teachers, 
 judges, and physicians; and they took care to keep up 
 the idea of their power by surrounding themselves with 
 mystery. The most ancient of their temples is at Stone- 
 henge, near the city of Salisbury; but another, better 
 preserved and more nearly perfect in form, is near Kes- 
 wick in Cumberland. 
 
 Besides the harmless ceremonies already mentioned, 
 the Druids had another kind of worship which fills our 
 minds with horror; the sacrifice of human beings. Fear- 
 ful tales are told of their burning alive hundreds of per- 
 sons at once, usually criminals, in great wicker cages; 
 and what are called "sacrificial stones" are still standing, 
 on which we can imagine the victim laid, while fierce 
 faces looked eagerly on, waiting for the death-stroke. 
 The remembrance of these terrible scenes blots out the 
 more innocent and pleasing parts of the picture; and we 
 are glad to learn that about a hundred years after the in- 
 vasion of Britain by Julius Caesar, Druidism was abolished 
 forever. 
 
 This great general was engaged in a war in Gaul, (the 
 modern France), a country occupied by a race of men 
 
ANCIENT BRITAIN AND THE ROMANS. 11 
 
 much like the Britons, when it occurred to him that there 
 was an island just across the Channel which he might as 
 well add to his other conquests. He crossed with his 
 -army over the narrowest part of the sea, now known as 
 the Straits of Dover, and landed at a place called Deal, 
 not far from the present city of Dover, in Kent. The 
 poor Britons, naked savages though they were and armed 
 only with miserable weapons, fought so hard with their 
 -dull swords and weak arrows that Caesar's soldiers were 
 driven back more than once. At last, however, Roman 
 •discipline and Roman steel got the better of ignorant 
 bravery, and after the loss of many men, Caesar managed 
 to encamp on British ground. 
 
 The summer of the year 55 B. C. was now drawing to 
 a close, and as Caesar was afraid of the equinoctial gales 
 he decided to go back to Gaul and leave the Britons 
 alone; but the next year, 54 B. C, he came again, for he 
 was not easily turned from his purposes. (Remember, 
 that in counting the years before the birth of Christ, the 
 number grows less and less as it gets nearer to our own 
 time). The Britons were not in Caesar's day one solid 
 nation, governed by a king or chief; they were divided 
 into many tribes, which were always quarreling with one 
 another, and scarcely ever acted together; being, like 
 most savages, ignorant of the fact that "union is strength." 
 It happened just at this time, however, that the brave 
 and spirited Caswallon, who has been already mentioned, 
 was chosen general over several of the tribes in the south- 
 eastern part of Britain, and under his direction they agreed 
 to combine against the intruders. Caswallon was driven 
 l>ack by Caesar's large and well-trained army, and then 
 the British union melted away. Deserted by his neigh- 
 
12 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 bors, he was at last obliged to beg for peace, which Caesar 
 granted on very easy terms. He demanded a tribute, 
 which was probably never paid, and a few hostages, of 
 whom we hear nothing further; then, getting into their 
 boats with all convenient speed, the Romans sailed 
 away. 
 
 Such was the so-called "Conquest of Britain." Caesar 
 took no towns, left no garrisons, carried away no spoils, 
 and marched into the country only a few miles from the 
 sea-coast. It is true that he defeated the Britons in sev- 
 eral battles, but this was all; and for a hundred years 
 after he left the island they were as independent of the 
 Romans, except for some commercial intercourse, as they 
 had been before he came. His invasion was of some 
 advantage to them, however; they sent the products of 
 their country to Rome, getting valuable commodities in 
 return; and, what was more important, some of their 
 young men went there to be educated, and brought back 
 with them a knowledge of Roman civilization. 
 
 In the year 43 A. D., a British traitor advised the em- 
 peror Claudius to send an army to conquer his native 
 country, and a general named Aulus Plautius was sent to 
 Britain. This time the Britons were really vanquished, 
 but it took long years to accomplish the conquest; and 
 many a Roman soldier found a grave on British soil before 
 the fierce patriots would give up the struggle. A very 
 able British chieftain named Cynobelin, (called by Shak- 
 speare "Cymbeline," in his play of that name), had died 
 just before Aulus Plautius came to the island, but even 
 though he had lived it would have made little difference; 
 Rome was too powerful for the Britons. 
 
 Another prince about whom many romantic stories are 
 
ANCIENT BRITAIN AND THE ROMANS. 13 
 
 told was Caradoc, (Latin, Caractacus). This fine soldier 
 made a brilliant defence among the mountains of Wales, 
 but was finally overcome, taken prisoner, and carried to 
 Rome with his family. When he was taken before Clau- 
 dius, after being marched through the streets in the train 
 of the victorious general, he made an address to the em- 
 peror so noble and touching that the latter set him at 
 liberty. 
 
 It was next the Druids' turn to suffer. They had grad- 
 ually retired to their sacred island of Mona, now called 
 Anglesey, at the north-western extremity of Wales, and 
 there they were practising their religion, feeling quite 
 safe from any interference. But the Roman general Sue- 
 tonius, suspecting that this stronghold of the Druids 
 afforded a refuge to rebels, pursued them into their re- 
 treat, defeated them in battle, and, if we may believe the 
 hideous story, burned them alive in their own wicker 
 cages. 
 
 While these dreadful things were taking place in Ang- 
 lesey, others, different but also terrible, were going on 
 elsewhere. A native tribe called the Iceni had been left 
 by their chief at his death under the command of his 
 queen, Boadicea, in the hope that even the Romans would 
 respect her position as a woman. But he did not know 
 them. She and her daughters were shamefully treated, 
 and the queen was scourged, according to the cruel 
 Roman practice, by the hard-hearted conquerors. As 
 was natural, her people determined to avenge these in- 
 sults, and a battle followed where Boadicea, standing up 
 in her chariot, her long yellow hair streaming behind her 
 and her royal robes displayed in their utmost splendor, 
 fought like a tigress; but the Britons were no match for 
 
14 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 their enemies. They broke their ranks and fled, and the 
 unhappy queen ended her life by poison. Cowper's- 
 poem of "Boadicea," beginning: 
 
 "When the British warrior-queen 
 Bleeding from the Roman rods;" 
 
 presents a thrilling picture of her heroism and her suffer- 
 ings. 
 
 A pleasanter subject is the rule of Julius Agricola, a 
 Roman general who was sent to Britain about 80 A. D. 
 He taught the natives to cultivate the ground, (the word 
 Agricola means farmer), to build good houses, to make 
 roads and bridges; he made the collection of taxes as 
 easy as possible, and allowed no inferior officer to oppress 
 the people. He defended them against their troublesome 
 neighbors the Picts and Scots, who lived in the northern 
 part of the island, then called Caledonia, the old name 
 for Scotland. The Scots came from Ireland, but we 
 know very little about the Picts except that they were 
 probably a tribe of the ancient Britons. To keep them 
 in their own country, Agricola built a line of forts stretch- 
 ing across Scotland, or rather Caledonia, from the Frith 
 of Forth to the Clyde. In the next century, (the second 
 after Christ), a stone wall sixteen feet high and twelve 
 broad was built farther to the south, from the Solway 
 Frith to the River Tyne. Traces of the latter, which was 
 called "The Picts' Wall," may still be seen in Northum- 
 berland. 
 
 Britain had now settled down quietly into the condition 
 of a Roman province. The conquerors, with that prac- 
 tical wisdom which marked everything they did, made 
 the inhabitants as proud of being Roman citizens as they 
 had been before of being independent Britons. Magni- 
 
ANCIENT BRITAIN AND THE ROMANS. 15- 
 
 ficent buildings were put up in various parts of the island;, 
 excellent roads were made, forts were built so strong that 
 they were expected to last for thousands of years — they \ 
 have all tumbled to pieces centuries ago — and all the 
 evidences of what is called material civilization were 
 abundant in the land. The most important town was 
 York, (British, Caer-Ebroc; Latin, Eboracum), and very- 
 interesting remains of the Roman times have been dis- 
 covered there. Among others is a heavy coil of auburn 
 hair, found in the stone coffin of some British lady, with 
 the jet pins still fastened in it just as she was buried with, 
 them perhaps fifteen hundred years ago. 
 
 We have seen that the Druid priests, as a body, were 
 destroyed by the Roman general Suetonius. Their reli- 
 gion fell with them, and the Britons were obliged, in out- 
 ward appearance at least, to adopt that of their conquer- 
 ors, the old mythological system. It is not known at. 
 what time Christianity was introduced into the island. 
 Tradition says it was at a very early period, and as the 
 British church was represented by three bishops at the 
 Council of Aries, in Gaul, in the year 314 A. D., we have: 
 proof that it was well established before that date. The 
 first martyr to the Christian faith, St. Alban, is thought 
 to have lived toward the end of the third century. The 
 emperor Constantine made Christianity the religion of 
 the whole Roman empire early in the fourth century, so 
 we may look upon the inhabitants of Britain from that 
 time as being wholly converted to the Christian faith. 
 Constantine's father, Constantius Chlorus, an able general 
 and most excellent man, lived in Britain for many years, 
 and his wife, Helena, who was herself a Christian, is said 
 to have been a British princess. The reign of Constan- 
 
16 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 tine was the happiest and most tranquil period of the 
 Roman dominion in Britain. Dark times were to come, 
 and the fair island was for centuries a scene of confusion 
 and bloodshed. 
 
 \\X L'l 
 
 CHAPTER Ii. 
 
 THE SAXONS AND THE HEPTARCHY. 
 
 OST of the troubles of the Britons during the 
 fourth century A. D. came from their unruly 
 neighbors, the Picts and Scots. It also some- 
 vfliies happened that they unluckily chose the wrong em- 
 peror when more than one laid claim to the Roman 
 crown, and were severely punished when the next one set 
 up his authority; but these were small evils compared to 
 the torments they endured from the unconquered and 
 unconquerable savages of the north. To add to their 
 misery a new enemy appeared on the eastern coast, the 
 Saxons, who were so destructive that a special officer 
 was appointed to look after them, called "The Count of 
 the Saxon Shore." For some years the great Roman 
 general Theodosius, a worthy successor of Agricola and 
 Constantius Chlorus, made Britain once more a land of 
 happiness and peace. After his departure, they quite 
 innocently took up the cause of a pretender. A large 
 number of them followed him into Gaul; and when he 
 was defeated and killed they passed into Armorica, that 
 peninsula in the western part of France which separates 
 the English Channel from the Bay of Biscay. They 
 hoped to cross over from there to their own country, and 
 
THE SAXONS AND THE HEPTARCHY. 17 
 
 try to hide away in Cornwall from the vengeance of the 
 successful emperor, but being kindly received by the 
 Armoricans they were induced to stay and settle among 
 them. Here they were joined by so many of their coun- 
 trymen that the peninsula received from them the name 
 of Brittany, which it bears to this day. 
 
 The worst misfortune of all those which befel the un- 
 happy country was yet to come. The Romans, them- 
 selves in terror of the wild nations who were ravaging 
 their beautiful Italy, declared that they could no longer 
 keep up an army in Britain. The Britons were in despair; 
 they begged and prayed so piteously for help that skilful 
 generals were several times sent to their relief; but the 
 time came when prayers were of no avail, and about 
 420 A. D. the last Roman garrison set sail from Britain, 
 to return no more. 
 
 Now was the chance for the Picts and Scots. They 
 "had already ravaged the country between the two Roman 
 walls so many times that it had become a desert and they 
 ■could not find there anything to steal or any people worth 
 killing; so they came boldly over the southern wall, no 
 longer guarded by Roman soldiers, and the Britons lost 
 heart and hope. In the four hundred years during which 
 Rome had been their mistress they had become tame 
 and spiritless, having had but little use for their weapons, 
 and now they were at the mercy of enemies as ferocious 
 as they themselves had been when they fought against 
 Caesar. They sent to the Roman counsul Aetius, gov- 
 ernor of Gaul, a letter which they called "The Groans of 
 the Britons." "The barbarians," they said, "drive us to 
 the sea; the sea throws us back on the swords of the 
 barbarians; we have nothing left us but the wretched 
 
 
18 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 i 
 
 choice of being either drowned or butchered." But 
 Aetius could not help them, and they had recourse to the 
 Saxons, the general name given to the pirates who came 
 over the North Sea. 
 
 Nobody knows exactly where these marauders came 
 from, but probably it was from what is now Denmark,, 
 (then called Jutland), and the north-western part of Ger- 
 many. 
 
 In an evil hour Vortigern, the chief man among the- 
 Britons, driven to despair by the constant inroads of 
 the Picts and Scots, invited these Saxon pirates to come 
 and help his countrymen against their northern foes. 
 They came, they saw more than they had ever seen be- 
 fore of the beautiful and fertile island, and they made it 
 their own. They fell on the land, as a modern writer 
 expresses it, "like wolves on a sick deer." There were 
 three of these heathen tribes, the Angles, the Saxons, and 
 the Jutes; but in old times they were all lumped together 
 as Saxons, while now it has become the fashion to speak 
 of them all as English. The name is of no consequence, 
 but the descendants of races thus mingled were destined. 
 to become the mightiest upon earth. 
 
 The Saxons, as we call them for convenience, landed at 
 a place called the Isle of Thanet, in Kent. Since then 
 the drifting sand has filled up the channel which sepa- 
 rated it from the rest of Kent, so that it is a part of 
 the main land; but we can still tell pretty nearly where 
 our ancestors set foot, in England in the year 449 A. D., 
 almost exactly five hundred years after the first visit of 
 Julius Caesar. 
 
 The Saxon leaders were two brothers, Henghist and 
 Horsa, and it is said that the British King Vortigern 
 
THE SAXONS AND THE HEPTARCHY. 19 
 
 married a blue-eyed daughter of Henghist,the pretty Row- 
 ena, so for a while all were good friends. But the Sax- 
 ons, disregarding the fact that they had come to the island 
 expressly as the allies and guests of the natives, made 
 peace with the Scots and Picts, and then all together fell 
 upon the cheated and betrayed Britons and plunged them 
 again into the horrors of war. Horsa was killed in bat- 
 tle, King Vortigern was deposed by his own people, who 
 thought he favored the Saxons too much, and fresh bands 
 of pirates came over the ocean, at the invitation of their 
 countrymen, who soon took possession of the whole 
 island. Having a heathen religion of their own to which 
 they were very much attached, they were particularly 
 furious against everything that had to do with Christianity. 
 They burned the churches, killed or drove away the 
 priests and monks, and seized upon everything precious, 
 such as the gold and silver vessels contained in the sacred 
 buildings. It was not so much that they wanted these 
 things as that they hated the people who had them. As 
 soon as the dreaded name of "Saxon" was heard, the 
 clergy gathered up such possessions as they could take 
 with them and fled, leaving all the rest, including their 
 few and precious manuscripts, to the mercy of the torch 
 and axe. The wonder is that they were able to keep up 
 as a church at all, in the midst of such frightful discour- 
 agements. The victory of the Saxons meant the triumph 
 of heathendom over Christianity for the time being. As 
 for the Britons in general, those who were not killed or 
 made slaves were driven out of the country, most of them 
 taking refuge among the mountains of Wales, where their 
 descendants still live. Others went to Cornwall in the 
 south-western part of England, a wild, rocky district 
 
20 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 where their enemies could not pursue them, while others 
 again crossed over the channel to Brittany, which had 
 already begun to be called by their name. They do not 
 seem to have mingled very generally with the Saxons by 
 marriage any more than they had done with the Romans. 
 The truth is that the Saxons were by far the cleverer of 
 the two races; and being absolutely without an idea of 
 fair dealing or truth-telling, they had the simple-minded 
 British Christians at a great disadvantage. 
 
 We must not close our account of the Britons without 
 saying something about King Arthur, a person of whom 
 so many wonderful stories are told that for a long time it 
 was supposed that he was no more a real man than was 
 Prince Bladud. But there seems no reason why there 
 should not have been a heroic British prince of the name 
 who fought bravely against the Saxons that were trying to 
 destroy his country, and was finally killed in a battle with 
 them. With him ends the story of the old Britons — a 
 brave, simple-minded, unfortunate race. It is supposed 
 that they were finally put down by the Saxons in the sixth 
 century after Christ. 
 
 One curious story about King Arthur is that he had a 
 large round table, made so that when he and his friends 
 sat at dinner together there should be no head or foot 
 to it, but all should be on an equality. The companions 
 who used to feast with him there were called " Knights of 
 the Round Table." 
 
 The Saxons did not form one undivided kingdom, any 
 more than the Britons had done. Coming into the coun- 
 try at different times, as they did, each robber-chief ruled 
 over as much land as he could seize and defend, and the 
 island, or rather the southern part of it, (now called Eng- 
 
 
THE SAXONS AND THE HEPTARCHY. 21 
 
 land), was divided, at some time, into seven small king- 
 doms. This arrangement was called the Heptarchy, the 
 word meaning a government of seven, but there was 
 nothing lasting about it. Sometimes there were more 
 than seven, sometimes fewer, and there was never a time 
 when there was not fighting going on among them. 
 
 The first of these kingdoms to be set up was Kent, in 
 the south-eastern part of the island. This was settled by 
 the Jutes, who are often spoken of as Saxons. Later 
 arose the three kingdoms of the South Saxons, (Sussex), 
 West Saxons, (Wessex), and East Saxons, (Essex). The 
 part ruled over by the Angles was called Anglia, and was 
 divided into the country of the North-folk, (Norfolk), and 
 the South-folk, (Suffolk). The middle kingdom of the 
 island was called Mercia, and the extreme northern one 
 was formed of two provinces which together made Nor- 
 thumbria, this name meaning, "the land north of the 
 Humber." 
 
 Now that the fierce Saxons are firmly established in 
 Britain, the rightful owners of the land being driven away 
 and the Picts and Scots shut up in their own country of 
 Caledonia, we come to the most important thing that 
 ever happened in their history after the migration. 
 
 In the course of the wars which everybody in that age 
 of the world was always carrying on with everybody else, 
 it chanced that some English children were carried to 
 Rome to be sold for slaves. There they were seen by 
 the good abbot Gregory, who was pleased with their fair 
 hair and blue eyes, and asked who they were. "They 
 are Angles," was the reply. "If they were Christians 
 they would be not Angles, but angels," * answered the 
 
 * ' ' Non Angli, sed angeli. " 
 
22 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 abbot. From this time Gregory desired nothing so much 
 as to go as a missionary to these fair-haired Angles who 
 might so easily be made angels. After a while he was 
 made Pope himself, and one of the first things he thought 
 of was his old project for converting the English. He 
 sent Augustine* with forty other monks, to the island, 
 where they were kindly received by Ethelbert, king of 
 Kent, who was also Bretwalda, (Britain-wielder), or head 
 of all the tribes. Ethelbert had married a French Chris- 
 tian princess, named Bertha; and when St. Augustine 
 asked leave to preach to the Saxons, Ethelbert consented, 
 though he would not at first allow the monks to come 
 under any roof for fear of evil spirits, but made them hold 
 their meetings in the open air. After a while he became 
 himself a convert, and as it was thought the proper thing 
 in those days for the mass of the people to adopt the 
 religion of their ruler, ten thousand of the warriors of 
 Britain followed his example, and were baptized by St. 
 Augustine, who was afterward made the first Archbishop 
 of Canterbury. It would be too much to expect that all 
 these converts became good and holy men; a part of 
 them remained cruel, untruthful, and treacherous; but 
 when the gentle and merciful religion of Christ had once 
 found a footing among them it did produce some effect, 
 and many of them left off their barbarous ways and set 
 about tilling the ground and living peacefully. There 
 were still doings horrible enough to make one's heart sick 
 only to read about them; but, on the whole, the nation 
 had taken a turn for the better. The other kingdoms, 
 one by one, followed the example of Kent; churches 
 
 * Pronounced Augus'tine, accentuating the second syllable. 
 
THE SAXONS AND THE HEPTARCHY. 23 
 
 were built and monasteries founded;* and though the 
 pagans at first attacked their Christian neighbors, they 
 ended by believing in the god of the Christians and giv- 
 ing up those they had formerly worshipped. This was 
 a good thing for them, too (though they did not know it), 
 in their intercourse with other countries. During the 
 iifth and sixth centuries, when the main part of Britain 
 was heathen, it was scarcely mentioned by the writers of 
 that time; but now it began again to take its place among 
 nations and to be spoken of with respect. The world 
 could not help knowing that a people who believed in 
 Christianity were greater and nobler than those who had 
 no better gods than Thor and Woden. 
 
 From the time of the first landing of the Saxons in 449 
 A. D., to the coming of St. Augustine in 597, about a hun- 
 dred and fifty years had passed. Britain may now be 
 said to have been completely conquered and settled by 
 the tribes of Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. The British 
 language was replaced by old English, (generally called 
 •Saxon) and the old Roman laws by those made by the 
 Saxons for themselves. The next event of importance 
 in connection with the Saxon Heptarchy is the bringing 
 •of all the kingdoms together under one government by 
 Egbert, King of Wessex, in 827 A. D. 
 
 We owe a part of our knowledge of what I have been 
 telling you to a monk named Gildas, who lived while 
 Briton and Saxon were struggling together to see which 
 
 * A monastery or convent was a place where many men lived to- 
 gether in order to give up their whole time to religious duties. After 
 a time women began to live together in the same way and for the 
 same purpose; then, to distinguish the two kinds of institutions, 
 those for women were called convents, and those for men, monasteries. 
 
24 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 could keep possession of the beautiful country one owned 
 and the other wanted; and another part to a monk 
 named Bede, usually called "The Venerable," who came 
 perhaps a hundred and fifty years later. Bede lived a. 
 beautiful life and died a beautiful death. He was prob- 
 ably the most learned man in England. The Pope 
 wished to make him a bishop, but he chose to remain a 
 simple monk and to spend his life in teaching. It is said 
 that as many as six hundred young men came at one time 
 to be instructed by him, for at that time there were no 
 colleges or universities, and no schools except those in 
 the monasteries. When Bede was a very old man, and 
 near his death, he was busy in translating the Gospel of 
 St. John into the Saxon language. The young monk 
 who was writing it down for him said: "You must be very 
 tired, master; will you not rest?" "No," said Bede;. 
 "there is but little more to do. Write quickly; I must 
 finish my work." The last verse was written; he was 
 laid, by his own desire, upon the floor, his head supported 
 in his pupil's arms; and with the words "Glory to God!" 
 on his lips, he passed quietly away. 
 
 You can see how strong an impression the Saxons left 
 on the country they conquered if you notice the names 
 of our days of the week. Every one is named after a 
 Saxon heathen god or goddess; even Saturday, which 
 most persons suppose to be named for the Roman Saturn,, 
 is from a Saxon god called Saeter. Sunday and Monday 
 are from the sun and moon, Tuesday from Tuisco, Wed- 
 nesday from Woden, Thursday from Thor, and Friday 
 from Freya, the northern Venus. The names of the 
 months, on the other hand, remain as the Romans left 
 them. 
 
FROM EGBERT TO THE SIX BOY-KINGS. 25 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 FROM EGBERT TO THE SIX BOY- KINGS. 
 
 Y the end of the eighth century the kingdoms 
 of the Heptarchy, whether more or fewer than 
 seven, were in a very unsettled state. There 
 had been a great deal of annexing by strong monarch s 
 and giving up by weak ones, which naturally takes place 
 whenever it happens that one country contains several 
 independent and rival states. Then there usually arises 
 one person wiser and more able than the others, who gets 
 hold of the possessions of the rest, one after another, and 
 is finally acknowledged by all as their master. So it was 
 with Egbert, who was at first only king of Wessex (that 
 is, of the West Saxons). The whole country now began 
 to be called England, (Angle-land), though the name 
 did not come into general use until the tenth century. 
 Egbert, before he became king of all England, spent 
 some time at the court of Charlemagne, who ruled over 
 France (the ancient Gaul). The latter, being a most 
 enlightened man, encouraged learning in every way, and 
 even had a school in his palace for his children and their 
 companions. Egbert's own country had furnished one of 
 the teachers in Charlemagne's "School of the Palace. " 
 When Egbert returned to England, which he did on 
 the death of a rival king of Wessex, his first work was to 
 fall upon his neighbors, conquer them, and add their 
 kingdoms to his own, until nearly all of what is now Eng- 
 land submitted to him, though some kings were allowed 
 to keep their empty titles. He was the last person to be 
 
26 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 elected Bretwalda, as he was the first king of all England; 
 so the change from a Heptarchy to a monarchy was 
 greater in name than in reality. Under his rule the coun- 
 try enjoyed more peace and prosperity than it had known 
 for a long time, and the only serious trouble he had after 
 uniting the seven kingdoms into one, was from a new 
 •enemy, the Danes, who had begun to make their appear- 
 ance on the English coast 
 
 The island of Britain, for the first thousand years of 
 what we may call its civilized life, was always a mark for 
 the ambition or the greed of other nations. First there 
 were the Romans, then the Scots and Picts, then the 
 Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, and now the Danes. The 
 new pirates were as fierce, as strong, as cruel, as the Eng- 
 lish themselves had been when they swooped down upon 
 the Britons, and at first one is inclined to say, "served 
 them right!" But we must remember that these were not 
 the same English as those earlier freebooters had been, 
 but their descendants, grown comparatively peaceful, and 
 willing to live quietly at home and mind their own busi- 
 ness. The Danish flag became to them a sight of horror. 
 It was of a blood-red color, with a black raven pictured 
 on it; and when the wind waved the flag the Danes de- 
 clared that the raven was flapping his wings in sign of 
 victory. To the suffering English the emblem meant 
 only misery and destruction. 
 
 On Egbert's death, (836), his son Ethelwolf became 
 king. This prince had not the military spirit of his father, 
 and the Danes began to come to England every year, 
 landing sometimes in one place and sometimes in an- 
 other, so that the unfortunate English never knew when 
 to be ready for them. Fire, slaughter, and plunder, went 
 
FROM EGBERT TO THE SIX BOY-KINGS. 27 
 
 -with them everywhere, and they found a strange pleasure 
 in destroying all that they could not use. They managed 
 to make settlements, first on the Isle of Thanet, (where 
 the Saxons landed in 449 and St. Augustine in 597), and 
 then at a place nearer London called the Isle of Sheppey. 
 Ethelwolf defeated them several times in battle, and then, 
 though he knew that his country was bleeding from their 
 cruel swords, went on a pilgrimage to Rome to see the 
 Pope, taking with him his son Alfred, six years old. 
 
 Ethelwolf died not long after his return to England, 
 '(858), leaving four sons, each of whom became king in 
 .his turn. Of the first three, Ethelbald, Ethelbert, and 
 Ethelred, ("Ethel" means "noble"), there is not much 
 to be said. They all had to fight the Danes, but this, 
 unhappily, is too old a story to be worth repeating; so 
 we will pass on to the reign of Alfred, who was perhaps 
 at once the greatest and the best man that ever sat on 
 the throne of England. He became king by the death 
 •of his brother Ethelred in 872 A. D. 
 
 Noble, strong, wise, truth-telling Alfred! The smallest 
 thing about him is interesting to us. In those days very 
 few persons could read, and there were scarcely any 
 "books to be had for love or money; but Osburga, Alfred's 
 mother, had been so fortunate as to get possession of a 
 "beautiful illuminated* book which she promised to the 
 one of her sons who should first learn to read. Alfred 
 at once set about studying, and was soon able to claim 
 the book for his own. This was about six hundred years 
 before printing was invented, so that each book had to 
 be copied out by hand; and such work, taking much 
 time, was very costly. 
 
 * A book having pictures on the margin of the page. 
 
28 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 We do not hear anything more about Alfred until he 
 was twenty-two years old, when his brother Ethelred, (a 
 fine young man, much like Egbert), was killed in fighting 
 against the Danes. It was a discouraging moment for 
 the new king. Many of his towns and villages had been 
 turned, the best and bravest of his subjects had been 
 massacred, and much of the best land in his kingdom 
 was left without ploughing or planting because the inso- 
 lent Danes were settled in the very heart of the country, 
 ready to snatch away everything as soon as it was grown 
 and ready for use. Alfred had several fights with them,, 
 sometimes getting the better and sometimes the worse; 
 but at length his followers became discouraged, his army 
 melted away, and he wandered about alone dressed like 
 a peasant and wondering what he should do next. 
 
 It is to this time of his life that the famous story of the 
 cakes belongs. He had gone into the hut of a neatherd* 
 to rest awhile, perhaps expecting to get a meal and a 
 bed. The man's wife had some cakes baking over the 
 fire and asked the stranger to turn them while she was. 
 busy elsewhere. As he had some other rather important 
 things to think of, he let the cakes burn, for which she 
 gave him a good scolding when she came back, saying- 
 that he would be ready enough to eat them, though he 
 would not take the trouble to watch them. 
 
 Another story told of his wanderings is that he went in 
 the disguise of a harper into the camp of Guthrum, the 
 Danish chief, and, while amusing the Danes with music 
 and good stories, gained important information about 
 their camp. At length, thinking the time ripe for an 
 attack, he got together as many men as he could at what 
 
 * Pronounced neat-herd. 
 
 \ 
 
FROM EGBERT TO THE SIX BOY-KINGS. 29 
 
 was called "the island" of Athelney; the island being a 
 piece of firm ground mostly surrounded by marshes, 
 which strangers would find it hard to cross. From this 
 place he marched forth with his army and defeated the 
 Danes in a hard-fought battle. He made a treaty with 
 them afterward, in which it was agreed that Guthrum and 
 all his followers should become Christians, and that Al- 
 fred should give them a large tract of land in England, or 
 rather, should allow them to keep what they had already 
 taken for themselves. 
 
 Alfred now showed himself as good a ruler as he was 
 a general. He seems not to have had one selfish thought, 
 but to have lived entirely for the good of his people. 
 When he was older he wrote, "So long as I have lived, I 
 have tried to live worthily." And he did live worthily. 
 His first care was to repair his ruined cities and forts, to 
 organize companies of militia in places most likely to be 
 attacked by the Danes, (for though Guthrum was put 
 down, there were thousands more at home to come), and 
 to provide a fleet or navy. As the people in England were 
 not used to building war-ships, Alfred sent for men from 
 other countries to teach them; and when the ships were 
 built, his sailors had to learn how to manage them. And 
 now, one thousand years after Alfred's time, the English 
 is the ruling flag on all the seas. 
 
 Safety being provided for, Alfred's next thought was of 
 improvement. He made excellent laws and had them 
 carried out; he caused justice to be dealt to every man, 
 rich or poor, and he rebuilt the ruined churches and pro- 
 vided for their being kept up. He had schools started 
 where young people could learn at least to read and 
 write, and said that every free-born youth who was able 
 
30 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 to afford it should "abide at his book till he could well 
 understand English writing." This is somewhat like 
 what is now called "compulsory education," except that 
 we give it for nothing to people who can not afford to 
 pay for it. He was ashamed of the ignorance of his 
 countrymen. "When I began to reign," said he, "I can 
 not remember one priest who could understand his ser- 
 vice-book or explain it in English." All books used in 
 the churches and most others were written in Latin, and 
 Alfred was a writer of good Saxon prose. Some of his 
 books were translations of useful works from Latin into- 
 English, and some were original. 
 
 A very interesting old book called the "Anglo-Saxon, 
 Chronicle" is supposed to have been begun in his time,, 
 perhaps by Alfred himself. It is an account of what took, 
 place in England during several hundred years, written 
 by the monks at different monasteries, each set of them 
 copying what the others had written and making addi- 
 tions of their own. It is from this that we get much of 
 our knowledge of what was done in those far-off times. 
 
 King Alfred would not have been able to accomplish 
 as much as he did if he had not been one of the most 
 methodical as well as the most industrious of men. He 
 divided his time into three parts; one-third of the twenty- 
 four hours he gave to public business, one-third to study 
 and religious duties, and the remaining third to sleep, 
 eating and amusement. He had no clock, and as he- 
 wanted to know just how much time he spent at each 
 occupation, he ordered candles to be made with notches- 
 so arranged that it took just an hour to burn from one 
 notch to another. Then, because the houses, (even the 
 king's palace) were so poorly built that draughts of wind 
 
FROM EGBERT TO THE SIX BOY- KINGS. 31 
 
 made the candles flare, he invented lanterns in which 
 thinly-shaved horn took the place of glass, a material 
 still unknown in England. 
 
 Alfred had one more hard struggle with the Danes,, 
 about ten years after the defeat of Guthrum. A terrible 
 pirate named Hastings ravaged the coasts, but he was- 
 driven away and then there was peace until the sorrowful 
 hour of Alfred's death (901). He was worn out, doubt- 
 less with hard work, for he was only fifty-two, and ought 
 to have lived still many useful years. But he had never 
 spared himself, and probably thought that it was "better 
 to wear out than rust out." 
 
 Alfred the Great left one son, Edward, afterward called 
 "The Elder." The Danes took advantage of Alfred's 
 death to invade England, and Edward drove them back 
 just as Alfred had done. Then came his son Athelstan, 
 another warlike king, who kept up the credit of the 
 family and ruled England wisely and well. He hit upon 
 a new idea for helping along commerce and increasing 
 among his people the desire to visit distant countries. 
 He declared that any merchant who had made three long 
 sea-voyages on his own account, (that is, not being hired 
 by anyone else), should be raised to the rank of Thane y 
 or gentleman. 
 
 Athelstan had been a great favorite with his grandfather, 
 Alfred, who gave him a little sword with a golden scab- 
 bard, and a warrior's belt set with precious stones. He 
 was never married, and at his death his brother Edmund, 
 a boy of eighteen, was made king. He was the first of a. 
 series called "The Six Boy- Kings." 
 
 In many ways, the Saxons laws and customs were dif- 
 ferent from those of other nations. First, there was their 
 
32 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Witanagemot, or Meeting of Wise Men, selected entirely 
 from the higher classes. The king was expected to con- 
 sult this assembly, and its consent was necessary to all 
 laws. In those days no one had ever thought of repre- 
 sentative government, so this senate consisted of such 
 persons as the king chose to summon. 
 
 Some strange notions of justice existed. When a man 
 was accused of a crime, the case was put into the hands 
 of twelve men who heard what was to be said on both 
 sides, and then decided on his guilt or innocence. This 
 was all very well, but if there seemed to be any doubt 
 about it, there were two ways in which one might 
 clear himself. He might take a solemn oath that he was 
 not guilty, if he could get other men, called compurga- 
 tors, to swear to the same thing with him; or he might 
 try what was called the ordeal. This obliged him to 
 thrust his arm up to the elbow in boiling water, hold a 
 piece of red-hot iron in his hand, or walk about blind- 
 folded among burning ploughshares. If at the end of 
 three days there was no sign of burning on his hands or 
 feet, it was taken for granted that he was innocent. 
 
 The old English houses were what we should call very 
 uncomfortable. There were no chimneys, a hole being 
 made in the roof to let out the smoke; and we may be 
 sure that a great deal of it stayed in. Our ancestors must 
 have had strong eyes not to grow blind under such cir- 
 cumstances. There was no glass except in the windows 
 of the very rich; some others used to tack up white linen 
 to keep out the cold wind and the rain, but many did 
 without any screen whatever. All the furniture was 
 plain; no chairs except in palaces; only stools or settees 
 without backs. At the same time, everything belonging 
 
FROM EGBERT TO THE SIX BOY-KINGS. 33 
 
 to eating and drinking was as fine as they could get it. 
 They had cups and dishes of silver and gold, (when they 
 could afford it), and instead of glass goblets used curi- 
 ously carved horns of cattle. The Saxons were great 
 eaters and drinkers; they had few other pleasures except 
 hunting and fighting; and it must have been a disgusting 
 thing for a person of refinement to be present at one of 
 their drunken revels. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 FROM THE SIX BOY -KINGS TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 
 
 IT will be convenient to remember the boy-kings 
 as three pairs of brothers : Edmund and Edred, 
 brothers of Athelstan, and therefore sons of 
 Edward the Elder; Edwy and Edgar, sons of Edmund; 
 Edward the Martyr and Ethelred II., called the Unready, 
 sons of Edgar. As some of these lived to be middle- 
 aged men, the name ''boy-king" applies only to the age 
 at which they began to reign. 
 
 Edmund, the first of these, was called "The Magnifi- 
 cent," because he built fine houses. He had to fight the 
 Danes, whether he liked it or not; and when he found 
 that some remains of the old Britons, who lived in the 
 mountainous country of Cumbria (now Cumberland), 
 were secretly helping the Danes, he went against them 
 with an army, conquered them, and made a present of 
 them and their country to the king of Scotland, the for- 
 mer Caledonia. Edmund's early death at the age of 
 twenty four was owing to his own quick temper and lack 
 3 
 
34 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 of self-control. A robber named Leolf, who had been 
 banished from the country, had the impudence to come 
 in and seat himself at the king's table at dinner. Ordi- 
 narily there would have been nothing out of the way about 
 this, for it was then the custom for anyone who wanted a 
 meal to take a seat at any table. But Leolf, being a well- 
 known criminal, was ordered away by the king's guards. 
 He refused to go; and Edmund, being excited with wine, 
 sprang from his seat and seized him by the hair. The 
 ruffian drew a dagger and stabbed him to the heart. 
 
 Edmund's chief adviser had been a monk named 
 Dunstan, who was a man of such great ability that it 
 seemed natural for him to be at the head of affairs. This 
 monk the king made Abbot of Glastonbury, and he soon 
 gained with the common people a great reputation for 
 holiness, and proved the most useful of ministers.* When 
 Edmund was killed by the robber Leolf and his young 
 brother Edred became king in his place, Dunstan took 
 nearly the whole management of the kingdom into his 
 own hands, and was as successful in putting down the 
 Danes as if he had been a soldier instead of a priest. 
 
 There are some very curious stories told about St 
 Dunstan, as he was afterward called. He was of an ex- 
 citable nature, and at one time in his life was a little 
 crazy, owing to some previous ill-treatment. When he 
 became a monk, being extremely active physically, he 
 used to work at a forge in a little blacksmith-shop he 
 made for himself. Here (he said) as he was working one 
 day, the devil suddenly appeared to him and tried to 
 tempt him to do wrong. He happened at the moment 
 
 *A minister, in England, means a person who helps and advises 
 the king. 
 
BOY- KINGS TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 35 
 
 to have a pair of red-hot tongs in his hand, and with these 
 he seized the devil by the nose and pinched him so hard 
 that he roared horribly and broke away from him. This 
 anecdote, devoutly believed at the time, shows the state 
 of public intelligence in the tenth century. 
 
 Edred did not live long, and as he left no children, 
 his nephew Edwy, a boy of sixteen, became king at his 
 death. Edwy had married a beautiful girl who was re- 
 lated to him, and as the church which Dunstan repre- 
 sented did not allow such marriages, it made ill-feeling 
 between him and the king. After the coronation the 
 nobles sat down to a great feast, where they wanted to 
 eat till they were stupid and drink till they were drunk, 
 as was the custom of the Saxons. Edwy preferred to 
 spend the evening with his wife and her mother, so he 
 quietly left the table and joined the ladies in their apart- 
 ment. This made Dunstan very angry, and he followed 
 the king and dragged him back by force, abusing him 
 roundly at the same time. Edwy naturally wished to get 
 rid of such a minister, so he asked Dunstan what he had 
 done with all the money he had used in King Edred's 
 reign. Dunstan could not tell, for he had never kept any 
 accounts; and Edwy made this an excuse for driving him 
 out of the country. Dunstan, however, had plenty of 
 friends among the clergy, and they took the beautiful 
 Elgiva, Edwy's queen, branded her in the cheek with a 
 red-hot iron and sold her for a slave. She was taken to 
 Ireland, where the people took pity on her, cured her 
 wounds and sent her back to her husband; but on her 
 way Dunstan's friends, led on by Archbishop Odo, seized 
 her and cut her with swords so cruelly that she died. 
 When Edwy knew this he too died, of a broken heart, 
 
36 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 and his brother Edgar, a boy of fifteen, succeeded him. 
 
 It is pleasant, at last, to be able to make a break in 
 this long story of cruelty and misery, and to say that 
 Edgar's reign of seventeen years was a prosperous and 
 peaceful one. With Dunstan's assistance he triumphed 
 over all his enemies, and when he grew old enough to 
 govern for himself, he ruled with so much firmness and 
 good sense that it was said that gold bracelets might be 
 hung up on every tree in the woods, and no one would 
 dare to touch them. 
 
 He made friends of the Welsh (who were the descend- 
 ants of the old Britons and paid tribute to England), by 
 a very simple device. Both England and Wales were 
 overrun with wolves, which were so ravenous that they 
 would kill and carry off not only farm animals but little 
 children, and sometimes even attack men. The Welsh 
 were very poor and found it hard to raise money enough 
 to pay their yearly tribute. Edgar allowed them to bring 
 him every year three hundred wolves' heads instead of 
 money, so that the country was soon cleared of these 
 destructive animals. 
 
 Of a reign so prosperous there is little to tell. It is 
 said that Edgar was once rowed in a boat on the River 
 Dee (near Chester) by eight tributary kings, while he did 
 the steering. This, if it ever happened, was probably 
 done for a joke. Edgar's private character was not good. 
 He carried off his first wife from a convent, and obtained 
 the second, the beautiful Elfrida, by the murder of her 
 husband. A few years after this second marriage, Edgar 
 the Peaceable (so called because he was so ready for 
 war that no one dared to attack him), died, leaving his 
 kingdom to his oldest son, Edward, aged sixteen, the 
 
BOY- KINGS TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 37 
 
 child of the nun whom Edgar had run away with. El- 
 frida, however, determined that her own son, Ethelred, 
 should be king. On one occasion, Edward stopped at 
 her castle to pay her a visit of politeness. As he was 
 going away she handed him a cup of wine, as was the 
 custom when a guest was leaving a house.* While he 
 was drinking this, one of her servants stabbed him in the 
 back. The poor boy put spurs to his horse and rode 
 awav; but he soon became faint from loss of blood, fell 
 from his horse and was dragged along by the stirrup until 
 he died. The murdered king has always had the sur- 
 name of "The Martyr," not because religion had any- 
 thing to do with the crime, but because he was killed 
 unjustly. 
 
 Poor little Ethelred, the son of Edgar and Elfrida, 
 might have been called "The Unlucky." He was only 
 seven years old at the time of his half-brother's murder, 
 and, it is said, wept bitterly at seeing the cowardly deed, 
 whereupon his mother beat him so hard with a thick wax 
 candle that he never after could endure the sight of a 
 candle. When he grew older he was called "The Un- 
 ready," which means without rede or counsel, and not, as 
 many people think, that he was never ready for the 
 Danes. Dunstan died soon after this child was made 
 king; and from that time to the end of his life the Danes 
 kept pouring in, plundering, killing and wasting wherever 
 they went, while Ethelred knew no better plan for getting 
 rid of them than that of giving them money to go. Of 
 course they came back again for more, the bribe being 
 made larger each time. To pay this heavy tribute a 
 
 *Wine offered at such times was called a "stirrup-cup." 
 
3S HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 regular tax was laid, called Dane-geld, or Dane-money, 
 which pressed cruelly upon the people. 
 
 The country in France called Normandy, which had 
 taken its name from the Northmen who conquered it, 
 had now become very powerful, and Ethelred thought it 
 would be a good thing to gain its friendship by marrying 
 the beautiful Emma, called "The Flower of Normandy, " 
 sister to the reigning duke. Her beauty was but skin- 
 deep, however; it did not go down to her heart, for she 
 showed herself hard, grasping and selfish. Soon after his 
 marriage, Ethelred ordered a general massacre of all the 
 Danes in his kingdom, many of whom were peaceable 
 settlers. Among those murdered was the sister of the 
 Danish king Sweyn. She was married to an English 
 nobleman, and saw him and her children butchered be- 
 fore her eyes. Sweyn took a frightful vengeance on the 
 unhappy country, laying it waste year after year, until 
 Ethelred succeeded in buying off the bloody foe once 
 more with the hard earned gold of his people. At length 
 the unequal contest ended; the English king fled to 
 Normandy, and Sweyn became in fact king of England. 
 
 There were four of these Danish kings; Sweyn, who 
 lived only six week after his victory, Canute (pronounced 
 Knut, sounding the K), and Canute's two sons. The con- 
 temptible Ethelred, on hearing of Sweyn's death, went 
 back to England with promises of amendment; but he 
 was incurable. His brave son Edmund got together an 
 army to fight Canute. Just at this time the weak and 
 wicked Ethelred died, and Canute found his match in 
 Edmund, whom the people called Ironside, on account 
 of his strength and bravery. Battle after battle was 
 fought, and rivers of English and Danish blood shed, 
 
BOY- KINGS TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST 39 
 
 until at last the chief men on both sides begged the two 
 Icings to stop fighting and come to some agreement. It 
 was finally settled that Canute should take the northern 
 part of the country and Ironside the southern. The 
 latter was soon murdered, probably by Canute's orders, 
 and the Danish king ruled over all England. 
 
 The reign of this remarkable man began by his putting 
 to death in the most cold-blooded manner all the Saxons 
 who stood in his way; but after he had had his fill of 
 vengeance, and had cut off everybody whom he thought 
 dangerous, he made the best king the English had had 
 since the time of Edgar the Peaceable. Finding that 
 the English were willing to submit to him, he sent away 
 most of his Danish soldiers, and tried his best to gain the 
 affections of the people. He made no difference between 
 Dane and Englishman, but treated all alike, under just 
 i-and equal laws. The two sons of Edmund Ironside he 
 sent to the king of Sweden with a request that they might 
 never trouble him again; but the Swedish king, being of 
 a merciful disposition, sent the children to Hungary, 
 where they were brought up under the care of his sister. 
 
 A story is told of Canute, which, whether true or not, 
 shows what the English people thought of his good sense. 
 It is said that when some courtiers had been telling him 
 he was lord of the ocean, he ordered his throne to be 
 carried down to the sea-shore when the tide was coming 
 up. He then haughtily commanded the waves to retire, 
 but seeing that they came on as usual, he turned to his 
 abashed followers and bade them remark that there was 
 something at their feet stronger than he. 
 
 Canute was a widower when he came to England, and 
 while there married Emma of Normandy, widow of Ethel- 
 
40 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 red the Unready. He died in 1035, after a reign of 
 nearly twenty years. He was a convert from paganism, 
 so that the persecution of the Christians ceased with the 
 beginning of his reign. He made laws for putting down 
 heathenism, and protected the interests of religion; he 
 even tried to atone for his early crimes by building 
 churches and monasteries. The English were satisfied 
 with him, and had reason to be sorry for his death. 
 
 His son Harold (called Harefoot from his swiftness in 
 running) succeeded him, though Canute had agreed with 
 queen Emma that Hardicanute, her son, should be king 
 at his death. Bui Hardicanute was away, and Harold, 
 being in England, had himself proclaimed at once. He 
 then sent for Ethelred's sons Alfred and Edward, and 
 when they arrived in England killed all their attendants 
 with circumstances of the greatest cruelty, and put out 
 the eyes of Alfred, the elder of the two princes, who soon 
 died from his wounds. On hearing of the horrid deed, 
 Emma fled to Normandy with her remaining son, Edward, 
 afterward called the Confessor. X 
 
 Harold did not live many years, and at his death his 
 half-brother Hardicanute lost no time in coming back to 
 England. He caused the body of Harold to be taken 
 out of its coffin and thrown into a marsh; he oppressed 
 and misgoverned the people of England in every possible 
 way; and there was great rejoicing when, in a year or two 
 afterward, he died as he had lived, a miserable drunkard. 
 And so ended the Danish rule in England. 
 
 The people of the country had had enough of Canute's 
 family, and were glad to welcome back Edward, the 
 youngest son of Ethelred the Unready and Queen Emma. 
 This king, who proved to be the last of the royal line of 
 
BOY- KINGS TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST 41 
 
 Saxons, passes over the pages of history like a shadow. 
 His surname of "The Confessor"* grew out of the fact 
 that he was more like a priest than a king. The real ruler 
 of England during his reign was the Saxon Earl Godwin ; 
 a man of immense tact, energy and force of will, who 
 managed everything in the king's name so well that no- 
 body missed the royal figure-head. Edward was consid- 
 ered a saint even during his lifetime, and the singular 
 practice was then begun of bringing children afflicted 
 with scrofula or "King's Evil" to the monarch to be 
 healed by his touch. The strange delusion on which this 
 "touching" was based lasted for seven hundred years. 
 Edward married Edith Godwin, daughter of the great 
 earl, who had, besides, half a dozen strong, fighting sons 
 to help him keep the country in order. A pleasant story 
 might be told of the gentle Confessor's life, but what we 
 want to know is the history of the people of England — not 
 merely biographies of their kings. So we must let Ed- 
 ward fade away out of sight, though his subjects did not 
 soon let him go out of mind. For hundreds of years 
 .after his death the English looked back to his laws (which 
 were re illy Godwin's) with regret, and longed for the 
 good old times of Edward the Confessor. The one thing 
 remaining to remind us of him is Westminster Abbey, 
 which he began, though scarcely any of the present struc- 
 ture is his work. Edward died in 1066, and Harold 
 Godwin, who since his father's death some years before, 
 had been prime minister, caused himself to be proclaimed 
 king. He had no right by birth to this title, but he had 
 everything else that belongs to it; good sense and judg- 
 
 *A confessor is a priest to whom persons confess their sins. 
 
42 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 merit, firmness, a clear head and a steady hand, and best 
 of all, a real love for his country. The birthright king] 
 would have been Edgar the Atheling, or Prince, a grand- 
 son of Edmund Ironside; but there was no one to take? 
 his part, and William, Duke of Normandy, a relation of! 
 Edward the Confessor, was watching the progress of 4 
 affairs, and getting ready to seize the coveted throne. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 
 
 OME years before the death of Edward the Con- 
 fessor, Harold Godwin had visited Normandy, 
 and while there had been induced by its duke, 
 William, to take a solemn oath never to claim the crown 
 of England for himself. It is said that when Harold had 
 sworn to do this, the duke took off the cloth from the; 
 table on which the Englishman had laid his hand and| 
 showed him that it was a chest full of saints' bones, which) 
 were supposed to make the oath peculiarly binding. 
 Harold was startled, but nevertheless had himself pro- 
 claimed king as soon as the breath was out of Edward's 
 body. He had a quarrel with his brother Tostig, and the 
 latter went to Norway and brought the king of that coun- 
 try back to England with him, together with a large 
 army. Harold, unwilling to go to war with his brother, 
 sent a messenger to him offering forgiveness and large 
 possessions if he would lay down his arms. "And what 
 will you give my ally, the king of Norway?" inquired 
 
THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 43 
 
 Tostig. "Seven feet of English earth for a grave," was 
 the reply; "or perhaps a little more, as he is taller than 
 most men." "Go back," replied Tostig to the herald, 
 "and tell my brother to get ready to fight." The result 
 •was the battle of Stamford Bridge, in which Tostig and 
 the Norwegian king were defeated and killed, and Harold 
 marched in triumph to London. 
 
 Bad news met him on the way. William of Normandy 
 with a large army had landed in England, near Hastings 
 in Sussex. If Harold had listened to the advice of his 
 friends, he would have put off meeting William until his 
 own army was stronger, for he had lost many men at 
 Stamford Bridge. But he was impatient and angry, and 
 without waiting for reinforcements, set out for Hastings. 
 
 The battle that followed (October 14th, 1066), was a 
 sharp and bloody one, and was decided, after a long day 
 •of fighting, in favor of the Normans. Harold was shot 
 in the eye by an arrow, and after the moon rose that 
 night, it looked on the dead bodies of the king, his two 
 brothers, and many of the noblest men in England. It 
 was a sad sight; and when Harold's corpse was dragged 
 out the next day, from under a heap of the slain, the 
 Conqueror, as we must now call William of Normandy, 
 gave permission to his mother to take it away and bury it. 
 
 This is properly called the battle of Senlac, that being 
 the name of the place where it was fought, about nine 
 miles from the town of Hastings, though the latter has 
 given its name to the battle. On the spot where Harold 
 was killed, William built a magnificent church called 
 Battle Abbey. The ruins of this are in excellent preser- 
 vation, and many travelers turn aside from the more 
 beaten tracks to visit the scene of the battle of Hastings. 
 
44 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 England, though its king had fallen, was not yet con- 
 quered. In fact, William did not wish to reign as a con- 
 queror, but as a lawful king. His ambition was to be 
 chosen by the people themselves. The death of Harold 
 left but one claimant of the crown, Edgar the Atheling, 
 grandson of Edmund Ironside, and this young man, if he 
 had been like his grandfather or like the Conqueror, 
 no doubt would have fought for his rights — and been 
 conquered, as Harold was. A few of the English leaders 
 still stood up for him; but there was disunion among 
 them, and when the decision took place, Edgar himself 
 was among those who offered the throne to the Con- 
 queror. On Christmas day, 1066, William I. was crowned 
 in Westminster Abbey, both Normans and Saxons taking 
 part in the ceremonies. The Archbishop of Canterbury 
 made an address to the English in their own language, 
 asking if they would have William for their king. They 
 shouted out, "Yes! Yes!" A Norman archbishop whom 
 William had brought over with him asked his Normans 
 the same question in French, and they were equally 
 vehement. The soldiers standing outside, hearing the 
 noise, imagined that the English were doing some vio- 
 lence to their duke, and in their panic, set fire to the 
 wooden houses near the Abbey, which burnt like tinder, 
 and came near destroying the whole town. Such occur- 
 rences did not help to increase good feeling between the 
 English and Normans. 
 
 William I. set out to be a sort of second Canute, and 
 no doubt really meant to govern well, though strictly. 
 But it was not long before the Saxons perceived that the 
 best of everything was slipping out of their hands and 
 falling into those of the conquerors. If an English gen- 
 
THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 45 
 
 tleman had fought against William at Hastings, that was 
 a reason for taking away all his property and giving it to 
 some Norman favorite. Strong castles were built near 
 the large towns (a part of the Tower of London dates 
 from this time), and these were garrisoned by Normans, 
 so that the English might be kept in order. The Nor- 
 man barons who were set over the conquered people 
 became tyrannical, and abused their power in such a way 
 that the English, burning with indignation, only awaited 
 a good opportunity to make themselves free again. 
 
 The year after he was crowned, William I. made a visit 
 to Normandy. The ill-feeling existing between Saxon 
 and Norman broke out more fiercely than ever when the 
 master's hand was withdrawn, and many Englishmen of 
 rank, unable longer to endure the insolence of their for- 
 eign lords, broke out into open rebellion. Plots were 
 almost as plenty as towns, and William came back with- 
 out delay. For some time he contented himself with 
 moderate measures, inflicting punishment only in pro- 
 portion to the wrong done; but losing patience at last, 
 he took a cruel revenge. He sent a body of soldiers 
 under a trained captain, to lay waste the country between 
 the rivers Tees and Humber, a district sixty miles wide, 
 and reaching as far inland as York. Over this whole 
 extent nothing could be seen but burned towns, ruined 
 fields, and desolate farm-houses. Most of the inhab- 
 itants fled to Scotland; those who could not get away 
 were killed without mercy. It is said that a hundred 
 thousand persons perished in the famine that followed 
 the destruction of crops, animals and farm-implements, 
 and wild beasts made their lairs in what had once been 
 smiling homes. Fifty years afterward, a writer who trav- 
 
46 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 eled there, groans over the dismal sight, and says it is 
 piteous to see the change. 
 
 After this there were no more attempts at rebellion on 
 the part of the English, and no pretence of mildness and 
 moderation on the side of William. The old inhabitants 
 of the land were ruled with a rod of iron ; their new mas- 
 ters grew daily more grasping and more arrogant. William 
 could now go to Normandy and stay as long as it suited 
 him, without fear that a hand would be raised against his 
 authority. All offices were taken away from the unfor- 
 tunate Saxons, and their finest estates were given to the 
 king's Norman favorites, who built castles to protect their 
 new property, while the original owners of the country 
 sank almost to the condition of serfs.* 
 
 In Normandy, William's oldest son, Robert, rebelled 
 against him, and in a battle between them the king was 
 unhorsed and might have been killed but that Robert 
 recognized his father's voice. The prince, struck with 
 horror, threw himself on his knees and begged forgive- 
 ness; but William was too angry to be generous, and 
 turned sullenly away. 
 
 Three things were done in England by William's orders 
 which enraged the Anglo Saxons, though it seems to us 
 now that one of them was a positive benefit to the coun- 
 try, while another was at least harmless. The first was 
 causing a book to be prepared which contained a descrip- 
 tion of all the land owned by private persons in the king- 
 dom, with an account of its products. This is called the 
 Domesday book. It still exists, and has been translated, 
 into modern English. As there was no way of recording 
 
 * A serf is a kind of slave who may be sold by his master with the 
 land he lives on, but can not be removed from it. 
 
THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 47 
 
 the ownership of property at that time, this was of real 
 value; but the Saxons looked at it only as a means for 
 getting more taxes out of them. 
 
 The second regulation which offended our ancestors- 
 was that at the ringing of a certain bell called the curfew,* 
 at about nine o'clock in the evening, all lights and fires 
 were to be put out. This was an old Norman custom, 
 used as a protection against fire, and binding on Nor- 
 mans and Saxons alike; but the English hated it because 
 they thought it a sign of slavery. The population of Eng- 
 land at this time is supposed to have been a million. 
 
 The third cause of offence was a more serious one. 
 William was extremely fond of hunting, and not finding 
 any forest conveniently near to his own dwelling, he 
 determined to make one for himself. He caused all the 
 inhabitants in a tract of country in Hampshire, in the 
 south of England, for the space of thirty miles, to be driven 
 away from their homes so that the wild beasts might in- 
 crease there. He tore down houses and churches, that 
 the animals might not be frightened off, and paid nothing 
 for what he thus took for his own pleasure. This hunt- 
 ing-ground was called the "New Forest," and a part of it 
 is still an appanage of the crown of England. A writer 
 of the time says of him, "He loved the wild deer as if he 
 were their father;" better than he loved his subjects, for 
 while the killing of a deer or even a hare was punished 
 by putting out the eyes of the offender, the killing of a man 
 could be atoned for by paying a small sum of money. 
 
 William's death took place in Normandy. The town 
 of Mantes, in that country, had rebelled against him, and 
 
 * From the French ' 'couvre-feu," "cover- fire." 
 
48 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 he had ordered it to be burned to the ground. In riding 
 over it afterward to see whether his commands had been 
 obeyed, his horse stepped on some hot embers and 
 plunged so violently that the king was thrown on the 
 pommel of his saddle, receiving injuries from which he 
 died soon afterward. He was taken to a monastery near 
 Rouen, and his two younger sons, William and Henry, 
 came there to see him. Robert he did not wish to see, 
 and his second son, Richard, had died by accident in 
 the New Forest. As soon as the two brothers had found 
 out what their father meant to leave them, they made 
 haste to go to England and take possession, William of 
 the crown, and Henry of five thousand pounds that had 
 belonged to his mother, Matilda of Flanders; and the 
 Conqueror was left to the care of his servants and the 
 attendant priests. It is said that he regretted bitterly all 
 his cruel deeds and needless bloodshed, and tried by gifts 
 to the church and by releasing from prison some persons 
 who had offended him, to pacify his conscience. The 
 instant he died his servants took everything they could 
 lay their hands on — even the ring from his finger and the 
 sheets from his bed. Sheets were valuable things in those 
 days, and the thieves were in such a hurry that the Con- 
 queror's body rolled to the floor as they dragged the linen 
 from under it. Some monks found it and laid it out 
 decently; but it was not yet allowed to be carried to the 
 grave in peace. William had built at Caen in Normandy 
 two magnificent abbeys, one for himself and one for 
 Queen Matilda, who died some years before him. When 
 a grave had been prepared for him, and the coffin was 
 about to be let down into it, a man suddenly appeared 
 in the church and with a loud voice forbade the inter- 
 
THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 49 
 
 merit. "The land this church was built on/' said he, 
 "never belonged to the man you are going to bury here ! 
 It was my father's, and was taken from him by force; 
 now it is mine, and I refuse my permission to the burial!" 
 The priests were struck with shame at this rude interrup- 
 tion, and pacified the man by paying him sixty pence, 
 after which he left them in peace. 
 
 William continued in England, with little change, the 
 state of things called "The Feudal System." The main 
 idea of this was that all land really belonged to the king, 
 although those who occupied it were allowed to call 
 themselves the feudal owners of it, and that in return for 
 this privilege each land-holder must be ready to go with 
 the king to battle whenever he was called upon. In other 
 words, the land-holder must give military service instead 
 of rent or purchase-money. The same system was kept 
 up through the many grades of rank, down to the poorest 
 farmer or owner of a little garden-plot; he must go to 
 war whenever he was called upon, so there was a great 
 body of fighting men always ready for action. But when 
 there was trouble in the country itself, those masses of 
 soldiers were as able to fight against the king as on his 
 side ; so that it was not always to his advantage. 
 
 After the first rising against William the Conqueror in 
 England, Edgar Atheling, the grandson of Edmund Iron- 
 side, went with his two sisters to Scotland, where they 
 were kindly received by its king, Malcolm, son of the 
 Duncan who was murdered by Macbeth, as we read in 
 Shakspeare's tragedy. Malcolm married the lovely Mar- 
 garet, Edgar's elder sister, while the younger one, Chris- 
 tina, became a nun. Edgar returned to England and 
 died at a good old age, nearly forgotten by everybody. 
 4 
 
50 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 NORMAN ENGLAND. WILLIAM II. HENRY I. 
 
 HE feelings of the English toward their Norman, 
 conquerors may be best judged from their own 
 writings. It should be borne in mind that every 
 tax imposed by foreigners must have been odious to- 
 them, and that the king could not know all the details of 
 what was done by his officers. Here is one account : 
 
 "The king sold out his lands as dear as dearest he 
 might, and he cared not how iniquitously his sheriffs ex- 
 torted money from the miserable people, nor how many 
 unlawful things they did. They raised oppressive taxes, 
 and so many were their unjust deeds it were hard to 
 remember them." 
 
 The English opinion of the Domesday Book may be 
 gathered from another chronicle. "He caused them to 
 write down what property every inhabitant of all England 
 possessed in land or in cattle, and how much money this 
 was worth. So very narrowly did he cause the survey to 
 be made that there was not a single hide nor a rood of 
 land, nor — it is shameful to relate that which he thought 
 no shame to do — was there an ox, or a cow, or a pig 
 passed by that was not set down in the accounts, and 
 then all these writings were brought to him." 
 
 There appears to have been no effort made by Robert, 
 the Conqueror's oldest son, to take possession of the 
 throne of England. His father had left it to his second 
 son, William, commonly called Rufus on account of his 
 red hair and beard, and Robert became Duke of Nor- 
 
NORMAN ENGLAND. WILLIAM II. HENRY I. 51 
 
 mandy. Most of the Normans in England would have 
 preferred the rule of Robert, who was open-handed, (that 
 is to say, careless), hot-headed and rash; but the Con- 
 queror had not willed it so, knowing how unfit he was to 
 govern a mixed people like the English. William Rums 
 easily persuaded the Saxons that he was going to be a 
 very lamb in governing, so they made no objection to 
 him; but it did not take them long to discover that he 
 was more like a wolf. He made the taxes of the people 
 almost intolerable, and cared nothing for the rights of 
 any one. His character is summed up in one sentence 
 by the historian : "he neither feared God nor regarded 
 man." His temper was fierce and cruel; his character 
 treacherous and grasping, and all his subjects, Norman 
 as well as Saxon, were glad when death took him off after 
 a reign of thirteen years. We read of him in the chronicle: 
 
 "Through his avarice, he was ever vexing the people 
 with armies and cruel taxes; for in his days all justice 
 sank and all unrighteousness arose. In fine, however 
 long I may delay mention of it, all that was abominable 
 to God and oppressive to man was common on this island 
 in William's time and therefore he was hated by almost 
 all his people." 
 
 It was not long after William II. was made king that 
 he and his brothers fell out with one another. First he 
 invaded Robert's country of Normandy; then these two 
 made friends and both attacked Prince Henry, their 
 younger brother, who had taken a castle belonging to 
 Robert on St. Michael's Mount in Normandy. They 
 besieged him there until he was so hard pressed that not 
 only his army but he himself was suffering from want of 
 food. On hearing this, Robert sent him supplies of meat 
 
52 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 and wine from his own table; and when William blamed 
 him for this he answered, "Shall we let our brother die 
 of hunger? Where shall we get another when he is gone?" 
 
 Prince Henry was soon obliged to give up, and wan- 
 dered about for some years, very poor and disconsolate. 
 William went back to England and was soon more hated 
 than ever. One of his ways of getting money unlawfully 
 was through the church. At the death of any person 
 holding an ecclesiastical office, the income belonging to 
 the place went by law to the king as long as it was vacant. 
 On the death of Lanfranc, a learned and excellent man 
 whom William I. had made Archbishop of Canterbury 
 (in place of the Saxon prelate turned out for the purpose), 
 William II. (Rufus) refused to appoint another, and so 
 kept the English church without a head for five years. 
 Then being taken ill and fearing that he should die, he 
 sent in great haste for St. Anselm, (as he was afterward 
 called on account of his holiness), and insisted on mak- 
 ing him archbishop against his will. When the king 
 recovered he went back to his old habits, indulging in 
 every kind of vice and setting himself against everything 
 that was good. Anselm bore the king's misconduct as 
 long as he could and then left the country, and William 
 had from that time no check on his wickedness. The 
 spirit of his dealings may be judged from his answer 
 when the archbishop remonstrated with him on his hab- 
 itually breaking his word. The king asked in a rage: 
 "Who can do all he promises?" 
 
 One good thing remains for which England is indebted 
 to William II. The beautiful Westminster Hall in Lon- 
 don, one of the grandest single rooms in the world, was 
 built in his reign. 
 
NORMAN ENGLAND. WILLIAM II. HENRY I. 53 
 
 It was during this reign that the first crusade was un- 
 dertaken.* Robert of Normandy wished to go on this 
 crusade but had no money, and as William could always 
 get money by force or fraud, he agreed to furnish Robert 
 with what he needed. In return Robert mortgaged his 
 duchy of Normandy to William; that is, allowed him to 
 take possession of it, with the understanding that after 
 five years it should belong to William, if Robert had not 
 paid back the money. The king took possession accord- 
 ingly, but before the five years were up he was dead, and 
 had no more use for land or money. 
 
 William Rufus was extravagantly fond of hunting, like 
 his father, and went out one morning with a party of his 
 friends into the New Forest, to have a day's pleasure. 
 During the day he became separated from most of his 
 party, and that night a poor charcoal-burner, driving his 
 cart slowly through the forest, found the body of the Red 
 King with an arrow in the heart. Sir Walter Tyrrel, the 
 friend who was last seen with him, ran away to France 
 without waiting to tell what he knew about it; but after- 
 ward he said that he had shot an arrow at a deer, and 
 that it struck a tree and then glanced off and killed the 
 king. Many persons disbelieved this story, but there 
 was no proof that Sir Walter had not told the truth. 
 
 Nobody pretended to be sorry for William's death. 
 His life had been so mean, base, and selfish that it was a 
 relief to know that he could tyrannize no more. He was 
 never married, and the next king would naturally be one 
 of his brothers. 
 
 * A crusade was a military expedition, the object of which was to 
 take the city of Jerusalem, with the tomb of Christ, from the Mo- 
 hammedans. 
 
54 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Robert, the older of these, of course had the best 
 right; (that is, provided the English people wanted him, 
 for they still went through the form of electing their kings) 
 but Robert was on his way from the Holy Land, and 
 Henry, the younger brother, was on the spot. Robert 
 came back in a few weeks, to find his brother acknowl- 
 edged as king beyond all question. He was angry at 
 this; but they met together and were reconciled, the elder 
 resigning all his right to the throne of England, and prom- 
 ising to be content with his own duchy of Normandy. 
 
 Henry was a wise and far-sighted man. He knew that 
 the only way to keep his people in good humor was to 
 govern them justly, so he gave them a charter, that is, a 
 written paper declaring what their rights were, and prom- 
 ised to rule according to law. He showed his wisdom 
 further by marrying Matilda, the niece of Edgar Atheling 
 and daughter of that queen who was so good that she 
 received after her death the title of St. Margaret of Scot- 
 land. The children of this marriage would thus be half 
 Saxon and half Norman, and there could never be any 
 more quarreling between the two races. 
 
 Henry I. was the first of the Norman kings who had 
 much more education than enough to write their names. 
 He had been fairly well instructed and was fond of study, 
 so he went by the name of "Beauclerc," or " Fine-Scholar, " 
 by which he is called to this day. 
 
 Although the political rights of the English were in a 
 manner assured to them by Henry I.'s charter, they were 
 none the less heavily taxed. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle 
 says of one period, "Full heavy a year was this. He 
 who had any property was bereaved of it by heavy taxea 
 and assessments, and he who had none starved with 
 
NORMAN ENGLAND. WILLIAM II HENRY I. 55 
 
 hunger." The taxes, however, were no longer regarded 
 as being imposed by the victors on the vanquished. 
 Norman and Englishman came under the same law, and 
 for all practical purposes the two nations were now fused 
 into one. Socially, the Normans still despised the Sax- 
 ons, and considered Henry's marriage with Matilda, 
 {who, out of respect to their prejudices, took that name 
 on her marriage in place of her own Saxon name of 
 Edith), as beneath the dignity of a Norman king. 
 
 Henry treated his brother Robert very harshly. He 
 was always jealous of him, and finding that the Norman 
 "barons, weary of Robert's misrule, were inclined to a 
 change, he went to Normandy with a large army and fought 
 the battle of Tinchebrai, where Robert was defeated and 
 taken prisoner. Henry carried his brother to England 
 and finally shut him up in Cardiff Castle in Wales, where 
 he dragged out twenty-eight miserable years before death 
 set him free. A story that Henry had his brother's 
 eyes put out rests upon some authority; but we prefer to 
 think it a fiction of the chroniclers. 
 
 It is toward the end of Henry's reign that we first read 
 of Oxford as a place where regular instruction was given 
 {1133). In early times it was called "Oxenford" (see 
 Chaucer's Prologue to the Canterbury Tales). From the 
 twelfth century onward, new halls for study were founded, 
 and learned men were attracted to the town as to a liter- 
 ary centre. The tradition which connects the present 
 university with King Alfred, rests only upon the fact that 
 he founded schools somewhere, and that as early as the 
 reign of Edward the Elder, (901-925), Oxford had be- 
 come a place of importance. 
 
56 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE WHITE SHIP. DEATH OF HENRY I. STEPHEN. 
 
 ENRY I. now had apparently all that this world 
 could give him. His power was unquestioned, 
 his country was rigorously kept quiet, and his 
 domestic affairs were prosperous. The great misfortune 
 of his life came upon him like a clap of thunder from a 
 clear sky. 
 
 He had been in France with his only son, William, 
 celebrating the prince's marriage to a daughter of the 
 Count of Anjou. A splendid wedding party was in at- 
 tendance, and all were in the highest spirits. It was 
 found convenient, in going back from Normandy to Eng- 
 land, for the royal party to sail in different vessels, as the 
 ships of that time were small and ill-fitted to carry 
 many people at once. The king sailed first, leaving the 
 prince to follow in a beautiful new ship called the 
 "Blanche Nef," or White Ship, offered by the owner for 
 that purpose. "I had the honor of carrying over your 
 father when he went to the conquest of England," said 
 this man; "I pray you to use my new ship for your jour- 
 ney." The king answered that his own arrangements 
 were made, but that his son would accept the offer with 
 pleasure. The ship was crowded as full as it could hold. 
 There were fifty "sailors of renown," as the captain called 
 them, and a hundred and forty of the prince's company, 
 including many high-born ladies, who had gone from 
 England to the wedding. "Give the men three casks of 
 wine," cried the prince, who had been drinking a great 
 
DEATH OF HENRY I. STEPHEN. 57 
 
 deal of wine himself; "let us all be merry together." Off 
 they went; the sailors got drunk, and the ship had 
 scarcely left the harbor when she struck on a rock with 
 such force that it was seen instantly that she must sink. 
 The captain hurried the prince with a few companions 
 into a boat, ordering the men to row for their lives to 
 the shore, which they could easily have reached. But 
 among the ladies left on board to drown was the Countess 
 Marie, a sister of Prince William; and he, hearing her 
 piteous cries for help, insisted on going back to the ship 
 to save her. Upon this, so many persons crowded into 
 the boat that it sank, and the ship went down at the same 
 moment. Of all that great company, but one escaped 
 death; a poor butcher of Rouen who told the story. He 
 was saved by clinging to a mast, and said that the cap- 
 tain might also have reached the shore but that on hear- 
 ing of the prince's death he let go, and crying out, "Woe 
 is me!" sank to the bottom like a stone. 
 
 For several days no one dared to carry the tidings to 
 the king. At last a young boy was sent into his presence, 
 and, falling at his feet in tears and trembling, told his 
 story. The king fell down in a fainting-fit, and was never 
 again seen to smile. 
 
 The little bride, who was only twelve years old, had 
 come to England with her father-in-law, and was there- 
 fore safe. The Count of Anjou sent for his daughter and 
 her dowry; the young girl was sent back, and afterward 
 became a nun, but Henry took care to keep the dowry. 
 
 Henry now began to be anxious about an heir to the 
 crown. He had several nephews, but was not very fond 
 of them; and his oldest daughter, Matilda, married to 
 the emperor Henry V. of Germany, had no children. 
 
5S HISTORY OF ENGLAND, 
 
 The emperor lived but a short time after the marriage, 
 and Matilda was, with much difficulty, persuaded to marry 
 Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou. Two years be- 
 fore the death of Henry I. they had a son, named Henry 
 after his grandfather, and called by the English Henry 
 Fitz-Empress, as Matilda always kept the higher title of 
 empress, even after marrying a count. The birth of this 
 child delighted the old king, who felt that he in a manner 
 took the place of the lost Prince William, and he caused 
 his barons to swear fidelity to his daughter Maud, (a name 
 for Matilda), hoping that she would be queen after his 
 death. He might have lived longer but that he persisted 
 in eating too largely of a dish of stewed lampreys, a kind 
 of rich fish against which his physicians had warned him. 
 He was not well at the time, and died from the effects of 
 his imprudent meal. 
 
 Henry I. had great faults; he was self-willed, avari- 
 cious, deceitful, and, when it suited his purpose to be so. 
 cruel, as was shown by his treatment of his brother 
 Robert. He kept up the forest laws (game laws we 
 should now call them) in their utmost severity, and was 
 altogether a hard master. Yet, as he had undoubtedly 
 great abilities, and was, according to the standard of the 
 time, a just ruler, (for he allowed no crime to go un- 
 punished in others), the English long clung to his memory 
 with a certain fondness. 
 
 There were some things in Henry's time which showed 
 that a gradual change was taking place in England. For 
 instance, men were no longer obliged to undergo the 
 "ordeal of battle," if they did not choose to do so. This 
 was a Norman custom which was meant to take the place 
 of the Saxon hot-iron trial. When two men had a quarrel 
 
DEATH OF HENRY I. STEPHEN. 59 
 
 either could insist on fighting it out with certain forms 
 and ceremonies, and the victor was supposed to have 
 right on his side. 
 
 We notice also the growing power of the Church in 
 controlling men's actions. When Henry was about to 
 fight his last battle with his brother Robert, in Normandy, 
 ■a bishop, making an address to him in the presence of 
 Tiis soldiers, exhorted him not to follow the example of 
 Robert, who was " abandoned to sloth and folly,'' but to 
 testify against the abominations of the times, especially 
 long hair and peaked-toed shoes. These latter were then 
 made so absurdly long that the points were drawn up 
 and fastened at the knee. As Henry professed his will- 
 ingness to help along in the good work of reform, the 
 zealous bishop seized a pair of shears and cut off the 
 king's flowing locks. Then the greatest dandy of the 
 court asked that his head might be operated upon; and 
 after that the scissors were kept busy until all the fine 
 gentlemen became a set of Roundheads. The efficacy 
 of this sacrifice is proved by the fact that Henry won 
 •the battle. 
 
 Henry I. died in Normandy, and no sooner did the 
 news of his death reach England than robbery and law- 
 lessness ran riot through the country, and trade was 
 brought to a stand-still. The Empress Maud, Henry's 
 •daughter, was away taking care of her husband, who was 
 ill; so that the way was open for a usurpation. Just then 
 Stephen, Earl of Blois, son of the Conqueror's daughter 
 Adela and nephew to the late king, suddenly appeared 
 in London with an army, and by promises and a liberal 
 scattering about of Henry's money, of which he managed 
 to get possession, induced the "Witan" to choose him 
 
60 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 king. Stephen was going to do great things. He would 
 abolish the odious "Danegelt," which was still kept up; 
 he would give up the new forests made by Henry I. and 
 he would secure justice to every citizen. None of his 
 promises were kept, but this was not altogether his fault. 
 He was an amiable, well-meaning man, with pleasant 
 manners and a ready smile, and would have been quite 
 willing that every man in his dominions should have 
 peace, prosperity and justice, if he could have bestowed 
 these blessings; but he lacked force of character. Other 
 men, stronger and fiercer than he, took things into their 
 own hands, and poor England had not, since the time of 
 the Danish invasions, had so bitter a period as his reign 
 proved to be. To conciliate the favor of the Norman 
 barons he allowed them to fortify their castles, which soon 
 became mere dens of robbers ; for it was not the habit 
 of these "noblemen" to provide for themselves except 
 by stealing from their neighbors. Here is a passage from 
 the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle," giving a Saxon account of 
 what was endured in his reign by those suspected of 
 owning anything that could be taken away from them: 
 
 When the traitors perceived that King Stephen was a mild man, 
 
 and a soft and a good they no faith kept; every rich man kept his. 
 
 castles and defended them. They greatly oppressed the wretched 
 people by making them work at these castles, and when the castles, 
 were finished they filled them with devils. They took those whom 
 they suspected to have any goods and put them in prison, and tor- 
 tured them with pains unspeakable. They hung some up by their 
 feet and tortured them with foul smoke ; some by the thumbs or by 
 the head, and they hung burning things on their feet. They put a 
 knotted string about their heads, and twisted it till it went into the- 
 brain. Some they put into a crucet-house, that is, into a chest that 
 was short and narrow, and not deep, and they put sharp stones in 
 it, and crushed the man therein so that they broke all his limbs. 
 
DEATH OF HENRY I. STEPHEN. 61 
 
 Other " hateful and grim things" are described, all 
 having for their object the same thing, namely, forcing 
 people, by the infliction of bodily pain, to tell where they 
 had hidden anything of value. 
 
 In the face of horrors like these we almost forget to be 
 shocked at the commonplace fighting which went on, 
 year after year, between Matilda's army and her cousin's. 
 One great battle was fought in her behalf by King David 
 of Scotland, who was her mother's brother. It was called 
 "The Battle of the Standard" from the consecrated ban- 
 ners, taken from different monasteries, which floated 
 from a tall pole carried in the midst of the English army 
 instead of an ordinary flag. David was defeated, and 
 came near being made prisoner. On the other hand, 
 Stephen was. captured in battle and loaded with chains; 
 then Matilda's chief supporter, Robert of Gloucester, fell 
 into the hands of the enemy and was exchanged by them 
 for Stephen. Twice Matilda herself was taken prisoner. 
 Once the king generously set her free and furnished her 
 with an escort to her own party; the next time she was 
 indebted to her own ingenuity or that of her friends for 
 her escape. She was shut up by the besieging army in 
 the castle of Oxford; and seeing no hope of relief she 
 caused herself and three of her knights, all dressed in 
 white, to be let down over the castle wall. It was in the 
 depth of winter and the ground was covered with snow. 
 The river Thames was frozen over, and the party crept 
 along for six miles, strange to relate, without being dis- 
 covered. They were almost frozen when they reached 
 a place of safety. The castle and city surrendered to 
 the king's forces the next day. 
 
 And so the wretched business went on. The land was 
 
62 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 left untilled, the cattle died from lack of food, and a fam- 
 ine followed among the people. All over the land, no- 
 sight was more common than that of blazing villages and 
 farm-houses; no sound more frequent than the despair- 
 ing wail of people hunted from their homes. Young 
 Prince Henry, Matilda's son, in the mean time, was grow- 
 ing up to be a man. When things got to their worst, 
 and the people could bear no more, an agreement was 
 made between him and Stephen that the latter should 
 remain king as long as he lived, and that Henry should 
 then peaceably take the throne. Stephen's son, Eustace, 
 a young man of such violent passions that he seemed 
 almost insane, was made so angry by the treaty that it 
 brought on a brain fever of which he died, to the great 
 relief of the English, who had foreseen in his father's 
 death only an endless vista of civil war. Stephen did 
 not live long after this, but died in 1 154 after a disastrous- 
 reign of nineteen years. 
 
 The part of his conduct that it is least possible to de- 
 fend was the fact that he had sworn to uphold the right 
 of his cousin Matilda; and perjury was as much a sin in 
 the twelfth century as it is in the nineteenth. His reign 
 was a period of unspeakable misery to the English; but 
 it is doubtful, under the circumstances, if there could 
 have been anything but misfortune. It was not the time 
 for the rule of a woman, even a judicious one; and the- 
 Empress Maud was haughty and revengeful, and never 
 seems to have gained the love of the people. 
 
 Our old acquaintance, the Saxon Chronicle, comes 
 to an abrupt end at Stephen's death. It had said its 
 say; and there were others to take up the history of 
 their country. The monk William of Malmesbury, who- 
 
DEATH OF HENRY 1. STEPHEN. 63 
 
 lived in this century, gives us some interesting accounts 
 of things as he saw them, and Henry of Huntington, 
 another monkish historian, flourished at about the same 
 time. Geoffrey of Monmouth, who died in the same year 
 with King Stephen, professed to write a history of Britain, 
 but it is so full of absurd fables that we can not tell the 
 false from the true. King Arthur, the last Briton who 
 stood out against the Saxons, is his favorite hero. 
 
 And now we have done with the Norman kings; men 
 of great talents, and, with the exception of Stephen, of 
 strong characters. They came as usurpers, but the bene- 
 fits they conferred upon England by introducing there a 
 higher form of civilization than was known among the 
 Saxons, can hardly be overrated. 
 
 We have had, also, the last invasion of England. Rom- 
 ans, Saxons, Danes, Normans, in turn conquered and 
 occupied the land, and we have the best of what each 
 nation left. Norman, Dane and Saxon, together with a 
 little addition of British blood, have combined to form 
 the modern Englishman, and we are English, with some 
 admixture from every civilized nation upon earth. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE FIRST PLANTAGENET. 
 
 N the days when men went to battle with the 
 visors of their helmets down, so that no one 
 could see their faces, it was convenient to have 
 some special mark about them which should distinguish 
 
64 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 one from another. Geoffrey of An j oil, who married the 
 Empress Maud, daughter of Henry I. of England, chose 
 to wear a sprig of broom-plant {planta genista} in his hat, 
 so he was known as Geoffrey Plantagenet. His son, 
 Henry II. of England, kept the name, and for more than 
 three hundred years Plantagenet kings sat on the throne 
 of England. 
 
 There was no need of an election by the Witan (which 
 we must now call the Parliament) to enthrone Henry 
 Plantagenet. He was welcomed by every one. Being 
 half Saxon and half Norman, the quarrels of a hundred 
 years were ended in him. Normandy, Anjou, and sev- 
 eral other countries were his by inheritance, and he mar- 
 ried Eleanor of Aquitaine, the divorced wife of Louis 
 VII. of France, who brought him the rich countries of 
 Guienne and Poitou, besides some smaller ones. Seldom 
 has a young man of twenty-one stepped at once into such 
 possessions. Henry was a very different person, in appear- 
 ance, from the smooth, courteous, handsome Stephen. 
 He was rough-looking, red-faced, bull-necked, and very 
 strong and determined. He found in England much to 
 do and much to undo. He began by sending away the 
 foreign soldiers brought over by Stephen, and who had 
 been living on the fat of the land while Englishmen were 
 starving; he pulled down the castles which had sheltered 
 licensed thieves and murderers, and he took back, from 
 those to whom both Matilda and Stephen had given it 
 unlawfully, much public property. He caused the laws 
 to be respected, and justice done to everyone, rich or 
 poor. A writer of his time says, "He did not sit still in 
 his palace, as most kings do; he went about and saw 
 things for himself." He knew, also, how to choose fit 
 
THE FIRST PLAN TA GENE 7\ 65 
 
 helpers; and this brings us to the name of one of the 
 most remarkable men of any age — Thomas a Becket. 
 
 Before we go farther into sober history you ought to 
 hear a pretty story about the mother of Becket. It may 
 not be true, but even if it is not, it is a charming little 
 romance.* 
 
 Gilbert a Becket, the father of Thomas, was an Eng- 
 lishman who went to the Holy Land either on a crusade 
 or a pilgrimage, and was taken prisoner by a Saracen. 
 His master treated him kindly, and even allowed him 
 some intercourse with his family. The Saracen had a 
 young daughter who was much interested in the English 
 captive, and they grew very fond of one another. After 
 & while, Becket had a chance to escape, and did so, with 
 his servant, Richard, without any further thought of the 
 Saracen maiden. He went back to England, and be- 
 came a prosperous London merchant. 
 
 But the young girl was not so easily satisfied. She 
 had learned from Becket just two words of English — 
 "London" and "Gilbert." Being determined to find her 
 lover, she stole away secretly from her father's house; 
 and with these two words, and some jewels to pay her 
 passage, she made her way to London. On arriving there 
 she wandered about the streets calling out in her soft, 
 sweet voice, "Gilbert!" "Gilbert!" London was not so 
 large then as it is now, and it happened that Richard, 
 who was still Becket's servant, saw her and took her to 
 his master. Fortunately, Gilbert was not married; and 
 as soon as the faithful Saracen could be baptized she 
 received the Christian name of Matilda instead of the 
 
 * Pronounce this word romance, with the accent on the second 
 
 syllable. 
 
66 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 heathen one she had borne before, and he made her his- 
 wife. Such is the story, told by a writer living in Eng- 
 land at that time. 
 
 Thomas a Becket, the son of Gilbert, after receiving a 
 good English education, studied law at the great univer- 
 sity of Paris, and there, it is said, got rid of the Saxon 
 accent which had clung to him until then and prevented 
 his being quite the fine gentleman. When he went home 
 to England he took his place at once as a thorough man 
 of the world; for, though belonging to the clergy, it was 
 not necessary for him on that account to devote himself 
 especially to religion. He was gay, brilliant and popular, 
 and a brave soldier. The king, who was very fond of 
 him, promoted him from one position to another until he 
 reached the highest — that of chancellor. He was con- 
 siderably older than Henry, but the king treated him as- 
 a companion, sometimes indulging in what we should call 
 pretty rough jokes. One day they were riding along 
 together when they met a miserable beggar, scantily 
 clothed. "Look at that poor wretch," said the king. 
 "Don't you think it would be a good idea to give him a. 
 warm cloak?" "Certainly," said the dignified chancellor; 
 "it is a kind thought, and I hope you will carry it out." 
 "Well," answered the king, "suppose we give him yours;" 
 so he seized Becket's rich scarlet cloak, trimmed with 
 ermine, and tried to drag it off. The chancellor held 
 fast to it, until at last the clasp snapped and Henry flung 
 the cloak to the beggar, who was probably the most sur- 
 prised man of the company. 
 
 Thomas a Becket had inherited a great deal of money 
 from his father, and he spent it in a princely manner. 
 His table was spread every day for as many guests as 
 
THE FIRST PLANTA GENET. 67 
 
 could sit at it, and when there were more than could find 
 places there, they sat on the floor, which was covered 
 thickly with rushes in summer and straw in winter. It 
 was thought a proof of the unbounded luxury in which 
 the chancellor lived that the rushes and straw on his floor 
 were laid down fresh every day, (this was out of respect 
 to the courtiers' fine clothes) while common people did 
 not have their rushes changed more than once a week. 
 At all houses, rich or poor, the bones and other remnants 
 of food were thrown on the floor, during the meal or after 
 it, to be scrambled for by the dogs. 
 
 It will help to give us an idea of these feasts, where wine 
 was served in golden goblets and meat on silver dishes, 
 to know that forks were not in use at table, nor were 
 knives a part of the table furniture. Each person carried 
 his own pocket-knife, and cut from the main dishes such 
 pieces as he desired, and instead of forks they used their 
 fingers. 
 
 On some occasion King Henry wished to send an 
 ambassador to France, and Becket, being the most splen- 
 did person in the kingdom, was naturally chosen to go. 
 He thought he would do honor to the situation, and trav- 
 eled, if we may believe Fitz Stephen, his admiring friend 
 and biographer, with a retinue of nearly a thousand per- 
 sons. When he went into a town, two hundred and fifty 
 singing boys heralded his approach; a long train of wag- 
 ons followed, each drawn by five horses, with a driver to 
 each horse. After these came twelve horses carrying 
 smaller articles, each with a monkey on his back. Two 
 of the wagons carried ale, to be given out to the people 
 as they passed along; others contained the gold and 
 silver vessels used at the chancellor's table, and the rest 
 
68 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 bore the various garments in which his servants were to 
 appear. After these came a train of ladies and gentle- 
 men, soldiers and attendants, all splendidly dressed and 
 equipped, and finally Becket himself, in superb array. 
 After making all due allowance for exaggeration, it must 
 have been a magnificent procession. 
 
 A great change was now to take place. The king had 
 certain plans which he wished Becket's help in carrying 
 out; and he thought the best way to do this would be to 
 make him Archbishop of Canterbury. Becket was 
 strongly opposed to this; he shrank from the responsi- 
 bility, and said plainly to the king, in effect, "You will 
 be disappointed in me. We shall certainly quarrel, for 
 you claim rights as king which I, as archbishop, can 
 not allow." But Henry was not used to being disap- 
 pointed, and insisted on having his own way. Becket 
 immediately laid down all his splendors, wore sack-cloth 
 and a hair-shirt, scourged himself, lived on bread and 
 water, and practised every form of self-denial which is 
 supposed to elevate the soul by mortifying the body. 
 He daily washed the feet of thirteen beggars to prove his 
 humility, and wept over and lamented his sins like any 
 common penitent. So far his conduct concerned only 
 himself and the friends who had assembled round his 
 table in the days of his magnificence; but when he re- 
 signed the chancellorship in order to devote himself to his 
 spiritual duties, the king was seriously offended. There 
 was never any real cordiality between them afterward. 
 
 During the hundreds of years in which the clergy 
 (which included all monks, as well as priests and bishops) 
 had been increasing in power and importance, many of 
 them had become exceedingly corrupt, and led very bad 
 
THE SIRST PL A NT A GENET. 69 
 
 lives. It had grown to be a practice in the church that 
 when one of these persons committed a crime he should 
 be judged only by the clergy themselves, (who might let 
 him off with some slight punishment) and not by the law 
 of the land. Henry saw that this was not right, and 
 declared that all persons should be treated alike and tried 
 in the regular courts. After a great deal of angry dis- 
 puting, a council was called at Clarendon at which both 
 sides were represented, and a paper called the "Consti- 
 tutions of Clarendon" was drawn up accepting the king's 
 decision, which most of the clergy, the archbishop among 
 the rest, swore to observe. 
 
 Becket, who had consented to the Constitutions sorely 
 against his will, soon obtained permission from the Pope 
 to break his oath. He did not think it prudent to remain 
 in England, but went to France, where he was received 
 with great kindness by the king of that country. After 
 six years of self-imposed banishment, some friends made 
 peace between him and Henry, and he returned home, 
 Henry asking him the first time they met, whether he 
 had gone away because he thought England was too 
 small to contain them both. 
 
 The archbishop, however, was not altered by absence. 
 He was an old man now, but his spirit was unbroken, and 
 he showed the same determination as ever. He had 
 made up his mind that the Church should be the greatest 
 power in England, and the king was equally resolved that 
 the Law should rule. Enraged by the archbishop's con- 
 tinued encroachments, Henry once exclaimed, "Is there 
 no one who will rid me of this insolent priest?" Four 
 Norman knights who heard the angry words spoken left 
 the king's presence without telling him of their intention, 
 
70 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 crossed the sea (for Henry was then in Normandy), and 
 rode with all speed to Canterbury. There they had a 
 stormy interview with the archbishop, desiring him to 
 take off the excommunication from one of their own 
 friends, who had plundered the church in Becket's ab- 
 sence, but this he steadily refused. At the usual hour he 
 went into the cathedral to perform the vesper service. 
 He had been warned that the knights meant to kill him, 
 but he scorned to take any measures for his own defence. 
 The ruffians then came into the church and struck at him 
 and hacked him with their swords, until they left him 
 dead on the cathedral floor. In Canterbury Cathedral 
 is still shown the place where the cowardly act was done. 
 Henry was horror-struck at hearing of the foul deed, 
 for, angry as he was, he had not expected to be taken at 
 his word. His first care was to be reconciled with the 
 Pope, and to give up everything that he had been fight- 
 ing for. He actually annulled the "Constitutions of 
 Clarendon" and thus undid a measure that it had been 
 the object of his life to accomplish — a proceeding which 
 necessarily diminishes our respect for him. 
 
 The next event of importance in English history is the 
 conquest of Ireland. This country had before been in- 
 dependent, ruled over by five so-called "kings" who were 
 always at war with one another, and did not mind slicing 
 off noses, digging out eyes or tearing out tongues any 
 more than we mind killing vermin. Ireland was nomi- 
 nally Christian, having been converted by St. Patrick in 
 the fifth and St. Columba in the sixth century; and for a 
 long time the Irish monasteries were the centres of learn- 
 ing and piety. Ireland was called "The Isle of Saints 
 and Scholars." But the people had gradually fallen back 
 
THE FIRST PLANTA GENET. 71 
 
 into a state of barbarism, and their continual quarreling 
 among themselves prevented them from making any 
 improvement. 
 
 Henry had received, some years before, permission 
 from the Pope to conquer this island, for the pontiffs in 
 those days assumed the right to dispose of all the coun- 
 tries of the earth; but hitherto there had been no con- 
 venient time for it. Now the old story of history repeated 
 itself. One of the kings asked for help against another, 
 and Richard de Clare (called Strongbow) went over with 
 a band of soldiers, conquered the opposing army, married 
 the king's daughter Eva, and made himself master of the 
 king's dominions. These he was not allowed to keep, 
 but Henry, having subdued the rest of the country, 
 granted Strongbow a large estate there, while retaining 
 for himself the title of king. Since that time (1172) Ire- 
 land has belonged to England, and a very troublesome 
 piece of property it has proved to the English, who have 
 not yet seen the last of the perplexities brought on them 
 by the ambition of Henry II. 
 
 Henry's declining years were far from peaceful. His 
 sons all rebelled against him, with the connivance of their 
 mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, who seems to have had a 
 genius for making mischief. The king of France, Louis 
 "VII. also took part with the sons. Prince Henry died 
 of a fever and Geoffrey had his brains dashed out at a 
 tournament, leaving only Richard and John to continue 
 the war against their father. Some of Henry's subjects 
 joined the rebels, and William the Lion, king of Scot- 
 land, entered into the alliance against him. As these 
 things were considered a judgment on the king for Beck- 
 et's murder, he resolved do public penance for it. With 
 
72 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 his usual quickness, (respecting which Louis VII. of 
 France said, "The King of England does not sail nor 
 ride; he flies, like a bird!"), Henry went quickly to Can- 
 terbury and, dismounting as soon as he came in sight of 
 the old towers, walked barefoot to the cathedral. There 
 he remained all night in prayer, causing himself to be 
 scourged by eighty monks, each of whom gave him a blow 
 as he passed. When he returned to London the first 
 news that met him was that William the Lion, king of 
 Scotland, had been taken prisoner in battle, with a large 
 part of his army. The archbishop had already been 
 made a saint by the Pope, and for hundreds of years his 
 tomb at Canterbury was the resort of pilgrims, while his 
 shrine vied with the most famous in Europe in regard to 
 the miracles said to be wrought there. 
 
 By the time King Henry was fifty-six years old he was 
 quite worn out with anxiety and unhappiness. His re- 
 maining sons were again in rebellion, helped by Philip 
 Augustus of France, who had succeeded the weak Louis 
 VI L; and Henry, in desperation, signed a treaty granting 
 whatever was asked of him. So much agitation brought 
 on a fever, and in the midst of it a paper was brought to 
 him to sign, by which he agreed to pardon all those of 
 his own subjects who had been in rebellion. He com- 
 manded that the list of names should be read aloud to 
 him, and the first one that he heard was that of his 
 youngest and favorite son, "John, Duke of Mortagne." 
 
 It was the last drop of bitterness in the king's cup, and 
 it filled it over-full. He would hear no more ; he cursed 
 the day of his birth, he cursed his rebellious sons with a 
 fury that nothing could induce him to alter, and then he 
 turned his face to the wall muttering, "Let things go as 
 
THE FIRST PL A NT A GENET 73 
 
 they will;" and so died — a disappointed, heart-broken 
 man. In spite of great faults and weaknesses, Henry 
 had been a good king for England. He was in advance 
 j of his age in his ideas about the rights of kings (of the 
 rights of "the people" nobody had then any notion), but 
 his doctrine that the rulers of a country should manage its 
 affairs without interference from foreigners, is one which 
 has since become a part of the law of nations. 
 
 The main writers in Henry II.'s time were Fitz Stephen, 
 who wrote the life of Thomas a Becket, the historians Ger- 
 ald of Cambridge, Roger of Hoveden and Walter Map; 
 and Wace, a Norman poet who wrote histories in verse. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 RICHARD I. AND THE THIRD CRUSADE. 
 
 HERE has been a great deal of sentimental non- 
 sense talked and written about Richard Cceur 
 de Lion (in English, Richard the Lion-hearted) 
 but the plain truth is that he was, in the general plan of 
 his life, as selfish a man as ever misruled the English 
 people. He was brave in battle; so were thousands of 
 others; he could be generous when it would make a show 
 and gain him credit; but he began his career by an un- 
 natural rebellion against his father, without a shadow of 
 excuse for it, and he continued through most of his life 
 to do the things which were for his own pleasure and 
 glory, and to neglect his plain duty, which was to take 
 care of his kingdom of England. 
 
74 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 One person, at least, had reason to be glad of Rich 
 ard's accession — his mother, Queen Eleanor, whom 
 Henry had kept shut up in her palace for sixteen years, 
 on account of her encouraging the rebellion of her sons 
 and trying to escape with them to France. We can 
 scarcely blame him for wishing to put her where she 
 could do no more harm, but she had her own wrongs to 
 complain of. He openly showed that he preferred an 
 other woman, Rosamond Clifford, called Fair Rosamond 
 to the queen; so they were a very unhappy couple. A 
 romantic story is told about this Rosamond, to the effect 
 that the queen suddenly appeared before her with a dag 
 ger in one hand and a cup of poison in the other, and 
 asked her which she would choose. According to the 
 story, Rosamond chose the poison, and drank it then and 
 there, under the queen's eyes; but the real Rosamond in 
 real history became a nun, and spent her life after the 
 king left her, in the convent of Godston, where the sis- 
 ters were very fond of her. 
 
 To return to King Richard. No sooner was he in his 
 father's place than he discovered that rebellion was a 
 very wicked thing, and immediately punished the persons 
 who had taken his part against his father. Then he was 
 crowned with great splendor; for Henry had left an im- 
 mense sum of money in the royal treasury, and Richard 
 could indulge his taste for display. A horrible incident 
 attended his coronation at Westminster. Certain Jews, 
 who as a nation had been forbidden to come to it, ven- 
 tured in, bearing large gifts, which they thought would 
 make them welcome. Richard received the gifts willingly 
 enough, but some of the people, to show their hatred and 
 spite against all Jews, drove them out with abusive Ian- 
 
RICHARD I AND THE THIRD CRUSADE. 75 
 
 guage and pelted them with sticks and stones. Upon 
 seeing this, others spread the report that the king had 
 ordered the Jews to be killed, and a general massacre of 
 those unfortunate people took place. The frantic multi- 
 tude not only attacked those they met out of doors, but 
 burst into their houses, stabbing men, women, and chil- 
 dren, or throwing them out of the windows into the street, 
 where they were soon dispatched by the infuriated crowd. 
 •Only three men concerned in these brutal outrages were 
 punished, and these, not for what they had done to the 
 Jews, but because in the confusion they had set fire to 
 the houses of some Christians. 
 
 The contagion of lawlessness soon spread to other 
 -cities, where the wretched Israelites were murdered by 
 hundreds. At York, after terrible cruelties had been 
 •committed against them, some five hundred of them took 
 possession of the castle in the absence of the governor, 
 and tried to defend themselves there. A mob of citizens 
 battered at the gates for two or three days, and at last 
 the Jews found it useless to keep up the attempt. After 
 destroying, as far as they could, their jewels and other 
 •valuables, the greater part of them agreed to die by their 
 •own hands. They killed their wives and children, and 
 then, having set fire everywhere to the castle, stabbed 
 themselves. A few cowering wretches, hiding away as well 
 as they could from the flames, were found by the assail- 
 ants when they succeeded in breaking down the gates, and 
 •on these they wreaked their vengeance; but the greater 
 part of their victims were already blackened corpses. 
 
 None of these things moved Richard, nor did he make 
 any effort toward checking the hideous deeds of his sub- 
 jects. He was busy preparing for a crusade. The Holy 
 
76 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Sepulchre (and of course the city of Jerusalem) had been 
 conquered again by the Mohammedans after the Chris- 
 tians had held it for eighty-seven years, and the warriors of 
 Europe were going to the Holy Land to try to get it back 
 again. This was the third crusade, a second one having 
 been undertaken about forty years before, for the purpose 
 of taking some Turkish cities in Palestine. All these 
 undertakings required enormous sums of money; and 
 Richard, besides using up the vast treasure left by his 
 father, obtained much more, some of it by dishonorable 
 means, some by merciless extortion. "I would sell Lon- 
 don," he exclaimed, "if I could find a bidder." 
 
 Philip Augustus of France joined him at Messina, in 
 Sicily, and here Richard was also met by his promised 
 wife, Berengaria of Navarre, who presented herself under 
 his mother's escort. As it was then the season of Lent, 
 the Catholic church would not allow of their marrying, 
 and the fleets set off for Palestine. When they drew earn 
 the island of Cyprus, a violent storm obliged some of the 
 English vessels to seek for shelter in one of its harbors. 
 This was rudely refused by Isaac Comnenus, the king of 
 the island; so Richard must stop to fight him before going 
 on with his crusading business, and had the satisfaction 
 of making him prisoner and taking possession of the 
 island, which he left some of his soldiers to guard. The 
 foolish old king was put in silver chains, and kept in them 
 until he died, some four years afterward; while his daugh- 
 ter was compelled to become a waiting-maid to Beren- 
 garia, whom Richard married before leaving Cyprus. 
 
 When he at last arrived in Syria, after waiting the 
 greater part of a year in Sicily and Cyprus, he found 
 Philip's army so much weakened by disease and battle 
 
RICHARD I. AND THE THIRD CRUSADE. 11 
 
 that the men had begun to lose heart. They were be- 
 sieging the town of Acre, a strong fortress, guarded by 
 the magnificent sultan Saladin, who was at least a match 
 for his Christian foes in soldiership, and superior to both 
 the leaders in nobility of character. The arrival of Rich- 
 ard put new spirit into the crusading army, and after 
 some terrible fighting, Acre was taken. A treaty was 
 made in which Saladin promised to give up the true cross 
 (which was supposed to be still preserved at Jerusalem) 
 to pay an enormous ransom in gold for such of his sol- 
 diers as were in the Crusader's hands, and to restore 
 without ransom all his Christian captives. Part of the 
 treaty he said he could not carry out within the forty days 
 agreed upon, and asked for an extension of time; which 
 the Christian king answered by bringing out three thous- 
 and Saracen prisoners and having them hanged in sight 
 of their own people. 
 
 Philip of France had no share in this murderous deed; 
 he had already left the Holy Land, disgusted at Richard's 
 arrogance and vain-glory, jealous of his superior fame as 
 a fighter, and ill from the effects of the sultry climate. 
 He left ten thousand men under Richard's command and 
 then returned to France, having first taken an oath to do 
 nothing in England contrary to Richard's interests. 
 
 On his way back he stopped in Rome, where .the Pope 
 absolved him from his oath, and when he reached home 
 he and John lost no time in conspiring against Richard. 
 The latter was now left to conduct the war alone. His 
 example inspired his soldiers, and they fought on for a 
 year and a half, not hindered by heat or disease or loss. 
 Richard took the city of Ascalon, and several others, but 
 when the army arrived in sight of Jerusalem there was so 
 
78 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 much opposition from his officers to spilling more Chris- 
 tian blood and spending more Christian time and money 
 on the almost hopeless work, that he was obliged to give 
 up. He returned to Ascalon, where he found that the 
 fortress needed repairing, and as it suited him to help the 
 laborers by working at this with his own hands, he in- 
 sisted that all the other commanders should do the same. 
 When the Duke of Austria, saying that he was not a 
 mason, refused to join in the work, it is said that Richard 
 struck him. 
 
 It was at last decided by all the Crusaders that they 
 might better go back. They were wasting precious hu- 
 man lives as well as money to no purpose; and there 
 were those among them who had business at home, even 
 if the king of England had none. So Richard, as repre- 
 senting the whole body of the Crusaders, made a truce 
 with Saladin which was to last three years, three months,, 
 three days, and three hours. This being done, the wasted 
 army set sail from the shores of Palestine, which most of 
 them never saw again. 
 
 Richard's ship was wrecked on the way home, and he 
 was cast ashore in the dominions of the Duke of Austria, 
 the very one whom he had insulted at Ascalon. He 
 tried to disguise himself, but his kingly ways betrayed 
 him, and the Duke sent him on to the Emperor of Ger- 
 many, by whom he was kept in prison for more than a 
 year. A pretty story is told as to how his friends at home 
 found out where he was. Richard was a fine musician, 
 and had himself composed songs which he and his favor- 
 ite page, Blondel de Nesle, used to sing together. Blon- 
 del was determined to find out where his master was, so- 
 he strolled about to the different castles in Germany sing- 
 
RICHARD I. AND THE THIRD CRUSADE. 19 
 
 ing a song composed by Richard himself; "0, Richard! 
 o mon roy \" When he reached the right castle, a well- 
 known voice from the tower above joined in, and Blon- 
 del carried the good news to England. 
 
 This would be a beautiful story if it were true. The 
 only trouble about it is that it was invented by some poet 
 who wrote long after both king and minstrel had been 
 laid in their graves. It illustrates, however, the strong 
 personal feeling which subsided between master and man 
 in the age of chivalry.* 
 
 After some bargaining Richard was permitted to ran- 
 som himself; and the English, proud of their warlike 
 king, who had brought them so much glory and so little 
 good, soon raised the money needed. Ladies gave their 
 jewels, the people submitted willingly to extra taxes, and 
 at length Richard stood once more upon the shores of 
 his own country. 
 
 His brother John and Philip of France had done what 
 they could toward unsettling the government, but the 
 people were too much in favor of law and order to ven- 
 ture on any great change; and Eleanor, the mother of 
 Richard and John, who was as true to Richard as she had 
 been false to her husband, used her great influence in her 
 elder son's favor. When Philip heard of Richard's being 
 set at liberty he wrote to John, "Take care of yourself, 
 for the devil has broken loose." But John did not need 
 to "take care" of himself in this sense. Richard gener- 
 ously forgave all his misdeeds, and remarked as he did 
 so, "I wish I could forget his injuries as easily as he will 
 forget my pardon !" 
 
 *For a description of chivalry see "A Short History of France," 
 p. 114. 
 
80 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Against Philip his feelings were very bitter, and as soon 
 as he had raised money enough he invaded his dominions. 
 To obtain money for his wars, the king no longer de- 
 pended upon taxes, but resorted to the most unscrupu- 
 lous measures. Among others, he ordered the great seal 
 to be broken, and then announced that no grants made 
 under that seal were legal, unless the fees belonging to 
 the grant were paid a second time, under a new seal 
 which he caused to be made for the purpose. In short, 
 he was what in our day would be called a swindler ; but 
 no one thought of applying an equivalent word to him 
 because he was — the king. 
 
 In the course of the war Richard heard that one of his 
 Norman vassals had found a treasure hidden in his land. 
 Richard demanded this, and on the owner's declining to 
 give him more than half of it, immediately besieged him 
 in his castle of Chaluz. The garrison defended them- 
 selves bravely, but the castle was taken, and Richard, 
 wounded in the fight, ordered every man to be hanged 
 with the exception of Bertrand de Gourdon, who had shot 
 him with an arrow. "What harm had I done you," he 
 asked, "that you should wish to kill me?" "You slew my 
 father and my two brothers with your own hands," an- 
 swered Bertrand, "and you would have slain me if you 
 could. Do your worst; I am content to die, since I have 
 rid the world of a tyrant." Richard, who by this time 
 knew that his wound was mortal, ordered that the young 
 man should be set free; but as soon as he was dead, his 
 officers put Bertrand to most horrible torture and then 
 hanged him. 
 
 Richard's character was a strange mixture of a certain 
 kind of loftiness, with intense selfishness and absolute, dis^ 
 
RICHARD I AND THE THIRD CRUSADE. 81 
 
 regard of his plainest duty. He was a fine soldier, but 
 much more than that is needed to make a good king or 
 a good man. With his abilities, for he had plenty of 
 brains, he might have ruled well and made his people 
 happy; but his one desire was for personal glory, and the 
 rights of others were but as dust in the balance. 
 
 In Sir Walter Scott's novels of "Ivanhoe" and "The 
 Talisman" the romantic side of Richard's life is portrayed. 
 It is not necessary for a novelist to say all the ill that he 
 "knows of his hero. We can enjoy the heroic part of the 
 story, but it is only right that we should hear the other 
 side too. Of his ten years' reign, Richard spent in all 
 only six months in England; four in preparation for the 
 crusade, and two on his return from that expedition, and 
 in both these cases his only object was to force money 
 from his subjects. Justice, law, and order were appar- 
 ently no concern of his. If he could obtain the means 
 for his personal gratification, the interest of a million or 
 two of people could take care of itself. 
 
 One of the best-known names in England during Rich- 
 ard's reign was that of Robin Hood, a famous outlaw* 
 who lived, with a band of men like himself, in Sherwood 
 Forest. Their sole business was highway robbery, and 
 they made a great merit of occasionally giving to the poor 
 what they stole from the rich. The clergy were the ob- 
 jects of their special dislike, and they delighted in taking 
 property belonging to the Church. 
 
 *A person who has committed certain crimes which put him out 
 of the protection of the law, so that any one is allowed to kill him 
 at sight. 
 
82 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 JOHN LACKLAND AND THE MAGNA CHARTA. 
 
 NGLAND had good reason to be sorry for the 
 death of Richard I.; for, bad as his rule had 
 been, it was not so utterly disgraceful as that 
 of his worthless brother John, and the people could then 
 take pride in their king's great schemes, though the 
 money for carrying them out had been wrung from their 
 own life-blood. But there was nothing to admire in John. 
 From his boyhood he had been base, mean, and treach- 
 erous, and it is probable that the dread of these qualities 
 accounted for much of the grief shown at Richard's death. 
 Henry II. had jokingly given his youngest son the nick- 
 name of "Lackland," because he did not inherit any 
 special province, as the others did, though he was to be 
 amply provided for; and the name has stuck to him ever 
 since, made doubly appropriate by his loss of the rich 
 Continental possessions which had for so long been the 
 glory of the English nation. 
 
 Arthur of Brittany, son of John's older brother Geoffrey, 
 had been put forward by his friends as the rightful heir 
 to the throne, and his claim had been at first supported 
 by Philip Augustus of France; but upon the marriage of 
 Philip's son Louis with Blanche of Castile, John's niece, 
 the French king abandoned the claim of Arthur, whom 
 John kept in confinement. 
 
 An impenetrable cloud of mystery hangs over the fate 
 of this unfortunate prince. When he was sixteen years 
 old he escaped from the custody of his uncle and raised 
 
JOHN LACKLAND. THE MAGNA CHARTA. 83 
 
 a force in Brittany to go against him, but was defeated 
 and again made prisoner. After this all is deep darkness; 
 the most apparently trustworthy account of his death 
 states that John, taking him out in a boat to the middle 
 of the Seine, stabbed him with his own hand and threw 
 his body into the river. 
 
 In Shakspeare's tragedy of "King John" we have the 
 main facts in the life both of the king and of his unhappy 
 nephew, though the poet has taken some liberties with 
 the less important details. When the facts became 
 known, the barons of Brittany appealed to Philip to make 
 war on the murderer of their young duke. Philip was 
 the over-lord (suzerain) of both Brittany and Normandy 
 as well as of all the other countries within the limits of 
 France, and was therefore bound to protect any one of 
 them against the encroachments of another. He lost 
 no time in invading Normandy, which one would 
 have expected John to defend with all his might. 
 But his mind was occupied with something else. Hav- 
 ing fallen in love with a beautiful girl, Isabella of 
 Angouleme, who was betrothed to Hugh de la Marche, 
 he divorced his own wife, and having obtained the 
 consent of Isabella's parents, married her without regard 
 to her previous engagement At the time of Philip's 
 invasion of Normandy, John was idling away his time 
 at Rouen with his new queen, feasting and dancing, 
 seeing tournaments and listening to minstrels, while 
 Philip was taking city after city and castle after 
 castle, almost without resistance. At last the French 
 army approached Rouen, and John fled hastily across 
 the Channel. Philip took possession of Rouen, and 
 Normandy was reunited to France after having be- 
 
84 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 longed to English kings for nearly a hundred and forty 
 years. 
 
 It was the best thing that could have happened to 
 England. Humiliating though it was to the Englishmen 
 of that time to see one of their fairest possessions slip 
 away from them through no fault of their own, it really 
 secured the independence of their country. Up to this 
 time the kings of England had passed more time in 
 France than in their adopted country; their main interest 
 had lain in their Continental possessions, and it was well 
 that English kings should have English hearts, and not 
 owe a divided allegiance. From the time of John, Eng- 
 land was a country by itself. 
 
 Philip's conquests did not stop with Normandy. All 
 the earldoms in France which had come to England with 
 the "Angevins,"* Anjou, Maine, Touraine, etc., were taken 
 by him, leaving only a remnant in the hands of the un- 
 worthy John. 
 
 The old question of authority had never been quite 
 settled between the king and the church. Henry II., as 
 we have seen, had annulled the Constitutions of Claren- 
 don, the safeguard against ecclesiastical tyranny, and' 
 since then the clergy had been allowed to have their own 
 way in everything, provided they were ready with their 
 angelst to fill the king's purse when he needed money. 
 Just at this time, however, the Archbishop of Canterburyl 
 died, and the vacancy was filled by Pope Innocent III., 
 without referring to the king. The person chosen was 
 Stephen Langton, an excellent and very able man, against 
 
 * Belonging to the Anjou family. 
 
 t A gold coin, so called from its being stamped with the figure of 
 an angel. 
 
JOHN LACKLAND. THE MAGNA CHAR'TA. 85 
 
 whom there could be no personal objection; but John 
 stood out bravely for his right as king and against foreign 
 interference in English affairs. The Pope at once laid 
 the whole kingdom under an "interdict." By this all 
 public religious services were forbidden; the churches 
 were closed, the bells stopped ringing, no marriages or 
 burial services could be performed, no masses said for 
 living or dead. The baptism of new-born infants and 
 extreme unction for the dying were alone permitted. The 
 people trembled for fear worse things should come upon 
 them, and began, rather under their breath, to murmur 
 against the king, who cared nothing for their displeasure. 
 Then the Pope excommunicated King John, and wound 
 up by pronouncing a sentence of deposition against him ; 
 that is, declaring that he was no longer king, and that 
 his subjects were excused from any further obedience to 
 him. Of course he was furiously angry at all this, and 
 began to prepare for war. As he had already taken all 
 he could get by ordinary means, he had to look about for 
 something extraordinary, and remembered the Jews, 
 whom it was always in order to rob and oppress. One 
 instance will show his methods: Having demanded an 
 enormous gift from a rich Jew who refused to make it, he 
 had him shut up, and caused a tooth to be pulled each 
 day out of the poor man's head, beginning with the double 
 ones. The Jew bore it until seven teeth were gone, and 
 on the eighth day he paid the money. We may imagine 
 how such people loved King John. 
 
 But all his tricks (and there were many of them) could 
 not ward off his misfortunes. The Pope having told the 
 king of France that if he would invade England all his sins 
 would be forgiven, Philip got an army together for that 
 
86 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 purpose. Just as he was ready to set out, the English 
 barons, who had no mind to see a French army land 
 upon their shores, made ready for defence. At the same 
 time, the Pope sent a legate or messenger, named Pandulf, 
 to persuade the king that the best thing he could do 
 would be to submit. So John, deserted by everyone, 
 and with Philip's army standing ready to cross the Chan- 
 nel, appointed a public meeting between Pandulf and 
 himself, at which he gravely took off his crown and laid 
 it at the legate's feet, to be put on again by him as a sub- 
 ject of the Pope; he consented to Langton's being arch- 
 bishop, and promised to pay the Pope an annual tribute 
 of money (12 13). The next day, Archbishop Langton 
 took off all the Pope's sentences, and John, having fallen 
 as low as he could in his own estimation and other 
 people's, set about planning fresh wickedness. 
 
 As soon as this ceremony was over and the king was 
 sufficiently humbled, the Pope sent word to Philip that as 
 John was now a faithful and obedient son of the Church, 
 any one opposing him would be considered an enemy to 
 true religion, and would be dealt with accordingly. Phil- 
 ip's anger at this change of face knew no bounds, and he 
 pressed on his preparations for the grand invasion more 
 vigorously than ever. Then the English people, who were 
 not wanting to themselves in times of emergency, fitted 
 out a fleet which fell upon that of Philip in the harbor 
 of Damme, in Flanders, and utterly destroyed it. This 
 was the first of the many struggles that have taken place 
 at sea between the French and English. It was soon 
 followed by the battle of Bouvines, in Flanders. John 
 had turned the tables on Philip by invading Poitou, which 
 was in Philip's dominions. The English king was helped 
 
JOHN LACKLAND. THE MAGNA CHART A. S7 
 
 by his nephew, the Emperor Otho of Germany; yet 
 Philip won a splendid victory, and John made the best 
 of his way back to his own country. 
 
 His subjects were now thoroughly tired of a man whose 
 tyranny, cruelty, meanness, and lawlessness left no one 
 safe, and determined to force him into an agreement by 
 which they hoped to be able to bind him. At their head 
 was Stephen Langton, a thoroughly patriotic man, who 
 by the way, brought on himself the displeasure of the 
 Pope by his efforts to reform the newly-reconciled son of 
 the Church; but Langton saw so clearly what was right 
 that not even the Pope's censure made him hesitate. 
 There was much discussion between the king and the 
 barons, who really represented the people of England, 
 though they had not been chosen by them; and at last, 
 both parties met at Runnymede, a pleasant place on the 
 banks of the Thames near where Windsor Castle now 
 stands. Here we approach one of the greatest events in 
 English history, over-topping both foreign war and domes- 
 tic rebellion. John angrily declared that he would never 
 grant such liberties to his people as would make himself 
 a slave; but the barons were too strong for him, and, 
 sorely against his will he signed "The Great Charter''* 
 on the fifteenth of June, 12 15. This repeated some of 
 the declarations of Henry I.'s charter, which had always 
 been so dear to the people; but contained besides these 
 many new provisions, among which stands the famous 
 sentence, " No free-man shall be imprisoned, outlawed, 
 or exiled, or dispossessed of his lands, but by the lawful 
 judgment of his peers, t or by the law of the land." % Many 
 
 * Magna Charta; (pronounced Carta). 
 
 + Equals. % A translation, as the Charter was written in Latin. 
 
88 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 kings afterward swore to observe this charter; many of 
 them broke their oaths; but the great principle laid down 
 in it has remained from that day to this the safeguard of 
 English liberty, and we have inherited its protecting in- 
 fluence. * 
 
 By signing an agreement like this, King John felt that 
 he had thrown away his own privileges, and his first effort 
 was to find out how he could avoid keeping it. He sent 
 at once for assistance to his friend the Pope, who oblig- 
 ingly annulled the Great Charter, and declared it not at. 
 all binding on the king who had sworn to it. The foreign 
 mercenariest which John had sent for, arrived at the 
 same time with the Pope's bull, and John let them loose 
 on the English people, to carry fire and sword through 
 the whole extent of England. There had not been such 
 merciless destruction since the time of the Conqueror. 
 John himself accompanied the army, and, as a sign of 
 his displeasure, set fire each morning to the village where 
 he had spent the night. % 
 
 The barons seem to have thought when the charter 
 was signed that they had nothing more to do; and they 
 were unprepared for such an attack. In despair of secur- 
 ing their rights by their own efforts, they sent word to 
 Prince Louis, oldest son of Philip Augustus, that if he 
 would come to England with an army and fight for their 
 rights, he should be their king. John they could endure 
 no longer. 
 
 *"From her worst king and meanest reign, 
 
 How sprang old England's greatest gain! " — Old rhyme 
 t Soldiers hired to fight for some other country than their own. 
 % At an earlier period in his career he had caused twenty-two- 
 prisoners of war to be starved to death at once in Corfe Castle. 
 
JOHN LACKLAND. THE MAGNA CHARTA. 89 
 
 Louis spent a long time in making preparations, and 
 at last arrived, nearly a year after the signing of the char- 
 ter. For some time the English were enthusiastic about 
 him, but after a while they began to see that they had 
 made a mistake. He was a Frenchman, and by this time 
 England had become thoroughly English. There was 
 fighting between him and John; castles were besieged 
 and taken, and the desolating civil war might have con- 
 tinued as long as it did in the time of King Stephen, but 
 that the death of John, most welcome to the perplexed 
 and harassed nation, brought it to an unexpected end. 
 
 The broad, shallow bay called The Wash, on the coast 
 of Norfolk and Lincolnshire, has a road along the shore 
 which can be traveled only when the tide is low. In 
 passing over this with the rising tide, King John lost not 
 only some of his soldiers, but the treasure chests which 
 carried his money and the crown -jewels. The distress 
 of mind caused by this accident threw him into a fever, 
 which soon ended his miserable life. He traveled on as 
 far as Swinstead Abbey, near Newark, where the monks 
 took as good care of him as they knew how; but as they 
 gave him fresh peaches to eat and new cider to drink — 
 probably not the best food for a man in a high fever — he 
 did not last long, and relieved England of his presence 
 by dying, after a reign of seventeen years, in 1 2 1 6. 
 
 It is a singular proof of the detestation in which this 
 king's name was held by the English people, that nearly 
 two hundred years afterward, in the insurrection of Wat 
 Tyler, the rebels made it one of their conditions that no 
 king of the name of John should ever be permitted again 
 to reign in England. 
 
90 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 HENRY III. SIMON DE MONTFORT. FIRST HOUSE 
 OF COMMONS. 
 
 HE English began to show the French prince 
 the cold shoulder as soon as they knew of 
 John's death. The king had left a son, nine 
 years old, and the barons (who stood for England) said, 
 "This child has done no harm; why should we deprive 
 him of his birthright on account of his father's sins?" So 
 Louis took himself and his soldiers home again. The 
 little Prince, John's son, was crowned without delay as 
 Henry III. The real crown had been lost with King 
 John's other valuables in the Wash, so a jeweler hastily 
 made a plain gold band which was placed on his head 
 by the Pope's legate, and he was made to say that he 
 held his crown as a subject of the Pope. A better part 
 of the little king's entrance into public life was that he 
 promised to observe his father's charter — the Magna 
 Charta. He never thought of keeping this promise, when 
 he grew to be a man, but it was good for the people to 
 be thus reminded of their rights. The Earl of Pembroke, 
 a wise and upright man who had married Henry's sister, 
 was appointed Protector of the kingdom until the king 
 should be of age. The Earl lived only three years after 
 this; but his place was taken by another equally admira- 
 ble man, Hubert de Burgh, who governed well in Henry's 
 name until the latter, grown to manhood, took things 
 into his own hands, and poor, weak, unsteady, helpless 
 hands they were. The whole of de Burgh's after life 
 
HENRY III. SIMON DE MONTFORT. 91 
 
 shows that any charge of baseness against him, such as 
 appears in Shakspeare's "King John," must rest upon a 
 mistake. It was to his promptness and energy that 
 Prince Louis owed the naval defeat which took away the 
 last hope of establishing a French king in England. De 
 Burgh, who was governor of Dover Castle, gathered a 
 band of resolute men together and drove away the ships 
 sent to Louis's assistance. 
 
 As the young king grew to manhood he showed him- 
 self frivolous, unstable, and self-willed, having neither the 
 dignity of a man nor the docility of a child. The flat- 
 terers about him persuaded him that de Burgh was the 
 -evil genius of the country, and Henry turned like a viper 
 which the fire has warmed into life, to sting his benefac- 
 tor. The king himself had made some inglorious cam- 
 paigns in France, the failure of which was laid at de 
 Burgh's door, and the faithful minister was dragged from 
 a chapel where he had taken refuge, and carried to the 
 shop of a smith who was ordered to rivet shackles on his 
 legs. "Never!" cried the smith. "You shall kill me 
 "before I will put iron on the man who freed my country 
 from the Frenchman and saved Dover!" Finding that 
 the smith would not be bullied, the ruffians tied de Burgh 
 to a horse, and thus strongly guarded, he was taken to 
 London and thrown into the Tower. After some time 
 lie escaped, but did not appear again in public life. 
 
 At the age of twenty, Henry made an imprudent mar- 
 riage with Eleanor, daughter of the Count of Provence, 
 in France. Her friends and relations fastened them- 
 selves upon the English like leeches. Four of her uncles 
 -came with her, and were sumptuously supported at the 
 public expense; and the court was filled with foreigners 
 
92 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 who were lodged, fed, and entertained by King Henry 
 as if he had possessed the purse of Fortunatus. 
 
 There is a story about him which would be incredible 
 but that it rests on good authority. One day some one 
 was admiring the beauty of his little children, and he was 
 so much pleased with the compliment that he ordered 
 them to be weighed, using silver coins instead of ordinary 
 weights, and then scattered the money among the crowd. 
 And this was when the whole country was so poor that 
 the government officers scarcely knew how to find the 
 wherewithal to meet the common expenses. 
 
 In addition to such follies, Henry made costly expedi- 
 tions into France, from which he was obliged to retreat 
 with loss and disgrace; and but for the forbearance of 
 Louis IX. (called St. Louis), he would have lost the little 
 French territory which still belonged to the English. 
 As there was no longer any hope of getting money legally,, 
 the king tried a new plan. He "took the cross;" that 
 is, he made a vow to go on a crusade; and for this pur- 
 pose extorted gifts from everybody, especially from the 
 Jews, whom he plundered without mercy; and when he 
 had collected the money he said nothing about the cru- 
 sade, but spent it as before. When his first son was born 
 he sent out messengers to ask for gifts, in city and coun- 
 try. "God gives us the child," said some one, "but the 
 king sells him to us." A dozen years afterward the king 
 himself went out on a visiting tour and begged every- 
 where for money from the people who entertained him. 
 When these methods failed, he would take by force such 
 provisions and other things as he needed for the royal 
 household, without paying for them; and his judges sat 
 in the courts, not to punish crime, but to raise money. 
 
HENRY III SIMON DE MONTFORT. 93 
 
 Any offender could buy himself off, the fine being in pro- 
 portion, not to the offence, but to the amount the accused 
 was able to pay. All this was in direct violation of the 
 Great Charter, in which the king was made to say, "We 
 will not deny, nor delay, nor sell justice to any man." 
 But the Charter had long been a dead letter. 
 
 It was not only the king who was thus robbing the 
 people with both hands, but the Pope. The latter, tak- 
 ing advantage of Henry's weakness, demanded constantly 
 more and more tribute; and all the chief offices in the 
 Church were filled with Italians. The pontiff also offered 
 a tempting bait to Henry in the shape of the crown of 
 Sicily, which he gave him — on condition of his winning 
 it for himself. The king's vanity was excited by the 
 offer, and the Pope spent millions of money on his ac- 
 count; but the crown of Sicily was as far off as ever. 
 The king found himself saddled with an immense debt, 
 and as every other means of raising money had been ex- 
 hausted, he was obliged once more to have recourse to a 
 Parliament. 
 
 The Parliament of that day must not be confused with 
 such as make the laws for England now. It was a con- 
 tinuation of the Saxon "Witan,"and was composed only 
 of nobles, who came when they were summoned by the 
 king and were dismissed at his pleasure. The word is a 
 French one, and means "talking." 
 
 In the Parliament now called by Henry, Simon de 
 Montfort, Earl of Leicester (son to that other Simon 
 whose crusade against the Albigenses had been such a 
 scandal to Christendom*), proposed a new government, 
 having nothing to do with the king, which should reform 
 
 * See "A Short History of France, " p. 77. 
 
94 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 all abuses and restore law and order to their afflicted 
 country. The assembly intended to carry out these plans 
 met at Oxford, and was called in derision of its excited 
 and stormy sessions "The Mad Parliament." De Mont- 
 fort, supported by a body of knights in full armor, was 
 the moving spirit, and a set of laws proposed, called "The 
 Provisions of Oxford," which the king, as well as the bar- 
 ons, swore to observe. Henry did not observe them, 
 and things went on from bad to worse, until at last the 
 two parties found themselves in open opposition. The 
 struggle which ensued is called "The Barons' War." 
 
 Prince Edward, Henry's oldest son (afterward King 
 Edward I.), was for some time on de Montfort's sidef 
 but some unreasonable demands of the barons made a 
 coolness between them, and in the battle which followed 
 they were on opposite sides. This battle was fought 
 near Lewes* in Sussex, and resulted in a victory for the 
 insurgents. The king, Richard Earl of Cornwall, his 
 brother, and Prince Edward, were all taken prisoners. 
 Henry was slightly wounded in the battle, but crying out,. 
 "I am Harry of Winchester, your king; don't kill me!" 
 was spared and led to a place of safety. 
 
 An agreement was entered into between de Montfort 
 and the king's party, by which the whole matter was 
 referred to arbitration. No arbitration was attempted, 
 however, for the common people were perfectly satisfied 
 with the government of "Sir Simon the Righteous," as 
 they fondly called de Montfort. But the earl's supporters 
 among the nobility grew fewer and fewer. They were 
 jealous of his abilities and of his high position, and when 
 he summoned a parliament in 1265, the year after the 
 
 * Pronounced Lew-es. 
 
HENRY III. SIMON DE MONTFORT. 95 
 
 battle of Lewes, only twenty-three barons came at his 
 call, though the clergy were there in large numbers. De 
 Montfort then conceived the brilliant idea of appealing 
 to the people, as it would be called now-a-days, and sent 
 out writs* in the king's name, commanding the sheriffs to 
 hold an election at which two knights from each county, 
 two citizens from each city, and two burgesses from each 
 borough, should be chosen to represent the people of 
 England. Here we have the first meeting of the House 
 of Commons. Since that time the Lords and the Com- 
 mons together have made laws for England under the 
 name of Parliament, as our own Senate and House of 
 Representatives make laws for us under the name of 
 Congress. Thus the first truly representative body of 
 men in England was called together by Simon de Mont- 
 fort, Earl of Leicester, in the year 1265, half a century 
 after the signing of the Great Charter. 
 
 But the great leader was approaching his fall. The 
 nobles dropped away from him and ranged themselves 
 on the side of the king's party, until at last a clever strat- 
 agem set Prince Edward free. The Earl of Gloucester 
 had sent him a present of a fine horse, which, as he was 
 carefully guarded, no one objected to his receiving. He 
 went out for a little airing on his new horse, and asked 
 the soldiers who were with him to run races to see who 
 was the best mounted, offering to bet on their success. 
 When all their horses were thoroughly tired, he put spurs 
 to his own and galloped away over the crest of a hill to 
 where a small body of his friends were awaiting him, 
 while the guard stood stupidly looking on, their horses 
 
 *The writ here spoken of was a summons to attend a meeting 
 of Parliament. 
 
96 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 unable to follow the fresh, fleet one which Edward's 
 friends had provided for him. 
 
 It did not take the prince long to gather an army which 
 met that of de Montfort at Evesham in Worcestershire. 
 When the latter saw in what good order his enemies ad- 
 vanced, he remarked, "They come on in wise fashion, 
 but it was from me they learned it."* After another look 
 he exclaimed, "Now God have mercy on our souls, for 
 our bodies are the prince's ! " The battle was short and 
 sharp. De Montfort and his son Henry were killed, and 
 "The Barons' War" was over. 
 
 But little remains to be told of the reign of Henry III. 
 His son Edward, having established order in the country, 
 went to work off his superfluous energy in a crusade, the 
 seventh, and, as it proved, the last, of these ill-fated and 
 life-wasting expeditions. He was to meet Louis IX. of 
 France at Tunis, in Africa, and go with him to Jerusalem, 
 as his own great-uncle, Richard Cceur de Lion, had gone 
 with Philip Augustus, Saint Louis's grandfather; but on 
 arriving at Tunis he found that the good king had died 
 some time before, and he proceeded on his journey 
 alone (1270). Henry died (1272), at the age of sixty- 
 five. His is next to the longest reign in English history, 
 having lasted from the death of King John, fifty-six years. 
 
 Though the years since Henry had grown to manhood 
 had been marked by wretched misrule, yet they were 
 years in which the English, as, a people, were making 
 great progress. They were learning the value of self- 
 government and of resistance to tyranny, and no future 
 king would have found it possible to resort to the degrad- 
 
 *So Napoleon remarked, toward the end of his career, that he 
 had taught other generals to beat him. 
 
HENRY III. SIMON DE MONTFORT. 97 
 
 ing expedients used by Henry for getting money. With 
 the admission of the Commons to Parliament came an 
 era of self-respect. 
 
 To do King Henry justice; with all his weakness and 
 ■meanness he was neither cruel nor treacherous, as his 
 father, King John, had been. He was not without a spice 
 of humor, as he showed when several archbishops and 
 bishops came to remonstrate with him against unlawfully 
 Taising people to high positions in the Church. "It is 
 true," said he, "I have been faulty in that respect. I ob- 
 truded you, my lord of Canterbury, upon your see; I was 
 obliged to employ both threats and entreaties, my lord 
 •of Winchester, to get you elected, when you should have 
 been sent to school: my proceedings were very irregular 
 and violent, my lords of Salisbury and Carlisle, when I 
 raised you from the lowest stations to your present dig- 
 nities. It will become you, therefore, to set an example 
 -of reformation by resigning your present places and try- 
 ing to get advancement in a more regular manner." This 
 anecdote rests on the authorship of Matthew Paris, who 
 has been called "The last, as he was the greatest," of 
 the monkish historians. Several others flourished durine 
 this century, but there are getting to be too many of them 
 for separate mention. 
 
 One thing we have to remember in Henry's favor; it 
 was he who began the beautiful Westminster Abbey 
 which we now see. The Confessor's church had mostly 
 tumbled to pieces by that time; but Henry had un- 
 bounded veneration for the original builder, whom he 
 adopted as his patron saint, and for whose mouldering 
 Telics he wished to provide a suitable shrine. The Abbey 
 was not finished in his day nor for many years afterward; 
 7 
 
98 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 but it must have afforded him great satisfaction to see its 
 graceful proportions beginning to take shape in solid 
 stone. 
 
 Although it is impossible to give the names of many 
 writers within the narrow limits of our history, we must 
 find room for that of Roger Bacon, who was in some re- 
 spects the most wonderful man of his age. He was the 
 first man of science that England produced, and his dis- 
 coveries, without the means of knowledge which now 
 can be had by any school-boy, show how genius, aided by 
 industry and perseverance, can make its way in spite of 
 hindrance. Do not confound this Bacon, who was a. 
 humble monk, with the brilliant philosopher of Queen 
 Elizabeth's day. They lived three hundred years apart; 
 but any century and any country might be proud of a. 
 man like either of the renowned Bacons. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 EDWARD I. CONQUEROR OF WALES. 
 
 HEN King Henry died, the Parliament went 
 through the form of electing his son. The 
 latter had arrived in Sicily on his way home, 
 when the news of his father's death reached him; and he 
 was in so little haste to take possession of his inheritance 
 that he spent more than a year traveling in Italy and 
 France before again setting foot on his native land. 
 
 His crusade had not been a successful one. Landing 
 at the city of Acre, the only one that remained of all the 
 
EDWARD I., CONQUEROR OF WALES. 99 
 
 Christian possessions in Palestine, he fought some battles, 
 took Nazareth, and performed wonders in the way of per- 
 sonal prowess; but beyond that, there was nothing to be 
 done. He was accompanied by his devoted queen, 
 Eleanor of Castile, to whom he had been married for 
 many years. He had one adventure, according to the 
 old chronicles, almost worth going to Syria for. While 
 reclining one day in his tent just recovering from a fit of 
 illness, a messenger came with a letter from the Sultan 
 Saladin, his foe; a descendant, probably, of the chivalrous 
 adversary of Richard I. As Edward took the letter the 
 man stabbed him with a dagger, meaning to pierce his 
 heart, but only wounding him in the arm. Edward was 
 not so ill but that he sprang from his couch, seized the 
 three-legged stool on which his tumbler of cooling drink 
 was standing, and with it beat out the brains of the cow- 
 ardly assassin. Fearing that the dagger had been poi- 
 soned, Queen Eleanor dropped on her knees at the bed- 
 side and sucked the blood from the wound. No evil 
 effects followed, and the memory of Edward's "cJiere 
 regne"* as he called her, has always since been loved and 
 honored by the English people. 
 
 Edward was thirty-four years old and in the prime of 
 manly vi^or when he arrived in England. He was tall 
 and slender, but very strong, and received the nickname 
 of Longshanks, from the length of his legs. A more 
 honorable addition to his name was that of "The Eng- 
 lish Justinian." t After his coronation he spent some 
 time in establishing law and order throughout his domin- 
 
 * Beloved queen. 
 
 .+ In allusion to a Roman emperor who prepared and enacted a 
 grand code of laws. 
 
100 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 ions, and then his active mind began to seek for some 
 more exciting occupation. This was furnished him by 
 events which occurred in Wales. 
 
 Wales, as you remember, is the country where the Brit- 
 ons took refuge when the devouring Saxons descended 
 upon them. King Arthur is the last of their princes to 
 appear on the page of history until the time of Edward 
 I. of England, when Llewellyn, at that time Prince of 
 Wales, refused to come before the English king and pay 
 the customary homage. Having repeatedly summoned 
 him to do so, Edward marched into his country, and after 
 several years of fighting, Llewellyn, who had in him all 
 the proud spirit of the ancient Britons, his ancestors, was 
 killed in battle. Edward then declared the country to 
 be part of England, and when David, Llewellyn's brother, 
 continued the war and was betrayed into the hands of 
 the English, he was hanged as a traitor. With him per- 
 ished the last spark of Welsh independence. 
 
 Edward showed a haughty and vindictive spirit by 
 causing the head of the unfortunate Llewellyn to be cut 
 off and placed on the Tower of London with an ivy- 
 wreath on it, in allusion to an old Welsh prophecy which 
 said that Wales should never be conquered until a prince 
 of that country should be crowned in London. However 
 strongly we may condemn Edward's action, we can not 
 deny that the conquest was of great benefit to the Welsh, 
 who were still a semi-barbarous nation, and who by being 
 gradually assimilated to the English, made great strides 
 in prosperity and civilization. 
 
 A horrible story to the effect that Edward ordered a 
 general massacre of the bards, or poets, of Wales, because 
 he thought that they encouraged their countrymen to re- 
 
EDWARD /., CONQUEROR OF WALES. 10] 
 
 bellion, was long believed in England, and has only lately 
 been received as what it is, a tale of romance. The poet 
 Gray, however, who lived in the eighteenth century, has 
 made the old tradition the foundation for his grandest 
 poem, "The Bard." 
 
 Some time after the close of the war, the Welsh ur- 
 gently demanded of Edward a prince of their own nation. 
 They were not satisfied to be a part of England, and 
 thought that if they had another prince, who would pay 
 the desired homage, all might go on as before. Edward 
 never had the least idea of gratifying them in this, but he 
 put them off by promising them a prince born in their 
 own country, who could speak no English. They were 
 much pleased with this, and when the king soon after- 
 ward appeared on a balcony of Caernarvon Castle in 
 Wales, holding his new-born son in his arms, and told 
 them here was a prince for them born in their own coun- 
 try who could speak no English (and he might have added 
 "nor any other language") they could only laugh and 
 make the best of it. From that day to this the oldest son 
 of the English sovereign has borne the title of Prince of 
 Wales. 
 
 A cruel persecution of the Jews stains the annals of 
 Edward I.'s reign. They were accused, truly or falsely, 
 of clipping the coin;* this was made a capital offence, 
 and as the mere possession of a clipped coin was consid- 
 ered a proof of guilt, 280 Jews were hanged in one year 
 in London alone, as being guilty of that crime. Some 
 years after this, the whole Jewish population was thrown 
 
 * It was the custom, for convenience, to cut silver coins into halves 
 and quarters, there being no small silver currency; it was therefore 
 easy for evii-disposed persons to clip a fragment from each piece. 
 
102 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 into prison, under pretext of a crime said to have been 
 committed by one of their nation, and were only released 
 on payment of a fine of ;£i 2.000. At last, after another 
 interval, the whole race was banished from the kingdom 
 (1290). Their lands and houses were forfeited to the 
 crown, but they were allowed to carry away their money 
 and jewels, which proved so great a temptation to the 
 sailors that many Jews were murdered for these before 
 reaching a foreign shore. Jews were not permitted to live 
 again in England for nearly three hundred years. 
 
 We come now to what occupied the last fifteen years 
 of Edward's reign, his quarrel with Scotland; but before 
 beginning on this, we must go back to an earlier period 
 to explain the state of affairs there. 
 
 Alexander III., king of Scotland, a descendant of Mal- 
 colm and the Saxon princess Margaret, had seen all his 
 children die before him. There was not even a grand- 
 child living except one little girl named Margaret, the 
 child of his daughter Margaret, who had married the 
 Prince of Norway. This child was called "The Maid of 
 Norway;" and at the death of her grandfather Alexander, 
 she was sent for to be queen of Scotland. Edward I. had 
 a plan for marrying her to his son, the Prince of Wales, 
 but before the poor little thing could reach Scotland she 
 was taken ill, and died on one of the Orkney Islands. If 
 the marriage had taken place it would have prevented a 
 long and bloody war, and hundreds of years of ill-feeling 
 between the two nations; but things turned out otherwise. 
 
 The Scottish people were in great perplexity. A king 
 they must have, for nobody thought of doing without one 
 in those days; and the only persons available for the 
 office were those who were descended from the three 
 
EDWARD I., CONQUEROR OF WALES. 103 
 
 daughters of David, Earl of Huntington, brother of Wil- 
 liam the Lion. Lord Hastings, who was son of the 
 youngest sister, saw that he had no chance, and withdrew 
 from the competition, leaving two candidates, John Baliol 
 and Robert Bruce,* between whom it was necessary to 
 make a choice. Each side had sturdy partisans, and 
 rather than go to war about it, both parties agreed to 
 leave the matter to Edward and abide by his decision. 
 Edward willingly accepted the office of arbiter, but ham- 
 pered his acceptance with a condition very different from 
 what the Scots expected. He demanded to be received as 
 over-lord (lord paramount) of Scotland; in other words, 
 whoever was chosen king must do homage to him for the 
 ■whole of Scotland. It had for a long time been recog- 
 nized that the king of England had rights over certain 
 districts there — Strathclyde, for instance, in the south- 
 western part, which was granted to them by Edward the 
 Elder; but this demand was unprecedented. They saw 
 that they were in Edward's power. To refuse to accept 
 his arbitration on his own terms would be to make an 
 enemy of him, which they could ill afford to do, and would 
 also be likely to plunge them into civil war. The Scott- 
 ish council consented to his condition and Baliol and 
 Bruce each solemnly swore that if he should be the 
 chosen one it should be as Edward's "man," bound to 
 do homage to him for the kingdom of Scotland. 
 
 Edward, acting on a principle of hereditary right now 
 universally agreed to, decided that Baliol, being in direct 
 descent from David of Huntington's oldest daughter, was 
 the rightful heir to the crown. The Scottish people 
 
 *Not the Robert Bruce about whom so many romantic stories are 
 told, but his grandfather. 
 
104 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 accepted his decision without question, and Baliol was 
 crowned at Scone, on the old stone always used for the 
 coronation of Scottish kings, and which, afterward carried 
 to England by Edward, still forms part of the English 
 throne in Westminster Abbey.* 
 
 When Edward went to Scotland the first time after this 
 matter was settled, he arranged that his queen should 
 follow him there. She set out to do so, but died on the 
 way; and Edward, in the deepest grief, at once moved 
 southward to accompany her body to its tomb in West- 
 minster Abbey. At each place where the funeral pro- 
 cession rested for a night on the way, he caused a beauti- 
 ful stone cross to be erected in memory of her. The one 
 in London was at the place now called Charing Cross, 
 (though the cross itself was long ago pulled down), and 
 the word Charing is said to be a corruption of the French 
 word "Chere regne" — Edward's dear queen. 
 
 There are but two of the thirteen crosses left now, 
 those at Wolverhampton and Waltham; but no stone 
 monument is needed to keep fresh in English hearts the 
 memory of the beloved Eleanor of Castile. 
 
 While the negotiations were still going on with Scot- 
 land, Edward became involved, quite unexpectedly, in a. 
 war with France (1293) which had in the end some bear- 
 ing on the relations with the northern country. The 
 original cause of quarrel was slight — only a fight between 
 an English and a Norman crew who came to fill their 
 water casks at the same well near Bayonne in France. \ 
 
 * An old legend claimed it as the stone which formed Jacob's pil- 
 low at Bethel. A modern saying is, that wherever that stone lies, 
 there Scotland rules; apropose to which it is remarked that many- 
 English ministers are of Scottish blood, Gladstone among the rest. 
 
EDWARD L, CONQUEROR OF WALES. 105 
 
 A Norman was killed in the scuffle; and, the incident 
 being noised abroad, other sailors took up the quarrel, 
 and English and Norman vessels could not meet at sea 
 without doing some mischief to one another. The Chan- 
 nel became the scene of continual acts of piracy; and 
 at last a Norman fleet of two hundred vessels was at- 
 tacked by an English fleet of eighty, or, as some writers 
 say, only sixty ships (it is the English who are telling the 
 story!), and almost entirely destroyed. In consequence 
 of this, Philip IV., the king of France, summoned Ed- 
 ward (who as Duke of Guienne was Philip's vassal), to 
 answer for the misdeeds of his sailors. Edward declined 
 to go, but sent his brother as deputy. To him Philip 
 proposed that he should give up Guienne for forty days, 
 merely as a matter of form, and let him put French sol- 
 diers into the garrisons during that time. The simple- 
 minded deputy readily agreed to this, but he trusted to 
 Philip's honor, a quality unknown to the French king. 
 Guienne was not restored ; Edward invaded it, and there 
 was some fierce fighting done. For a long time victory 
 was doubtful; the province was taken and retaken, and 
 at last, many years after the two parties of sailors had 
 quarrelled as to which should drink first at the crystal 
 spring, Guienne was formally restored to England. 
 
 The most important result of this war was the alliance 
 formed between France and Scotland, secret at first, but 
 openly acknowledged at a later time. For centuries after- 
 ward, a common hatred of England joined in close friend- 
 ship two nations entirely unlike in position, language, 
 and modes of feeling, against another which should have 
 been the natural ally of its nearest neighbor. 
 
105 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 
 
 T might be thought that with the recognition 
 of John Baliol as king of Scotland, all trouble 
 would have been at an end ; but such was 
 not the case. Edward repeatedly summoned Baliol to 
 London to answer for certain legal decisions with which 
 England had nothing to do, and which it was within the 
 province of the Scots to settle as they pleased. He 
 refused to permit Baliol to appear by deputy, as he 
 himself had done when summoned in a similar case to 
 Guienne ; and when the Scottish king obeyed the call, 
 treated him with such insolence that Baliol, though a 
 mild-tempered man and not very tenacious of his dignity, 
 could endure it no longer. He refused to attend an 
 English Parliament to which Edward summoned him, 
 and the English king instantly marched upon the Scot- 
 tish town of Berwick * and took it with brutal cruelty. 
 The inhabitants, to the number of eight thousand, were 
 massacred in the streets ; • and a few Flemish mer- 
 chants, who were bravely defending themselves in the 
 Town Hall, were burned alive in it. Here Edward 
 received a message from Baliol renouncing his allegiance 
 to him, upon which he exclaimed: "The felon fool! 
 If he will not come to us we will go to him ! " and imme- 
 diately marched northward through Scotland, taking the 
 principal cities on the way. Dunbar and Edinburgh 
 made a brave stand, but at Stirling Edward found that 
 
 * Pronounced "Berrick." 
 
THE WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 107 
 
 " the garrison had run away, leaving none but the porter, 
 which did render the keys/' He was determined to 
 make thorough work of it, and, the chronicler says, 
 "went himself into desolate places where there was no 
 more than three houses in a row between two moun- 
 tains." He returned to Berwick, "having conquered 
 and searched the kingdom of Scotland, as is aforesaid, 
 in twenty-one weeks without any more." Baliol gave 
 himself up and was taken prisoner to England. Here 
 he was kept for two years, and was then allowed to go 
 to France, where he ended his life in peaceful obscurity. 
 
 It has been commonly said that Scotland has never 
 been conquered. Permanently, it never has been so ; 
 but, for the time, it was as much a possession of the 
 English crown as Normandy was a possession of the 
 king of France. The country was in Edward's hands ; 
 an English governor and his council took the place 
 of the Scottish king and his nobles, and every fortress 
 had an English garrison. But this did not last long. 
 In the breasts of the Scottish people still burned the fire 
 ■of national freedom, and an army of husbandmen, under 
 the leadership of William Wallace, gave a check to 
 English dominion from which it never fully recovered. 
 
 In Wallace himself we have again the right man for 
 the right time. Very little is known of him personally, 
 though we feel so well acquainted with him as the hero 
 -of Miss Porter's novel, "The Scottish Chiefs," that we 
 may be excused for sometimes confusing romance and 
 history. But it is certain that his great heart beat only 
 for his country ; and that he looked for his supporters, 
 not among nobles and men of renown, who fought for 
 glory and the love of adventure, but among the Scottish 
 
108 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 peasants, who had little to lose but liberty. Wallace 
 sought nothing for himself; he had not, as far as we can 
 see, any special interest in Bruce, who, after Baliol's 
 death, was recognized by the Scottish party as king ; he 
 was only determined that his country should be free. 
 He was cruel in war, as were all the military captains of 
 that day. None of them, except perhaps Saint Louis,, 
 had learned that, though war may be necessary to enforce 
 the right, revenge is always barbarous. All we can say 
 of him is that in this respect he did not rise above the 
 spirit of the time. 
 
 The first great battle between the two nations was 
 fought near Stirling. The English governor of Scotland, 
 Earl Warrenne, who was in command, sent to offer terms 
 of peace ; but Wallace uttered the feeling of his whole 
 army when he answered : " We have not come here for 
 peace, but to free our country." By choosing his ground 
 skilfully, he defeated the enemy with great slaughter, and 
 the spirits of his party rose accordingly. Among the 
 slain was Cressingham, the treasurer of England, to 
 whom the Scots bore such hatred that they cut his skin 
 into strips and made bridles of it. It was the ferocity of 
 a barbarous age, and in French history, as late as the 
 following century, we find a similar incident* 
 
 Edward now concentrated his forces at Falkirk. His 
 sixty years had not taken away his strength nor dulled 
 his vigor ; and though he broke two of his ribs the night 
 before the battle, he fought on just the same. Wallace^ 
 on his part, was prepared for a desperate struggle. He 
 said to his men : " I have brought you to the ring ; now 
 hop (dance) if you can ! " They could not hop to the 
 
 * See "A Short History of France," p. 130. 
 
THE WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 109 
 
 same tune that the English did ; they were defeated, 
 with the loss of fifteen thousand men, and Wallace, after 
 fighting until most of his friends had fallen, fled for his 
 life. 
 
 For several years we hear but little more of him. 
 He kept up a straggling partisan warfare, much like that 
 in the Carolinas during our Revolution, doing what harm 
 he could without bringing his little band into danger of 
 capture; but at last he was basely betrayed into Edward's 
 hands, taken to London, and there executed for treason, 
 according to the barbarous provisions of English law 
 (1305).* When charged with the crime, he answered: 
 "Traitor I can not be, for I was never a subject to the 
 king of England ; " but he was too dangerous an enemy 
 to be spared when he was once in Edward's power. 
 The king has been severely blamed for his execution ; 
 but we must remember that, to Edward, Wallace was 
 like any other rebel, an enemy to be got rid of at any 
 cost; and that the halo of patriotism which centuries 
 have thrown so brightly around his head was not visible 
 to his foe, who saw in him only a mischievous disturber 
 of the peace. 
 
 The Scottish and French wars could, of course, be 
 carried on only at an enormous expense, and with money 
 England was poorly provided. The king, who was too 
 proud to appeal to Parliament, tried in all sorts of ways 
 
 * The prisoner was hanged enough to choke, but not to kill him ; 
 then his heart was cut out of his body and thrown on a fire already 
 kindled for the purpose. The head was set up where it could be 
 seen by as many persons as possible, and the rest of the body, cut 
 into quarters, was shown in different places. This continued to be 
 done in cases of treason down to the middle of the 18th century. 
 
110 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 to get what he needed. He asked the clergy for contri- 
 butions; they resisted. He levied taxes by his own au- 
 thority, on wool and hides. That on wool was known as 
 "The Evil Toll." Some of his principal nobles warned 
 the sheriffs to collect no more taxes until the charters 
 had been confirmed by Edward. So, after struggling for 
 a while to get his own way, and finding that though he 
 was resolute, the people were so also, he gave up grace- 
 fully, called a Parliament, saying that "what concerns all 
 should be approved by all," and thus established the 
 great principle that the people of England can not be 
 taxed except by their own consent (1297). We applied 
 the same principle to ourselves in our Revolution; it cost 
 ns a bloody struggle, but we won in the end. Thus out of 
 evil came good, for Edward would never have consented 
 so to limit his own power if he had not been hard pressed 
 by Scotland on one side and France on the other. 
 
 It is amusing to be told, in connection with the new 
 Parliament formed of Lords and Commons together, that 
 serving in it was expensive and unpopular; and that it 
 was often the custom of the Commons, when they had 
 voted the money required, to break up their part of the 
 assembly and go home, leaving the laws to be made by 
 the lords. It took a long time to educate the people up 
 to their privileges. 
 
 Edward never gave up trying to conquer Scotland. 
 The first Robert Bruce had been dead for some years;, 
 his son, the second Robert, died in the same year with 
 Wallace, and we now come to the well-known Robert 
 Bruce, who began his public career by an act of murder 
 and sacrilege. At twenty-three years old he was a soldier 
 in Edward's army, and was undecided, when his father 
 
THE WAR WITH SCOTLAND. Ill 
 
 died, whether it would be best for him to continue a 
 peaceful subject of England or to renew the old claim of 
 his family to the Scottish throne. The latter meant war 
 to the knife with Edward, for the Baliol family were 
 under his protection. Just at this time Bruce met John 
 Comyn, Baliol's nephew (called "The Red Comyn"), in 
 a church, and while disputing with him about their respec- 
 tive claims, drew his dagger and plunged it into Comyn's 
 body. It was a wicked deed, but it was done, and nothing 
 was left for Bruce but to brave it out as best he could. 
 Gathering together as many of his friends as he could 
 muster at short notice, he went secretly to Scone to re- 
 ceive his title of king in due form. It had always been 
 the privilege of the Earls of Fife to place the crown upon 
 their sovereign's head. It was fortunate for Bruce that 
 the earl of his time was absent, for he was a friend of the 
 English; so the ceremony was performed by Fife's sister, 
 the Countess of Buchan. Edward had carried off to- 
 England not only the coronation stone, but the royal 
 robes and crown jewels. Friends, however, supplied 
 what was needed, and Robert I. was declared king of 
 Scotland. "Now you are queen and I am king," he said 
 proudly to his wife after their coronation. "I'm afraid 
 we are only playing at being king and queen, like chil- 
 dren," answered the more prudent Mary. It was not long 
 before they were separated. The wife was taken pris- 
 oner, and eight long years passed before they met again. 
 Edward's anger at this act may be imagined. Every 
 one who had had anything to do with crowning Bruce 
 was punished if it was possible to get at him; even the 
 Countess of Buchan was captured and exhibited in a 
 cage at Berwick, while Bruce's sister suffered the same 
 
112 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 indignity at Roxburgh. After a battle, in which Bruce 
 was defeated, he fled to the mountains, and as many of 
 his followers as were taken suffered death.* 
 
 Once more Edward set out for Scotland, determined 
 this time to put an end to Bruce and his pretensions, but 
 his strength was not equal to the effort, and he died at 
 Burgh -on -the -Sands, within sight of the Scottish shore. 
 He was in the sixty -eighth year of his age, and had 
 reigned thirty-five years. 
 
 Edward I. was unquestionably a great man. His worst 
 fault was ambition, which, in the matter of the Scottish 
 war, turned to absolute hatred of those who opposed 
 him. In Westminster Abbey you can still read the in- 
 scription placed there by his order: "Edward I. The 
 Hammer of the Scots. Keep Covenant. "t 
 
 In enforcing law and order his course recalled the days, 
 of Henry Plantagenet. Like him, he came after a time* 
 of fearful misrule, when neither life nor property was safe, 
 and he established such order, and was so well known 
 for his stern justice, that the thieves and highwaymen 
 who had been in the habit of going about in armed bands, 
 found it best to follow some other kind of business. One 
 
 *The famous story of Bruce and the spider belongs to this period. 
 It is said that Bruce, disheartened by a long succession of misfort- 
 unes, was lying in a wretched hut and wondering whether it was 
 worth while to keep up his efforts, when he saw a spider who was 
 trying to fasten the first thread of her web to a beam in the ceiling. 
 Six times she failed and fell back again, Bruce watching her, mean- 
 while, with intense interest. The seventh time she succeeded in 
 fastening the thread; and the weary king, determined not to be out- 
 done by a poor insect, decided to make one more trial. After this 
 lie was successful. 
 
 + Edwardus Primus. Malleus Scotorum. Pactum Serva. 
 
THE WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 113 
 
 of the laws passed during this reign throws a strong light 
 on some dangers of the time. No hedges, woods, or 
 shrubbery, nothing, in short, except large trees, was to be 
 allowed within two hundred feet of a public highway, on 
 either side of the road. If the owner of the property, 
 (a "lord" of it as he is called in the Act), does not clear 
 away the shelter for thieves thus described, he is to be 
 made answerable for any robbery committed there. 
 
 The strength of Edward I.'s character is all the more 
 noticeable because he comes between a weak father and 
 an indolent, pleasure -loving son. The contrast is sharp 
 and painful. 
 
 It was in Edward's reign that the celebrated statute of 
 ■" Mortmain" was enacted. The practice of leaving prop- 
 erty by will to the church had become a source of loss to 
 the king because property so left fell into an ownership 
 which could not die, which therefore might hold it for- 
 ever, while in all other cases it must fall into new hands 
 at the end of each owner's life if not oftener; and if there 
 were no other claimant, it fell to the crown. The un- 
 broken grasp of the church was likened to that of a dead 
 hand — "morte-main." 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 EDWARD II. BANNOCKBURN. 
 
 HE last instructions of Edward I. to his son the 
 Prince of Wales, then twenty- three years old, 
 were that he should not recall Piers Gaveston, 
 a young Frenchman from Gascony who had already 
 8 
 
114 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 brought the prince more than once into trouble, and that 
 he should, on peril of his father's curse, carry his bones 
 (i.e., his body) with him into Scotland, and never bring 
 them back until that country was conquered. Edward 
 II., as disobedient to his father after his death as he had 
 been during his life, instantly recalled the unworthy favor- 
 ite, sent his father's corpse back to Westminster to be 
 buried, and having marched the army laboriously col- 
 lected by Edward I., a few miles into Scotland, disbanded 
 it and returned to England. Gaveston soon became his. 
 only companion and counsellor, all Edward I.'s ministers 
 being dismissed with scorn. Edward disgusted his fath- 
 er's friends still more by giving his own niece in marriage 
 to Gaveston, and by making him guardian of the kingdom 
 when he himself went to France to celebrate his marriage 
 with Isabella, daughter of Philip the Fair. There was 
 no end to the favorite's insolence and the king's folly. 
 Gaveston thought it very witty to call the haughty Eng- 
 lish gentlemen by absurd names. The Earl of Lancaster,, 
 the king's cousin, was, in his elegant, language, "the old 
 hog,"* or sometimes, "the play-actor." Aymar de Val- 
 ence, Earl of Pembroke, who had a dark complexion, was. 
 nicknamed "Joseph the Jew/' and the Earl of Warwick 
 became "the black dog of Ardennes." Warwick said he 
 would teach him that the dog could show his teeth; and 
 every one of these men was resolved upon his ruin. 
 
 By the time the king returned from France after his- 
 marriage the discontent had grown to fury. There is an 
 old proverb which says, "Whom the gods would destroy, 
 they first make mad;" and the two young men were ex- 
 
 * In allusion to the boar's head which appeared on the earl's 
 escutcheon. 
 
EDWARD II BANNOCKBURN. 115 
 
 amples of it. When King Edward first met his favorite, 
 in the presence of a crowd of high-born guests come 
 together to pay their respects to the young queen, he and 
 Gaveston flew into one another's arms and embraced like 
 school-girls, forgetful of the presence of any one else. As 
 soon as possible Edward made a present to Gaveston of 
 a hundred thousand pounds in money, besides all the 
 rich gifts bestowed on him by his father-in-law, Philip the 
 Fair, which was looked upon by the queen and the uncles 
 who came with her, as an insult. The queen's own out- 
 fit was furnished from the spoils of the Knights Templars 
 whom Philip had, with cruel treachery, lately destroyed 
 in France.* She was a girl of only thirteen years old, 
 and no one who saw her handsome face could have 
 guessed what misery and disgrace were to spring from 
 this seemingly promising union. When the barons in- 
 sisted that the king should banish Gaveston from the 
 country, Edward did it by making him Lord Lieutenant 
 of Ireland. He next induced the Pope to absolve his 
 favorite from the oath he had been forced to take never 
 to return to England; back he came, more insolent and 
 reckless than ever, and again the king's imprudent affec- 
 tion displayed itself. Edward's misgovernment increased 
 year by year; the public money was wasted and the pub- 
 lic welfare disregarded while he and Gaveston feasted 
 and revelled as if the one object of life had been frolick- 
 ing together. The barons managed to get hold of the 
 favorite, and after a mock trial, he was beheaded near 
 Warwick Castle. When Edward heard this he was filled 
 with grief and rage. He tried to raise an army to fight 
 the rebellious barons, but his subjects were more in sym- 
 
 * See "A Short History of France," Chapter 3d. 
 
116 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 pathy with them than with him. In the meantime, the 
 rebels were coming against him with a much larger force 
 than he could bring together; and some friends, in pity 
 for his forlorn condition, and desiring to ward off a civil 
 war, made peace between them. 
 
 Robert I. of Scotland (Bruce) was by this time pretty 
 firmly seated upon his throne, but the English felt that 
 their national honor called for a renewal of the war; and 
 now that Gaveston was out of the way, they raised such 
 a splendid army as had never before marched out of 
 England. The king, as a matter of course, took command 
 of it. Nothing was spared, and the king started at the 
 head of his troops for Stirling Castle, which Bruce was 
 besieging. But he never reached the castle, for at Ban- 
 nockburn, two miles distant, was fought the battle which 
 decided the fate of Scotland. 
 
 Robert Bruce the king was a very different person 
 now from the vacillating, self-seeking youth who plunged 
 his dagger into the breast of the Red Comyn eight years 
 before. He had had long years of hiding and poverty 
 before he could feel secure of even his life; and had 
 learned those lessons of self-control and patient endur- 
 ance of hardship which adversity can best teach. Since 
 he had been king in reality as well as in name, he had 
 governed his country admirably; and though the people 
 in some parts of it were still exposed to sudden attacks 
 from the English, in the cruel spirit of the time, when 
 burning and ravaging seemed to be the natural order of 
 things, the country in general enjoyed a season of peace. 
 
 Bruce's army of 30,000 men was not in number more 
 than a third as large as Edward's, but all were animated 
 by one spirit, the love of country; while on the English 
 
EDWARD II BANNOCKBURN. 117 
 
 side was sullen dislike of the king among the common 
 people and open unwillingness to help him on the part 
 of the nobles, many of the latter having refused to join 
 him at all. 
 
 Bruce chose his position with great judgment. There 
 was a mountain on one side, a swamp on the other, and 
 the little brook Bannock in front. Along the bank of 
 this stream he had caused pits to be dug, covered with 
 turf and bushes, and into these were driven stakes, with 
 sharpened points sticking upward. Tradition tells us that 
 the day and night before the battle were spent by the 
 Scotts in fasting: 
 
 "They dynit none of them that day," 
 
 says the poet who celebrates the battle. 
 
 On the day itself the English came prancing along in 
 their shining armor, full of pride in themselves and con- 
 tempt for their enemies, the latter, being poorly provided 
 with horses, fighting mainly on foot. The pits which had 
 been dug threw Edward's horsemen into confusion; and 
 taking advantage of this, Bruce sent Sir James Douglas 
 to charge upon them, and they were utterly routed. The 
 English infantry seeing them fly, were thrown into con- 
 sternation. One and all they broke their ranks and fled, 
 their officers finding it impossible to rally them. As there 
 was no place where the great host could take shelter 
 within eighty miles, they might almost all have been 
 made prisoners, but that the Scots preferred plundering 
 the English camp, where they found a vast amount of 
 booty. Edward and the remains of his army hastened 
 on to Dunbar and from there took ship for Berwick, leav- 
 ing ten thousand dead and wounded on the field; and 
 
118 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 the attempts to conquer Scotland were brought, for the 
 time at least, to a close (13 14). 
 
 The adventures and exploits of Bruce were long the 
 subjects of Scottish song and story. Toward the end 
 of the same century, John Barbour's poem of "The 
 Bruce" woke again the echoes of national pride; and 
 in the century following a minstrel called "Blind Harry" 
 celebrated with no less ardor the brave deeds of Sir 
 William Wallace. We are all familiar with the noble 
 song of Burns beginning : 
 
 "Scots, wha ha'e wi' Wallace bled; 
 Scots, wham Bruce has aften led ! " 
 
 It is supposed to be addressed by Bruce to his army 
 before the battle of Bannockburn. 
 
 The misery caused in England by the Scottish war 
 was increased by misfortune at home. In the year 
 of Bannockburn there was a poor harvest; and the 
 government, disregarding the natural law which we know 
 as that of "supply and demand," undertook to regulate 
 the price of provisions. This only made matters worse. 
 The next season, in addition to famine, there was a 
 disease among the cattle which carried off many thou- 
 sands of them. The great barons, who had been 
 accustomed to feeding and caring for hundreds of 
 retainers whose services they claimed in war, being no 
 longer able to support them, turned them out to beg, 
 steal, or starve, and the country was again filled with 
 bands of plunderers. In the midst of all this distress, 
 the king was occupied with two new favorites, the 
 Despensers, father and son, less mischievous than 
 Gaveston but hated on account of the favors bestowed 
 on them. The earl of Lancaster, always in the opposi- 
 
EDWARD II. BANNOCKBURN. 119 
 
 tion, headed those who were against the Despensers. 
 A chance turn of affairs in the king's favor enabled him 
 to defeat the earl and take him prisoner; and the old 
 man was beheaded before his own castle gate. He was 
 mounted on a poor starved pony without saddle or 
 bridle, pelted with stones, and thus led out to execution. 
 Twenty-eight knights taken with him were hanged, drawn, 
 and quartered. Such was the idea of war in those 
 dreadful times. 
 
 Queen Isabella, who had long despised her husband, 
 now formed a plan to separate herself from him. Mak- 
 ing a frivolous excuse, she took her oldest son to Paris, 
 where she was soon followed by a favorite of her own, 
 Roger Mortimer, and no persuasions could induce her to 
 return. It brings tears to one's eyes even now to read 
 Edward's pathetic letters to her and his son; but it was 
 of no use. She went to Flanders, and there performed 
 the one good action of her life by betrothing her son to 
 the count's daughter, Philippa of Hainault. 
 
 Many of the discontented nobles, with their followers, 
 had joined Isabella and Mortimer in Flanders, and there 
 they contrived dark plots against the unfortunate king. 
 Having collected a sufficient number of men to cairy out 
 their purposes they sailed for England, where Isabella so 
 gained over the Parliament that Edward II. was deposed 
 and the young Prince Edward crowned in his place. In 
 the meantime the king was hurrying from place to place, 
 trying to hide from his enemies, who by this time in- 
 cluded almost all his subjects. At last, abandoned and 
 deserted by all, he was seized, and after being passed 
 along from one hard-hearted keeper to another, came to 
 his end in Berkeley Castle. He had before this been 
 
120 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 shamefully insulted; a crown of hay was placed on his 
 head, and the soldiers brought him ditch-water to shave 
 with. At this the tears ran down his cheeks, and he said 
 to his tormentors, "I have some clean warm water here 
 [his tears] in spite of you!" Finally the queen and 
 Mortimer began to see signs of a change of feeling 
 among the people; and, to prevent any possible reaction 
 of feeling, the king was barbarously murdered (1327). 
 The poet Gray has put into the mouth of his "Bard"" 
 a prophecy of this event : 
 
 "Mark the year and mark the night, 
 When Severn shall re-echo with affright 
 The shrieks of death through Berkeley's roof that ring, 
 Shrieks of an agonizing king ! " 
 
 Poor Edward ! His life was all wrong from the begin- 
 ning. He made the mistake of preferring pleasure to 
 duty; he was a disobedient son, and he had no sense of 
 responsibility. His whole life was one of shifts and 
 evasions. But he suffered fearfully for his faults and 
 follies; and the memory of his misfortunes softens some- 
 what our indignation at his misdoings. He was at the 
 time of his death only forty-three years old, and had 
 been king for nearly twenty years. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 EDWARD III. THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR. 
 
 jjjDWARD III. was a boy of fourteen when the 
 crown was placed on his head in 1327. His 
 kS^Mi father was still living, but the government was 
 
 carried on entirely by the queen and Roger Mortimer. 
 
EDWARD III. HUNDRED YEARS' WAR. 121 
 
 While he was away from London on an expedition 
 against the Scots, his promised bride, Philippa of 
 Hainault, came from Flanders escorted by her uncle; 
 and not finding the bridegroom they followed him to 
 York, when he and Philippa were married in the grand 
 old minster. 
 
 Mortimer, who had now become Earl of March, made, 
 in the king's name, what was thought a disgraceful peace 
 with Scotland. The independence of that country was 
 fully acknowledged, all claim to homage being given up. 
 Robert Bruce was recognized as king, and his only son 
 David, was betrothed to Edward the Third's sister, 
 Joan.* The English were enraged at what seems to us 
 a very sensible agreement ; the ill-will toward Mor- 
 timer grew stronger than ever, and a plot was formed 
 against his life. The king himself, now seventeen years 
 old, was the leader in this. It was difficult to secure 
 Mortimer, who lived with Isabella at Nottingham Castle, 
 as the keys were brought every night to the queen, who 
 slept with them under her pillow. But the governor told 
 the conspirators of a secret underground passage by 
 which they could enter the castle. t Through this they 
 went, after dark, the king meeting them at the end of the 
 passage. In silence and darkness they crept up stairs, 
 till they heard Mortimer's voice. They then rushed in 
 and took him prisoner, in spite of the entreaties of 
 Queen Isabella, who called out from the next room, 
 "Oh, my sweet son, spare my gentle Mortimer!" A 
 parliament was called expressly to judge him. He was 
 
 *Pronounced "Jone"; not "Joan." 
 
 +The entrance to this is still visible at Nottingham, and is called 
 "Mortimer's Hole." 
 
122 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 declared guilty of treason, and condemned to be hanged 
 at Tyburn. This was the first execution at that famous 
 place, which was, until recent times, still used for the 
 same purpose. 
 
 Though there can be no doubt that Mortimer deserved 
 to suffer death (for he confessed that he had directed 
 King Edward's murder), the hasty action in some measure 
 defeated its own object, since at a later time the sentence 
 was reversed on account of its being illegal, and through 
 a royal marriage with one of his descendants, the blood 
 of this very Roger Mortimer flows in the veins of Queen 
 Victoria. 
 
 After Mortimer's death, Edward III. took the govern- 
 ment into his own hands, and confined his mother to her 
 house of Castle Rising, making her an occasional formal 
 visit, but not allowing her to have any share in public 
 affairs. At the age of eighteen, he already showed 
 so much sense and discretion that the turbulent barons 
 ceased to oppose him, and the country put on an appear- 
 ance of peace and prosperity. 
 
 Robert Bruce died about a year after the battle of 
 Bannockbur.i, leaving a son of only eight years old (the 
 little David, already betrothed to Edward's sister, Joan) 
 to be king after him. This gave a new impulse to the 
 war which was always going on between England and 
 Scotland. Edward Baliol, the son of John the former 
 king, raised an army with which he defeated the friends 
 of King David at Perth with great loss. The Scots were 
 by no means united in support of their young king, and 
 Baliol was crowned at Scone, David and his betrothed 
 wife, called by the Scotch "Joan Makepeace," being 
 sent to France for safety. 
 
EDWARD III. HUNDRED YEARS' WAR. 123 
 
 Edward III. of England, now joining his forces with 
 those of Baliol, fought a great battle at Halidown Hill, 
 near Berwick, completely defeating tlie Scots, and 
 securing the town of Berwick as a possession to Eng- 
 land. Baliol, however, was not allowed to remain in 
 Scotland, and David Bruce returned to his kingdom. 
 
 Meantime, Edward III.'s ambition was taking a new 
 turn. The affairs of France were in a disturbed state, 
 as no one of Philip's IV. 's three sons (the last of whom, 
 Charles IV., was now dead) had left any male heirs, and 
 what was called the Salic law in France did not permit a 
 woman to reign there (on account, an old writer says, of 
 the imbecility of the sex). This traditional law had 
 never been formally enacted by statute; but as it had 
 prevailed in France for nine hundred years, the French 
 people had no mind to do away with it. Edward laid 
 claim to the throne through his mother, Philip's sister. 
 There were two reasons against this : one being that it 
 was for the French people, and not for the king of Eng- 
 land, to decide what the Salic law meant; and the other, 
 that two of Isabella's older brothers had left daughters, 
 each of whom had a son. Notwithstanding this, Philip 
 •ofValois, nephew of Philip IV., was proclaimed at once 
 by the council, so entirely was the Salic law understood 
 to provide for unbroken male succession. 
 
 Edward's ambition, however, took no account of any 
 •objections, so he plunged his country into a war that 
 lasted, off and on, for more than a hundred years, wasting 
 millions of English money and tens of thousands of Eng- 
 lish lives, and leaving at last the English possessions in 
 France far smaller than when the war began. 
 
 The first struggle between the two nations took place 
 
124 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 on the water. Having obtained as many foreign allies* - 
 as he could, Edward set sail with a fine fleet and army 
 for Flanders, where he met the French fleet, and won a 
 complete victory in the harbor of Sluys. 
 
 His great trouble in all these wars was, of course, the 
 want of money. At first the parliament granted it very 
 willingly, but after a while they grew tired of the con- 
 tinual demands for it, and protested that they could raise 
 no more. The clergy were very generous to him, and 
 gave him, voluntarily, one tenth of their incomes; he 
 borrowed from the merchants of Florence and other 
 foreign cities all the gold they would lend; he pawned 
 the crown-jewels, both his own and Philippa's; and 
 finally, he sent word to all the gentlemen in England 
 who had an income of £>\o ($200) or over to come at 
 once to London and receive the honor of knighthood, or 
 else pay a fine. This kind of "Stand-and deliver" prac- 
 tice was not uncommon in those days. Of course each 
 knight paid a fee to the king when he received the title 
 of "Sir," and a blow on the shoulder from his Majesty's- 
 sword; but many of them would rather have been 
 excused from accepting the honor. With Edward it: 
 was always "Heads, I win; tails, you lose." They paid 
 a fine if they stayed away; a fee if they came. 
 
 We come now to the battle of Cressy — the first great 
 English battle on French ground. Edward had a com- 
 paratively small army — less than 30,000 men, all told,, 
 — while Philip VI. had, the English historians say, from 
 eight to ten times that number; but they had no such 
 general as Edward. He drew up his army on the gentle 
 slope of a hill, with a windmill at the top from which he 
 
 * Pronounced ol-lies, with accent on the second syllable. 
 
EDWARD III. HUNDRED YEARS' WAR. 125 
 
 could watch its operations (the windmill is there yet), 
 and a small ditch in front. There were first used "bom- 
 bards, which, with fire, threw little balls of iron to 
 frighten the horses ! " This is the first time the use of 
 cannon is mentioned. Roger Bacon had invented or 
 discovered gunpowder, but he did not make any practi- 
 cal use of it, and would probably have been shocked to 
 learn that his new mixture would ever be employed for 
 killing men. The cannon at Cressy did not do much 
 harm to the enemy, and had a bad habit of exploding 
 after a few balls had been fired, which caused them to be 
 looked on with small favor until stronger castings came 
 into use. 
 
 The prince of Wales, named Edward, like his father, 
 was at this time sixteen years old, and was fighting in 
 the field like anybody else, when some one brought 
 word to the king that his son was hard pressed by the 
 enemy, and asked for help. "Is my son dead, or un- 
 horsed, or badly wounded?" inquired Edward. "No, 
 Sire, but he is fighting hard, and needs your aid." 
 "Let the boy win his spurs,"* answered Edward, "for I 
 wish, if God so wills it, that the day may be his." The 
 French were tired with marching when they began the 
 battle; their officers were not equal to handling so great 
 a host; and though they fought fiercely, the English 
 bowmen won the day. 
 
 Never before had such a victory been gained by any 
 English army. Thirty-five thousand of the enemy lay 
 
 * In allusion to the honor of knighthood, by which gilt spurs were 
 given to a young squire who had fought bravely, instead of the iron 
 ones worn by all common horsemen. For a detailed account of the 
 usages of Chivalry, see "A Short History of France," p. 115. 
 
126 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 dead upon the field, including many of their highest 
 nobility and eleven princes of the blood. The blind old 
 King of Bohemia, determined to have his share of the 
 glory, rode into battle between two knights, their horses 
 tied to his, that he might not be lost in the crowd. All 
 were slain, and the Prince of Wales adopted the three 
 ostrich feathers which formed the Bohemian king's crest 
 and his beautiful motto, "Ich dien" — "I serve" — as his 
 own, and they have been borne by every Prince of Wales 
 from that day to this. It is said that the French gave 
 the young Edward the name of "The Black Prince," from 
 the color of the armor he wore on that day. 
 
 From Cressy, King Edward marched with his army to 
 Calais, not very far off, which he besieged for nearly 
 a year before he could make it surrender. During this 
 time a battle was fought at Neville's Cross, in the 
 northern part of England, with poor unlucky King 
 David, son of Robert Bruce, who always seemed to be 
 on the losing side. This time he was taken prisoner and 
 carried to London. Philippa, who had been left regent 
 of England while Edward was in France, was present at 
 this battle. She rode through the ranks encouraging the 
 troops, and then retired to her tent to pray for their 
 success. 
 
 The Parliament were so delighted with the victories of 
 Cressy and Neville's Cross that they gave Edward all the 
 money he wanted. The tax on the exportation of wool 
 was one of those given at this time to the king, which 
 caused Philip of Valois to speak contemptuously of him 
 as "The English Wool Merchant." Edward had his 
 jest in return, for on learning of an oppressive tax on 
 salt raised by Philip for his expenses (every person, 
 
EDWARD III. HUNDRED YEARS' WAR. 127 
 
 even the poorest, being obliged to buy a certain quan- 
 tity of salt each year for the king's benefit), he remarked 
 that his French rival truly reigned by the Salic law.* 
 
 But we have left Edward too long besieging Calais. 
 (No doubt the hungry sufferers there thought the same). 
 When the town was first invested by his army, the garri- 
 son turned out seventeen hundred useless people, 
 women, children, and old men, who could not fight and 
 only helped to eat up the provisions, and Edward kindly 
 gave them each a good meal and two small pieces of 
 money, letting them go where they pleased. Later in 
 the siege, when he had become very angry at being kept 
 there so long, they sent out five hundred more starving 
 wretches; but the king would do nothing for them, and 
 most of them died miserably in sight of his soldiers. 
 
 When the siege had lasted nearly a year, the garrison 
 could hold out no longer. Edward at first threatened to 
 kill them all, but finally agreed that if six of the principal 
 citizens were sent to him, barefooted, with ropes around 
 their necks, he would let the rest go free. Wild was the 
 grief in Calais when the hard terms were made known. 
 The burghers met in the town-hall to consider the matter, 
 and for a long time a dead silence prevailed. At last 
 the richest and most honored man in the town, Eustace 
 de St. Pierre, arose and said he would be the first. One 
 by one, five others followed him. Then the governor, 
 Sir John de Vienne, was mounted on a little pony, for 
 he was too weak to walk, and amid the loud weeping and 
 wailing of their fellow- townsmen, he led the six men to 
 the gate of the city, and delivered them, with the keys, 
 to Sir Walter Manny, whom Edward had sent to receive 
 
 *"Sal" was the old French word for salt. 
 
128 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 them (1347). When they were taken to the king, their 
 cheeks wasted by hunger and their tottering legs scarcely 
 able to support them, every heart was moved by pity — 
 every heart except the king's. He had made up his 
 mind, and he was not going to alter it for the entreaties s| 
 of any number of his. own brave soldiers. " Strike off 
 their heads!" said he fiercely. But now good Queen \ 
 Phillippa came up to him, and falling on her knees, , 
 begged him for her sake to grant their lives. 
 
 The king at first made no answer; he was struggling ; 
 with his anger, but at last he said, "Dame, I wish you 1 
 had been anywhere else; but as you want them, I give 
 them to you. Do with them as you please!" Philippa 
 soon signified her pleasure in the matter. She ordered 
 that the six citizens should each have a good dinner, a 1 
 suit of handsome clothes, and a present in money. 
 Her victory at Neville's Cross was outdone by the one 
 she gained at Calais. 
 
 King Edward tried his best to make Calais an English 
 town. He turned out the French inhabitants and invited 
 his own people to come in and settle it; but even the 
 offer of houses rent-free did not bring very desirable 
 tenants, and after a while he was glad to let some of the 
 rich burghers come back to give respectability to the 
 place. Still, it remained largely English, and that may 
 have been the reason why the English were able to keep 
 it for more than two hundred years. 
 
THE BLACK PRINCE. 129 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE BLACK PRINCE. 
 
 OLLOWING closely upon the success at Calais 
 came that terrible pestilence known in Europe 
 as the "Black Death" (1348-49). In London 
 alone, 50,000 persons are said to have died of it, and 
 France was in so terrible a condition that both armies 
 stopped fighting and waited for better times. 
 
 We have now another curious instance of the effort to 
 interfere, by legislation, with the natural laws which 
 govern supply and demand. As the number of laborers 
 in England became fewer, by reason of the plague, those 
 who were able to work demanded higher wages; upon 
 which laws were made fixing the rate of wages at a certain 
 sum per day, and threatening severe punishments to 
 those who refused to work at that price. This, of course, 
 produced great irritation, and was soon abandoned. 
 
 Philip of Valois, king of France, died in 1350, and 
 was followed by his son John, called, with very little 
 reason, "The Good." For several years unhappy France 
 was the scene of continual ravaging by two English 
 armies, King Edward's in the north and the Black 
 Prince's in the west. The Prince, sailing up the river 
 Garonne, carried his army into the richest part of France, 
 ■"one of the fat countries of the world, the people good 
 and simple, who knew not before what war was;" and 
 there they broke into private houses like an army of 
 locusts in a rice field, devastating all they found before 
 them. The same old writer before quoted says : " They 
 9 
 
130 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 carried off everything. The country was very full and 
 gay, the rooms adorned with carpets and draperies, the 
 caskets and chests full of fair jewels. But nothing was- 
 safe from these robbers." All this made the English 
 dreaded and detested, and the inhabitants would not 
 tell them anything about King John's movements, so 
 that the Black Prince suddenly found himself within 
 fighting distance of the French army near Poitiers, in the 
 very neighborhood where great battles had taken place 
 centuries before.* The French had a very large army, 
 and the Prince a very small one, but he was a consum- 
 mate general, and it is harder to manage a great number 
 of men than a smaller one. To avoid the battle, the 
 Prince offered to restore all his conquests, provided he 
 and his soldiers might retire unharmed to Bordeaux;, 
 but John the Foolish, in the pride of numbers and vain- 
 glory, would accept nothing less than the unconditional 
 surrender of the entire army. "I will never be taken 
 prisoner but with sword in hand ! " was the answer. 
 "God defend the right!" 
 
 The Prince chose his ground, as his father had done' 
 at Cressy, with great skill, and his superior tactics won 
 the day. King John, fighting bravely to the last, was 
 taken prisoner with his youngest son. The number of 
 Frenchmen killed and wounded did not fall short of 
 10,000 men. This was in 1356, just ten years after the 
 battle of Cressy. 
 
 The Black Prince treated his royal captive with great 
 respect, waiting upon him at table with the utmost 
 
 * One between Clovis and the Visigoths, 507, and another be- 
 tween Charles Martel and the Saracens, 732. The latter is 
 commonly called the battle of Tours. 
 
THE BLACK PRINCE. 131 
 
 humility, and saying that it did not become him, as 
 a subject, to sit at table with a king. When they 
 arrived in London, and the brilliant procession passed 
 through the streets, the king of France was mounted on 
 a superb white horse, while the prince, his conqueror, 
 rode by his side on a little black pony; all which must 
 have been vastly consoling to King John. The mon- 
 arch did not show much spirit after his capture, though 
 he had fought well in the field. He made a treaty 
 with the Black Prince so dishonorable to France that his 
 son the Dauphin refused to agree to it, and several years 
 were taken up in talking over the matter. At length an 
 arrangement was proposed by which the king was set at 
 liberty, leaving two of his sons as hostages for the 
 ransom. This is called the Treaty of Bretigny (1360). 
 
 France was in no condition to raise the immense ran- 
 som demanded, for the whole country was a prey to 
 quarrels among the nobles and insurrections among the 
 peasants. King John's sons found it dull in England, 
 and one of them ran away; all of which decided the 
 king to return to that country as a prisoner, remarking 
 that though honor was banished from the rest of the 
 world, it should be found in the breast of kings. And 
 when honor and comfort coincided so completely as 
 they did on this occasion, we can not wonder that the 
 palace of the Savoy (his London dwelling-place) again 
 received its royal inmate, who was entertained there in 
 luxury, without a care or any necessity for exertion, 
 He did not live long after his return, and was royally 
 buried by King Edward. 
 
 David Bruce, who had been a captive since the battle 
 of Neville's Cross, was also permitted to go home to raise 
 
132 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 a ransom, and also returned to captivity when he failed to 
 secure it. After eleven years the payment was arranged 
 for, and King David went back to his own country to 
 finish a weak and discreditable reign. 
 
 The Black Prince was now established at Bordeaux in 
 France with a regular court of his own. He married his 
 cousin, the "Fair Maid of Kent," with whom he had 
 been in love since they were children, though both had 
 been married in the interval. And here he might have 
 spent a happy, peaceful life, and been king after his 
 father's death, but that the passion for military glory led 
 him into an expedition which ruined his health, wasted 
 his money, and finally sent him home to die in the prime 
 of life, to the unspeakable injury of his country. 
 
 There was reigning at this time in Castile (a country 
 in Spain) a certain King Pedro, who had deserved and 
 obtained the title of "The Cruel." Being opposed by 
 his half-brother, Henry of Trastamare (which means 
 "from across the sea") he fled to Bordeaux, where he 
 was kindly received by the Prince of Wales, who thought 
 that a legitimate king, no matter how wicked, should be 
 supported against a usurper, no matter how good. He 
 promised to go himself into Spain with an army to help 
 the cruel Pedro, and as he could not spare enough of his 
 own soldiers, he took into his pay some of the "Free 
 Companies,"bodies of troops who fought only for plunder, 
 owing allegiance to no country in particular, but as ready 
 to fight for one as another. They had just been serving 
 against this very Pedro, on behalf of Charles the Wise of 
 France, son of King John. Pedro promised the Prince 
 of Wales to -reimburse whatever money he should spend 
 for him; and the prince, too honorable himself to 
 
THE BLACK PRINCE. 133 
 
 suspect fraud in another person, set out in high spirits 
 for Spain. 
 
 He received the treatment he might have expected 
 from the wicked brute for whose benefit he had under- 
 taken the war. After fighting the battle of Navarete, 
 and putting Pedro on his throne again, he asked the latter 
 to pay him the money he owed. Pedro kept putting 
 him off with excuses, and the prince was forced at last to 
 return without getting any satisfaction.* But the evil 
 did not end here. Thousands of his men died from the 
 excessive heat, and he himself went back to France 
 broken in health, deeply mortified at the result of his 
 campaign, and loaded with an enormous debt which he 
 had no means of paying. The Free Companies, on his 
 failure to keep his promises to them, fell to plundering 
 the people again. The prince needed, besides, money 
 for his own soldiers, and to supply this he imposed the 
 always unpopular "hearth-tax" — a certain sum of money 
 to be paid by each family, of which his French subjects 
 complained bitterly. Every tax is odious which takes as 
 much from the poor man as from the rich. The people 
 of Guiepne brought the matter before Charles V., who 
 summoned Prince Edward to come to Paris and answer 
 for his conduct. "Yes, I will come," he replied, "but it 
 will be with helmet on head and with sixty thousand men 
 at my back!" He did not go, however, for his summer 
 in Spain had so broken him down that he could not even 
 mount his horse; and both parties, by way of getting 
 
 * It is gratifying to know that this villain of a king at last got 
 what he deserved. He was killed in battle by Henry of Trastamare, 
 who became king of Castile, was much beloved by his subjects, 
 and was the ancestor of Queen Isabella, the friend of Columbus. 
 
134 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 even with one another, went on inflicting suffering on the 
 poor and helpless. 
 
 The prince did not keep up his character for humanity 
 and gentleness when he came back from his unfortunate 
 expedition. Illness and disappointment had soured his 
 temper, and when the town of Limoges, which had re- 
 belled against him, was taken by his soldiers, he ordered 
 a general massacre of all the inhabitants, including 
 women and children, in which three thousand persons 
 were killed in cold blood. 
 
 The prince's failing health now obliged him to return 
 to England, and he had the mortification of seeing the 
 country he had conquered recovered piecemeal by the 
 king of France, until at last nothing was left of all that 
 had been taken by his father and himself except the cities 
 of Bayonne and Bordeaux in Guienne, and the town of 
 Calais. Nothing to show for all the misery, the broken 
 hearts, the ruined homes, wealth squandered, fair prov- 
 inces destroyed, valuable lives lost, — but some useless 
 possessions; and all this the consequence of one man's 
 ambition ! 
 
 Besides losses abroad, there was trouble at home. The 
 barons, taking advantage of the king's increasing age and 
 weakness, tried to regain their old power, and to disregard 
 the will of the people as expressed in Parliament. The 
 prince took the people's part, but at his death (1376) the 
 nobility, headed by John of Gaunt, his brother, again 
 interfered, and all was undone. The Black Prince was 
 buried in the great cathedral at Canterbury, where his 
 gauntlets and helmet and leather surcoat, all worn and 
 dusty, can still be seen, suspended over the tomb. 
 
 Queen Philippa was now dead, and the king aban- 
 
THE BLACK PRINCE. 135 
 
 doned himself to the society of a low woman named 
 Alice Perrers, who robbed him of everything she could 
 lay hands on, and scandalized the whole country by her 
 shameless conduct. A year later he died (1377) in the 
 sixty-fifth year of his age, having just completed a reign 
 •of fifty years. 
 
 We must not, however, let the sad ending of this great 
 Teign blind us to the glory of its better days — not only 
 military glory, though there was enough of that; but 
 
 " Peace hath her victories, 
 No less renowned than War. " 
 
 The grand fourteenth century, of which Edward's reign 
 just covered the middle part, saw civilization advancing 
 with such strides as it had never yet taken in the nation's 
 history. The military achievements of this period have 
 been told in a connected series, because they have fixed 
 dates, and are in some degree dependent on one another; 
 but they are the least important of the events in that 
 splendid half- century. 
 
 To Queen Philippa is due the honor of giving an im- 
 pulse to English manufactures. Up to this time England 
 had exported her wool and received it back in the shape 
 of cloth from the looms of the Continent; Philippa en- 
 couraged her countrymen, the weavers of Flanders, to 
 settle in her adopted country, and thus laid the founda- 
 tion of the great manufacturing system which still con- 
 tinues a chief source of England's wealth. Manufactures 
 lead to commerce, and on this Edward's great mind was 
 brought to bear. He is called "The Father of English 
 Commerce." The arts, too, flourished. The beautiful 
 Windsor Castle rose in its stately magnificence, and New 
 
136 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 College at Oxford still keeps green the memory of William 
 of Wykeham, its architect -bishop. 
 
 Edward III.'s reign may be especially marked as one 
 of law. He obeyed the laws himself and taught others 
 to respect them; while he never decided anything of im- 
 portance without consulting Parliament, which he called 
 together no fewer than seventy times. One of the most 
 important acts passed by this assembly ordained that 
 cases in the law-courts should thenceforth "be pleaded 
 in the English tongue;" a proof that the Norman element 
 was losing its last hold on England. 
 
 But to the reading world the true glory of Edward's 
 reign lies in the fact that England now possessed for the 
 first time a national literature. The semi -Saxon dialect 
 which until then had formed, with French and Latin, the 
 only medium for writing, gave way to something enough 
 like modern English for us to understand it. Many of 
 its words are now out of date, but we can still read the 
 works of Chaucer and of Wycliffe in the language they 
 themselves used, without needing to have it translated. 
 Chaucer is our first great poet; to Wycliffe we owe the 
 first steps in that Reformation carried out a hundred and 
 fifty years later by Martin Luther. The names of Lang- 
 land, Gower, and Mandeville belong also to this reign, but 
 they find a place more properly in the history of literature. 
 
 One institution of Edward's is perhaps more widely 
 known than others of greater significance; the establish- 
 ment of the "Order of the Garter." The story is that the 
 Countess of Salisbury, a beautiful woman much admired 
 at court, happened to drop her garter at a ball; where- 
 upon the king, to check or prevent rude levity, picked it 
 up and bound it round his own knee, saying, "Honi soit 
 
THE BLACK PRINCE. 137 
 
 qui mal y pense."* And he took occasion from the inci- 
 dent to found a society to which kings and emperors are 
 proud to be admitted. 
 
 From the time of King John, who had at first stood 
 out so boldly against the Pope and then given in so 
 weakly, England had paid a yearly tribute to Rome. 
 This went on as long as Edward was still a minor ; but 
 when he became king he ceased to send it. When the 
 Pope threatened him with the terrors of the Church, 
 Edward did what he always did when an important matter 
 came up — consulted the Parliament about it. They soon 
 decided that the Pope had no authority in England, and 
 that the tax must never be paid again. The seat of the 
 papacy had been changed from Rome to Avignon, and 
 the popes for the greater part of that century were mere 
 tools of the kings of France, so that the English king had 
 a double reason for withholding his tribute. 
 
 One of the acts passed by Edward's Parliaments strikes 
 us as rather amusing. So much jealousy of the legal pro- 
 fession had arisen that practising lawyers were declared 
 incapable of being chosen members of Parliament. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 RICHARD II. WAT TYLER. BOLINGBROKE. 
 
 ICHARD of Bordeaux, son of the Black Prince,, 
 became king when Edward ILL died. He was 
 only eleven years old, and the government 
 naturally fell under the control of his uncles. Several of 
 
 *"Evil to him who evil thinks." 
 
138 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 these sons of Edward III. play parts so important in 
 history that one can not understand it fully without know- 
 ing their names. They are given in Shakspeare's play of 
 Henry VI. for the same purpose. They were : i, Edward, 
 Prince of Wales, father of Richard II.; 2, William, who 
 died young; 3, Lionel, Duke of Clarence; 4, John of 
 Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster; 5, Edmund, Duke of York; 
 6, another William, who also died young; 7, Thomas, 
 Duke of Gloucester.* 
 
 A Council of Regency was appointed to carry on the 
 government while Richard was under age, with the three 
 sons of Edward III. who were still living (Nos. 4, 5, and 
 7) as its leaders; but the eldest of these, John of Gaunt, t 
 soon managed to become the real head. 
 
 The war with France went on, without glory but with 
 the usual waste of life and money. War must be paid 
 for, and the Parliament laid a new tax which, being de- 
 manded from rich and poor alike, bore most heavily on 
 those who had but little to pay with. This was a poll-tax 
 •of three groats| on each person over fifteen years of age. 
 The tax-gatherers were rude and brutal, as might have 
 been expected; and when one of them insulted the 
 daughter of a laborer, the father struck him dead on the 
 spot with the hammer he was using at work. This man 
 
 * Edward III. was the first to introduce into England the title of 
 Duke, conferring it upon his own sons. Before that time the highest 
 English dignity was that of Earl. 
 
 + So called because he was born at Ghent in Flanders. The Eng- 
 lish made as bad work with Continental names as the Romans did 
 with British ones. 
 
 % Equal to about 25 cents of our money, but meaning far more 
 than that to the poor workman. 
 
RICHARD II WAT TYIER. BOIINGBROKE. 139 
 
 whose name was Walter, was called Wat the Tiler,* com- 
 monly shortened to Wat Tyler. His friends and neigh- 
 bors applauded what he had done, and very soon a gen- 
 eral rising among the peasants threatened the country 
 with a new danger. Up to this time all civil wars had 
 been between the king and the nobles, or among the 
 nobles themselves; but here was something the upper 
 ■classes were quite unprepared for — a rebellion of their 
 inferiors. These peasants still held their land partly 
 under the old feudal system, which required personal 
 service in the place of rent. This placed the tenant at 
 the mercy of his landlord, and great dissatisfaction was 
 the result. A priest named John Ball, a follower of 
 Wycliffe (Froissart calls him "a mad priest," but he had 
 a great deal of method in his madness) went about stirring 
 up the people to assert their rights as men. "By what 
 fight," he said, "do these lords and ladies flaunt in their 
 velvet and ermine while we are clothed in rags? They 
 have wine and rich food and line wheat bread; we have 
 oatmeal and straw to eat and water to drink. They 
 have fine houses, and can stay in them; we have wretched 
 huts, and must labor in the wind and the rain. And yet 
 it is our work that gives them all these good things. 
 
 *When Adam delved and Eve span, 
 Where was then the gentleman?" 
 
 It was a kind of socialism not well organized nor wise 
 in its methods, yet feeling after its natural rights. The 
 killing of the tax-gatherer by Wat Tyler was the spark 
 
 * A man who laid tile roofs. In these disturbances the leaders 
 took names from their trades; "Hob Miller" and "Jack Carter" for 
 instance. 
 
140 ' HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 that set the country in a blaze. Everywhere men stopped 
 their work and hurried to join the insurgents, who soon 
 formed a body a hundred thousand strong and marched 
 to London. The great Duke of Lancaster (John of 
 Gaunt),who was hated as the representative of aristocracy, 
 ran away and took refuge in Scotland. The young king* 
 now sixteen years old, showed good sense and spirit. 
 The rioters attacked and burned the palace called the 
 Savoy, then belonging to John of Gaunt, and the new 
 buildings of the lawyers at the Temple. At a personal 
 meeting with the boy-king, he asked what they wanted. 
 "We want our freedom!" they shouted. "We will that 
 there shall be no more serfs!" "You shall have it," 
 answered the king; "I promise it." Satisfied with this, 
 a large proportion of the mob dispersed and went quietly 
 home, carrying with them copies of a precious "emanci- 
 pation paper" which thirty clerks had been busy all day 
 in writing out. About thirty thousand of them, however,, 
 remained in the city with Wat Tyler, to make sure that 
 the king's promises were fulfilled. The next day, as 
 Richard was riding through the town, he met the chief 
 himself, with whom he had a parley. The Mayor of 
 London, fearing that the king was in danger, struck Wat 
 down with his dagger, and a servant killed him. The 
 mob broke out into wild cries for revenge. "What would 
 you have, my masters?" asked the young king. "Have 
 you lost your leader? I am your king and I will be your 
 leader. Follow me." And riding bravely at their head, 
 he led them into the open country, where he promised to 
 grant their wishes and a full pardon for all offences, upon 
 which they dispersed. 
 
 When the king's uncles returned, however, they 
 
RICHARD II. WAT TYIER. BOIINGBROKE. 141 
 
 refused to abide by what he had done. It was, indeed, 
 illegal, for only the land-owners had the right to free 
 their bondmen. Still, the promise was made to get 
 them to lay down their arms, and should have been 
 kept when they had done so. When the question was 
 brought before the Parliament, they pronounced the 
 king's grants null and void, saying that their serfs were 
 their goods, and that no one could take away their 
 goods without their consent. "And this consent," they 
 remarked, "we have never given and never will give, 
 were we all to die in one day." Legally they were 
 perhaps right, morally they were wrong, and politically 
 they were unwise, because the lower classes would have 
 been worth more to their masters as well as to them- 
 selves as freemen. The "villains"* did not directly 
 gain their object; but the expression of their determina- 
 tion drew attention to the subject, and serfdom gradu- 
 ally melted away. 
 
 The Council of Regency also came back, and then 
 began the work of punishment. It is said that fifteen 
 hundred persons were hanged for this outbreak, in spite 
 of the king's pardon; a sad example of bad faith in 
 these "noble" fugitives! As the friends of these victims 
 sometimes cut down the bodies so as to bury them 
 decently, the order was given to chain the bodies to the 
 gallows, which was the origin of "hanging in chains," so 
 long practised in England. 
 
 The king's uncles were restless, intriguing men, who 
 allowed him no voice in the government; and he one 
 
 * This name was first given to persons bound to feudal service 
 "because their dwellings were built round the villa or castle of their 
 lord. 
 
142 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 day surprised the Duke of Gloucester, whom he espe- 
 cially disliked, by asking him in Council, "Uncle, how- 
 old am I?" "Your Highness is in your twenty- third 
 year," answered the Duke. "Then I am able to man- 
 age my own affairs," replied the king. "Gentlemen, I 
 am very much obliged to you for the care you have 
 given to public duties up to this time, but I shall not 
 need your services any longer." From that time Richard 
 took the government on himself. 
 
 At first everything went well. The king had some 
 years before this married Anne* of Bohemia, called 
 "The Good Queen Anne," on account of her kind and 
 charitable disposition. At her death, wishing to preserve 
 peace with France, he married a child of eight years old,, 
 Isabella, the daughter of Charles VI., called "the Little 
 Queen." 
 
 One of the frequent invasions of England by Scotland 
 at this time resulted in the battle of Otterburn, which 
 forms the subject of Chevy Chase, one of the best-known 
 of the old English ballads. Both sides claimed the vic- 
 tory, the English because the bravest Scot, Lord Douglas,, 
 was killed, the Scotch because they took prisoner Henry 
 Percy (surnamed Hotspur from his fiery temper), son of 
 the Earl of Northumberland. On the whole, the Scots 
 had rather the best of it. 
 
 It was not until the last two years of Richard's reign 
 that the faults lying concealed in his character began to- 
 show themselves. He is accused of causing the death 
 of the Duke of Gloucester, whom he had always disliked; 
 but a more serious offence was his dispensing with a Par- 
 liament and replacing it by a committee dependent on. 
 
 * Pronounced "Ann," not "An-ne." 
 
RICHARD II. WAT TYLER. BOLINGBROKE. 143 
 
 himself. Forced loans, the sale of pardons, refusing jus- 
 tice except on payment of bribes, all followed; but noth- 
 ing could supply his boundless extravagance. He is 
 said to have employed ten thousand persons in his 
 household, three hundred of them being in the royal 
 kitchen. We read also of gorgeous apparel, of superb 
 furniture, of costly jewels. To crown all, he estranged 
 from himself, by caprice and injustice, the most powerful 
 subject in the kingdom. 
 
 His cousin, Henry Bolingbroke, son of John of Gaunt^ 
 had a quarrel with the Duke of Norfolk, and the king^ 
 allowed them to try the "wager of battle." The cham- 
 pions are mounted, ready to begin the fight; the king 
 and queen, with as many lords and ladies as can gain 
 admittance to the raised seats around the lists, are 
 in place, the challenge is given and returned, when 
 suddenly, just as the spears are in rest and the impatient 
 horses- ready to start, the king throws his "warder," or 
 sceptre, on the ground and the heralds cry " Stop !" 
 This means that there will be no fight that day. Then 
 the capricious Richard, without any decision as to which 
 is right in the quarrel, banishes his cousin Bolingbroke 
 for ten years and the Duke of Norfolk for life.* 
 
 The people had despised the king before; now they 
 hated him, for Bolingbroke was their idol. The bitter 
 feeling was increased when at John . of Gaunt's death, 
 three month's after his son's exile began, Richard seized 
 all his vast possessions. Having suddenly determined 
 to go to Ireland to put down a rebellion there, he heard 
 mass with his little queen, and then, lifting her up in his 
 arms, he kissed her, saying, "Adieu, madam, till we meet 
 
 *See Shakspeare's play of "Richard II." 
 
144 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 again." The people of London said : "Now goeth 
 Richard of Bordeaux to his destruction. He will never 
 return again with joy, no more than did Edward the 
 Second, his great-grandfather, who was foolishly gov- 
 erned by too much believing of the Despensers." The 
 parallel was remarkably just. Richard had bad luck in 
 Ireland; he did not succeed in his expedition, and he 
 was detained for several weeks by contrary winds. In 
 the meantime, Bolingbroke had arrived on the coast 
 of Yorkshire, in England, with an army. Although he 
 •declared that he came only to demand his father's 
 estates, he marched through the land like a conqueror. 
 Towns and castles everywhere opened their gates to 
 him. Even the Duke of York, the Regent in Richard's 
 absence, went over to him with his soldiers. Richard 
 wandered about helplessly from place to place, losing 
 strength as his adversary was gaining it, and the arrny 
 which a faithful friend had gathered together to help him 
 dispersed because "they could hear no tidings of the 
 king." The net was closing around him. Betrayed by 
 false information, he rode directly into an ambush of his 
 enemies, and the Earl of Northumberland took him 
 prisoner and lodged him in Flint Castle. 
 
 Bolingbroke was soon on the ground. He met 
 ) Richard with an appearance of respect, but carried him 
 to London and shut him up in the Tower, where he was 
 compelled to sign his abdication. Then a Parliament 
 was summoned to meet at Westminster Hall for his 
 deposition — that very Westminster Hall which he had 
 remodelled and beautified, making it very much what we 
 see it now- He was accused of the murder of his uncle, 
 the Duke of Gloucester, of the execution of several of his 
 
RICHARD II WAT 'TYLER. B0L1NGBR0KE. 145 
 
 own subjects, and of answering when asked to do justice 
 according to the law, "The laws are in my mouth; I 
 alone can make and change them ; the life of every one 
 of my subjects and his lands and goods are at my will 
 and pleasure." It was also charged against him that he 
 was "so variable and dissembling that no man living, 
 who knew him, could or would trust him." Richard was 
 then formally deposed by the parliament; Henry of Lan- 
 caster came forward and took the usual oaths, after which 
 the archbishops of Canterbury and York led him up to 
 the throne, "all the people wonderfully shouting for, 
 
 joy" (1399)- 
 
 During the latter half of the fourteenth century, many 
 new ideas had been stirring in the minds of the people. 
 It often happens that political and religious reforms go 
 hand in hand. The desire for freedom of thought be- 
 longs naturally with the demand for other kinds of 
 freedom, and the age which produced Wat Tyler's 
 rebellion was also the age of John WyclifTe. This 
 earliest reformer not only fearlessly exposed the corrup- 
 tions of the Church and the avarice and tyranny of the 
 Pope, but uttered doctrines declared to be heretical 
 — that is, not such as the Church believed. His fol- 
 lowers received the name of Lollards, for some reason 
 not now understood, and soon became so numerous as 
 to form a very important sect. John of Gaunt openly 
 sympathized with them, as did the Princess of Wales 
 (widow of the Black Prince) and Richard's queen, Anne 
 of Bohemia. The poet Chaucer is also supposed to have 
 belonged among them. WyclifTe was tried for heresy, 
 but received no further harm than being turned out 
 of the University of Oxford. His great work lay not 
 10 
 
146 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 < . a 
 
 only in preaching new doctrines and stirring people up 
 to purer lives, but in making the first complete transla- 
 tion of the Bible into English. The clergy in general 
 frowned upon this because it led people to the adoption 
 of the Bible, instead of the authority of the Church, as a 
 rule of faith; but to the masses it was like cold water to 
 a thirsty soul, and it was received with thrilling eager- 
 ness and read from one end of the land to the other. 
 There were no printed books then, but copies made by 
 hand were multiplied through the industry of willing tran- 
 scribers until there were few persons in England able to 
 read who could not in some way find the means of 
 getting at the translation. 
 
 The aristocrats of learning were by no means pleased 
 with the new order of things. "Scripture is become 
 a vulgar thing," wrote a priest of the day, "more open 
 now to men and women who know how to read than it 
 was wont to be to clerks themselves."* But in spite of 
 all opposition the doctrines of Wycliffe grew and pre- 
 vailed. 
 
 * "Vulgar" means common to all; thus the translation of the 
 Bible into Latin was called the "Vulgate" because it was in the 
 common tongue. "Clerks" (clerics) means here the clergy, who 
 had been until this century almost the only persons who had any 
 knowledge of books. A learned man of any profession was called 
 a clerk. 
 
 J; 
 
HENRY IV. SHREWSBURY. HENRY V. 147 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 HENRY IV. SHREWSBURY. HENRY V. 
 
 ENRY IV. was a usurper in a double sense ; for 
 not only had he supplanted Richard, the 
 reigning king, but he had taken the place 
 of the heir presumptive.* This was a grandson of 
 Lionel, Duke of Clarence, third son of Edward III. 
 Lionel's daughter, Philippa, had married the Earl of 
 March, a descendant of Roger Mortimer, and their son, 
 Edmund Mortimer, was the lineal successor to Richard II. 
 But he was a child only seven years old, and the English 
 Parliament exercised its right in passing him over and 
 bestowing the crown on his cousin, the Duke of 
 Lancaster. 
 
 But little is known of the fate of the unfortunate 
 Richard II. It is certain that he was kept a prisoner 
 for several months, being removed from the Tower in 
 London to Pontefract (Pomfret) Castle. A conspiracy 
 being formed to replace him on the throne, Henry IV. 
 settled the matter by causing him to be murdered, and 
 then exhibiting his body in London so that there could 
 be no question as to the fact of his death. As has often 
 happened in such cases, a report arose that Richard had 
 escaped, some other dead body being shown as his; but 
 there is no doubt that his life, as well as his crown, was 
 sacrificed to Henry's ambition (1400). 
 
 * A person who will succeed to the crown if no one shall be born 
 having a better right. "Heir-apparent" is the person who will 
 succeed unless he dies before the reigning sovereign. 
 
148 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 The poor little widow-queen was sent home to France 
 (without her jewels and her dower), and for seven years 
 refused all offers of marriage; but was at last induced 
 to wed the Duke of Orleans, brother of the king of 
 France, and the finest French poet of his time, who has 
 left some charming verses about her, entitled (in the 
 English translation), "The Fairest Thing in Mortal 
 Eyes." 
 
 The early years of Henry's reign were stained by a 
 persecution of the Lollards, who had now become a 
 numerous and powerful sect. William Sawtry, a clergy- 
 man, was burnt alive for heresy, being the first person to 
 suffer death in England for this cause. Other forms of 
 punishment were used, such as imprisonment, branding 
 on the cheek, and whatever tortures might be supposed 
 to lead men to repent of thinking differently from those 
 around them; and for a time the so-called "heresy" 
 apparently died out, to reappear in the next century 
 as the doctrine of the English church and the law of 
 the land. 
 
 The most notable feature of Henry IV. 's reign was a 
 series of conspiracies against him, which seemed to those 
 about him a judgment on his unjust dealings with his 
 predecessor, Richard. The first one, already mentioned, 
 was put down with great severity, all the persons con- 
 cerned in it being executed for treason; but the sub- 
 sequent plots were more wide-spread, and ended in 
 an appeal to arms. 
 
 The conspirators represented the three countries which 
 make up the island of Great Britain. The Earl of Nor- 
 thumberland and his son Harry Percy (the " Hotspur" 
 of Otterburn), headed the disaffected English; the Earl 
 
HENRY IV. SHREWSBURY. HENRY V. 149 
 
 of Douglas brought an army of Scots, and a Welshman 
 named Owen Glendower, who was trying to make his 
 country once more independent of England, had raised 
 a large force in Wales. There had lately been a battle 
 with the Scots at Homildon Hall, where the Earl of 
 Douglas had been made prisoner by Hotspur, and the 
 latter gave him his liberty that they might together make 
 common cause against the enemy. 
 
 The three armies were to meet at Shrewsbury, but 
 Henry was too quick for them. He attacked the forces 
 before Glendower came up, and while Northumberland 
 with a part of his command was still on the way, and 
 gained a complete victory. He and his son Henry, 
 Prince of Wales, fought desperately; the brave Hotspur 
 was killed, and Douglas taken prisoner. Henry did not 
 show a revengeful spirit after his victory. Some of the 
 principal offenders were beheaded, but the Earl of 
 Northumberland was pardoned, and a general amnesty 
 was issued to the common soldiers. 
 
 In Shakspeare's two plays of Henry IV., we find 
 all these circumstances treated in the most picturesque 
 manner. He is not always correct as to details, but he 
 gives the spirit of the age, and we remember the facts 
 better if we read the plays after studying the history. 
 
 It was not long before Northumberland was again 
 engaged in a plot against the king, this time in the com- 
 pany of Scroop, Archbishop of York, who had been 
 a party to the previous rebellion. This time the rebels 
 were put down without a battle, and the king, determined 
 to make an enduring example, had the archbishop exe- 
 cuted. Northumberland escaped, and was afterward 
 killed in battle. Henry sent to the Pope the armor 
 
150 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 worn by Archbishop Scroop, with the scriptural message . 
 "This have we found; know whether it be thy son's coat 
 or no." 
 
 The lawless character of the time is shown in the cap- 
 ture of a Scottish ship (in time of peace) having on 
 board the young Prince James of Scotland (afterward 
 James I.), whom his father was sending to France 
 to keep him out of the way of enemies at home. Henry 
 took possession of this boy of eleven years old, who was 
 kept for nineteen years a prisoner in England. He 
 received an education suitable to his high position, and 
 was kindly treated, according to the ideas of the time; 
 but he would have preferred his liberty. 
 
 Henry IV. was not an old man when he died, but 
 
 since he became king he had led a hard life. Shakspeare 
 
 makes him say: 
 
 "Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown." 
 
 Plots and surprises and disappointments at home had 
 been his food for the first nine years of his reign, while 
 the wars with France and Scotland were a continual 
 tainted seasoning for the rest of it. He had lost the 
 popularity which he enjoyed while his people were yet 
 groaning under the oppression of Richard II., and stood 
 in a manner alone. England prospered under his gov- 
 ernment, and, as is the case with many kings whose title 
 is questionable, the knowledge that the hereditary claim- 
 ant was still living and might at any time succeed in 
 overturning his precarious seat, made him careful to keep 
 strictly within the laws and on good terms with Parliament 
 — a circumstance favorable to the belief that those gov- 
 ernments are best which depend entirely on the consent 
 of the governed; that is, are elective and not hereditary. 
 
HENRY IV. SHREWSBURY. HENRY V. 151 
 
 Henry IV.'s relations with his oldest son, the "Prince 
 Hal" of Shakspeare, have been the subject of much dis- 
 cussion. The poet, following some of the chronicles, 
 makes the prince wild and dissipated, but this is by no 
 means proved. It is possible, however, that his father's 
 jealousy may have shut him out from any active share in 
 the government. 
 
 Henry IV. had long cherished a desire to visit 
 Jerusalem and see for himself the holy sepulchre, a 
 journey to which was supposed to do so much toward 
 atoning for the sins of a life-time; but the cares of state 
 did not permit it. In the last years of his life he was 
 subject to epileptic fits, and one of them came on while 
 he was at his devotions in the chapel of Edward the 
 Confessor, at Westminster. He was carried into a room 
 in the abbot's house near by, and on coming to himself 
 asked where he was. "In the Jerusalem Chamber," was 
 the answer. "I always wanted to die in Jerusalem; now 
 I shall have my wish," said the king, and soon afterward 
 passed away, in the forty-sixth year of his age and the 
 fourteenth of his reign (141 3). 
 
 Henry IV. had some fine qualities; he was prudent, 
 energetic, and just in the administration of the laws, and 
 if he had acquired the crown in the regular course 
 of things, he might have been one of the favorites among 
 English kings. 
 
 Henry V., called from the place of his birth, Henry of 
 Monmouth, came to the throne in the flush of youthful 
 vigor and national popularity. If any unworthy actions 
 or qualities had ever been attributed to him, they had long 
 been forgotten. He was now twenty-five years old, 
 handsome, courteous, good-humored, well educated, and 
 
152 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 trained in all soldierly exercises.* His first acts showed 
 a generous spirit. The Earl of March (the true heir to 
 the throne in the eyes of many of the people) was set free 
 from imprisonment and treated with the greatest kindness. 
 Henry obtained the release of young Percy, Hotspur's 
 son, who had long been a prisoner in Scotland; and he 
 had the body of Richard II. removed from its unhonored 
 grave and interred with royal state in Westminster Abbey. 
 The horrid persecution of the Lollards, shame to say,, 
 went on under his sanction. 
 
 In spite of burnings and brandings, the Lollards in- 
 creased in number and boldly defied the laws which 
 sought to silence them. For some years an irregular war- 
 fare was kept up against them on the ground of their 
 being dangerous to the State as well as to the Church,, 
 and many of them suffered death. Their leader, Sir John 
 Oldcastle (Lord Cobham) after escapes, reprieves, and 
 many adventures, finally suffered a horrible death, t being 
 suspended by an iron belt over a slow fire, and thus 
 roasted to death (141 8). 
 
 * There is a statement that when one of his boon companions was. 
 brought before Chief- Justice Gascoigne for some offence, the prince 
 went with him, and on the judge's refusal to release the prisoner 
 struck him in the face. Upon this Gascoigne committed the prince 
 for contempt of court, and sent word to his father that he had done 
 so. The young man went to prison with a good grace, and Henry's 
 only comment on the circumstance was, " Happy is the king who 
 has a judge so firm in the performance of duty, and a son so willing 
 to submit to the law. " It is a good story, whether true or not. 
 
 It may interest our young readers to know that Richard Whit- 
 tington, famous for the clever story that some one invented about 
 his cat, was Lord Mayor of London in Henry IV's time. 
 
 tThe official record says that he was "sweetly and modestly" con- 
 demned to be burnt alive. 
 
HENRY IV. SHREWSBURY. HENRY V. 15& 
 
 A grim corner in the Archbishop of Canterbury's 
 palace at Lambeth is still called "The Lollards' Tower," 
 and in the centre of one of its rooms may be seen a round 
 post to which, it is said, the prisoners were bound while 
 suffering torture. 
 
 We turn from these horrors to the other events of 
 Henry's short reign. He was as ambitious as his great 
 grandfather, Edward III., and like him found a promising 
 field in the fair provinces ot France, now distracted by a 
 civil war, and always tempting to the invader. His 
 reasoning was, "If my ancestors had a right to France, so 
 have I." (He ignored the other alternative: "If my 
 ancestors had not, so have not I.") Perhaps he really 
 persuaded himself that France would be a great deal 
 better off under his rule than torn by factions, the poor 
 crazy king and wicked queen and selfish nobles quarrel- 
 ing among themselves for the government. The Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury encouraged him, in order, it is said, 
 to keep him from inquiring into the abuses of the Church;, 
 while Henry himself is charged with wishing to distract 
 his people's attention from his own doubtful title. He 
 found little difficulty in procuring supplies for his inva- 
 sion, for the whole English nation was wild with enthu- 
 siasm at the idea of a war of conquest; and his prepara- 
 tions were made with great energy. Fifteen hundred o* 
 the ships of that day were required to transport an army 
 that could now be carried by thirty large steamships; 
 and when all was ready, Henry proceeded on his way to 
 Harfleur in Normandy. 
 
y 
 
 154 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 AGINCOURT. TREATY OF TROYES. DEATH OF HENRY V. 
 
 T required a siege of five weeks to take the town 
 of Harfleur, in France, and when it was taken 
 Henry had serious thoughts of abandoning it 
 and going home again. His army was wasted by disease, 
 and the French, as he heard, were collecting in great 
 numbers to oppose him, but he determined to march to 
 his own town of Calais and then decide what it would 
 be best to do. 
 
 The French did not get their army together very 
 quickly, for they were divided among themselves, and 
 the different parties hated each other quite as much as 
 they hated the English; perhaps more. When they were 
 ready, they sent to ask Henry by what road he intended 
 to march. "By the one that will take me straight to 
 Calais!" he answered, and sent the messengers away 
 with a present of a hundred crowns. He was not going 
 out of his way to find the French, nor did he mean to 
 refuse to fight if he met them. As they neared the little 
 village of Azincourt (which the English have changed to 
 Agincourt) they saw the splendid French army waiting 
 for them to come up. Henry sent his Welsh squire, Davy 
 Gam, to reconnoitre, and asked him how many French 
 he saw. "Enough to be killed, enough to be made 
 prisoners, and enough to run away," said Davy. 
 
 The English army was in poor condition. Of the 
 30,000 men who had sailed from England not more than 
 6,000 were now in fighting order, and these were half 
 
AGINCOURT. TREATY OF TROVES. 155 
 
 starved, and tired with marching. (We have to take the 
 English story for these statements of inferior numbers in 
 the winning of great victories). The French are said to 
 have had 60,000 men. This time the enemy had the 
 choice of a position, but they chose their ground badly, 
 and thus neutralized the effect of their greater numbers. 
 King Henry heard some one saying that he wished ten 
 thousand of the stout, idle men in England might be with 
 them that day. "Not so, friend," said the king; "The 
 fewer we are, the greater glory we shall win. For my 
 part, I would not have a single man more." The French 
 were in high spirits, and, the chroniclers tell us, spent the 
 night before the battle in carousing and playing at cards 
 for the prisoners they expected to take. No quarter was 
 to be given to the common soldiers; but persons of rank 
 were to be held for ransom. The English, on the con- 
 trary, had a refreshing sleep, except those who, expecting 
 this to be their last night on earth, spent it in devotion. 
 When the day of battle came, Henry V., whose neces- 
 sity seems to have sharpened his ingenuity, directed that 
 each one of the archers should carry, besides his bow and 
 arrows, a battle-axe and sword, and a stake pointed at 
 both ends. After having discharged their arrows they 
 were to drive the stakes into the soft, damp ground with 
 their battle-axes, and then fall back and shoot again. The 
 stratagem answered its purpose; the French, advancing 
 as the English retired, came unexpectedly upon the sharp 
 points of the stakes and fell into confusion. The fighting 
 was desperate for three hours, both sides doing wonders 
 of personal bravery. At the end of that time the unman- 
 ageable French army was routed and fled from the field. 
 Their heavy armor was their destruction, while the Eng- 
 
156 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 lish archers, who had thrown off a great part of their 
 clothing, moved about so easily from place to place that 
 they did frightful execution in the crowded ranks of their 
 enemies. 
 
 The French lost in this action, it is computed, not less 
 than 11,000 killed, among whom were the flower of their 
 nobility. These last are reported to have despised the 
 common soldiers, saying, " This battle must be won by 
 gentlemen!" On the English side the loss was compara- 
 tively small — some writers saying forty men and some 
 1600; so we may take our choice. The Duke of Or- 
 leans, husband of England's "Little Queen," was one 
 of the 14,000 prisoners taken on this occasion, so the 
 English had two captive poets at once, Prince James of 
 Scotland (afterward James I.) being the best English 
 poet of his day, as the Duke of Orleans was the finest 
 French one. 
 
 Henry was in no condition to follow up his victory. 
 After making a truce with his enemies, he returned 
 to England, where he was received with such demon- 
 strations of joy as had never before been made for any 
 victory. The people could not wait for him to land; 
 they rushed into the water and themselves dragged the 
 ship to shore; the bells rang like mad; triumphal arches 
 were built across the roads, and showers of roses and 
 laurel were strewn under the horses' feet; grand lords- 
 and ladies, splendidly dressed, filled the windows and 
 balconies, and from the highest to the lowest each strove 
 with the other which should be most extravagant in. 
 expressions of praise. In the midst of all this the king: 
 rode quietly along, not looking at all elated, but taking: 
 everything soberly, and, as an old writer says, "with 
 
AGINCOURT. TREATY OF TROVES. 157 
 
 reverent demeanor." Perhaps he was thinking of the 
 heaps of dead he had left behind him; perhaps the 
 groans of the dying still filled his ears; possibly he was 
 wondering how the people would like the burdensome 
 taxation necessary for carrying on the war. At all 
 •events, he won "golden opinions" for his humility and 
 modesty. 
 
 Two years after this, Henry was ready for another in- 
 vasion. He was determined to conquer Normandy, the 
 old possession of his ancestors, and the English nation 
 again willingly contributed the means. In France itself, 
 the civil war had reached a pitch of horror probably 
 without its equal in the history of any civilized country.* 
 The Duke of Orleans (son of the "Little Queen" whose 
 husband was taken at Agincourt) headed one party and 
 the Duke of Burgundy another, and as each in succession 
 got the upper hand, the lawlessness and butchery seemed 
 to increase. Henry at once laid siege to Rouen, the 
 capital of Normandy, which was defended by its citizens 
 until they were starved out. "War has three hand- 
 maidens ever waiting on her," said he, " Fire, Blood, and 
 Famine ; and I have chosen the meekest maiden of the 
 three." During the siege, fourteen thousand country 
 people who had taken refuge in the city were thrust out 
 to die between the walls and Henry's camp; he would 
 do nothing for them. The city at last surrendered, and 
 his army was set free for further conquest. 
 
 While the siege of Rouen was yet in progress, the 
 treacherous murder of the Duke of Burgundy by a 
 follower of the Dauphin Charles (son of the insane king) 
 
 *For a detailed account of these doings, see "A Short History 
 of France, " Chapter XIV. 
 
158 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 as they met for a peaceful conference, threw oil on the 
 flame of civil strife. The son of the murdered duke, 
 wild for revenge, made an alliance with England, prom- 
 ising Henry the sovereignty of France if he would help 
 him against the Dauphin. The queen, who hated her 
 son, took part with them, and a treaty was concluded at 
 Troyes (1420), perhaps the most extraordinary ever 
 made by any set of people in their senses. It was 
 agreed that Henry V., king of England, should be 
 Regent of France as long as Charles VI. lived, and king 
 of it at his death, to the exclusion of "Charles, calling 
 himself Dauphin," and that he should marry the Princess 
 Katherine, the French king's youngest daughter, "with- 
 out expense to the said king of France;" that is, he took 
 her without a dowry. No wonder that the fair kingdom 
 was considered a sufficient dot! The fact that this 
 astounding treaty was hailed with joy by the French 
 people shows to what misery they had been reduced by 
 civil war. They knew Henry to be strong and just, and, 
 when not opposed, kind; and they looked for a breath- 
 ing-time of peace. The marriage was celebrated at 
 once,* and the company hoped for some festivities. 
 in the way of tournaments ; but the king had other work 
 on hand, and the next morning set out at his usual 
 business of besieging cities just as if he had not been 
 married at all. He was not, however, entirely indifferent 
 to his wife's amusement, for he sent to England for two 
 harps, that they might make music together. When all 
 the towns in Normandy had opened their gates to him, 
 
 * For an amusing (imaginary) account of the princess and of 
 Henry's courtship, see Shakspeare's "Henry V.," Act. III., Sc. 4, 
 and Act. V., Sc. 2. 
 
AGINCOURT. TREATY OF TROYES. 159" 
 
 he went back to Paris to take formal possession of his 
 new kingdom. He assured the people (or rather the 
 nobles, for "the people" were not to be seen, any more 
 than the cart-horses) that he would love and honor the 
 king of France, and that the ocean should cease to flow 
 and the sun no more give light before he should forget 
 the duty a monarch owed to his subjects. There was a. 
 splendid feast held. To be sure, the same accounts tell 
 us that the poor were dying of starvation by hundreds 
 and the streets were full of little children crying aloud 
 for bread; but perhaps some crumbs of the feast may 
 have fallen to them. As the fountains "ran wine," we 
 may hope that more important needs were satisfied 
 at the same time. 
 
 And how fared England all this while? It was gradu- 
 ally becoming drained, not only of its money, but of its 
 men, a more precious possession than money. Those 
 of note and ability were crowding into Normandy, 
 to settle on the confiscated estates liberally bestowed by 
 Henry on his favorites, and there was such great danger 
 that England would in time sink into a mere dependency 
 of France that it was thought necessary to make special 
 laws against this possibility. It was a reversal of the 
 situation which existed under William the Conqueror. 
 Then the Normans forsook their pleasant land to receive 
 as gifts the estates of conquered Saxons; now the de- 
 scendants of both deserted their homes in England 
 to enrich themselves on the spoils of France. It was 
 fortunate for the island country that the conquest was 
 not a permanent one. 
 
 Henry now went back to England to obtain a supply 
 of money from Parliament. This the Commons granted 
 
160 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 without hesitation, in order that, as they said, "the cities 
 and provinces now in arms against the king being sub- 
 dued, France might be entirely annexed to the English 
 crown." They also made some provisions to avoid the 
 possibility that, on the other hand, England might be 
 annexed to the French crown; but they showed their 
 confidence in him by giving him all that he desired. 
 
 An anecdote is told of this time which shows that "the 
 wager of battle" was not favored by the king. Two men 
 having applied to him for permission to fight in single 
 combat, their neighbors begged that the request might 
 be denied. "No!" said Henry, "they are welcome to 
 fight it out ; but if one is killed I shall hang the other for 
 murder." It was surely not during this reign that duel- 
 ling became again popular. 
 
 Once more did Henry set out for France, with an army 
 superbly appointed and in the highest spirits. After 
 some months of hard fighting, during which he succeeded 
 in driving the Dauphin's army into the South, he was 
 cheered by the arrival of Queen Katherine with an infant 
 son, born at Windsor Castle. But his career was almost 
 over. In the midst of a triumphant campaign he was 
 attacked by a mortal disease, and after a short illness 
 died at Vincennes, in the thirty-fifth year of his age and 
 the tenth of his reign (1422). 
 
 His dying commands were characteristic. He desired 
 his brothers on no account to release the Duke of Orleans 
 (taken at Agincourt and still a prisoner in England) until 
 his own son Henry should be of age, and not to make 
 peace with France without obtaining at least Normandy 
 for England; and he solemnly declared that it had been 
 his intention, as soon as the "troubles" in France were 
 
AGINCOURT. TREATY OF TROYES. 161 
 
 ■over, to undertake a crusade for the recovery of Jerusa- 
 lem. So hard was it even at that late day, to let go of 
 the old idea. 
 
 There are few characters in history which stand in as 
 strong a light as does that of Henry V., and yet it is diffi- 
 cult to form an entirely just idea of him. He was the 
 idol of his own people, who could not find a fault in him; 
 and in France he was in many parts of the country wel- 
 comed as a deliverer. Individual instances of cruelty 
 must without doubt be charged against him, but it is not 
 fair to judge the actions of almost five hundred years ago 
 by the standard of today. It seemed, not only to Henry 
 but to most of the thinking men in his own country, that 
 bis claim on France was a just one; and, this being 
 allowed, all else followed as a matter of course. In his 
 Tfrivate character he had his full share of virtues; he was 
 kind, generous, faithful, considerate of others, and of 
 refined tastes. In his public acts he was upright and 
 reasonable, and had the strong intellect and clear judg- 
 ment which enabled him to form wise plans and to carry 
 them out effectually. Shakspeare's play, "Henry V." 
 although eulogy from beginning to end, only faithfully 
 reflects the feelings universal in Henry's own time. 
 
 11 
 
162 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 HENRY VI. WAR IN FRANCE. JACK CADE. 
 
 BABY of nine months old was now, according to 
 the language of the world, king of two mighty 
 countries. He received the homage of Parlia- 
 ment sitting on his mother's lap; and was formally turned 
 over to the care of a governess, Dame Alice Boteler, with 
 orders, issued in his own name, "from time to time rea- 
 sonably to chastise us, as the case may require." Queen 
 Katherine, a frivolous and cold-hearted woman, married 
 secretly, soon after her husband's death, a Welsh gentle- 
 man named Owen Tudor,* and, as far as appears, cared 
 nothing more for her son. 
 
 Henry V.'s next younger brother, John, Duke of Bed- 
 ford, a man of great ability and of unblemished character, 
 was made regent of France; the second brother, Hum- 
 phrey of Gloucester, a rash and hot-tempered person, 
 became Protector of England, and Cardinal Beaufort, a. 
 half-brother of Henry IV., was appointed personal guar- 
 dian of the boy-king. All this was not accomplished 
 without much wrangling, which was typical of Henry 
 VI.'s whole reign; and the gentlest and most peaceful of 
 men, as he turned out to be, grew up amid scenes of con- 
 tinual quarreling and bloodshed. 
 
 Charles VI. of France, whose life had been only one 
 long scene of misery, survived his great son-in-law but 
 two months. He missed the unvarying kindness and 
 
 * The son of Owen Tudor and Katherine was father of Henry 
 VII. the first Tudor king of England. 
 
HENRY VI. WAR IN FRANCE. JACK CADE. 163 
 
 consideration which Henry was almost alone in showing 
 him, and dropped into the grave unnoticed except for the 
 tears and lamentations of the poor, and the respectful 
 attendance of the Duke of Bedford. His worthless queen 
 soon sank into the neglect she merited, and died at last, 
 unhonored by rich or poor. 
 
 Among the chief mourners at Henry V.'s funeral was 
 one whose fate has been the subject of many a romance 
 — King James I. of Scotland.* Two years after this he 
 was set free on payment of a large ransom, though the 
 word "ransom" was not used in the treaty, for fear it 
 should raise a question as to his illegal capture. The 
 sum demanded was stated to be for his "maintenance" — ■ 
 that is, his board, lodging, and education. While in Eng- 
 land, he had fallen in love with Jane Beaufort, niece of 
 the Cardinal, whom he had first seen when he was a cap- 
 tive in Windsor Castle; and his poem called "The King's 
 Quair" records the story of his love for her. When he 
 went back to Scotland he took her with him as his qneen, 
 and the first year's instalment .of the sum to be paid for 
 his "maintenance" was remitted as her wedding portion. 
 
 Although the persecution of the Lollards had nearly 
 died out by this time, owing to the pressure of other 
 matters, one effort of parting rage deserves to be men- 
 tioned. At a council held thirteen years before, it had 
 been decreed that the body of John Wycliffe should be 
 "taken from the ground and thrown far away from the 
 burial of any church;" and in 1328 this sentence was 
 carried into effect. His body was dragged out from its 
 grave in Lutterworth church-yard, burnt to ashes and the 
 ashes thrown into a brook. "So," says Fuller, writing 
 
 * See especially Miss Yonge's story of "The Caged Lion." 
 
164 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 two hundred years later, "they did convey his ashes into 
 Avon; Avon into Severn; Severn into the narrow seas 
 [i.e. Bristol Channel]; they into the main ocean. And 
 thus the ashes of Wycliffe are the emblem of his doc- 
 trine, which is now dispersed all the world over." 
 
 All this time the war was going on in France. In a 
 general way, the Duke of Bedford was master of northern 
 France, and the Dauphin (for so Charles VII. continued 
 to be called for many years), of southern France; and in 
 order to conquer the latter, it was necessary for the Eng- 
 lish to obtain possession of the town of Orleans. It was 
 while they were besieging this that the famous "Battle of 
 the Herrings" took place. Bedford had sent down a 
 quantity of salted herrings, the season being Lent, for the 
 soldiers around Orleans. This convoy was met by a 
 detachment of the enemy, and, the herring-barrels being 
 broken up by the cannon, the fish were scattered over 
 the field. The assailants were finally driven away, and 
 as many fish as could be collected were shovelled into 
 wagons and conveyed to the English camp. 
 
 Meantime the defenders of the city were in danger of* 
 famine. They were already put on short allowance, and 
 had begun to discuss the question of a surrender, when 
 deliverance came to them in an unexpected manner. 
 
 In the village of Domremy on the borders of Lorraine, 
 in France, lived a young peasant girl named Jeanne 
 Dare, who had been accustomed to spend much time 
 alone in the fields, and who fancied that she heard there 
 supernatural voices commanding her to free her country 
 from the English. Having with great difficulty obtained 
 the consent of the Dauphin to take command of a troop 
 of soldiers, she dressed herself in shining white armor 
 
HENRY VI. WAR IN FRANCE. JACK CADE. 165 
 
 and set out on her mission, carrying in her hand a conse- 
 crated banner and wearing (never using) a curious old 
 sword supposed to have peculiar powers. At the head 
 of her band of soldiers she rode boldly into the city of 
 Orleans, while a feigned attack of the garrison drew off 
 the attention of one part of the English army, and the 
 rest stood looking stupidly on, believing her to be a 
 witch. A few days later, having succeeded in inspiring 
 the French garrison with a portion of her own courage, 
 she led them against the English fortifications surround- 
 ing the city. The attack was successful; and the enemy 
 were so disheartened, and so terrified at the idea of her 
 supposed mysterious powers that it was thought it more 
 prudent to raise the siege. From this time Jeanne Dare 
 (Joan of Arc, in English) is known by the title of the 
 Maid of Orleans.* 
 
 In thus delivering the city of Orleans, only half of 
 Jeanne's work was done; she was yet to crown the king 
 at Rheims. The lazy, selfish Charles VII. had to be 
 dragged to the place by the most urgent persuasions; 
 but she did get him there at last and he was crowned in 
 the old cathedral. Then she begged to be allowed to go 
 home and to be once more a simple peasant girl. But 
 she was too valuable to be spared, and was forced, sorely 
 against her will, to continue in the military service. 
 
 After a while the enthusiasm in regard to her died out, 
 especially when it was found that she did not always lead 
 the army to victory. It was about two years after her 
 first appearance at Orleans that her last battle was fought. 
 The French army had been defending the town of Com- 
 piegne against the English, and after a fight outside the 
 
 *Or'le-ans; pronounced in three syllables, accentuating the first. 
 
166 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 walls had hastily retreated within the gates. Among the 
 few who did not succeed in getting in was Jeanne. It 
 was said that the governor did this on purpose, but it may 
 not have been so. She was taken to the Burgundian 
 camp (for Burgundy was still in alliance with the English) 
 and was afterward given up to the Duke of Bedford for a 
 sum of money. As she was only a prisoner of war, and 
 could not, in common decency, be punished for defend- 
 ing her country against its enemies, the cruel plan was 
 devised of turning her over to the bishops to be dealt 
 with as a heretic. After a year of suffering from the 
 fiendish devices of her tormentors, she was burnt alive in 
 the market-place of Rouen; the French bishop of Beau- 
 vais and the English Cardinal Beaufort looking on with 
 satisfaction. "Jesus!" was the last word that passed her 
 lips. 
 
 The miserable, selfish wretch, Charles, king of the 
 country for which she had done all this, knew just what 
 was going on and did not lift a finger to save her. It has 
 been said in excuse that he had never believed in her so- 
 called mission. Perhaps not, but he had made use of 
 her so long as she served his purpose, and he knew that 
 she believed in herself. As for the English — the people 
 who had dug up Wycliffe's bones and burned them forty- 
 five years after his death, and roasted Lord Cobham 
 alive over a slow fire, were not likely to be much moved 
 or shamed by the inhuman torture of a helpless French 
 peasant.* 
 
 The affairs of the English in France did not get on 
 well after this. The Duke of Burgundy deserted them 
 
 * For a full account of poor Jeanne's most interesting story, see 
 "A Short History of France, " Chapter XV. 
 
HENRY VI. WAR IN FRANCE. JACK CADE. 167 
 
 and went back to France, his natural ally; the Duke of 
 Bedford died, worn out with hard work at forty-five years 
 old; and in 1453 the last English soldier, with the excep- 
 tion of the garrison at Calais, was driven from the soil of 
 France. 
 
 The Hundred Years' War was at an end. Begun in 
 injustice, continued by oppression, revived through ambi- 
 tion, it closed in humiliation and disgrace, leaving both 
 countries the poorer in men and money and good feeling, 
 and the richer in nothing but dear-bought experience. 
 
 We have followed the war in France to its completion, 
 but must now go back some ten years to look at the 
 affairs of England during that time. King Henry VI. 
 had grown up to be a man; a mild-tempered, inoffensive 
 person, completely ruled by others, and having no wish 
 to act or think for himself. As was unavoidable in such 
 a case, the stronger natures about him engaged in per- 
 petual warfare for the control of affairs; and of these his 
 uncle the Duke of Gloucester (called "the good Duke 
 Humphrey) and Cardinal Beaufort were the principal. 
 
 In order to gain the consent of the king of France to 
 Henry VI.'s marriage with Margaret of Anjou, the Duke 
 of Suffolk, Henry's ambassador, offered to give up the 
 provinces of Maine and Anjou, which the English still 
 held in that country. Gloucester, of course, disapproved 
 of such an unheard of arrangement, and his opposition 
 made Margaret his enemy for life. She was a beautiful 
 girl of fifteen, and possessed of a spirit and determina- 
 tion far beyond her years. She and Suffolk soon formed 
 a close intimacy, and the ruin of Gloucester was resolved 
 upon. He had before this time been attacked through 
 his wife, who was accused of witchcraft. It was declared 
 
168 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 that she had in her possession a wax figure of the king, 
 prepared with magic ceremonies, which she caused slowly 
 to melt away before a fire; and that as it diminished the 
 king's health and strength were decaying in like propor- 
 tion. She was condemned to do penance by walking on 
 three different days through the streets of London wrap- 
 ped in a white sheet with a lighted taper in her hand, and 
 then to be shut up in prison for life. About two years 
 after Margaret's arrival in England the Duke of Glouces- 
 ter was murdered, as was supposed, by Suffolk's orders;, 
 and the queen's minister became so unpopular that to 
 save his life, Henry sent him out of the country. As he 
 was crossing the water to Calais, a large ship called 
 "Nicholas of the Tower," came in sight, hailed Suffolk's 
 vessel, and ordered him to come on board. He was 
 received with the ominous words, "Welcome, traitor !" and 
 lowered into a little boat which carried an executioner, a 
 block and a rusty sword. Here he was directed to kneel 
 down, with the assurance that he should be fairly dealt 
 by; and with half a dozen blows of the sword his head 
 was cut off, after which his body was cast ashore on 
 Dover sands.* 
 
 One more outbreak of lawless violence closes this part 
 of our history. The common people of Kent, under a 
 leader called Jack Cade, rose in rebellion against the 
 wretched misgovernment which prevailed throughout the 
 country, and in the "complaint" which they presented 
 to the Royal Council, we notice a remarkable difference 
 from the demands of Wat Tyler's time. There is no 
 question now of villainage or serfage; Lollardism is not 
 
 * For a poetical account of these circumstances, see Shakspeare's- 
 play of "King Henry VI." Second Part, first three acts. 
 
HENRY VI. WAR IN FRANCE. JACK CADE. 169 
 
 even mentioned; the cry is only for less wasting of the 
 public money, for freedom of elections, and for a change 
 of ministers. The council would not listen to the "com- 
 plaint," and the rioters gained a victory over the royal 
 forces at Sevenoaks, in Kent, after which they proceeded 
 to London and there committed excesses enough in a 
 month to send the whole 20,000 to the gallows if it had 
 been worth while. Their leader, a low Irishman, took 
 the name of Mortimer, claiming some connection with 
 the royal family, though sometimes calling himself Jack 
 Amend-all; he put on the clothes of a nobleman whom 
 the rioters had killed, and paraded through London with 
 a gilt helmet and a blue velvet gown over his armor, 
 calling out "Mortimer is now lord of this city." His men 
 attacked the Tower, taking from it Lord Say, the minister 
 most disliked, who had been sent there for safety, 
 and, after dragging him through the streets, struck off 
 his head. Unlike the rebels under Wat Tyler, these 
 began to plunder the city; and the government becom- 
 ing thoroughly alarmed offered a reward for Cade's 
 head, which was soon brought to them, after which the 
 rebels dispersed.* 
 
 In 1453, the year of the abandonment of France, King 
 Henry, who had always been weak, was seized with some 
 strange disease which reduced his mind to total inactivity, 
 while physically he seemed in good health. This singular 
 state lasted for about fifteen months, when he suddenly 
 recovered, but knew nothing that had passed in the in- 
 terval. His mental condition encouraged another claim- 
 ant to the crown, and for thirty years to come England 
 
 * There is a vivid description of this uprising in Shakspeare's 
 Second Part of "King Henry the Sixth," Act IV. 
 
170 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 was a scene of conflict between the rival families of York 
 and Lancaster. 
 
 Henry VI.'s so-called reign lasted nearly forty years; 
 about three-quarters of it is covered by the war with 
 France; then comes Jack Cade's rebellion; and the re- 
 maining part is occupied by that great quarrel so unnec- 
 essary and so destructive, called the Wars of the Roses. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 THE WARS OF THE ROSES. 
 
 HE Wars of the Roses have been well called 
 "England's great business in the fifteenth cen- 
 tury." This being the case, in studying the 
 history of that century, we must try to understand the 
 state of things which led to this "business." 
 
 The three kings who came after Richard II., namely, 
 Henry IV., Henry V., and Henry VI., were descended 
 from John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, and are there- 
 fore called Lancastrians. Now all this time, the York 
 branch had, by the rule of primogeniture,* a better right 
 to the throne. The Parliament, however, (and the old 
 Witanagemot before it) had always claimed the right of 
 deciding who should be king of England, and therefore 
 when it set aside Edmund Mortimer, of the York line, 
 and crowned Henry of Lancaster (Henry IV.), expected 
 -to settle the matter once for all. And there might have 
 been a succession of Lancastrian kings to this day if all 
 
 * The right of the first-born to inherit. 
 
THE WARS OF THE ROSES. 171 
 
 the sovereigns had been made after the pattern of Henry 
 IV. and Henry V. But with an incapable king and a 
 -wretchedly misgoverned nation came a temptation to the 
 Duke of York to take matters into his own hands and 
 •claim a crown which would certainly have been his but 
 for the decision of the Parliament. 
 
 Richard, Duke of York, was a man of mark. He was 
 brave, able, kindly in disposition, and moderate in action. 
 He had already filled the high post of Protector during 
 the king's illness, and was through that favorably known 
 to the nation at large. With the king's recovery had 
 ■come new ministers, and York, bringing forward accusa- 
 tions of misgovernment against them, demanded reforms. 
 Gentle King Henry VI. said, when he came to himself 
 after his fifteen months of darkness, that "he was in 
 charity with all the world, and so he would that all 
 the lords were." The lords, however, were very far 
 from being in charity with each other. The most of 
 them were selfish, avaricious, jealous, grasping after 
 power; the welfare of the country being the last thing 
 that interested them. As was natural in the days when 
 a man of high position kept in his pay bands of armed 
 retainers, the different factions soon came to open 
 fighting; and the first battle between the Yorkists 
 and the Lancastrians was fought at St. Albans, May 
 22d, 1455. 
 
 If the Duke of York (who had gained the victory, but 
 Tiad as yet made no claim to the crown) could have 
 looked forward to the events of the next thirty years, 
 would he have assembled that body of soldiers " to pro- 
 tect himself against his enemies"? Such a prophetic 
 vision would have shown him his own gory head set up 
 
172 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 over the gate of his city of York; three of his four sons 
 dying violent deaths; eighty princes of the royal blood' 
 and almost all the ancient nobility falling on the battle- 
 field or through revenge of the party at the moment in 
 power, and not less than a hundred thousand men 
 of lesser note giving up their lives in twelve pitched- 
 battles — and all for what? Surely, he would have 
 drawn back in awe from the fearful picture, and sac- 
 rificed even what he called his rights rather than be 
 the author of so much misery. 
 
 It was not until three years after the battle of SL 
 Albans that the Duke of York brought forward his claim 
 to the throne. Up to this time he had professed the ut- 
 most loyalty to King Henry. But in 1458, what the city 
 chronicler calls " a dissimulated unity and concord " was 
 brought about, and all the rivals went together to old St. 
 Paul's Cathedral, where the queen and the Duke of York 
 walked hand in hand, and the worst enemies promised 
 to make up and be friends. The next year, however,, 
 the fighting began again. 
 
 It is not worth your while to learn the names of all the 
 battles in this confusing war, so we will notice only the 
 important ones. In the battle of Northampton, the EarL 
 of Warwick, the most powerful nobleman in the kingdom,, 
 appeared on the Yorkist side. He is said to have fed 
 30,000 persons daily at his various castles, and is called 
 " the king-maker " from his achievements in setting up 
 and pulling down kings. Queen Margaret fled after the 
 battle, but her husband was taken prisoner and con- 
 ducted to London. A Parliament was called at which 
 it was decided that King Henry should keep the crown 
 during his life-time, and that at his death it should go to 
 
THE WARS OF THE ROSES. 173 
 
 the true heir, the Duke of York. The king showed 
 a gleam of spirit when the decision was made which 
 left out of the question the rights of his son. " My 
 father was king," he said; "his father also was king; 
 I myself have worn the crown forty years from my 
 cradle ; you have all sworn fealty to me as your 
 sovereign, and your fathers have done the like to mine. 
 How, then, can my right be disputed?" His was per- 
 haps the right, but the other side had surely the might, 
 and he was obliged to submit. 
 
 There was one person who had no intention of sub- 
 mitting, and that was Margaret of Anjou, who raised an 
 army of 20,000 men and defeated the duke at Wakefield, 
 near York, He himself was killed in the action. It is 
 said that the queen had his head cut off, crowned with a 
 paper crown, and set on one of the gates of York. She 
 was a woman whom success made mad. After the battle 
 of Wakefield, she gave permission to her army to plunder 
 the northern counties, and they availed themselves of it 
 to the full. Churches, monasteries, and private dwell- 
 ings went down before them, and Margaret's name 
 became detested throughout the north. To the credit 
 of the time it must be said that this was the only 
 instance of its kind during the war. 
 
 In the second battle at St. Albans, Queen Margaret 
 was victorious. We have now one of those strange 
 contradictions with which these wars are filled. The 
 Duke of York's eldest son, the Earl of March, who had 
 taken command of the army after his father's death, went 
 at once to London, and then, as if the battle had been a 
 victory for him, was proclaimed king at Westminster 
 under the title of Edw r ard IV., the Parliament consenting, 
 
174 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 and the people filling the air with joyous acclamation s„ 
 March 4th, 1461. 
 
 This date is generally considered to mark the end of 
 Henry the Sixth's reign. He lived for ten years longer ; 
 sometimes hiding away from his enemies, sometimes im- 
 prisoned by them; always the same gentle, patient spirit, 
 hating the bloodshed and cruelty of which he was made 
 the central figure, but powerless to prevent them. He 
 had never been popular with the people, who could 
 better appreciate military talent than saintly piety, and 
 who readily adopted as a leader the spirited young son 
 of York. Edward IV. was now in his twentieth year. 
 
 Queen Margaret, still struggling desperately for her 
 husband and her son, soon collected another army, and 
 with these gave Edward battle at Towton, in Yorkshire. 
 Edward issued orders to his soldiers to give no quarter. 
 A whole long day and night and far into the next day did 
 the cruel fight go on. At last the Lancastrians began to 
 give way; their enemies followed, slaying without pity, 
 and when the fight was over, more than thirty thousand 
 Englishmen lay dead on English ground, killed by their 
 own countrymen. There has been no other such battle 
 in England, before or since. 
 
 At the next Parliament called by Edward IV., Henry 
 and Margaret and all who adhered to them were de- 
 clared traitors, and the crown settled on the family, 
 of York. The king was crowned at Westminster; his^ 
 next brother, George, was made Duke of Clarence, and 
 the youngest, Richard, Duke of Gloucester. A fourth 
 son, the Earl of Rutland, a boy of fourteen, had been 
 killed in cold blood after the*battle of Wakefield by "the 
 black Lord Clifford." Queen Margaret went twice to- 
 
THE WARS OF THE ROSES. 175 
 
 France, to ask help from her cousin, the crafty and 
 selfish Louis XI. He gave her fair words, but very little 
 assistance, and she had the mortification of seeing 
 Edward's ambassadors received with distinction. When 
 in England she wandered about with her husband and 
 her little son, always the same energetic woman, in 
 prosperity or adversity. After one of her battles, she 
 was going through a forest with her child when she was 
 attacked by a band of robbers, who took away her 
 money and jewels. While they were quarrelling over 
 the division of the booty she slipped off, and was flying, 
 faint with hunger and weariness, when she saw another 
 robber approach, who, she supposed, belonged to the 
 same band. The idea came to her of throwing herself 
 upon his generosity, and going loftily up to him she said, 
 "Here, my friend, is the son of your king. I trust him 
 to your loyalty." The man was won by her confidence,, 
 and guided her and the boy to a place of safety. 
 
 After the battle of Hexham, Margaret became once 
 more a fugitive, and Henry was carried a prisoner to 
 London, led three times around the pillory on horseback 
 with his feet tied to the stirrups, and then thrust into the 
 Tower. At the same time, Edward sated his vengeance 
 with the punishment of the Lancastrian nobility. Execu- 
 tions followed one another with frightful rapidity, and the 
 ruin of the whole party seemed to be at hand when 
 affairs took another turn. The great Earl of Warwick 
 had been so long used to being the first man in the king- 
 dom that he had forgotten that other people could have 
 wills as well as himself, and now as the royal family were 
 reaching an age when it was time for them to be married,, 
 he made plans for them as if he had been their guardian. 
 
176 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Having arranged several suitable marriages for them in 
 his own mind, he was much offended when he found that 
 the king had secretly married Elizabeth Woodville, the 
 widow of a Lancastrian knight, Sir John Grey, and was 
 loading her relations with wealth and honors. At the 
 same time, Edward was unwise enough to show himself 
 unfriendly toward the Earl of Warwick and his brothers ; 
 and the earl in a fit of disgust went over to Margaret's 
 side, taking with him the Duke of Clarence, King Ed- 
 ward's brother. 
 
 Clarence was a most miserable creature; false, weak, 
 dissipated, and treacherous; but he made a useful tool 
 for Warwick's purpose. The king -maker had no son to 
 inherit his vast estates, but he had two daughters, one of 
 whom he married to this same Duke of Clarence, and 
 the other to Prince Edward, son of Henry VI. and Mar- 
 garet of Anjou. Clarence changed sides three or four 
 times, and the end of it was that he and Warwick at 
 length got up a great army, with the help of the king of 
 France, and marched to London with the joyful cry, long 
 unheard, "God bless King Henry!" 
 
 The hapless Henry had been a prisoner in the Tower 
 four years when this change came in his fortunes. Those 
 who went to bring him out to ride through the streets as 
 king "found him nought worshipfully arrayed as a king, 
 and nought so cleanly kept as should beseem such a 
 prince. They had him out and new arrayed him, and 
 did to him great reverence;" and for a while he was king 
 again. Edward fled to Holland, so poor that he was 
 obliged to pay for his passage with a fur-lined gown, 
 promising to do more for the captain when he should be 
 better off. He was soon again in England, however, and 
 
THE WARS OF THE ROSES. 177 
 
 the battle of Barnet was fought; Warwick the king-maker 
 -was slain, and the poor dethroned Henry was led back 
 to the Tower. 
 
 Margaret made one more effort. She was collecting 
 an army, with good prospects of success, when Edward 
 surprised her at Tewkesbury, before she could effect a 
 junction with a large force, promised her under the Earl 
 of Pembroke. The Lancastrians were completely de- 
 feated. Queen Margaret and her son were taken pris- 
 oners (147 1 ). The young Edward, son of Henry of Lan- 
 caster, was brought to the Yorkist King Edward, who 
 asked roughly how he dared to take up arms against him. 
 The prince boldly answered that he came to recover his 
 own and his father's inheritance. At this the king bru- 
 tally struck him on the face with his iron gauntlet, and the 
 Yorkist lords standing by, — the accounts say the king's 
 brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester, was one of them — 
 thrust their daggers into his heart. The unhappy mother 
 was sent to the Tower, but she did not see her husband. 
 The chronicler says, " That night, between eleven and 
 twelve of the clock was King Henry put to death, the 
 Duke of Gloucester and divers of his men being in the 
 Tower. And on the morrow he was chested and brought 
 to Paul's, and his face was open, that every one might see 
 him."* Margaret of Anjou had made a brave fight, but 
 she was conquered. She was kept for five years a pris- 
 oner in the Tower, and then her cousin Louis XL, king 
 of France, ransomed her for 50,000 crowns, and took care 
 
 *"Ye towers of London, England's lasting shame, 
 With many a foul and midnight murder fed, 
 Revere his consort's faith, his father's fame, 
 And spare the meek usurper's holy head ! " — Gray. 
 12 
 
178 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 of her for the rest of her life. In Scott's novel, "Anne of 
 Geierstein," the unhappy woman appears again on the 
 scene; "neither wife, mother, nor England's queen." 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 EDWARD IV. THE LITTLE PRINCES IN THE TOWER. 
 
 HE battle of Tewkesbury ends the first part of 
 the Wars of the Roses. The White Rose was 
 supreme. The hunted Lancastrians fled in all 
 directions, many of them in extreme poverty. A wounded 
 man writes to his mother from his hiding-place to beg for 
 some money, "for, by my troth," he says, "my leechcraft 
 and physic and rewards to them that have kept me have 
 cost me since Easter-day more than five pounds, and now 
 I have neither meat, drink, clothes, leechcraft, nor 
 money." Philip de Comines, the statesman, soldier, and 
 historian, says that he saw the Duke of Exeter, in Flan- 
 ders, barefoot and begging his bread from house to house, 
 and that other great English lords whom he mentions- 
 were in greater misery than common beggars. Strange 
 to say, the Wars of the Roses produced very little effect 
 on the prosperity of England.* 
 
 * De Comines, the Flemish writer quoted above, whom Macaulay 
 calls one of the most enlightened statesmen of his time, says, "Eng- 
 land has this peculiar grace, that neither the country, nor the people 
 nor the houses are wasted, destroyed or demolished. " He says the 
 calamities of war fall only upon the soldiers, and especially on the 
 nobility. "In my opinion, in all the countries in Europe the gov- 
 ernment is nowhere so well managed, the people nowhere less ob- 
 noxious to violence and oppression, nor the houses less liable to the 
 desolations of war than in England. " 
 
EDWARD IV. PRINCES IN THE TOWER. 179 
 
 A traveller gives us a peep into the court -life of that 
 day. "A great lord from Bohemia," we are told, was 
 allowed to sit in a corner of the queen's dining-room 
 while she ate her dinner, and gives an account of the 
 ceremony. "The queen sat on a golden stool alone at 
 her table, and her mother and the king's sister stood far 
 below her. And when the queen spoke to one of those 
 they kneeled down before her, and remained kneeling 
 until the queen drank water. And all her ladies, and 
 even great lords, had to kneel while she was eating, which 
 continued three hours." One can scarcely wonder that 
 the king escaped from such wearisome slavery as this, 
 and indulged his own tastes elsewhere; and vicious tastes 
 they were. There was, however, a nobler side to Edward's 
 reign. As Edward III. a hundred years before, had been 
 the patron of Chaucer, so Edward IV. was the patron of 
 William Caxton. It was a happy day for England when 
 the first printing-press was set up at Westminster by Cax- 
 ton (1474). The mariner's compass, too, had now come 
 into general use, and ships no longer needed to feel their 
 way, as of old. 
 
 The workmen of that time were obliged to be indus- 
 trious, whether they would or not. For six months in 
 the year, from March to September, every laborer and 
 tradesman must be at his work before five in the morn- 
 ing, and must not depart until between seven and eight 
 in the evening. During this time he could have half an 
 hour each for breakfast and dinner, and an hour for his 
 "noon-meat." From May to August he was to have 
 half an hour of the day-time for sleep. The law took 
 much note of the working men. The "Statute of 
 Apparel" forbade their wearing any clothing that cost 
 
180 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 more than two shillings "the broad yard." They could 
 wear no furs nor scarlet cloth, and only such persons as 
 had ^20 a year might wear damask or satin or gilt 
 girdles. Of a piece with these regulations were those 
 relating to commerce. The Duke of Burgundy ordered 
 that all woollen cloths wrought in England should 
 be banished out of the lands of the said Duke; and 
 Edward, finding that this took away the foreign market 
 from his cloth-weavers, forbade the bringing into Eng- 
 land of anything made within the dominions of the 
 Duke of Burgundy. These two acts are among the 
 earliest developments of that part of our political system 
 which is called "protection to home industry." 
 
 King Henry VI. took great interest in learning.* He 
 founded at Eton a school, still in existence, where boys 
 prepare for the universities; and he planned a college at 
 Cambridge which, if he had been able to carry out his 
 idea, would have been one of the grandest in the world. 
 The exquisite chapel, which, two centuries later, Sir 
 Christopher Wren, the great architect, used to go once a 
 
 *An anecdote which shows the taste of the time is related by 
 Anthony a Wood, an English antiquary who lived in the seven- 
 teenth century. During the wars of the Roses, scholarship was at so 
 low an ebb that learned men were sometimes obliged to beg their 
 bread from door to door. Two of these, we are told, came to the 
 castle of a nobleman who, understanding from their credentials that 
 they had a taste for poetry, commanded his servants to take them to 
 a well, to put one into the one bucket and the other into the other 
 bucket, and let them down alternately into the water, and to con- 
 tinue that exercise till each of them had made a couplet of verses on 
 his bucket. After they had endured this discipline for a considerable 
 time, to the great entertainment of the baron and his company, they 
 made their verses, and obtained their liberty. 
 
EDWARD IV. PRINCES IN THE TOWER. 181 
 
 year to look at, was the only part finished by Henry. 
 Queen's College, also at Cambridge, had two queens for 
 its founders who bore no love to one another; Margaret 
 of Anjou and Elizabeth Woodville, queen of Edward IV. 
 
 The charming art of letter-writing was cultivated most 
 successfully during this period by the Paston family, 
 of whom all, father, mother, sons, and daughters wrote 
 frequent letters to one another, which, fortunately for us, 
 have been preserved. They talk in these letters about 
 all sorts of things, public as well as private, and some of 
 our most important information comes from this source. 
 In studying of times when there were no newspapers, 
 such records are invaluable. 
 
 The twelve years of Edward's reign after the battle ot 
 Tewkesbury were, fortunately, uneventful ones. He 
 roused himself once sufficiently to invade France, but 
 was bought off by Louis XI. at the Treaty of Pequigny. 
 The money for this expedition he raised by means of 
 forced loans (never repaid), humorously called "Benevo- 
 lences." 
 
 A more tragic occurrence than the French war took 
 place at home. Edward in some way became suspicious 
 of his brother George, the "false, fleeting, perjured 
 Clarence," as Shakspeare calls him, and had him tried 
 by Parliament and sentenced to death. The sentence 
 was carried out so secretly that no particulars have ever 
 been known. The old story that the miserable, drunken 
 creature, being desired to choose the manner of his 
 death, said he would be drowned in a cask of Malmsey 
 wine, is a pure invention. 
 
 Edward IV. was just preparing for another invasion of 
 France when he died, at forty-two years of age, worn out 
 
182 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 with dissipation. He had been king of England for 
 twenty-two years. He was the first to reestablish that 
 kind of despotism which shows itself in governing by 
 one man's will, disregarding the will of the people. It 
 had been practised by the Normans and the early 
 Plantagenets, but for almost two hundred years circum- 
 stances had favored an approach to government by 
 representatives. It was two centuries later before the 
 question was set at rest, never again to be opened. 
 
 Edward IV. left two sons, Edward V., not yet thirteen, 
 and Richard, Duke of York, about eleven years of age. 
 Besides these there were five daughters. At the time of 
 his father's death, the young king Edward was in Wales 
 with his uncle, Lord Rivers, who was called the most 
 accomplished nobleman in England. Edward IV. had 
 left his brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester, regent of 
 the kingdom, and the first use Richard made of his 
 power was to arrest Lord Rivers and the queen's son, 
 Lord Grey, and have them thrown into prison. He 
 then himself took charge of the young Edward and 
 brought him to London. 
 
 The queen dreaded her brother-in-law more than any- 
 thing else in the world; and when Richard, putting off 
 Edward V/s coronation, had himself made Protector (a 
 title implying much more power than that of regent), she 
 was so terrified that she took refuge in the Sanctuary at 
 Westminster* with her daughters and her younger son. 
 Richard obliged her to give up her son, and then 
 secured Lord Hastings, who he found could not be 
 bought by any bribes. He called a Council at the 
 
 * This Sanctuary, now pulled down, was a building near the 
 Abbey, built especially as a place of safety for persons in danger. 
 
EDWARD IV. PRINCES IN THE TOWER. 183 
 
 Tower, at which he appeared remarkably jovial, laugh- 
 ing and joking with the Bishop of Ely and asking him 
 for some of the fine strawberries in his garden. Then he 
 went out for a few minutes and came back, apparently 
 in a state of fury. He frowned and glowered and looked 
 •so grim that every one sat silent, wondering what dread- 
 ful news he had heard. Suddenly he turned upon 
 Hastings, and, accusing him of impossible crimes, 
 declared that he would not dine until the traitor's head 
 was brought to him. Then he struck his fist furiously 
 on the table and screamed out "Treason!" at which 
 signal armed men rushed in and carried off the unfortu- 
 nate nobleman, who was not allowed to say a word; his 
 head was struck off on a log of wood that happened to 
 be lying on the Tower green, and Richard went on with 
 his dinner. 
 
 This strange scene is hard to believe, but the authority 
 for it is unquestionable. The Bishop of Ely himself told 
 it to Sir Thomas More, one of the most truthful of men, 
 who has related it in his "Life of King Edward V." 
 
 At nearly the same time with the Hastings tragedy, 
 another was enacted at Pomfret Castle, where Lord Riv- 
 ers, the queen's brother, and Lord Grey, her son by her 
 first husband, were put to death. As the persons most 
 faithful to Edward IV. 's sons were now disposed of, 
 Richard made arrangements for a theatrical display which 
 he thought would be very impressive. The Duke of 
 Buckingham, whom Richard made use of as a tool, came 
 with the Mayor of London and a party of friends to 
 Baynard Castle, where the Protector was living, and 
 desired to have speech with him. Richard then appeared 
 on a balcony, and Buckingham, standing in the street 
 
184 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 below, urged him to accept the crown, giving reasons 
 which it is not worth while to repeat here. Richard 
 begged that they would excuse him. He had no wish to 
 be king, he said; he would rather see his nephew, his 
 brother Edward's son, on the throne ; but when Bucking- 
 ham assured him that the people of England would never 
 allow young Edward to reign, and that if Richard refused 
 it would put them to the trouble of finding some one else,. 
 he at last consented, and was soon afterward crowned,, 
 with his queen, Anne of Warwick, in the midst of a splen- 
 did assemblage of people, and went off on a triumphaL 
 journey. 
 
 And where was the real king all this while? Safe lodged 
 in the Tower with his little brother, but not in the royal 
 apartments, where he had been placed while preparations 
 were making for his coronation. These had been given 
 up to the use of Richard and Anne, who went from them 
 in state to be crowned at Westminster. It is said that 
 the boys were removed to a dismal little bedroom in what 
 is still called "The Bloody Tower," but nothing about it 
 is certain. Here is the story as it has come down to us,, 
 told afterward by two of the actors in it: Richard, finding 
 that the lieutenant of the Tower, Sir Robert Brakenbury,. 
 was not to be depended on for a murder, ordered him to* 
 give up the keys for one night to Sir James Tyrrel. 
 Brakenbury dared not disobey, and at the dead of night 
 Tyrrel went with two ruffians, servants of his own, named 
 John Dighton and Miles Forrest, and stood at the foot 
 of the winding stair-case leading to the young princes'* 
 bedchamber, while the men went up to do his bidding. 
 They found the two boys sleeping quietly together, and 
 being men of great size and strength, they smothered 
 
EDWARD IV. PRINCES IN THE TOWER. 185 
 
 them with the bolster and pillows of their bed. They 
 then showed the bodies to Tyrrel, who had them thrown 
 into a pit under the stairs, and had stones heaped upon 
 them; but when King Richard returned to London he 
 did not approve of the place, and directed that they 
 should be buried somewhere else in the Tower; where, 
 the witnesses did not know. 
 
 But we know; at least we think we do. In 1674, 
 nearly two hundred years after the murder, some work- 
 men, in making repairs there, found a box containing the 
 bones of two boys, apparently of the age of Edward V. 
 and his little brother; and the king of that time, Charles 
 II., had them buried in Westminster Abbey, where you 
 may see their tomb to this day. A monkish chronicle of 
 the time announces the event very simply. "And the 
 two sons of King Edward were put to silence." 
 
 Edward V. died in his thirteenth year, and owned the 
 name of king for thirteen weeks (1483). If you wish to 
 see a poetical account of his death read it in Shakspeare's 
 play of "Richard III." act 4, scene 3. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 THE LAST PLANTAGENET. THE FIRST TUDOR. 
 
 HE personal appearance of Richard III. is vari- 
 ously described, his enemies speaking of him 
 as monstrously deformed, and others describ- 
 ing him as good looking, though having one shoulder 
 higher and thicker than the other. His portraits justify 
 the latter description. 
 
186 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Richard had a bitter sorrow in the loss of his only son, 
 who died suddenly at eleven years old. The mother 
 •died soon afterward, and the popular feeling against 
 Richard was so strong that he was accused of poisoning 
 his wife in order that he might marry his niece Elizabeth, 
 Edward IV. 's oldest daughter; but this seems doubtful. 
 It is true that in view of her probable death, and while 
 her health was declining, he made an offer of marriage 
 to Elizabeth, saying he was quite sure his wife would be 
 dead by February. The proposed marriage, however, 
 never took place. The Earl of Warwick, son of Rich- 
 ard's brother Clarence, not being very strong-minded, was 
 allowed to live, carefully guarded in a gloomy castle in 
 Yorkshire. 
 
 The Duke of Buckingham, who had helped Richard 
 to the throne and whom he had loaded with favors, was 
 still unsatisfied, and, when Richard delayed or refused 
 some request, he formed, with other disaffected nobles, a 
 conspiracy to dethrone him and give his crown to Henry, 
 Earl of Richmond. 
 
 This nobleman was a Lancastrian, his mother being a 
 great-granddaughter of John of Gaunt, by his third wife, 
 Chaucer's sister-in-law. His father, Edmund Tudor, was 
 son of Sir Owen Tudor, who married Katherine, the 
 widow of Henry V. (That circumstance, of course, had 
 nothing to do with his claim to be king of England; but 
 it gave him some Welsh blood in his veins.) The first 
 attempt did not succeed. Richmond was driven back 
 to France by contrary winds, and Buckingham, deserted 
 by his men, took refuge with an old servant; but being 
 betrayed for the reward offered by Richard, he was de- 
 livered up, and beheaded without a trial. 
 
LAST PLANT A GENET. FIRST TUDOR. 187 
 
 Richard now felt that nothing could disturb his pos- 
 session of the throne which had cost him so much to win* 
 His enemies, however, were not idle. Henry Tudor's 
 mother (still called Countess of Richmond, though she 
 had married Lord Stanley after her first husband's death) 
 had been indefatigable in raising men and money for 
 him; and as Richard was celebrating the festival of Epiph- 
 any, January 6th, 1485, "in his royal robes and with 
 his crown upon his head," he received intelligence that 
 Richmond was about to make another invasion. He said 
 he was glad of it, as it would give him a chance to crush 
 all his enemies at once; but it was noticed that he gave 
 to Nottingham Castle, where he was staying, the name 
 of the Castle of Care. He had a man put to death for 
 making this rather rude but harmless rhyme: 
 
 "The Rat, the Cat, and Lovel our Dog, 
 Govern all England under the Hog. " 
 
 RatclifTe, Catesby, and Lovel, (whose coat-of-arms bore 
 a dog,) were three of Richard's chief friends; while the 
 wild boar on his own crest stood for the hog in the 
 couplet. 
 
 All things being ready for his enterprise, Henry Tudor 
 crossed the sea, this time safely, and landed at Milford 
 Haven, in Wales, from which place he marched east- 
 ward, his army increasing all the while like a rolling 
 snowball, until he met that of Richard on the field of 
 Bosworth in Leiscestershire. 
 
 The battle was sharp and short. Richard fought like 
 •a tiger, bitterly mortified to see in Henry's army many 
 of the men whom he had counted among his best friends, 
 especially the two Stanleys, one of whom, Sir William, is 
 said to have gone over to Henry's side after the battle 
 
185 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 began. Fighting furiously, he was cut down with m 
 wounds and trampled under foot by the horses. K 
 crown, which he seems to have been very fond of anc I 
 to have carried with him into the battle, was found under 
 a hawthorn-bush ; Sir William Stanley picked it up ai 
 placed it on the Earl of Richmond's head, crying out. 
 " Long live King Henry the Seventh." 
 
 That night, in the course of burying the dead, a small • 
 bloody corpse was thrown carelessly across a horse, "likf*| 
 a calf or a hog,' ; the chronicle says, "the arms and tu 
 dangling on one side, the legs on the other," — all its fint 
 clothing gone and the red wounds scarcely to be di* 
 tinguished for the mire that covered them — and buried 
 the church of the Gray Friars, at Leicester. Henry V 
 had a monument placed over the remains, but mon. 
 ment and church were alike swept away in the whole 
 sale destruction of the monasteries by his son, Henr 
 VIII. 
 
 Comparatively few persons lost their lives in this clos- 
 ing struggle of the Wars of the Roses. It is becaus 
 Bosworth Field forms a dividing line between the old and 
 the, new order of things that it is counted among the 
 most noteworthy battles of English history. With the 
 last Plantagenet died out the ascendency of the feudal 
 nobility in England. The Tudor monarchs, from Henry- 
 VII. to Elizabeth, loved peace and loved money. Glory,, 
 unless it was very easy to come by, they did not covt 
 and they generally limited their warlike operations to de- 
 fending themselves when they were attacked. The reign 
 of violence was passing away; the reign of thrift was com- 
 ing in its stead. 
 
 Richard III., arbitrary though he was, made some 
 
LAST PLANTAGENET. FIRST TUDOR. 189 
 
 \ laws, and if he had come innocently to his throne he 
 
 .rght have ranked among England's benefactors. One 
 )f his statutes declares that "There shall be no hind- 
 
 ance to any artificer or merchant stranger, of what 
 
 J tion or country he be, for bringing into this realm or 
 
 ,ellm o by retail or otherwise, any manner of books, 
 
 written or imprinted." His parliaments were the first 
 
 d make laws in the English language, all previous legis- 
 Sfction, since the time of William the Conqueror, having 
 ■ja in Norman French. Richard was the first to ap- 
 point a foreign consul, and the first to employ couriers 
 r or other than military purposes. In a time of peace 
 d with a longer reign, the country would have taken 
 tiy forward steps under his government. He was 
 
 nly thirty-two years old at the time of his death. 
 
 - No period of England's history, from the time of 
 
 Chaucer to the present moment, has been so barren of 
 
 iiterary production as the fifteenth century. The few 
 
 "Doets who wrote anything worth mentioning were all 
 
 cottish, the captive king, James I., standing at their 
 head. The learned Sir John Fortescue wrote a book in 
 praise of British laws, and Reginald Pecock attacked the 
 Pope's infallibility; William Caxton translated many 
 books, and Sir Thomas Malory made up from the old 
 chronicles a book which he called "The Morte d' Arthur;" 
 but literature, properly so called, was absent from the 
 Industries of England during this troubled time. The 
 two most accomplished men in the country, the Earls of 
 Rivers and Worcester, fell under the axe by Richard's 
 orders, and in the times when it was uncertain how long 
 a man's head would remain on his shoulders, it became 
 of less consequence that it should be filled with learning. 
 
190 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 A further step was made toward personal freedom in 
 Richard's time by his freeing all the "villains" still re- 
 maining in bondage on the royal domains. The Wars 
 of the Roses had practically put an end to serfdom,, 
 however, before this time. Some of the great families 
 freed their serfs themselves, in order that they might 
 fight the more willingly; and some families were so 
 diminished by war that there was no one left to take 
 account of the the villians, who thus became their own 
 masters. It is strange, after all this bloodshed, to see 
 how little feeling of bitterness remained on either side. 
 The people did not even form two political parties; and 
 when the Lancastrian Henry Tudor married the oldest 
 daughter of the Yorkist Edward IV., the old feud seemed 
 to be disposed of. Gray makes his bard say: 
 
 " Above, below, the Rose of Snow- 
 Twined with her blushing foe we spread;" 
 
 and a chronicler of the times says that by the hand of 
 the Archbishop of Canterbury "was first tied together 
 the sweet posy of the red and white roses." 
 
 Henry's tranquility did not last long. A priest at 
 Oxford, named Simons, declared that a pupil of his, a 
 baker's son, whose real name was Lambert Simnel, was 
 no other than the young Earl of Warwick, who was re- 
 ported to have escaped from the Tower. The boy was 
 instructed in his part by Simons, and by him taken to» 
 Ireland, where he was joyfully received, and was crowned 
 in Dublin. The Earl of Lincoln, a member of the royal 
 family, took his part and raised an army for him; the 
 Duchess of Burgundy (sister of Edward IV.), sent over a 
 body of men under Martin Schwartz, and these joining 
 Lincoln a battle was fought at Stoke in which the rebels 
 
LAST PLANTA GENET. FIRST TUDOR. 191 
 
 were defeated.* The real Earl of Warwick was brought 
 out of the Tower and exhibited, and Simons, who con- 
 fessed his imposture, was thrown into prison, where he 
 soon died. Simnel was made a scullion in the king's 
 kitchen, in which honorable position he washed dishes 
 and waited on the servants until he was promoted to the 
 office of king's falconer. t (1487.) 
 
 Five years later another imposture was attempted. 
 Perkin Warbeck, a young Fleming^ of engaging manners 
 and good education, was instructed to personate the 
 Duke of York, the younger of Edward IV.'s sons, under 
 the pretext that this prince had escaped the fate which 
 overtook his brother. Perkin presented himself before 
 the Duchess of Burgundy, who gazed long and earnestly 
 irito his face, and then with a burst of joy and affection 
 embraced him as her long -lost nephew. As she is sup- 
 posed to have instigated the plot, her surprise must have 
 been overwhelming. She called him "The White Rose 
 pf England," and supplied him liberally with money. 
 The Irish were shy of him, remembering Lambert Simnel, 
 
 * Lincoln and Schwartz died on the battle-field, but a curious 
 story is told of Lord Lovel, one of the confederates. He disap- 
 peared at the time of the battle and was never seen or heard of 
 again. Just two hundred years afterward, at his country-house of 
 Minster Lovel in Oxfordshire, an underground chamber was dis- 
 covered, in which was found the skeleton of a man seated in a chair, 
 with his head leaning on a table. It is supposed that Lovel took 
 refuge in this chamber, and, not being able to get out, was starved 
 to death through neglect of his attendants. 
 
 t One who takes care of the hawks, which in those days were 
 trained to pursue on the wing and kill other birds, as sport for 
 their masters. 
 
 % Native of Flanders. 
 
192 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 but the king of Scotland took up his cause and married 
 him to Lady Catherine Gordon, daughter of the Earl 
 of Huntly. 
 
 Perkin did not show the traditional bravery of the 
 House of York. He raised an army in Cornwall, but on 
 hearing of the approach of the king's troops, deserted his 
 own and took refuge in a sanctuary, leaving his followers 
 to their fate. He was persuaded to give himself up, and, 
 after some attempts to escape, was finally shut up in the 
 Tower. Here he formed with the Earl of Warwick, who 
 had been for fourteen years a prisoner, a plan of escape; 
 and Henry, seizing the opportunity, had Perkin hanged 
 at Tyburn, while the earl, as a death suited to his royal 
 birth, was beheaded on Tower Hill (1499). He was the 
 last descendant, in the direct male line, of the noble 
 house of Plantagenet, which had given kings to England 
 for more than three hundred years (1 154-1485). 
 
 We have now come to the closing year of the great 
 fifteenth century; that one which had seen printing and 
 gunpowder made as common as the monk's quill and the 
 man-at-arms' pike were in former times; had seen the 
 mariner's compass open a way across the ocean, and 
 America given to the world by Columbus; had seen Vasco 
 da Gama accomplish the long-desired discovery of a route 
 to India around the Cape of Good Hope; had seen the 
 Moors driven out of Spain by Ferdinand and Isabella, 
 and the Turks enter Europe through the gate of Constan- 
 tinople; had seen France and Spain take the form of 
 consolidated monarchies instead of groups of quarreling 
 provinces; and had seen the power of the old feudal s 
 nobility in England broken down and its warlike barons 
 become the obedient subjects of a monarch. The knight 
 
LAST PLANTA GENET. FIRST TUDOR. 193 
 
 in heavy armor was gone; he no longer called to his aid 
 a troop of stout bowmen and with them rose in arms for 
 or against the king. A statute of Edward IV. had or- 
 dered the disbanding of all armed retainers, and Henry 
 VII. took care that its provisions should be carried out.* 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. HENRY VIII. 
 
 T has been said of Henry VII. that he had two 
 ruling passions, avarice and hatred of the House 
 of York. The latter extended, apparently, even 
 to his queen, whose coronation he deferred until com- 
 pelled to it by the murmurs of the people. When it was 
 performed, he said she should have all the glory of the 
 occasion, so he remained in a closely latticed box be- 
 tween the altar and the pulpit in Westminster Abbey, and 
 watched the ceremony from that place. 
 
 * Lord Bacon, who wrote the life of Henry VII. gives an in- 
 stance of this. The king had been making a visit to the Earl of 
 Oxford (to whom he was under the greatest obligations for services 
 rendered in time of need ) and was entertained in a truly princely 
 manner. When he was leaving the castle two long lines of liveried 
 soldiers were drawn up, making a lane for him to pass through. 
 "These are surely your menial servants, my lord?" said the king. 
 "May it please your grace, " replied the earl, "that were not for mine 
 ease. They are most of them my retainers, that are come to do me 
 service, but chiefly to see your grace." "I thank you for your good 
 cheer, my lord," said Henry, "but I may not endure to have my 
 laws broken in my sight. My attorney must speak with you." And 
 he spoke to such good purpose that the earl was glad to get off for 
 a fine of 15,000 marks (about $50,000). 
 
 13 
 
194 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Henry's expedients for getting money were as ingeni- 
 ous as their success was complete. He knew he had. 
 only to announce a war with Scotland or France to open 
 the purses of his subjects; and having thus obtained vast 
 sums of money for this purpose, he would make the other 
 party pay roundly for a peace, "thus getting gain from 
 both his enemies and his friends." A device of his favor- 
 ite minister, Cardinal Morton (in Richard's time Bishop- 
 of Ely), was to demand "benevolences" from two classes- 
 of persons; from those who lived handsomely and spent, 
 a great deal of money, because their wealth was apparent;, 
 and from those who lived poorly and plainly, because 
 their economy must have made them rich. This was 
 jokingly called "Morton's fork," on one prong or other 
 of which every one must be impaled. But by far the 
 greater part of this wealth came from the people who 
 were "ground in Empson and Dudley's mills." Richard 
 Empson and Edmund Dudley were two judges who made 
 it their business to search out old and forgotten laws,, 
 and then, by means of spies and informers, to find out 
 rich men who had broken these laws, throw them into- 
 prison without a trial, and keep them there until they 
 paid a heavy fine. 
 
 Henry made his younger son Warden of the Scottish 
 Marches and Lieutenant of Ireland when he was only 
 two years of age; too young, one would think, to earn the 
 salary attached to these offices. Such practices, and 
 many more, kept his coffers always full; and he seldom 
 parted with his money except from necessity or for some 
 personal gratification. The queen seems to have been 
 very economical, so that she might have the more to give 
 away. She made handsome allowances to her three mar- 
 
SIXTEENTH CENTURY. HENRY VIII. 195 
 
 ried sisters, in order that they should not be dependent 
 upon their husbands, while she herself wore gowns that 
 were "mended, turned, and new-bodied." When the 
 gowns were frayed out around the bottom she had them 
 hemmed up, paying the tailor twopence for each job. 
 Her shoes cost only twelve pence a pair, and had tin 
 buckles instead of silver ones; but when poor people 
 "brought her presents of early peas, chickens, strawber- 
 ries or roses," they were always liberally rewarded. 
 
 Henry VII. 's oldest son, Prince Arthur, was married 
 at sixteen to Catherine of Aragon, the youngest daughter 
 of Ferdinand and Isabella, who brought a rich dowry 
 with her from Spain; his oldest daughter, Margaret, was 
 married when still younger to James IV., king of Scotland. 
 Prince Arthur lived only a few months after his marriage; 
 but the thrifty Henry had no idea of sending back the 
 young widow and her dowry, so he proposed to the 
 bride's father that she should marry his second son, 
 Henry, who was seven years younger than herself. After 
 great objections on the part of Ferdinand, this plan was 
 at length agreed to; and as Prince Henry was only eleven 
 years old, the marriage was to be deferred for some years, 
 the lady and the dowry remaining in England. 
 
 When Henry w r as about to die, he did some generous 
 things with the money which he could no longer use, and 
 he granted pardons to some criminals. Having thus made 
 his peace with Heaven, he died in the twenty-fourth year 
 of his reign and the fifty -fourth of his age (1509). He 
 left two architectural monuments behind him; one a 
 costly palace at Richmond, which has not much interest 
 for us now, and the other the beautiful chapel at West- 
 minster Abbey, still called by his name. 
 
196 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 England had never been so prosperous as under 
 Henry the Seventh. His extortions, outrageous as they 
 were, affected chiefly the rich and not the main body of 
 the people. Commerce and manufactures flourished, 
 and the king had a share in the discovery of America by 
 fitting out the ship in which John and Sebastian Cabot 
 explored the coast of Labrador (1498). If this expedi- 
 tion did not bring in immediate returns, it at least 
 furnished England with her ground for claiming, a 
 century later, the whole Atlantic coast. 
 
 Henry VII. did not reward his explorers very sumptu- 
 ously, as we learn from his carefully-kept accounts, 
 where there is an entry of ten shillings to be paid to the 
 discoverer of "the new isle" (Newfoundland), and an- 
 other of five shillings to the same person. He came 
 near having the honor of being the patron of Columbus, 
 but the brother whom the great Genoese sent to ask aid 
 from England was taken by pirates, and before he re- 
 covered his liberty, Queen Isabella had befriended 
 Columbus, earned the gratitude of the world, 
 "And built herself an everlasting name." 
 
 Among Henry's few spendings for public purposes was 
 the building of a huge war-ship, called the "Great Harry," 
 which when finished was so clumsy that it could not be 
 used, but which is considered the foundation of the 
 present English navy. 
 
 The Dutch scholar, Erasmus, who lived in England 
 during Henry VII. ; s time, and who came from a clean 
 country, was shocked at the condition of English houses, 
 even of the better sort. "The floors," he says, "are 
 mostly of clay, and strewn with rushes. Fresh rushes 
 are periodically laid over them, but the old ones remain 
 
SIXTEENTH CENTURY. HENRY VIII. 197 
 
 as a foundation for perhaps twenty years together." The 
 condition of the lower layers under these circumstances 
 we will leave to the imagination. 
 
 Erasmus had good reason to remember the English 
 custom-houses, for when he sailed from Dover to return 
 to his own country, the king's officers took away all his 
 money except six angels, the largest amount any one was 
 allowed to carry out of England. All sums obtained in 
 this way went, of course, directly into the king's pocket. 
 
 Henry VIII. came to the throne (1509) with the fair- 
 est prospects that ever opened before an English king. 
 The rival lines of York and Lancaster were united in 
 him, so that strife on that ground was impossible; the 
 country was at peace with all the world, and the treasury 
 was full. He himself, now eighteen years old, was 
 handsome, strong, skilful in all manly exercises, and full 
 of hope and high spirits. He was as lavish in spending 
 money as his father had been eager in gathering it to- 
 gether; and the great hoard left by Henry VII. was 
 soon used up in court gayeties. Henry now married the 
 Princess Katherine of Aragon, his brother's widow, to 
 whom he had been betrothed for seven years. 
 
 The first public act of his reign was one of the grossest 
 injustice. Popular clamor demanded the punishment of 
 Henry VII. 's two judges, Empson and Dudley; but as 
 they had acted only under the king's orders, and kept 
 strictly within the letter of the law, it was hard to know 
 of what to accuse them. Finally a charge was trumped 
 up against them of having conspired to take the young 
 king prisoner and form a new government. Nothing 
 could be more absurd; but the accusation was made, and 
 they were both beheaded, though none of the ill-gotten 
 
198 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 wealth procured by their means was ever given back. 
 
 The first excitement from outside the kingdom came 
 from a war with France. Rome, Spain, and Venice 
 had formed what they called a "Holy League," against 
 France, though its only holiness was the name of the 
 pope; and Henry's astute father-in-law, Ferdinand the 
 Catholic, made a cat's-paw of him to further his own 
 ends. Henry soon invaded France on his own account, 
 the Emperor Maxmilian of Germany serving under him 
 for pay like an ordinary soldier. There was a battle 
 fought at Guinegate, near Calais (15 13), called "The 
 Battle of the Spurs,"* 1 because the French used their 
 spurs so freely in running away. Henry took the towns 
 of Terouenne and Tournay, but went home again with- 
 out following up his victory. 
 
 Before he reached England an event had occurred in 
 his own country which has been made forever famous 
 by the pen of the great magician, Walter Scott, in 
 "Marmion." This was the battle of Flodden Field, 
 where Henry's brother-in-law, James IV. of Scotland, 
 lost his life (15 13). King James had made an alliance 
 with France, and invaded England with the whole 
 strength of his army, including the flower of his nobility. 
 After an obstinate battle the Scots were defeated. 
 
 " Their king, their lords, their mightiest low, 
 They melted from the field as snow, 
 When streams are swollen and south winds blow, 
 Dissolves in silent dew." 
 
 * Sometimes called "The Second Battle of the Spurs," the first 
 having taken place at Courtrai, in Flanders (1302), where the 
 knights' gilt spurs were picked up by the bushel and hung as 
 trophies in the great church. 
 
SIXTEENTH CENTURY. HENRY VIII. 199 
 
 Peace with Scotland and France soon followed, and 
 Henry cemented it by marrying his youngest sister, 
 Mary, a girl of sixteen, to Louis XII. of France, who 
 was fifty-two years old and in very feeble health. The 
 Princess was already betrothed to Charles Brandon, 
 Duke of Suffolk, one of the most gallant of English 
 fcnights, but this made no difference to Henry. His self- 
 will always overruled every consideration, whether of 
 sympathy, honor or truth; and she was forced to submit. 
 In less than three months her husband died, and not 
 long afterward she married Brandon in Paris, with the 
 ■consent of the new king, Francis I. Henry professed to 
 be very angry at this, but the money and jewels which 
 his sister brought back from France soon reconciled 
 him to the match. 
 
 With all King Henry's obstinacy and self-will, he was 
 ^gradually falling under the influence of a man stronger- 
 minded than himself, who was destined to shape his 
 course of conduct for many years. This was Thomas 
 Wolsey, one of the most remarkable men of his age or of 
 any age, who had risen from a very humble station, (it 
 is said that he was the son of a butcher at Ipswich,) to 
 be Bishop of Lincoln and Archbishop of York, and 
 finally to receive a cardinal's hat from the pope. He 
 was a man of extensive learning and varied accomplish- 
 ments, and in addition to wit and gayety and most 
 agreeable manners, possessed a talent for statesmanship 
 which soon made him, unconsciously to the king, his 
 director in all public affairs. Henry made him Chancel- 
 lor, and Wolsey followed the practice of the age in living 
 in the utmost splendor and luxury. Henry loaded him 
 with offices that brought him both honor and profit, but 
 
200 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 the Cardinal's grasping nature was never satisfied, and 
 he contrived constantly to add to his immense fortune. 
 As chancellor, his administration was strict and im- 
 partial; in private life his character was blameless; but 
 avarice and ambition obscured his better qualities and 
 prepared for him a miserable end. 
 
 In 15 19, the Emperor Maximilian died, and the em- 
 pire, being elective, became a tempting prize to the one 
 who could secure it. The choice fell upon Charles I. of 
 Spain, grandson of Maximilian and also of Ferdinand 
 the Catholic, in opposition to Francis I. of France, who 
 ardently desired to be emperor. The successful candi- 
 date is known thenceforth in history as the Emperor 
 Charles V. 
 
 Francis was very angry at his defeat, and both he and 
 Charles courted the favor of Henry VIII. Their methods 
 were as different as their characters; Francis got up the 
 superb tournament called "The Field of the Cloth of 
 Gold;" Charles secretly bribed Wolsey to take his part 
 by promising to use his influence to have him made 
 pope. In the end, Charles prevailed; but the tourna- 
 ment, which was arranged under the direction of Wolsey,. 
 was the most splendid entertainment at which the cour- 
 tiers of either nation ever wasted their money. It lasted 
 eighteen days, and more was squandered on it, as was 
 said by those who remembered the economical days of 
 Henry VII. and Louis XII. than either of those wise 
 monarchs would have spent in a year. The wooden 
 palace, built to lodge the king of England and his suite, 
 extended round a square court, each side of which was 
 over three thousand feet in length. The cardinal had a 
 splendid train of retainers, and each English gentleman 
 
SIXTEENTH CENTURY. HENRY VIII. 201 
 
 took as many followers with him as his purse could pro- 
 vide with gorgeous equipments. Nearly three thousand 
 tents, most of them covered with silk or cloth of gold, 
 were erected on the plain adjoining the principal build- 
 ings, and many a man "sold his land to buy his horse"; 
 that is, ruined himself that he might present a fitting 
 appearance at the festival. "Many of the nobles/' says 
 an eye-witness of the glittering scene, "carried their 
 castles, woods, and farms on their backs." Francis, who 
 was the host on this occasion, was not behindhand with 
 his hospitality. Sumptuous feasts were provided; foun- 
 tains ran wine; and thousands of persons who came to 
 see the show were fed at the king's expense: "Insomuch," 
 says the historian Hall, who was present, "that there 
 were vagabonds, plowmen, waggoners, and beggars that 
 for drunkenness lay in routs and heaps." The negotia- 
 tions carried on during the tournament came to nothing, 
 and after Henry's return to England the royal rivals never 
 met again. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 HENRY THE TYRANT \ ALSO "DEFENDER OF THE FAITH. 
 
 'ENRY VIII. had not yet begun to show his 
 darkest side to his people; they knew him to 
 be extravagant and wilful, but the cruel jeal- 
 ousy which can only be satisfied with blood, he was yet 
 to exhibit. 
 
 Edward Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, was a distant 
 relation of the king. His father was beheaded by Rich- 
 
202 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 ard III. for treason, and the heads of three generations 
 of his family before that had been killed in the Wars of 
 the Roses; and now that York and Lancaster were one, 
 it seemed as if the fifth in descent might live out his life 
 peaceably. But taking advantage of an unguarded ex^ 
 pression of Buckingham's to the effect that he would be 
 the next in the line of succession if the king should die 
 without children, Henry ordered him to be executed on 
 as false a charge of treason as ever sent a subject to the 
 block. 
 
 The old question of religion now came up again. A 
 •German monk named Martin Luther had taken up the 
 work which John Wycliffe left unfinished a hundred and 
 fifty years before, and boldly attacked some of the prin- 
 ciples and practices of the Roman Church, especially the 
 sale of indulgences, or remissions of penalties for sins 
 committed. Tetzel, an agent of Pope Leo X., was then 
 hawking these indulgences about, in order to supply Leo 
 with money for building the Church of St. Peter at Rome, 
 and Luther thundered forth denunciations of the unchris- 
 tian practice. Henry had been brought up a good Cath- 
 olic, and Luther's utterances seemed to him monstrous. 
 In his zeal he wrote a book against these heretical doc- 
 trines,for which the pope gave him the name of "Defender 
 of the Faith." In Latin (the language then used by the 
 governments of Europe in their communications with 
 one another) the words are "Fidei Defensor;" and as all 
 English sovereigns have inherited the title from Henry 
 VIII. you may still read them on some of the coins of 
 •Queen Victoria (Fid. Def.). 
 
 After the death of Leo X., two successive popes had 
 been elected without a voice being raised in Wolsey's 
 
HENRY THE TYRANT. 203 
 
 favor. He thought that the emperor (Charles V.) was 
 treating him very badly, and induced Henry to break off 
 his alliance with him and take up the cause of Francis I. 
 who had just been taken prisoner by Charles at the battle 
 -of Pavia. Henry readily consented, but turned the mat- 
 ter to his own advantage by demanding an enormous 
 present payment in money from France, and a yearly 
 pension during his life. When Francis was released, he 
 and Henry joined together to liberate the pope, who was 
 also a prisoner, Rome having been taken and sacked by 
 the brutal soldiery of Charles V. These matters being 
 settled, Henry was at liberty to look after his own affairs. 
 He had now been married to Katherine of Aragon for 
 eighteen years. All their sons had died, and only one 
 •child remained, the Princess Mary. Outwardly, Henry 
 ■was as loving as ever, but he had for a long time been 
 secretly turning over in his mind the possibility of getting 
 rid of his wife. He professed to feel doubts as to whether 
 his marriage with her had been lawful, as she was his 
 brother's widow; but Pope Julius II. had given permis- 
 sion for the marriage, and in those days that was enough 
 to decide any question. Henry, however, had a young 
 lady in his mind, Anne Boleyn, one of the queen's maids 
 of honor, whom he wished to put in Katherine's place, 
 and his scruples became stronger and his conscience 
 more tender than ever. He applied to the pope, Clement 
 VII., for a divorce, and the latter, not wishing to offend 
 him, gave him promise of a favorable answer, but man- 
 aged to put off the matter, in various ways, for several 
 years. He first sent Cardinal Campeggio to look into it, 
 in connection with Cardinal Wolsey, The two legates 
 {as the pope's ambassadors are called) opened a court 
 
204 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 for hearing the case. The king answered promptly to 
 his name; the queen refused to appear, and the two car- 
 dinals talked about it and about it until finally the pope 
 broke up the court and said the king and queen must 
 come to Rome and have the case tried there.* 
 
 Henry was enraged beyond measure at this insult, and 
 was trying to make up his mind what he should do next y 
 when Dr. Thomas Cranmer, of Cambridge, suggested 
 that it would be a good plan to send to the great univer- 
 sities of Europe and ask their opinion on the question,. 
 "Is it lawful for a man to marry his brother's widow?" 
 Henry was delighted with this proposal, and sent at once 
 for Cranmer, whom he had never seen; and finding that 
 the doctor was going to be a useful instrument in carrying 
 out his projects, instantly took him into his service and 
 loaded him with favors. 
 
 As Cranmer's influence rose, Wolsey's declined. He 
 had not, the king thought, shown himself zealous enough 
 in the matter of the divorce, and he had not pointed out 
 a way to end the difficulty, as Cranmer had; and the 
 friend and counsellor of twenty years was thrown over in. 
 a moment. He was banished from the court, and the 
 Great Seal (which denoted his office as Chancellor) was. 
 taken away from him; while Anne Boleyn, who hated 
 him because he did not approve of the king's marrying 
 her, made Henry promise never to see Wolsey again. 
 The cardinal was accused, by the king's orders, of 
 treason, because he had held a court in England as 
 legate from the pope, which was against English law; 
 
 * For an account of the trial in London, which follows history 
 very closely, see Shakspeare's " Henry VIII. " Act II. scene IV. Also 
 the scene following, for the queen's interview with the cardinals. 
 
HENRY THE TYRANT. 205 
 
 though Henry himself had commanded it, under his own 
 hand and seal, and appeared before it as a suitor. All 
 the cardinal's houses, lands and goods were declared 
 forfeited, and his life was granted only by the king's 
 mercy. His enormous wealth, amounting in value to 
 several millions of dollars, was swept at once into 
 Henry's coffers; his palaces of Hampton Court and 
 York House (now Whitehall) were confiscated, and he 
 was sentenced to retire to his Archbishopric of York, a 
 disgraced and banished man. His spirit was utterly 
 broken. The French ambassador wrote of him: "His 
 face has shrunken to half its natural size, and his misery 
 is so great that even his enemies can not help pitying 
 him." In his retirement he appeared dignified and com- 
 posed, and won all hearts by his kindness and gener- 
 osity. But Anne Boleyn's spite was not yet gratified, 
 and within a year Wolsey was summoned to London on 
 a charge of treason. Fortunately, he did not live to get 
 there, and Henry was spared the last disgrace of bring- 
 ing his head to the block. The cardinal was taken sick 
 on his way to London, and died at Leicester Abbey 
 (1530). His last recorded words were, "If I had served 
 God as diligently as I have served the king, He would 
 not have given me over in my gray hairs." He had 
 lived a selfish and grasping life, and the consciousness of 
 it came to him too late. 
 
 Among Wolsey's good deeds was the founding of a 
 college at Oxford. Each of the great universities of 
 England consists of many colleges, which have been 
 added at different times as there seemed to be a neces- 
 sity for them. Wolsey's was called Cardinal's College, 
 and was unfinished at the time of his disgrace. The 
 
206 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 king immediately seized it, but afterward allowed it to 
 be completed with funds which the Cardinal had set 
 aside for that purpose, and changed the name of it to 
 Christ Church College. 
 
 Henry married Anne Boleyn privately, without wait- 
 ing for the divorce that was so slow in coming. After 
 the answers arrived from the universities to which he 
 had appealed, and which were generally favorable to his 
 wishes, he had a divorce pronounced by Cranmer, whom 
 he had made Archbishop of Canterbury when a vacancy 
 occurred. This measure was followed by a series of acts- 
 passed by a Parliament called for the. purpose, freeing 
 England from the dominion of the pope. The king was 
 declared to be the supreme Head of the Church in Eng- 
 land, and all persons were forbidden to pay tribute to 
 the pope or in any way acknowledge his authority, under 
 penalty of a charge of high-treason. Sir Thomas More, 
 a learned, wise and excellent man who had been made 
 Chancellor in Wolsey's place, gave up the Great Seal 
 rather than to countenance what he considered an act of 
 iniquity.* For refusing to take the oath acknowledging 
 the king's supremacy and declaring his marriage with 
 Katherine to be unlawful, Sir Thomas More and John 
 Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, were sent to the Tower. 
 After an imprisonment of more than a year, and a most 
 unfair trial, they were both beheaded (1535). Fisher 
 
 * Sir Thomas More was the greatest author of his time. He- 
 wrote a book called "Utopia," which was really a keen satire on 
 the existing government of England, but a satire so delicately con- 
 veyed that it gave no offence even to the jealous king. More's 
 ideas on the social system and the labor question were hundreds of 
 years in advance of his age. 
 
HENRY THE TYRANT. 207 
 
 might possibly have escaped, but the pope, just at this- 
 time, imprudently proposed to make him a cardinal. 
 "The pope may send him a cardinal's hat," said Henry^ 
 "but he shall have no head to wear it on;" and soon 
 after the honor was conferred upon him, the king made 
 good his word by ordering him to the block. 
 
 Paul III. had still in his hands the old weapon of ex- 
 communication, which he had used with such effect in 
 the time of Henry II. and his son King John, and he 
 soon hurled it forth against Henry VIII. But all it 
 could do was to increase Henry's rage against Rome, 
 and in order to deal a last blow, he began breaking up 
 the monasteries, beginning with the smaller ones. The 
 excuse for this was the evil life led by many of the 
 monks, and the exactions of the church, which ate away 
 the substance of the poor. The abolition of the mon- 
 asteries caused great distress among the idlers who had 
 been fed at their doors, and among the peasants who had 
 been used to pasturing their cattle on the commons 
 belonging to them; and the discontent arising from these 
 causes brought on a rebellion called, "The Pilgrimage 
 of Grace," which was suppressed by the Duke of Norfolk, 
 the same who, as Earl of Surrey, had gained the battle 
 of Flodden.' f After this, such monasteries as were not 
 voluntary given up were taken by force, their immense 
 
 * The king wrote to him, "You shall in any wise cause such 
 dreadful execution to be done upon a good number of the inhabi- 
 tants of every town, village and hamlet that has offended, as well 
 by the hanging of them up in trees as by the quartering of them 
 and the setting of their heads and quarters in every town, as they 
 may be a fearful spectacle to all hereafter as would practise any- 
 like matter." 
 
208 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 revenues falling into the king's hands, and their houses 
 and lands being given to his favorite courtiers or ab- 
 sorbed into his private possessions. A special spite was 
 shown in regard to the tomb of St. Thomas a Becket at 
 Canterbury. As he was considered to be the arch- 
 offender in upholding the supremacy of the Church, his 
 name was struck from the calendar of saints, his shrine 
 was torn down, the rich gifts of four hundred years being 
 seized by the king; the coffin was emptied of its contents 
 and the bones were dispersed to the winds. 
 
 Henry's chief agent in the destruction of the monas- 
 teries was Thomas Cromwell, a man of immense ability, 
 who is credited with having first suggested to the king 
 the doctrine of his own supremacy in matters of religion. 
 Cromwell had been the private secretary of Cardinal 
 Wolsey until the fall of that minister, and under his piti- 
 less rule blood flowed like water whenever the slightest 
 opposition seemed to threaten the king's absolute domin- 
 ion. One of the strangest things about Henry's reign is 
 the fact that no matter how outrageous were his assump- 
 tions, he always found Parliaments ready to do his will. 
 At one time, when he had borrowed large sums of money 
 from his subjects, for the repayment of which he had 
 given bonds and other securities, the Parliament gener- 
 ously annulled all his obligations, and his unfortunate 
 creditors could only "pocket the loss." So long did what 
 Shakspeare calls "the divinity that doth hedge a king," 
 impose upon the most intelligent nation in Europe ! 
 
THE ENGLISH BIBLE. EDWARD VI. 209 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 HENRY'S WIVES. THE ENGLISH BIBLE. EDWARD VI. 
 
 E must now go back several years to take up 
 some details of Henry's private life which have 
 a bearing on history. Queen Katherine had 
 died in her house at Kimbolton, and Queen Anne had 
 given birth to a princess named Elizabeth, after the king's 
 mother. But Henry, who grew more fickle and capri- 
 cious every year, had seen among Anne's maids of honor 
 a young lady named Jane Seymour, who attracted his 
 admiration, and from that moment his only thought was 
 how he might get rid of Anne, as he had done of Kath- 
 erine. Charges of misconduct were brought against her, 
 and witnesses procured to swear to them (an easy 
 matter) so the pretty young queen was beheaded on 
 Tower Hill. "My neck is but a little one," she said; "it 
 will not give the executioner much trouble." Henry now 
 called a Parliament (for the one which made laws against 
 the pope had been dismissed after sitting seven years) 
 and made them say that the princesses Mary and Eliza- 
 beth could not lawfully be queens of England; so when 
 a little son was born to Queen Jane he was very much 
 delighted. 
 
 Nothing can be more erroneous than to call Henry the 
 Eighth the author of the English Reformation. He was 
 the enemy of the pope, and through his means some 
 reforms were effected in the practices of the Church of 
 Rome in England; but the belief which finally settled 
 down into English Protestantism was the belief, not of 
 Henry the Eighth, but of Luther. 
 14 
 
210 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Neither must it be supposed that because Henry VIII. 
 quarrelled with the pope and plundered the monasteries,, 
 he was a convert to the Protestant doctrine. On the 
 contrary, he caused a law to be passed by Parliament 
 that all persons who did not believe in six articles of 
 faith set forth by himself, and which contain the sub- 
 stance of the Roman Catholic belief, should suffer the 
 penalties of heresy. The "six articles" went by the 
 name of "The Whip with Six Strings;" but it was more 
 terrible than a whip. It meant burning at the stake for 
 those who refused to subscribe to the doctrines. These 
 were, Transubstantiation;* that the laity should partake 
 only of bread and not of wine at the Holy Communion; 
 that private masses ought to be said for the dead; that 
 confession to priests was necessary; and two others 
 which forbade the marriage of priests and nuns. 
 
 So the burnings, hangings, rackings,t torturings, went 
 on; all who believed in the Reformed religion were lia- 
 ble to them, and all faithful Catholics who questioned 
 the king's supremacy were in danger of losing their 
 heads. Among the former class of victims was Anne 
 Ascue, a young lady belonging to the court, whose fate 
 excited much sympathy. She was burned alive, after 
 being first inhumanly racked. Of the other class, a 
 shameful instance was that of Margaret, Countess of 
 Salisbury, sister to the young Earl of Warwick who was 
 beheaded by Henry VII., and daughter of Clarence, 
 Edward IV/s brother. Her son, Cardinal Pole, was in. 
 Rome with the pope, and from there wrote very hard 
 
 *The change of the substance of the bread and wine into the 
 actual body and blood of Christ, 
 t A horrible kind of torture. 
 
THE ENGLISH BIBLE. EDWARD VI. 211 
 
 things against King Henry; and as the latter could not 
 get hold of the cardinal, (though he invited him to come 
 to England and discuss the matter !) he seized his mother 
 and brother, and as many others of the family as he 
 could lay hold of, and had them killed for correspond- 
 ing with him. The countess was the hardest to deal 
 with. She refused to lay her head on the block at the 
 executioner's bidding; that was for traitors, she said, and 
 she was no traitor; she moved it swiftly from side to 
 side, this woman in her eightieth year, and finally, with 
 two men holding it down by force, the axe after many 
 blows severed it from her body. She was nearly related 
 to the king. 
 
 Queen Jane Seymour died soon after her son's birth, 
 and Henry began to look out for another wife. A cer- 
 tain Duchess of Milan, who was approached on the sub- 
 ject, said that if she had two heads, one should be at his 
 majesty's service; but that having only one, she pre- 
 ferred to keep it. Finally Cromwell picked out a Pro- 
 testant princess, Anne of Cleves, whose picture by the 
 famous painter, Holbein, pleased the king. But when 
 the lady herself came, Henry found her plain-looking 
 and stupid. She knew not a word of any language but 
 German, which he did not speak; and she had no 
 accomplishments. So she was soon divorced, on some 
 shabby pretext, and the king's wrath fell on Cromwell. 
 The unfortunate minister, whose only fault had been 
 untiring devotion to the king's wishes and interests, was 
 accused of treason and beheaded. Anne of Cleves was 
 comfortably pensioned off, and lived in England until 
 her death, surviving her inconstant husband ten years. 
 
 Henry next married Katherme Howard, a relative of 
 
212 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 the Duke of Norfolk. She was really a bad woman and 
 there was little difficulty in getting her head cut off soon 
 after her marriage. His sixth wife was Katherine Parr, 
 widow of Lord Latimer, who conducted herself so dis- 
 creetly, and proved such a good nurse to the miserable 
 diseased monster that she outlasted the king himself. 
 
 A war with Scotland is the only foreign event of 
 importance during the remainder of this reign. James 
 V., son of Henry's sister Margaret, had married a Cath- 
 olic wife, and was much influenced by her family, the 
 Guises, a set of powerful French nobles. This made 
 Henry dislike him, and border warfare had been going 
 on for some time between the two countries, when the 
 Scottish king suddenly sent an army into England, which 
 was defeated at the battle of Sol way Moss. James, a 
 low-spirited and timid person, took to his bed on hear- 
 ing of the disaster; and being told that he was the 
 father of a little daughter, sighed out, "The crown came 
 with a lass and it will go with one."* He died five days 
 afterward, and Henry at once began negotiations for 
 marrying the infant Princess Mary to his son Edward. 
 This being refused, an aimless war was carried on with 
 Scotland and France for about three years, when, after 
 an enormous waste of money and very little fighting, both 
 sides were ready for peace. 
 
 Several translations of the Bible were made in Henry 
 VIII. ; s reign. William Tyndale published at Antwerp 
 (1526) an English version of the New Testament, and 
 Miles Coverdale made the first translation of the entire 
 
 * David Bruce, son of Robert I., had no sons. His daughter 
 Marjory married Walter Stuart, and thus became the ancestress of 
 the Stuart kings of Scotland. 
 
THE ENGLISH BIBLE. EDWARD VI. 213 
 
 Bible (1535). Four years later, a copy of Cranmer's or 
 "The Great Bible" was, by the king's order, placed in 
 every parish church in England.* A part of the church 
 service was also translated by Cranmer from Latin into 
 English, thus helping to establish a truly national church. 
 
 Nothing needs to be added to a record of the deeds 
 of Henry the Eighth. Tyrant and murderer, the slave 
 of his passions, the capricious ruler of the destinies of 
 others, our disgust overpowers every other feeling in 
 thinking of him. Yet even this wretch has found apolo- 
 gists ; and there are historians who dwell on his energy, 
 his courage, and his vigor of mind; but when these are 
 applied to hateful purposes they lose their lustre in our 
 eyes. It has often been a matter of wonder why, in 
 spite of his monstrous tyranny, he should have been 
 popular with the great mass of the people. With them 
 he was "Bluff King Hal" to the last. In the first place, 
 it was hard to shake their idea of the sacredness of the 
 crown; and then, his cruelties fell almost entirely upon 
 the higher classes. If the poorer ones opposed his will, 
 as in the "Pilgrimage of Grace," they too felt the weight 
 of his hand; but it seldom happened that his interests 
 and theirs were brought into direct collision. 
 
 Henry has been called a patron of learning. He 
 founded Trinity College in Cambridge, and encouraged 
 the "New Learning" as the study of Greek was called, 
 though the credit of that belonged more to Cardinal 
 Wolsey and to some eminent men in the universities 
 themselves. The greatest author of the age, Sir Thomas 
 More, was sent to the block for being a good Catholic ; 
 
 * It is from this Bible that the version of the Psalms ir the pres- 
 ent English Book of Common Prayer is taken, 
 
214 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 the finest poet, Lord Surrey, met the same fate because 
 he was a distant relative of the king's, and Sir Thomas 
 Wyatt, also a poet, came very near having his head cut 
 off on the charge of having been a lover of Anne 
 Boleyn's. These three were the most famous writers of 
 Henry's time. John Heywood wrote dramatic pieces of 
 small value, of a kind called "Interludes," and the histo- 
 rians, Fabyan and Hall, added their chronicles to the 
 growing mass of English annals. 
 
 Henry died after a reign of 38 years (1547) in the 
 fifty-sixth year of his age. 
 
 Edward VI., son of Henry VIII. and Jane Seymour, 
 was ten years old at the time of his father's death. Lord 
 Hertford, the young king's uncle and brother of Lady 
 Jane, was made Protector with the assistance of a coun- 
 cil. The new council was composed mostly of Protes- 
 tants, and as the young king had been brought up in the 
 same belief, the reformed religion was established at 
 once. The law requiring adherence to the Six Articles 
 was repealed, together with all those directed against 
 what was still called "Lollardy," and the Book of Com- 
 mon Prayer was completed by Cranmer and made the 
 established service of the Church. An act was passed 
 allowing the marriage of the clergy, while another re- 
 pealed the statutes against heresy; and though the Eng- 
 lish mind had not yet arrived at the great doctrine of 
 toleration in religious matters, the blood penalty for 
 wrong believing fell for a time into disuse. 
 
 The change of religion was not accomplished without 
 some disturbance. In several parts of England the 
 people rose in rebellion, demanding the restoration of 
 the mass, and other religious observances to which they 
 
THE ENGLISH BIBLE. EDWARD VI. 215 
 
 had been accustomed; but these were soon put down, 
 and all acquiesced, outwardly at least, in the new forms 
 of worship. 
 
 Determined to carry out Henry's intentions of uniting 
 the kingdoms of Scotland and England by marriage, the 
 Protector (now created Duke of Somerset) led an army 
 into Scotland and defeated the Scots at the battle of 
 Pinkie. He did not, however, secure the young queen, 
 who was soon afterward betrothed to the Dauphin of 
 Prance. 
 
 Somerset hurried back from Scotland at the news that 
 his brother, Lord Seymour (who had married Henry 
 VIII.'s widow, Katherine Parr), was forming a party 
 against him. He succeeded in making the Parliament 
 pass a bill of attainder * against Seymour, and the latter 
 was beheaded. In a few years, Somerset himself suffered 
 the same fate. It was not difficult in those times of an 
 irregular and uncertain hold upon power, to find charges 
 against almost any man who conducted public affairs, 
 and Somerset had undoubtedly been arbitrary, taking 
 more upon himself than if he had been indeed a king. 
 
 John Dudley, Earl of Warwick (son of Henry VII. 's 
 minister), who had been made Duke of Northumberland, 
 now saw his way clear to succeed to the Protector's 
 power, and never rested until Somerset had been brought 
 to the scaffold (1552). Edward VL, while his uncle's trial 
 was going on, was amusing himself at tournaments, balls, 
 and banquets, it being just at the time of the Christmas 
 holidays; and on the 22nd of January there is a busi- 
 ness-like entry in the journal which he kept, and which 
 
 * An act of Parliament declaring a person guilty of treason and 
 condemning him without trial in any court of law. 
 
216 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 is most valuable for historical reference, "The Duke of 
 Somerset had his head cut off upon Tower-hill, between 
 eight and nine o'clock in the morning." This was his 
 mother's brother, and a man who, as far as we know,, 
 had never been otherwise than kind to him. 
 
 King Edward was now drawing near his end. He was 
 so evidently in a consumption that Northumberland 
 began to make plans for keeping the control of public 
 affairs in his own hands by marrying his fourth son, Guil- 
 ford Dudley, to Edward's cousin, Lady Jane Grey. The 
 king, intensely interested in the reformed religion and 
 dreading that a Roman Catholic should rule his country,, 
 was easily persuaded to set aside his sisters in his will, 
 and declare Lady Jane the true heir to the crown. 
 Shortly before Edward's death, the duke, finding that 
 the physicians were doing him no good, turned him over 
 to the care of an ignorant woman, under whose treat- 
 ment he grew rapidly worse, and died (1553) after a 
 reign of six years, in the sixteenth year of his age. 
 
 Edward VI. was a studious boy, very religious, and had 
 apparently an amiable disposition. He was fond of his 
 half-sister, Elizabeth, who was only a few years older 
 than himself, and was a Protestant, besides; while with 
 the gloomy Mary he had very little sympathy. What 
 kind of king he would have made if he had lived to grow 
 up is a question which can not now be settled. 
 
LADY JANE GREY. BLOODY MARY. 217 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 LADY JANE GREY. BLOODY MARY. CALAIS. 
 
 j|ADY Jane Grey (for so she is always called, 
 though by her marriage she became Lady 
 Jane Dudley) was a granddaughter of Henry 
 VIII/'s second sister, Mary, Duchess of Suffolk. She 
 was probably the best educated woman in England, ex- 
 cept the Princess Elizabeth, and was as lovely in char- 
 acter as she was cultivated in mind. She had no desire 
 to be queen, but yielded to the wishes of her father-in- 
 law and of her own father. Northumberland's procla- 
 mation of her was received in ominous silence, and one 
 poor boy called Gilbert Pot had his ears first nailed to 
 the pillory and then cut off, for "speaking words" about 
 the new queen. Queen Mary, meantime, instead of 
 being "quiet and obedient" as Northumberland advised 
 her to be, collected an army at once and prepared to 
 march to London. The duke thought of resisting; but 
 seeing how much superior in numbers her army was to 
 his own, changed his mind and joined in hurrahing for 
 her. Mary mounted the throne. Northumberland was 
 arrested and sent to the Tower, as were also Lady Jane 
 and her husband and many of her supporters. Most of 
 the latter were pardoned, but the duke was executed 
 after a short trial, while Lord Guilford Dudley and his 
 wife, the ten-days queen, were left in prison under sen- 
 tence of death. 
 
 If Jane had had even a fair showing of right on her 
 side, there is little doubt that many Protestants would 
 
218 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 have flocked to her assistance and the country would 
 have been convulsed by civil war; but Edward VI.'s 
 attempt to place her on the throne was so clearly a 
 usurpation that they had no sympathy with it. The law- 
 abiding instincts of the nation asserted their superiority 
 over their preferences, and there was never for a moment 
 any chance that an unlawful cause should triumph. 
 
 The queen's first care was to restore the Roman Cath- 
 olic religion. The bishops who had been turned out by 
 Henry for denying his supremacy were at once recalled, 
 while several of the most noted of the reformed ones, 
 among others, Cranmer, Hooper, Ridley, and Latimer, 
 were thrown into prison. All the statutes of Edward 
 VI.'s reign regarding religion were repealed in a lump, 
 and Mary sent word to the pope that it was the first wish 
 of her heart that the country should be "reconciled" with 
 the Church of Rome. The Parliament passed an act 
 annulling the divorce pronounced by Cranmer between 
 Henry VIII. and Katherine of Aragon, thus putting it 
 beyond a doubt that Mary was England's lawful queen. 
 
 Mary was now thirty- seven years old, in poor health 
 and on that account very plain -looking. Notwithstand- 
 ing this, she occupied a proud place among the monarchs 
 of Europe, and her cousin, Charles V. of Germany (son 
 of her mother's sister Joanna) sent at once to propose a 
 marriage between her and his son Philip, who was eleven 
 years younger than herself. The House of Commons 
 expressed in the strongest terms their disapprobation of 
 ■such a marriage, upon which Mary, who was determined 
 that it should take place, dissolved the Parliament. The 
 new laws reestablishing the Roman Catholic religion 
 were now openly enforced; the mass was celebrated 
 
LADY JANE GREY. BLOODY MARY. 219 
 
 everywhere and a convocation of the clergy declared the 
 marriage of priests unlawful. All the married clergy were 
 turned out from their livings. These things alarmed the 
 non- Catholic element of the people, who anticipated 
 measures still more distasteful when there should be a 
 foreign prince fastened upon them. A rebellion was 
 accordingly raised against Mary by Sir Thomas Wyatt 
 the younger, son of the poet. Wyatt was taken prisoner 
 and executed, with about thirty of his followers; and the 
 rebellion proved fatal to the innocent Lady Jane, and 
 her boy -husband. She declined to see Lord Guilford 
 before their execution, for fear it should unnerve them 
 "both. She saw him walk to the scaffold, and then saw 
 his body taken out of a cart, with the head wrapped in a 
 •cloth, but shed no tear. The old narrative concludes in 
 these words: "She tied the kerchief about her eyes; then 
 feeling for the block, said, 'What shall I do? Where is 
 it?' One of the standers-by guiding her thereto, she laid 
 her head down upon the block, and stretched forth her 
 body, and said, 'Lord, into thy hands I commend my 
 spirit.' And so she ended." 
 
 The Princess Elizabeth was arrested at the same time, 
 but after being shut up in the Tower for a month was re- 
 leased and sent to Woodstock, where she long remained 
 a prisoner. Hollinshed, one of the chroniclers of the 
 time, relates how when once upon a time she heard a 
 milkmaid in her garden singing pleasantly, she wished 
 she too were a milkmaid, as she would then lead a merrier 
 and happier life than her present one. But she never for 
 a moment forgot her royal blood, or condescended to 
 ask for mercy. None of Henry VIII. 's children lacked 
 spirit or courage. 
 
220 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 It was while Elizabeth was still at Woodstock that 
 Philip of Spain came to England, with many chests of 
 Spanish silver, and was married amid great rejoicings. 
 The Londoners new- gilded the great cross in Cheapside, 
 and pulled down every gallows in the city on which still 
 hung the decaying bodies of "Wyatt's rebels." After the 
 marriage, a trivial incident showed how strong was the 
 party spirit that separated Romanists from Protestants. 
 A certain conduit in Gracechurch Street under which the 
 royal party was to pass, was decorated with a portrait of 
 Henry VIII. holding a Bible in his hand on which was 
 written "Verbum Dei" (the Word of God). Gardiner, 
 Bishop of Winchester, sent for the painter, "and with vile 
 words calling him traitor, asked why, and who bade him 
 describe King Henry with a book in his hand, as afore- 
 said. The painter humbly apologized, and said he 
 thought he had done well. 'Nay/ said the bishop, 'it 
 is against the queen's Catholic proceedings.' And so he 
 painted him shortly after, in the stead of the book of 
 Verbum Dei, to have in his hands a new pair of gloves." 
 
 It was not long before other straws showed which way 
 the wind was blowing. A Parliament was got together 
 in the queen's interest, in which an address to the pope 
 was voted, declaring their sorrow for all past proceed- 
 ings against him; and the legate, Cardinal Pole, gave the- 
 kingdom absolution, and received it again into the bosom 
 of the Catholic Church. On one point the Parliament 
 was perfectly firm. It would not take away the Abbey 
 lands and goods which had been granted by Henry VIII. 
 to individuals. This is not to be wondered at, as many 
 of their own number were now in possession of this very 
 property. 
 
LADY JANE GREY. BLOODY MARY. 221 
 
 There was nothing about Philip to attract the English. 
 He was so haughty and reserved that he took no notice 
 of the salutations of even the highest nobility, and so 
 hemmed in by formal rules of etiquette that it was impos- 
 sible to approach him. He was the most unpopular man 
 in England. 
 
 A reign of horror was now to open in that country 
 which has affixed forever the epithet of "Bloody" to the 
 name of Henry VIII. ; s oldest daughter. By the renewal 
 of the laws against heresy, every Protestant in England 
 was made liable to be burnt at the stake, and the prisons 
 were soon filled to overflowing. The first victim was 
 John Rogers, a clergyman, whose wife and ten young 
 children were present at the stake to witness his suffer- 
 ings. He was burnt at Smithfield, a place then in the 
 suburbs of London, but now in the heart of the city, 
 where a "Martyrs' Memorial" has been erected, which 
 keeps alive the memory of their constancy and their fate. 
 Hooper, Bishop of Gloucester, was taken to his own 
 cathedral city to end his life. The flames consumed him 
 very slowly; but while lingering in frightful agony, he re- 
 mained calm and quiet; and died, we are told, "like a 
 child in its bed." 
 
 Another of the early martyrs, Rowland Taylor, rector 
 of Hadleigh, could not put aside his spirit of humor even 
 at the last dreadful moment. While going to the stake 
 he remarked, "the worms in Hadleigh church -yard will 
 be deceived, for the carcass that should have been theirs 
 will be burnt to ashes." At the stake, a brutal man threw 
 a fagot at him, which wounded him so that the blood ran 
 down his face. "Oh, friend," said he, "I had harm enough; 
 what needed that?" and he died calmly, like the others. 
 
222 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Gardiner and Bonner, the queen's principal agents in 
 this deadly work, were constantly urged on by Mary and 
 her council to more zealous efforts. Among the individ- 
 ual cases which stand out from the crowd of less distin- 
 guished but equally heroic martyrs, are the two bishops, 
 Ridley and Latimer, who suffered death together, chained 
 to the same stake. Ridley was a man in the prime of 
 life; Latimer was more than eighty years old. He said 
 to his brother martyr as they stood waiting for the fire to 
 be lighted, "Be of good comfort, master Ridley, and play 
 the man ! We shall this day light such a candle, by God's 
 grace, in England, as shall never be put out." 
 
 The most illustrious of the victims, Archbishop Cran- 
 mer, remained to be dealt with. The queen had a per- 
 sonal reason for disliking him, even if he had not been 
 a heretic, for he had pronounced the divorce between 
 her father and mother; but in addition to this, he had 
 imprudently uttered violent tirades against the Romish 
 Church in the beginning of Mary's reign, and his con- 
 demnation was a foregone conclusion. He was not nat- 
 urally a man of strong character, and long imprisonment 
 and harsh treatment had enfeebled him still further. He 
 recanted, on the promise that his life should be spared. 
 When he found, however, that this was only a trick to- 
 increase his disgrace, and that he was first to make a 
 public address in support of the Romish doctrines and 
 then to be led at once to the stake, his courage revived, 
 and he astonished his audience by a full and emphatic 
 declaration of his Protestant belief. He wavered no- 
 more, but went cheerfully to his death, and when the fire 
 was kindled, thrust into the flames his right hand (with 
 which he had signed the recantation) and held it there for 
 
LADY JANE GREY. BLOODY MARY. 223 
 
 some time, saying, "This hand has offended." Such ex- 
 ecutions had an effect contrary to the one anticipated r 
 and, as has been said, "Each martyrdom was equal to a 
 hundred sermons." It is computed that two hundred 
 and seventy -seven persons, including four children, suf- 
 fered death by fire during the last three years of Bloody 
 Mary's reign. 
 
 Queen Mary was always devotedly fond of her hus- 
 band, though he treated her with neglect and indifference. 
 For him she declared war against France, a country with 
 which England was at peace, and sent several thousand 
 soldiers there to help him. A great battle was fought at 
 St. Quentin, where the Spaniards were victorious; but 
 the English soldiers were sharp enough to see that they 
 were not fighting the battles of England, and they grum- 
 bled and growled so much that Philip was glad to get rid 
 of them and send them home again (1557). The next 
 year the Duke of Guise, uncle 01 Mary Queen of Scots, 
 and the finest soldier in France, longing to revenge the 
 disgrace of St. Quentin (from which Dattle he had been 
 absent), determined to retake the town of Calais.* This 
 fortress was supposed to be impregnable, but it was poorly 
 guarded, for the English were lukewarm in carrying on 
 the unacceptable war, and did not supply the governor 
 with the soldiers needed. The Duke of Guise, too, was 
 a general who knew how to take advantage of the weak 
 points of his enemy; and in eight days the fortress which 
 it had taken Edward III. eleven months of hard work to 
 acquire, was retaken and became again a possession of 
 
 * For a further account of this war, see "A Short History or 
 France," p. 178. 
 
224 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 France (1558) after having belonged to England for two 
 hundred and eleven years. 
 
 The people of England were so indignant at the folly 
 of the queen in entering into this causeless war that 
 they almost forgot to be mortified at the disaster to their 
 arms, and when Philip offered his help to get Calais back 
 again, Parliament said they were too poor to spend any 
 more money on it. But to Queen Mary, already broken 
 in health, it was like a death-blow. "When I die," she 
 exclaimed, "the word 'Calais' will be found written on 
 my heart." 
 
 She did not live long after this shock. Mortification 
 at the neglect of her husband, who never came near her 
 again after having drawn her into the French war, aggra- 
 vated the fever she was suffering from ; and she died at 
 forty-two years ol age, atter a snort and dreadful feign of 
 less than five years (1558). Cardinal Pole (who had been 
 made Archbishop ot Canterbury in Cranmer's place) died 
 twenty -four hours afterward. 
 
 Queen Mary's reign did good in a certain way, namely, 
 by showing the outrages which such principles as hers 
 lead to, and by preventing Englishmen from ever again 
 bowing under a yoke so degrading. 
 
 One gleam of commercial interest lights up the dark 
 monotony of this reign. Some English navigators, in 
 sailing along the northern coast of Europe, discovered a 
 passage to Archangel, on the White Sea, which led to the 
 Czar of Muscovy's* sending ambassadors to ask the 
 friendship of England. This is the first appearance of 
 the Russian nation in the courts of Western Europe. 
 
 * Muscovy is the old name for Russia. 
 
ELIZABETH. MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. 225 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 ELIZABETH. MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. 
 
 ITH a sudden turn, England whirled around to 
 Protestantism on the death of Mary. The 
 great fabric of Popery, which Mary had so 
 labored to build up, vanished almost in a moment when 
 her vigorous, energetic, popular sister took her place on 
 the throne. As the Spanish ambassador, Feria, whimsi- 
 cally said in a letter to Philip: "There is not a heretic 
 or traitor in all the country who has not started as if from 
 the grave to seek her with expressions of the greatest 
 pleasure." These remarks did not at all hinder Philip 
 from writing to ask his sister-in-law to marry him, offer- 
 ing at the same time to obtain a dispensation from the 
 pope for that purpose; but she put him off civilly, being 
 too quick-witted not to see that such a marriage would 
 be a repetition of her father's with Katherine of Aragon, 
 an example she had no wish to follow. 
 
 Elizabeth had been brought up from her very baby- 
 hood in adversity. This fact, with her natural discretion, 
 helped her to say and do, at least in the early part of her 
 career, always the right thing at the right moment. Pop- 
 ularity came to her without an effort. On arriving in 
 London from her country house at Hatfield, where she 
 was living when she received the news of her sister's 
 death, she was welcomed with uproarious joy. She was 
 now twenty -five years old, tall, well made, and of a pleas- 
 ing countenance. 
 
 Not one of the bishops, who were all, of course, Rom- 
 15 
 
226 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 anists, was willing to perform the ceremony of corona- 
 tion. At last the Bishop of Carlisle, was prevailed upon 
 to set the crown upon her head. She did not mate 
 enemies by taking immediate action on this refusal; but 
 they were soon afterward required, by act of Parliament, 
 to take the "Oath of Supremacy," and those who did not 
 meet this test were deposed and their places gradually 
 filled by Protestants. It is estimated that nearly ten 
 thousand of the inferior clergy took the oath acknowledg- 
 ing the queen to be head of the Church. 
 
 On the morning after the coronation, as Elizabeth was- 
 going to chapel, one of the courtiers addressed her in a 
 loud voice, reminding her that it was the custom for a 
 new sovereign to release some prisoners, and saying that 
 there were four or five for whom he begged this favor,, 
 namely, the four Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and 
 John, and also St. Paul, who had so long been shut up 
 in a foreign tongue that they were unable to converse 
 with the people. Elizabeth gravely answered that it were 
 oest to inquire of them whether they wished to be re- 
 leased or not. The matter was referred to a convocation 
 of the clergy, by whose authority a new translation of the 
 Scriptures was ordered. Matthew Parker, the new Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury, a truly good and learned man, was 
 entrusted with carrying this out, and caused a version to 
 be prepared called "The Bishops' Bible," which appeared 
 in 1568, and was the authorized one until superseded by 
 that now in use by us. The queen at the same time com- 
 manded that the church service should again be read in 
 the common tongue; and this liturgy, being in the main 
 the same with the second one of Edward VI. (1552) is- 
 the one still used in England, and, with slight change, in 
 
ELIZABETH. MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. 227 
 
 America. At the same time with the law regarding the 
 queen's supremacy, was passed another called the Act of 
 Uniformity, which required the liturgy of the English 
 prayer-book to be used in religious worship, and forbade 
 all ministers to adopt any other form. These two acts, 
 of Supremacy and Uniformity, settled the question of a 
 national religion. For the queen's assistance in carrying 
 out these measures, she was empowered by Parliament 
 to name such commissioners, either laymen or clergy- 
 men; and out of this grew the famous Court of High 
 Commission, of which we shall hear again. 
 
 Queen Elizabeth showed especial good judgment in 
 the choice of her ministers. William Cecil, afterward 
 Lord Burleigh, was made secretary of state, and contin- 
 ued for the forty years from the beginning of Elizabeth's 
 reign to his death in 1598, to be her prime minister. Sir 
 Nicholas Bacon, father of the still greater Francis Bacon, 
 was appointed lord keeper of the great seal. 
 
 The spirit of the whole reign was shown in the first 
 speech of Bacon to Parliament. He said he trusted that 
 "contumelious and opprobrious words such as heretic, 
 schismatic, papist, would be banished out of men's 
 mouths." Every thing that was done about religion was 
 distinguished by moderation, and the great change was 
 effected quietly. The first Parliament held after the 
 coronation begged the queen to choose a husband for 
 herself (which would have been no difficult matter, as 
 nearly every royal bachelor or widower in Europe wished 
 to marry her), but she answered very firmly that the 
 height of her ambition was to have inscribed on her 
 tombstone that a queen, having lived and reigned so 
 many years, died a virgin. 
 
228 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Her royal cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots, now became 
 for a short time queen of France by the death of her 
 father-in-law, Henry II. She and her young husband, 
 Francis II., foolishly took the title of king and queen of 
 England, and Elizabeth, very indignant, sent an army to 
 Scotland to help the party organized there against Mary 
 and her French advisers. Scotland was a strongly Pro- 
 testant country, and the people were determined that 
 Romanism should not get the upper hand there as it had 
 done in England under Mary. John Knox, the famous 
 Puritan preacher, used the whole force of his eloquence 
 against the popish party, and the Roman religion was 
 abolished in Scotland, except that it was permitted to 
 the queen herself to hear mass with her household. It 
 was also agreed that she should no longer use the title 
 of queen of England. Just at this time her husband 
 died, and she was obliged, most unwillingly, to return to 
 her native land. On leaving France, she had her 
 couch spread on the deck of the vessel, so that with the 
 last ray of light she could still see that beloved country, 
 and in touching language she bade it farewell. She was 
 received in Scotland with such enthusiasm as would 
 naturally be shown to a beautiful young widow of nine- 
 teen, with gracious and winning manners; but nothing 
 could make her countrymen forget that she was a papist. 
 
 The first dozen years of Elizabeth's reign were passed 
 in profound peace, except for the slight disturbance with 
 Scotland. With the help of her able ministers she paid 
 off a large part of the public debt; restored to its full 
 value the coin, which had been greatly debased during 
 Edward VI.'s time ; introduced the manufacture of gun- 
 powder and brass cannon, and built so many ships that 
 
ELIZABETH. MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. 229 
 
 she was called "the queen of the northern seas." She 
 promoted trade and manufactures, and was to some 
 extent a patron of literary men, though she was very- 
 careful of money and always managed to make other 
 people spend it when possible. 
 
 Queen Elizabeth had some very mean qualities as well 
 as many great ones. She was extremely vain, and loved 
 flattery so much that no one could gain her favor with- 
 out using adulation to an extent which now seems dis- 
 graceful. 
 
 "Till [her] relish grown callous, almost to disease, 
 Who peppered the highest was surest to please. " 
 
 The queen's greatest favorite, Robert Dudley, earl of 
 Leicester, came of a family distinguished for its bad 
 qualities. He was the son of that Duke of Northum- 
 berland who had ruined the life of Lady Jane Grey, and 
 grandson of the unjust judge of Henry VII. He was 
 base enough to do anything to keep the queen's favor, 
 and there was even a report that he had killed his wife, 
 Amy Robsart,* in the hope of marrying Elizabeth. But 
 nothing could be proved against him, and, mean-souled 
 as he was, he continued to be her favorite till the day of 
 his death. 
 
 The Queen of Scots married her cousin, Lord Darnley, 
 a handsome but weak and low-minded youth, some years 
 younger than herself, whom she soon grew tired of and 
 treated with contempt. "Unless she was freed of him," 
 she said, "she had no desire to live." There was in her 
 court an Italian musician named David Rizziot whom 
 
 *See Sir Walter Scott's novel of "Kenilworth." 
 + Pronounced Ritzio. 
 
230 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Mary had made her private secretary, and with whom 
 she was on terms of intimacy that displeased her hus- 
 band. Darnley formed a conspiracy with some Scottish 
 lords to murder the favorite. They entered the queen's 
 room as she was at supper with him and others of her 
 attendants, and stabbed Rizzio to death in her presence. 
 The stain of his blood may yet be seen on the floor 
 of Holyrood palace. Not long after this, Mary gave 
 birth to a son who received the name of James. He 
 became the sixth Stuart king in succession bearing that 
 name, and we shall meet him in English history as 
 James the First of England and Sixth of Scotland. 
 
 Mary was furiously angry against all who had taken 
 part in the murder of Rizzio, and loaded her husband 
 with insults or treated him with haughty neglect. Darn- 
 ley not long afterward was found murdered, and sus- 
 picion fell upon the Earl of Bothwell, a worthless and 
 dissipated person who was in high favor with the queen; 
 and, as she married him soon after Darnley's death, it 
 is natural to think that she did not disapprove of the 
 crime. She was forced to dismiss Bothwell, who became 
 an outcast, and died, insane, ten years afterward. 
 
 Mary was now virtually a prisoner. After the battle 
 of Carberry Hill, which she lost, she was conducted back 
 to Edinburgh between two of the confederate lords, 
 while the air rang with the curses of the infuriated rab- 
 ble, who looked upon her as the murderess of her hus- 
 band. A banner was carried before her on which was 
 painted the body of Darnley lying under a tree with a 
 child kneeling beside it, and the motto, "Judge and 
 avenge my cause, oh Lord!" When she awoke the next 
 morning, the same banner was hung up in front of her 
 
ELIZABETH. MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. 231 
 
 window. The same day, she was taken to the castle of 
 Lochleven, situated on a small island in the lake of that 
 name, where she was obliged to sign an agreement to 
 resign the crown to her son and to appoint the Earl of 
 Murray, her half-brother, regent of the kingdom during 
 James's minority. The young prince was crowned by 
 the name of James VI. and the Parliament, voting that 
 the queen was an accomplice in Darnley's murder, con- 
 demned her to imprisonment. She effected her escape 
 from Lochleven Castle in a very romantic manner,* 
 and, raising an army, fought one commanded by 
 the regent, near Glasgow, where she was completely 
 defeated. Flying southward with all possible haste, 
 she got on board a fishing-boat which landed her on the 
 same*day in England, and from Carlisle she sent a mes- 
 sage to Elizabeth asking for her friendship and protec- 
 tion. The English queen replied that she must first 
 have proof that her cousin was innocent of the crimes 
 charged against her. With Mary's consent, a sort of trial 
 was held in London, at which both her friends and ene- 
 mies offered testimony in the case; but it came to 
 nothing, and she remained for nineteen years a prisoner 
 in the hands of Elizabeth. 
 
 All through the last half of the sixteenth century, the 
 question of religion, in some form, was the cause of ex- 
 citement and turmoil. From the time that the Roman 
 Church ceased to be catholic — that is, universal, — the 
 struggle between its doctrines and other forms of belief 
 was incessant; and as people had not then learned the 
 great lesson of toleration as it is called, in other words 
 
 *For a truthful description of this escape see Sir Walter Scott's 
 novel of "The Abbot," Chapter XXXV. 
 
232 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 of allowing each one to keep his own belief unless he 
 can be persuaded to accept a better one, the result was 
 strife and bloodshed instead of peace and good-will. In 
 France a deadly civil war was going on between the 
 Catholics and the Huguenots (French Protestants); in 
 the Netherlands, Philip II. of Spain, formerly the hus- 
 band of Elizabeth's sister Mary, was persecuting his 
 Protestant subjects by burning, torturing, beheading, and 
 burying alive those who would not conform to his own 
 religion; and in England two parties had arisen among 
 the Protestants themselves whose feelings against each 
 other were as bitter, though not as bloodily expressed, 
 as those of either party against the Catholics. On one 
 side stood the English Church established by law, with a 
 ritual or form of service, and on the other the Puritans, 
 those who thought the Church not yet sufficiently puri- 
 fied from what they called the abominations of Rome, 
 and who wished a simple kind of worship, without set 
 forms or a dress peculiar to the clergy. 
 
 Elizabeth had already sent some help to the Hugue- 
 nots in France, when the horrible "Massacre of St 
 Bartholemew,"* occurred, in which many thousands of 
 them were murdered. This outrage, together with the no 
 less frightful occurences in the Netherlands, kindled a 
 flame of indignation in England which was fanned into 
 fury by events in that country which, to the excited minds 
 of the people, threatened them with similar dangers. 
 
 * See "A Short History of France," p. 189. 
 
THE NAVIGATORS. MARY STUART. 233 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 PLOTS. THE NAVIGATORS. MARY STUART. 
 
 HE disturbances caused by religous differences, 
 while agitating different countries in different 
 ways, made themselves most strongly felt in 
 England through the plots formed by the Catholics 
 against Elizabeth's government. The conspirators were 
 encouraged in these by a bull of excommunication issued 
 against her by Pope Pius V. declaring her title null and 
 void, and absolving her subjects from their allegiance. 
 These events bore fruit in a plan made to marry the 
 English Duke of Norfolk, a Romanist, to the Scottish 
 Queen Mary, seize and imprison Elizabeth, by the help 
 of Spanish soldiers who were to land in the country, and 
 proclaim Mary queen of England. The plot was dis- 
 covered, and Norfolk and others were executed. 
 
 The discovery of the methods used by Mary and her 
 friends made it necessary to watch the captive queen 
 very closely, though in spite of the vigilance used it was 
 found impossible to prevent her from having constant 
 correspondence with the outer world. 
 
 During all this time, the wars of religion in France 
 were growing fiercer and the persecution in the Nether- 
 lands more horrible. In one way, these were both of 
 benefit to England; they drove to her shores a great 
 body of well-taught workmen, who were welcomed in the 
 manufacturing districts and found ample occasion there 
 for exercising their skill. The queen paid off with 
 interest the entire public debt, part of which had been 
 
234 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 accumulating since her father's time; and this was so 
 unusual a practice with the crowned heads of Europe 
 that it gave the stamp of stability to her government. 
 
 The people of the Netherlands were still struggling for 
 their liberty, and had more than once asked Elizabeth 
 to be their queen, feeling that with her help they could 
 get rid of the atrocities of Spanish rule. She declined, 
 but sent them some troops (1585), under the command 
 of her favorite, the Earl of Leicester. A person more 
 unfit for the office of commander could scarcely have 
 been found. Leicester had neither military talent nor 
 experience, while Philip's general, Alexander of Parma, 
 was the first captain of the age. Thrilling deeds of 
 heroism were performed by individual commanders, and 
 the common soldiers fought bravely; but the queen's 
 parsimony led her to leave the army for months at a 
 time without pay, and then their condition became so 
 scandalous that there was nothing the Dutch desired so 
 much as to get rid of them. 
 
 The fate of Sir Philip Sidney, "the mirror of knight- 
 hood," the most accomplished man of the time, was 
 especially sad. He perished in an unwisely- planned 
 attack on the enemy near Zutphen, in Holland (1586). 
 We give a story of his generosity in the words of his 
 friend, Lord Brooke: "Passing along by the rear of the 
 army and being thirsty with excess of bleeding, he called 
 for some drink, which was presently brought him. But 
 as he was putting the bottle to his mouth he saw a poor 
 soldier carried along who had eaten his last at the same 
 feast, ghastly casting up his eyes at the bottle; which 
 Sir Philip perceiving, took it from his head before he 
 drank, and delivered it to the poor man with these words: 
 
THE NAVIGATORS. MARY STUART. 235 
 
 'Thy necessity is yet greater than mine.'" Such is the 
 stuff that heroes are made of; a whole character is told 
 in this little tale. 
 
 Meanwhile, England's explorers and navigators were 
 not idle. Francis Drake was the second person to sail 
 around the globe (i 577-1 580), the Portuguese under 
 Magellan having accomplished the same feat nearly sixty 
 years before. Drake, on his way, took many rich Span- 
 ish prizes, though there was no open war between Eng- 
 land and Spain at the time. The queen, instead of re- 
 proaching him for this breach of the law of nations, 
 knighted him, and allowed him to give her a banquet at 
 Deptford on board the ship which had made the suc- 
 cessful voyage. Another navigator, John Davis, in try- 
 ing to find a northwest passage to the Pacific, discovered 
 the strait which bears his name; Sir Martin Frobisher 
 found another in the same part of the world which is 
 also called after him; and Sir John Hawkins, one of the 
 boldest of those adventurers, has the unenviable repu- 
 tation of having been the first Englishman to engage in 
 the African slave-trade. All these were mere sailors, 
 brought into notice by their enterprise, perseverance, and 
 courage. There were others, however, of a higher social 
 rank, who did their share in exploring new countries and 
 unknown seas. Among these were Sir Walter Raleigh 
 and his half-brother, Sir Humphrey Gilbert. The latter, 
 before setting out on his last voyage, received from the 
 ■queen a gift of a small gold anchor guided by a lady, as 
 a token of her esteem. After many adventures, and the 
 loss of the largest ship of his little fleet, he started to 
 return to England; but during the voyage a storm arose 
 -and separated his vessel, the Squirrel, from her consort. 
 
236 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Before they parted he called out to those on the other 
 ship, "We are as near Heaven by sea as by land! " The 
 Squirrel was never seen again. 
 
 Sir Walter Raleigh's is one of the most brilliant figures 
 in the Elizabethan gallery. He seems to have been a 
 born courtier, as well as an adventurer, for there is a 
 story that on his first meeting with the queen he threw 
 down his rich cloak in a muddy path that she might not 
 wet her feet. If he did not do this he might have done 
 it, and probably would have done it if the opportunity 
 had occurred. At any rate, he stood high in the queen's 
 favor, and he had the privilege of naming the new land, 
 which he called Virginia, in honor of the Virgin Queen.* 
 He sent out a colony which settled on Roanoke Island, 
 near North Carolina (1585), but it did not thrive, and 
 the next year, when Sir Francis Drake came along, the 
 colonists were glad to return with him to England. 
 Raleigh was not yet discouraged by his ill- success. The 
 following year he sent another colony to the same place, 
 providing it with all things necessary ; but at the end of 
 three years it had entirely disappeared, and he had 
 already spent so much money on it that he was obliged - 
 to give up any further attempts at colonization. 
 
 We have now arrived at what Motley calls the tragedy 
 of Mary Stuart: "A sad but inevitable portion of the 
 vast drama in which the emancipation of England and 
 Holland, and through them of half Christendom, 
 approached its catastrophe." Mary's whole life in Eng- 
 land had been a torment to Elizabeth. Her partisans- 
 were constantly intriguing with the agents of foreign 
 
 * This name was originally given to the whole Atlantic coast* 
 from Maine to the Spanish settlements in Elorida. 
 
THE NAVIGATORS. MARY STUART. 237 
 
 countries to try in some way to compass Elizabeth's 
 death, and the assassination of the patriot and states- 
 man, William of Orange (1584), encouraged hopes of 
 success in such attempts. In 1586, some Roman Cath- 
 olic priests in the seminary at Rheims, in France, had 
 worked themselves up to a pitch of frantic fanaticism, 
 and thought it would be a noble deed to destroy Eliza- 
 beth, restore the Catholic religion, and place the Queen 
 of Scots on the throne. They found a ready accomplice 
 in England in Sir Anthony Babington, a young man oi 
 family and fortune, who entered eagerly into their plans 
 and drew into the conspiracy many Romanists of posi- 
 tion and wealth. 
 
 It happened, however, that these plots were not kept 
 so secret but that they came to the knowledge of Sir 
 Francis Walsingham, one of the queen's secretaries of 
 state; who by means of his spies knew every step as 
 soon as it was taken. He allowed the conspiracy to go 
 on until all the evidence was collected necessary to con- 
 vict the actors in it. A traitor in the castle where Mary 
 was confined received and passed on to her the letters 
 addressed to her (which were sometimes concealed in a 
 box conveyed in a barrel of beer), and she answered 
 them, never dreaming that they were leading her to her 
 own destruction. At last, when the plot was fully ripe, 
 the conspirators were seized, tried, and condemned, the 
 evidence against them being so complete that no defence 
 could be made. 
 
 Elizabeth hesitated long before taking the final step 
 with regard to Mary. Not only the Parliament, but all 
 Protestant England, clamored for the death of the Scot- 
 tish queen, and Elizabeth, yielding at last, ordered her 
 
238 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 to be tried at Fotheringay Castle (to which place she 
 had been removed after the discovery of Babington's 
 conspiracy), by a court held there for the purpose. 
 Before this court, which was composed of both Cath- 
 olics and Protestants, she denied everything; declared 
 that the letters to Babington in her own handwriting had 
 been forged; denied that she had ever received any from 
 him, and defended herself with great spirit and ingenu- 
 ity, but without avail. "The daughter of debate" was 
 condemned, and adjudged worthy of death. 
 
 Parliament ratified the finding of the court, and the 
 people in general were so wildly happy over the verdict, 
 that they rang the bells and lighted bonfires, and went 
 about London streets shouting for joy. Elizabeth, how- 
 ever, though she may in her secret soul have desired 
 Mary's death, was painfully perplexed. She hesitated 
 long before signing the death-warrant, and after this had 
 been done and the fatal paper sent on its way, she tried 
 to lay the blame on her ministers, especially on her 
 unfortunate secretary, Davison, who was thrown into 
 prison and heavily fined for doing his plain duty in the 
 matter. If Elizabeth had boldly taken upon herself the 
 responsibility of her own actions, defending the death of 
 Mary as a necessity of state, she might have been blamed 
 but she would not have been despised. As it is, there 
 is something contemptible in her being willing to share 
 the profit but not the odium of the transaction. "Will- 
 ing to wound and yet afraid to strike." 
 
 Four months passed between the condemnation and 
 the execution of Mary Stuart (October, 1586 — February, 
 3587), and in this time the kings of France and Scotland 
 interceded for her in vain. Her son, James VI., blus- 
 
THE NAVIGATORS. MARY STUART. 239 
 
 tered a good deal, but was easily pacified. He was now 
 twenty-one years old and might have shown some spirit ; 
 but he was of a timorous disposition and did not choose 
 to quarrel with his powerful neighbor. The remonstrances 
 from France passed over Elizabeth as the idle wind. 
 
 Mary Stuart, like many persons who have done ill in 
 their lives, never appeared to more advantage than in 
 her last hours. She was beheaded in the great hall of 
 Fotheringay Castle, where a scaffold had been erected 
 covered with black cloth, an executioner dressed in 
 black velvet standing beside it. Sir Andrew Melville, 
 her ambassador to England in the days of her youth and 
 beauty, was with her to the end. She had wished to 
 have the services of a priest, but this was refused, and 
 instead the Dean of Peterborough exhorted her to 
 become converted to the Protestant faith. She told him 
 not to trouble himself about her, for that as she had 
 lived a Catholic she would die one; and she began to 
 pray in Latin while he was praying in English, neither 
 one taking any notice of the other. Afterward she 
 prayed in English for Christ's afflicted church, for her 
 son and for the Queen of England. The Earl of Kent, 
 one of the functionaries on this occasion, told her to 
 "leave those trumperies." A cloth was pinned over her 
 face by her maids; and then, groping for the block, as 
 Lady Jane Grey had done, she laid down her head, and 
 two strokes severed it from her body. Her little dog, 
 who had stolen upon the scaffold unperceived, was found 
 nestling among the folds of her gown, and refused to 
 leave her dead body. 
 
 And this was the end of beauty without principle, pas- 
 sions without self-restraint, and ability without truthful- 
 
240 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 ness. If Mary Stuart's intellect had been guided by a 
 desire to do right, and her beauty accompanied by sin- 
 cerity and tenderness, there would be a fragrance around 
 her name that would be only the sweeter for her misfor- 
 tunes. As it is, we can pity her sorrows, but we must 
 condemn her crimes. 
 
 Mary died in her forty -fifth year, having been nomi- 
 nally queen since she was five days old, and having 
 reigned after her return from France about seven years. 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 THE ARMADA. IRELAND. DEATH OF THE QUEEN. 
 
 HILIP II. of Spain had for three years been 
 
 making preparations for the conquest of Eng- 
 land, when the "Invincible Armada,"* at last 
 fully equipped for sea, sailed out of the port of Lisbon, t 
 June, 1588. There had been a detention on account of 
 the death of the admiral, who was succeeded by the Duke 
 of Medina Sidonia, a brave soldier, but totally unac- 
 quainted with the sea. No expense had been spared; 
 there were 130 ships, the greater part of them larger 
 and heavier than had ever been used in European war- 
 fare, carrying 33,000 men and 3,000 cannon. The Ar- 
 mada had been more than a month on the way, and the 
 English thought it was not coming at all; when it was 
 seen from the Lizard, J one bright day in July, crowding 
 all sail to enter the English Channel. 
 
 * Armada, the Spanish term for a large war fleet. 
 + Portugal belonged to Spain from 1580 to 1640. 
 % The most southern point of England. 
 
THE ARMADA. IRELAND. 241 
 
 While the Spanish fleet was in preparation, Sir Francis 
 Drake had been hovering off the coast of Spain, and had 
 taken a hundred ships near Cadiz, beside destroying 
 great quantities of provisions and ammunition. In Eng- 
 land, all the available vessels had been made ready, partly 
 by the use of public money and partly by free gifts from 
 the cities and seaport towns. The ships were very small 
 compared to those of the Spaniards, and carried not 
 much more than half as many men. Lord Howard of 
 Effingham was in command of the English fleet; Drake, 
 Hawkins, and Frobisher were among his captains, while 
 Raleigh was in charge of a land force. A camp was 
 formed at Tilbury, near London, and the queen rode 
 among the troops encouraging and animating them. "I 
 know that I have but the body of a weak and feeble 
 woman," said she, "but I have the heart of a king, and 
 of a king of England!" 
 
 The Spanish fleet advanced up the Channel in the form 
 of a crescent, seven miles from tip to tip. Lord Howard 
 had scarcely time to get out of Plymouth harbor before 
 it passed; and fearing that he could not attack the whole 
 fleet to advantage, he contented himself with lying in 
 wait for such vessels as should be separated from the 
 rest, and in this way captured two of the largest galleons, 
 one of which was loaded with treasure. For several 
 nights, beacon -fires had been lighted on various parts of 
 the southern coast, to give notice to the inhabitants of 
 the Spaniards' approach.* By constantly annoying the 
 
 * "Swift to east and swift to west the warning radiance spread — 
 
 High on St. Michael's Mount it shone, it shone on Beachy Head. 
 
 Far o'er the deep the Spaniards saw, along each southern shire, 
 
 Cape beyond cape, in endless range, those twinkling points of fire. " 
 
 — Macaulay, " The Armada. " 
 16 
 
242 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 enemy, hanging on the rear of the fleet and darting in 
 and out with their light and easily-managed vessels while 
 the clumsy Spanish ones were trying to get into position, 
 the English did much damage to the enemy.* One night 
 Howard took eight of his least valuable ships, and, filling 
 them with combustibles, set fire to them and sent them 
 adrift among the Spanish galleons; the latter were seized 
 with a panic, and cutting their cables they fled in con- 
 fusion; the English pursued them, and the next morning 
 found them in all haste speeding away from Calais, where 
 they had taken refuge. 
 
 The Spanish admiral did not dare to return with his 
 demoralized fleet through the Channel. He turned north- 
 ward and made the best of his way through the German 
 Oceant to the Orkneys, followed and harassed by the 
 English ; and had not the ammunition of the latter given 
 out, they might have captured the whole Spanish fleet.. 
 A violent tempest overtook the Armada after it had 
 passed the Orkneys, destroying or crippling many ves- 
 sels; and another drove a part of it on the coast of Ire- 
 land, where such men as reached the shore were butch- 
 ered by the natives. Less than half the ships that had 
 -sailed so proudly out of Lisbon, two months before, ever 
 again saw the coast of Spain. The Invincible Armada 
 was conquered (1588)4 
 
 The joy, the exultation, the heartfelt gratitude of the 
 English may be imagined. Thanksgivings went up from 
 
 * Lord Howard wrote to Walsingham, "Their force is wonder- 
 fully great and strong, and yet we pluck their feathers by little and 
 little." 
 
 + The North Sea. 
 
 % See Kingsley's novel, "Westward Ho!" 
 
THE ARMADA. IRELAND. 243 
 
 every church in the land, and the love and admiration 
 for the queen rose almost to idolatry. On one of the. 
 medals struck to commemorate the great deliverance 
 was a good parody of Caesar's famous despatch. The 
 English one ran: "Venit, vidit, fugit."* 
 
 The queen's pleasure in this victory was tempered by 
 a private grief. The Earl of Leicester, perhaps the only 
 person for whom she ever felt a real affection, died soon 
 after the last Spanish sail disappeared from English 
 waters. His place in her favor was apparently taken by 
 his step-son, the Earl of Essex, a young man of agreeable 
 manners and many accomplishments, and not lacking in 
 fine qualities, though reckless and ill -balanced. Upon 
 one occasion, he so far forgot himself as to turn his back 
 upon her with an insulting laugh when she refused to 
 comply with his wishes. Elizabeth had her own way of 
 treating such offences, and gave him a box on the ear 
 with her jewelled fingers, telling him to "go, and be 
 hanged." After this interchange of courtesies Essex re- 
 tired from court, and was with difficulty persuaded by his 
 friends to make friends again with his royal mistress. 
 
 Meantime, the war with Spain went on. Eight years 
 after the failure of the great Armada, the city of Cadiz 
 was taken and plundered, under the direction of Essex. t 
 fn 1598, Philip II. died, and though no definite peace 
 was made, there was little fighting done during the re- 
 mainder of the queen's life -time. 
 
 * He came, he saw, he fled. 
 
 + Lord Macaulay says of this, that it was "the most brilliant mili- 
 tary exploit achieved on the continent by English arms during the 
 interval w rich elapsed between the battle of Agincourt and that of 
 Blenheim' r ( 141 5-1 704). 
 
244 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 The Irish were at this time still half- savage, and had 
 never become reconciled to English rule.* The Earl of 
 Tyrone, a native chieftain of great ability, headed a re- 
 bellion against Elizabeth, and had already given much 
 trouble when Essex, at his own request, was sent to take 
 command in Ireland. He was not able to bring the war 
 to a conclusion, though he made a truce, during which 
 he left his post, contrary to the queen's express orders, 
 and hastened to London, where he presented himself 
 before her without being announced.t The queen was 
 so startled that she received him graciously, at which he 
 expressed himself much comforted; but when she had 
 had time to think it over she was very indignant at his 
 presumption, and ordered him to be confined to his own 
 house. He, as well as every one else about the court, 
 expected that he would soon be restored to his old posi- 
 tion as her favorite. He was set at liberty, but the 
 queen refused to see him. Every account from Ireland 
 brought fresh news of his misgovernment there, and he 
 was too popular with the English people to be secure 
 from her jealousy. When he asked for a renewal of his 
 monopoly of sweet wines she refused to grant it, saying 
 (though not to him) that "an unruly beast must be 
 
 * Henry VII. 's solution of the problem as it existed in his time, 
 was ingenious. When the Earl of Desmond boldly defied the Eng- 
 lish government, some one in the council said, impatiently, " All 
 Ireland can not rule this man." "Then he shall rule all Ireland, " 
 said the king, and made him Lord Deputy. 
 
 + The chronicle of the time says: "He stayed not till he came 
 to the queen's bedchamber, where he found the queen newly up, 
 with her hair about her face. * * 'Tis much wondered at 
 that he went so boldly to her majesty's presence, she not being 
 ready, and he so full of dirt and mire that his very face wa i full of it. n 
 
THE ARMADA. IRELAND. 245 
 
 stinted in his provender." He was unwise enough to 
 make the remark that "the queen was an old woman as 
 crooked in her mind as she was in her body." Busy- 
 bodies took care to report this speech, which, being 
 made about the vainest woman in Europe, was not likely 
 to increase her good temper. The hot-headed favorite 
 now became a rebel in good earnest. He formed, with 
 a few other persons as foolish as himself, a conspiracy 
 against the queen's government, which was discovered 
 and the chief offenders executed. It was a long time 
 before Elizabeth could make up her mind to sign the 
 death warrant of Essex, and when it was done she re- 
 gretted it for the rest of her life. 
 
 Lord Mountjoy, the successor of Essex in Ireland, 
 found everything there in the worst possible condition, 
 but managed so well that in three years the rebellion was 
 at an end. Yet the submission of Tyrone brought no 
 joy to the queen. Life had lost its zest. Her people 
 no longer greeted her appearance with rapture, as they 
 had done at Tilbury Fort or on one of her earlier "pro- 
 gresses."* They looked on in silence, and she missed 
 the old enthusiastic welcome. For a while after Essex's 
 death the queen kept up the old habits — hunting, danc- 
 ing, travelling, playing on the "virginals" (a kind of an- 
 cestor of the modern piano), and trying to feel that no- 
 thing had changed; but age was creeping upon her, and 
 she was not in sympathy with the more serious temper of 
 the nation. A story is told, not on the best authority, 
 but generally believed, of a bitter experience that came 
 to her some time after her favorite's death. She had 
 given him a ring (so it is said), promising that if he ever 
 
 * Royal journeys through different parts of the kingdom. 
 
246 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 got into trouble and would send her the ring, she would 
 help him. Not receiving it, she came to the conclusion 
 that Essex's obstinacy and "highmindedness" had pre- 
 vented his appealing to her, and therefore allowed him 
 to be executed. A month or two before her death, the 
 Countess of Nottingham, being on her own death-bed, 
 sent for her and confessed that Essex had intrusted her 
 with the ring, and that her husband, who was a political 
 enemy of Essex, had forbidden her to carry it to the 
 queen. Upon this, Elizabeth shook the dying woman in 
 her bed, crying, "God may forgive you, but I never will I" 
 Such is the story. There are several circumstances 
 against it, but a ring, said to be the one about which the 
 tale is told, is still in existence. 
 
 Elizabeth's last weeks were very sad ones. She would 
 sit speechless for days together, in the deepest melan- 
 choly; and once called for a sword, with which she made 
 aimless motions, as if she were guarding against an 
 attack. Sir Robert Cary, her kinsman, visited her, and, 
 says: "She fetched forty or fifty great sighs, which sur- 
 prised me, for in all my lifetime I never knew her fetch 
 a sigh except when the queen of Scots was beheaded." 
 She refused to go to bed, but sat, propped up with 
 cushions, and took no notice of any one. Once she was 
 roused into a moment's exhibition of the old spirit, when 
 Sir Robert Cecil (who was the son of Lord Burleigh, and 
 succeeded him as prime minister) told her she "must" 
 go to bed. "Must!" she exclaimed. "Little man, 
 little man!* thy father, if he had been alive, durst not 
 have used that word !" When the old question of the 
 succession was brought up, and the name of Lord Beau- 
 
 * Cecil was hump -backed and of very small stature. 
 
THE ARMADA. IRELAND. 247 
 
 •champ* (a distant relative of her own) was proposed, 
 she said, "I will have no rascal's son, but a king." 
 ""Rascal" meant a common person; with her, a subject. 
 When she was asked if it should be the king of Scots, 
 she put her hands above her head, to signify a crown, it 
 was said, but could not speak. After this she sank into 
 a lethargy, and died unconscious, March 24, 1603, in 
 the seventieth year of her age and the forty-fifth of her 
 reign. 
 
 This great queen was so wise about some things and 
 so foolish about others, so large-minded and yet so mean, 
 at once so keen-sighted and so blind, that one needs to 
 study her character from many points of view to get a 
 correct idea of it. She loved England with her whole 
 heart; and though wilful and capricious, like her father, 
 did not let these faults interfere with the people's inter- 
 ests. She lacked refinement, and was perfectly indiffer- 
 ent to truth when falsehood would serve her turn better, 
 while her temper was never restrained except by policy.t 
 Abusive and profane words were always at her command, 
 and she never scrupled to use them. Her appetite for 
 flattery was insatiable. Nothing could be too gross for 
 her; at least in social life. If any one tried it at the 
 council-board, he was soon reminded that they were met 
 there for business. Her vanity, even when she was an 
 old woman, made her so jealous of other women that her 
 courtiers often kept their marriages secret for fear of ex- 
 citing her wrath. Leicester, Raleigh, and Essex, all mar- 
 
 * Pronounced Beech'am. 
 
 + The Earl of Huntington complained, in a letter still preserved 
 in the British Museum, that on the occasion of some quarrel she 
 M pinched his wife very sorely. " 
 
248 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 ried without her knowledge and lost her favor by it for a 
 time; and in some other instances she punished cruelly 
 persons who had presumed to marry before getting her 
 leave. She was extravagantly fond of dress, partly, per- 
 haps, because she had thought it more prudent to curb 
 this taste in her youth. We read that when the ladies 
 in Edward VI. ; s time went to meet Mary of Guise with 
 their hair "frounsed, curled, and double -curled," she 
 altered nothing, but "kept her old shamefastness." 
 So she made up for this when she could do as she 
 pleased. Just after her death one of her friends wrote,. 
 "She made no will, neither gave anything away, so that 
 they which shall come after her shall find a well-furnished 
 jewel-case and a rich wardrobe of more than two thou- 
 sand gowns, with all things answerable." Her extreme 
 parsimony, which prevented her giving away the ward- 
 robe full of rich dresses which she could not use, did not 
 keep her from constantly adding to this immense stock. 
 And, indeed, it has been observed since the days of 
 Queen Elizabeth, that persons who spend lavishly on 
 themselves are often the most penurious when it comes 
 to spending for others. 
 
 Yet after all, notwithstanding her faults and follies, 
 Elizabeth was a great queen; perhaps the greatest in 
 authentic history. 
 
SIXTEENTH CENTURY SUMMARY. 249 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 1 6TH CENTURY SUMMARY. JAMES I. 
 
 HAT had the sixteenth century accomplished 
 for England? For one thing, it was more 
 humane at its close than at its beginning. We 
 no longer read of three hundred heads at a time exposed 
 on London Bridge, as was seen by a German traveller in 
 Queen Elizabeth's time. Never again were a hundred 
 thieves condemned to the gallows at once in a single 
 county. The care of the poor had now become part 
 of the public business. "Sturdy beggars" were punished 
 as before, but the old and the helpless were provided 
 for by requiring the well-to-do to give for their support. 
 The struggle went on between the kingly prerogative, 
 or privilege, and the growing sense of the rights of the 
 people as represented by the House of Commons. Lit- 
 tle by little the Tudors had to give way, though we find 
 Elizabeth trying, almost to the end of her life, to control 
 the utterances of Parliament. The habit of respect for 
 royalty was so strong that it required a bold man to 
 bring forward a bill on any topic which the queen had 
 forbidden to be touched; and when one attempted it, 
 he was very likely to land in prison. 
 
 The feeling of old-fashioned loyalty was weakening, 
 year by year. The poor man who, when Elizabeth had 
 ordered his right hand to be struck off for some trivial 
 offence, waved his hat over his head with the left and 
 shouted "God save the queen!" was a type of the class 
 that has never appeared since the Tudors ceased to 
 
250 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 reign. The gilding was rubbing off from the statues of 
 kings, and men saw that after all they were but clay. 
 
 Domestic comfort had advanced somewhat since Henry 
 VII.'s time, though most of it would have appeared 
 "cold comfort" to us. "Hang out your lights!" was 
 still shouted by the watch at nightfall, for there were no 
 street lamps. Almost everybody had chimneys, though 
 not, perhaps, the very poor, as these additions were still 
 considered a luxury. When the queen went in to her 
 dancing-hall, the passage thither was covered with hay, 
 "as was the custom of the court," an observer tells us. 
 We still admire the Elizabethan style of architecture 
 though we modify it internally for the sake of conven- 
 ience. Gray names some of its features with good- 
 humored satire when he writes of Sir Christopher Hat- 
 ton's house as having 
 
 " Rich windows that exclude the light, 
 
 And passages that lead to nothing." 
 
 Another very wealthy man, Sir William Hollis, spent 
 his money in boundless hospitality. For the three win- 
 ter months his house was open, and any man might 
 come and stay three days without declaring his name. 
 Sir William would never dine until one o'clock (common 
 people dined at eleven, and very great ones at twelve), 
 because, he said, a friend might come twenty miles to 
 dine with him, and he " would be loth he should lose 
 his labor." 
 
 The young gentlemen of the time liked to travel occa- 
 sionally (nobody ever thought of a young lady's travel- 
 ling !), and when one came to Lord Burleigh for a license, 
 to do so, he would first question him about England; 
 "and if he found him ignorant, would bid him stay at 
 
SIXTEENTH CENTURY SUMMARY. 251 
 
 home and know his own country first"; an admirable test 
 of one's fitness for travelling. 
 
 A new impulse was given to commerce by the charter 
 granted by Queen Elizabeth to the East India Company 
 {Dec. 31, 1599). It was at first only a trading company, 
 but we shall see it develop into a vast empire. 
 
 In manufactures, great progress was made during the 
 century, and England exported large quantities of cloth 
 to the continent. A pair of knit silk stockings was pre- 
 sented to Queen Elizabeth which pleased her so much 
 that she never afterward wore cloth ones. Pins were 
 also invented, ladies having previously used clasps or 
 skewers. Great sums were expended on rich clothing, 
 and writers complain that in this respect the poor aped 
 the manners of the rich. Cottagers' daughters " are so 
 impudent, that albeit their parents have but one cow, 
 horse or sheep, they will never let them rest till it be 
 sold, to maintain them in their braveries." Queen 
 Elizabeth did not object to having such things said 
 .about the poor, but when the Bishop of London preached 
 before her on the vanity of decking the body too finely, 
 ■she told her ladies that if the bishop held more discourse 
 on such matters she would fit him for heaven, but he 
 should walk thither without a staff, and leave his mantle 
 behind him.* In other words, he should lose his bishopric. 
 
 One practice in the reign of Elizabeth which we should 
 be ashamed to think of as possible, was the unblushing 
 begging of rich people for things that would make them 
 richer. The queen had many such things in her gift; 
 sinecures (offices with salaries but no duties), monopo- 
 lies, forfeited estates, benefits of all sorts for which there 
 
 * In allusion to his pastoral dress. 
 
252* HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 was an endless stretching out of open hands. She said 
 once to Sir Walter Raleigh : 
 
 "When, Sir Walter, will you cease to be a beggar?" 
 
 "When your gracious majesty ceases to be a bene- 
 factor," replied the ready courtier. 
 
 The great writers of Queen Elizabeth's reign need a 
 book to themselves. Stiakspeare, Ben Jonson, and Mar- 
 lowe were among its dramatists; Spenser and Sidney 
 among its poets; Hooker and Bacon among its prose- 
 writers. Thomas Sackville, afterward Lord Buckhurst, 
 but best known as the author of "The Mirror for Magis- 
 trates" and "Gorboduc" (the first English tragedy), was 
 among her most trusted councillors. Roger Ascham,* 
 one of the most learned men in England, was Queen 
 Elizabeth's tutor. His fine treatise on education was 
 published in her reign. The queen had some literary 
 aspirations and wrote one very poor sonnet; but her 
 most important writings were her business letters, where 
 she often breaks out into metaphors and is very fond 
 of proverbs. In writing to an ambassador, instead of 
 telling him to burn her letter as soon as he has read 
 it, she says, "Let this memorial be only committed to> 
 Vulcan's base keeping, without any larger abode than 
 the reading thereof, yea, and with no mention made 
 thereof to any other wight. * * * Seem not fo 
 have had but secretary's letter from me." This is Queen 
 Elizabeth, to the life. It is evident that the ambassador 
 did not obey her injunction on the first point, whatever 
 he may have done as to the others. 
 
 James I. lost no time in setting out for London when 
 the queen's death was reported to him. He was acknowl- 
 
 * Pronounced As'kam. 
 
JAMES I. 253 
 
 edged king without opposition, chiefly through the efforts 
 of Sir Robert Cecil, whom he retained as prime minister 
 and created Earl of Salisbury. On his way from Edin- 
 burgh he bestowed the honor of knighthood upon two 
 hundred and thirty-seven gentlemen who were presented 
 to him, thus bringing the time -honored institution into 
 derision. James was, in fact, so contemptible a person 
 in all ways that affected the honor and welfare of his 
 people, that the English nation soon became disgusted 
 with him, and his reign was one long struggle between 
 their sense of right and his determination to have his 
 own way. He was most unkingly in his looks and man- 
 ners. He had goggle eyes and weak legs, and a habit of 
 nolding his mouth open so that people could see his 
 tongue while he was talking. As he talked a great deal 
 and said many foolish things, his failings were very con- 
 spicuous. He had an immense amount of book-learning, 
 but very little practical common sense, as was shown by 
 his announcing that kings ruled by divine right, and that 
 whatever privileges the subject possessed were due to the 
 condescension of the king. When a man sets out with 
 such a stupid idea as this in an intelligent country like 
 England, we may be sure that the people will make it 
 very uncomfortable for him. 
 
 James soon made himself so disagreeable by his vul- 
 garity, his greed for money, and his insolence, that a con- 
 spiracy was formed within the first year of his reign to 
 dethrone him and place his cousin, Lady Arabella Stuart 
 {daughter of Lord Darnley's brother) on the throne. This 
 was discovered, and some of the actors in it were exe- 
 cuted, while James pardoned others after they had laid 
 their heads on the block. We should scarcely remember 
 
254 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 this plot but that Sir Walter Raleigh was accused of being 
 concerned in it. There was not evidence enough to con- 
 vict him, yet he was sentenced to death and left in the 
 Tower for twelve years — a singular way of administering 
 justice. Sir Edward Coke, the attorney -general, was a 
 bitter enemy of Raleigh, and behaved on the trial with a 
 brutality that has made his name infamous. In the same 
 year (1604) James made peace with Spain, thus ending 
 the long war between the two countries. He also was 
 proclaimed king of "Great Britain, France, and Ireland," 
 though properly there was no sovereign of "Great Britain" 
 until after the union with Scotland (1707). The absurd 
 use of the title "King of France" was kept up for two 
 hundred years longer, not being dropped until the nine- 
 teenth century. 
 
 The year 1605 is memorable as that of the gunpowder 
 plot. The Roman Catholics had expected great favors 
 from James I. (who was so bitterly opposed to Puritan- 
 ism that they thought he would naturally go to the oppo- 
 site extreme) but on finding that the severe laws against 
 themselves were re-enacted by James's first Parliament, 
 a few persons formed a plan for getting rid of the king 
 and the Parliament together. They hired a building 
 adjoining the Houses, and, from the cellar of this, dug 
 with incredible labor a passage through a wall nine feet 
 thick into the vault under the Parliament Chamber. In 
 this vault they stored thirty-six barrels of gunpowder,, 
 which they covered with fagots, so that the whole looked 
 like a great wood-pile. Parliament was to be opened on 
 the 5th of November;* and on the previous day, Lord 
 
 * "Remember, remember the Fifth of November, 
 The Gunpowder Treason and Plot. " — Old song. 
 
JAMES I. 255 
 
 Monteagle, a Roman Catholic peer, received a mysteri- 
 ous letter warning him to keep away from the session on 
 that day, "for though there would be no appearance of 
 any stir, yet I say they shall receive a terrible blow this 
 Parliament, but shall not see who hurts them." Lord 
 Monteagle instantly gave warning to the authorities; and 
 they, judging from the words used that an explosion must 
 be meant, sent to examine the vaults. There they found 
 a tall, dark man with slow matches and touchwood in his 
 pocket, just coming out of the door, and in the cellar a 
 dark-lantern with a lighted candle in it. The man turned 
 out to be Guido Fawkes (commonly called by the Eng- 
 lish name, Guy) who gave a false name, but was made to 
 tell his real one by cruel torture. The plan had been to 
 blow up the entire Parliament, Lords, and Commons, 
 together with the king and his oldest son, Prince Henry, 
 who would be present at the opening. They seemed to 
 have very vague notions of what would come next, but 
 expected, somehow or other, to have a new set of laws 
 made which should favor the Catholics. The chief con- 
 spirators, among whom were Sir Everard Digby and 
 Robert Catesby, both belonging to families of distinc- 
 tion, were executed. Most of the Catholics in England 
 looked with horror on the plot, and several of them, like 
 Lord Monteagle, gave their help in unearthing it. 
 
 In 1607, an event occurred which seemed of very little 
 importance to the English world of that time, but which 
 is a notable fact in our own history; the first permanent 
 English settlement was made in America, at Jamestown 
 (so called in compliment to King James I.), by Captain 
 John Smith and his companions. The king gave the 
 colonists a charter which allowed them to make their 
 
256 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 own laws, under a governor appointed by himself. From 
 this time we date English rule in America. 
 
 Now began the long struggle between King James and 
 his Parliaments which forms the most striking feature of 
 his reign. He called one together only when he needed 
 money; the Parliament regularly demanded that he 
 should reform some of the old abuses of the government, 
 especially the Court of High Commission, and give up 
 some ways of raising money which the Commons thought 
 it high time to do away with. James was obstinate and 
 they were firm, according to our way of looking at it; 
 they voted him only about half as much as he needed to 
 carry on the government, and reminded him that all tax- 
 ation without consent of Parliament was null and void. 
 Then he dissolved the Parliament and went on raising 
 money illegally; but with all his efforts he could not get 
 as much as was needed for his boundless extravagance. 
 Court life was spent in costly pleasures, and his palaces 
 were the scene of a continual round of balls, masques, 
 and feastings, which the low tastes of James and his 
 queen, Anne of Denmark, turned into drunken revels. 
 He could not live without a "favorite"; some man who 
 could entertain him, while the king would go about with 
 his arm round the favorite's neck, "slobbering over him," 
 as we are told, and kissing him in his disgusting fondness, 
 calling him by pet names, and scandalizing all decent 
 people by his behavior. The sums squandered on these 
 degraded objects of his infatuation are beyond belief. 
 On one occasion he gave his friend Carr an order on the 
 treasury for ^20,000. Lord Salisbury (Robert Cecil) 
 had the money counted out in silver and spread out in a 
 room where the king was to meet him. "Whose is that 
 
JAMES I. 257 
 
 money?" asked James. "It was yours until your Majesty 
 gave it away," answered the minister. This "object 
 lesson" had the desired effect. James swore that the 
 favorite should have only a few hundreds of it, and kept 
 the rest himself. The reform was not permanent, how- 
 ever, and the grasping and the wasting went on as be- 
 fore. Carr, who had been created Duke of Somerset by 
 the king, wished to marry the wife of the Earl of Essex 
 {son of Queen Elizabeth's favorite), who for this purpose 
 obtained a divorce from her husband. This was opposed 
 by Sir Thomas Overbury (one of James's courtiers), who 
 tried vainly to prevent the marriage. Somerset and his 
 wife caused Overbury to be poisoned, and were afterward 
 sentenced to death for the crime. If they had been poor 
 people they would have died on the gallows; but being 
 "noble," James only banished them from his royal pres- 
 ence and gave them an income of $20,000 a year. There 
 is poetical justice in the fact that they were very unhappy, 
 and hated each other cordially for the rest of their lives. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 THE BLOODY HAND. RALEIGH. TRANSLATION OF THE 
 
 BIBLE. 
 
 ING JAMES, like most extravagant persons, 
 was always short of money; and an in- 
 genious courtier suggested a way to replenish 
 his finances* by creating a title of honor between the 
 knights and the lowest order of nobility, the barons. 
 
 * Pronounced finan-ces — accent on the second syllable. 
 17 
 
258 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 These new dignitaries were to be called baronets. They 
 would be addressed by the title " Sir," like knights, and 
 their wives would be called "Lady;" the difference being 
 that the title was hereditary. The king caught eagerly at 
 the idea, and made as many baronets as could be found 
 willing to purchase the privilege, each one being required 
 to pay a thousand pounds to the king, besides fees tc* 
 various officers. James wished to bestow the honor on 
 two hundred gentlemen; about half that number availed 
 themselves of the offer. A scheme of colonizing the prov- 
 ince of Ulster, in Ireland, with English settlers, who- 
 were to take possession of the land forfeited by rebels,, 
 was the excuse for this device for raising money. The 
 infant colony, it was said, needed a military guard to pro- 
 tect it from its savage neighbors; but the money raised 
 by the sale of baronetcies did not go to Ulster; it re- 
 mained in the king's pocket. The arms of Ulster were 
 a bloody hand, and this, being adopted for the new order,, 
 has been the crest appropriated to baronets ever since. 
 The death of Lord Salisbury ( 1 6 1 2) removed the prin- 
 cipal check upon James's extravagance, and his govern- 
 ment became even less respected than before. Henry, 
 Prince of Wales, the king's oldest son, died soon after- 
 ward from a fever. This young man was very fond of 
 Sir Walter Raleigh, whom he often visited in the Tower; 
 and it is reported that he said nobody but his father 
 would keep such a bird in such a cage. James had now 
 only two children left; Prince Charles, who afterward 
 became King of England, and the Princess Elizabeth, 
 married to the Elector Palatine, a German sovereign 
 ruling over a territory nearly corresponding to the more 
 recent Grand Duchy of Baden. It is through this prin- 
 
THE BLOODY HAND. RALEIGH. 259 
 
 cess that the present royal family of England take their 
 title to the throne. 
 
 After the dismissal of Somerset, King James took up 
 a new favorite, George Villiers, who was, like Carr, hand- 
 some and agreeable, but had far more ability and daring. 
 He spoke out his mind with great freedom, and soon ac- 
 quired unbounded influence over his master. This made 
 him hated by other courtiers, who could get nothing 
 from the king without first securing the favor of Villiers, 
 and distrusted by the Parliament. James advanced his 
 favorite from one dignity to another until he made him 
 Duke of Buckingham, thus securing for his benefit the 
 title of one of the proudest families in England. 
 
 All this time, Sir Walter Raleigh had been languishing 
 in prison. It is said that his imprisonment was not severe 
 and that his wife was allowed to be with him. He was 
 very industrious, and not only wrote the "History of the 
 World" during his confinement, but amused himself with 
 experiments in chemistry, in which he was very skilful. 
 Though he was now sixty- three years old, he was full of 
 vigor and enthusiasm, and in an evil hour he persuaded 
 the king to allow him to go to Guiana, in South America, 
 where, he said, he knew of some gold mines. Gold al- 
 ways opened a way to James's heart; he consented to 
 release Raleigh, though without pardoning him, and sent 
 him out on his quest. 
 
 What was called Guiana in Raleigh's time included 
 what we now call Venezuela, and it was somewhere on 
 the Orinoco that Raleigh expected to find the mine. As # 
 the country belonged to Spain, the English could have 
 no right to enter it except peaceably, and Raleigh was 
 warned that there must be no fighting. The expedition 
 
2G0 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 proved a failure; no gold mine was found, and Raleigh's 
 son was killed in an encounter with the Spaniards. 
 
 The Spanish minister in London, whose brother had 
 been killed at St. Thomas (a Spanish fort taken and de- 
 stroyed by one of Raleigh's captains while Sir Walter was 
 ill on his own ship), now demanded the punishment of 
 Raleigh for having attacked Spain in time of peace. The 
 mean, cowardly James, wishing to marry his son to a 
 Spanish princess, determined to sacrifice Raleigh; and 
 instead of accusing him of his real offence, which was 
 carrying out the king's wishes with too much zeal, he 
 had the baseness to order the execution of the sentence 
 passed against him fourteen years before. Raleigh met 
 his death bravely and calmly, saying of the axe that was 
 to behead him, "'Tis a sharp remedy, but it is a cure for 
 all ills." No action of James's reign, though he commit- 
 ted many disgraceful ones, has left so deep a stain upon 
 his name as this (1618). 
 
 In 1620, we come to another of those landmarks of 
 time which stand out so distinctly in our sight — the sail- 
 ing of the "Pilgrim Fathers" in the Mayflower. These 
 emigrants belonged to that class of Puritans called 
 "Brownists" from their founder, or "Separatists," because 
 they wished to separate themselves entirely from the 
 Church of England. Driven from their own country 
 by persecution, they settled for awhile at Leyden, in 
 Holland, and then, stopping for a short time in England, 
 sailed from Plymouth, in Devonshire, to Plymouth, in 
 Massachusetts Bay. 
 
 Frederic V., the Elector Palatine, who had married 
 James's daughter, Elizabeth, was at this time (1620) in 
 trouble from having accepted an invitation from the Pro- 
 
THE BLOODY HAND. RALEIGH 261 
 
 testants of Bohemia to become their king. He was de- 
 feated by the legitimate claimant; and all Europe was 
 looking on, expecting that James would send help to his 
 son-in-law, whose cause was well understood to be the 
 cause of Protestantism. The king's theories, however, 
 did not permit that. According to them, the Catholic 
 King of Bohemia was so by Divine right; therefore, his 
 subjects must not try to get rid of him and take a Pro- 
 testant in his place. This added to James's unpopu- 
 larity in England, and he soon came to an open quarrel 
 with the Commons. They became more out- spoken 
 than ever, and when James told them that they had no 
 rights except such as he chose to allow them, they an- 
 swered with spirit that the rights and liberties of the peo- 
 ple of England were quite independent of the king, and 
 that they had, and ought to have, freedom "to propound, 
 treat, reason, and bring to conclusion" whatever con- 
 cerned the welfare of the country. This is exactly the 
 spirit of the "Declaration of Rights" by our own Conti- 
 nental Congress, and of all the other sturdy utterances 
 which preceded and led up to our Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence. James was furiously angry. He sent for the 
 journal of the House of Commons, and tore out the re- 
 cord of the offensive resolution. "I will govern accord- 
 ing to the common weal," said he, "but not according to 
 the common will." He dissolved the Parliament; but it 
 was like shutting up a smouldering fire. It is checked 
 for the moment; but sooner or later the flame will burst 
 forth, and the ruin will follow all the more surely. 
 
 One measure had been carried through by this Parlia- 
 ment which we can not even now think of without pain. 
 This was the impeachment, for bribery and corruption, 
 
262 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 of Francis Bacon, Viscount St. Albans, Lord Chancellor 
 of England; the "wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind/' 
 as Pope calls him. It was not that he had been more 
 corrupt than others, but that Parliament was determined 
 to make an example, and unfortunately Bacon was open 
 to some charges of this kind. The bribes he had taken 
 had been few, but they were enough to convict him. 
 This truly great man, occupying the highest position it 
 was possible for a subject to hold in England, was de- 
 graded from his office, sentenced to pay a fine of £4°,- 
 000, and to be imprisoned during the king's pleasure. 
 The latter punishment was remitted by James, but the 
 far greater one, the loss of his good name, could not be 
 spared him. He lived five years longer, a retired life, 
 devoted to study and scientific pursuits, happier, per- 
 haps, than he had been in the feverish struggle for wealth. 
 His extravagance had undone him. 
 
 Disappointed in getting money from Parliament, James 
 now began intriguing with Spain for the marriage of his 
 son, Prince Charles, to the Infanta (princess) of that 
 country — a measure which he knew to be most distaste- 
 ful to his subjects. "I must have money," said this 
 worthy king, "and if my people won't give it to me, I 
 must get it from Spain in the shape of a dowry." After 
 some negotiation with the Spanish court, the prince, or, as 
 his father delighted to call him, Baby Charles, set off for 
 Spain with Buckingham, whom the king nicknamed 
 "Steenie,"* and they travelled there in disguise under 
 the names of John and Thomas Smith. As their coming 
 had not been announced, much surprise was felt in Spain 
 
 * Sir Walter Scott's novel, " The Fortunes of Nigel, " treats of 
 life in England under James I. 
 
THE BLOODY HAND. RALEIGH 263 
 
 at so un-royal a proceeding; but they were politely re- 
 ceived, and Prince Charles was allowed to see the 
 Infanta. The negotiations came to nothing, and the 
 visitors went back to England very much displeased. 
 Buckingham, who had behaved at the Spanish court with 
 such insolent familiarity as to disgust every one who saw 
 him, pretended, on his return, that he had prevented the 
 match, and Prince Charles, the most untruthful of men, 
 •supported him in this statement. James was inconsol- 
 able at the loss of two millions of gold crowns, which he 
 was to have had with the Infanta, but the Commons, 
 thankful to get rid of the marriage at any price, immedi- 
 ately voted him a large sum of money, and all seemed 
 to be prospering when the king was attacked by an ague, 
 and died after a few days' illness. He was in the fifty- 
 ninth year of his age, and had reigned twenty-two years 
 in England. 
 
 It is hard to be just to James the First. His personal 
 qualities were so disagreeable and many of his notions 
 so foolish that they obscure his better qualities. He had 
 not the rough strength of the Plantagenets nor the 
 dignity of the Tudors. He was personally a coward, and 
 wore a thickly padded coat for fear some one should 
 stab him; at the same time he was slovenly in his habits 
 and an habitual profane swearer. In government, he 
 seemed to lack all sense of responsibility, his vanity 
 making him believe that it was enough for him to will a 
 thing to make that the only thing possible to be done. 
 His friends called him the British Solomon ; Henry IV. 
 of France said he was "the wisest fool in Europe." 
 Among other efforts to interfere with people's personal 
 rights was his trying to prevent the use of tobacco, which 
 
264 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 had by this time grown into great favor. James was very- 
 fond of writing books, and in his "Counterblast to To- 
 bacco" describes the use of that weed as being a custom 
 "loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to 
 the brain, and injurious to the lungs." King James's own 
 contributions to learning are now merely matters of 
 curiosity; the great addition to the stock of the world's 
 literature in his reign was the translation of the Bible 
 made by his order and published in 1611. This is the 
 "Authorized Version" — the one now in common use. 
 Forty-seven learned men were employed on it for four 
 years, and by its means our English language has been 
 fixed in its present form. 
 
 Many famous dramatists and poets lived in James I.'s 
 reign, some of them belonging also partly to Elizabeth's. 
 Shakspeare did not die until 16 16; Bacon and Raleigh 
 come in both centuries. Names of lesser note must be 
 learned in connection with English literature. Among 
 men of science perhaps next to Bacon, stands Dr. Harvey,, 
 discoverer of the circulation of the blood. It is said 
 that he lost practice by putting forth so absurd an idea. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 CHARLES I. "THE THOROUGH." THE LONG PARLIAMENT. 
 
 OON after his accession, Charles I. brought 
 home his bride, Henrietta Maria, the daughter 
 of Henry IV. of France and sister of Louis 
 XIII. She was only sixteen, and brought in her train a 
 great company of French courtiers, and twenty- nine 
 
CHARLES I. THE LONG PARLIAMENT. 265 
 
 priests, so that the English were at once prejudiced 
 against her. 
 
 Charles was now twenty-five years old (1625). A 
 Parliament was promptly summoned, for James had left 
 the country without money and in debt. The first de- 
 mand of the Commons was for a redress of grievances; 
 they demanded stricter laws in regard to religion, and 
 wished to know for what purpose the king was going to 
 use the money he asked for. Haughtily declining to 
 answer this, he disolved the Parliament (1625), and pro- 
 ceeded to levy taxes on his own authority, in defiance of 
 the laws. Buckingham undertook an expedition for the 
 relief of the Huguenots in La Rochelle,* but it was a 
 complete failure, with no result but an immense increase 
 of debt ^1627). The Commons sent a "Remonstrance" 
 to the king, in which they complained that the conduct 
 of the war had "extremely wasted that stock of honor 
 that was left unto this kingdom, sometime terrible to all 
 other nations, now declining in contempt beneath the 
 meanest." As they further demanded the dismissal of 
 the Duke of Buckingham, the second Parliament was dis- 
 missed like the first (1626). A second expedition was 
 about to sail for France in aid of the Huguenots; Buck- 
 ingham, in spite of his evident incapacity, being again 
 put in command, when he was assassinated by John Fel- 
 ton, a lieutenant in the navy who was angry at being 
 refused promotion. The king wept; the people shouted 
 for joy. The Earl of Lindsey took Buckingham's place, 
 made another failure, and the starving garrison of La 
 Rochelle surrendered to the Catholics. 
 
 One more Parliament (whom Charles, on dismissing 
 
 * See "A Short History of France," p. 214. 
 
H6Q HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 them, called "a set of vipers") closes the first period of 
 his reign. It presented to the king the famous "Petition 
 of Right," a sort of re-statement of the Magna Charta, 
 which he was forced to sign. He ventured on an im- 
 prudent exercise of his prerogative by committing to the 
 Tower several members who opposed his wishes. Some 
 of them were released on bail, but Sir John Eliot, refus- 
 ing to make any submission, was kept in prison until he 
 died, three years later, of a disease brought on by his 
 close confinement He is often called the first martyr in 
 the cause of English liberty. 
 
 Among the "grievances" of which redress was demand- 
 ed were two illegal courts; the Star- Chamber, which 
 dealt with political offenders, and the Court of High 
 Commission (dating from Elizabeth's day) which judged 
 ecclesiastical cases. The Star- Chamber had long been 
 in existence, but had never until now been so scandal- 
 ously misused. Men who were brought before these 
 courts were condemned to punishments far beyond any 
 which would have been inflicted in an ordinary court of 
 justice. Crushing fines, whipping, branding, slicing off 
 of ears in the pillory, and slitting of noses, besides in- 
 definite imprisonment, were among the sentences passed 
 on persons who spoke or wrote anything against the 
 king's majesty or against the established church; and 
 there was no redress. 
 
 For eleven years (i 629-1 640), Charles ruled without 
 a Parliament, and by means which the Petition of Right, 
 signed by himself, had declared to be illegal. His chosen 
 ministers during this time were Thomas Wentworth, who 
 had begun his career as an ardent friend of liberty, and 
 Dr. William Laud, lately made Archbishop of Canter- 
 
CHARLES I. THE LONG PARLIAMENT. 267 
 
 bury. These two men concerted with Charles a system 
 which they called "The Thorough," and which, when 
 ■carried out, was intended to reduce every man in the 
 kingdom, body and soul, into complete subjection. 
 Wentworth forgot all about the people's liberties after he 
 became chief minister of the king, and Laud had but one 
 wish, that of establishing the English liturgy, by force if 
 need be, throughout the length and breadth of the land. 
 Being in need of money, Charles now proceeded to 
 levy tonnage and poundage* on his own authority, and 
 also demanded ship-money — a tax for the equipment of 
 a navy — from the whole kingdom. In addition to these 
 foe granted monopolies (of course in return for large pay- 
 ments of money) though the Parliament had made all 
 monopolies illegal and had forever abolished them.t 
 John Hampden, a gentleman from Buckinghamshire, 
 refused to pay the ship-money, and brought the matter 
 before the law-courts. His share was only twenty shil- 
 lings, equal to $5, and he spent at least a hundred times 
 as much in defending the case, which was decided against 
 him; but his resistance awakened people to a sense of 
 their danger. The attacks on their pockets, however, 
 did not press so heavily on the English as the attacks on 
 their religion. James I. had issued a "Book of Sports" 
 which specified certain games as lawful to be played on 
 ■Sunday. Charles's Parliaments, being strongly Puritan 
 
 * Duties on articles imported from foreign countries. 
 
 + Speaking of the monopolists, who made their own prices for the 
 •most necessary commodities, like soap and salt, a member of Parlia- 
 ment said, " They sup in our cup, they dip in our dish, they sit by 
 our fire; we find them in the dye-vat, the wash-bowls and the pow- 
 •dering-tub. They have marked and sealed us from head to foot. " 
 
268 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 in sentiment, had forbidden Sunday pastimes. The king 
 now issued a proclamation authorizing such sports, which 
 he required every minister to read aloud from his pulpit. 
 One of them did so, and at the close of the reading said,. 
 "You have now heard the commandment of God and the 
 commandment of man; obey which you please." Most 
 of the Puritan clergymen refused to comply, and were 
 turned out of their parishes by the Court of High Com- 
 mission. Many of them took refuge in New England, 
 where they could worship God according to their own 
 consciences. England's loss was America's gain. 
 
 At the same period with the Puritan exodus, a different 
 class of religious believers were finding a home on our 
 shores. Lord Baltimore, a high-minded Roman Catholic, 
 wishing to provide a refuge for the persecuted people of 
 his own belief, obtained from Charles (1632) a grant of 
 lands on the shores of Chesapeake Bay, where a thriving 
 colony was established which was named Maryland, after 
 Charles's queen, Henriette Marie. Lord Baltimore was 
 the first to give to the world the noble spectacle of a, 
 colony founded on complete religious toleration. 
 
 In Scotland, Laud's attempts to enforce Episcopacy- 
 were not so successful as in England. He prepared a. 
 liturgy for the Scottish Church, modeled on that of Eng- 
 land, and a day was appointed for its first use. A large 
 congregation was assembled in the cathedral of St. Giles, 
 in Edinburgh, and the dean began to read the service. 
 Instantly cries of "A Pope! A Pope! Antichrist!" filled 
 the air, and an enraged woman named Jenny Geddes 
 flung a stool at the dean's head. The uproar was. so- 
 great that the meeting broke up in confusion. A cove- 
 nant was drawn up, signed by great numbers of the 
 
CHARLES L THE LONG PARLLAMENT. 269 
 
 Scots, binding themselves to resist all efforts to interfere 
 with their religion. Charles offered some concessions, 
 but, as usual, was too late, and only succeeded in show- 
 ing his weakness. The next year (1638), in a general 
 assembly which met at Glasgow, Episcopacy, the Court 
 of High Commission in Scotland, and the Liturgy were 
 all abolished at a single stroke, every one being required 
 to sign the covenant or be turned out of the church.* 
 
 So matters wore along until the year 1640, when 
 Charles, having exhausted his resources, t was obliged to 
 summon a Parliament, after an interval of eleven years. 
 He made his demand at once for supplies, but the tire- 
 some Commons declined to consider that question until 
 they had talked over their "grievances." They dis- 
 cussed illegal imprisonments, ship-money, tonnage and 
 poundage, and various other things; and there is no 
 knowing to what length their perversity would have car- 
 ried them, if the king had not tried his old remedy and 
 dissolved the Parliament after a session of three weeks. 
 
 It was a foolish thing to do, and Charles knew this as 
 soon as he had done it. The ill-feeling against his two 
 ministers was increasing every day. Laud was consid- 
 ered no better than a papist. In his zeal, he had restored 
 many of those forms and practices of the Romish Church 
 which were most abhorrent to the Puritans. Crucifixes, 
 vestments, genuflexions, all that belonged to an elab- 
 orate ritual, % were things without which, in his mind, re- 
 
 * See Sir Walter Scott's novel, "A Legend of Montrose" for ref- 
 erences to the condition of Scotland at this time. 
 
 + Pronounced resour'ces; accent on the second syllable. 
 
 X In regard to Scotland he remarked, ' ' They have no religion 
 there, that I can see ! " 
 
270 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 ligion could not be; and he went so far that the pope 
 had privately offered to make him a cardinal if he wished 
 to become reconciled to the Church of Rome. But he 
 had no such wish ; he simply desired to establish the 
 ritual of the Church of England as he thought it ought 
 to be, and then force every man, woman, and child in 
 the British dominions to conform to it. Wentworth, now 
 created Earl of Strafford, was a tyrant at heart; and all 
 the authors of "The Thorough" were riding post-haste 
 to their own destruction. 
 
 On November 3d, 1640, Charles called together his 
 last Parliament. As it sat for thirteen years, it is called 
 in history, " The Long Parliament." Its first business 
 was to send for the poor wretches who were still pining 
 under sentences from the Star- Chamber and the Court 
 of High Commission. Dr. Leighton, a clergyman of 
 the Church of Scotland, who had dared to write against 
 prelacy, and who had now passed ten years of his life- 
 sentence in prison, was brought to London. He had 
 been whipped, pilloried, had his ears cut off and each 
 side of his nose slit, and was branded on each cheek. 
 Mutilated, deaf, and blind, he was set at liberty, and re- 
 ceived some compensation in money. William Prynne, sl 
 zealous Puritan writer, had put forth a book against the 
 stage, and as Queen Henrietta Maria was very fond of 
 the theatre, this book was taken as an insult to her. He 
 too had lost his ears and was serving a life-sentence in 
 prison when a decree of Parliament released him. The- 
 Commons then condemned, under the name of "Delin- 
 quents," all who had been in any way employed in car- 
 rying out illegal acts, and Laud and Strafford were thrown 
 into the Tower on the charge of treason. Before their 
 
CHARLES I. THE LONG PARLLAMENT. 271 
 
 trial came on, Parliament passed a law to abolish all 
 images, altars, and crucifixes, in consequence of which 
 Edward L's beautiful Charing Cross was torn down, 
 and also the gilded one in Cheapside. The order 
 was carried out so ruthlessly that many things were 
 destroyed beside the crosses, and we miss much lovely 
 stained glass and exquisite carving, the fruit of years 
 of labor on the part of those who thought they were 
 serving God. 
 
 While this was going on, Strafford's case was taken up. 
 As there was some difficulty in proving the charges 
 against him, the impeachment was changed to a bill of 
 attainder, where the charge does not need to be proved, 
 but is passed, like any other law, by the Lords and Com- 
 mons, the king giving his consent. Pym, the leading 
 orator of the House of Commons, brought forward the 
 charge against Strafford, who defended himself with great 
 ability, but was condemned, as had been intended from 
 the beginning. Strafford wrote a letter to the king, gen- 
 erously bidding him consent to his death, if by so doing 
 he could make matters easier for himself; and Charles, 
 always weak where he should have been firm, and ob- 
 stinate where he should have yielded, basely gave his 
 assent to the execution. 
 
 Strafford had not expected that the king would take 
 him at his word, and exclaimed bitterly, " Put not your 
 trust in princes !" but he met his fate with dignity and 
 composure. An eye-witness says that he walked to the 
 scaffold with the step and manner of a general marching 
 at the head of an army, rather than the demeanor of a 
 condemned criminal. As he passed the window of the 
 room where Laud was confined, he knelt down and asked 
 
272 ■ HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 his blessing. The archbishop was kept four years in 
 prison before he followed his friend to the block. 
 
 On the same day with the order for Strafford's execu- 
 tion, the king signed the most important bill of the ses- 
 sion; namely, one stating that Parliament should not from 
 that time forth be dissolved nor adjourned without its 
 own consent, and that the king was bound to call it 
 together at least once in three years. The Star- Cham- 
 ber and the Court of High Commission were abolished; 
 and the Houses, feeling that they had done enough for 
 one session, adjourned. 
 
 A frightful rebellion now broke out in Ireland, where 
 the natives were joined by the ''English of the Pale,"* 
 and excesses committed too horrible to tell. The king 
 was accused of encouraging this rebellion in order that 
 he might raise money to quell it, and though this seems 
 impossible to believe, Charles's faithlessness and insin- 
 cerity were so well known that the Commons paid no 
 attention to his denial. They framed a " Remonstrance," 
 setting forth his illegal measures and his various acts of 
 tyranny, and brought out the fact that unless some means 
 could be devised for putting an end to them, their liberty 
 would be a thing of the past. There was a tremendous 
 opposition to the measure. For twelve hours the debate 
 lasted, and, for the first time in the history of Parliament, 
 lights were brought in while it was in session. Mem- 
 bers on both sides drew their swords, and only the good 
 management of Hampden kept the peace. At midnight 
 
 * "The Pale" was a district in the eastern part of Ireland which 
 had been occupied by English settlers for hundreds of years. The 
 inhabitants were Catholics, and were more in sympathy with the 
 Irish than with their English masters. 
 
CIVIL WAR. MARS TON MOOR. NASEBY. 273 
 
 the Remonstrance was passed by a small majority, and 
 the next day copies of it were sent all over England. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 CIVIL WAR. MARSTON MOOR. NASEBY. 
 
 ARLIAMENT was now divided into two dis- 
 tinct parties, one for and one against the king. 
 If he could even then have followed a straight- 
 forward course, and given up his idea of "divine right/' 
 all might have gone smoothly again; but such a course 
 was impossible to him. His one idea was to be able to 
 rule without interference, and he seemed to learn nothing 
 from experience. 
 
 While public feeling was in an excited and irritable 
 state, the king ventured on a step which threw all his 
 previous indiscretions into the shade. Accusing of high- 
 treason five members of the House of Commons, includ- 
 ing Hampden and Pym, and one of the Upper House, 
 Lord Kimbolton, he sent a sergeant-at-arms to the Com- 
 mons, demanding that the five members should be de- 
 livered into his custody. The members were in their 
 seats, but remained silent when called upon, and the 
 speaker ordered the officer to withdraw. The next day 
 the king came himself and demanded the five members, 
 who had, by direction of the House, absented themselves. 
 Charles asked where they were. The speaker, Lenthall, 
 fell on his knees, saying that he had no eyes to see nor 
 tongue to speak but as the House commanded him. 
 "Well," said the king good-humoredly, looking round the 
 18 
 
274 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 House, "I see the birds are flown, but I expect you to 
 send them to me as soon as they return." As he passed 
 out he heard cries of "Privilege ! Privilege !" which meant 
 that he was infringing upon the rights of the members. 
 On cooler reflection, Charles felt that he had gone too* 
 far. He made an apology to the House and withdrew 
 his charges against the members, but he could not calm, 
 the excitement he had raised. 
 
 The Commons seized the magazine at Hull, and took, 
 possession of the Tower of London. They also passed 
 a bill assuming entire control of the militia. This the 
 king refused to sign, and both sides prepared for war. 
 
 The enthusiasm for the Parliament, among its sup- 
 porters, was unbounded. Money poured in for the rais- 
 ing of troops. Immense quantities of plate were sent to 
 be melted up, and so many small articles of personal use 
 were contributed that it was called in derision "the 
 thimble and bodkin war." The queen raised some 
 money in Holland by selling her jewels, and the Royal- 
 ists were not behindhand in making sacrifices. All felt 
 that the country was preparing for a momentous struggle. 
 
 The difference between the two parties now grew 
 more marked than ever. Those on the king's side took 
 the name of Cavaliers, while those belonging to the 
 Parliament were called Roundheads, because they gener- 
 ally wore their hair cropped close. Most of trie nobility 
 were royalists, though the Earl of Essex (son of Eliza- 
 beth's favorite) was made general of the Parliamentary 
 forces. Having collected as many men as he could, 
 Charles set up his royal standard at Nottingham (1642). 
 
 Prince Rupert (son of Charles's sister and the Elector 
 Palatine) began the war by routing a small body of Par- 
 
CIVIL WAR. MARS TON MOOR. NASEBY. 215 
 
 liamentary cavalry at Worcester. The first general battle 
 was an indecisive one at Edgehill, where the Earl of 
 Lindsey, the royal general, was mortally wounded. In 
 a battle at Chalgrove Field (1643), otherwise unim- 
 portant, the Parliamentary party lost the great patriot 
 Hampden, who was deeply regretted by both sides. His 
 moderation and tact were invaluable in such a struggle; 
 and, had he lived, might have changed the issue of the 
 war.* On the king's side a loss almost equally great 
 was that of Lord Falkland, who was killed at Newbury. 
 Several other battles were fought this year, gained 
 mostly by the Royalists, who were far superior to their 
 opponents in military experience and training. The 
 Parliamentary army, as yet, was made up largely of the 
 enthusiastic but untrained rabble, and had little of that 
 material which afterward made them invincible. By the 
 efforts of Sir Henry Vane (the younger) an alliance was 
 entered into with the Scots, by which their "Solemn 
 League and Covenant" to fight to the death against 
 popery, prelacy (by which they meant the Church of 
 England), superstition, and profanity, was made equally 
 binding on the English. The House of Commons in 
 England swore to observe this agreement, and the name 
 "Covenanter" became a party watch- word, binding the 
 subscribers to one another as with bonds of steel. 
 
 All this time there had been serving in the Parliamen- 
 tary army a man who, though as yet undistinguished, was 
 destined to play a more important part in England than 
 any other man has ever filled there. This was Oliver 
 
 * A locket was found on Hampden's body, inscribed : 
 "Not against the King I fight, 
 Butyfrr the King and country's right." 
 
276 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Cromwell, a plain country gentleman, who had begun his 
 public life in the Parliament of 1628. His rustic air and 
 ill-fitting clothes caused some of the members to look on 
 him with contempt, and one of them asked Hampden, 
 "Who is that sloven?" Hampden told him, adding, "If 
 we should ever come to a breach with the king, that 
 sloven will be the greatest man in England." Cromwell 
 was Hampden's cousin, and the two men had formed a 
 plan of settling in America. It is said that they had 
 actually embarked, but were forced back by an order of 
 council. Cromwell was a man of an intensely religious 
 spirit and a wonderful power of influencing other men. 
 He soon gained such an ascendency over the solid men 
 of his own party that great numbers of them entered the 
 army, giving it a character of dignity which it had here- 
 tofore lacked. Cromwell had entered it as a colonel of 
 cavalry, and had drilled his regiment until his men re- 
 ceived and deserved their name of "Ironsides." These 
 Ironsides were all "men of religion." If they were not 
 so before, they caught the spirit of their surroundings and 
 became as ardent in devotion as they had before been in 
 dissipation. "They are a lovely company," Cromwell 
 says. "Not a man swears but he pays his twelve pence." 
 No drunkenness was allowed, nor any of the other vices 
 to which soldiers are addicted; their recreation consisted 
 in listening to a godly discourse, and when they fought, 
 they felt that "the Spirit of the Lord was upon them." 
 If any man proved himself unworthy of belonging to 
 such a body, or was not amenable to discipline, he was 
 dismissed at once. "A few honest men are better than 
 numbers," said Cromwell. In the same letter he writes, 
 "I had rather have a plain russet- coated captain that 
 
CIVIL WAR. MARSTON MOOR. NASEBY. 277 
 
 knows what he fights for and loves what he knows, than 
 that which you call 'a gentleman' and is nothing else. I 
 honor a gentleman that is so indeed I" 
 
 Charles was daily losing ground. Prince Rupert, a 
 brave but rash young soldier, insisted upon giving battle 
 to the enemy at Marston Moor, contrary to the advice cf 
 the Marquis of Newcastle, his superior in command. 
 Here the royal army was completely routed, chiefly by 
 means of Cromwell and his Ironsides. "God made them 
 as stubble to our swords," he wrote to a friend the same 
 evening. Newcastle, in disgust, abandoned the king's 
 cause and left the country. 
 
 On the other hand, the divisions in the Parliamentary 
 party itself had now become fatal to any unity of action. 
 At first, those who differed from the Established Church 
 were mostly Presbyterians, but the sect called Independ- 
 ents, to which Cromwell belonged, was rapidly advancing 
 in power and influence. A part of them wished to abolish 
 both monarchy and aristocracy, from which they took the 
 name of "Root-and-Branch" men. Cromwell, wishing 
 to get rid of certain influential members of Parliament, 
 induced it to pass a so-called "Self-denying Ordinance," 
 making it impossible to hold a seat in Parliament and a 
 position in the army at the same time. Acting upon this, 
 many of the members resigned their commands in the 
 army, though an exception was made in Cromwell's favor. 
 
 He now set himself about raising the whole army to 
 the standard of his own Ironsides. What he called "The 
 New Model" was introduced into it, maintained by a 
 rigorous discipline and inspired by a religious zeal and 
 fervor never equalled in history. Each officer was a 
 chaplain; the soldiers spent their spare hours in prayer 
 
278 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 and in the study of the Scriptures, and in their talks to- 
 gether discussed the state of their souls and encouraged 
 one another to greater zeal. They marched to battle 
 singing hymns to the accompaniment of military bands. 
 
 The greatest battle of the war was fought at Naseby, 
 where the king commanded in person (June, 1645) an d 
 was defeated by Cromwell. During all this time efforts 
 were made to treat with Charles, but his habitual dupli- 
 city made any arrangement impossible. At Naseby his 
 cabinet was taken, where letters were found more dam- 
 aging than the loss of a battle. He was discovered to 
 have been asking for soldiers from abroad, in spite of his 
 most solemn assurances to the contrary; his statements 
 to the queen were exactly opposite to those he made to 
 his enemies, and he boasted of how well he had been 
 able to deceive the Parliament, and how he would crush 
 out all opposition when the power was in his own hands 
 again. At length, hopeless of making terms with them, 
 he fled to Newark and put himself under the protection 
 of the Scots, who were encamped at that place. They 
 required him to sign orders to give up to them all the 
 castles still occupied by his troops, and after a short in- 
 terval they made an agreement with the English Parlia- 
 ment to deliver him into their hands, on payment of a 
 sum of money due to them for the expenses of the war. 
 The Scots tried to take away from this transaction the 
 appearance of a sale, but the verdict of history is against 
 them, and as a sale it will be handed down to posterity. 
 
 "I am sold and bought," said the king, when the two 
 hundred cases of silver which sealed the bargain made 
 their appearance in the Scottish camp. 
 
 By this time the most bitter feeling had arisen between 
 
CIVIL WAR. MARS TON MOOR. NASEBY. 279 
 
 the Parliament and the army — in other words, between 
 the Presbyterians and the Independents. Their hatred 
 of each other was quite as great as that which each felt 
 toward the "Malignants," by which name Cromwell's 
 party called all Royalists who had taken part in the war. 
 The Parliament had the king in charge; the army wanted 
 him; and one Cornet Joyce appeared suddenly before 
 him at Holmby House with a band of troopers at his 
 back, and told Charles he must go with him. "Where 
 is your warrant?" asked the king. "There!" said Joyce, 
 pointing down into the court -yard, where four hundred 
 soldiers were drawn up. "It is written in very legible 
 characters," answered the king, and made no resistance. 
 The Parliament threatened violence when they found 
 they had been outwitted, but Cromwell marched his 
 whole army through London, and things quieted down 
 directly. The king was now removed to Hampton Court 
 Palace, where he enjoyed much freedom, but fearing that 
 harm was intended him, he fled secretly to the Isle of 
 Wight, where he was kindly received by the governor, 
 and lodged in Carisbrook Castle. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 PRIDE'S PURGE. EXECUTION OF CHARLES I. DUNBAR 
 AND WORCESTER. 
 
 HE Parliament made one more effort to treat 
 with Charles, and offered terms which seemed 
 impossible for him to reject; but being then 
 engaged in secret negotiations with the Scots he refused 
 
280 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 these, and lost his last chance. They then voted that no 
 further address should be made to him. After a short 
 sojourn in Newport (Isle of Wight) during which still 
 more evidences of his duplicity were discovered, he was 
 removed to Hurst Castle, a gloomy fortress on the Sussex 
 coast, where he anticipated the fate of Edward II. at 
 Berkeley and Richard II. at Pontefract. But assassina- 
 tion had gone out of date in England; and when he 
 hinted his fears to his guards they told him that whatever 
 the Parliament did would be "very public, and in a way 
 of justice to which the world should be witness." It is a 
 curious proof of the strength of loyal feeling even as late 
 as this, that while Cromwell was away fighting the Scots, 
 who were in arms for the king, Parliament reconsidered 
 its former vote and decided to send further propositions 
 to him. The army, however, interfered, and a council of 
 officers sent Col. Pride (formerly a drayman) with two 
 regiments of soldiers to the Parliament House to turn 
 out all members in favor of treating with the king. This 
 expulsion went on until a hundred and forty of them had 
 been sent off, and none remained except about fifty Inde- 
 pendents, who could be relied on to execute the orders 
 of the army (December, 1648). This high-handed action 
 was popularly called "Pride's Purge," the body left as 
 a Parliament receiving the name of "The Rump." 
 
 Cromwell returned while the "clearance" was going 
 on; he said he did not know of it, but was glad it had 
 been done. The remnant of the Commons next voted 
 that it was treason in the king to make war on the Par- 
 liament, and that he should be tried for this offence. 
 The House of Lords, now reduced to twelve members, 
 not wishing to join in this vote, took a recess, hoping to 
 
EXECUTION OF CHARLES I. 281 
 
 prevent it; but the Commons declared that, the people 
 being the origin of all just power, the Commons of Eng- 
 land are the superior authority of the nation, and that 
 whatever is enacted by them has the force of law with- 
 out the consent of the king or the House of Peers. 
 
 In pursuance of this statement, the "Rump" appointed 
 a High Court of Justice for the trial of the king, of which 
 John Bradshaw was president, Cromwell, Ireton, and the 
 chief officers of the army being members of it. The 
 judges had also been appointed to serve on this court, 
 but as they said the proceeding was contrary to law, 
 they were excused from taking part in it. 
 
 The king, after leaving Hurst Castle, was brought to 
 London by General Harrison, one of the most violent of 
 the Republican leaders, and lodged in the palace of 
 Whitehall. The trial took place in Westminster Hall; 
 the same room which had seen the dethronement of 
 Richard II., the condemnation of Sir Thomas More, of 
 the Protector Somerset, and of Lord Strafford; the same 
 noble building which, divested of its judicial furniture, 
 now forms the entrance to the Houses of Parliament 
 The court consisted of one hundred and thirty-five per- 
 sons, but there were never more than seventy present at 
 any one sitting. 
 
 The king, who had come from the palace in a sedan- 
 chair, was escorted in by the sergeant -at -arms, and took 
 his place in the seat set for him opposite the judges. He 
 did not remove his hat, and the sixty -nine judges kept on 
 theirs without rising from their seats. When addressed 
 as Charles Stuart, King of England, and asked for his 
 answer to the charge of being a tyrant, a traitor, and a 
 murderer, the king denied the jurisdiction of the court 
 
282 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 and refused to plead before it. This continued for three 
 days. Then some witnesses were examined who testified 
 that he had borne arms against the Parliament, and 
 sentence of death was pronounced Jan. 27, 1648-49.* 
 
 Only two of Charles's children were still in England; 
 Elizabeth, aged twelve years, and Henry, aged nine. 
 These were allowed to take leave of him, on the day 
 before his death. The young girl remained a prisoner 
 in the hands of the Republicans. She pined away, and 
 •died the next year of a slight illness. The son was af- 
 terward sent to his mother in France, but did not 
 live to grow up. 
 
 The execution was appointed for Jan. 30th, 1648-9, 
 at two in the afternoon. A scaffold was erected outside 
 the window of the banqueting-room of the palace of 
 Whitehall, and out of this the king walked firmly, after 
 spending several hours in devotion. He had meant to 
 speak to the people, but seeing that none but soldiers 
 were within hearing, he addressed himself to the few 
 friends who were on the scaffold with him. Consistent 
 to the last, he said that his people mistook the nature 
 of government j that people are free, not by having a 
 share in the government, but by assisting in its admin- 
 istration. Bishop Juxon, his old friend, attended him. 
 The king gave him his "George" t with the single word 
 "Remember!" He then knelt in prayer for a few min- 
 utes, and gave the signal to the executioner by stretch- 
 ing out his hand. His head was severed at one blow, 
 and when the masked executioner held up the "gray, 
 
 *This date was then called 1648, as the year began on the 25th 
 of April instead of the 1st of January, as at present, 
 t A decoration belonging to the Order of the Garter. 
 
EXECUTION OF CHARLES I. 283 
 
 •discrowned head" with the usual formula, "This is the 
 head of a traitor!" a deep groan burst from the crowd 
 around instead of the expected cheers.* 
 
 Charles Stuart died in the forty-ninth year of his age 
 and the twenty-fourth of his reign. 
 
 No event in English history has been the subject of 
 so much discussion as the judicial death of Charles the 
 First. To the loyalists it was a deliberate murder; to 
 the opposite party, a patriotic necessity. It was brought 
 about by means as clearly illegal as any thing Charles 
 had done; but those who did it justified themselves on 
 the ground of political necessity. It could not have 
 happened in a later age; coming when it did it is gen- 
 erally considered a benefit to the cause of liberty. 
 
 In his private life Charles I. was blameless. He was 
 thoroughly refined, had a fine taste in literature, and was 
 a generous patron of art. In all but his public dealings 
 he was scrupulously honorable and gentlemanly. His 
 false notions of the rights and duties of a king made 
 him unfit to be one; while his habitual indecision pre- 
 vented him from taking advantage of circumstances when 
 they were favorable to him. Added to this, his absolute 
 inability to speak the truth in political matters, took 
 away his last chance of regaining his hold upon the 
 affections of his people. 
 
 The death of the king made a re-organization of the 
 
 *Andrew Marvell, the friend of Cromwell and Charles's political 
 ■enemy, who was looking from a window at the time, wrote, 
 "He nothing common did, or mean 
 Upon that memorable scene; 
 But laid his comely head 
 Down, as upon a bed." 
 
284 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 government necessary. It was declared treason to ac- 
 knowledge Charles Stuart (his son) as King of England, 
 and a new seal was engraved with the motto, "The first 
 year of freedom by God's blessing restored, 1648." No 
 name was formally given to the new government, but it 
 is generally called "The Commonwealth." All public 
 business was done in the awkward name of "The Keepers 
 of the Liberties of England." The House of Lords was 
 abolished at the same time, as being "useless and dan- 
 gerous." A Council of State composed of forty-one 
 members, with Bradshaw as president, was next ap- 
 pointed; but the real power naturally remained with 
 Cromwell. His brother-in-law, Desborough, and his 
 sons-in-law, Ireton and Fleetwood, held important com- 
 mands in the army. John Milton, the poet, was ap- 
 pointed Latin Secretary to the government. He had 
 come back from his travels in Italy on account of the 
 Civil War, and had already written some political works, 
 and his poem of "Lycidas," which reflected severely on 
 the Established Church. Among other writers of the 
 royalist period were George Herbert and Francis Quarles,, 
 religious poets; Sir John Suckling and Richard Lovelace, 
 song writers, Isaac Walton and Sir Thomas Browne, 
 essayists. Thomas Fuller, the Church historian, also^ 
 lived at this period. 
 
 The new government did not at first go on very har« 
 moniously. More than half the Council refused to sign 
 the required declaration that they approved of what had 
 been done, and it was not until after violent disputes 
 that this was dispensed with. Several of the principal 
 royalist generals were beheaded, as were also the ring- 
 leaders of a set called "Levellers," a sort of Socialists. 
 
EXECUTION OF CHARLES I. 285 
 
 The chief resistance came from Scotland and Ireland. 
 Presbyterians and Catholics were alike opposed to the 
 Independents, who were now at the head of English 
 affairs, and Charles II. was proclaimed in both countries. 
 Cromwell went at once to Ireland, and by a succession 
 of merciless slaughters reduced that country to obedi- 
 ence. He next proceeded to Scotland, where the loyal- 
 ists had met with a severe loss in the death of the Mar- 
 quis of Montrose. He was betrayed by a pretended 
 friend and taken prisoner to Edinburgh, where he was 
 hanged with every circumstance of insult that vindictive- 
 ness could devise.* Charles II. (we will call him so to 
 distinguish him, though it was ten years before he re- 
 ceived that title in England) landed in Scotland soon 
 afterward, and was obliged, in order to be recognized as 
 king, to sign the covenant, and profess many things which 
 he did not believe. Cromwell met the Scottish army 
 near Dunbar. Their number amounted to double that 
 of his own, and his position was a very dangerous one. 
 They advanced on him rashly, and were badly beaten 
 Sept. 3, 1650. Edinburgh surrendered soon afterward. 
 
 Charles II. was crowned King of Scotland, at Scone, 
 as his ancestors had been, but he and his subjects did 
 not get on well together. They preached at him a great 
 deal, and required him to pursue a most distasteful way 
 of life; so, seizing his opportunity, he gathered an army 
 hastily together and marched into England, expecting 
 that the Royalists there would join him. In this he was 
 disappointed. Cromwell pursued him and overtook him 
 at Worcester, where, after a sharp fight of five hours, the 
 
 *See the beautiful poem entitled "The Execution of Montrose," 
 in Aytoun's "Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers." 
 
286 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 royal army broke and fled (Sept. 3, 165 1). This battle 
 Cromwell called his "crowning mercy." The Scottish 
 army of about 14,000 men were either killed or taken 
 prisoners. Of the captives, 1500 were sold as slaves to 
 the West Indies. The king left his companions without 
 notice, and, accompanied by one faithful friend, CoL 
 Carl ess, took refuge at Boscobel, a lonely farm-house 
 owned by a man named Penderell. This man received 
 the wanderers with the greatest kindness, dressed them 
 in his own and his brother's clothes and protected them 
 for several days. Charles spent one night concealed 
 among the boughs of an oak tree, which might be still 
 standing if it had not been cut down by tourists. It 
 was called "The Royal Oak," and was long shown with 
 veneration to travellers. The prince had all sorts of 
 adventures. At one time he acted as the servant of 
 Jane Lane, a young lady who rode many miles behind 
 him on a pillion, to bring him to safe quarters. At last 
 he joined his mother in Paris. 
 
 Under Cromwell's vigorous and wise government, all 
 prospered with England. Ireton finished the conquest 
 of Ireland, Monk that of Scotland; Robert Blake, the 
 great admiral, captured a Portuguese fleet of richly-laden 
 vessels, because the Portuguese had been helping Prince 
 Rupert. The "Channel Islands,"* the Scilly Islands and 
 the Isle of Man, which held out for the king, were all 
 subdued, the last named being defended by the heroic 
 Countess of Derby, whose husband had been executed 
 by the Parliament. t The English also had trouble with 
 Holland, and to annoy their thriving neighbor they passed 
 
 * Jersey, Alderney, etc., in the English Channel near France. 
 + See Sir Walter Scott's novel, "Peveril of the Peak." 
 
EXECUTION OF CHARLES I. 287 
 
 the famous Navigation Act, by which all nations were 
 forbidden to import any goods into England except in 
 English vessels or in the vessels of the country produc- 
 ing the goods. As the Dutch did most of the carrying 
 trade in Europe, this was very offensive to them, and 
 the two countries soon drifted into a war in which the 
 English admiral Blake was opposed to the Dutch ad- 
 mirals, Van Tromp and De Ruyter. They fought sev- 
 eral battles, with various success, and Van Tromp sailed 
 about with a broom fastened to his mast-head, to indi- 
 cate that he was going to sweep the English from the 
 sea. Thereupon Blake gathered up all his strength, and 
 defeated him in a three days' battle off Portland. Van 
 Tromp's own ship escaped, but the broom came down 
 from the mast-head. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 THE PROTECTORATE. THE RESTORATION. 
 
 3JFTER some years, Cromwell became dissatisfied 
 with the Long Parliament, and took a method 
 peculiar to himself of putting an end to 
 it. Dressed in his usual suit of plain black with gray 
 worsted stockings, he took three hundred soldiers to the 
 Parliament House, and, leaving them outside, went in 
 and sat for a while, listening to the debate; then start- 
 ing up he exclaimed, "This is the time! I must do it!"' 
 and began loading the members with abuse. Sir Peter 
 Went worth answered that it was the first time he had 
 ever heard such language used in Parliament, and was- 
 
288 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 going on when Cromwell interrupted him with, "I will 
 put an end to your prating. Call them in ! call them 
 in!" Then stamping his feet (which was the signal for 
 the soldiers to enter), he screamed out, "You are no 
 longer a Parliament! The Lord has done with you! 
 He will have other instruments to do his work!" Two 
 files of musketeers entered the room, upon which Sir 
 Henry Vane said, "This is not honest. Yea, it is 
 against common morality." " Oh, Sir Harry Vane ! Sir 
 Harry Vane! The Lord deliver me from Sir Harry 
 Vane!" was Cromwell's only reply. Striding up to the 
 table and laying his hand upon the mace, he cried out, 
 "What shall we do with this bauble? Take it away!" 
 The speaker declining to leave the chair, Major General 
 Harrison said he would help him, and pulled him down 
 by force. Cromwell, still wrought up to the highest 
 pitch of passion, called out to the House, "It is you that 
 have forced me to this ! I have sought the Lord night 
 and day that He would rather slay me than put me upon 
 this work!" When his soldiers had cleared the hall, 
 Cromwell locked the door, put the key in his pocket, 
 and marched off to his home at Whitehall.* 
 
 The Council of State was dismissed in the same sum- 
 mary way. "We have heard," said Bradshaw, the pres- 
 ident, "what you have done this morning at the House. 
 But you mistake, sir, if you think the Parliament dis- 
 solved. No power on earth can dissolve the Parliament 
 but itself!" 
 
 The Rump had been so much disliked by the people 
 that no outcry was made at this high-handed measure, 
 
 * The French minister wrote home that there was now written, 
 on the Houses of Parliament, "This House to be let, unfurnished \ ,r 
 
THE PROTECTORATE. THE RESTORATION". 289 
 
 especially as Cromwell, having the whole army at his 
 back, was for the time all-powerful. 
 
 Choosing to keep up some of the form of constitution- 
 ality, he now summoned, in his own name, a hundred 
 and forty persons, from all parts of England, to frame a 
 new Parliament. There was no pretence of an election. 
 All sorts of people were assembled — Fifth Monarchy 
 men* and those belonging to other fanatical sects — and 
 these gave a character to the Parliament. Among the 
 number was a noisy and ignorant man named Praise God 
 Barebone; and he occupied so much of the time of the 
 sessions with long prayers and speeches, that the assem- 
 bly was called in derision, "Barebone's Parliament." Its 
 more respectful name was, "The Little Parliament." 
 
 Big or little, it was a great failure. Its counsels were 
 confused, its meetings disorderly. Having passed sev- 
 eral bills of doubtful wisdom, it crowned its operations, 
 after having been in existence five months, by humbly 
 surrendering to the lord general the powers it had re- 
 ceived from him, and appointed a Council of State which 
 conferred on him the office of Lord Protector (1653). 
 His signature was like that of a king, only the first name 
 being used. He wrote "Oliver P." (Protector) as the 
 king had signed "Charles R." (Rex). His unmarried 
 daughters were called the Lady Mary and the Lady 
 Francis Cromwell, and both married into noble families. 
 
 When he assumed his title a proclamation was issued 
 by Charles II. (who was wandering about, glad to be pro- 
 vided for by any one who would give him a home), which 
 
 * Persons who expected a kingdom of Christ to arise which 
 should abolish all human governments. The four preceding mon- 
 archies had been the Assyrian, Persian, Grecian, and Roman. 
 19 
 
290 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 began: "Whereas a certain base mechanic fellow, by 
 name Oliver Cromwell, has usurped our throne," — and 
 went on to offer a pension of ^500 a year to any one 
 who should take his life. It did not do much of either 
 good or harm. 
 
 For the first time in the history of England a standing 
 army was established, which was to be entirely under the 
 Protector's control, thus enabling him to form a military 
 despotism if he should be so inclined. All churchmen,, 
 Presbyterians, and Royalists, were excluded from the Par- 
 liament, and no one could be elected to it who had not 
 an estate of at least ^"200. Finding that the first he- 
 summoned was not disposed to submit blindly to his 
 wishes, Cromwell dissolved it without ceremony, in a. 
 storm of angry reproach (1655). 
 
 After this, the Protector and his council ruled in the 
 most arbitrary manner, levying taxes at discretion and 
 imprisoning persons on suspicion, much as Charles had 
 done. There was a strict censorship of the press, * and 
 when people tried to obtain their rights by law, their 
 counsel were sent Ij the Tower. 
 
 It was a very moral England that Cromwell ruled over. 
 Drunkenness and vagrancy were suppressed, though not 
 apparently with cruelty, and Sabbath -breaking became 
 very difficult. One man sat in the stocks for three hours 
 for going to a neighboring town to hear a sermon on 
 Easter -day and eating milk and cream with some other 
 young folks, the entertainment costing each person two- 
 pence. A tailor is punished for working until two o'clock 
 on a Saturday night so as to finish a garment for some 
 
 * A supervision which allows nothing to be published without 
 being first examined and sanctioned by the government. 
 
THE PROTECTORATE. THE RESTORATION. 291 
 
 one to go to church in. Profane swearing was followed 
 by some hours in the stocks, and one could not say 
 "Plague take you" without being fined for it. 
 
 England had never been more respected abroad than 
 during the reign of the Protector. Foreign powers saw 
 that there must be no trifling with Oliver. He made a 
 treaty with France by which Charles I.'s two sons were 
 required to leave that kingdom, while the two countries 
 joined in a war against Spain. More than one tyrant 
 was forced, by the terror of his name, to cease from per- 
 secutions which were the disgrace of Christendom. Blake 
 cruised along the Mediterranean destroying the fleets of 
 Algerine pirates, whose cruel ravages made its waters 
 dreaded by all European seamen. Admiral Penn (father 
 of our William Penn) and General Venables, attacked 
 the Spanish West-Indian Islands; they were repulsed from 
 Hayti, but took Jamaica. The Protector was so angry 
 at the misfortune in Hayti that he forgot to be pleased 
 with the capture of the smaller island. And yet Jamaica 
 is not to be despised as an acquisition. 
 
 Blake had many brilliant successes at sea, but died 
 prematurely, worn out by hard work and exposure. He 
 was strongly opposed, politically, to Cromwell's usurpa- 
 tion of power, but said, "It is still our duty to fight for 
 our country, into what hands soever the government may 
 fall." He was the type of a true Christian soldier, and 
 was borne to his grave in Westminster Abbey amid the 
 tears and regrets of his countrymen. 
 
 Cromwell had boasted, in the early part of his career, 
 that he would make the name of Englishman as much 
 •feared and respected abroad as ever that of Roman had 
 been, and he found himself ably supported in his efforts. 
 
292 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 He said once, when negotiations were proposed with 
 Spain, "There is no embassy like a ship of the line." 
 For the first time since the death of Elizabeth, England 
 became formidable to her neighbors. France and Spain, 
 the Moor and the Pope, were obliged in turn to bow to 
 her decisions. 
 
 Cromwell called one more Parliament, from which he 
 excluded all not favorable to his measures ; but he quar- 
 reled with this as with the others, and dissolved it in a 
 towering passion (1658). This Parliament offered him 
 the coveted title of King, but the army opposed this so 
 strongly that he did not venture to assume it. His career 
 was now drawing to a close. He was encompassed by 
 trouble at home; the country was deeply in debt; royalist 
 plots were forming around him, and a book entitled 
 "Killing no Murder," by one Colonel Titus of the army, 
 boldly advised taking him off by violence. The Fifth 
 Monarchy men were making a stir against him, and he 
 lived in so great dread of assassination that he wore 
 armor under his clothes and always carried pistols. He 
 never let it be known by what road he was going to travel, 
 nor slept more than two nights in succession in the same 
 room, fearing to give his enemies a chance to make a 
 plot against his life. His favorite daughter, Elizabeth 
 Ciaypole, died at this time, and the event threw him into 
 a gloom from which he never recovered. 
 
 A gleam of pleasure came to him through the capture 
 of Dunkirk* from the Spaniards, by the combined armies 
 of France and England. The town was, by agreement, 
 delivered to him, and was felt by the English to atone, 
 
 * A city in French Flanders j now the most north-easterly town 
 in France. 
 
THE PROTECTORATE. THE RESTORATION. 293 
 
 in some measure, for the loss of Calais. This was the 
 last public event of importance in his life-time. He was 
 attacked by a slow fever, which was aggravated by his 
 distress of mind, and on the anniversary of the battles of 
 Dunbar and Worcester, he passed quietly away, Septem- 
 ber 3, 1658, in the sixtieth year of his age.* 
 
 Even Cromwell's enemies were obliged to confess that 
 he was a great man. As regarded the people at large, he 
 was a just and vigorous ruler; his foreign policy was far- 
 sighted and brilliant; his aims, at least in the early part 
 of his career, were of the noblest. But his plan of gov- 
 ernment had a fatal weakness in it. It was built on the 
 power of the sword. Fortunately, the people of England 
 could be trusted to neutralize or destroy the dominion of 
 any ruler who attacked their liberties; and their descend- 
 ants in America, when their turn came, showed that the 
 lesson had not been lost upon them. 
 
 A noble feature of Cromwell's administration was its 
 spirit of toleration. The Church of England was not 
 interfered with, so long as its ministers did not preach 
 against the government; and even the Jews, the outcasts 
 of nations, would have been allowed, if the Protector had 
 had his way, to return and settle legally in England. t 
 There was such violent opposition to this measure that 
 he was obliged to withdraw it; but the Jews came back 
 by little and little, and in 1656 he permitted them to build 
 a synagogue. George Fox, leader of the new sect calling 
 themselves Friends, called by others Quakers, talked 
 more than once with Cromwell, who is represented to 
 have been favorably impressed by him. 
 
 *Cromwell is one of the characters in Scott's novel, "Woodstock." 
 + Edward I. had banished them in 1290. 
 
294 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Cromwell left two sons ; Richard, a mild-tempered, in- 
 offensive man, with very little capacity, and Henry, who 
 had shown great ability as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, 
 and was in every way superior to his brother. Unfor- 
 tunately it was taken for granted that the elder must 
 inherit his father's title, and Richard Cromwell was 
 named Protector, without opposition, on the day after 
 Oliver's death. A Parliament was called, which imme- 
 diately got into trouble with the army. General Lam- 
 bert, a prominent officer, who had been the first to pro- 
 pose the Protectorate, plotted against Richard; and the 
 army, acting under his influence, compelled the latter 
 to dissolve the Parliament. Being urged to support his 
 claim by force of arms, Richard replied, "I will not 
 have a drop of blood spilt for the preservation of my 
 greatness. It is only a burden to me." He resigned 
 his office, and the army controlled everything through a 
 council of officers. General Monk, the ablest man in 
 it, did his best for Richard as long as he remained Pro- 
 tector, but then began secretly to conspire with the roy- 
 alists, who saw their chance in these divisions. The 
 council of officers recalled those members of the Long 
 Parliament whom Cromwell had expelled in 1653, and 
 as these were mostly Presbyterians, they and the Royal- 
 ists combined against the Independents. As it was im- 
 possible for the members to work in harmony, a new 
 assembly, called the Convention Parliament, was sum- 
 moned, which opened communication with the king, who 
 was then at Breda, in Holland. Charles sent from that 
 place a "Declaration," in which he promised everything 
 that he thought would be acceptable to the people; and, 
 since no one doubted that he would keep his word, he 
 
CHARLES II. TRIPLE ALLIANCE. 295 
 
 was welcomed back with expressions of heartfelt joy. 
 He entered London on his thirtieth birthday, May 29, 
 1660. This event is called the Restoration. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 
 CHARLES II. TRIPLE ALLIANCE. TREATY OF DOVER. 
 
 HARLES II. had, like his father, perfect health 
 and a fine figure. His features were not, like 
 his father's, handsome, but his manner was so 
 agreeable that those conversing with him did not notice 
 their harshness. 
 
 Charles chose his ministers with discretion, taking 
 them, without distinction, from opposite political parties. 
 Edward Hyde, a statesman of ability and integrity, was 
 made lord chancellor and prime minister, under the title 
 of Earl of Clarendon. General Monk, to whom more 
 than to any other person, Charles owed his restoration, 
 was created Duke of Albemarle. James, Duke of York, 
 the king's brother, was made Lord High Admiral. Of the 
 so-called regicides (king-killers), the name given to the 
 judges who tried Charles I., only six were executed. 
 Many of them were dead; some were imprisoned, and 
 a few escaped beyond sea. Two of these, Gofle and 
 Whalley, came to America, and lived for many years in 
 concealment in New England. Many of the Cavaliers 
 were dissatisfied with the "Act of Indemnity and 
 Oblivion," which ended the matter, and said the in- 
 demnity was for the king's enemies, the oblivion for 
 his friends. 
 
298 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 The Parliament had the childish folly to order that 
 the bodies of Cromwell, Ireton, and Bradshaw should be 
 dragged from their splendid tombs in Westminster Ab- 
 bey, hung on the gallows at Tyburn for the space of one 
 day, and then buried in a deep pit under it, their heads 
 being cut off and fixed on Westminster Hall. Their 
 estates were also confiscated. 
 
 The army was now disbanded, except a few regiments- 
 to serve as garrisons and to form a guard for the king. 
 It was the general opinion that the men thus suddenly 
 thrown upon the country would become marauders, or 
 vagrants, but they were formed of too good material for 
 that. They returned quietly to their former occupations,, 
 causing scarcely a ripple upon the surface of society ; a 
 state of things paralleled by our own experience after 
 the War of the Rebellion. 
 
 In religious matters, those who had expected tolera- 
 tion were grievously disappointed. The Church of Eng- 
 land was restored, of course; and two new laws were 
 passed ; one called the "Act of Uniformity," requiring 
 that every clergyman should be ordained by a bishop and 
 should give up the Covenant, while the other, called the 
 "Corporation Act," made it necessary for every magis- 
 trate and every civic corporation to swear never, under 
 any circumstances, to resist the king's authority. More 
 than two thousand clergymen were expelled from their 
 parishes for opposition to the Act of Uniformity. 
 
 Laws of a better class were those abolishing the last 
 remains of the feudal system, in the form of certain 
 privileges of royalty which had become intolerable^ 
 Instead ot them, the king took a yearly sum of money. 
 
 When public affairs had somewhat settled down in 
 
CHARLES II. TRIPLE ALLIANCE. 297 
 
 England, a new interest began to be felt in the colonies. 
 King Charles, who was always ready to grant a tract of 
 land in America to any one who asked for it, gave to 
 certain persons called "Lords Proprietors" a large terri- 
 tory cut off from the southern part of Virginia, to which 
 was given the name of Carolina (from Carolus, the Latin 
 for Charles). At a later period, an elaborate plan of 
 government called the "Grand Model" was prepared for 
 it. The Grand Model did not work well, however. The 
 people soon grew dissatisfied with it, and early in the 
 next century the tract was divided into two royal prov- 
 inces called North and South Carolina. 
 
 In the third year of his reign, Charles married Cather- 
 ine of Braganza, a Portuguese princess, who brought him 
 a large dowry in money, besides the city of Tangier in 
 Africa. Though the annalists of that time say that she 
 was "pretty enough," Charles did not admire her, but 
 said, after seeing her for the first time, "Upon my word, 
 they have brought me a bat instead of a woman \" He 
 received her kindly, as he did every one, but soon began 
 to treat her with neglect, bringing into the palace other 
 women whom he openly preferred to her. The court 
 became a scene of the vilest dissipation. The courtiers, 
 both men and women, ridiculed whatever was good and 
 virtuous, so that the better class of persons, of all relig- 
 ious beliefs, withdrew themselves from court. With the 
 main body of the people it was not so ; the Puritan leaven 
 was still working among them, and they kept on their 
 way, undisturbed by the scandals of high life. The friv- 
 olity of Charles and his associates was of the most ex- 
 pensive sort; and while hundreds of faithful friends who 
 had sacrificed everything for the royal cause were left to 
 
■298 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 languish in poverty, he poured out money like water to 
 satisfy the demands of worthless favorites, and to keep 
 up a round of idle and vicious gayeties. By the advice of 
 Clarendon, he sold the city of Dunkirk to France for 
 ^400,000, the minister thinking the king no longer able 
 to support a fortress which required ^120,000 a year 
 to maintain. The intention was good, but the result was 
 only to give Charles more money to spend on his infam- 
 ous pleasures. The English court became the ridicule 
 of foreigners. In one Dutch print the king was repre- 
 sented with his pockets "turned the wrong side outward, 
 hanging out empty;" in another, two courtiers were 
 employed in picking his pockets, while he looked on 
 laughing. To obtain more money from Parliament he 
 picked a quarrel with Holland, and before war was de- 
 clared, the Duke of York was sent to take possession of 
 New Amsterdam* (1664). The Dutch governor, Peter 
 Stuyvesant, was quite unprepared, so the place was easily 
 captured, as we know from American history. The whole 
 province now forming the states of New York and New 
 Jersey was bestowed on the Duke of York at the same 
 time. He afterward granted New Jersey to two friends 
 of his, Berkeley and Carteret, who in their turn sold it to 
 the Quakers of Pennsylvania. 
 
 A more terrible enemy than Hollander or Spaniard 
 now attacked England. This was the Great Plague, 
 which raged with such violence that 100,000 persons 
 died of it in London alone (1665). The red cross, with 
 the words, "Lord, have mercy on us!" marked many a 
 door, and the doleful cry, "Bring out your dead!" 
 sounded every morning as the death-carts took their way 
 
 * Now the City of New York. 
 
CHARLES II. TRIPLE ALLIANCE. 299 
 
 through the desolate streets. With the approach of 
 winter, the pestilence slackened, and the Parliament, 
 which on account of it had been summoned to meet at 
 Oxford, now found leisure to pass the " Five- Mile Act." 
 By this, no dissenting minister who had not taken the 
 oaths of uniformity and non-resistance was allowed to 
 •come within five miles of any city, nor of any place where 
 he had formerly preached. There had already been 
 passed a "Conventicle Act," which forbade all persons to 
 meet together for worship in any private house, to the 
 number of more than five in addition to the family. 
 Fines, imprisonment, and transportation were the penal- 
 ties attached to this offence. The jails were soon filled 
 with men and women who felt that they had no right to 
 refrain from meeting to worship God according to their 
 consciences. In one of those jails, John Bunyan wrote 
 the Pilgrim's Progress; in a hundred others, men as 
 zealous and as earnest, gave their testimony in favor of 
 freedom of worship. 
 
 The horror attending the plague had scarcely passed 
 away when the Great Fire again threw the people of 
 London into consternation (1666). Four days it raged 
 without cessation, among the wooden houses of which 
 London was then largely built, and which were at that 
 "vtime as dry as tinder. The fire was at last stopped by 
 blowing up buildings, and it reminds one of modern 
 times and cities to read, in a letter v/ritten four days after 
 the flames ceased to spread, "The citizens, instead of 
 complaining, discoursed almost of nothing but of a survey 
 for rebuilding the city of bricks and with large streets." 
 Unfortunately, however, the petty jealousies of proprie- 
 tors prevented the grand plans of John Evelyn and Sir 
 
300 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Christopher Wren from being carried out, and the streets 
 remained narrow and crooked as before. 
 
 It does not give one a very lofty idea of the England 
 of that day to know that when a great monument was 
 built on Fish-street Hill, to commemorate the conflagra- 
 tion, there was an inscription put on it saying that the 
 Roman Catholics set the city on fire; and it is not a little 
 surprising to know that this inscription was allowed to 
 remain there until 1831. Pope refers to it in these lines: 
 
 "Where London's column, pointing to the skies, 
 Like a tall bully, lifts the head and lies. " 
 
 Meanwhile the war with Holland went on. There was 
 now no Blake to strike terror to the nations, and up- 
 hold the honor of England's flag. To save expense, or 
 rather to have more money for his own pleasures, Charles 
 had allowed the navy to run down; and the Dutch, tak- 
 ing advantage of this, sailed up the Thames as far as 
 London Bridge, burning the shipping as they went along. 
 A timely peace put an end to these ravages (1667), but. 
 the war added nothing to England's credit. 
 
 Angry at this turn of affairs and determined to have a, 
 victim, the Parliament, yielding to the murmurs of the 
 people, required of the king the dismissal of Lord Clar- 
 endon. Charles was glad to get rid of his minister, who^ 
 looked with open disapproval on the immoral life of the 
 court; and the faithful services of thirty years went for 
 nothing. The earl was impeached by Parliament, and a, 
 sentence of banishment passed upon him. He had per- 
 haps made some errors of judgment, but there was not 
 one of the king's courtiers at once so able and so patri- 
 otic. Clarendon's daughter, Anne Hyde, was married 
 to the Duke of York, Charles's brother, who tried to be- 
 
CHARLES II TRIPLE ALLIANCE. 301 
 
 friend him ; but the indolent monarch did what was 
 easiest for himself, and let his minister go. The latter 
 spent the rest of his life in France, writing his "History 
 of the Rebellion, " a valuable storehouse of facts, though 
 naturally colored by the earl's political feelings. After 
 Clarendon's fall, a new ministry was formed called the 
 Cabal,* from the initials of their names, Clifford, Arling- 
 ton, Buckingham, Ashley,t and Lauderdale. With the 
 cooperation of these men, Charles now formed the first 
 famous "Triple Alliance," — a treaty between England 
 and Holland in which Sweden afterward joined, with the 
 object of restraining the growing power and arrogance 
 of Louis XIV. of France. Samuel Pepys says of it, 
 "It is the only good thing that hath been done since the 
 king came to England." The treaty was arranged at 
 the Hague by Sir William Temple on the part of Eng- 
 land, and John De Witt acting for Holland — both dis- 
 tinguished statesmen. Charles himself never liked it, 
 although, for reasons of policy, he had thought best to 
 allow it to be carried through. Holland was a republic, 
 which was enough to prejudice him against it; and he 
 wished to be independent of his Parliament, which he 
 could not be without the help of Louis XIV. Convey- 
 ing, therefore, to Louis, an intimation of his wishes, the 
 latter sent over the Princess Henrietta, wife of his own 
 brother, the Duke of Orleans, and sister of Charles, 
 who arranged the matter without difficulty. Charles 
 met her at Dover, whither she brought a young French- 
 woman, Louise de Queronailles, to help gain his consent. 
 Under their influence, Charles made a secret and shame- 
 
 * A set of men plotting together for some bad purpose. 
 + Better known afterward as Lord Shaftesbury. 
 
302 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 ful agreement with Louis, called the Treaty of Dover, 
 and adopted the young lady as one of his favorites. By 
 this treaty, he promised to help Louis in his war against 
 Holland (the very country with which England had 
 formed the Triple Alliance), and to make a public pro- 
 fession of the Roman Catholic religion "at some con- 
 venient time." In return, Louis was to pay him a sum 
 of money down and ^£2 00,000 a year as long as the 
 war lasted, and to send him help in case of another re- 
 bellion at home. Charles remarked that he did not 
 think he was a king so long as a company of fellows (i. e. the 
 Commons) were looking into his actions, and examining 
 his ministers as well as his accounts. So England was 
 sold by its sordid, selfish monarch, who had but one 
 desire in the world — that for unlimited self-indulgence. 
 The agreement was kept a profound secret from all but 
 the few persons whom Charles took into his confidence, 
 for if the people had known of it, either the Treaty of 
 Dover or the king's reign would have ended at once. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
 
 PLOTS. HABEAS CORPUS. DEATH OF CHARLES. 
 
 S SOON as the Treaty of Dover was signed, 
 Charles obtained a great sum from Parliament 
 for fitting out a navy to uphold the Triple 
 Alliance. Then he dissolved the Parliament and kept 
 the money. As it was not enough for his wants (no 
 money was), he suspended payment of the loans made 
 by the goldsmiths and others to the exchequer (treasury),. 
 
PLOTS. DEATH OF CHARLES. 302 
 
 which caused general bankruptcy and distress in all kinds 
 of business. The king now issued a so-called "Declara- 
 tion of Indulgence," which granted freedom of worship 
 to all except Catholics, and even to them the privilege 
 of having mass celebrated in their own houses. The 
 jails were opened; Bunyan saw the end of his twelve 
 years' imprisonment; the Quakers could again go about 
 in peace; ministers returned to their congregations, and 
 there were great rejoicings. Some thoughtful persons, 
 however, shook their heads. The king had done this by 
 his authority as head of the church; but the Parliament 
 had made the laws — how could he unmake them? Ad- 
 dresses were made to Charles, signed even by dissenters, 
 to ask that he would withdraw the Declaration. "I 
 would rather suffer the rigor of the law," said one of 
 them, "than see all the laws of England trampled under 
 fne foot of a prerogative." A new Parliament took the 
 matter up, and declared that no penal laws could be 
 suspended except by consent of Parliament, so the king 
 was obliged to cancel the Indulgence. One more step 
 on the road to freedom. 
 
 Holland was now again attacked by Louis XIV., who 
 expected, with the assistance of England, to make an 
 end of its independence. The chief officer of the little 
 republic was William, Prince of Orange, son of Charles's 
 sister, Mary, and grandson of William the Silent. "Do 
 you not see that your country is lost?" asked the English 
 /ambassador, counselling submission. "There is a sure 
 way never to see it lost," answered William, "and that 
 is, to die in the last ditch." He was not driven to this,. 
 however. When the French had fairly entered the coun- 
 try, he cut the dykes that kept out the ocean, and flooded 
 
.30* HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 the country. Louis's army was obliged to retreat, and 
 Holland was saved. 
 
 So strong a prejudice still existed in England against 
 the Roman Catholics that the nation was not satisfied 
 until a Test Act was passed, requiring every person who 
 held any office, either civil or military, to subscribe to 
 the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, to take the sacra- 
 ment in the Church of England, and to deny all belief in 
 transubstantiation. Upon this, thousands of Catholics 
 gave up their offices, James, Duke of York (Charles's 
 brother and Lord High Admiral) heading the list. Both 
 3ie and his wife, Clarendon's daughter, had become Cath- 
 olics after their marriage, though the king insisted that 
 their daughters Mary and Anne (afterward queens of 
 England) should be brought up as Protestants. Anne 
 Hyde, James's first wife, being now dead, he married 
 Mary of Modena,* an Italian princess, and a Roman 
 Catholic, thereby giving great offence to the English. 
 
 One of the strangest and wildest delusions known to 
 history now took place in England. A wretched creature 
 named Titus Oates, once a clergyman of the Church of 
 England, but dismissed on account of his vicious prac- 
 tices, pretended to have discovered a plot of the Roman 
 Catholics to burn London, kill the king, massacre the 
 Protestants, and deliver the kingdom into the hands of 
 the French. Just at this time, Sir Edmondsbury Godfrey, 
 a Justice of the Peace, who had heard some of the so- 
 called evidence of the plot, was found dead in a field 
 near London. It is probable that he committed suicide; 
 but the cry went out that he had been murdered, in 
 xevenge, by the Catholics, and the popular fury rose 
 
 * Pronounced Mod/ena. 
 
PLOTS. DEATH OF CHARLES. 305 
 
 higher than ever. Witnesses sprang up on all sides to 
 swear to outrageous falsehoods, and it was not until after 
 many victims had perished that the excitement calmed 
 down. The most distinguished of these victims was 
 Viscount Stafford, an old nobleman of the highest char- 
 acter, whose gray hairs could not save him from the 
 scaffold. After a while the prosecutions stopped, but it 
 was long before London recovered from the excitement. 
 Political affairs are so confused in this reign, so many 
 laws were passed bearing on important subjects, so many 
 public men, conspicious for ability and for good or ill 
 fortune, pass in succession over the scene, that it is im- 
 possible, in a short space, to give a clear idea of them. 
 Sir William Temple, the framer of the Triple Alliance, 
 one of the most high-minded of Charles's statesmen, after 
 using his best efforts to bring order out of confusion, 
 retired into private life and devoted himself to literary 
 pursuits. Lord Halifax, known as a "Trimmer," (i. e. one 
 who leans to either side as he sees one or the other likely 
 to prevail) was the chief of the moderate men. Shaftes- 
 oury, once high in the king's favor, quarreled with him 
 and became one of the most violent leaders of the oppo- 
 sition. Buckingham (son of the one who was stabbed at 
 the beginning of Charles I/s reign) was the head of the 
 "Cabal" ministry, and did what was in his power to make 
 Charles II. an absolute ruler, independent of Parliament. 
 The poet Dryden wrote of him thus, saying that he, 
 
 "Stiff in opinions, always in the wrong, 
 Was everything by turns, and nothing long. " 
 
 Sidney Godolphin, the man who, Charles said, was "never 
 in the way and never out of the way," was high-minded 
 and patriotic, and so useful that he served under four 
 20 
 
306 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 successive sovereigns, and always with honor. Others^ 
 whose names appear in larger histories, like the Earls of 
 Danby and Sutherland, we can only mention here. 
 
 Several bills of importance were passed during the 
 winter of 1679-80. One of these was the "Habeas Corpus 
 Act," which restrained illegal imprisonment by requiring, 
 in open court, the trial of a prisoner, so that the cause 
 for which he is shut up may be made known. An "Act 
 for Disabling Papists" was also carried through, in con- 
 sequence of which no Roman Catholic sat in the House 
 of Commons from that time until 1829, a space of a. 
 hundred and fifty years. 
 
 As Charles had no children, the Duke of York was 
 heir -presumptive to the throne. A strong effort was 
 made by means of the "Exclusion Bill," to prevent his 
 succeeding, but though the bill passed the Commons by 
 a large majority, the Peers threw it out. 
 
 A frightful persecution of the Covenanters in Scotland 
 now took place, under the Duke of York as Lord High 
 Commissioner and John Graham of Claverhouse, a bril- 
 liant, hard-hearted general. There had been an in- 
 surrection there, and after it was put down, scores of 
 persons were shot or hanged without trial, and torture, 
 which had been abolished in England in 1640, was mer- 
 cilessly inflicted. The Duke of Monmouth, an illegiti- 
 mate son of Charles II. by a woman named Lucy Walters, 
 defeated the Covenanters at Bothwell Bridge. The Duke 
 of York took pleasure in seeing the torture administered 
 to "heretics," and would look on complacently at the 
 application of the iron "boot" while the members of his 
 council stole away in horror. 
 
 The dread of a Roman Catholic succession and the 
 
PLOTS. DEATH OF CHARLES. 307 
 
 indignation against Charles's misgovernment had now 
 become so great that a conspiracy, called, from the place 
 where the members met, the "Rye -House Plot," was 
 formed to dethrone Charles, and put his son, the Duke 
 of Monmouth, in his place. Some of the conspirators 
 really intended to kill the king, as the shortest way of 
 getting rid of him; others wished only to put him under 
 some restraint, so that he would be incapable of further 
 mischief. There were others, including two of the first 
 statesmen in the kingdom, Lord Russell and Algernon 
 Sidney, who had talked over among themselves the evils 
 of the state, and discussed a possible remedy. Some con- 
 versation of this kind was reported by a traitor, and on 
 this Russell and Sidney, the latter a man of letters, and 
 author of "Discourses on Government," were condemned 
 to die (1683). With the usual brutality of the time, they 
 were denied the assistance of counsel; both conducted 
 their own defence with ability and spirit; but the result 
 was inevitable. Lady Russell was with her husband dur- 
 ing his trial, arranging his papers and handing them to 
 him as he needed them. Both these executions were 
 clearly judicial murders, sentence being given without 
 anything to be called proof of the offence. 
 
 The king was now drawing near the end of his career. 
 His last appearance in public is thus described in the 
 words of an eye-witness. Mr. John Evelyn: "I can never 
 forget the inexpressible luxury and profaneness, gaming 
 and all dissoluteness, and as it were total forgetfulness of 
 God, last Sunday evening at Whitehall. The king sitting 
 and talking with several women, a French boy singing 
 love-songs in that glorious gallery, while above twenty of 
 the great courtiers and other dissolute persons were play- 
 
308 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 ing cards around a large table, a bank of at least two 
 thousand in gold before them." The next morning the 
 king was struck with apoplexy. He regained his senses 
 and was able to speak, but lived only a few days. Just 
 before his death, his brother James, having cleared the 
 room where he was lying, smuggled a Catholic priest up 
 a private stairway into the room, and Charles received 
 the last sacraments of the Romish church. Soon after 
 this, he died, in the fifty-fifth year of his age and the 
 twenty-fifth of his reign. The people lamented his death 
 very sincerely, for though there was much to be blamed 
 in his administration, they feared that worse was to come. 
 Charles II. seems to have possessed scarcely any vir- 
 tue besides a natural courtesy and good temper. He 
 was always agreeable. A witty minister, the Earl of 
 Rochester, once pinned on Charles's door this verse, 
 professing to be his epitaph : 
 
 "Here lies our sovereign lord, the king, 
 Whose word no man relies on; 
 Who never said a foolish thing, 
 Nor ever did a wise one." 
 
 When this was repeated to Charles, he said it was 
 quite true, for his words were his own, but his actions 
 were his minister's. 
 
 The party names "Whig" and "Tory" came into use 
 in this reign, whig signifying one who wished reforms 
 made in the government, and tory a conservative, or 
 one who wished to keep things as they were. The words 
 soon acquired an additional meaning, tories being those 
 who stood out for the prerogative of the king, and whigs 
 those who would uphold the supremacy of the people. 
 
 Tne quarter of a century which ended with the death 
 
PLOTS. DEATH OF CHARLES. 309 
 
 of Charles, was a brilliant one for literature. Milton had 
 written "Paradise Lost;" Bunyan, the "Pilgrim's Pro- 
 gress;" Clarendon had told the world about the Rebellion, 
 Butler had satirized the Puritans in "Hudibras", and Mar- 
 vell had done a like work for the Cavaliers. Pepys and 
 Evelyn had written the inimitable diaries which make the 
 social life of that day as real to us as is that of our own 
 century. Locke was writing his "Essay on the Human 
 Understanding," and Dry den, the dramatist, who died 
 in 1700, had already produced many plays. But per- 
 haps the name which comes nearest to our American 
 hearts is that of William Penn. 
 
 His father, Admiral Penn, the conqueror of Jamaica, 
 was seriously annoyed by the discovery that his son, who 
 ought to have been a good courtier, had joined the un- 
 popular sect of the Quakers. Finding that he could not 
 persuade him to change his mind, the admiral turned him 
 out of doors; but having a great respect as well as affec- 
 tion for him, was induced to receive him into favor again. 
 The father had lent a large sum of money to King 
 Charles, and after the admiral's death, William asked 
 that instead of the money the king should grant him 
 some land in America, on which to found a refuge for 
 his persecuted brother-Quakers. Nothing could please 
 Charles better than to avoid, by any expedient, the pay- 
 ment of a debt; and a tract was selected to which Penn 
 gave the pretty name of Sylvania, which means wood- 
 land. The king, however, insisted upon the prefix Penn, 
 and from the king's word there was no appeal. 
 
310 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 
 JAMES II. SEDGEMOOR. THE SEVEN BISHOPS. FLIGHT 
 OF THE KING. 
 
 SHALL make it my endeavor," said James II. 
 at the first meeting of his privy council, "to 
 preserve the government, both in church and 
 state, as it is now by law established." How he suc- 
 ceeded in his endeavor, we read in the pages of history. 
 
 If James could have remained simply a naval com- 
 mander, a post for which he was well fitted, the English 
 people might have forgotten his desertion to the Church 
 of Rome, and forgiven his questioning Covenanters by 
 means of the "boot." As a king, however, his power to 
 do harm was so much increased that he was watched 
 more jealously than before, and soon gave ample evi- 
 dence that he needed such watching. 
 
 His first public act was to order the collection of 
 customs duties, which could be legally done only by 
 order of Parliament. Then he released from prison, on 
 his own authority, not only Romanists, but other non- 
 conformists, to show that his disregard of law was sys- 
 tematic and not personal. He went openly to mass, a 
 penal offence. On the other hand, all the chief offices 
 remained in the hands of Protestants. Rochester, Clar- 
 endon (son of Charles II. 's prime minister, who was now 
 dead), Godolphin, Sunderland, Halifax, occupied the 
 chief places in his cabinet. 
 
 It is not to be supposed that the infamous Titus Oates 
 escaped the reward of his crimes when James came into 
 
JAMES II. SEDGEMOOR. SEVEN BISHOPS. 311 
 
 power. He was punished with a ferocity which brought 
 a glow of pleasure to the king's cruel heart. Besides 
 being fined, having to stand twice in the pillory and 
 being sentenced to life imprisonment, all of which he well 
 deserved, he was whipped through the city with unusual 
 severity from Oldgate to Newgate on one day, and then 
 from Newgate to Tyburn two days afterward. On the 
 second day, not being able to stand, he was dragged 
 through the streets on a hurdle, receiving on that day 
 seventeen hundred lashes. The judges meant to kill 
 him with these floggings, as his offence was not one for 
 which he could be hung, but the wretch survived them, 
 and lived through James's reign, standing in the pillory 
 five times a year, until at the accession of a Protestant 
 king, he was liberated and provided with a pension. 
 
 The Duke of Monmouth had been in Holland during 
 the last years of his father's life, in disgrace on account 
 of his connection with the Rye-House Plot. Unwise 
 counsellors now urged him to take advantage of James's 
 unpopularity to make a claim to the throne of England, 
 under the pretext that his mother had been married to 
 Charles II. Monmouth, a handsome, amiable youth, 
 but weak in character, caught at the bait. He landed 
 in Dorsetshire, on the southern coast, with scarcely a 
 hundred followers; but the people, disliking the sombre 
 James, and detesting popery, flocked to his standard, 
 and he soon found himself at the head of six thousand 
 men. At Taunton, his adherents thronged the streets, 
 •every one with a green bough in his hat; the houses 
 were hung with garlands ; flowers were strewn in his 
 path, and a troop of young girls went in procession to 
 offer him twenty-seven standards, worked by their own 
 
312 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 hands. In a declaration published by Monmouth on 
 landing, in which he abused his uncle, James II., in very- 
 discourteous language, Monmouth had said that he 
 would leave his claim to be decided by a free Parlia- 
 ment. At Taunton, however, he assumed the title of 
 king, and issued proclamations dated "from our camp 
 at Taunton, in the first year of our reign." Moving 
 northward, he heard of the defeat and capture of 
 Argyle, who had raised an army for him in Scotland. 
 Affairs began to look dark. One discouragement suc- 
 ceeded another, and in a few days he came up with the 
 royal army at Sedgemoor. The battle was soon decided. 
 Monmouth's army of peasants and miners gave way and 
 fled, the unhappy leader taking shelter in a ditch. Here 
 he was found, almost starving, with only a few raw peas 
 in his pocket. He was taken to prison, where he wrote 
 an abject letter to James, begging for an interview, ex- 
 pressing deep contrition, and accusing the friends who 
 had led him away with false arguments. James had the 
 incredible meanness to see him and let him crawl up to 
 him on his knees, begging for life, and then to dismiss 
 him coldly to his fate. Monmouth was beheaded on 
 Tower Hill, in the thirty-sixth year of his age (1685). 
 
 Then began the butchery of his followers. James had 
 chosen for the accomplishment of this task the two fittest 
 instruments in England; Colonel Kirke, whose " Lambs n 
 (a regiment of soldiers so called) had been trained to 
 ferocity by practice among the Moors in Tangier; and 
 Judge Jeffreys, a debased wretch to whom the king held 
 out the promise of the office of Lord Chancellor, as a 
 bait to engage him to do his work thoroughly. Kirke 
 hanged his prisoners in batches without the form of a 
 
JAMES II. SEDGEMOOR. SEVEN BISHOPS. £13 
 
 trial. The story is told that while the bodies were still 
 quivering, he would order the drums to beat, saying that 
 they should have music for their dancing. Such an im- 
 mense number of persons were quartered that their re- 
 mains were thrown into great cauldrons of boiling pitch, 
 to get rid of them. Kirke kept no record of his deeds, 
 but it was believed at the time that he hanged a hundred 
 prisoners during the week after the battle. He was re- 
 called in displeasure by the government, not on account 
 of his barbarity, but because all the rich rebels got off 
 by bribing him. 
 
 Then came the circuit of Jeffreys. His first trial was 
 of Alice Lisle, an old gentlewoman who was accused of 
 harboring two of the rebels for a night. Jeffreys ordered 
 her to be burnt to death. Such a protest was raised 
 against this that he was obliged to commute the punish- 
 ment to beheading. A poor woman named Elizabeth 
 Gaunt, guilty of the same crime, was burnt alive. During 
 what was called "The Bloody Assizes," this judge hanged 
 three hundred and thirty persons, besides condemning 
 others to fines, imprisonment, and whipping, and sentenc- 
 ing hundreds to be sold into slavery in the West Indies. 
 In this last horrible traffic, the queen and her ladies 
 joined, and begged for prisoners that they might make 
 money by their sale. The office of Lord Chancellor was 
 conferred on Jeffreys, as the king had promised, in re- 
 ward for his zeal. 
 
 The laws against the Romanists were not repealed, 
 but they were openly violated by the king and by all 
 Catholics. The public discontent being plainly shown 
 at this, James established a camp of thirteen thousand 
 men at Hounslow to keep London in order. In Scotland, 
 
314 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 he caused a law to be passed punishing with death and 
 confiscation of property all who attended conventicles in 
 the open air, or who preached at them. In Ireland the 
 army was put under the charge of Lord Tyrconnel, who 
 turned out many Protestant officers and added great 
 numbers of Irish Catholics to the ranks. All this showed 
 the English what they were to expect in their own country. 
 It seemed as if James exerted all his ingenuity to do 
 whatever would be most offensive to the English people. 
 He reestablished the Court of High Commission; he 
 took money from France, though not so secretly but that 
 he was found out; he sent an ambassador to Rome to 
 express his wish that England might be received into the 
 church as in Queen Mary's time; he forced a Romish 
 priest on one of the colleges at Oxford.* Next, he pub- 
 lished a Declaration of Indulgence, stating that non-con- 
 formity to the established religion should no longer be 
 punished, and ordered that on a certain Sunday this de- 
 claration should be read in all the churches (1688). This 
 ordinance the clergy, as a general thing, did not obey, 
 and seven bishops, including Archbishop Sancroft, pre- 
 sented to the king a humble petition against it. James 
 was enraged at what he called their insolence, and the 
 bishops were committed to the Tower. On their way 
 thither, the banks of the Thames were lined with crowds 
 of persons who knelt and implored their blessing, utter- 
 
 *The young Duke of Somerset was ordered to introduce the 
 Pope's messenger into James's presence-chamber. "I am advised," 
 he answered, "that I can not obey your Majesty without breaking 
 the law." "Do you not know that I am above the law?" said 
 James angrily. "Your Majesty may be, but I am not," answered 
 the duke, and was dismissed from his post. 
 
JAMES II. SEDGEMOOR. SEVEN BISHOPS. 315 
 
 ing cries to Heaven for their deliverance. The trial took 
 place in Westminster Hall, the bishops being charged 
 with "publishing a false and seditious libel." They were 
 acquitted, and bonfires, bell-ringings, and illuminations 
 testified to the joy of the people. 
 
 In the midst of this excitement, a son was born to the 
 •queen. This event completed the general dissatisfaction. 
 While King James's Protestant daughter Mary was heir 
 presumptive to the crown, his subjects bore his tyranny, 
 thinking that when he died there would be a change for 
 the better; but to look forward to having the son of 
 James II. and Mary of Modena reign over them was 
 more than they could bear. Their eyes naturally turned 
 to the Princess Mary and to her husband, William of 
 Orange, who, being himself a grandson of Charles I., was 
 the next heir to the throne after the family of James. An 
 intimation to this effect being conveyed to William, he 
 began to make preparations for an invasion. James was 
 thunderstruck at hearing of this. It had never occurred 
 to him that he could not to the end of his days go on 
 trampling on the liberties of the people, and he suddenly 
 poured forth concessions, relinquishing the things he had 
 insisted on, replacing the officers he had turned out, 
 and trying to make friends with the people he had in- 
 sulted; but it was too late. 
 
 In September, 1688, the Prince of Orange published 
 a declaration which was eagerly read throughout the 
 country, stating that he, from his near relationship to the 
 kingdom, felt it his duty to protect the civil and religious 
 liberty of its people, and denying that he had any further 
 object in view than the calling of a free Parliament. 
 With a fleet of sixty ships and fifteen thousand men he 
 
316 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 landed at Torbay on the south coast, and marched north- 
 ward, his army increasing as he advanced. When James 
 took command of his camp at Salisbury,* he found the 
 desertion of his soldiers so extensive that he decided to 
 retreat towards London, thus making his weakness only 
 the more evident. 
 
 Besides these defections, the king had others most un- 
 expected to him. Lord Churchill (afterward Duke of 
 Marlborough) who owed everything to James, and who 
 had been loaded by him with favors, went over to the 
 enemy, taking with him many of the officers on whom 
 the king most depended. But this was not the worst. 
 He and his wife had acquired an unbounded influence- 
 over the Princess Anne, James's daughter, a weak, dull 
 woman, married to Prince George of Denmark; and the 
 Churchills persuaded this couple also to leave the king 
 and go to the camp of the Prince of Orange. 
 
 This last blow seemed to touch James more nearly 
 than any other. He burst into tears on hearing of Anne's 
 escape, and exclaimed, "God help me! My own chil- 
 dren have forsaken me!" He sent away his queen and 
 infant son to France; and being convinced, from the 
 intelligence brought to him, that his cause was hopeless^ 
 he himself fled, with one attendant, throwing the great 
 seal into the Thames, to prevent its being used in call- 
 ing a Parliament. 
 
 Nothing could have pleased William of Orange and 
 the English people in general so much as to have King^ 
 James run away, as he had done; and they were all 
 very much disgusted when it was found that he had 
 been captured by some fisherman at Sheerness, as he was 
 
 * Pronounced Saulsbury. 
 
JAMES II. SEDGEMOOR. SEVEN BISHOPS. 317 
 
 making his escape in disguise. He was necessarily 
 brought back to London, but every facility was given 
 him for escaping again; and while he imagined himself 
 to be cleverly outwitting his enemies, they were really 
 opening bolts and bars before him, so that nothing could 
 throw him again on their hands. This time he really 
 got away, embarked on a ship which was waiting for 
 him, and hastened to Paris, where he was received with 
 great kindness by Louis XIV., who gave him a splendid 
 establishment at St. Germains, and supported him in 
 luxury as long as he lived. 
 
 CHAPTER XL. 
 
 REVOLUTION OF 1 688. WILLIAM AND MARY. 
 
 E have now arrived at the third of the three great 
 R's of the seventeenth century: the Rebellion, 
 the Restoration, and the Revolution. The 
 latter is commonly known by the prefix "glorious. " If 
 the Commonwealth had continued, the events of 1642- 
 49 would have made a revolution ; as the old state of 
 things in 1660 was reestablished, it is known as a 
 rebellion. Revolution is successful rebellion. 
 
 William of Orange, whom we must henceforth call 
 William III. of England, was careful to observe all the 
 forms of government. A convention was called (there 
 could be no lawful Parliament, because there was no king 
 to issue the writs for one) in which, after stating the 
 throne to be vacant by the desertion of James, it was 
 decided to offer it to William and Mary for their joint 
 
318 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 lives, and to William if he should survive his wife. The 
 administration was to be altogether in his hands, To 
 this was added a Declaration of Rights, in which the 
 real worth of the Revolution consists. The points in- 
 sisted on were these: i. The king can not dispense with 
 the laws, nor suspend their execution ; 2. He can not 
 levy money without the consent of Parliament; 3. Sub- 
 jects have the right of petition ; 4. The king can not keep 
 up a standing army in time of peace without the consent 
 of Parliament; 5. Parliament must be frequently assem- 
 bled, and elections and debates must be free. Other 
 items were added, still further limiting the power of the 
 crown; and, as Macaulay says, "The highest praise of 
 the Revolution of 1688 is that it was the last." 
 
 It was a grand country that William and Mary now 
 took in charge. Though the whole century had been 
 one of political struggle, with an occasional battle like 
 Marston Moor, or Naseby, the general prosperity had 
 gone on with a steady increase. Fields were tilled, 
 mines worked, commerce carried on, manufactures im- 
 proved; the people were better off, more comfortably 
 lodged, better fed and clothed in 1688 than in 1588. 
 Something like a post-office was established, and it was 
 a matter of pride to say that a letter could be carried 
 three hundred miles and an answer received in five days. 
 This rate of speed was attained by means of relays of 
 post-horses. The government was very jealous of news- 
 papers, but Charles II. allowed the publication of the 
 London Gazette, which has been issued now (1891) twice 
 a week for more than two hundred years. Clubs took, 
 to some extent, the place of daily journals. News passed 
 from mouth to mouth, and a gentleman went to his club 
 
REVOLUTION. WILLIAM AND MARY. 319 
 
 to hear the latest items of interest and know what others 
 thought of them, as he now takes up his morning paper. 
 
 In point of comfort, there was still much to be desired. 
 The roads from one town to another were almost im- 
 passable. The streets of London were unpaved, and 
 were not lighted, except by private individuals, until the 
 last year of Charles II.'s reign. Even then, the dim oil 
 lamps would seem only to make ''darkness visible" in 
 comparison to our gas and electricity. Carpets gradu- 
 ally took the place of straw and rushes. There were no 
 circulating libraries; those who wanted to read books 
 must borrow or buy them. The state of education among 
 women is shown by an inscription written by Queen 
 Mary, wife of William III. (who was probably as well 
 educated as most women of her time), in a gorgeously 
 bound Bible, "This book was given to the king and I 
 at our coronation." Foreign princesses were even worse 
 off. James II. records in his journal that when Mary of 
 Modena was told that she was to marry him, she asked 
 who he was. "She had been so innocently bred," he 
 observes, "that she did not know of such a place as 
 England, nor of such a person as the Duke of York." 
 
 The enthusiasm with which the arrival of William III. 
 had been hailed, diminished as he was brought into per- 
 sonal contact with the English. He had cold, distant 
 manners, and so little command of the language that he 
 was usually silent in company. The common people 
 distrusted him as a foreigner, and a very large proportion 
 of the better class considered him a usurper. It was 
 plain that his position was going to be a difficult one, 
 and that it would need great judgment and discretion to 
 steer clear of the dangers which surrounded him. 
 
320 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 These were just the qualities in which William excelled. 
 He chose his ministers from among the statesmen most 
 trusted by the English people, even though some of them 
 had opposed his being made king. His dearest friend, 
 William Bentinck, a native of Holland, was made a privy 
 councillor, with the title of Duke of Portland. 
 
 His first trouble in England arose in connection with 
 the army. Some regiments having shown themselves dis- 
 contented, William, by the advice of his council, decided 
 to send them to Holland and supply their places with 
 Dutch troops. This made them still more indignant, 
 and they marched northward in open mutiny, with drums 
 beating and colors flying. They were put down by some 
 Dutch regiments which were sent in pursuit of them, 
 and severely punished, while Parliament for the first 
 time passed a Mutiny Bill, placing the army under mar- 
 tial law. Up to this time a soldier was considered a 
 citizen, and even if he struck his commanding officer, 
 he was liable only to the penalty for assault and battery. 
 
 Many members of the House of Lords, including 
 Archbishop Sancroft and several other bishops, refused 
 to take the oath of allegiance to William, on the ground 
 of their previous obligations to James. Such persons 
 were called "non-jurors," and, in the case of the clergy, 
 were afterward deprived of their livings. 
 
 To emphasize still more the distinction between the 
 non-juring prelates and the loyal subjects of William, 
 a "Toleration Act" was passed, allowing freedom of 
 worship to all who took the oaths of allegiance and 
 supremacy, and denied the doctrine of transubstanti- 
 ation. This relieved the disabilities of all dissenters ex- 
 cept the Roman Catholics. During these debates, the 
 
REVOLUTION. WILLIAM AND MARY. 321 
 
 double coronation took place, and as the Archbishop 
 refused to officiate at it, the ceremony was performed by 
 the Bishop of London. 
 
 In Scotland, a strong party still held out for King 
 James, at the head of which was Graham of Claverhouse, 
 now created Viscount Dundee. He raised a small 
 force of Highlanders with whom he defeated a much 
 larger number of English in the battle of Killiekrankie, 
 but was himself mortally wounded. The Highlanders, 
 discouraged, dispersed to their homes, Edinburgh Castle, 
 which held out against William, surrendered, and the 
 whole country was reduced to obedience (1689). To 
 gratify the Scotch, William abolished Episcopacy, and 
 Presbyterianism has since been the recognized religion 
 of the country. 
 
 James II. had not given up the struggle for his crown. 
 Being supplied with a fleet and army by Louis XIV., 
 he landed at Kinsale, in Ireland, and marched to 
 Dublin, being joined by great numbers of the Irish. 
 The city of Londonderry held out against him and was 
 besieged by his forces for 105 days, during which time 
 the inhabitants suffered the extremity of hunger. A 
 Presbyterian clergyman named Walker put himself at the 
 head of the garrison, whose commander had deserted 
 them, and conducted the defense with skill and energy. 
 Just as it seemed as if the defenders must give up 
 from starvation, relief came from England, and James's 
 general, DeRosen, moved away. The protestant town 
 of Enniskillen was also successfully defended on the 
 field of Newton Butler. 
 
 The great battle of the war was yet to come. It 
 was fought in person by the two kings, on the bank of 
 21 
 
322 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 the River Boyne, not far from Dublin. James's army 
 was inferior in numbers to William's, but his position 
 was so strong that he ventured to fight. The king was 
 wounded, a bullet grazing his shoulder, but the English 
 won the day. The loss on both sides was small, con- 
 sidering the important issues at stake. James himself 
 set the example of flight when he saw that the battle 
 was going against him, and his soldiers dispersed, so 
 that when he reached Dublin he was without an army, 
 and took ship as soon as 1 possible for France. This 
 engagement is called "The Battle of the Boyne" (1690). 
 
 William returned to London in triumph, after an 
 absence of only five weeks. While he was away a 
 naval battle had been fought with the French off 
 Beachy Head in Sussex, in which the enemy were 
 victorious. The commander, Lord Torrington, was 
 incompetent, and the battle was an ignominious one. 
 There were fears that the French would pursue the 
 beaten fleet up the Thames and threaten London as 
 the Dutch had done in Charles II.'s time; but they 
 only burned the town of Teignmonth and went home. 
 William was extremely angry with Torrington, who had 
 put the Dutch ships where they would bear the brunt 
 of the battle; and though the admiral was acquitted 
 by a court-martial, William would not see him, and 
 ordered him to be dismissed from the service. 
 
 One more naval battle finished the war. It was 
 fought off Cape La Hogue in Normandy, King James 
 commanding the French fleet and Admiral Russell the 
 combined Dutch and English one. The latter gained 
 a brilliant victory, and as Louis refused to furnish 
 James with further aid, the deposed king retired to 
 
REVOLUTION. WILLIAM AND MARY. 323 
 
 St. Germains (1691). From this time he disappears 
 in person from English history, though his name was 
 still a rallying word for all discontent, and the plots 
 of his friends never ceased to distract the tranquillity 
 of William's reign. 
 
 CAPTER XL I. 
 
 GLENCOE. DEATH OF MARY. PEACE OF RYSWICK. 
 DEATH OF WILLIAM III. 
 
 HE war in Ireland was not ended by the Battle 
 of the Boyne. Most of the country was still 
 in possession of James's friends; and it was 
 only at the close of the year 1691 that the struggle 
 closed with the Pacification of Limerick. By this it was 
 agreed that the Irish who consented to acknowledge 
 William should be allowed to enjoy their religion and 
 their property, while all others were offered free pas- 
 sage to France. Twelve thousand men under Gen- 
 eral Sarsfield availed themselves of this offer, and were 
 promised by him that their families should accompany 
 them. When the troops prepared to embark, however, 
 it was found that there was not room enough for all, 
 and hundreds of women and children were left on 
 the shore to die of slow starvation or to beg their way 
 home, there to endure untold misery, deprived of their 
 natural protectors. 
 
 Between the two victories, the battle of the Boyne 
 and that of Cape La Hogue, a horrible tragedy took 
 place in Scotland for which William III. is at least 
 
324 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 partly responsible. The Highland chiefs who had been 
 engaged in the rebellion under Dundee were slow in 
 taking the oath of allegiance to the new king, and one 
 of them, Macdonald of Glencoe, put it off until the last 
 day allowed by the treaty, Dec. 31, 1691. On arriv- 
 ing at Fort William, which he supposed to be the place 
 appointed for taking the oath, he found no one there 
 qualified to administer it, and in great distress of mind 
 made his way, through heavy snow-storms and over 
 steep mountains to Inverary. He had spent six days on 
 the toilsome journey, and with difficulty persuaded the 
 sheriff to allow him to take the required oath. Unfor- 
 tunately, his deadly enemy, Sir John Dalrymple, Mas- 
 ter of Stair, had procured from William an order for 
 the extermination of the Macdonald clan. This mis- 
 creant sent a body of soldiers to the peaceful village 
 of Glencoe, where they were hospitably entertained 
 for a fortnight, the Highlanders freely sharing with 
 them everything they had. At a preconcerted time 
 each party of soldiers undertook to murder every male, 
 old and young, in the houses where they were quar- 
 tered; and in the early morning, after an evening of 
 gayety spent in drinking and playing cards, wild shrieks 
 proclaimed that the work of death was begun. Some 
 forty persons were massacred, including some women 
 who were trying to defend their children. About two<- 
 thirds of the inhabitants escaped, though many of these 
 died of cold and hunger while fleeing through the 
 mountains. 
 
 William's apologists have tried to excuse him on the 
 ground that he did not know what he was doing in 
 signing the order to "extirpate that set of thieves, if they 
 
DEATHS OF MARY AND WILLIAM LLI. 325 
 
 can be well distinguished from the rest of the High- 
 landers." But the order itself remains, and is a horrible 
 monument of the brutal use of power. 
 
 Among the political changes in William's reign was 
 the establishment of a Cabinet, or Council of Ministers, 
 all chosen from the same political party, and thus acting 
 together. Until this time, each of the king's council had 
 been independent of the others, and their advice was 
 often contradictory. This new kind of ministry proved 
 most efficient in the transaction of public business, and 
 gradually became, what it continues to the present day, 
 a kind of committee of the House of Commons. 
 
 Many great public measures were now carried forward. 
 A bill was passed for a triennial Parliament; the censor- 
 ship of the press was abolished, after vhich a host of 
 newspapers sprang up, and a national bank was created, 
 which regulated and made permanent the national debt. 
 
 The war against Louis XIV., to prosecute which was 
 the great object of the king's life, continued for some 
 years with varying success. William gained some bril- 
 liant victories, but lost the battles of Steenkirk and Lan- 
 den, and his fleet met with reverses at sea. His misfor- 
 tunes encouraged to renewed efforts the partisans of 
 James, who never ceased to intrigu* against him, and 
 who included among their number some of the ablest 
 men in the kingdom. The double-dyed traitor, Marl- 
 borough, was again in communication with James, wait- 
 ing only for an opportunity to bring him back; and the 
 inconstant Sunderland was also suspected of favoring his 
 return. Embarrassed by these difficulties on every hand, 
 William sustained a severe blow in the loss of his wife, 
 who died of small-pox (1694). In later years, he had 
 
326 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 been devoted to her, though her early married life was 
 far from being a happy one. She was a woman of marked 
 ability, and had been left regent in England during her 
 husband's frequent absences on the continent, always 
 performing the duties of the office with success, even 
 under the most trying circumstances. Mary was only 
 thirty -two years old. 
 
 It had long been the queen's desire that the palace at 
 Greenwich, which had never been completed, should be 
 turned into a hospital for disabled soldiers. After her 
 death, William carried out her wishes and Greenwich 
 Hospital became a noble monument of her benevolence 
 and his affection. It is now occupied as a Royal Naval 
 Academy and Hospital- School. Mary had been an ex- 
 cellent wife, supplying by her graciousness of manner 
 and her many agreeable qualities the popular elements 
 which were lacking in her husband's character. Bishop 
 Burnet, a famous contemporary preacher and author, was 
 the intimate friend of both William and Mary, and has 
 left most interesting records of their private life. 
 
 The long war between England and France was 
 brought to an end in 1697 by the Treaty of Ryswick. 
 In this treaty, Louis, besides giving up many of his con- 
 tinental conquests, agreed to acknowledge William III. 
 as king of England, and to do nothing that would inter- 
 fere with his claim. This was a glorious victory for 
 William, and put an end, for the time at least, to the 
 machinations of the Jacobites in England. The settlers 
 in America had good reason to be glad of it, for it marked 
 the close of that period of horror in the colonies known 
 as "King William's War," which included the massacre 
 at Schenectady (1690). But little progress had been 
 
DEATHS OF MARY AND WILLIAM III. 327 
 
 made in the colonies during the century that was now 
 closing. Our forefathers, still struggling for a foothold 
 in the new world, were scarcely noticed in the old; 
 although preparing to take, in less than another hundred 
 years, their place in the family of nations. 
 
 A singular project was started at the close of this war, 
 for colonizing a part of America very different from the 
 sterile coast of New England. A Scotchman named 
 William Paterson, who had been one of the original 
 founders of the Bank of England, persuaded himself and 
 others that untold wealth was to be had almost for the 
 asking in the fertile regions about the Isthmus of Darien. 
 A company was organized to go to this Land of Promise, 
 but the settlers met fever, pestilence, and starvation, 
 while Spanish guns finished the work that hunger and 
 destitution had begun. Their fort in ruins, their huts 
 burned, the fertile soil that they meant to cultivate filled 
 with their graves, the few survivors found their way to 
 Jamaica or to some port on the Atlantic coast, and the 
 Darien Colony was a thing of the past except in the mem- 
 ory of those who had duped themselves and others with 
 visions of unearned wealth. 
 
 Among the foreign visitors of this reign was a young 
 barbarian chieftain who was afterward known as Peter 
 the Great, Czar of Muscovy. He eschewed forms and 
 ceremonies, detested being stared at, and went to sleep 
 at dinner parties given in his honor; but he accomplished 
 what he came for, which was to study the English manner 
 of ship-building. From the ways of these visitors, we get 
 a glimpse of the condition of things two hundred years 
 ago in what is now the Russian Empire. John Evelyn's 
 beautiful country-house at Deptford was hired by the 
 
328 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 king for his accommodation, because it was near the ship- 
 yard; and the great Peter amused himself by driving a 
 wheelbarrow, for exercise, through Evelyn's holly hedge, 
 while he and his followers left the house in such a condi- 
 tion that it had to be completely refurnished. 
 
 The history of Kidd, the pirate, belongs to this period. 
 
 In the four years of quiet which followed the Peace of 
 Ryswick, William was not without annoyances at home. 
 It was hard for him to steer between the two political 
 parties. The whigs, who had made him king, wished to 
 limit his power; the tories were more to his taste, but 
 many of them were Jacobites. With all his moderation 
 and good sense he was still a Stuart, and would have 
 preferred absolute rule if it had been possible to him. 
 The Commons thwarted and opposed him at every turn, 
 insisting upon cutting down the army contrary to his 
 judgment, and a serious break might have resulted but 
 for an event for which not even the most far-seeing Eng- 
 lishmen were prepared. On the death of James II. at 
 St. Germains (1701), Louis XIV. surprised the world by 
 acknowledging his son, a boy of thirteen, as James III., 
 king of England. 
 
 There was no question now of peace. The army was 
 instantly increased again and put on an efficient footing. 
 A Grand Alliance was formed by Germany, England, and 
 Holland, against Louis XIV., partly in consequence of 
 his claiming the throne of Spain for his grandson, Philip, 
 which led to the War of the Spanish Succession, while 
 England had her special grievance in the insult offered 
 to her by the breaking of the Treaty of Ryswick. 
 
 Before any active military operations could be begun, 
 William, whose health had long been failing, met with an 
 
DEATHS OF MARY AND WILLIAM III. 329 
 
 accident which ended his life. While he was riding in 
 the park his horse stumbled over a mole -hill, and he 
 fell off and broke his collar-bone. Being already very- 
 feeble he could not rally from the injury, and died after 
 a few days of suffering, in the fifty-second year of his age 
 and the fourteenth of his reign. 
 
 For an estimate of William's character, we may take 
 that of Prince Albert, the lamented husband of Queen 
 Victoria, who said, in a meeting of the Society for the 
 Propagation of the Gospel, "This society was first char- 
 tered by that great man, William the Third — the greatest 
 sovereign this country has to boast of." 
 
 One conspicuous feature in the advance of the English 
 people from ignorance toward knowledge, from brutality 
 toward humanity, from darkness toward light, is the rise, 
 progress, and decline of the witchcraft delusion and per- 
 secution. It began a little before the time of the dis- 
 covery of America, reached its height about 1692 (the 
 date of the tragedy in Salem, Massachusetts), and ex- 
 hausted itself ten years later in England, when the last 
 execution took place in that country (1702). In 1484, 
 the pope issued a bill commanding the Inquisition to 
 hunt up and kill all witches. In four years, 600 persons 
 were burned or hanged in the bishopric of Bamberg, 
 and 900 in that of Wurzberg. Five hundred persons were 
 burned in Geneva during four months of 1576, and 1000 
 in the district of Como in 1524. In 1562, a statute of 
 Elizabeth made witchcraft or sorcery a capital crime, and 
 James I. himself wrote a treatise upon it. During the 
 Long Parliament, 3000 persons are said to have been 
 put to death. The cruelties which fill us with horror in 
 the history of our own country are few in comparison 
 
330 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 with this fearful list. Even in England, the madness had 
 small sway compared to its ravages in Continental 
 Europe (where it numbered its victims by the hundred 
 thousand), while our own land escaped with only a 
 scorching. And all this for a crime which no one ever 
 did or could commit, for it had no existence. 
 
 After being for years a dead letter, the laws against 
 witchcraft were repealed by Parliament in 1736, though 
 in some European countries they have existed to within 
 the nineteenth century. 
 
 CHAPTER XL II. 
 
 ANNE. ACT OF SETTLEMENT. WAR OF THE SPANISH 
 SUCCESSION. UNION WITH SCOTLAND. DEATH. 
 
 HEN it became plain that William III.'s days 
 were numbered, Parliament was obliged once 
 more to take up the question of the succession. 
 The Princess Anne's only child, the Duke of Gloucester, 
 had just died, at eleven years of age, and no further pro- 
 vision had been made. With the approbation of the 
 king, it was decided that Sophia, the wife of the Elector 
 of Hanover, and daughter of James I.'s daughter Eliza- 
 beth, should be queen after Anne, if the latter should 
 leave no children. The nearest relative in blood to 
 Anne was, of course, her half-brother, James, son of 
 James II. and Mary of Modena, but as he and all other 
 possible candidates were Roman Catholics, they were 
 out of the question. The Electress Sophia had remained 
 a Protestant and was therefore eligible; and her son 
 
ANNE. UNION WITH SCOTLAND. 331 
 
 George, now forty years old, would become king at her 
 death. 
 
 At the same time with the Act of Settlement, it was 
 provided that every future sovereign must be a member 
 of the Church of England. This put an end to all com- 
 plications regarding Roman Catholics. 
 
 These arrangements having been made, Anne, the 
 sixth and last of the Stuarts (for William and Mary al- 
 ways count as one), became queen (1702). She was 
 then thirty-eight years old. The Duke of Marlborough 
 and his wife continued to be her intimate friends and 
 advisers; and, the tories being somewhat in the ascend- 
 ant in the new Parliament, a tory ministry was formed, 
 which immediately declared war against France and 
 Spain. The struggle thus entered upon is known by the 
 name of "The War of the Spanish Succession." 
 
 Charles II., King of Spain, who had been in failing 
 health for many years, had died in 1700, leaving no 
 children. His eldest sister had married Louis XIV. of 
 France, the latter promising at the same time that the 
 throne of Spain should never be claimed for herself or 
 her descendants. Louis now brought forward a demand 
 that it should be bestowed on his grandson, Philip of 
 Anjou, on the ground that, as his queen's dowry had 
 not been paid, he was not bound by his part of the con- 
 tract. The Emperor of Germany, who had married the 
 younger sister, brought forward a similar claim for his 
 grandson. England took the side of the emperor, and 
 the war began. 
 
 Marlborough opened the campaign in Flanders, where 
 he took several towns; Admiral Rooke conquered the 
 world-famed fortress of Gibraltar (1704), which England 
 
332 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 still holds; and between 1704 and 1709, Marlborough 
 won the great victories of Blenheim, Oudenarde, Ram- 
 illies and Malplaquet, in Germany and Flanders. Blen- 
 heim was the first great battle gained by the English on 
 foreign soil since Agincourt (141 5). .Prince Eugene of 
 Savoy, second only to Marlborough as a general, led the 
 German armies which cooperated with the English in 
 these famous engagements. He also won, alone, a 
 splendid victory at Turin in Sardinia, by which he drove 
 the French out of Italy. After Marlborough's first great 
 success, the English were wild with joy, and heaped 
 honors upon him. He already had a pension for life, 
 and in addition to this and to the thanks of the queen 
 and Parliament, the nation gave him the royal manor of 
 Woodstock, and at a later time erected upon it the 
 superb mansion called Blenheim House, which is still 
 one of England's palaces. 
 
 The next year (1705) was distinguished by a bril- 
 liant campaign in Spain, the land forces being under 
 the Earl of Peterborough, and the fleet under Sir 
 Cloudesly Shovel, an admiral who had worked his way 
 up from the position of cabin-boy. As he was returning 
 from his second campaign in Spain, the admiral's ship 
 was wrecked off the Scilly Islands, and all on board 
 perished (1707). 
 
 The same year saw the long-talked-of "union" between 
 England and Scotland. From the time of James I. 
 they had been two countries under one king, having 
 separate Parliaments and laws. It was now agreed, in. 
 spite of intense opposition from the minority in Scotland, 
 that thereafter the Scottish Parliament should be given 
 up, and that the country should be represented by 
 
ANNE. UNION WITH SCOTLAND. 333 
 
 sixteen peers in the English House of Lords, and by 
 forty -five members in the Commons. This measure, 
 affecting a people so tenacious of their independence, 
 caused riots in Edinburgh; but after the union had been 
 fully tried, all classes joined in approving it. 
 
 When the queen gave her assent to the Act of Union, 
 she added, "I desire and expect from my subjects of 
 both nations, that from henceforth they act with all pos- 
 sible respect and kindness to one another, that so it may 
 appear to all the world they have hearts disposed to 
 become one people." These are noble words, and they 
 have been nobly acted upon. From this time the for- 
 mal designation of the whole country has been "The 
 United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland." 
 
 After the successes of the combined English and Ger- 
 man armies, Louis XIV., whose country was almost ex- 
 hausted, made proposals for a peace. The allies, how- 
 ever, flushed with victory, demanded such terms as 
 he could not grant consistently with his self-respect, 
 and preparations were made for continuing the war. 
 
 The trial of Doctor Sacheverell, a clergyman of the 
 Church of England, for a political offence, is worth notic- 
 ing as characteristic of the times. He was an advocate 
 of non-resistance to royal power; and having preached 
 two intemperate sermons on the subject, the Parliament, 
 in which the whigs were now in power, impeached and 
 tried him for sedition. The populace took up his cause 
 as their own. He was escorted every day from his lodg- 
 ings to Westminster Hall by crowds of people, and sev- 
 eral dissenting meeting-houses were pulled down by the 
 mob in their fury. When a sentence of suspension from 
 preaching for three years was passed on Sacheverell, 
 
334 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 instead of the severer penalty, their joy was boundless, as 
 he was considered the champion of the established 
 church. The feeling was so strong against the whigs 
 that the queen was obliged to change her ministers, and 
 in the next Parliament (1710) the tories were again in 
 the majority. 
 
 The long intimacy between the queen and the Duke 
 and Duchess of Marlborough was now drawing to an 
 end. The Duchess Sarah, a domineering woman who 
 had by her force of character completely governed the 
 queen, grew so intolerably insolent that even the patient 
 Anne ("a crowned slave," she called herself) could en- 
 dure it no longer. In the early days of their friendship, 
 while Anne was still a princess, she herself had suggested 
 that all ceremony should be dropped between her and 
 her darling friend, and that they should write to one an- 
 other (which they did constantly) under feigned names. 
 Anne chose the name of "Mrs. Morley," and Lady Marl- 
 borough (it was before she became a Duchess) that of 
 "Mrs. Freeman," as being suited to her character. But 
 all their fondness had passed away, and the queen's one 
 desire was to get rid of her ex-favorite. Abigail Hill,, 
 afterward Mrs. Masham, a relative of the duchess, whom 
 the latter had placed with Anne to get rid of some oi 
 her own duties as mistress of the robes, gradually sup- 
 planted her in the queen's good graces, and the duke and. 
 duchess were deprived of their places in her household. 
 Marlborough's political enemies, too, were stirring against 
 him (he was at this time a whig), and the tories procured 
 his disgrace, had him recalled from the Continent (where 
 he was planning another campaign that should rival that. 
 of Malplaquet) and dismissed him from all his employ- 
 
ANNE. UNION WITH SCOTLAND. 335 
 
 ments. They accused him of cheating the government, 
 which he had undoubtedly done, for his avarice was as 
 great as his passion for military glory and he hesitated 
 at no baseness to gratify it. Upon one occasion, when 
 Prince Eugene was visiting London, the crowd thought 
 he was in a certain sedan-chair in Hyde Park, and began 
 cheering; but when they saw that the person was Marl- 
 borough they changed their hurrahs to "stop thief!" 
 
 The Marlboroughs had received, honestly, from the 
 queen and the parliament, grants amounting to the value 
 of at least five millions of dollars; but they were always 
 wanting more. One gift their descendants are probably 
 still enjoying — a pension of ^5000 a year settled upon 
 themselves and their heirs forever. The duke was a re- 
 markably handsome man, and had manners of such won- 
 derful grace and courtesy that they fascinated all who 
 met him. His ability as a soldier has somewhat over- 
 shadowed his gifts as a statesman; but he was remark- 
 able in both. All that he needed to make him truly 
 glorious was a conscience and a heart. 
 
 After Marlborough's recall, the war dragged slowly on 
 until it was ended by the peace of Utrecht (1713). 
 Louis XIV. had so far gained his point that Spain and 
 the West Indies were left in possession of his grandson, 
 Philip V.; Anne was recognized as queen of Great Brit- 
 ain; England was to keep Gibraltar and Minorca (one of 
 the Balearic Islands gained during the war) and received 
 in addition the Island of Newfoundland in North Amer- 
 ica, together with Acadia (Nova Scotia), and a tract of 
 land about Hudson Bay. This war is known in Ameri- 
 can history as "Queen Anne's War," and is only a repe- 
 tition of the horrors of Indian massacre. The town of 
 
336 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Deerfield, in Massachusetts, was destroyed, and more 
 than a hundred persons carried away prisoners. An 
 additional article of the treaty gave to Great Britain the 
 right, formerly possessed by the French, of importing 
 annually for thirty years nearly five thousand negro slaves 
 to America. Shameful to relate, this was the article of 
 the treaty most urgently insisted on.* 
 
 Queen Anne died the year after the Peace of Utrecht, 
 aged fifty years, after a reign of twelve years. Her death 
 was undoubtedly hastened by the continual brawling of 
 her ministers and Parliament. She dreaded a meeting 
 of her cabinet, and it was while trembling in anticipation 
 of one of these stormy sessions that the fit of apoplexy 
 came on which ended her life. Her husband, Prince 
 George of Denmark, had died some years earlier. 
 
 As a queen, Anne had little opportunity to show per- 
 sonal character, owing to the changed system of govern- 
 ment in her day, for now Parliament was supreme. From 
 that time, the saying is true that "the monarch reigns but 
 does not govern." As a woman, she seems to have com- 
 manded both respect and affection. She was very gen- 
 erous, not only to her favorites, but to others who needed 
 help; and "Queen Anne's Bounty," a fund for poor 
 clergymen, given from her own perquisites, still keeps 
 her memory green. She was the last sovereign of Eng- 
 
 * It was after the peace of Utrecht that the expatriation of the 
 French colonists in Acadia (Nova Scotia) took place, celebrated in 
 Longfellow's " Evangeline. " Against their will they were removed 
 to other parts of the country, the larger part of them settling in 
 what is now Western Louisiana, where to this day they retain their 
 language (now greatly corrupted) and, to a large extent, their 
 ancient customs, habits, and dress. 
 
ANNE. UNION WITH SCOTLAND. 337 
 
 land to touch for the "King's Evil," as Edward the Con- 
 fessor was the first; and the great Doctor Johnson faintly 
 remembered being taken to a tall lady in a black velvet 
 gown and a hood, whose magic touch, it was hoped, 
 would remove the curse of scrofula. 
 
 The most brilliant statesmen of Queen Anne's reign 
 were Harley (Lord Oxford) and St. John (Lord Boling- 
 broke). In science there w T as Sir Isaac Newton, whom 
 Queen Anne had the honor of knighting; Pope was just 
 beginning to be known as a poet, and Addison and Steele 
 were busy with the "Spectator." The industrious Defoe 
 had not yet written "Robinson Crusoe," nor had Dean 
 Swift begun "Gulliver's Travels." The reign of Anne is 
 regarded, next to Queen Elizabeth's and Queen Vic- 
 toria's, as being the most brilliant period of our English 
 literature. 
 
 The Electress Sophia of Hanover, who by the Act of 
 Settlement was appointed the next in succession, died 
 about ten days before the queen. 
 
 CHAPTER XLII1. 
 
 GEORGE I. INVASION OF THE PRETENDER. SOUTH-SEA 
 BUBBLE. DEATH OF THE KING. GEORGE II. 
 
 EORGE I., Elector of Hanover and son of 
 Sophia, was now king of England (17 14). The 
 people only half- liked the idea of receiving 
 a German prince who could not speak English* and was 
 
 * He was obliged to speak with one of his ministers, Sir Robert 
 "VValpole, in Latin, as he knew no English and the Premier no 
 German. 
 
 22 
 
338 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 ___ , * — 
 
 too old to learn (he was fifty -four), but anything was 
 better than a Roman-Catholic Stuart. At first sight the 
 English were prejudiced against him. He was awkward 
 and undignified in appearance and uncultivated in mind, 
 so that he seemed ill-fitted to come into a court which 
 was one of the most witty and graceful in Europe. 
 George I., however, had so many good qualities that he 
 soon won the approval, though never the affection, of his. 
 subjects. He was truthful, business like, and just, and 
 perhaps it was fortunate for Engand that his interest was- 
 largely in Hanover, so that he left his new kingdom to 
 govern itself through its representatives. The family of 
 Hanover, to which the Georges belonged, is often called 
 the "House of Brunswick," the Electors of Hanover 
 being at that time also Dukes of Brunswick. 
 
 George I. has left an amusing account of English 
 customs in a letter written by him at this time. "This 
 is a strange country," he says. "The morning after my 
 arrival at St. James's, I looked out of the windo« and 
 saw a park which they said was mine. The next day,. 
 Lord Chetwynd sent me a fine brace of carp out of my 
 own canal; and I was told I must give five guineas to his 
 servant for bringing me my own carp out of my own 
 canal in my own park." The king was very economical,, 
 and would rather have bought his carp in the market at 
 a much lower price. 
 
 "The tory party is gone," wrote Lord Bolingbroke 
 after Queen Anne's death. George I. at once formed 
 a whig ministry of which Lord Townshend was the 
 head. The whigs began impeaching several of the most 
 noted of Anne's ministers, among them Lords Oxford 
 and Bolingbroke and the Duke of Ormond; but as the 
 
GEORGE I DEA TH. GEORGE II 339 
 
 accusation was dictated only by party spite, nothing fur- 
 ther came of it. Marlborough was reinstated in his 
 position as captain-general of the forces. It was neces- 
 sary, however, to keep a close watch upon him, as he 
 was soon found to be in correspondence with the Pre- 
 tender,* or, as he was more often called, the Chevalier 
 of St. George. The latter lost no time in sending forth 
 a manifesto asserting his right to the English crown, and 
 the old struggle began once more, his friends in Scotland 
 exciting an insurrection there in his favor. 
 
 Louis XIV. of France died in 171 5, and the Preten- 
 der, who had looked for aid from him, was disappointed 
 in his hopes. The Regent Orleans refused any open 
 assistance, not wishing to go to war with England, and 
 James was obliged to depend on his Scottish friends. 
 The Earl of Mar, with some others, raised a force of five 
 thousand men for his support, and was joined by the 
 Duke of Ormond, one of the dismissed English tory 
 leaders. The campaign was very ill-planned. Part of 
 the army, under Mar, was defeated at Sheriff-Muir, near 
 Stirling, by Argyle; another part, marching southward 
 under command of a Mr. Forster, surrendered at Preston 
 in Lancashire. These two defeats put an end to the 
 Pretender's hopes in Scotland (17 15). James Stuart 
 himself was a most unsuitable person to be the centre 
 of a rebellion. He was haggard and melancholy look- 
 ing and so silent that some of the soldiers tauntingly 
 asked whether he could speak; he was tame and spirit- 
 less, and when he did talk, it was to complain of his 
 misfortunes. Abandoning his followers, he sailed se- 
 
 * The son of James II. "Pretender" in this sense means a 
 claimant; not an impostor. 
 
340 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 cretly with Mar for Paris, while many of his adherents 
 were taken and executed. Lord Derwentwater and 
 Lord Kenmure were beheaded on Tower Hill, while 
 Lord Nithisdale escaped by changing clothes with his 
 wife in the prison. After this, England had rest from 
 the Pretender for thirty years. The regent of France 
 allied himself with England, and James was obliged to 
 seek an asylum elsewhere. He married the grand-daugh- 
 ter of John Sobieski, the late king of Poland, and thence- 
 forward lived mainly in Rome. 
 
 An important law called the "Septennial Act" was 
 passed by Parliament in the following year (171 6). By 
 this, the same Parliament was allowed to sit for seven 
 years, though always retaining its right to dissolve itself 
 at pleasure. 
 
 A bill had been passed in Queen Anne's reign forbid- 
 ding the sovereign of England to leave the country with- 
 out consent of Parliament. It was now repealed, leaving 
 George I. free to go to his own dominions of Hanover 
 whenever he pleased. His oldest son, George, Prince of 
 Wales, was left in charge of the kingdom, though without 
 the title of Regent, as he was not on good terms with 
 his father. 
 
 During the premiership of Lord Stanhope, successor 
 to Lord Townshend, England drifted into a war with 
 Spain, brought about through a quarrel between Han- 
 over and Charles XII. of Sweden on account of some 
 disputed territory. To annoy the Elector, Charles agreed 
 with Cardinal Alberoni, the Spanish minister, to proclaim 
 James Stuart as James III. of England, which was done 
 in Madrid, the Pretender having gone there for the 
 purpose. 
 
GEORGE I. DEATH. GEORGE II. 341 
 
 Holland and France now entered into an alliance with 
 England against Spain, and this being afterward joined 
 by the emperor, is known by the name of the Quadruple 
 Alliance. The death of Charles XII. (171 8), and the 
 defeat of the Spanish fleet by Admiral Byng (1719), put 
 an end to the war. 
 
 The event occupying most attention in England in this 
 reign, was the famous South -Sea Bubble* — an attempt 
 to pay off the national debt, which now amounted to 
 ^53,000,000, by means of a stock company organized 
 to trade with the Spaniards in South America (17 17). 
 The government gave its sanction to the scheme by 
 allowing its stock to be exchanged for the Company's 
 stock. Speculation ran wild; the stock rose to 900 per 
 cent. A similiar scheme, originated by John Law, was 
 at the same time running the same mad career in Paris ; 
 and the thrill of it even reached America, and was felt in 
 Kaskaskia and Fort Chartres in Illinois, as well as in 
 New Orleans. At last the bubble burst; the stock could 
 no longer be sold at any price, and many of those who 
 had invested their all in it were ruined. The king and 
 the ministry were severely blamed for the countenance 
 they had given to this unfortunate mania. Lord Stan- 
 hope, the premier, fell a victim to the excitement. Being 
 violently attacked on the subject in Parliament, and de- 
 fending himself with equal vehemence, he was seized 
 with a fit of apoplexy and died on the following day 
 (17 21). For the next twenty- one years, the real head of 
 the government was Sir Robert Walpole. 
 
 Walpole's policy was one of peace. He said, "The 
 
 *The Southern Atlantic Ocean was then often called "The South 
 Sea" as the Caribbean Sea was called "The Spanish Main." 
 
342 HISTORY OF ENGLAND, 
 
 most pernicious circumstances in which this country can 
 be, are those of war; as we must be losers while it lasts 
 and can not be great gainers when it ends." He was 
 equally a lover of quiet at home. His aim was to avoid 
 everything that would lead to variance, and to conduct 
 all affairs with the least possible friction. He is charged 
 with saying, in actions if not in words, "Every man has 
 his price," not always in money, but in something which 
 the man warns; and he did not scruple to employ bribery 
 to accomplish his ends. Such an administration can 
 have but little history. 
 
 Some disturbance took place in Ireland which, under 
 a less skilful minister, might have led to an insurrection. 
 As small coin there was exceedingly scarce, a contract 
 was granted to a man named Wood to coin half-pence 
 and farthings to a certain amount, his profit to come 
 from the labor employed on them. The Irish, excited 
 by factious politicians, were furious at this measure, 
 which they fancied was intended in some way to impose 
 upon them. Their anger was increased by a series of let- 
 ters signed M. B. Drapier, written for political purposes 
 by the celebrated Dean Swift; and although the gov- 
 ernment had Wood's half-pence tested, and found them 
 fully up to the standard, the unreasoning rage of the 
 people was so great that Walpole thought it best to 
 annul the contract, giving Wood a compensation in 
 money. 
 
 George I., like William III., was more attached to his 
 native country than to England, and made frequent visits 
 there. On one of his journeys, he was attacked with 
 apoplexy, while in his traveling-carriage, and, refusing 
 to stop on the road, was taken to his brother's palace at 
 
GEORGE I DEATH. GEORGE II. 343 
 
 Osnabriick. When the carriage reached its destination, 
 King George was dead. His wife, Sophia Dorothea of 
 Zell, had never been in England. This unfortunate lady 
 had been for nearly twenty years a prisoner, on account 
 •of conduct which may have been nothing more than 
 imprudent. She died a few months before her husband, 
 and a story was long current that a paper had been 
 thrown into his carriage, purporting to be a letter from 
 her, summoning him to meet her within a year and a 
 ■day. The shock of this, it is said, brought on the apo- 
 plexy which ended his life. 
 
 George II. was taking his afternoon nap when Sir 
 Robert Walpole, booted and spurred from a hasty ride, 
 ■came into the room and insisted on waking his majesty 
 to tell him the news. The new king did not believe it 
 at first, and when he was at last made to understand the 
 fact, the minister asked his wishes in regard to summon- 
 ing a council. "Go and get your directions from Sir 
 Spencer Compton," answered the king, bluntly, the in- 
 ference being that he meant to select the person named, 
 as his prime minister. Sir Spencer Compton, who had 
 been the prince's treasurer during George III.'s lifetime, 
 was a dull, plodding man, always ready to do his best, 
 but with no genius for government. He had not the 
 faintest idea of what he ought to do, and asked Sir Rob- 
 ert to write a speech for him to give to the king to read 
 in the Council. The ex-premier readily did this, and 
 the new one took it to the king. The latter made some 
 objection to it, and Sir Spencer was obliged to have re- 
 course to Walpole again, for he did not know how to 
 alter the document. Queen Caroline, George II.'s wife, 
 a handsome woman of great wit and spirit, observed to 
 
344 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 her husband that it was a pity to choose a man for min- 
 ister in whose own judgment his predecessor was the 
 fittest person to perform the duties of the office; and as 
 the king was ruled by her in everything, Sir Robert was 
 soon reinstated. The latter and the queen remained 
 firm friends, and really governed the country between 
 them; while they managed the ignorant little king so 
 well that he thought all the while he was doing it himself. 
 
 George II. was now forty-four years old. He could 
 speak English fluently, though he did it incorrectly and 
 with a vulgar accent. He had a violent temper, but 
 possessed the manly virtues of courage and a love of 
 justice. 
 
 In 1732 (the year of George Washington's birth). 
 General James Oglethorpe procured a patent from the 
 king for colonizing a strip of country in North America, 
 between the Savannah River and the northern boundary 
 of Florida, the latter country belonging to Spain. His 
 object was to found an asylum for imprisoned debtors*" 
 and other helpless poor, where they might, by thrift, 
 retrieve their fortunes. The expedition left England the 
 next year (1733), and the territory, named Georgia in 
 honor of King George II. , was the last settled of the 
 thirteen English colonies in America. 
 
 *The cruelties inflicted upon debtors in the Fleet and Marshalsea 
 prisons are almost beyond belief, and we could not credit them but 
 that they were proved by government investigation. 
 
WAR WITH SPAIN. YOUNG PRETENDER. 345 
 
 CHAPTER XLIV. 
 
 WAR WITH SPAIN. AUSTRIAN SUCCESSION. YOUNG 
 PRETENDER. QUEBEC. 
 
 HE Spaniards had been from the first jealous of 
 the new settlement of Georgia, which they 
 thought would interfere with their trade, and 
 they began to search English ships for prohibited goods, 
 as the English themselves after the Revolution searched 
 ours for British sailors. A story told by a man named 
 Jenkins increased the popular ill-feeling. He said that 
 a Spanish vessel overhauled his schooner, and the cap- 
 tain, not finding anything contraband, tortured him in 
 various ways to make him tell what he had hidden 
 away, and finally tore off his ear and gave it to him, 
 saying that he would have served the king just so if he 
 had caught him. Jenkins carried the ear about with 
 him, wrapped in cotton, and although some persons 
 believed that he had lost it in the pillory, the assertion 
 helped to increase the anger against Spain. The war 
 was carried on mostly by the navy. Admiral Vernon 
 took Porto Bello, on the Isthmus of Darien, while Com- 
 modore Anson captured many prizes at sea, and in the 
 course of his voyage sailed around the globe (1740-4). 
 
 While this war was going on, England became engaged 
 in another, contrary to the advice and wishes of Sir 
 Robert Walpole, who in consequence resigned his office 
 (1742). Queen Caroline had died five years before. 
 The country had grown rich and prosperous under Wal- 
 pole's peaceful administration, and the king parted from 
 
546 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 him with sincere regret, creating him at the same time 
 Earl of Orford. 
 
 The new quarrel was called "The War of.the Austrian 
 Succession," and turned on the question whether or not 
 Maria Theresa, the daughter of the late emperor Charles 
 VI., should reign over his hereditary dominions of 
 Austria and Hungary. He had provided for this, as he 
 thought, by an agreement called the "Pragmatic Sanc- 
 tion," which had been signed by the chief powers in 
 Europe; but Louis XV. of France, disregarding this 
 promise, supported the Elector of Bavaria as successor 
 to Charles VI., and was joined by Frederic II. of Prussia 
 (Frederic the Great), who began his aggressions by taking 
 from Maria Theresa the province of Silesia. England 
 sided with Austria, and as the Hungarian queen pacified 
 Frederic II. by giving up her claim to Silesia, the latter 
 retired from the war, leaving England and Austria to 
 fight it out with France and Bavaria. The French were 
 defeated by George II. at the battle of Dettingen, the 
 last at which an English king ever fought in person. 
 King George, however, showed such partiality for his 
 Hanoverian troops and officers, that he lost favor with 
 the English, and the cry "No Hanoverian king!"* began 
 
 * The people had previously objected to his spending so much 
 time in Hanover, and during one of his absences the following 
 notice was stuck up on the gate of St. James's Palace: "Lost or 
 strayed out of this house, a man who has left a wife and six children, 
 on the parish. Whoever will give any tidings of him shall receive 
 four shillings and sixpence reward. N.B. — This reward will not be 
 increased, nobody judging him to deserve a Crown. " ( The Eng- 
 lish "crown" is a coin worth five shillings). A popular caricature 
 represented the Hanoverian White Horse, in a cocked hat and 
 jack-boots, riding the British Lion. 
 
WAR WITH SPAIN. YOUNG PRETENDER. 347 
 
 to be frequently heard. Two years afterward, the king's 
 •second son, the Duke of Cumberland, was defeated by 
 the French under Marshal Saxe in the battle of Fontenoy 
 (1745). He was recalled to England on account of a 
 new danger. France once more took up the cause of 
 the exiled Stuarts, and another Jacobite invasion was 
 planned, this time to be led by Prince Charles Edward, 
 son of the Old Pretender. The latter was still living, 
 t>ut was more spiritless than ever, and it was thought 
 that his son, now twenty-five years old, would have better 
 success in rallying the friends of the cause. Charles 
 Edward sailed for Scotland with a few followers, and on 
 his arrival there was joined by several Highland chief- 
 tains, among whom was the celebrated Cameron of 
 LochieL* The "Young Chevalier," as his friends loved 
 to call him, was the very reverse of his father. Well 
 formed and extremely handsome, with fair hair which 
 curled in natural ringlets, and the blue eyes of the Saxon, 
 he had, in addition to these gifts of appearance, a manner 
 winning though dignified, and a romantic sense of honor. 
 The more prudent among the Scots felt that he was 
 destined to fail, and hesitated to join him; but he moved 
 resolutely on with such forces as he could command, 
 and at first met with brilliant success. He took several 
 towns, and caused his father to be proclaimed at Edin- 
 burgh under the name of James VIII. of Scotland. He 
 also gained a victory over Sir John Cope at Preston 
 Pans, after which the Highlanders left him and went 
 home with their booty, and he spent some time in recruit- 
 ing his army. Having collected what he thought a suffi- 
 cient force, he invaded England, marching as far south- 
 
 * See Campbell's poem, "Lochiel's Warning." 
 
348 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 ward as Derby. Here the Scottish army insisted on 
 retreating, alleging that there had been neither an Eng- 
 lish uprising nor an invasion from France, on both of 
 which they had counted; and the prince, after trying in 
 vain both entreaties and threats, was obliged to return 
 with them to Scotland. 
 
 The English were at last aroused to a sense of their 
 danger, and sent a force to Scotland under the Duke of 
 Cumberland (son of George II.) which met that of the 
 Young Pretender on Culloden Moor, near Inverness,, 
 and inflicted on it a crushing defeat (1746).* Charles 
 Edward escaped, and remained in concealment for five 
 months; and though a reward of ^30,000 was set upon 
 his head, and several hundred persons knew of his hiding 
 places, he reached France in safety. One of those who 
 took care of him in his concealment was Flora Macdon- 
 ald, celebrated in Sir Walter Scott's novel of "Waverley,"' 
 under the name of Flora Maclvor. (She is said to have 
 come to America, and to have died in North Carolina, 
 within this century.) 
 
 The Duke of Cumberland stained his military reputa- 
 tion by the most revolting cruelty after the battle of Cul- 
 loden. He had his prisoners shot in cold blood, and 
 allowed his soldiers such inhuman license that he was 
 long remembered in Scotland under the title of "The 
 
 * The romantic aspect of this uprising in the view of the Jacob- 
 ites may be judged from this stanza of a popular song, "The Scottish 
 Cavalier : " 
 
 He was the first to draw the sword when the standard waved abroad s 
 He was the first to charge the foe on Preston's bloody sod: 
 And ever in the van of fight the foremost still he trod, 
 Until on bleak Culloden's height he gave his soul to God: 
 Like a fine old Scottish Cavalier, all of the olden time. 
 
WAR WITH SPAIN. YOUAG PRETENDER. 349 
 
 Butcher." When he returned to London, however, there 
 was nothing but praise for him; he received a pension 
 of ^40,000 a year, in addition to his other revenues, 
 and the thanks of numerous bodies of citizens. Such of 
 the unhappy participants in the rebellion as had escaped 
 "The Butcher" were speedily brought to trial, and about 
 eighty of them, including Lords Kilmarnock, Balmerino, 
 and Lovat, were executed with all the barbarities of the 
 usual sentence for high-treason (1746). 
 
 The future fortunes of Charles Edward, "The Young 
 Chevalier," were not in harmony with this beginning. 
 Being obliged to leave France, he wandered from place 
 to place, becoming constantly more dissipated and 
 disreputable. He was married to the Countess Louise 
 von Stolberg, whom he treated so ill that she wss 
 obliged to separate from him, and at last he closed his 
 discreditable life in Italy, a poor, despised drunkard. 
 His brother Henry entered the Romish Church, was 
 created by the pope, Cardinal York, and died at Rome 
 a very old man, in 1807. With him ended the male 
 line of the Stuarts. 
 
 As usually happened when there was war going on in 
 Europe between France and England, a "sympathetic" 
 war took place between the French and English colonies 
 in America. The one which corresponded to the War 
 of the Austrian Succession was called here "Kins 
 George's War." Its main incident was the taking 
 ^1745), by a few regiments of New-England militia 
 under Governor Shirley, of the fortress of Louisburg, 
 a place so strong that it was called "The Gibraltar of 
 America." The Peace of Aix la Chapelle (1748) closed 
 the war, and all conquered places were returned. The 
 
350 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 indignation of the New Englanders at having the for- 
 tress of Louisburg, which they had purchased with their 
 blood and treasure, taken away from them by a stroke 
 of the pen, was so great that the day of its surrender 
 was called "a black day," not to be named without a 
 feeling of disgrace. 
 
 England had now another breathing-spell of peace. 
 After the retirement of Sir Robert Walpole, the most 
 prominent names among English statesmen are those of 
 William Pitt (afterward the great Lord Chatham) and 
 Lord Chesterfield. The latter introduced in Parliament 
 one of the most important bills of the century — namely, 
 that of the reformation of the calendar. Until the 
 sixteenth century, the calendar prepared by order of 
 Julius Caesar, called the "Julian year," had been every- 
 where used. Pope Gregory XIII., knowing that it was 
 ten days out of the way, had reformed this (1582), and 
 the new reckoning had been accepted by all Continental 
 Europe except Russia and Sweden. By the middle of 
 the eighteenth century, the error had grown to eleven 
 days, and it was arranged in England that the second 
 day of September, 1752, was to be counted as the 
 fourteenth,* in order to bring the calendar into harmony 
 with the correct time. The lower classes of people, 
 thinking that they had been cheated, thronged the 
 streets crying out, "Give us back our eleven days!" and 
 threatening violence, but were pacified without blood- 
 shed. By the same Act of Parliament, the beginning of 
 the legal year was changed from April 25 to January 1. 
 Sweden followed the example of England the next year,. 
 
 * This seems to make a change of twelve days instead of eleven. 
 
WAR WITH SPAIN. YOUNG PRETENDER. 351 
 
 while in Russia the old style, now twelve days out of 
 date, is still in use. 
 
 The American colonies, during all this time, had 
 been gradually increasing in importance and prosperity, 
 and in 1754, a convention of delegates met at Albany to 
 consider a plan proposed by Dr. Benjamin Franklin of 
 Pennsylvania, for a union of the thirteen colonies for 
 mutual protection and defence. The plan was adopted 
 by the convention and submitted to the colonial assem- 
 blies and to the British cabinet. It met with the usual 
 fate of moderate measures; the colonies refused it 
 because it left too much in the power of the king; the 
 English government would not sanction it because it 
 was too democratic. So the first effort at American 
 union fell to the ground. 
 
 In the same year (1754), hostilities began between the 
 French and English on this side of the Atlantic. The 
 latter had made some settlements on the Ohio River; 
 and as the French claimed all this part of the country, 
 they resented the intrusion, and interfered with the 
 settlers. General Braddock, who was sent from Eng- 
 land to the assistance of the colonists, was surprised 
 and defeated by the French and Indians near Fort du 
 Quesne, in Pennsylvania (1755), where the British 
 troops were saved from destruction only by the skill of 
 George Washington, then a major of Virginia volunteers. 
 The war dragged on for some years longer, there being 
 no efficient commanders on the side of the English 
 until the ministry of William Pitt put new vigor into- 
 the administration. Under General Amherst, Louisburg 
 was retaken (1758) after a siege of seven weeks, and 
 Fort du Quesne, being abandoned by the French, was 
 
352 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 occupied by General John Forbes, and named Fort Pitt, 
 in honor of the statesman whose energetic measures had 
 changed the course of the war. The fort fell into decay, 
 but the city which grew up around it still keeps the 
 name of Pittsburg. In the following year, the glorious 
 victory of Wolfe on the Heights of Abraham, near 
 Quebec, practically ended the war, though peace was 
 not formally made until four years afterward. General 
 Wolfe and the French commander, Montcalm, were 
 both killed in the action. 
 
 The island of Minorca, it will be remembered, had 
 been ceded to the English by the Treaty of Utrecht. 
 Although there had been no declaration of war between 
 France and England, the English had since made some 
 piratical attacks on French vessels. In retaliation for 
 this, the French attacked Port Mahon, in Minorca, which 
 Admiral Byng had orders to defend. He sailed to this 
 place, but thinking the French fleet superior to his own, 
 resolved not to attack it, and left the island to its fate. 
 The fort surrendered (1756) after making the best 
 defence it could. The popular clamor against Byng 
 was so violent that he was tried by court-martial and 
 shot on the quarter-deck of his ship. 
 
 Among the influences now affecting the great body 
 of Englishmen, who cared little for the foreign wars 
 which brought them no profit and but a faint impression 
 of sharing in the national glory, was the new impulse 
 given to the religious life of the people by the preaching 
 of John Wesley. He was afterward joined by his 
 brother Charles and by George Whitefield, and both in 
 England and America they tried to arouse a more 
 earnest and personal interest in religion. They wished 
 
WAR WITH SPAIN. YOUNG PRETENDER. 353 
 
 to raise it from dead formality to a true spiritual life; 
 and when they were not allowed the use of churches in 
 which to address their followers and fellow-laborers, 
 they held meetings in the open air, where thousands at 
 a time were brought under the spell of their eloquence. 
 The poorer classes, especially, yielded eagerly to the 
 amotions inspired by their fervor, and an electric thrill 
 seemed to run through the nation. Wesley himself had 
 no intention of separating from the Church of England; 
 "but his successors developed his plan for an organized 
 religious life into the great movement now known as 
 Methodism. 
 
 CHAPTER XLV. 
 
 SEVEN-YEARS' WAR. INDIA. DEATH OF GEORGE II. 
 STAMP ACT. LETTERS OF JUNIUS. 
 
 *rp!3B IGHT years after the Peace of Aix la Cha- 
 fe i^ii pelle, France and Austria leagued together 
 ' 1 1' ■ "" l for the destruction of Prussia, against which 
 each had some grievances. Russia, Saxony, and Sweden 
 afterward joined this alliance. Frederic II., king of 
 Prussia, having had private notice of their intentions, 
 did not wait to be attacked, but acted on the offensive 
 by seizing Dresden, the capital of Saxony. This was 
 the beginning of what was afterward known as the 
 Seven-Years' War (1756-63). 
 
 In such a condition of affairs, England naturally took 
 part with Prussia. It was not only to preserve the bal- 
 ance of power and because the kings of the two coun- 
 23 
 
354. HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 tries were own cousins that she did so, but because the 
 king was in danger of losing his electorate of Hanover. 
 The Duke of Cumberland was sent for the defence of 
 that country, but the French, entering it with a large 
 army, compelled him to retreat and to sign the "Con- 
 vention of Kloster- Seven" (1757), by which he agreed 
 practically to disband his army. When the duke re- 
 turned to England, his father treated him so coldly that 
 he gave up all his employments and retired in disgust 
 to private life. 
 
 In addition to her wars on the Continent and in 
 America, England was carrying on a vigorous contest in, 
 India. That country was still largely under the control 
 of native rulers, with whom the French allied themselves 
 against the English. As early as 175 1, Robert Clive, a 
 young man in the East-India Company's service, had 
 entered the army, and now, with a mere handful of 
 Englishmen and a few Sepoys, he attacked and took 
 the town of Arcot from the French, and gradually ex- 
 tended the English rule. In 1756 occurred the tragedy- 
 of the "Black Hole" in Calcutta. The nabob Surajah 
 Dowlah, who had long been jealous of the English, 
 seized Fort William in Calcutta, and shut up one hun- 
 dred and forty-six prisoners in a loathsome dungeon so- 
 small that they could scarcely stand in it. Here he kept 
 them through a hot August night. In the morning, after 
 suffering untold torments, only twenty-three of them 
 were left alive. The next year (1757) Clive, having, 
 collected a small army of English and Sepoys, retook 
 Calcutta, and later in the year fought the memorable 
 battle of Plassey, where with three thousand men he 
 defeated Surajah Dowlah's army of fifty thousand. 
 
INDIA. DEATH OF GEORGE II 355 
 
 When he returned to England, having laid the founda- 
 tion of a vast empire, the conqueror was raised to the 
 peerage under the name of Lord Clive, Baron of Plas- 
 sey. In the same year, the victory of Sir Eyre Coote 
 drove the French out of Pondicherry, thus giving the 
 British control over the whole of Southern India. 
 
 In 1760, King George II. died suddenly, from a rup- 
 ture of the heart. His son Frederic, Prince of Wales, 
 had died nine years before, leaving a son who now be- 
 came King of England as George III. The latter was 
 at this time twenty-two years old, and was the first of 
 the Georges who was born in England. 
 
 George III. succeeded to the throne when England 
 was at a high pitch of national pride and self-satisfac- 
 tion. The victories of Wolfe in America and Clive in 
 India contributed to this confidence ; and the nation felt 
 safe under the administration of the "Great Commoner," 
 William Pitt. The French, annoyed at their defeats, 
 now entered into an alliance with Spain called the 
 "Family Compact," the kings of both countries being 
 Bourbons. As this bound Spain to take part with 
 France against England, Pitt wished to be beforehand 
 with her and declare war at once, thus taking her at a 
 disadvantage; but the king refusing to do so, Pitt re- 
 signed his office and was succeeded by Lord Bute (1761). 
 
 In the same year, King George married Princess Char- 
 lotte of Mecklenburg Strelitz, a girl of seventeen, plain- 
 looking but sensible. His attention was attracted to 
 her by reading a letter she wrote to Frederic the Great, 
 asking him to spare her country the horrors of war. It 
 was a simple little letter, such as any well-educated 
 school-girl might write, but George III. thought it ad- 
 
356 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 mirable, and offered himself at once to the young prin- 
 cess. The marriage was a very happy one and the king 
 proved himself a good husband — something so rare in 
 his family that it is worth noticing. 
 
 Spain soon broke out into acts of open warfare, as 
 Pitt had expected. The English captured the city of 
 Havana in Cuba, and several of the smaller West- India 
 Islands, besides taking Manilla, the capital of the Phil- 
 ippines. Notwithstanding these successes, Lord Bute, 
 alarmed at the increase of the national debt, which now 
 amounted tO;£i32, 000,000, was anxious to make peace, 
 and a treaty at Paris (1763) ended the Seven Years' 
 War.* By this, France gave up the whole of Canada 
 to the British, and tacitly renounced her right to the 
 great Northwest Territory, which included within its limits 
 the Great Lakes and the Upper Mississippi Valley, and 
 the present states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, 
 Wisconsin, and Minnesota. England gave back to Spain 
 her recent conquests of Havana and Manilla, with sev- 
 eral of the West-India Islands, receiving Florida in re- 
 turn. The treaty was extremely displeasing to the 
 English, on account of these concessions, and Lord 
 Bute became the most unpopular man in the country. 
 People contrasted his weak measures with the energy of 
 Pitt; and, to the surprise of every one, he resigned his 
 office (1763). He was succeeded by George Granville. 
 
 Among the various ways in which the growing spirit 
 of popular freedom showed itself was the desire for 
 increased liberty of the press. A political paper called 
 "The North Briton/' edited by John Wilkes, had long 
 
 *The corresponding war in America (which, however, began 
 there two years earlier) was* called the French and Indian War. 
 
INDIA. DEATH OF GEORGE II. 357 
 
 been the vehicle for attacks on the government; and 
 after an address of the king to Parliament in which he 
 spoke of the peace as honorable to Great Britain, 
 Wilkes published in his paper a violent attack on the 
 minister, and, by implication, on the king. Wilkes was 
 thrown into the Tower, but was released on account of 
 his privilege as a member of Parliament. The Com- 
 mons expelled him from his seat by a unanimous vote, 
 and ordered his paper to be burnt by the hangman. 
 He was reelected by his constituents and after re- 
 peated expulsions, reelections, fines and imprisonments, 
 he was at last allowed to take his seat, and remained a 
 member of Parliament for many years, the original ques- 
 tion being entirely dropped. This was taken as a 
 vindication of the right of free utterance both in print- 
 ing and speaking, and, this right having once been es- 
 tablished, it has been impossible since that time ever 
 to violate it. 
 
 George III.'s policy differed in one respect from that 
 of his two immediate predecessors. He was determined 
 to govern. He was an honest man, though one of 
 narrow views and an overwhelming idea of his personal 
 prerogative. In the debates on the legality of Wilkes's 
 arrest, General Conway, a distinguished officer and a 
 fair-minded man, voted conscientiously against the gov- 
 ernment; upon which the king insisted on his being 
 instantly dismissed from the army. "In this question, I 
 am personally concerned," he wrote to Grenville. "I am 
 not to be neglected unpunished." 
 
 But all ministerial and royal imprudences were thrown 
 into the shade by GrenvihVs proposed bill for taxing the 
 American Colonies. His excuse for this was that Eng- 
 
358 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 land had been at great expense for their defence in the 
 French and Indian war, and that it was only right that 
 they should bear their share of the burden. The tax 
 took the form of a Stamp Act, requiring that all law 
 documents should be written upon stamped paper, each 
 sheet thus paying a duty to England.* 
 
 The measure passed (1765) with little opposition. Pitt 
 was absent when it was voted on; and the only strong 
 remonstrance was contained in a spirited speech by 
 Colonel Isaac Barre'. The character of this may be 
 judged by a few extracts. Col. Barre' said, referring to 
 the Americans, "They, planted by your care! No; 
 your oppression planted them in America. . . . They, 
 nourished by your indulgence! They grew by your 
 neglect of them. . . . They, protected by your arms ! 
 They have nobly taken up arms in your defence." 
 
 In the colonies, however, the resistance to the Act 
 was forcible and instantaneous. "No Taxation without 
 Representation!" was the cry. In the Virginia House 
 of Burgesses, Patrick Henry uttered his cutting invec- 
 tives against it. In Massachusetts, James Otis poured 
 forth the burning words which made John Adams, 
 another of our great orators, characterize him as "a 
 flame of fire." A general Congress met at New York in 
 
 * Dr. Franklin had been sent to England by several of the colo- 
 nies, when hints of the threatened taxation reached America, to use 
 his influence against it. He writes to a friend at this time, "Depend 
 upon it, I took every step in my power to prevent the passing of the 
 Stamp Act. But the tide was too strong against us. We might as 
 well have hindered the sun's setting . . . Frugality and industry 
 will go a great way toward indemnifying us. Idleness and pride 
 tax with a heavier hand than kings and parliaments. If we can get 
 rid of the former we may easily bear the latter. " 
 
INDIA. DEATH OF GEORGE II. 359 
 
 October, 1765, which put forth a declaration of rights, 
 acknowledging allegiance to Great Britain, but protesting 
 against illegal taxation and against the vexatious limita- 
 tions which were imposed on trade by the navigation 
 Jaws* and other similar enactments. A suggestion was 
 made that the colonies should be asked to tax them- 
 selves for the purpose of assisting the mother -country, 
 and if this had been followed out, the amount raised 
 would probably have been far in excess of what was ex- 
 pected from the sale of stamps. No attention was paid 
 to the proceedings of the Stamp-Act Congress, as it was 
 called, and by the first of November, the day on which 
 the law was to go into operation, there were no stamps 
 to sell. The people of the colonies had destroyed them 
 all; and the officers employed in their distribution were 
 glad to get off with their lives. 
 
 Among the orators who spoke in the English Parlia- 
 ment against the Act was Edmund Burke, then as always,' 
 the friend of liberty. It was in one of his speeches on 
 this subject at a later time that he brought in his famous 
 simile of shearing a wolf. A man was resolved to shear 
 a wolf. "But have you considered the resistance, the 
 difficulty, the danger of the attempt?" "No; I have 
 considered nothing but the right. Man has the right of 
 dominion over the beasts of the forest, and therefore, I 
 will shear the wolf!" William Pitt (now created Earl of 
 
 * By these laws the colonies were forbidden to sell their products 
 •except in England, nor could they buy European goods in any other 
 ■country. No foreign ships were allowed to enter American ports. 
 The Americans were not permitted to make iron-ware and woolen 
 goods, and many articles which they made could not be sent from 
 one colony to another. 
 
360 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Chatham) spoke to the same purpose. "I rejoice that. 
 America has resisted. Three millions of people, so dead 
 to all the feelings of liberty as voluntarily to submit to 
 be slaves, would have been fit instruments to make 
 slaves of the rest. ... It is my opinion that the Stamp 
 Act should be repealed, totally, absolutely, and immedi- 
 ately." The Stamp Act was repealed (1766) but coupled 
 with the bill for repeal was another declaring the power 
 of Parliament "to bind the colonies in all cases whatso- 
 ever." This did not promise harmony, yet as the im- 
 mediate point was gained, the colonies were quieted, and 
 the usual accompaniment of bonfires and bell-ringing 
 testified to the joy of the American people. 
 
 While the discussion over the Stamp Act was still 
 going on, the king was attacked by an illness, the nature 
 of which was kept secret, but which is now supposed to 
 have been temporary insanity. On his recovery a Coun- 
 cil of Regency was appointed, at his suggestion, in case 
 of a relapse; and Grenville, having displeased him in 
 some personal matters, was allowed to retire, his place 
 being taken by Lord Rockingham. 
 
 In agreement with its declaration, Parliament now 
 (1767) proceeded to lay taxes on tea, glass, paper, and 
 painter's colors, more for the sake of asserting its rights 
 than with an expectation of revenue. The duties on the 
 last three articles were soon withdrawn, but the king in- 
 sisted on retaining that on tea. 
 
 By an arrangement with the East-India Company, its 
 merchants were enabled to send cargoes of tea to Amer- 
 ica, which, even after the duty was paid, could be sold 
 at a lower rate than formerly. This, it was supposed, 
 would be eagerly accepted by the Americans, it being 
 
INDIA. DEATH OF GEORGE II. 361 
 
 assumed that they complained of the tax only because it 
 affected their pockets. But the colonists desired, not 
 cheaper tea, but the maintenance of the principle that 
 there could be no taxation without representation; and 
 the concession went for nothing. 
 
 In the midst of the excitement produced in England 
 by the discussion of these subjects, a series of letters 
 under the signature of "Junius" appeared in the news- 
 papers, attacking the government, with violent personal 
 abuse of its members, in which even the king was not 
 spared. Every effort was used to discover the writer 
 of these letters; but the authorship of "Junius" contin- 
 ued a mystery for several generations. It is only within 
 the present half- century that evidence has come to light 
 which makes it almost certain that the author of the 
 " Letters of Junius" was Sir Philip Francis, a government 
 official of some distinction. 
 
 CHAPTER XL VI. 
 
 WAR WITH AMERICA. PEACE OF VERSAILLES. WARREN 
 
 HASTINGS. 
 
 HE tea-ships arrived duly in America, according 
 to the provisions of the English government 
 and the East- India Company; but no tea was 
 sold here. In Boston, where the governor refused to 
 allow it to be taken back to England, a company* of 
 
 *This orderly riot is called in history "The Boston Tea-Party. '* 
 It curiously happened that the last survivor of it, David Kennison, 
 was a soldier at Fort Dearborn (Chicago) in 1810. He died in 
 Chicago, February 24, 1852, at a great age, and his bones lie in 
 a grave, unmarked but not unknown, within the present limits of 
 Lincoln Park. — "Fergus' Historical Series," No. 16. 
 
362 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 men disguised as Indians boarded the ships, broke open 
 the chests, and emptied the tea into the water (1773). 
 In New York and Philadelphia, the vessels were sent 
 back without unloading their cargoes. In Annapolis, a 
 ship that had paid the duty was burnt in the harbor, 
 with its cargo. In Charleston, the tea was intention- 
 ally stored in damp cellars, where it was soon spoiled. 
 As Boston was considered the hot-bed of the rebellious 
 spirit, Parliament as a punishment passed the "Boston 
 Port Bill," which closed the harbor to all commerce, and 
 removed the seat of Massachusetts government to Salem 
 (1774). An attempt was made to quarter several regi- 
 ments of British soldiers on the inhabitants of Boston, 
 and vexatious alterations were made in the charter of 
 the colony, all tending to restrict its liberty. A congress 
 •of delegates from the thirteen colonies met later in the 
 year, and a Declaration of Rights was announced in 
 reference to which Lord Chatham (William Pitt) said, 
 "I must declare that for solidity of reasoning, force of 
 sagacity, and wisdom of conclusion, under such a com- 
 plication of difficult circumstances, no nation or body 
 of men can stand in preference to the General Congress 
 at Philadelphia." But George III. was incapable of 
 learning anything. He had but one idea as to America, 
 and that was, to crush down opposition by force. "The 
 die is cast," he wrote to Lord North, the premier, when 
 he sent General Gage with troops to Boston, "The 
 colonies must either triumph or submit." The first 
 alternative was clearly meant to be ironical. 
 
 The skirmish at Lexington, the seizure of Ticonderoga, 
 the battle of Bunker Hill, the appointment of George 
 Washington as commander-in-chief of the Continental 
 
AMERICAN WAR. WARREN HASTINGS. 363 
 
 Congress, followed one another rapidly (1775), an d early 
 in the next year, General Washington's bold and mas- 
 terly movements forced General Howe to evacuate Bos- 
 ton. On the fourth of July, 1776, the Continental 
 Congress, assembled at Philadelphia, declared that the 
 colonies were and of right ought to be, free and inde- 
 pendent states. The Americans had continued to peti- 
 tion the king for redress of their grievances even after 
 the effort seemed hopeless; but no notice was taken of 
 their petitions, on the ground that the Congress was a 
 self-constituted body, and in rebellion. Washington was 
 defeated by General Howe (who had under his com- 
 mand a large number of Hessian troops hired by the 
 British government) at Brooklyn Heights (August, 1776), 
 and soon afterward was obliged to abandon New York 
 City. Franklin and others had been sent as envoys to 
 ask aid from France; and though Louis XVI. was not 
 then prepared to go to war with England (which would 
 have been the result of open assistance), he helped the 
 Americans secretly with money, and connived at Lafay- 
 ette's going to America on his own responsibility. The 
 L>attles of Brandy wine and Germantown, unfavorable to 
 the Americans, were more than counterbalanced by 
 the victories over Lord Burgoyne at Saratoga (1777), 
 -where the British general was taken prisoner, with his 
 whole army.* This was the turning-point in the war, 
 and is reckoned as one of the "Fifteen Decisive Bat- 
 tles of the World." The next year (1778), the indepen- 
 
 * One of Burgoyne's soldiers, John Whistler, entered the Amer- 
 ican service, rose to be a captain, and was the builder of the first 
 Fort Dearborn (1803). His grand-daughter, Gwinthlean Whistler, 
 -widow of Robert A. Kinzie, now lives in Chicago (1891). 
 
364 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 dence of the United States was recognized by France, 
 and after three years more of intermittent fighting the 
 American victory at Yorktown, where Lord Cornwallis 
 surrendered with his army, practically closed the war. 
 
 Matters did not arrive at this pass without attempts 
 on the side of Great Eritain toward peace. Lord North 
 brought in two bills (1778), one renouncing formally the 
 right of the British Parliament to tax America ; the other 
 authorizing the king to send commissioners to treat with 
 any person or persons whom the colonies might appoint, 
 as a means of restoring peace. The effect of the read- 
 ing in Parliament is thus recorded in the "Annual Reg- 
 ister:" "A dull, melancholy silence for some time suc- 
 ceeded to this speech * * * Astonishment, 
 dejection, and fear overclouded the whole assembly." 
 Lord Chatham, very ill with the gout, was brought to 
 the Parliament House, wrapped in flannels, and sup- 
 ported on either side by his son and his son-in-law, 
 and there made his last speech. He protested against 
 any measure that looked toward the surrender of the 
 colonies. His voice had always been against taxation ; 
 it was now raised still more strongly against separation. 
 While attempting to speak further, he fell back in con- 
 vulsions, and was carried home insensible. He lingered 
 a few weeks, and died, lamented by all except the king 
 and his party, the tories. When George III. heard that 
 the Commons had voted him a public funeral,'" he wrote 
 to Lord North that he was "rather surprised," but trusted 
 that it would be merely an expression of gratitude for 
 
 * Parliament also decreed a monument in Westminster Abbey, 
 an annuity of ,£4000, to his heirs, and a gift of ^"20,000 to pay his 
 debts 
 
AMERICAN WAR. WARREN HASTINGS. 365 
 
 certain services which he specified. "This compliment, 
 if paid to his general conduct," remarked his majesty, 
 "is rather an offensive measure to me personally." The 
 funeral honors were paid, and Chatham's name still 
 rouses in the hearts of Americans as well as English- 
 men, feelings of pride and veneration, while the best 
 they can say of George III. is, "Poor man, he meant 
 well!" 
 
 England had declared war against France as soon as 
 the treaty of the latter country with the United States 
 was made known, and it was not long before she was 
 embroiled with Spain and Holland. Everywhere her 
 powerful navy enabled her to hold her own. Gibraltar 
 sustained successfully a three years' siege, and Admiral 
 Rodney defeated a Spanish fleet off Cape St. Vincent 
 and a French one in the West Indies. A small Amer- 
 ican squadron under John Paul Jones captured two 
 British vessels, the "Serapis" and the "Scarborough," 
 off the coast of Scotland. 
 
 The year 1780 was long remembered in England on 
 account of the "No popery!" riots in London. Ex- 
 tremely severe laws against Roman Catholics had been 
 in force all through the century. Priests who performed 
 mass or became teachers were liable to be imprisoned 
 for life; and all Catholics were declared incapable of 
 owning landed property, which, in case of inheritance, 
 was given to the nearest Protestant relative. The re- 
 peal (1778) of these disgraceful laws enraged the bigoted 
 masses, and Lord George Gordon, a weak, vain, and 
 restless young man, drew together a great mob, which 
 for a few days seemed to have possession of London. 
 The rioters broke open Newgate Prison, liberated three 
 
366 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 hundred prisoners, and burned the costly building to the 
 ground. They then rushed through London and the 
 suburbs, destroying houses and Roman Catholic church- 
 es, and burned the fine residence of Lord Mansfield, 
 chief -justice of England, with the valuable law- library 
 which he had spent fifty years in collecting. Lord George 
 Gordon was accused of high treason, but was acquitted, 
 and afterward died insane. A large number of the rioters 
 were executed.* 
 
 Although the capture of Lord Cornwallis and his army 
 at Yorktown in 1781 had virtually ended the American, 
 war, the final treaty of peace was not signed until two 
 years afterward. Approaches were made to Dr. Franklin 
 at Paris, on the part of the British government, and as- 
 he refused to treat on any other terms than a recognition 
 of American independence, the negotiations were some- 
 what delayed. In November, 1782, however, a prelimi- 
 nary treaty was signed, yielding all that was demanded 
 by the United States, including permission to fish on the 
 banks of Newfoundland. Early in the next year, peace 
 was made at Versailles with France and Spain, several of 
 the West India Islands changing hands again, and Florida 
 being once more given back to Spain. On September 
 3, 1783, the definite treaty was signed with the United- 
 States. The king's first speech in Parliament after the 
 signing of the treaty was in a manly and generous tone- 
 After stating the facts, he said that he had sacrificed 
 every consideration of his own to the wishes and opin- 
 ions of his people, and added, "I make it my humble 
 and earnest prayer to Almighty God that Great Britain 
 
 * A spirited account of these riots is found in the opening chapter 
 of Dickens's "Barnaby Rudge." 
 
AMERICAN WAR. WARREN HASTINGS. 367 
 
 may not feel the evils that might result from so great a. 
 dismemberment of the empire, and that America may be 
 free from those calamities which have formerly proved in 
 the mother country how essential monarchy is to the 
 enjoyment of constitutional liberty. Religion, language, 
 interest, affections, may, and I hope will, yet prove a 
 bond of permanent union between the two countries."" 
 Two years later, when John Adams, our first minister to- 
 England, was presented to him, he said that though he 
 had been the last to consent to a separation, he would 
 be the first to meet the friendship of the United States 
 as an independent power. 
 
 In the same year with the acknowledgment of Ameri- 
 can independence, the Prince of Wales became of age. 
 By his extravagance of living, his losses at the gaming^ 
 table, and the alterations he was making in Carlton 
 House, which had been given him as a residence, he was 
 so deeply involved that at one time he had a sheriff's 
 process for debt in his house. His father refused to- 
 assist him, and for a time he reduced his expenses. Then, 
 the opposition drawing attention to his notorious debts 
 and threatening to make them public, the king con- 
 sented, on condition of his reforming, to allow him (from 
 the public funds of course) ^10,000 a year additional 
 income, ^161,000 to pay his debts with, and ^20,000- 
 to spend on Carlton House. 
 
 We must now turn to British affairs in India. Lord. 
 Clive had returned there after a few years spent at home, 
 and had employed his great talents in reforming abuses 
 and in consolidating the splendid empire which he may 
 almost be said to have given to England. Returning 
 home (1767) in ill-health, with enormous wealth, he was. 
 
368 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 accused by General Burgoyne (the same who was after- 
 ward defeated at Saratoga) of misconduct in India, 
 and an investigation was held (1773). Acts of oppres- 
 sion and deceit toward native chiefs were proved against 
 him (he was always faithful to his own government) and 
 he was censured for these, while at the same time his 
 "great and meritorious services to his country" were 
 recognized. The mortification broke his heart Being 
 of a melancholy temperament, which was increased by a 
 life of inaction, and suffering from illness, he killed him- 
 self (1774) at forty-nine years of age. 
 
 After dive's last return from the' Indian peninsula, the 
 old corruption and mismanagement began there again, 
 and Warren Hastings was sent out as governor-general 
 of India, being the first person who bore that title. He 
 was an able and vigorous ruler, surrounded by difficulties 
 which taxed his powers to the utmost. Hyder Ali, king 
 of Mysore, the most enterprising of the native chiefs, 
 invaded the Carnatic (a district on the eastern coast of 
 India) with 90,000 men, led by French officers, and after 
 inflicting great injury on the English, was defeated by Sir 
 Eyre Coote at Porto Novo, with the effect of establishing 
 their power more firmly than ever. 
 
 To satisfy the grasping demands of the East- India 
 Company, Hastings practised such extortions on the 
 native princes as have left an indelible stain on his mem- 
 ory. Exorbitant fines, seizure of vast amounts of property 
 under false pretences, employment of torture to force 
 the giving up of treasures, bribery of officials, all these 
 things dim the glory of the man who had done more than 
 any other to secure the great empire which had been 
 conquered by his predecessors, and to this day remains 
 
AMERICAN WAR. WARREN HASTINGS. 369 
 
 a monument of English prowess. His genius for admin- 
 istration, his foresight, his knowledge of the springs to 
 be touched in dealing with men, place him in the very 
 front rank of England's great colonial governors. But 
 when he returned home (1785), expecting rewards and 
 applause, he was met by an impeachment which, from 
 the magnitude of the interests involved and the station 
 of the accused, led to one of the most famous state trials 
 of history. 
 
 Once more the grand old hall of William Rufus was 
 crowded. The greatest orators of the day were arrayed 
 against the prisoner; Burke, Fox, Sheridan, all famed for 
 impassioned eloquence, for convincing reasoning, did 
 their utmost to prove him guilty. On his side, the coun- 
 sel were men of great legal ability, but of lesser note. 
 One of them, Law, was afterward chief- justice of Eng- 
 land. The court was crowded during its first sessions 
 with the rank and fashion of England, both men and 
 women, all eagerly taking one side or the other as if their 
 own fate depended upon the result. The trial lasted for 
 seven years. There were long recesses of the court, 
 during which Hastings was released on bail; but not 
 until 1795, was the verdict given — not guilty! 
 
 That Warren Hastings was guilty of great crimes 
 against humanity can not be denied. That he derived 
 no benefit personally from those crimes is equally true, 
 for he did not come home a rich man; whether his great 
 services to the country justified his acquittal for wrongs 
 done was the question for the court to decide, and it 
 was decided in the affirmative. 
 
 Though justice was not done, as it now seems to us, 
 the objects of the trial were accomplished. It has 
 24 
 
370 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 become impossible, since that day, for any English officer 
 to repeat the cruelties which fill our souls with horror; 
 and the poor Hindoo pariah is, in theory at least, as 
 much under the protection of law as his fellow -subjects- 
 in England. 
 
 CHAPTER XL VI I. 
 
 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. NAPOLEON IN EGYPT. 
 
 IRELAND. 
 
 N 1783, the office of prime minister of England 
 was conferred upon William Pitt, a man only 
 twenty-four years old, second son of the great 
 Lord Chatham. When he began, the country was ex- 
 hausted by a long war, and public discontent was freely 
 vented in abuse of the administration. Within a few 
 years all this was changed. The debt was reduced by 
 ten millions sterling, and people trusted the govern- 
 ment, for it was perceived that there was a strong hand 
 at the helm. As long as he held the office, Pitt enjoyed 
 the confidence of the king without sacrificing his own 
 independence. 
 
 The year 1789 was a crisis in the history of two 
 nations with whom the fortunes of England were closely 
 connected. The United States of America, which had 
 been up to that time a loosely-joined confederacy, with 
 no central bond to hold the members together, became 
 really united by the adoption of its constitution and 
 the organization of a centralized government. It was 
 no longer " one nation to-day and thirteen to-morrow, " 
 
FRENCH REVOLUTION. IRELAND. 371 
 
 as Washington had described it. It was a consolidated 
 country, which for the first time commanded the respect 
 of the world. England marked her sense of the change 
 by sending a resident minister to represent her interests 
 in America, which before she had disdained to do. 
 From the 30th of April, 1789, the day of Washington's 
 inauguration as president, the United States took its 
 place among the family of nations.* 
 
 Five days after this event, the meeting of the States- 
 general at Versailles, near Paris (May 5, 1789), marked 
 the opening of that great convulsion called the French 
 Revolution.t At first, English sympathy was largely on 
 the side of the Revolutionists. People saw, or thought 
 they saw, an effort toward a constitutional government, 
 which was to replace the old arbitrary tyranny; and 
 they rejoiced for the sake of humanity. But it was not 
 long before they began to see the cloven foot of the 
 worst form of tyranny — the tyranny of the many — under 
 the sweeping robe of progress, and those who had been 
 most eager in praise of the movement turned with loath- 
 ing from its excesses. The first effect in England was 
 to make more marked the division of party lines, and 
 friends were separated who had before stood in close 
 alliance. Burke and Fox, in particular, became political 
 opponents, the latter, a man less clear-sighted and well- 
 balanced than his friend, supporting the revolutionists, 
 
 * As England refused to give up certain forts which she held in 
 our western territory and continued to interfere with our commerce, 
 it was found necessary to make another treaty with her (1794), 
 which was negotiated by John Jay, afterward chief-justice of the 
 United States. By this treaty everything was settled for ten years. 
 
 t See "A Short History of France," chapters XXIX-XXXII. 
 
372 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 those "architects of ruin/' as Burke called them. In 
 the violent language of the time, those who opposed the 
 Revolution were despots — those who defended it were 
 Jacobins.* 
 
 The execution of Louis XVI. in 1793 filled England 
 with horror; and when the French National Conven- 
 tion declared war against her within two weeks after- 
 ward, under pretext of helping the party in England 
 who wished to make that country a republic, the na- 
 tional spirit burst forth like a torrent. A fleet sent to 
 assist the royalists in the defence of Toulon (1793) was 
 driven away by a force under the direction of Napoleon 
 Bonaparte. This was his first military action, and he 
 did not again come into direct collision with the Eng- 
 lish until they met in Syria (1798). 
 
 A coalition was formed by Great Britain, Holland, 
 Russia, and Spain, to restore the monarchy in France; 
 but the immense armies, mad with enthusiasm, sent into 
 the field by the republic, baffled all their efforts. The 
 navy, however, was successful in several quarters, Nel- 
 son, Howe, and Hood, keeping up the honor of the 
 English flag at sea. 
 
 In Holland, the French were successful, and the Stadt- 
 holder (the Prince of Orange) fled to England. The 
 authorities left in Holland now joining the French, Eng- 
 land seized the Dutch dominions in the East and West 
 Indies. Demarara and the colonies in South America, 
 the Cape of Good Hope in Africa, and Ceylon, Ma- 
 
 * Be careful to distinguish between "Jacobite" and "Jacobin." 
 The former denoted the followers of James II. and his descendants, 
 the latter the most violent and radical party of the French anar- 
 chists. 
 
FRENCH REVOLUTION. IRELAND. 373 
 
 lacca and other Dutch possessions in Asia were taken 
 
 (i795)- 
 
 In England, those who sympathized with the Revo- 
 lution did their best to stir up ill-feeling among the 
 lower classes; and a bad harvest, making high prices, 
 increased the excitement. The king was hooted and 
 pelted in the streets, and his coach, after he had left it, 
 was broken to pieces by the mob. The Bank of Eng- 
 land was obliged to suspend specie payments (1797), 
 and its notes had to be taken instead of gold and silver. 
 
 It was during this year that Nelson, supported by 
 Admiral Jervis, gained a great victory over the Spanish 
 fleet off Cape St. Vincent. In the heat of the action he 
 exclaimed, "Westminster Abbey or victory!" This time 
 it was victory. A few months afterward, Admiral Dun- 
 can defeated a French fleet at Camperdown. 
 
 Napoleon Bonaparte, who had reappeared on the 
 scene in "The Day of the Sections" (1795) ar >d the 
 campaign in Italy (1796-7), now undertook an expedi- 
 tion to Egypt (1798) to break the English power in that 
 country and prevent communication with India through 
 the Red Sea. Landing at Alexandria with an immense 
 army, he soon afterward defeated the Mamelukes (Egyp- 
 tian soldiers) in the Battle of the Pyramids. Admiral 
 Nelson, however, vanquished the French fleet in Abou- 
 kir Bay with great loss.* For this he was made "Baron 
 Nelson of the Nile." Only four of Napoleon's ships 
 were able to escape to France. Meanwhile, Bonaparte, 
 marching into Syria, undertook to conquer that country 
 from the Turks. At Acre he found the latter supported 
 
 *This was the famous "Battle of the Nile," where took place, 
 the incident celebrated in Mrs. Hemans's "Casabianca." 
 
374 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 by the English admiral, Sir Sydney Smith, and after a 
 siege of two months was forced to retire. On returning 
 to Egypt from this most disastrous expedition he de- 
 serted his army and secretly embarked for France, where, 
 by a change in the government, he was made first con- 
 sul (1799). 
 
 Sir Ralph Abercrombie, who was sent to Egypt to 
 attack the French army left there by Bonaparte, gained 
 a victory near Alexandria, but was mortally wounded in 
 the action. General Hutchinson, who now assumed the 
 command, defeated the French general Menou, and 
 agreed that the French troops in Egypt should be trans- 
 ported to France at the expense of England. The 
 savans (learned men) who went with Napoleon had col- 
 lected an enormous quantity of Egyptian manuscripts 
 and antiquities of all sorts, including the famous "Rosetta 
 Stone,"* which they were now obliged to give up to the 
 English, retaining only their private papers. 
 
 A rebellion in Ireland was the natural consequence of 
 the revolutionary successes in America and France, and 
 an association called "The Society of United Irishmen" 
 was formed there in 1793. It was begun by Protestants 
 under the leadership of Theobald Wolfe Tone, but was 
 soon largely joined by Irish Catholics. For some years 
 their movements and intentions were kept secret, but in 
 1798 the project of an insurrection was betrayed to the 
 English government, and some of the leaders were 
 arrested. Martial law was proclaimed in Ireland, and 
 
 * On this stone is engraved an inscription in Greek, ancient 
 Egyptian, and hieroglyphics, by means of which it became possible 
 to decipher all Egyptian picture-writing. It is in the British 
 Museum. 
 
FRENCH REVOLUTION. IRELAND. 375 
 
 many acts of violence were committed on both sides. 
 Lord Edward Fitzgerald was killed in defending himself, 
 and Thomas Addis Emmet was confined for three years.* 
 
 By the efforts of Pitt (which included unscrupulous 
 bribery of its members) the Irish Parliament passed a 
 vote agreeing to union with England (July, 1800). The 
 scene, as described by a member of this last Parliament, 
 was very impressive. "The speaker, with an eye averted 
 from the object which he hated, proclaimed, with a sub- 
 dued voice, 'The Ayes have it'" When the House 
 adjourned, the speaker was followed to his residence by 
 forty-one members, walking bareheaded, and in profound 
 silence. He bowed to them before entering his house, 
 and then "the whole assemblage dispersed, without utter- 
 ing a word." 
 
 Having now reached the last year of the eighteenth 
 century, we may properly look back and see what that 
 century had accomplished in England. Politically, the 
 press had been made free, and the debates in Parliament, 
 previously most jealously kept secret, were reported from 
 1 77 1. England had gained Canada and lost the thirteen 
 colonies; the latter after all a real gain to her, although 
 an apparent loss, for independent America has been of 
 far more value to her than colonial America ever could 
 have been. 
 
 * Emmet was released (1802) on condition of leaving England for- 
 ever. A few years later he came to New York, and ended his life 
 there as a prosperous lawyer. His brother, Robert Emmet, was 
 concerned in a rebellion in 1803, and was hanged in Dublin. Two 
 of Thomas Moore's exquisite poems were written in memory of him 
 and his lady-love: "Oh, breathe not his name, " and "She is far from 
 the land where her young hero sleeps. " 
 
376 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 She had established an empire in India to which man- 
 kind has seen no parallel in modern times, and there 
 is no quarter of the globe where her dominion was not 
 increased. Captain Cook added to the world's knowl- 
 edge by his discovery (1778) of the Hawaiian Islands 
 (called by the English Sandwich) and his investigations 
 of the resources of Australia led to the establishment of 
 a penal settlement in New South Wales (1788). 
 
 In science, the application of steam to practical pur- 
 poses had begun, and was constantly widening, James 
 Watt extending and applying what Newcomen had 
 begun. His partner, Boulton, said triumphantly to Bos- 
 well, when the latter visited his manufactory: "I sell here,, 
 sir, what all the world desires to have — Power!" Frank- 
 lin had tamed the lightning; Herschel, with his powerful 
 telescope, brought a new planet into sight. The Duke 
 of Bridgewater devised, and, with the help of Brindley r 
 the great engineer, carried out the project of connecting- 
 the industrial districts by a chain of canals. Wedgwood 
 invented a method of making pottery which soon rivalled 
 the work of France and Holland. A quarter of the sur- 
 face of England, marsh, waste moor, and forest, was re- 
 claimed during this century, and ten thousand square 
 miles of land added to what was already cultivated. 
 
 It is strange that a nation claiming so high a degree 
 of civilization as England, should so long have tolerated 
 the unspeakable horrors of the slave-trade ; but though 
 the matter was in agitation for twenty years, with all the 
 influences that could be brought to bear upon it, the 
 detestable traffic was not suppressed until the nineteenth 
 century. The bill passed the Commons repeatedly, but 
 was always thrown out by the House of Lords. John. 
 
FRENCH REVOLUTION. IRELAND. 377 
 
 Howard brought the frightful condition of the prisons 
 before public attention, though the system of laws which 
 punished with death the stealing of articles from a shop 
 to the value of five shillings, still continued in force. 
 
 The discovery of a preventive of small-pox, belongs to 
 the eighteenth century. This disease had long been the 
 scourge of Europe, taking its victims from high and low 
 alike, when Lady Mary Wortley Montague, the spirited 
 wife of the ambassador to Turkey, brought home with 
 her from that country the practice of inoculation. While 
 the unreasoning prejudice against it was still great in 
 England, Queen Caroline had the good sense to allow 
 two of her children to be inoculated; and the remedy 
 became a recognized one. In the latter part of the cen- 
 tury, however, the discovery by Dr. Jenner of the process 
 of vaccination provided a milder treatment, equally effec- 
 tual, and infinitely less dangerous. 
 
 In art, William Hogarth, a painter who satirized the 
 faults and follies of common life, was most noted in the 
 middle part of the century. Later, Reynolds and Gains- 
 borough were celebrated, each in his own line, as painters, 
 and sculpture was represented by Flaxman. Sheridan 
 was the great play -writer, and Garrick the great actor ot 
 plays in those days. 
 
 When we try to name the men of letters of the last 
 half of the eighteenth century, we have a long task before 
 us. There were Hume and Gibbon and Robertson, the 
 historians; Richardson, Fielding, and Smollett, the origi- 
 nators of our system of modern romance-writing; Thom- 
 son, Young, and Gray, the poets; Johnson and Goldsmith 
 (who also wrote in many other styles), the essayists; Adam 
 Smith, founder of the science of political economy; Lady 
 
378 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Mary Wortley Montague and Horace Walpole, the inim- 
 itable letter-writers; Frances Burney, novelist and diarist; 
 Watts and Wesley and Newton, the writers of so many 
 of our familiar hymns. Last on the list come the two 
 poets of humanity, Robert Burns in Scotland and Wil- 
 liam Cowper in England, the latter dying in 1800, and 
 so finishing the century. 
 
 CHAPTER XL VI II. 
 
 UNION WITH IRELAND. TRAFALGAR. ORDERS IN COUN- 
 CIL. PENINSULAR WAR. WAR OF l8l2. 
 WATERLOO. ST. HELENA. 
 
 HE opening year of the new century saw the 
 assembling of the first Parliament of Great 
 Britain and Ireland (1801). At the same time 
 the vain words "King of France" were dropped from 
 the royal title and the fleur de lys blotted out from the 
 royal arms. The Irish Parliament ceased to exist; a 
 hundred Irish members were added to the House of 
 Commons in England and thirty -two peers, including 
 four bishops, to the House of Lords. Pitt made a 
 strong effort to procure the admission of Roman Cath- 
 olics to Parliament, but the king opposed it from con- 
 scientious motives, and Pitt resigned the premiership, 
 which he had held for eighteen years. Mr. Addington 
 took his place and formed a new ministry (1801). 
 
 The right of searching the vessels of other nations 
 for contraband goods had never been given up by 
 Great Britain, and the northern countries, Russia, Swe- 
 
UNION WITH IREIAND. WATERLOO. 379 
 
 den, Denmark, and Prussia formed a league to protect 
 their commerce from the encroachments of the English. 
 Sir Hyde Parker and Lord Nelson were sent to Copen- 
 hagen with a fleet, and a deadly fight took place. Nel- 
 son said afterward, "I have been in more than a hundred 
 engagements, but that of Copenhagen was the most ter- 
 rific of them all." Several of the ships ran aground, and 
 the admiral, Sir Hyde Parker, gave the signal to with- 
 draw; but Nelson put his spy-glass to his blind eye so 
 that he could not see it, and went on fighting. The 
 Danish fleet was destroyed, and he sailed away for the 
 Baltic to find the Russians. When he arrived off Cron- 
 •stadt he learned that the emperor, "Mad Paul." had 
 been assassinated; and as Alexander I., his successor, 
 was disposed to make peace, there was no difficulty in 
 putting an end to the league. Soon afterward a treaty 
 was made with France at Amiens, and for a moment the 
 world seemed quiet again. 
 
 The peace did not last long. The English refused to 
 give up Malta, as stipulated in the treaty, because the 
 French army was kept up; and Bonaparte, who was 
 still First Consul, ordered all English residents or travel- 
 lers in France to be thrown into prison (1803). A 
 French army took possession of Hanover, while the 
 English seized the French and Dutch colonies in the 
 West Indies. A great number of soldiers, called the 
 "Army of England," were assembled at Boulogne, and 
 Bonaparte reviewed them there; but as he had other 
 work on hand, and the British fleet swept the channel 
 unremittingly, the army of England never sailed. 
 
 In 1804, Bonaparte proclaimed himself emperor un- 
 der the name of Napoleon I. At the same time, 
 
380 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Addington resigned, and Pitt again became prime min- 
 ister. A year later, Nelson fought the battle of Trafalgar 
 (1805). The order for the day was, "England expects- 
 every man to do his duty." Every man did his duty,, 
 and the English won a glorious victory; but Nelson was 
 killed. Admiral Coilingwood, the second in command, 
 succeeded him. 
 
 In 1806, England lost another of her greatest men. 
 AVilham Pitt died in January, on the twenty-fifth anni- 
 versary of the day on which he first entered Parliament,, 
 worn out at the age of forty-six by care and anxiety. 
 The usurpations of Napoleon filled him with dismay and 
 dread. "Fold up the map of Europe for twenty years!"' 
 he exclaimed in despair, after the battle of Austerlitz. 
 His rival, Fox, survived him only a few months. They 
 are buried near one another in Westminster Abbey. *■ 
 Nelson is buried in the centre of the crypt under the 
 great dome of St. Paul's, London. 
 
 It is impossible, in writing the history of any country 
 in Europe during the first fifteen years of this century,, 
 to avoid constant references to the name of Napoleon.. 
 Having beaten Austria and Russia at Austerlitz and 
 Prussia at Jena, he entered Berlin in Triumph, and from 
 that place issued the "Berlin Decrees," which have- 
 made his visit there so famous. By them he declared 
 the British Islands in a state of blockade (on paper)^ 
 and forbade all other countries to hold any commercial 
 intercourse with England or her colonies. The English 
 government, fearful that Napoleon would press into his- 
 service the fine Danish fleet, sent to demand of Den- 
 
 * "Drop upon Fox's grave a tear 
 
 'Twill trickle to his rival's bier. " — Sir Walter Scott. 
 
UNION WITH IREIAND. WATERLOO. 381 
 
 mark that it should be given up to them. This being 
 indignantly refused, a force was sent to bombard Copen- 
 hagen, which was forced to surrender, and the whole 
 Danish fleet was carried to England, with immense 
 quantities of naval stores and artillery (1807). This 
 arrogant act must always remain a blot on the escutch- 
 eon of England. The island of Heligoland* was seized 
 at this time, and several of the Danish West- India 
 Islands were captured. 
 
 A more honorable action was the abolition of the 
 African slave-trade, which took place in 1807 through 
 the long and continued efforts of Wilberforce, Clarkson, 
 and Granville Sharp. 
 
 Napoleon's Berlin Decrees brought on the Peninsular 
 War, in which Sir Arthur Wellesley (afterward Duke of 
 Wellington) made himself a splendid name. It was not 
 the first time he had been heard of, for the battle of 
 Assaye, in India (1803), where Wellesley defeated 30,- 
 000 natives with less than one-sixth of their number, 
 had already shown his generalship. Napoleon's troops, 
 under General Junot, had invaded Portugal, because that 
 country refused to submit to the Berlin Decrees. Wel- 
 lesley gained the battle of Vimeira (1808), but by the 
 "Convention of Cintra," between England and France, 
 he was obliged to leave the country. Sir John Moore 
 was killed in the battle of Corunna;t his soldiers 
 defeated the enemy, but were glad afterward to escape 
 to England. Wellesley defeated the French at Talavera 
 (after which he was made Viscount Wellington), Busaco, 
 
 *This island has recently (1890) been given to Prussia. 
 + The poem beginning, "Not a drum was heard, nor a funeral 
 note, " was written to commemorate this event. 
 
382 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Albuera, Salamanca, and Vittoria (1809--1813), and hav- 
 ing driven them across the Pyrenees into their own 
 country, pursued them as far as Toulouse. Then he 
 returned to England, was created Duke of Wellington, 
 and took his seat in the House of Lords. 
 
 The king's old malady, insanity, by which he had sev- 
 eral times before been attacked, came upon him hope- 
 lessly in 18 10, after the death of his beloved daughter,, 
 the Princess Amelia. From this time to his death in 
 1820, George III. is a cipher in the history of his country. 
 His oldest son, the Prince of Wales, afterward George 
 IV., Was appointed regent. 
 
 The second quarrel of the United States with England, 
 commonly called the War of 181 2, was preceded by 
 several years of ''strained relations" between the two> 
 countries. In 1807 Great Britain, in retaliation for 
 Napoleon's Berlin Decrees, issued "Orders in, Council," 
 forbidding ships of any nation to trade with France, and 
 assuming the right to capture any vessels violating this, 
 prohibition. The Americans were now between two 
 fires. England had long claimed the right of searching; 
 their ships and taking from them by force any sailors- 
 born on British soil. In pursuance of this claim, the 
 English ship Leopard lay in wait for the U. S.' frigate 
 Chesapeake, out of Norfolk harbor, and demanded cer- 
 tain men stated to be British subjects. The American; 
 Commodore Barron refused to give them up, whereupon 
 the Leopard opened fire on the Chesapeake, which, 
 being unprepared for fighting, was obliged to strike her 
 flag and surrender the men. Outrages like this at last 
 became so intolerable that war was declared, June, 1812, 
 under President Madison's administration. The war was. 
 
UNION WITH IRELAND. WATERLOO. 3S< 
 
 conducted mostly by sea and on the Great Lakes of Am- 
 erica, where ^the United States' navy obtained many 
 successes. *By land it was carried on languidly, and 
 without great credit to either party. The wanton burn- 
 ing of public buildings at Washington (the Capitol, Presi- 
 dent's house, etc.), without even the pretence of military 
 necessity, seemed more like the action of savages than 
 of the representatives of a civilized nation. Both parties 
 being tired of the war, peace was made at Ghent (Dec. 
 24, 1814) without any mention of the original matter in 
 dispute — the claim of a right of search. Nevertheless, 
 that claim has not been asserted since then. The battle 
 of New Orleans (Jan. 8, 1815) was fought two weeks after 
 the treaty was signed, the news of the peace not having 
 then reached this country. In this battle the British 
 were defeated with the loss of two thousand men, includ- 
 ing their general, Pakenham, while the Americans, under 
 General Andrew Jackson, lost only a handful. 
 
 The feature of this war which is of greatest interest to 
 Northwestern Americans, is the fact that in prosecuting 
 it in the West, the British repeated the cruel, unpardon- 
 able course which had, in revolutionary times, brought 
 disgrace upon their statesmanship and their arms. They 
 made allies of the savage Indians, and again the toma- 
 hawk, the scalping -knife, and the torch became British 
 weapons through their use by their friends the red men. 
 One of the very first occurrences of the war was the 
 "Chicago Massacre" of August 15, 181 2. News was 
 brought to Captain Heald, commandant at old Fort 
 Dearborn, that war had been declared, and that he must 
 evacuate his fort and withdraw to Fort Wayne with all 
 his men, together with settlers and their families. He 
 
384 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 was told that the Indians would fall upon them merci- 
 lessly as soon as they left the protection of the fort; but 
 he first tried to engage their services as guards by distrib- 
 uting among them a large quantity of goods, and then 
 started out. Before they had gone two miles the savages 
 attacked them and killed all, men, women, and children, 
 except a score or so whom they held, some for torture 
 a,nd some for ransom. Next day they burned the fort, 
 and Chicago was without inhabitants for four years. 
 
 In 1 8 14, Napoleon, having wearied out humanity with 
 his inordinate ambition, accompanied by its frightful 
 destruction of human life, was forced by the allies, who 
 had been fighting him under different coalitions for many 
 years, to abdicate and retire to the island of Elba. To 
 their utter astonishment he escaped, and reappeared in 
 France the next year at the head of an army. A con- 
 gress was sitting in Vienna for the purpose of reestab- 
 lishing the boundaries he had deranged, when the news 
 was brought to them. The Duke of Wellington, who was 
 present, hastened home to impress upon Parliament the 
 necessity of proceeding against Napoleon as a common 
 enemy. The Parliament responded to his appeal, an 
 enormous sum was voted to carry on the war, and a com- 
 bination of the principal European powers was formed to 
 dethrone the emperor, who had again assumed the scep- 
 tre, the Bourbon king, Louis XVIII., fleeing before him. 
 
 Now for the first time the two greatest generals of 
 Europe were to be personally opposed to each other. 
 Napoleon was confident of success. He is reported to 
 have said, "Enfin, je vais me mesurer avec ce Vilainton."* 
 
 *"At last, I am going to match myself with this Wellington." 
 {In French "vilain" means "low, bad, villainous." 
 
UNION WITH IRELAND. WATERLOO. 385 
 
 Each laid his plans with the utmost skill. Wellington 
 intended to join the Prussian general, Blucher, and 
 attack Paris; Napoleon aimed to meet and defeat them 
 separately. He marched toward Brussels, drove Blucher 
 from his position at Ligny, and sent Marshal Grouchy 
 after him to prevent his union with Wellington. The 
 English army made a stand at Waterloo, a place about 
 twelve miles from Brussels. Here Napoleon attacked 
 them (June 18, 1815), and a long day's struggle ensued, 
 both sides fighting with desperate valor. Toward night- 
 fall, Napoleon gathered up all his strength for a last 
 charge; the "Old Guard," who had been his companions 
 on many an eventful field, rushed forward only to meet, 
 at the hands of the English, their first defeat. Already 
 the detachment of Prussians under Blucher, who had 
 out-marched Grouchy, had appeared upon the scene. 
 The French columns broke and fled, pursued by the vic- 
 torious allies; Napoleon just escaped capture as he drove 
 furiously away in his carriage; the battle of Waterloo was 
 over; his standard fallen, never to rise again. 
 
 The allies marched at once to Paris, where Louis 
 XVIII. was again set upon his throne. The emperor, 
 after a vain attempt to escape to America, went volun- 
 tarily on board the British ship Bellerophon, saying that 
 he wished to throw himself upon the protection and 
 hospitality of England. But he was too dangerous an 
 enemy of society to be let loose again to destroy the 
 peace of Europe; and, the Regent refusing him permis- 
 sion to set foot on English ground, the allies decided 
 that he should be sent to St. Helena, a lonely, rocky 
 island in the Atlantic Ocean west of Africa, there to re- 
 main a prisoner in the hands of the British. He lived 
 25 
 
386 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 six years longer, strictly guarded, at St. Helena, and died 
 in 182 1, in the fifty-second year of his age. 
 
 CHAPTER XLIX. 
 
 DEATH OF GEORGE III. GEORGE IV. CATHOLIC EMAN- 
 CIPATION. WILLIAM IV. 
 
 REAT distress followed the sudden change from 
 war to peace. The suspension of trade les- 
 sened the demand for labor, and the numbers 
 of soldiers and sailors suddenly disbanded increased the 
 trouble. Food became so dear as to threaten a famine,, 
 and many riots took place in the manufacturing districts, 
 where the newly invented machinery for saving hand- 
 work threw many persons temporarily out of employ- 
 ment. Meetings were called, loudly demanding reforms 
 of various kinds, and at one of these, held at Manchester 
 (181 9), several persons were killed.* The popular ora- 
 tor Henry Hunt, and the political economist William 
 Cobbett, boldly advocated the cause of the working- 
 man, and were fined and imprisoned in consequence. 
 
 In 181 5, the Algerine pirates (who had been put 
 down by our own Decatur in 1805) were again rampant, 
 and Great Britain sent an expedition against them which, 
 in connection with a small Dutch squadron, destroyed 
 the fortifications of Algiers and many of the piratical 
 vessels. More than a thousand Christian slaves were 
 liberated and nearly that number of men lost by the 
 English in the action. 
 
 * This occurrence went by the name of " Peterloo. " 
 
GEORGE IV. WILLIAM III 387 
 
 King George III. died in 1820, at eighty-two years of 
 age, after a reign of sixty years, the longest in English 
 history. The last ten years of his life were passed in 
 darkness. Blind and deaf, as well as insane, he was a 
 sorrowful spectacle, and death came as a welcome relief. 
 His faithful and excellent wife, Queen Charlotte, was 
 carried to the grave only a few months before him. His 
 son, George IV., had long been Prince Regent. The 
 little grandchild who was to take possession of his 
 throne seventeen years later as Queen Victoria, was 
 born the year before his death; her father, the Duke of 
 Kent, died a week before the king. 
 
 In his private character, George III. was amiable and 
 upright, and by his homely simplicity endeared himself 
 to the common people. As both he and Queen Char- 
 lotte were economical even to niggardliness, they were 
 not popular with the court circle, who would have pre- 
 ferred greater hospitality. In his public life the king 
 was undoubtedly honest and conscientious, but his narrow 
 mind and unconquerable obstinacy were the cause of 
 great injury to the nation. His ideas of the kingly pre- 
 rogative were almost as absurd as those of the Stuarts, 
 but his faults had this advantage : they made it impossi- 
 ble for any subsequent English sovereign to repeat his 
 mistakes. 
 
 The regency of the fourth George had lasted nine 
 years before his father's death (1811-1820), so that no 
 change was perceptible in the government when he 
 took the name of king. A plot, called the Cato-Street 
 Conspiracy, was formed by the radicals to assassinate 
 the cabinet ministers, who were disliked as representing 
 the aristocracy. It was discovered, and the ringleaders, 
 
5SS HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 who were led by a person named Thistlewood, were 
 executed. 
 
 The beginning of the new king's reign was disgraced 
 by a prosecution of his wife, Queen Caroline, whom he 
 had married only for her money, and had always dis- 
 liked. Accusing her of misconduct, he subjected her 
 to the ignominy of a public trial, in which she was de- 
 fended by the popular statesman, Lord Brougham/' 1 and 
 honorably acquitted. The Commons showed their good- 
 will to her by voting her an annuity of ^50,000. Not 
 being a person of great delicacy of feeling, she tried to 
 force her way into Westminster Abbey as a spectator 
 on the occasion of the king's coronation; but her un- 
 feeling husband had given orders that she should be 
 excluded. The mortification caused by this repulse 
 threw her into an illness, of which she died in less than 
 three weeks afterward (182 1). Their only child, the 
 Princess Charlotte, married to Leopold of Saxe Coburg 
 (afterward King of the Belgians), had died some years 
 before. 
 
 George IV. was a traveling king. Soon after his 
 coronation he visited Ireland, where he was welcomed 
 as the first English king who had ever gone there in 
 peace. Afterward he went to Hanover, and still later 
 made a tour in Scotland. While he was away on this 
 latter trip, his prime minister, Lord Castlereagh,t com- 
 mitted suicide, and was succeeded in his post by George 
 Canning, a distinguished orator and statesman (1822). 
 
 Some outrages committed in India by the government 
 of Burmah furnished an excuse for annexing a part of 
 the territory belonging to that country (1826). The 
 
 * Pronounced Broom. + Pronounced Castleray. 
 
GEORGE IV. WILLIAM IV. 3S9 
 
 next year, England entered into the war which Greece 
 was carrying on with Turkey. The naval battle of 
 Navarino, in which the combined English, French, and 
 Russian squadrons destroyed the Turkish fleet, ended 
 the war, and made Greece an independent kingdom. 
 Prince Otho of Bavaria accepted the crown, which was 
 not a coveted one, several princes declining it. Otho 
 was deposed after a reign of nearly thirty-five years, and 
 Prince George of Denmark, brother of the present 
 Princess of Wales, was elected king in his place. Lord 
 Byron, the great English poet, who was deeply interested 
 in the welfare of Greece, spent the last months of his 
 life there, dying at Missilonghi in the midst of the 
 struggle for liberty (1824). 
 
 England was now entering upon an age of reform. 
 Though conservative by nature, when the mind of the 
 people is firmly set upon doing away with old abuses, 
 the removal of these follows, notwithstanding occasional 
 drawbacks and disappointments. Mr. Huskisson, pres- 
 ident of the Board of Trade, was active in promoting a 
 spirit of commercial liberality tending toward free-trade, 
 which gradually developed into that system which has 
 made England so prosperous. Taxation was reduced; 
 England had never seemed so thriving; but the excite- 
 ment produced by this state of things led to over-specu- 
 lation, and a panic ensued which reduced the country 
 nearly to the verge of bankruptcy (1825). Many of the 
 banks stopped payment, and the government was barely 
 able to save its own credit. A great number of busi- 
 ness failures followed; and it was long before a feeling 
 of security was restored. 
 
 Of all English laws, those for the punishment of crime 
 
390 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 were the most opposed to common sense and to Chris- 
 tianity. Nearly three hundred offences, ranging from 
 pocket-picking up to high-treason, were punishable with 
 death; and this frightful severity, instead of suppressing 
 crime, seemed only to increase it. By the unflagging 
 exertions of Sir Samuel Romilly, these laws were very 
 much mitigated; and since then they have been gradu- 
 ally modified, until at the present day the death -penalty 
 is inflicted only in cases of wilful murder or high-treason. 
 
 The time was now ripe for the repeal of the Corpora- 
 tion and Test Acts, which had been on the statute-book 
 since the reign of Charles II. This measure, passed in 
 1828, was the forerunner of a more important one, 
 the Catholic Relief Bill, which restored to Roman 
 Catholics those rights of which they had been deprived 
 since 1673. 
 
 This was brought about largely by the efforts of Daniel 
 O'Connell, a famous Irish orator and agitator, who, being 
 elected to the House of Commons as member from Clare, 
 was refused admittance to it on account of his religion. 
 After the passage of the bill, he took his seat in Parlia- 
 ment and continued to represent his country there for 
 many years. 
 
 The Catholic Emancipation Bill, as it is commonly 
 called, was the last one of importance passed during the 
 reign of George IV., who died in 1830, at the age of 
 sixty-eight, after a reign of ten years. Of the character 
 of this monarch there is little to be said, except that it 
 was contemptible. He was a man of good abilities, but 
 selfish, cold-hearted, and utterly without principle. His 
 private life was a scandal to the nation, and he had no 
 public virtues. Fortunately the time was past when the 
 
GEORGE IV. WILLIAM IV. 391 
 
 individual character of the ruler could do harm, except 
 in the way of example. 
 
 A few months after the death of George IV., the first 
 steam railway for the conveyance of passengers was 
 opened in England. Five years before, the bill of the 
 Liverpool and Manchester Railway had been passed, 
 against violent opposition, the objection being that with 
 the best engine that could be found, the rate of progress 
 was but little more than three miles an hour. When 
 •some of the committee expressed an opinion that it 
 might be possible to attain a speed of fifteen, or even 
 twenty miles an hour, the statement was called a gross 
 •exaggeration, and the remark was made, that even if this 
 rate of speed could be attained, the danger of bursting 
 boilers would be so great that people would as soon 
 allow themselves to be fired off from a rocket as to trust 
 their lives to such a machine. The genius of George 
 Stephenson, a self- trained engineer, was soon employed 
 in proving to the world that the so-called visions were 
 sober facts. Other inventors were at work to lessen 
 human toil and increase human comfort. Arkwright, 
 Hargreaves, and Crompton made improvements in ma- 
 chinery; Sir Humphrey Davy invented the safety-lamp 
 for miners' use, and MacAdam taught the English how 
 to make good roads. Gas had been introduced, not 
 only into the streets but into the houses, though with 
 great opposition from the whale-fishing interest. It was 
 thought a very garish and unbecoming light for domestic 
 use, although its value in preventing crime in the streets 
 was considered beyond question. 
 
 If we look at the list of writers in the first thirty years 
 of the century, their number astonishes us, their bril- 
 
392 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 liancy dazzles us. When we have written the names of 
 Walter Scott, poet, novelist, essayist, historian; Byron, 
 Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southey, Campbell, Moore,* 
 and many others, poets; Lamb, Hunt, Landor, De Quin- 
 cey, Wilson, Sidney Smith, and Jeffrey, essayists and 
 reviewers, and feel that the list is only begun, we stop 
 short, discouraged. The literary history of the time is in 
 itself so full of interest that it will well repay careful and 
 extended study. As a help toward this, read Mrs. Oli- 
 phanfs "Literary History of England," which treats of 
 this period. 
 
 George IV. left no descendants. His next brother,, 
 the Duke of York, died three years before him ; and the 
 third of George III.'s sons, the Duke of Clarence, suc- 
 ceeded him as William IV. He had been bred to the 
 navy, and is called the "Sailor-King." 
 
 CHAPTER L. 
 
 PARLIAMENTARY REFORM. ABOLITION OF SLAVERY. 
 VICTORIA. 
 
 OR a long time the question of Parliamentary 
 reform had been agitating the king, the Par- 
 liament, and the people. The boroughs — 
 election districts we should call them here — were repre- 
 sented just as they had been hundreds of years before, no- 
 notice having been taken of the fact that some had 
 grown more populous and others less so in the mean 
 time. There were actually some districts in which not 
 
 * Pronounced More. 
 
ABOLITION OF SLAVERY. VICTORIA. 393 
 
 one voter lived, where the rich men who owned the land 
 sent such persons to Parliament as they chose; while 
 several large cities which had become great manufactur- 
 ing centres were without a representative of their own. 
 Added to this, voting was restricted to people who 
 owned property, or paid large rents, thus leaving an im- 
 mense number of citizens without the right of suffrage. 
 The Duke of Wellington, who was William's premier as 
 he had been George's, was the determined enemy of 
 reform, and found himself so unpopular that he resigned 
 his office (1830). Lord Grey, an advocate of the pro- 
 posed change, succeeded him. 
 
 The Reform Bill found its most bitter enemies among 
 the nobility. It was passed more than once by the 
 Commons, and as often thrown out by the House of 
 Lords, who considered it a direct attack on the aristoc- 
 racy. Even in the House of Commons, the bill, when 
 first read by Lord John Russell, was received with shouts 
 of laughter. Sidney Smith's* famous illustrations^ of 
 "Mrs. Partington" was made in a speech on this occa- 
 
 * After ridiculing the idea that the House of Lords could prevent 
 a reform in Parliament, he said: "I do not mean to be disrespect- 
 ful, but the attempt of the Lords to stop the progress of reform 
 reminds me very forcibly of the great storm of Sidmouth and the 
 conduct of the excellent Mrs. Partington on that occasion. A great 
 flood had set in at the time; the tide rose to an incredible height; 
 the waves rushed in upon the houses, and everything was threatened 
 with destruction. In the midst of it all, Dame Partington was seen 
 at the door of her house with mop and pattens, trundling her mop, 
 squeezing out the sea- water, and vigorously pushing away the Atlan- 
 tic Ocean. The Atlantic was roused. Mrs. Partington's spirit was 
 up; but I need not tell you that the contest was unequal. The 
 Atlantic Ocean beat Mrs. Partington. She was excellent at a slop 
 or a puddle, but she should not have meddled with a tempest. " 
 
394 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 sion. It seemed impossible to believe that any English- 
 man could seriously vote for curtailing the privileges of 
 the upper classes. 
 
 Whatever was the determination of the aristocracy, the 
 people were equally resolute. During the time when the 
 measure was in suspense, riots broke out in many places, 
 public buildings were destroyed, lives were lost, and 
 confusion and apprehension prevailed everywhere. The 
 populace shouted madly, "The bill, the whole bill and 
 nothing but the bill ! ;; Frightful disturbances in Ireland 
 accompanied the agitation of this question. Tax-col- 
 lectors were murdered, property burned, and so many 
 excesses committed that it was found necessary, for a 
 time, to place some districts under martial law (1832). 
 After years of struggle, the long-contested bill was passed, 
 the king giving a hearty consent to it, June, 1832. 
 
 The three main provisions of this act (which has been 
 called the greatest revolution experienced by England 
 since that which placed William and Mary on the throne, 
 1689), were : 1. The withdrawal of the right of sending 
 members to Parliament from small districts, commonly 
 called "rotten boroughs;" 2. The bestowal of the same 
 right on cities and districts with two thousand inhabi- 
 tants and upward; 3. The giving the franchise in towns 
 to all persons occupying houses worth in rent ^10 
 a year, and in the country to persons owning land worth 
 ^ioa year, or who paid a yearly rent of at least ^50. 
 With these concessions the nation was perfectly satis- 
 fied, and it was not until 1867-68 that laws were passed 
 further extending the franchise. Now it embraces not 
 only householders paying rent, but also lodgers. 
 
 In the midst of the excitement attending the passage 
 
ABOLITION OF SLAVERY. VICTORIA. 395 
 
 of the Reform Bill, the Asiatic cholera broke out for 
 the first time in England (183 1). Terrible as was this 
 visitation at the time, it proved a blessing in the end, 
 •calling public attention to those sanitary precautions 
 which before had been strangely neglected, and causing 
 improvement among the body of the people in habits 
 of cleanliness and comfort. 
 
 The year 1833 witnessed one of the great moral tri- 
 umphs of the century — the passage of the law for 
 abolishing slavery in the British colonies. William 
 Wilberforce, who had been since 1789 spending his life 
 in trying to bring about this object, lived just long 
 ■enough to see the bill become a certainty, dying before 
 it went into operation, which took place Aug. i, 1834. 
 The sum of ^20,000,000 was awarded to the planters 
 as payment for the loss of their "property." Nearly 
 three-quarters of a million of human beings were set 
 free by this measure. 
 
 In the following year (1834), Lord Grey, the premier, 
 under whose administration the reform bills had been 
 carried through, resigned, and was succeeded for a short 
 time by Sir Robert Peel, who soon gave place to Lord 
 Melbourne. The latter remained in office, except for a 
 short interruption, until after the accession of Queen 
 Victoria. At the same time, the tory party assumed the 
 name of "Conservatives." At a later day, the whigs 
 took the name of "Liberals," and the old appellations 
 have almost dropped out of use. 
 
 King William IV. died June 20, 1837, after a reign 
 of almost exactly seven years. He was a man of many 
 good qualities, among which sincerity, fairness of mind, 
 a strong sense of justice, and great zeal and industry in 
 
396 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 the public service were conspicuous. From the obsti- 
 nacy of his father, King George III., he seems to have 
 been quite free; and his use (or misuse) of the royal 
 prerogative was so slight compared with that of his 
 father and elder brother, that he approached the ideal 
 of a constitutional king. The full realization of this 
 ideal, however, was reserved for the next reign. 
 
 Besides the statesmen who have already been men- 
 tioned, there were in this period Sir Robert Peel, after- 
 ward renowned for his opposition to the corn-laws; 
 Lord Brougham, noted for his brilliant and versatile 
 talent, and for his efforts in the cause of reform ; and 
 Lord Palmerston, the advocate of Catholic emancipa- 
 tion, afterward prime minister. Mr. Gladstone first took 
 his seat in Parliament in 1832 (as a Conservative), at 
 twenty-three years of age. 
 
 Alexandrina Victoria, daughter of George III.'s fourth 
 son, the Duke of Kent, became queen on the death of 
 her uncle, William IV., when she was just eighteen 
 years of age. It had long been known that she would 
 occupy that position, and she had been most carefully 
 trained by her mother for its duties. Her manners were 
 simple and girlish, though dignified, and she had a 
 strong sense of duty and of the responsibilities of her 
 office. Her way of glancing at Lord Melbourne, the 
 premier, for instructions, when she presided at the first 
 meeting of the privy council, is said to have been pecu- 
 liarly modest and graceful. As the crown of Hanover 
 could descend only to a male, the sovereigns of England 
 ceased to have any connection with that country at the 
 death of William IV., and that kingdom passed to his 
 next oldest surviving brother, the Duke of Cumberland. 
 
ABOLITION OF SLAVERY. VICTORIA. 397 
 
 An interesting incident in the annals of this period is 
 the election of Mr. Moses Montefiore, a Jew, to be 
 sheriff of London. The queen knighted him, and we 
 have read within a few years of his celebrating his one 
 hundredth birthday, and of his death not long afterward. 
 It is pleasant to know that the honors at which he ar- 
 rived were due, not to his great wealth, but to his noble 
 and life-long charities. 
 
 The first political event in her majesty's reign was a 
 rebellion in Canada, in which some adventurers from 
 the United States took part, but which was soon put 
 down. Upper and Lower Canada were afterward joined 
 in one (1840), and both were at length merged in the 
 "Dominion of Canada," which united the British pos- 
 sessions from the Atlantic to the Pacific under one gov- 
 ernment (1867). There were not wanting statesmen at 
 the time of the first revolt who advised letting Canada 
 go. They thought the time had come when a peaceful 
 separation would be for the interest of both parties; 
 but they were overruled, and our northern neighbor still 
 lives under the British flag. 
 
 As China refused to allow the carrying of opium (a 
 source of profit to English merchants) into her territory, 
 a war with that country was the consequence (1839), 
 which ended in the storming and taking by British troops 
 of several Chinese cities, including the capital, Pekin. 
 The empire was forced to pay ^21,000,000 for the ex- 
 penses of the war, to open five ports to English com- 
 merce, and to give up the island and city of Hong Kong 
 forever to the English. Of the morality of this triumph 
 it is scarcely necessary to express an opinion. 
 
 In 1839 occurred the first great "Chartist'' demon- 
 
398 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 stration. A huge petition, signed by more than a mil- 
 lion of people, was rolled into Parliament like a hogs- 
 head. The petitioners demanded universal suffrage,, 
 annual Parliaments, vote by ballot, abolition of any 
 property qualification for members of Parliament, and 
 the payment of these members, who get nothing in return 
 for their time and labor, except the honor of serving their 
 country. None of these things were granted at the time, 
 the subject having been too recently set at rest by the 
 Reform Bill to make it worth while to reopen it; and 
 finding that they could accomplish nothing, the Chartists 
 gradually calmed down. 
 
 In 1840 Queen Victoria married her cousin, Prince 
 Albert of Saxe Coburg Gotha — a man whose sterling 
 qualities of mind and heart quickly endeared him to the 
 English people. He was indeed a model prince. Enlight- 
 ened, large-minded, conscientious, and highly accom- 
 plished, his influence was always exerted on the side of 
 right, while his private character was without reproach. 
 
 Almost simultaneous with this happy marriage was 
 the introduction into England of the system of penny- 
 postage, brought about by the persistent efforts of Sir 
 Rowland Hill (1840). At the same time originated the 
 practice of affixing stamps for prepaying postage, which 
 has now become universal in the civilized world. 
 
 The English, having interfered in the domestic affairs 
 of Afghanistan, were expelled from the city of Cabul, of 
 which they had taken possession, by an insurrection of 
 the natives (1841), and almost the entire army of 17,000 
 men perished from cold and hunger and the attacks of 
 their enemies in the dreadful retreat across the moun- 
 tains into India. The next year Lord Ellenborough, the- 
 
ABOLITION OF SLAVERY. VICTORIA. 399- 
 
 governor-general of India, destroyed the fortifications of 
 Cabul, and then abandoned the country to the natives. 
 A war in India followed; Sir Charles Napier conquered 
 Scinde (Sind) 1843, an< ^ tne Punjaub, a great country in 
 northern India, was annexed, after fierce fighting, to the 
 British dominions. This gave the English the control 
 of the entire peninsula of Hindostan. 
 
 It was by the interposition of the English government 
 in the affairs of Egypt that that country was made prac- 
 tically independent of Turkey (1841). Mehemet Ali, 
 who had taken possession of Syria (also a province of 
 Turkey), was obliged to withdraw his forces and to con- 
 fine himself to Egypt, the latter being yielded to him 
 as a virtually independent monarch, with the title of 
 "Hereditary Viceroy." 
 
 CHAPTER LI. 
 
 BOUNDARY TREATIES. CORN -LAWS REPEALED. 
 CRIMEAN WAR. 
 
 HE Treaty of Ghent (18 15) following the war 
 of 181 2, had left unsettled the northwestern 
 boundary of the United States, the territory 
 on the Pacific coast seeming at that time too unimport- 
 ant to be worthy of mention. For many years, a joint 
 occupation of the tract now comprising our states of 
 Oregon and Washington and the territory of British 
 Columbia, had been agreed upon; but by 1846, immi- 
 grants were pouring in so rapidly to the great country 
 watered by the Columbia, that a treaty was made, fixing 
 
400 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 the boundary at 49 of latitude, which divided very fairly 
 the land in question. The " Webster -Ashburton" treaty 
 had settled the long -disputed question of the north- 
 eastern boundary of our country four years before (1842). 
 Of all the unpopular laws ever passed in England, few 
 have caused such bitterness of feeling as the Corn -law 
 of 1815, which forbade the importation of foreign wheat* 
 until the price at home reached 80 shillings a quarter — 
 almost starvation point. This measure, intended to 
 benefit the land -owner at the expense of the consumer, 
 was, like other laws enacted in favor of the privileged 
 classes, upheld by the whole force of the wealthy land- 
 holding interest; and its repeal was bitterly denounced 
 as an attack upon the rights of property. A strong 
 Free -Trade party had been for a long time growing in 
 England, and an "Anti- Corn -Law League" had been 
 formed in 1839. Sir Robert Peel, who had at first been 
 in favor of protective legislation, now gave his whole 
 support to the movement for repeal. Richard Cobden 
 and John Bright were on the same side, urging the abro- 
 gation, not only of the Corn-Laws, but of all others that 
 conflicted with the principles of free-trade, including the 
 old navigation laws, which were still in force. After 
 frantic opposition the bill for repeal was passed (1846). 
 Sir Robert Peel, who had been prime-minister since 
 1 84 1, resigned his office in the same year in which the 
 Repeal was carried to its triumphant conclusion. The 
 ostensible cause of trouble was his failure to carry a bill 
 for putting down disturbances in Ireland; but the real 
 difficulty was the anger felt by the Conservatives at his 
 change of policy in respect to free -trade. Lord John 
 
 * In England "corn" is the general name for all grain. 
 
BOUNDARY TREATIES. CRIMEAN WAR. 401 
 
 Rus sll became premier, and Mr. Disraeli (afterward 
 Leo Beaconsfield) first came into notice as a leader of 
 th' Protectionists. There were some indications of Sir 
 R bert Peel's returning to power, when he was killed by 
 a all from his horse (1850). 
 
 In 1848 (called the "year of revolutions," from the 
 upheaval of many of the ancient tyrannical governments 
 of the continent), a new demonstration of the Chartists 
 took place. They demanded the same changes that had 
 been asked for in 1839, and had made preparations for 
 enforcing their demands by arms; but the Duke of Wel- 
 lington took such efficient precautions against a breach 
 of the peace that the agitation was quieted without the 
 loss of a life. 
 
 The first "World's Fair," or exhibition of the industry, 
 products, and art of all nations, was held in Hyde Park, 
 London, in 185 1. Prince Albert conceived the grand 
 idea of thus bringing together the nations of the world 
 on common ground, and the example has been followed 
 by other countries. The exposition to be held in Chicago 
 in 1893 is the latest of the many which have sprung from 
 this precedent. 
 
 The attempted encroachments of Russia on Turkish 
 territory induced England and France (the latter being 
 then under the rule of Napoleon III.) to combine against 
 the Czar in what is known as the Crimean War (1854-6). 
 After an unsuccessful attempt to attack the Russian 
 fortress of Cronstadt, in the Baltic, the English fleet 
 under Sir Charles Napier, joined the French one under 
 Marshal St. Arnaud, and both proceeded to blockade 
 the harbor of Sebastopol, in the Crimea. A combined 
 force of English and French landed on the coast, and, 
 26 
 
402 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 after defeating the Russians at the crossing of the river 
 Alma, attacked the strongly fortified town of Sebastopol. 
 The Russians made desperate efforts to raise the siege, 
 in the course of which the battles of Balaklava and Inker- 
 mann were fought. At the former of these occurred the 
 mistake commemorated in Tennyson's "Charge of the 
 Light Brigade." The sufferings of the English army dur- 
 ing the ensuing winter were terrible; partly on account: 
 of the loss, in a terrible storm, of many vessels loaded 
 with supplies, but still more because of the wretched- 
 arrangements prevailing in the English army for the dis- 
 tribution to the troops of the necessaries of life. Men 
 perished in the camps and hospitals by thousands. The 
 country was a sea of mud under the terrible storms of 
 a Crimean winter. Horses fought each other for the 
 few and scanty rations that were served out to them, 
 the cavalrymen and artillerymen each trying to fight 
 off the animals of the other from devouring their 
 miserable supply. At one time, the entire transport 
 corps had dwindled to less than a dozen living beasts, 
 while the carcasses of the dead lay unburied by hundreds 
 about them. The French suffered immensely, though 
 not so much as the English, because their military 
 system had been more perfectly maintained during the 
 preceding years. Cholera broke out in both armies, 
 and more deaths resulted from it than from all other 
 causes put together. Of the 24,000 English soldiers 
 who died during the progress of the war, scarcely one- 
 sixth died in battle or from wounds received. 
 
 After Parliament became aware of the state of things 
 in the Crimea, a vote of censure was passed against the 
 ministry, and Lord Palmerston was called to office in. 
 
BOUNDARY TREATIES. CRIMEAN WAR. 403 
 
 place of Lord Aberdeen, the former premier, who had 
 succeeded Lord John Russell a few years before. 
 
 When the sickness caused by hardship and exposure 
 was at its height, Miss Florence Nightingale, an English 
 lady who had made hospital -work the subject of many 
 years of study, went to the Crimea, taking with her a 
 supply of nurses and of things which sick men need, and 
 the whole aspect of things began to improve. She went 
 among the sick and wounded like an angel of light, and 
 from that time forth, an English writer has said, there 
 was at least one department of the business of war 
 which was never again a subject of complaint. Long- 
 fellow's "Santa Filomena" was suggested by Miss Night- 
 ingale and her work : 
 
 " Lo ! in that house of misery 
 A lady with a lamp I see 
 
 Pass through the glimmering gloom, 
 And flit from room to room. " 
 
 Meantime, the siege of Sebastapol went slowly on. 
 Lord Raglan, a survivor of the Peninsular War and the 
 battle of Waterloo, and who had been at the head of 
 the army since its first arrival, died in 1855. The first 
 French commander, Marshal St. Arnaud, had died the year 
 before, and been succeeded first by General Canrobert, 
 and later by General Pelissier. Lord Raglan's successor, 
 General Simpson, remained through the war. The Rus- 
 sian emperor, Nicholas, also died in 1855, an d his 
 son, Alexander II., carried on the war until September 
 of the same year, when, the allied armies having de- 
 stroyed one after another the magnificent fortifications 
 of the town, the place was evacuated by the Russians, 
 who did their best to make it another Moscow. In 
 
404 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 the peace of Paris which followed (1856), Russia* gave 
 up all claim to the provinces on the Danube which she 
 had tried to seize from Turkey; vessels of war of all na- 
 tions were excluded from the Black Sea, except a few 
 under each flag to serve as a sort of armed naval police; 
 and the Christian subjects of Turkey were declared to 
 be under the protection of all the contracting powers. 
 
 A terrible mutiny in India (1857) next engaged the 
 attention of England. The Enfield rifle, for which it 
 was necessary to use greased cartridges, had been intro- 
 duced into the army, and the Sepoys (native troops), 
 whose religion forbids their using certain kinds of meat, 
 revolted, because they were forced to bite off the ends 
 of the greased cartridges. At Delhi, Cawnpore, and 
 Lucknow, insurrections took place, accompanied by 
 frightful cruelties on the part of the natives. The re- 
 bellion was crushed only after a two years' struggle, 
 Sir Henry Havelock, Sir Colin Campbell (afterward 
 Lord Clyde), and Lord Lawrence being among the 
 many distinguished officers who succeeded in bringing 
 it to a conclusion. The atrocities which the natives (par- 
 ticularly those of a company led by a wretch called 
 Nana Sahib) inflicted on all English, especially women, 
 are such as to defy description. The English, taking 
 advantage of the fact that is a part of the Hindoo belief 
 that the body must be kept intact in order that the soul 
 
 *" It is not Sebastapol which we have left to them, " said Prince 
 Gortschakoff, the Russian general, " but the burning ruins of the 
 town which we ourselves set fire to, having maintained the honor 
 of the defence in such a manner that our great-grandchildren may 
 recall with pride the remembrance of it, and send it on to all pos- 
 terity. " 
 
BOUNDARY TREATIES. CRIMEAN WAR. 405 
 
 may enjoy immortality, inflicted a punishment which 
 was supposed to have a peculiarly terrifying effect on 
 the minds of the natives. Such as had been convicted 
 of any personal share in the outrages were bound to the 
 muzzles of loaded cannon, and blown to pieces and 
 scattered to the winds by the discharge. 
 
 The Sepoy rebellion having shown the incapacity of 
 the East- India Company to manage the affairs of a 
 mighty nation, the company was dissolved, and the ad- 
 ministration of its affairs transferred to the crown (1858). 
 A royal viceroy took the place of the governor general; 
 and a new office, that of Secretary of Indian affairs, was 
 created, the holder of which has a seat in her majesty's 
 cabinet. At a later time, Queen Victoria was formally 
 proclaimed Empress of India (1877). 
 
 In 1 86 1 Prince Albert died, a loss not only to his 
 own family but to the nation. It was the year of the 
 breaking out of our Civil War, and the prince, with his 
 right feeling and good judgment, had thrown his influ- 
 ence altogether on the side of preserving kindly relations. 
 The English government had, with what seemed un- 
 warrantable haste, recognized the Confederate govern- 
 ment as a belligerent,* without even waiting until our 
 minister, Mr. Charles Francis Adams, could have time 
 to arrive in England and represent the matter. This 
 action, under the circumstances, created much ill-feeling 
 in this country, which was increased when, at a later 
 time, Great Britain allowed the Confederacy to build 
 and equip steamers in her harbors for the purpose of 
 destroying our commerce. On the other hand, an Amer- 
 ican naval officer, Capt. Wilkes, took by force from the 
 
 *A power entitled to make war on another. 
 
406 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 British steamer Trent, two ambassadors from the Con- 
 federate states, sent to England and France respectively. 
 This unjustifiable action caused great excitement in Eng- 
 land, but on the demand of Great Britain, the ambas- 
 sadors were given up. "Right of Search" was no more. 
 
 After the close of the War for the Union, the 
 United States demanded reparation for injuries in- 
 flicted on our commerce by the Alabama and other 
 Confederate cruisers built and equipped in England. 
 Commissioners from both countries met at Washington 
 (187 1 ) and signed a treaty by which it was agreed to 
 refer the matter to five arbitrators, to be appointed 
 respectively by England, the United States, Italy, Brazil, 
 and the Swiss Confederation. These met at Geneva, in 
 Switzerland (1872) and decided that the British govern- 
 ment should pay to the United States the sum of $15,- 
 500,000, to be given to its citizens for losses incurred by 
 the depredations on the high seas of the English Confed- 
 erate cruisers. 
 
 A disputed question as to the ownership of the island 
 of San Juan, in the straits between Vancouver Island 
 and our Territory of Washington, was referred to the 
 Emperor of Germany, William I. He decided that the 
 American claim to the island was a just one, and the last 
 question of boundaries between the United States and 
 the Dominion of Canada was settled by the evacuation 
 of the island by Great Britain, November, 1873. 
 
 After the death of Lord Palmerston in 1865, the leading 
 men in the British government were Earl Russell (form- 
 erly Lord John Russell) and Mr. Gladstone, liberals; and 
 Mr. Disraeli (Lord Beaconsfield) conservative. 
 
TREATY OF BERLIN. EGYPT. JUBILEE. 407 
 
 CHAPTER LI I. 
 
 TREATY OF BERLIN. EGYPT. THE QUEEN'S JUBILEE. 
 
 HAT is called "The Eastern Question,"— that 
 is, the standing quarrel between Russia and 
 Turkey — was not finally settled by that Treaty 
 of Paris which closed the German war. Twenty years 
 later the Eastern countries were again fighting each 
 other, and as British interests were involved in the war, 
 Lord Beaconsfield, the prime-minister of England, acted 
 as arbitrator between the contestants. The negotiations 
 were closed by the Treaty of Berlin (1878) and the island 
 of Cyprus was placed under English rule and occupation 
 as a security for the fulfilment by Turkey of her part of 
 the treaty. This transaction reflected great honor on 
 the Earl of Beaconsfield, who continued to be prime 
 minister until the defeat of his party caused him to retire, 
 whereupon Mr. Gladstone formed a new ministry (1881). 
 During the last twenty years England has been gradu- 
 ally acquiring more and more control in Africa. In 1875 
 the government purchased from the Khedive (the ruler 
 of Egypt) all his shares of the Suez Canal stock, in order 
 to secure control of that route to India. In spite of the 
 relief afforded by this payment, the Egyptian govern- 
 ment became so deeply indebted to foreign nations as 
 to bring about an interference in its affairs by several 
 ^European countries, which resulted in a sort of joint 
 protectorate over it. This state of things produced great 
 discontent in Egypt, and an insurrection broke out in the 
 army, headed by an officer named Arabi. The Khedive 
 
408 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 being unable to restore order, the rebels gradually grew 
 bolder, and in 1882 attacked the European population 
 of Alexandria, massacring several hundred of them, and 
 Arabi took possession of the fortifications. Admiral 
 Seymour, commander of a British fleet in the harbor, 
 bombarded the stronghold, and Arabi and his troops 
 fled. Sir Garnet Wolseley was now sent to Egypt with a 
 force of 25,000 men, and fought the battle of Tel el 
 Kebir with Arabi, in which the latter was defeated and 
 made prisoner. He was tried for rebellion and sentenced 
 to death, but the penalty was commuted to banishment 
 
 The next year another rebellion against the Khedive 
 called for the intervention of England. An adventurer 
 calling himself the Mahdi, or redeemer of the Moham- 
 medans, had excited the people of the Soudan (an im- 
 mense district including the Upper Nile, subject to 
 Egypt), to rise against the Egyptian government. The 
 British military occupation of the country had been con- 
 tinued, and General Hicks, an English officer leading 
 Egyptian troops, was sent against the Mahdi, but was 
 defeated and slain, together with his whole army (1883). 
 
 Great Britain, having determined to abandon the Sou- 
 dan and treat with the Mahdi, sent General Charles 
 Gordon, an officer who had distinguished himself in the 
 Crimea and in China, to settle the terms and withdraw 
 the British troops from the country. In 1884, he went. 
 to Khartoum, in Nubia, where he proposed and pro- 
 claimed terms which the Mahdists treated with contempt. 
 Not being provided by the home government with a. 
 sufficient military force to return across the desert, he was- 
 besieged by the Mahdi in that place, and, before the force 
 sent to his rescue by Lord Wolseley could reach him, he 
 
TREATY OF BERLIN. EGYPT JUBILEE. 409 
 
 was assassinated. The British operations in the Soudan 
 proved a failure. The lives of many officers and men 
 were sacrificed, and the whole army retired in 1885, 
 though British occupation of Egypt went on. 
 
 Africa has been the scene of various other interventions 
 on the part of England. In 1868 the king of Abyssinia 
 in Eastern Africa ill-treated some English residents in 
 that country, upon which Sir Robert Napier stormed 
 and took his capital, Magdala, and the king killed him- 
 self. In a war in Western Africa with the Ashantees 
 (1872), their town of Coomassie was burned by an army 
 under Sir Garnet Wolseley. In 1877 a war with the 
 Boers of the Transvaal Republic, in South Africa, ended 
 in the defeat of the British, who abandoned the country. 
 In 1879 a British force in Zululand (South Africa) was 
 attacked and almost destroyed by the savages. In re- 
 turn Sir Garnet Wolseley burned their towns, defeated 
 and captured their king, Cetewayo, and forced a speedy 
 peace. The son of Napoleon III. (the Prince Imperial) 
 who had accompanied the English army as a volunteer, 
 was killed in a skirmish with the natives. 
 
 At the same time with these operations in Africa, a 
 war brought on by English jealousy of Russia was going 
 on in Afghanistan. The Ameer (ruler of the natives) 
 refused to receive an English embassy, though he had 
 already admitted one from Russia. The English there- 
 upon invaded the country and forced it to accept a 
 British resident minister at Cabul, the capital. The resi- 
 dent and his suite having been murdered, General Rob- 
 erts entered the city with his forces and inflicted severe 
 punishment on the Afghans. After much fighting the 
 latter were subdued, and matters were arranged to the 
 
410 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 satisfaction of the English, who then withdrew from the 
 -country (1881). 
 
 Of the great British possessions of Australia and the 
 neighboring islands, nothing has yet been said. By right 
 of discovery and early exploration, they belonged to the 
 Dutch, and until the beginning of the present century 
 Australia was called New Holland. The Dutch, however, 
 did not follow up their discoveries by making settlements, 
 and it was reserved for English enterprise to transform 
 the wastes of the great islands into populous countries. 
 Captain Cook visited them several times from 1769 to 
 1777, and did much toward drawing attention to their 
 capacities for development. Other explorers followed 
 him, and about twenty years after his first visit a penal 
 settlement was established at Port Jackson, in New South 
 Wales (1782). The exportation of criminals from Eng- 
 land practically ceased in 1839, although many still 
 Temained who were serving life -sentences, or sentences 
 for a term of years. In 185 1 the discovery of gold in 
 Australia by a miner from California, caused a rush to 
 that continent, of adventurers, many of whom became 
 permanent settlers. The gold-fever abated after a while, 
 having run its usual course; but the prosperity born of 
 enterprise and industry is ever increasing. Enthusiasts 
 look forward to some day in the far future when the 
 empire of the world shall be transplanted from the North 
 Atlantic to these regions, its exact antipodes. 
 
 In 1880 the Liberal party were again in the ascend- 
 ant. Lord Beaconsfield, conservative, who had been in 
 power since 1874, resigned, and Mr. Gladstone became 
 prime minister for the second time. The great struggle 
 in Ireland against the alleged oppression of tenants by 
 
TREATY OF BERLIN. EGYPT JUBILEE. 411 
 
 landlords was then going on; and an Irish Land -Bill 
 was passed, which, though making great concessions, 
 failed to give satisfaction to the malcontents. The 
 leader of the agitators, Mr. Parnell, was president of a 
 "Land League" for the promotion of the interests of 
 tenants, which league also demanded "home-rule" (the 
 reestablishment of the Irish Parliament); a question 
 not yet settled (1891). 
 
 The disestablishment of the Irish Church (which re- 
 lieves the Catholic Irish from the support of the Church 
 -of England in Ireland), went into effect Jan. 1, 187 1. 
 
 The reforms demanded by the Chartists first in 1839 
 and again in 1848, long continued a subject of discus- 
 sion in Parliament. After many years of altercation, 
 certain changes were made by the efforts of Mr. Disraeli 
 (1867), which for the present have laid the vexed ques- 
 tion to rest. The property qualification for members of 
 Parliament has been abolished; Jews have been admit- 
 ted into that body (1859); voting by closed ballot in- 
 stead of by the old method (a show of hands) has been 
 adopted, and a great extension has been made of the 
 class possessing the franchise (right to vote). 
 
 The great subject of education has, within the last 
 quarter of a century, engaged the attention of Parlia- 
 ment. Something approaching our common-school sys- 
 tem has been established, and many societies have been 
 founded for promoting the enlightenment of the com- 
 mon people. 
 
 In literature, no period has been of such varied rich- 
 ness as the nineteenth century. The authors of the first 
 third of that time have already been noticed. Since 
 then we have, among poets, Tennyson and the Brown- 
 
412 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 ings; among novelists, Dickens, Thackeray, and George 
 Eliot; among historians, Macaulay, Grote, Hallam, and 
 Dr. Arnold; among essayists, Matthew Arnold, Carlyle y 
 and Ruskin; among men of science, Darwin, Huxley, 
 and Herbert Spencer. This list may serve as a mere 
 suggestion of the vast number of writers who have con- 
 tributed to each of the branches indicated, as well as to 
 other departments of literature which have flourished 
 during this brilliant and fruitful period. 
 
 In 1887, Queen Victoria celebrated her jubilee — the 
 completion of a reign of fifty years. She has now (1891) 
 occupied the throne for a longer time than any other 
 sovereign in English history except Henry III. and 
 George III., and can look back with pleasure over a 
 reign marred by fewer faults than that of any of her 
 predecessors. 
 
 Such are the outlines of the story of Great Britain:; 
 its beginning, its advance, its development into splendid 
 maturity. No place, no age, no race, whether past or 
 present, can compare in interest with that island, its 
 twenty centuries, its sturdy people. If not the birth- 
 place of human freedom, it was its nursery, school,, 
 battlefield, and forum, and is its home. If not the foun- 
 tain of letters, it has been the channel wherein their 
 course has found freest and strongest flow. The tree- 
 of the knowledge of good and evil has grown and flour- 
 ished in Anglo-Saxon soil, and its fruit is a system of 
 morality and piety, not perfect, but more near to per- 
 fection than the fruitage of any other growth, ecclesi- 
 astical or political, in all the world. 
 
TREATY OF BERLIN. EGYPT JUBILEE. 413 
 
 Through much tribulation has England come to glory. 
 There were epochs of awful blackness, frightful oppres- 
 sion, heart-breaking cruelty; but by setting the points of 
 survey far enough apart, a steady progress must be per- 
 ceived. Things often seemed to be going to ruin, but 
 whenever they got to the extreme of hopelessness, hope 
 dawned — a thunderstorm, an earthquake, a cataclysm 
 burst forth — and the light slowly or suddenly returned. 
 
 The firmness of fibre in the race is directly traceable 
 to the fearful struggles by which its freedom and its 
 advancement have been gained. America is essentially 
 the child and heir of England; we enter into the inheri- 
 tance of her riches of knowledge and power. Every- 
 thing she has gained we enjoy. Our peril is to be found 
 in the fact that we come to the rich legacy almost as a 
 free gift, not having for so many centuries worked for it, 
 fought for it, died for it, as did our forefathers in the 
 older country. If we keep clear of the peril, it will be 
 because with the gift we also inherit the industry, truth, 
 courage, firmness, virtue, and patriotism, which history 
 associates indissolubly with the name of Englishman. 
 
414 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 LIST OF SOVEREIGNS. 
 
 SAXON KINGS: 
 
 Egbert, 827— 836 
 
 Ethelwolf, 836— 858 
 
 Ethelbold, * - ■ - 858— 860 
 
 Ethelbert, 860— 866 
 
 Ethei.red, 866— 872 
 
 Alfred, 872- 901 
 
 Edward (the Elder), - - - - - - 9°i— 925 
 
 Athelstan, 9 2 5— 94i 
 
 Edmund (the Magnificent), ----- 94*— 94& 
 
 Edred, "• 946— 955 
 
 Edwy, - 955— 959 
 
 Edgar (the Peaceable), - - ' - - - 959— 975 
 
 Edward (the Martyr), - - - - - ■. - 975 — 978 
 
 Ethelred II. (the Unready), - - - - 978—1016 
 
 Edmund II. (Ironside), - 1016— 1016 
 
 DANISH KINGS: 
 
 Sweyn, - 1013— 1013, 
 
 Canute (the Great), 1016— 1035 
 
 Harold (Harefoot), 1035— 1040 
 
 Hardicanute, 1040— 1042 
 
 SAXON KINGS (RESTORED) : 
 
 Edward (the Confessor), - - - - - 1042—1066- 
 
 Harold II. (Godwin), 1066— 1066. 
 
 NORMAN KINGS: 
 
 William I. (the Conqueror), - 1066— 1087 
 
 William II. (Rufus), 1087— 1 100. 
 
 Henry I. (Beauclerc), 1100— 11 35 
 
 Stephen (of Blois), "35— "54- 
 
LIST OF SOVEREIGNS. 
 
 415 
 
 PLANTAGENET KINGS: 
 
 Henry II., 
 
 Richard I. (Cceur de Lion), 
 
 John (Lackland), 
 
 Henry III. (of Winchester), 
 
 Edward I. (Longshanks), - 
 
 Edward II. (of Cairnarvon), 
 
 Edward III., 
 
 Richard II. (of Bordeaux), - 
 
 Henry IV., 
 
 Henry V., 
 
 Henry VI., 
 
 < 5 °2 
 
 ^ & « 
 
 3 H * 
 
 
 Edward IV., 
 Edward V., 
 Richard III., 
 
 George II., 
 George III., 
 George IV., 
 William IV. 
 Victoria, - 
 
 "54— 
 1189— 
 1199— 
 1216 — 
 1272 — 
 1307— 
 1327— 
 1377— 
 1399— 
 
 1413— 
 1423— 
 
 1461 — 
 1483- 
 1483- 
 
 TUDOR KINGS: 
 
 Henry VII., - - - ' - - - - 1485— 
 
 Henry VIII., 1509 — 
 
 Edward VI., 1547 — 
 
 Mary, - - - - 1553 — 
 
 Elizabeth, 1558 — 
 
 STUART KINGS: " 
 
 James I., 1603 — 
 
 Charles I., 1625 — 
 
 (Commonwealth), 1648 — 
 
 Charles II., 1660 — 
 
 James II., 1685 — 
 
 William III., ) 1689— 
 
 Mary II., ) 1689— 
 
 Anne, 1702 — 
 
 BRUNSWICK KINGS: 
 
 George I., 1714 — 
 
 1727— 
 1760 — 
 1820 — 
 1830— 
 1837- 
 
 189 
 199 
 216 
 272 
 307 
 327 
 377 
 399- 
 413 
 423 
 461 
 
 483 
 483 
 485 
 
 5°9' 
 547 
 553 
 558 
 603 
 
 625 
 648 
 66o- 
 685 
 688 
 702 
 694 
 724. 
 
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 760 
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